By: Dale Weckbacher
Joshua 1:9
This is my command—be
strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For
the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
(NLT)
Joshua 1:9 is my go to verse during times of fear of
weakness. I try to imagine myself in the
position of Joshua during this time in his life. Joshua was not a young man at this time and
due to his, along with Caleb, presenting a report of faith and not fear upon
spying out the Promised Land (Numbers 13:25-33) are the only two individuals
from the previous generation that will enter the Promised Land. Joshua has witnessed his people wandering
aimlessly through the wilderness for 40 years due to their lack of faith and
now sits at the border of the Promised Land with the calling to lead his people
into the land God had promised them.
There is little doubt that Joshua’s thoughts went back to
the many times his people had grumbled at Moses only to witness God’s
miraculous intervention. His thoughts
may have gone back to the time they complained about the bitter water at Marah
where God made the water good by Moses throwing a piece of wood into the water
(Exodus 15:22-25). Perhaps Joshua
remembered the complaining of the people complaining about the lack of food
while in the wilderness of Sin only to see God Miraculously provide Manna from
heaven, something still occurring during this time in Joshua’s life (Exodus 16,Joshua 5:12). Perhaps Joshua’s thoughts
returned to the time when the Israelites complained to Moses about the lack of
water only to see God provide water from a rock (Exodus 17:1-7).
Joshua may have been experiencing great fear, fearing this
new generation of Israelites would resort to the constant complaining as their
parents did with Moses. God’s command to
be strong and courageous is a reminder to Joshua that in each instance of
complaining by the people, God performed a miracle to provide for their
needs. God is reminding Joshua that He
is the same God that was with Moses and that no matter how tough things became,
He would be right there along-side him.
Human nature has changed little since the time of Moses and
Joshua for all we seem to see in the news and our media today is constant
complaining. Liberals cannot accept the
fact Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and are trying
everything they can think of the obstruct his agenda and throw him out of
office. The difference between our
society today and the one of the time of Joshua is that we have the internet
and social media, allowing the vicious vitriol of rhetoric to spread quickly
like a destructive wildfire.
Like Joshua, Trump entered the vitriolic political fray,
leaving behind the comfortable life of a successful businessman and media
personality to lead the nation back to what made it great. The tremendous success of Donald Trump stands
as a blaring example of how one can still succeed in the United States without
the help of government. Perhaps Donald
Trump views the United States as an economic promised land where anyone with
the fortitude and resolve can succeed by applying themselves.
Despite memories of the constant complaining of the people
of Israel, Joshua heeded the command of the Lord and pressed on leading the
people into the Promised Land. The
conquering of the land did not come easy for the land was full of ungodly
people (Exodus 34:11-14). God had
commanded Israel to be careful not to make any type of treaty with them because
to do so would lead to them abandoning God and adopting their pagan ways
(Exodus 34:15). It could be said that
these people represent a swamp that must be drained.
Upon taking office, it soon became evident that the land of
government contains its share of swamp creature that must be drained from the
swamp. The swamp of government is not
occupied by a group of ites as the Promised Land was but is occupied by some
even more dangerous critters. Contained
in the government swamp we see,
1)
Liberals and progressives – The Declaration of
Independence of the United States tells us that our rights are unalienable,
“incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another.” (1)
and given to us by our creator.
Governments role according to the Declaration of Independence is to
protect these irrevocable God given rights.
The constitutional structure of the United States Constitution is an
effort to protect the rights of individuals by limiting government to prevent tyrannical
government. Liberals and progressives
believe the role of government is that of endowing rights to citizens (i.e.
free healthcare, free education, etc.) through big government using a
progressive tax system transferring wealth from the wealthy to the poor. These creatures of the swamp insure an
economy stifled with destructive taxes and regulation necessary to fund and
enforce their destructive agenda. Donald
Trump must drain this swamp by full repeal of Obamacare and other economically
destructive regulations and legislation and reformation of the destructive
progressive income tax system.
2)
Political establishment elites – Political
establishment elites are empowered through the creation of people dependent
upon the government or some government program.
President Trumps promise to make America Great again by empowering
ordinary people represents a threat to their agenda because it means fewer
dependent people. The swamp of political
elitism or what some refer to as the deep state must be drained.
3)
Administrative bureaucrats – Upon taking office,
President Trump began undoing many of the executive orders of his predecessors,
most of which were initiated by President Obama. (2) Most of these executive orders empower some
administrative government agency. Their
repeal means some of these agencies will become unnecessary, causing many of
these administrative bureaucratic swamp creatures to die, politically speaking
of course, in a drained swamp. The
draining of this swamp will result in smaller less tyrannical government.
Just as Joshua faced the task of ridding the Promised Land
of the ites, President Trump faces the task of draining the swamp of government
of its iteish swamp creatures. I
encourage my readers to pray for President Trump and our other leaders and encourage
them to tell these leaders to pull the plug in the swamp of government before
they drown in its murky waters.
1. vocabulary.com. Unalienable. www.vocabulary.com.
[Online] [Cited: July 1, 2017.]
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/unalienable.
2. Harrington, Rebecca.
Trump signed 90 executive actions in his first 100 days — here's what each one
does. www.businessinsider.com. [Online] Business Insider, May 3, 2017.
[Cited: July 1, 2017.]
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-executive-orders-memorandum-proclamations-presidential-action-guide-2017-1/#executive-order-april-29-renegotiating-trade-agreements-1.
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