Joshua 6:1-2 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

I love the past tense language the Lord uses in telling Joshua about taking Jericho. God says it is done, as a thing already accomplished even though instructions have not even been given.

Now these people of Jericho put their trust in what they had built together, strong defenses, high walls, that had served them in the past. But they had never come up against the God of Abraham, the God of Faith.

Joshua trusted God. He had seen what God had done to lead them out of bondage. He had spied out the land of promise and believed God could give it into their hands. Joshua trusted God and acted on that trust. Because of it, God gave leadership of Israel to Joshua after Moses died.

I’ve often thought about the role of leadership and why some are elevated to a position of leadership while others more knowledgeable, with a deeper relationship with the Lord have not been promoted. It is that trust alone fails to take action. Many see trust in the Lord as the Lord taking action rather than taking action themselves.

There is always going to be that generation of men that see God do miracles and believe and trust God yet do not have the vision of being used of God to exact His will. They do not recognize themselves in God’s will. Now the why is as vast and varied as the number of men who do not step up.

Is it possible that the reason behind all of those excuses boils down to that Joshua 6:1 action? “none went out, and none came in.” They placed their trust in the works of their own hands and hid therein.

Luke 22:3 Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.

I was watching the Master’s golf tournament and was excited about the possibility of Jordan Spieth winning his second green jacket in two years, having the lead wire to wire, two years in a row, Then he hit two shots into Ray’s Creek and took a seven on the 13^th par 3. Disgusted I turned the television off.

In many ways we do this very same thing when we look to the behavior of other people when they do not live up to our hope for them. We ignore what it does in us. What right did I have to be disgusted? I had placed my hopes in a man. Men fail.

Many of us look to Judas as the one who betrayed Jesus and we blame him and when he committed suicide, some of us feel like he got off easy. We overlooked Luke 22:3 and failed to blame the real enemy Satan. I have heard some say that Satan wouldn’t have been allow into Judas if Judas was loyal to Jesus. Really? Is that true?

Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

At the time of Luke 22:3 the Holy Spirit had not been given. If He had not yet been given, then Judas could not have been sealed, protected from Satan. Our protection from Satan, from being possessed, is in that when we believe the Holy Spirit enters in and seals us and protects us. It is not our hearts and minds that protect us, but rather God Himself.

We give ourselves too much credit to believe we are capable of fending off Satan on our own. We tell ourselves we can fight Satan off by quoting scripture appropriately. Who is the Word? Jesus! Who brings those scriptures into remembrance for use in battle? The Holy Spirit.

My outlook is bleak without He who saves.