Editor’s Note: Today on “Family & Friends Friday,” we’re blessed to have my friend, David Welker, as our guest blogger. Dave has been a member of Webster Bible Church since 1973 and serves on our elder leadership team. A retired public school teacher, Dave enjoys teaching elementary students in Olympians (a Word of Life program) and middle school students in the church's Truth Tracks (Sunday school) ministry. Dave also coordinates our Sunday evening Koinonia gathering and is heavily involved in our missions ministry. He is one of the most faithful, generous servants of Christ I know. I thank God for him and for how the Lord will use this article to enrich your walk with Him.
As a boy, I was brought up on the King James Version of the Bible. Numerous times in my childhood I came upon the Lord’s teaching in Matthew 5:18 which says, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Jot. Tittle. Two very unfamiliar words to a young boy. I came to know that a jot is an infinitesimal amount. A synonym would be iota, which anyone who has ever worked on a crossword puzzle knows as a favorite word. Tittle is translated in the ESV as “dot.” The Lord certainly made His point to my teenage self. Every part of the Bible is important, even the smallest of words, letters and markings.
This point resonated with me recently when I was studying Joshua 23. At the end of a long and fruitful life, Joshua is making his farewell speech to the people of Israel. He warns God’s people in verse 6, “Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses.” He warns the Israelites to abstain from intermarrying with the pagan people who have remained in the land. He even counsels against even speaking the names of the false gods that these people worship.
With this in mind, we come to verse 13. Joshua warns the people of the penalty for disobeying God’s commands. “Know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you.”
It might be easy to skip over this verse with a casual reading, saying that Joshua is merely using some figurative language to make his point. But let’s take a closer look at the three analogies the Holy Spirit spoke to Joshua.
First these godless people will be a snare and a trap for you. Anyone watching cartoons has seen the elementary snare that is basically a stick propping up a basket. When the bunny hops in to retrieve its carrot, the snare is activated. Not too scary. But I also watched enough jungle movies as a kid to know about another type of snare. This type that grabs your ankle and before a millisecond elapses, you are hanging upside down about 30 feet off the ground. Even Tarzan’s muscular abs are not going to rescue him.
Next comes “a whip to your sides.” Getting a whipping is a torturous affair. But look carefully at what part of your body is on the receiving end. Not the core muscles of your abdomen. Not the back where you have a more strong muscles and a sturdy spine. The whip is nipping at your side; the weakest part of your torso. That’s going to hurt!
The final analogy is that allowing these foreign gods to influence you will be like a thorn in your eye. One speck of dust in my eye and tears start to flow. I cannot wait to relieve myself of the microscopic particle. To be perfectly honest, I’m not a fan of a thorn in my foot or my finger. Thinking of a thorn in my eye causes my skin to crawl. And a careful rereading of this verse will show you that it is not one thorn, but thorns.
This seemingly innocent little verse teems with meaning. Let me encourage you, fellow Christian, to be wary of the world and its influence on your life. Just as Joshua warned, the influence of the world can cause severe damage to the life of a Christian.
But I’d like to further encourage you to realize that God’s Word is a deep well of refreshment. Joshua 23:13 would have made my freshman English teacher proud. It contains a wealth of encouragement for us to fight against the wiles of the world around us. And it reminds us that every jot and tittle of God’s Word is meant for our instruction and encouragement.