Two Kinds of Working Together - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war.

They drew near and came. Everyone helped his neighbor, and said to his brother, “Be of good courage!”
Joshua 11:23 NKJV; Isaiah 41:5–6 NKJV

Two Kinds of Working Together
A brother shared with me his appreciation of the first of these verses. He was impressed not only with what Joshua had done, but specifically that it was done according to all that the Lord had said to Moses. Earlier in the chapter we see Joshua doing “as the Lord had told him” (Josh. 11:9). Additionally, we also note a task completed as Moses had commanded (v. 12). Both of these unique individuals acted in unity together, each doing what the Lord had ordered him to do. The result was a completed work and rest.

Each of us has clearly different responsibilities that the Lord has given us. But we have one Master, the same Lord. As we each serve Him, we can realize a joyful oneness and unity in the work.

While the verses from Isaiah above sound good, sound like the way we believers should be working together in the interests of our Lord Jesus Christ, they are absolutely the opposite. The passage is describing men working together to make an idol. The next verses say, “The craftsman encouraged the goldsmith; he who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil, saying, ‘It is ready for the soldering’; then he fastened it with pegs, that it might not totter.” The men of this world may work together quite enthusiastically for evil purposes. The first joint project we find them working at was the tower of Babel.

But such accomplishments will not stand by themselves. God will have the final word about them. Let us not get entangled in the world’s projects but rather seek to do our Lord’s will together.

-- Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.