FOLLOWING GOD'S DIRECTIONS

Still Joshua 3!

            Did you notice this when you read Joshua 3?  “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God…follow it” (Joshua 3:3).  When were the people to move out?  When they saw the ark proceeding!  Not one of the Israelites was told to go ahead of the ark.  Not even Joshua.  The ark of the Lord went first and as soon as the people saw it moving they were to follow.  The really enthusiastic Hebrews might have been tempted to rush ahead and show how brave and faithful they were.  Maybe they wanted to jump into the river and start swimming across.  That would have been wrong.  That would have been fatal self-dependence, not faith.  When we keep asking the questions about what God wants us to do with our lives and about what God’s will is for our lives it is like we are running ahead and jumping into the river.  We are rushing ahead of God.  It is when we run ahead of the Lord that we fall and fail.  I used to hate it when we bought something for one of our sons that was in a box with the warning, “Some assembly required.”  I knew what that meant.  It meant I would be up all night on Christmas Eve trying to find the right tools and trying to follow incomprehensible instructions.  It was so frustrating!  Inevitably I would get to a point where I would think I knew where parts went and would stop looking at the directions.  You know what would happen.  It would never look quite like the picture on the box and I would always have a few pieces left over. I didn’t know where they went.  That’s kind of like what happens when we rush ahead of God and fail to wait on him to show us the way he wants us to go!

            Neither were the Hebrews to hesitate once they saw the ark moving.  They were not supposed to sit and wait to see who was going to go first.  They were to obey the word of God and follow the ark.  They were to step out in faith.  If they hesitated they would be showing a lack of faith in God.  When God shows us what he wants us to do we must do it without hesitation.  If we stall we fall!  I hate the feeling of guilt I have when I neglect an opportunity to do something God urged me to do.  Do you know that feeling?  You know, it’s when you just feel in your heart that you’re supposed to do something for someone or say something to someone and you don’t do it.  That makes me feel so bad!  Remember the old saying, “He who hesitates is lost.”  When we look at that statement in a spiritual context we know there is truth in it.  If any of the Hebrews hesitated to cross behind the ark they would have been permanently stranded on the other side of the river!  They would have been left out.  Sometimes the offer of the gospel is like this.  You hear the way of salvation.  You hear the call to trust Christ and follow him.  Hesitation could be eternally fatal!  If you hear the word of God urging you to take a step of faith and trust in Christ do not put it off.  You never know if you will have the opportunity to hear the gospel again!

            Neither were the Hebrews allowed to try to find another way across the river.  God was going ahead of them.  His way was the only way.  If they tried another route it would have been fatal.  Do you want to know what God has for you?  Then follow him!  When he leads us into the unknown it is an adventure without equal because we will discover the great things God has for us!  There is no other way.  The same is true with the doctrine of salvation.  There is only one way to a right relationship with God and that is through Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  Peter said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  People say, “We all have our own way to God, our own means of salvation.”  That is not true!  That is a fatal error and yet another lie of the devil.  There is no other way to God except through Jesus.  And there is no other way to living in God’s will than to follow God’s way!

PRESENCE OF GOD

Still thinking about Joshua 3

            If we want to discern God’s direction for our lives we need to learn to recognize God’s presence with us at all times.  This was something that really helped the Hebrews as they prepared to cross the Jordan.  The ark of the covenant was the symbol of God’s immediate presence among the Israelites.  The priests were to carry the ark before the people to lead them across the river.  God commanded the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.  Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.  But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it” (Joshua 3:3, 4).  The ark was the reminder to the people that God was with them and was leading them.  Some scholars point out that one of the reasons the ark was to be so far out ahead of the people was so they could all see the ark and could be certain of God’s presence.  As long as the people were sure that God was with them they could go anywhere!  How would the people know where God wanted them to go?  If they just stayed behind the ark they would know where to go!  They had never been that way before but if God was with them then they could go by faith! 

            And so it is true for us as well.  When we are standing on the brink of stepping into an unknown situation, a place we have never gone before, we need to keep in the front of our minds the fact that God is with us.  Isn’t it strange how it is in such times of stress we actually feel abandoned by God?  That is a lie the devil puts into our minds to confuse us.  It is just the opposite!  God is the one who planned our route and he is the one who has brought us to this point in our lives.  How could we think he would abandon us and leave us standing alone without guidance when we need it most?  What was it Jesus said to his disciples just before ascending into heaven?  “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  I need to ask myself, “Do I really believe this?”  If this is true then I don’t need to worry about discovering God’s will for my life.  He is right here with me holding my hand and leading me in the direction he wants me to go.  I will see the way clearly when he shows it to me. 

            When I was a boy our family took a lot of camping vacations and we visited some of the most beautiful and awesome places in the country.  My dad used to take us on hikes all over the place.  We would climb to the top of waterfalls and to the top of great rocks on narrow trails.  When I look at those places today it amazes me that we took those hikes.  (My mom must have been a nervous wreck!)  But the fact was this: as long as my dad was with me I would go anywhere without fear or even a second thought.  I was confident that he knew the way and could help me get there.  If we can have such confidence in an earthly father, why would we hesitate to trust our Heavenly Father?  That’s why the psalmist was able to write, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4).  If we keep God’s presence in the front of our minds we will be able to trust him to lead us.

NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR

Joshua 3     

            Joshua and the Israelites were camped on the east banks of the Jordan River looking across into the promised land of Canaan.  Soon God would call them to cross over.  Perhaps the Hebrews felt a particular fear about crossing over the river because of what their parents had heard from the spies who had scoped out Canaan all those years before.  The stories about giants and fortified cities must have lived on.  Maybe there were many of them who were very afraid of the dangers that lay ahead of them in the Promised Land.  But the fact of the matter is, just because something is unknown does not make it more dangerous!  Would Canaan be any more dangerous than the wilderness in which they had been wandering for all those years?  It was only more dangerous in the imaginations of the doubters and the faithless.  God had been with them all their lives.  He had been guiding them, protecting them, and providing for them.  He had already said he would go with them into Canaan.  So how could it be more dangerous? 

            Do we fear the unknown?  Do we wonder about the new dangers we don’t even know about?  Do we think that stepping out into the darkness is any more dangerous than what we have already known?  It does no good to fear.  Fear of the unknown will do nothing to diminish whatever danger might be out there.  But what it will do is diminish faith.  It will diminish our effectiveness.  When fear is given its way people shy away and hesitate to try new things.  When fear gains control then our minds and hearts are focused on the fear instead of on God.  Think about the Hebrews again.  If they had stayed on the east side of the Jordan they never would have accomplished anything for God and his kingdom.  Even if they stayed east of the river it would do nothing to diminish the dangers on the west side.  Those things would all remain the same.  The only thing that would be changed is that they would never know what was over the river and they would have failed to do what God wanted them to do.  The same is true for us.  If we don’t step out in faith then we won’t accomplish the things God has for us to do.  The fears will be the same and the dangers will be the same but nothing will be done for God.

            When we face the unknown with all its fears, risks, and dangers, we need to remember that God is faithful.  We may shudder in fear and anxiety but God never changes and he never fails to care for his people.  Think of it this way.  He has helped us this far.  He has helped us carry our present crosses.  He has brought us through every previously unknown situation to this day.  There once was a time when our present burdens were nothing more than unknown dangers.  They were once new and frightening but God helped us adjust to them and showed us the way to bear them.  When the Israelites came out of Egypt they were not adept at living in the desert.  They were city folks.  But God was with them and enabled them to adjust to their new lifestyles.  He proved himself faithful.  Hasn’t God proved himself faithful to us?  If God is faithful then what do we have to fear?

            There is yet one more way to look at the problem of the unknown and its risks and dangers.  The very fact that we are facing the unknown demonstrates that we have been making progress.  Progress, by definition, means change.  If we make progress then we will face new situations, new difficulties, and new trials.  For example, if Israel had not made progress through the wilderness they would never have reached their present location on the banks of the Jordan River.  If we want to make progress then we must come to expect unknown and new trials. 

            But here is the good news.  New trials generally end the old ones.  The Israelites came out of the desert.  That must have been a glorious day for them!  Imagine leaving behind the devastating heat and dryness of the desert and walking into the lush greenery along the river!  At the same time they were moving toward the unknown with its new dangers and difficulties!  The desert troubles came to an end while the Canaan problems were just beginning! 

            So it is with our lives and our ministries.  As we make progress in our faith we win victories over the struggles we encounter only to meet up with new struggles.  Our young church overcomes hurdles only to face new hurdles.  This is true for students who conquer one grade only to move on to the next, more challenging grade.  Elementary school to middle school; middle school to high school; high school to work or college.  Young people move from one place in their relationship toward marriage and its unknown trials.  Marriages move along and children are born.  People become Christians and grow in faith only to find that there are new trials ahead of them.  This is progress and God is with us every step of the way.

WALKING BY FAITH

Joshua 3

            When we face a difficult situation and find ourselves anxious about the unknown we need to remember that we didn’t come to that place by accident!  As the Israelites stood at the Jordan River they knew they had arrived there by God’s plan and purpose.  God had chosen the way for the Israelites from the day they walked out of Egypt!  He led them with a pillar of cloud and fire.  He brought them to the brink of the unknown and he had not allowed them to take any wrong turns.  When we face that threatening unknown we can find comfort in the fact that God’s providence has led us to that point!  We can be comforted in knowing that God’s perfect wisdom and timing are flawless.  Therefore, even though the way may be unknown to us it is not unknown to God!  Israel may not have been able to see how they were going to cross the river but in God’s eyes it had already taken place.  It was done! 

            I remember the feelings I had so many times as my late wife, Roz, was preparing for another brain surgery.  The doctors did their best to prepare us for what lay ahead but in all honesty, their efforts did little to give me any peace.  As the day of surgery arrived I would find myself struggling with all kinds of anxiety.  As I waited in the surgical waiting room I was exhausted by the stress.  After going through this several times I was finally struck by a realization.  God was in control of the entire situation!  He had brought us to this point in our lives.  He had planned everything that had taken place and he had planned the outcome of that particular surgery.  I didn’t know how things would come out but God did.  There was nothing for me to do but put my trust in him and let him carry me through!  So when we face the unknown we find comfort in the fact that it is not the unknown to God.  He knows and has planned the way through.  He knows the outcome. 

            Another comfort to us when we face the unknown is that Jesus has gone ahead of us.  Even though the way looks completely dark to us and the path through is unknown to us, Jesus, the light of the world, has already passed through it ahead of us.  He has already walked that path.  Even if we might be facing death we can find comfort in knowing that Jesus has been there as well.  We should not expect the future to be lit up brightly for us.  God never promised to reveal the future to us.  In fact, Paul told us, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).  If we had the future all lit up for us then we wouldn’t need to put our faith and trust in the Lord.  All the Israelites needed to know was that their next step was a step into the Jordan River.  All they needed to do was obey what God had told them to do and they didn’t need to know the future to do that!   

            Not only has Jesus walked through a life of faith on earth, we have the comfort of being able to see that many other Christians have also walked the walk of faith before us.  On that day the Hebrews faced a new situation.  But it wasn’t a completely unknown or unprecedented situation.  Their forefathers had been in a similar situation on the shores of the Red Sea with the Pharaoh’s army bearing down on them.  God had delivered them safely through that sea so there was some comfort to be taken from that.   

            Every generation has to face the unknown.  Every generation has to have its faith tested.  Every generation has to learn how to put their trust in God and walk by faith.  But God has graciously allowed us to see how those who have gone before have faced such situations.  The Israelites learned that God would do for them the same thing he did for their forefathers.   

            This is a real blessing from God!  God refreshes and renews his covenant with his people.  He puts each generation into situations where he is able to show his power and his grace.  So when we face suffering, grief, loneliness, and all kinds of other trials, we can know that others have faced the same things and God has brought them through.  That’s why more experienced believers are able to smile at us knowingly while we shudder and balk in the face of the unknown!  They’ve been there before and they know God will bring us through!

FACING THE UNKNOWN

Read Joshua 3

            Do you have a hard time making major decisions?  If so, you wouldn’t be alone!  A lot of people find themselves frozen up and unable to make big decisions.  I’ve talked to so many young people who are trying to decide whether to propose marriage or accept a proposal of marriage.  They ask all kinds of questions.  “How do I know this is the right person?  What if he or she changes after we get married?  What if I haven’t given myself enough time to meet different people?”  Then there are the couples who made the decision to get married but can’t seem to make the decision to start a family!  They too have all kinds of reasons for not making the decision.  “We’re not making enough money right now and if she got pregnant we’d really be in trouble!  The economy is so bad; we’re just waiting for it to get better.  We don’t know if we’re going to be good parents.  How do we know if it’s the right time?”

            These are major decisions.  The people who stand on the edge of making such decisions often have a very difficult time.  It’s the same whenever there is a major change in a person’s life.  My own twins, Anna and Mary are graduating from high school next week.  They have big decisions to make.  College?  Which college?  What courses?  Should I just work for a year?  Then there are young adults who are trying to decide whether to move out on their own.  “Can I really afford this?  What if I lose my job?  Maybe I should stay at home and try to save more money?  What if I get lonely?”  All of these situations have something in common.  In every case a person is standing on the brink of the unknown.  They have lived their lives up to this point but now they are looking ahead into something they don’t know and cannot see.  It is difficult because we want to know what lies ahead.  We don’t like the feeling of being out of control.  We would like to be able to set the boundaries of the future so we won’t be surprised.  It’s a lot easier if we can know what to expect.

            In Joshua 3 we find the Israelites in just such a situation.  Except for Joshua and Caleb, all this generation knew was wandering in the wilderness.  None of them was over sixty years of age and all of those forty or less had been born during the wilderness trek.  That was the only life they knew!  Now they stood on the banks of the Jordan River facing the Promised Land.  The river was at its flood stage and there was no bridge and there were no boats.  The massively walled city of Jericho stood opposite them across the river.  How would they ever conquer Jericho?  And even if they did, it was only the first of many great cities in Canaan.

            Consider the kind of temptation that had to be going through the minds of the Hebrews as they stood on the banks of that river.  They had never gone this way before.  They had been all over the Sinai Peninsula but they had never crossed over the Jordan.  Some of the people may have thought, “Look!  All my life I’ve been a wandering nomad in the desert.  I’m used to it.  Why don’t we just keep living the way we’ve been living all this time?”  Some may have felt they had gone far enough.  “This land east of the Jordan is good land.  It’s good enough for us.  Why don’t we just stay right here and call it good?”  I’m sure many of them had great fears in their minds and in their hearts.  I’m sure there were many who balked at Joshua’s command to cross the river.  Perhaps doing something great for God was the very last thing on their minds!

            When I think about the Israelites in this way I can’t help but notice how I resemble them.  In fact, there are probably many of us who resemble them in some ways.  We face the unknown and realize we have never gone this way before.  It’s something different and new and we don’t know what to expect.  We are asked to do new things in the church and we’re filled with anxiety because we’ve never done anything like that.  We keep coming to church and hearing new things in the sermons and Bible studies and sometimes we just don’t know what to do with it all.  Some of us have grown rather comfortable in our lives and don’t really want to be stretched too much.  Some of us, like the Hebrews, may be tempted to just stay with what we know, with what is familiar, and hesitate to step into the unknown.

            If the people of Israel would take a moment to think about their situation they would discover that as they stood on the brink of the unknown, they had both comfort and direction from God to help them on their way.  The same is true for us, as we will see.  Even as we face the anxieties of the unknown, we can still see God and the encouragement he has for us!

(To be continued…)

RAHAB'S JUSTIFYING FAITH

Joshua 2 (If you haven’t read it lately it would help to read it now!)

           

            We know Rahab’s faith was authentic because it resulted in action.  She was risking her life by hiding, protecting, and sending out the Hebrew spies.  She was betraying her king and her own people.  She had become a believer in the God of Israel and she cast her lot with them.  True faith always results in action.  True faith is costly faith!  She could have been like so many people in our day.  She could have claimed to believe while declining to get involved.  But her faith was validated by the fact that she put it into action.  “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?” (James 2:25).  James observes that Rahab was considered righteous for what she did!  Faith takes action!

 

            We can see Rahab’s faith was genuine because it was a faith that resulted in obedience.  True faith is always accompanied by obedience.  When the men left Rahab they told her they could only be responsible for her safety if she hung the scarlet cord in her window.  It would be a sign on the day of battle and she and her family would be protected.  Such action would, of course, be a rather obvious identification of her home to anyone who was looking.  Instead of declining to take the risk of discovery Rahab obeyed and hung the cord immediately after their departure.  Her obedience validated her faith.  “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient” (Hebrews 11:31).

 
            Rahab’s faith was a faith which changed her entire life.  She went from being an idol worshiper to a worshiper of Jehovah.  She went from being a prostitute to being a princess, the wife of a Hebrew prince.  She was saved from the destruction of Jericho and was brought into the nation of Israel.  According to Matthew 1:5 she married Salmon, the son of Nahshon.  Nahshon was a prince of Judah (see Numbers 1:7).  Thus, Rahab became a princess of the royal tribe of Judah.  Matthew’s genealogy says Rahab became the mother of Boaz (who married Ruth) and the great-great-grandmother of David.  This genealogy in Matthew is the genealogy of Jesus.  Rahab’s faith changed her life!  She was raised from prostitution to being a forbear of the Messiah!
 

            Rahab’s faith was a faith that paralleled New Testament faith.  How do we define faith?  “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).  She had faith in her hope for a safe deliverance.  Her faith was in God.  She believed what she could not see.  She had not seen all of the works of God on behalf of Israel but she believed them and put her trust in a God she had not seen and entrusted her life to his care.

           
            When we make confession of our faith it needs to look like Rahab’s.  When we profess our faith in Christ we say that we believe in the one, true God who is Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament.  We say we put our trust in his word and in his deeds.  And after making profession of our faith in God we follow up just as Rahab did.  Our faith must be a faith of action.  It does no good to simply state that we believe something unless we take action that demonstrates our faith.  The demonstration of our faith is obedience.  Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.”  True faith results in a changed life.  If we make profession of faith and then see no change in our lives then our profession is empty!  How are our lives being changed?  Do we look at sin differently?  Do we see how our old lives were empty and marked by sin?  Do we find in ourselves a desire to do the things God wants us to do?  Do we want to bring glory to God and make the name of Jesus famous by living lives of righteousness?

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

Joshua 2

(It would really help to read Joshua 2 first!)

            When we take the time to stop and look carefully at what God did in this situation we come away astonished.  There is so much that goes on behind-the-scenes that we miss it if we just fly through the story.  For example, God worked on behalf of the spies before they ever went into Jericho.  Think how he prepared the heart of Rahab.  By Rahab’s own testimony we know that she had heard all about what God had done on behalf of the Hebrews.  She heard how God dried up the Red Sea for his people.  She heard about the great victory the Israelites won over the mighty princes east of the Jordan.  Perhaps the most amazing thing of all was that Rahab had a warm heart toward the Hebrews.  She could have been very angry and upset about what was happening and she could have lashed out and betrayed the spies.  Somehow, Rahab came to understand that Jehovah was giving the land of Canaan to these people.  How would all of that have happened unless the Lord was working in her heart, preparing her to see what was really happening and help the representatives of Israel?  This is the providence of God!

            Think how God directed the spies to the woman whose heart he had prepared.  These men did not know Jericho.  Most scholars estimate that there were somewhere around 1,500 people living in Jericho at the time.  The spies didn’t know one of them!  They had no contact person.  Maybe they thought if they went to the prostitute’s house they would be less obvious?  But how would they find it?  If they had to ask where the prostitute lived they would give themselves away as out-of-towners.  So I really doubt they did that.  Somehow God worked it out so the spies were brought to Rahab’s house.  This is the providence of God!

            Then think how God protected the spies from the king.  Obviously, the king of Jericho had his own lookouts on the job.  He already knew Israelite spies had crossed the river and were in his city.  He even knew they had gone to Rahab’s house!  (“Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” v. 3)  So even though the Israelites had been watched from the time they crossed the river to the time they entered Rahab’s house, God kept them from being captured.  He worked in Rahab’s heart and prompted her to hide the men instead of handing them over.  And the thing I find most amazing is that God caused the king’s officers to believe Rahab even though they knew the spies had gone into her house!  This is God’s providence!

            Finally, God worked to bring the spies home safely.  Rahab let the men down through a window that opened out to the city wall.  They used a rope to climb down to the ground.  How easy it would have been for a guard or just a passing citizen to see these two men as they rappelled down the wall!  Once on the ground they went into the hills and hid while all the king’s horses and all the king’s men searched for them.  God prevented the army from finding his men. This is the providence of God!

            Again, unless we stop and think about a passage like this we will miss important things like the providence of God at work behind the scenes!  Then, we need to apply what we learn to our own lives!  God’s providence is always at work, all the time, everywhere!  In other words, God’s providence is always working for us as well!  We need to realize God is working in every situation in our lives.  No matter how difficult things seem to be or how dark the situation may appear, God is at work!  He is at work in our hearts in just the same way as he was at work in the heart of Rahab.  Not only is he working in our hearts but he is working in the hearts of all the other people involved in our situations as well.  (Sometimes he is hardening their hearts just as he hardened the heart of Pharaoh against Moses and the Israelites!)  Just as God guided and protected the spies, so he guides and protects us.  The thing we need to keep in mind is that God works his providence to accomplish his will and his purposes, not ours!  But we need not ever be afraid because we know that he has already gone on before us.  We know that God causes all things to work out for our good even when we cannot see him at work or see the good that will come of it!