The Price of Power--by Linden Malki

When Joshua was giving instructions to the Israelites who were getting ready to finally enter the Promised Land, this is what he told them: " Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed. Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.” (Joshua 1:8-9 Msg)  Jesus, 1500 years later but very close to the same area,  was dealing with a similar concept: Satan had just made Jesus a proposition. Satan would give Jesus rulership of the whole world--the condition being that Jesus would recognize Satan's authority over all the peoples of the world. Jesus' answer:  "Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.” (Luke 4:8 Msg) I found it interesting that Jesus (whose Hebrew name was actually "Joshua") was committed to the same instructions as His predecessor had given.
We've been thinking and reading the last few weeks about what the most important things in our lives need to be to follow these instructions. I tried to picture what the world would have looked like if Jesus had taken Satan up on his offer of political power. The first thought was that if Jesus had actually had total political power, He could have made everybody follow Him and life would have been perfect. On second thought, living a good life without any options would have been lazy and sloppy.  Then I realized that the real trap in this offer would that Satan would still have had ultimate power, with the nice guy as the figurehead.  Could have been like Chicago or New York, run by politicians who are tools of the Mafia, with the harbor full of uncooperative guys wearing cement shoes. We actually can imagine this; we know a little bit about how ugly the underside of a society without character and morals can be. 

Being ready isn't difficult on paper: Read the Word, think about it, do what it says. God supplies the strength and courage better than we can.  Open our eyes to the alternative: a world run by evil. If we don't understand what evil can do, that's our fault. The bottom line is: who's the expert on the power of the dark side, and Who has the power to keep us in the Light?  I am reminded of what I think is the most important line of an old familiar Christmas carol: "And fit us for Heaven, to live with Thee there!"