Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Female): Are you in trouble? Well, if so, we have good news. The Bible has specific instructions about what to do when you're in trouble. We'll talk about it today, right here, on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Ayello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Ayello. Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick is leading our discussion of what to do when you're in trouble.

If you have your Bible handy, we invite you to turn to Joshua, chapter five, and join in. I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you. And welcome, listening friend, to another edition of Messianic Perspectives. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on what to do when you're in trouble. Now, in this series of studies, we're looking at something that happened in Joshua, chapter five, because Joshua was in trouble.

In fact, he was in a lot of trouble. He was about to lead Israel in the biggest battle they had ever faced. They were going to try to take Jericho, which was a large, walled, fortified Canaanite city. It was like a fortress. And I believe we can learn something by watching the way Joshua responded to this troubling situation.

So we're going to talk about four things, and to make it easier for you to remember, we said all these points begin with W. The first thing is that Joshua waited. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, the Bible says. In other words, he was willing to leave the timing in God's hands. He waited on the Lord rather than rushing into a battle.

Then the second thing Joshua did was he watched. First he waited, and then he watched. It says he lifted up his eyes and looked, Joshua 5:13. You see, it's one of the ironies of the Christian life that during those times when God seems farthest away, those are the times when he is closest.

He's right there, like the song that says he was there all the time. But you know what happens? We get focused on the problem and we forget to look around us. We forget to look for the Lord. We forget to look for what he may be doing right there under our nose because we're too busy focusing on the problem and not busy enough focusing on the Lord.

So Joshua waited, and then he watched. And the third thing Joshua did was he worshiped. He waited, he watched, he worshiped. The Bible says and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, Joshua 5:14. And whenever in the Bible this formula is used—I mean, when it says someone falls on his face to the ground and worships—it always refers to worshiping God.

Now, there were times when you would bow out of reverence and respect to another person and that wasn't considered worship; it was a show of respect and humility. And there are two passages where you will find this Hebrew word used to express humility and respect for another human being. But there are 198 places in the Bible, 198 as compared to two, where it refers to worshiping deity.

So whenever it says someone fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, there is no question but that that person was worshiping God. Now you might say, Gary, what's the big deal about this? Well, the reason it's a big deal is that there are several key issues involved here. One of them has to do with the concept that God has the ability to assume human form.

You might say, well, that should go without saying because after all, God can do anything. Yes, but there are people, especially in traditional Judaism, who say that God has never assumed human form. They scoff at the very notion that the God of the universe could humble himself and take upon himself the form of a man. And of course, that's exactly what we believe happened at Bethlehem, a little over 2,000 years ago—that is, God became a man.

The reason it was necessary for him to take upon himself a human body is that he had to die. In order for the justice of God to be satisfied, and in order for his wrath to be ameliorated, and so his righteousness and holiness would not be violated, someone had to pay for the sins of the human race.

Sin could not be overlooked or ignored; it had to be paid for. And Satan had messed everything up so badly, he thought there was no way it could ever be done. What he didn't count on was God's willingness to subject himself to humiliation and ultimately even physical death. But God cannot die. He is eternal.

The only way he could die would be if he took upon himself for a period of time a human body of flesh and blood. Then he could die, and all righteousness would be fulfilled. The justice of God would be satisfied, his wrath would be placated. So this goes to the whole issue of God becoming a man in the form of the Messiah.

Now, does this mean that everything God is is wrapped up in that little baby born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago? No, not necessarily. Colossians says in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In other words, everything that can be reduced to human form is right there in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the Bible says. But we have to understand when he was here, he was in a state of humiliation. He had emptied himself of some of his divine attributes. So he was a real man, capital M. He was a real man with real human needs and limitations. When he was a baby, Mary and Joseph had to take care of him.

They had to change his diapers and they had to feed him. And when he was older, he learned to work in his father's carpenter shop. In fact, he himself, Jesus himself, was known as a carpenter. In Nazareth they said, is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, Mark chapter six, verse three?

So that's why this is such an important issue because God does have a history of assuming human form. In fact, Bethlehem was not the first time he assumed human form. Now, it was the first time he actually was born and took upon himself a body of flesh and blood, but Bethlehem was not the first time God assumed human form.

In fact, when you go back into the Old Testament, you find a very interesting character known as the angel of the Lord. We talked about this a few programs ago. The angel of Yahweh, the angel of Jehovah. But this was no ordinary angel. He has attributes of deity. People worship him and they even call him God.

And when they do call him God, he doesn't rebuke them. When they worship him, he doesn't tell them to stop. In fact, he tells them to take off their shoes because they're standing on holy ground. This is the angel of the Lord, the captain of the Lord's host. In the Messianic movement, there are many of us who believe the Lord God who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden was none other than Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah.

It's what we call a pre-incarnate manifestation of the Messiah, that is, a manifestation of Messiah Jesus prior to his birth in Bethlehem. In fact, we have a teaching tape on the mystery of Melchizedek, it's tape number GT-48, where we talk about these Old Testament appearances of the Messiah. If you haven't heard that teaching, you really should get the tape because it traces these pre-incarnate appearances of the Messiah all the way from the garden of Eden up to Bethlehem.

You see, Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. He was equating himself with God. And I know there's some controversy over whether he was really claiming to be God here in this passage when he said this, but if you have any question as to what he meant, just look at the response of his Jewish audience there in John chapter eight.

They knew what he was saying because they were ready to take him out and stone him for blasphemy because in their understanding, it was blasphemy for a mortal man to claim to be God. And guess what? They were right. It is blasphemy. It was blasphemy in the time of Jesus and it is still blasphemy for a mortal man to claim that he is God in the flesh.

There is only one instance where it was not blasphemous and that is when it was true. That's why C.S. Lewis talked about the great dilemma that every unbeliever faces over what to do with Jesus of Nazareth. What do you do with him? Since Jesus claimed to be God, he could not have been merely a good man or a great moral teacher.

He could not have been just a great religious philosopher. All of that went out the window when he claimed to be God because when someone claims to be God, there are only three possibilities. Number one, he's a liar who knows he's not God but wants other people to think he is. Or number two, he's a lunatic who really thinks he's God but isn't. Or number three, he is God.

Those are the three possibilities, and being a great teacher or philosopher doesn't cover any one of those three categories. And C.S. Lewis said we shouldn't come up with any of that patronizing nonsense about Jesus being a great man or, you know, a great religious leader. He said we can either dismiss Jesus as a lunatic on the same level with someone who claims he's a poached egg, or we can fall at his feet and worship him as Almighty God. He left us no other choice. He never intended to.

So we believe what we have here in Joshua chapter five is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Messiah. He appears to Joshua as the captain of the Lord's host. And the Bible says Joshua fell down and worshiped him. He waited, he watched, and he worshiped. Well, there's still more here and once again we're out of time. The time really flies, doesn't it? I hope you'll come back and join us again when we continue this series on what to do when you're in trouble. Until then, this is your friend Gary Hedrick saying take care, God bless, bye-bye.

Liz Ayello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. It's always good to have you with us, whether you're listening from home, at work, or in your car. By the way, if you've found today's program helpful, you'll be glad to know that the entire series is available on one convenient compact disc.

The title is simply What to Do When You're in Trouble. And it's yours for a gift of just $6 or more to Messianic Perspectives. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order.

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This is Liz Ayello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series on what to do when you're in trouble, right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the freewill contributions of our listeners in this area.