We’ve all been waiting… waiting at a traffic light. Waiting for our phone to go “ding” to check our texts. Waiting for COVID to stop. Waiting for someone to make a decision so we can make ours.
Ancient Battles
The long and short of the beginning of Joshua’s story (found in the book of the Bible that is named after him) is that God told the Israelites he wanted to bring them to a new home. He was going to help them and they were going to win. Just prior to walking up to the impenetrable fortress of Jericho, Josh and the crew were stuck at a raging Jordan River. It was flood season and harvest season all at once. (In Canada, those are two distinctly different seasons), but there, it was one and the same.
They had a problem.
Several in fact.
1) The Jordan River was too deep and wide to cross
2) The walls of Jericho were just not conquerable.
God had a plan.
God told Amos almost 800 years AFTER the fall of Jericho, “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7). The heart of God doesn’t change towards his people, not in Joshua’s time, or Amos’ time or even in our time. God laid out his plans for Josh at the get-go. Some of the particulars aren’t mentioned, but the gist of the plan was totally there. God gave him the ending of the story FIRST. (“BTW Josh, we’re gonna win and here is how we’re gonna do it…”)
BEFORE even getting to the Jericho issue, God built up the faith of his people by working out a smaller gig – The Jordan River. Now, the good news is that there wasn’t the pressure of war as they got to the Jordan. The bad news was that Mount Hermon was shedding it’s run-off into the raging Jordan River making it very treacherous.
The priests stepped into the water with the Art of the Covenant (the big beautiful golden box that housed the 10 Commandments, Aaron’s rod that burst into buds like a spring tree and a pot of manna). This was God’s movable, earthly resting location where Moses would talk to Him. (Not that anything could REALLY confine God, but that’s what they had and it was special and set apart to honor God).
It was at this place that God repeated a miracle that he did 40 years earlier when he parted the Red Sea as the Hebrews left Egypt. He stopped the waters again, so the Israelites could walk on dry land.
(More about the conquering tomorrow)
Lessons from an Time BEFORE an Ancient Battle
Do you need a repeat miracle? Have you had God’s hand move in your life, or seen something happen in someone else’ life, and in all honesty, you’ve found yourself in the same place again and you need God to do exactly the same thing as before?
God DOES Encores!
If He’s done it once, he certainly can do it again – he’s already proven that to you.
Has God told you the end of the story already but you just can’t quite believe it or think of how He will get there?
God says “Don’t Worry” (someone counted that phrase 365 times in the Bible – one for every day of the year). He really means it. He has accounted for all the variables and is ready to do His work, but we have to wait for His timing. It’s all about his glory.
Joshua 4:24 says, “He did this so that all the people of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God”. It’s not an arrogance thing on His part, it’s just that He deserves that glory. God wants to show off in a good way – he wants to be the hero, because we certainly need one!
George Muller, the man who started orphanages one day ran out of food for all the children, he said, “Come Abigail, it’s finally happened. Let’s see what God will do because he will surely do something”.
When you are faced with the impossible, and God has told you want He is intending to do, don’t be afraid to hurry up and wait.
Ask God to do the impossible to see what He’s going do!