We Have Only to Share

I recently received a letter from an attorney for the plaintiffs in a class action suit against one of my former employers. The gist of the complaint is employees in large facilities are looking to be paid for the time it takes them to report to their assigned work area. I know some of these facilities, I've seen some of the nonsense that takes place, and personally, I can see all sorts of foolishness attached to this; people looking to extract reward for very minimal effort. But a court has agreed to hear the case, so...

This morning I was reading Joshua 13. It begins with the news that Joshua, a mighty warrior, had grown old, the years and the warfare had taken its toll. In verse 6, God tells Joshua as for the remaining unconquered territories, God Himself would drive out the inhabitants; the only task left to Joshua would be the dividing of the spoils. I wrote in my journal: Joshua was aging. He'd proven himself faithful, and God demonstrated mercy toward him. But as I looked at the words, I had questions. Had God not shown mercy even when He required Joshua and the men of Israel to do battle? What if Joshua hadn't been old? What if he hadn't proven himself faithful? What if there was no apparent cause for mercy? The answer came almost immediately. The cross.

When confronted with the standard of a perfectly holy God, when confronted with a moral law that is unmatched in purity and impossible with regard to human obedience, could Joshua ever be old enough or faithful enough to warrant God's mercy? No. Could Israel ever be obedient enough to earn God's favor? No. Could you or I or any other human be enough in any capacity to deserve His mercy or grace? No. God demonstrated His mercy toward Joshua, toward the armies of Israel, because He chose to do so. God demonstrated His mercy toward you and I and all of humanity in that while we were His enemies, His rivals on the thrones of our hearts, haters of Him, committed to sin, by sending His Son, Jesus, to suffer and die in our place on the cross. By His sacrifice --again, in our place --we are now able to divide the spoils among the rest of the world. We receive eternal life, a life with Him for all of eternity, and we proclaim it and demonstrate it on the world stage! We can be salt and light, staving off the decay of sin and death by sharing the Gospel with our words and our behavior. We can offer to others the reconciliation we have received by forgiving them as we have been forgiven, by sharing our testimony of God's forgiveness and encouraging them to receive it, regarding others with the same value and intention God regards them, and walking before humanity as Jesus walked. The receiving of the spoils of Jesus' sacrifice in our place, His willingness to do the work that we might have was never solely for the purpose of accumulation. We are to distribute, divide the spoils of what God has done.

I think most of us would like to believe we work really hard. And most of us would like to be, or believe we are being, compensated for aaaalll the work we do. But the simple truth is this: we're sitting in the cheap seats. We see things from a very small, very self-centered point of view, fighting to receive that to which we believe we are entitled, judging ourselves by our own "good intentions". God, our Creator sees the big picture and sees it perfectly. In the court that will take place on the Day of Judgment, we will be judged by our own work, or we will be judged by Jesus' work. We're entitled to nothing, but He gave us everything. And for those who believe, the spoils are there, in accordance with what our Savior and Judge has procured for us. Thanks be to God, because of Jesus, we have extracted a reward for no effort. We have only to share it with those we meet as we have been commanded.