By Michael Yong

God uses events to accomplish his purposes. He is, after all, the Maker and Sustainer of the world. He parted the Red Sea to save and destroy. He raised Assyria and Babylon to punish Israel. He moved the king of Persia to let the Jews return. These happened for a reason.

Take, for example, Israel’s defeat at the city of Ai. The Israelites just had a dramatic victory at Jericho with the city’s wall tumbling down (Joshua 6). What happened at Ai then? “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant…they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.” (Joshua 7:11). The greed of one man (Achan) plunged an entire nation into defeat.

Later, Joshua and his leaders bought the Gibeonites’ lie (Joshua 9). The latter claimed to be a people far away, seeking peace with Israel. But Israel “…did not ask counsel from the LORD” (Joshua 9:14) and fell to the deception. The outcome? Israel had to protect the Gibeonites, when they were supposed to destroy them.

From these episodes, Israel learned that the Lord would not tolerate sin among his people and she paid the price for not seeking the Lord in her decisions. She was to follow the Lord according to his ways.

In this REACH, you read of lessons learnt while organising an evangelistic event. Catch a glimpse of what went on in the mind and heart of the young staff who led the team that ran it. Like him, we want our events to do well but more important, we want to do what is right in the sight of God. We want to be found doing God’s work God’s way. We seek to imitate Paul who toiled, “…struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me” (Colossians 1:29).