Numbers Don't Count

“Think of it—one of you, single-handedly, putting a thousand on the run! Because God is God, your God. Because he fights for you, just as he promised you.” Joshua 23:10 (The Message)

When God is for you, numbers simply don’t matter. That is what gives the courage and resolve to people who walk so closely to Him that their hearts beat with the same passions that God does. God had shown Israel His power and His commitment to them by subduing every nation in the Promised Land. He accomplished that even though Israel was much small in manpower and lack military training, strategy and equipment.

This is at the moment when Joshua is about to die. God reassures Israel’s military hero that though he had led in an exemplary manner, the successes actually did not belong to him. They had one based upon God’s promise to give them the land and to fight for them if necessary.

Remember when Joshua spied out Canaan while Israel was still in the wilderness. Moses sent out twelve spies and ten of them came back saying the job was just too difficult. The people were huge, their chariots were equipped with the latest technology, and the native occupants surely understood the lay of the land. Nope, it just wasn’t a good idea to head across the Jordan River.

Fortunately there were two other spies who saw the same things, but came to a different conclusion. They saw the giants, they weren’t far-sighted. They examined the same chariots, and understood the technology was as advanced as the rest of the spies had reported. The land was rugged indeed, it would be not be easy and the people would need to be commited. But, with God helping them, they knew they could take the very land He said was theirs.

Here’s my concern. I suppose we will never hear the end of the constant refrain that, “the Supreme Court took prayer out of the schools.” Most ot the time people repeat it, they are either angry that our “Christian nation” has fallen, or that some evil president, Supreme Court Justice, or Congress person is ready to drop the next bomb that will take references to God out of every part of public life at all. If they aren’t angry, they react with fear. “Oh my, our country is going downhill so fast.” Why do we sound like the 10 spies so often?

Joshua believed God! It didn’t matter what the numbers were, God was the One calling the shots! So what if they can’t open the day with some prayer that few of the students listen to anyway. The Joshuas of our world might say, “Sure that battle is tough. No kidding, people are not following Christ with much zeal. But why, why are you so angry, child of God? Even worse, what in God’s heaven are you afraid of?”

We hear the timid reply: “There used to be some many more churches than today. And, the churches used to be full. Now look at them!” I’m not sure what people really want when they say those things. If they want a pity party, it won’t come from me. I might have stopped going to some of the same churches if I had the choice. If they want some sort of angry response that our President and half the people left in those churches are going to hell, well, they will have to take that up with someone having far more knowledge than I do. Jesus meant it straight up when He laid the “No judging” rule on His followers.

What should we do? Maybe the first thing is to start believing God again. God’s “success” has never been about numbers. Just because a country can get a certain percentage to mark “Evangelical Christian” on a survey doesn’t say a thing about the state of God’s kingdom!

I’m not trying to argue that things should be like they were in the 50s, or the opposite, that we need to take down the church, one shingle at a time, and rebuild something post-modern in its place. No, not at all. I’m asking Christians to stop acting like God needs a majority to “win”. Over and over God reminds His people that one can put a thousand to flight; and 10, 100,00. Why, oh, why, do we bite our nails over close votes in red and blue states?

Start praying the heart of God again. Let’s get our head out of our pet issues, our foolish ideas of what we think constitute God’s heart, and start reading the gospels and listening to Jesus’ words again. I challenge anyone reading this: for one year, read nothing but the Gospels: Matthew Mark, Luke and John. Write down everything Jesus says you should do. Record everything that seems to really matter to Him. You may found some sublte (or maybe not-so-sublte) changes beging to happen in your own heart.

Stop counting! Stop running the numbers to see if God really has the upper hand. Can we realize how foolish that even looks? Can we take to heart that God isn’t looking for popularity princesses, He’s looking for those who will stand and commit to His way of love and righteousness, even if we are the last ones standing. Even if the stones are heading straight for our forehead because following the “trouble maker Jesus” has turned the world upside down. May we be so fearless, so certain that numbers don’t matter when God is in it, that just before the rock cracks our cranium, we can echo Stephen, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.”

Or maybe that sounds too candy-coated, forgiving people who have taken over our great country! How dare we water down the gospel with some namby-pamby talk of forgiving the very people who keep taking our religious rights away.

Or mayber, just maybe, what Stephen did, the last words he ever said as the stones flew fast and hard against his body, are the essence of what Jesus meant for us to be: “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.”