Daily Lesson for August 4, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from Joshua 6 verse 31:

31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.”

In the early days of the nation of Israel, when it was being decided which God they would worship, a man called to be a prophet of the LORD God, was told by the LORD to cut down his father's altar to the false god Baal along with the Asherah pole beside it.  Afraid of the people, he felled the altar and the pole under the cloak of darkness.  But the people of the town knew who had done the deed and the men came for him at his father's house.

Then a surprising thing happened.  His father went outside the house and met the men, and told them that no man would be coming for his son.  "If Baal is really a god," he said, "let him come for my son himself."

My takeaway: when one generation begins to challenge the idolatries of another - whether they be racial or ethnic supremacy, or mammon, or some other false god - there will be fathers from the former generation who will stand up in defense of their sons and daughters. They stand up because in their own heart of hearts they know their gods are false but that the ways of the LORD are true.