For much of Christendom, Lent is viewed as a 40-day season that begins approximately 40 days prior to Jesus’ passion. In other words, it’s the 40 days (excluding Sundays) prior to Passover/Holy Thursday, 2 April 2026, and Easter week.
The 40-day stretch usually involves prayer, fasting, reflection, self-denial, sacrificial giving, and reminders of and connections to Jesus’ 40 days in the desert as recorded in Scripture (see Matthew 4, e.g.).
As a Protestant, we too can benefit from being mindful of this Lenten season in the Christian calendar. We do not necessarily have to have ashes applied to our foreheads to be reminded of our mortality. Nor do we have to make public our private fasting. Nor do we have to forgo desserts, chocolates, or other sweets, etc.
A goal associated with this season is that of Christian mindfulness of the One who overcame mortality for all who are found in Christ.
Another goal is to connect us to God in Christ, who lived and dwelled among us in space-time history, and who himself fasted and prayed.
Another goal is to bolster our Christian faith in the One who conquered Satan and all the powers of hell for the sake of his people.
Whether or not you choose to make a public display of ahes upon your forehead is up to you, but surely all of us who are in Christ can agree on those three goals associated with this tradition in the history of Christ’s church.
Today I presided over another military funeral honors. It is one of my favorite duties—serving in ministry to honor our veterans.
We soldiers were talking before the service. The family of the deceased veteran was staging at the entrance to the military cemetery. The NCOs who fold the American flag are among the finest soldiers I’ve ever known in all my years of service. They were flawless in their duties.
Finally we got the call that the funeral entourage was en route. We took our positions and I performed my lane as the chaplain. Once complete, I put my Bible down and instructed the lead NCO, “Proceed with honors.”
The firing party fired three rounds. The pops echoed through the hills. Then the bugler played taps. As we soldiers saluted, the family members sobbed. I could see the son of the deceased veteran, the man to whom I’d present the flag, shake with tears for his dad.
The NCOs unfurled the colors, folded them, presented them to me, and then I presented the colors to the veteran’s son and saluted. And we soldiers moved out, departing from the family as they stayed to weep together.
What’s my point? Just to recount a protocol I follow each week? No. It is this: we all have a specific number of days in this world. Then comes eternity in one of two places—in grace or in judgment. Christ came for sinners. Let us look to him in repentance and faith.
I grabbed one of my hiking poles and set out. Down the driveway and then up the hill to the macadam. I walked southwest on the macadam. The sun had already set, so I had my headlamp on my forehead in case drivers drove past.
But there were few vehicles out and I was thankful. I walked against any traffic that might come, just in case, and kept my headlamp on my forehead just in case I needed to turn it on for any drivers who might pass me. When I descended the first hill, four deer were munching grasses that grew just off the asphalt. Surprisingly, the does spotted me before the small buck. The doe closest to me looked at me and eventually flagged me, her white tail swaying left and right–left and right–as she trotted into the woodline. Then the two other does followed her to the safety of the hardwoods. The small six-point buck stood unbelievably still and watched me as I kept walking. Finally, the click of my hiking pole as I tapped the macadam with every other footfall, sufficed for him, and he took to the trees.
I walked on. Still, no traffic. Just the cool gloaming for company. I reached the bottom of that hill and the next one came into view. I passed a few homes on my left and right. Inside were a few lights. In one, a television screen mounted high on the wall cast an obnoxious bright that contrasted with the evening outside where I was under the trees and silver stars.
The hill was steep. I could feel my heartrate increase as I climbed, the click click click of my hiking pole alerting me to my slowing pace as I ascended the hill. I paused and reached into my left back pocket and retrieved my hydration bottle and took a few sips. After placing it back, I continued until the top of the hill and finally turned left onto another road.
A home on the right had an open garage, and a man was working in his garage. He appeared to be measuring trim for his interior, and I could smell sawdust from his table saw I could see in the middle of his garage. It was nearly dark now and the man did not appear to see me or hear the click of my hiking pole upon the pavement.
The descent towards the creek was steep. When I reached the bottom curve, the creek was running. The sounds of the water over the rocks sounded something soulful within me, and I understood yet again why Melville wrote what he did in Moby Dick about man’s soul being inextricably wed to water.
As I walked up from the creek, I turned right back onto the road home. I’d been out less than an hour. There had been nothing spectacular about my stroll–just a few deer, the cool of the evening, the trees, the sights of a few homes with their lamps and TVs, and a man working in his garage. Otherwise, just my steps, the sounds of my hiking pole upon the macadam, and my own quiet observation of the gloaming.
Back home now, I’m reading John Williams’ novel Butcher’s Crossing and making notes for what I have to accomplish tomorrow. But I bet tomorrow I will again long for quiet strolls like this one, where one can walk slowly, listen to the sounds of the evenings, look up and out and around and just be amidst the gloaming.
This evening after a supper with my bride, I sat down in my library to read and study. I was in Joshua. The passage I focus upon herein is found in Joshua 5:
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped[c] and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15)
Context, Context, Context: Of the 24 chapters in Joshua, this is chapter 5. This is a subsection of the book of Joshua that recounts Joshua leading Israel and crossing into the land promised to them by the Lord. As in any conquest, one is sure to meet friends and foes. The issue? How was Joshua to know which was which? Who was a friend and who was a foe?
When you examine the story, you discover that this event precedes the Fall of Jericho. But before the Lord gives Jericho into the hands of God’s people, the leader (Joshua) is confronted. He is confronted by a man standing before him and that man stood “with his drawn sword in his hand” (v. 13). That’s a posture for battle, for warfare, for blood.
And what does Joshua do? He asks the man a question: “Are you for us, or four our adversaries?” (v. 13). In other words, Joshua wants to know if the armed man is on God’s side or on the side of God’s enemies. And the response Joshua received could be viewed as cryptic: “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come” (v. 14).
That “No” the man answered was emphatic. He was revealing to Joshua that he was bigger than Joshua, Israel, and the enemy pagans into whose territory Joshua was leading God’s people. Now, the text says, the man was here. Not later, but now. At the right time. In the fullness of time.
Teaching: After studying this passage, and Scripture as a whole, for years now, it is my belief that this event was a Christophany, an event of the preincarnate Christ appearing in the Old Testament. God is omnipresent, of course. There is no place God is not. However, God makes special entrances at times of particular importance in salvation history.
When Joshua was about to lead his people into Jericho, it was an important time in salvation history. Why? Because God was continuing to reveal his covenantal promises to his people, that he would never leave them or forsake them.
Encouragement: I do not know where you are spiritually today. But this is one more example in Scripture of God demonstrating in real space-time history that he is in the midst of his people. Our job is to do as Joshua did–fall on our faces before the Lord. Why? Because he wields a drawn sword, and victory belongs to the Lord of hosts.
Jericho would be given to God’s people. God’s covenantal promises to his people would continue. And so should believers’ faith in the God who cannot lie.
Issue: The fundamental issue in the book of Joshua centers around the theme of the promise of God to conquer his enemies. Any organization must have a clear and defined leader, and that leader is to be a godly man, a man of God’s own choosing. Why? Because if unregenerate sinners choose the leader, disaster will be the result. And the books of Joshua and Judges demonstrate again and again what choosing the wrong leader leads to, and it’s not pretty.
Questions:
Would the nation of Israel keep its promise to obey God?
Would the nation of Israel step out in faith in God?
Would the nation of Israel enter the Promised Land with an undivided heart?
In short, would the nation of Israel be faithful?
Context, Context, Context: The historical account is found in Joshua 2. Joshua, Moses’ successor, was God’s appointed leader of the nation of Israel. Remember God’s words to the people: “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their father to give them” (Joshua 1:5-6).
Joshua, God’s appointed leader, sends out two men as spies. To do what? A reconnaissance mission. He sends them to spy out the land, to get a snapshot of the geography and people. They were what we might term “scouts.”
Rahab Enters the Story: The prostitute Rahab was just that—a prostitute. But God was at work in her life. He was calling her to himself. How do we know this? Follow the story:
Before the menlay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”
Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window(Joshua 2:9-21).
Teaching: In short, Rahab believed God, and her actions demonstrated genuine saving faith in the person and work of God.
Encouragement: Look back at the (4) questions I asked above. Sadly, the answer to all (4) questions is a resounding no. The nation of Israel fell short. They doubted. They were cowardly. They did not trust the Lord fully. They were half-hearted at best and deeply idolatrous. Joshua and Judges provide myriad examples of some of the practices of child sacrifice, bestiality, and sexual perversions that boggle a good person’s mind. Yet God saved Rahab and her family. How? Be granting repentance and faith to her. It’s that simple and that profound: God came to save sinners. Prostitutes like Rahab were not outside of God’s reach. There’s hope for us, dear ones. There is hope. How? Be turning to God and his saving gospel.
After a day of work, I met my wife and son for an early supper at our Mexican restaurant we patronize with regularity. CJ and I split a plate of fajitas. Our son got his usual, too. We talked during our time together and drove home afterwards. I drank a cup of coffee, played with Ladybug, our dog, for a bit, and then sat down to study a bit more for teaching our congregation through 1 Peter.
This coming Lord’s Day we are in the first few verses of 1 Peter 2. Verse 1 of that text reads thus: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” There is so much practical Christian wisdom in that one sentence.
Context, Context, Context: Peter was writing to what he termed “elect exiles.” That is, his initial audience was Christians who were enduring some level of persecution. Peter knew they were feeling pressures to chuck their faith, to give up, to give in, to doubt God and God’s providence.
Thus Peter, “the apostle of hope,” as he is known in church history, wrote to encourage the saints. And how did Peter do that? By reminding Christians of the fundamentals. And what were some of those fundamentals of what not to do? Just in verse 1, Peter names five specific things Christians are not to do:
Be malicious
Be deceitful
Be hypocrites
Be envious
Be slanderous
All that is just in verse 1.
Encouragement: Have you ever noticed the amount of damage inflicted by just these five things? Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander undermine Christian witness. Folks, we can learn from all examples, especially bad ones. Let God’s people come to terms with the high calling of being salt and light in a sin-saturated world.
What lessons should Christians learn from Moses’ life?
Text:
Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel (Dt 34:7-12).
Teaching: Regardless of how many times I read the Bible, this writing about the end of Moses’ earthly life moves me viscerally. Why? I think it’s because there are some people with whom we strongly identify.
Moses was a shepherd. He truly cared for his people and endured vast amounts of suffering on their behalf. He led them like a biblical shepherd leads a flock—selflessly and sometimes with great private pain. He worked hard on their behalf.
Moses was godly. He was certainly a sinner. That is clear from his not giving God the glory when he (Moses) struck the rock at Meribah (Num 20:8). Moses was also a murderer (Ex 2:11-15). And yet God expresses unique love for Moses (Dt 34:10-11).
Moses was a fallen man, and yet God used him centrally as part of Israel’s deliverance and future conquering of Canaan.
Moses was not allowed by God to enter the Promised Land. Why? Because of his own sin. It moves me viscerally when I think upon this judgment of Moses. Moses did not have to answer for the sins and recalcitrance of the sins of those he led. He had to answer for his own sin.
What should Christians learn from Moses’ life?
God judges us individually.
God pronounces benediction upon godly leaders.
God welcomes intimacy with himself and that hinges upon God’s immanence and believers’ lives of spiritual obedience to God’s revelation.
Encouragement: When you have a moment, read Deuteronomy 34 again and again. Then read it again. It is only twelve verses, but those few sentences are among the most laudatory and tender verses in all of Scripture, and they are a master study in the life of Moses, a man “the LORD knew face to face” (Dt 34:10).
Questions: Have you ever seen something to which others were blind? Have you ever understood something so plainly but no matter how hard you tried, you could not enable others to understand?
My suspicion is that you have.
Teaching: In the Christian worldview, we understand why this is: God has to grant spiritual sight. God has to grant spiritual hearing. Otherwise, people remain blind and deaf to God’s truth.
Here is the way Paul illustrates this truth: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not ableto understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).
And in 1 Cor 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
And Jesus’ words are even more cutting: “but you [the spiritually blind and deaf] do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:26-27).
Encouragement: One of the countless joys of the Christian worldview is that it humbles people. None of us deserves saving; we’re all sinners by nature and by choice, “[b]ut God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5).
The Bible does not say that we were doing kind of so-so, just okay, or even limping along. No; it says we were dead. Dead people don’t regenerate themselves. They’re dead. Ergo, when anyone is born again, granted spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear, it is 100% of God’s sovereign grace.
When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ (Deuteronomy 20:1-4)
Questions:
What’s your initial reaction/gut instinct when you have a battle on your hands?
What does Scripture say about where the Christian’s reliance should be?
Context, Context, Context: In the passage above from Deuteronomy 20, God is instructing Moses. About what? Warfare. God, knowing all things and knowing how people instinctively react, teaches Moses some fundamentals about whom and what to rely upon when facing battles.
First, fear not. That comes straight from verse 1: “. . . you shall not be afraid of them”
Second, God teaches Moses why he is not to fear. It comes right there in verse 1, too: “. . . for the LORD your God is with you.” God is there–always.
Third, know that it is God who grants the victory. Deuteronomy 20:4 reads, “for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”
Encouragement: I have no idea where you are today in terms of spiritual warfare. What I do know, however, is that spiritual warfare is inevitable: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). But if you are in Christ, dear ones, victory belongs to the Lord. Keep short accounts with the Lord, work hard, and trust God for the results.
When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold (Deuteronomy 17:14-17).
Questions:
What does the Bible teach about the importance of godly leaders?
What traits should be present?
What traits should be absent?
What possible dangers lurk when people have wicked rulers?
What blessings come via godly leaders?
Teaching: In the text above from Deuteronomy 17, God instructs Moses in all these issues so that he would model godly leadership. Peruse the text and see if you don’t see all of these things:
God blesses godly leadership. Leadership is inevitable. Someone will always take charge. The only question is, What kind of leader will he be?
The leader is to be “whom the Lord your God will choose” (Dt 17:15).
The leader is to be out for the team rather than out for self. The leader “must not acquire many horses for himself,” the text says in verse 16. In other words, if you see the leader using his position for his own agrandizement, “Houston, we have a problem.”
The leader is to be modest rather than self-absorbed. That’s what verse 17 teaches, namely, that the leader shall not “acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.”
Encouragement: It’s cliche for a reason: Organizations rise or fall based upon the quality of their leadership. “[I]f the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps 11:3). Let us be a discerning people who inculcate godly leadership.
MIND & MATTERS 