Friday May 31
“Come… Hear the Words of the LORD…”
Joshua 3:6-13
6 Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
7 And the LORD said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
8 You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.' "
9 So Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God."
10 And Joshua said, "By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites:
11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.
12 Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe.
13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap."
Today, it is obvious that we are facing challenges in families, in our churches, in our nation, and in our world that we have never faced before! If we ever needed a word from the LORD, it is today! In Joshua 3, the people of Israel have come up to the edge of the flooded Jordan River and they needed both a message from God and a miracle to cross it. In these first 13 verses they received five messages with specific instructions as to what they should do and all they needed to do was by faith, trust and obey!
In verses 2-4, the officers or leaders gave the first message to the people. In verse 5, Joshua gave the second message to the people. “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you”. In verse 6, Joshua gave the third message to the priest. The priests had the responsibility of bearing the Ark of the Covenant and going before the people as they marched. It was the priests who had to get their feet wet before God would open the waters. The priests would also have to stand in the middle of the riverbed until all the people had passed over. When the priests arrived on the other side, the waters would return to their original condition. It took faith and courage for these priests to do their job, but they trusted God and relied on the faithfulness of His Word.
In verse 7-8, the LORD gave a fourth message to Joshua. When Moses led the nation through the Red Sea, this miracle magnified Moses before the people; and they recognized that he was indeed the servant of the Lord (Ex. 14:31). God would do the same thing for Joshua at the Jordan; and in so doing, He would remind the people that He was with Joshua just as He had been with Moses (Josh. 4:14; see 1:5, 9). Both Moses and Joshua had received their authority from the Lord before these miracles occurred, but the miracles gave them stature before the people. It takes both authority and stature to exercise effective leadership.
Now in verses 9-13, Joshua gives the fifth message to the people. Having instructed the priests bearing the Ark, Joshua then shared the words of the Lord with the people. He didn't magnify himself; He magnified the Lord and His gracious blessings to the nation. True spiritual leadership focuses the eyes of God's people on the Lord and His greatness. Joshua didn't give the people a "religious pep talk." He simply reminded them of the promises of God, “the Word of faith”, and encouraged them to trust and obey.
But Joshua's God was more than just the God of Israel. He was "the living God" (3:10) and "the Lord of all the earth" (vv. 11,13). Because He is "the living God," He can defeat the dead idols of the heathen nations that then inhabited the land (Ps. 115). Because He is "the Lord of all the earth," He can go where He pleases and do what He wishes with every land and nation. "You shall be a special treasure to Me above all people," God had told them at Sinai, "for all the earth is Mine" (Ex. 19:5,). "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth" (Ps. 97:5).
As you review these five messages, you can see that the Lord gave them all the information they needed to accomplish what He wanted them to do. You find conditions that the people had to fulfill, orders they had to obey, and promises they had to believe. God always gives His "Word of faith" to His people whenever He asks them to follow Him into new areas of conflict and conquest. God's commandments are still His enablements, and God's promises do not fail.
Today, it is my prayer for America that the LORD will give us spiritual leaders with a message from God. We need a people with hearts to trust and obey so we can experience the presence of God and His miracles!
God bless!
Comments