Joshua 3:9-17

People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.  Have you heard that before?

I think it’s true… responsible (and successful) people make plans… but how does that work in the context of faith in God?

What’s the balance between personal responsibility and trusting that God will provide?

Transcript

Tempo: 120.0

SPEAKER_00 0:21

People don't plan to fail. They fail to plan. Have you heard that before? You know, I think that's true. I think that successful people, responsible people, make plans. And as a result, their lives are generally better than if they hadn't. But how does that work in relationship with faith in God? What's the balance there between taking personal responsibility, taking ownership of your own life, and trusting that God will provide? He'll provide resources, he'll provide direction and guidance, those kinds of things. How does all of that stuff kind of work out? Welcome and happy Friday to you. I'm glad that you're here. We're back in the Word together. And sometimes those questions are just good for us to ponder and hang on to as we think about our walk with Jesus. I'm going to go ahead and pray for us, but before I do that, I will just let you know that we're in Joshua chapter 3 today, verses 9 through 17. By the way, you can go to the website. There's a resource website called meetmeintheword.com, and on there there is a reading plan so you can know in advance kind of where we're at and sort of follow along that way. So take advantage of that and go ahead and do that. Let me pray for us and then we'll get into it together. Jesus, thank you so much for today. God thank you that it is a day that you have ordained to be. God would you help us to follow you in all that we do? We love you. Amen. So Joshua chapter three, starting at verse nine and going through verse seventeen. Joshua said to the Israelites, Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you, and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, Hivites, Perizites, Gergeshites, Amorites, and Jebusites. See, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe, and as soon as the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap. So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet, as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away at a town called Adam, in the vicinity of Zarathan, while the water flowing down to the sea of the Eraba, that is the Dead Sea, was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completely had completed the crossing on dry ground. Let's take a few moments here to just kind of appreciate the the text, this part of this of the story of what's going on. This miraculous crossing, the first thing kind of that I that I really notice is that it isn't about deliverance like it was when Moses led the nation out of Egypt and they went through the Red Sea in the story of the Exodus. That crossing was about escape. That crossing was about fleeing the nation that had oppressed them and moving on to the next thing. This one feels quite a bit different. It seems like it's intended to build trust, to bear witness to a promise that is about to be kept. And so we can even see that that it's there in verse 10. This is how you will know that the living God is among you. We see God here initiating, leading the people, and and that's kind of the foundation of this covenant relationship, that it's not necessarily born out of the people's desire or action. It really all starts with the Lord Himself leading and guiding not just the people to where they need to go, but in the context of the relationship itself. In that covenant relationship, God is clearly the one who is taking initiative throughout. The second piece that really jumps out to me, I don't know if it if it does for you, but the description there in verse 15 in particular, the description that emphasizes that this really is a miracle. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest, yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. And you know, sometimes we we read these stories, and for sure, they push our understanding of what is possible. And they, because they are a miracle, like the definition of a miracle is that it's outside the bounds of normal, it's outside the bounds of what we see on the day-to-day. So it is an exceptional kind of an event. And yet sometimes we can slip into maybe a desire to explain everything around us. This miracle is no exception to that. And a lot of different people have offered different explanations as to how this might have happened in a more natural kind of a way. And yet, if we come back to the text itself and we we just kind of let it speak, it doesn't seem as though it's like a regular event that got turned into something fantastical. To me, it seems like, no, they're they're making a point, you know, in the writing of this to say this was absolutely exceptional. And I think that makes the most sense to me because of the way that it would have spoken to the people of Israel as they moved in, the courage that it would have given them the understanding of their role in the context of what was about to take place. That moves me here into this last portion that I wanted to highlight from the text. That the priests and the Ark of the Covenant together remain in the middle of the riverbed, allowing everyone to pass through. They, right, the the priests, in this case, partner with God in taking the lead. As much as God is the one leading in this covenant relationship, the priests now are the kind of the conduits of that. They're the representatives of God. And as they participate in that, they seem to be partnering here with God. And that to me is a huge witness. It's a huge testimony to all of the people of Israel. And when you think about it that way, what an incredible witness to everyone who was walking through, right? They'd heard the stories of the Exodus, and now here they are walking through, knowing that battle awaited, knowing that giants remained in the land, that they really would need God's guidance and his power to help them on this quest to move into the land of Canaan. I wanted to just kind of slow this down a little bit and think about how this can apply to our lives, the so what of this story. And and we're just taking small portions here, and and I'm doing that intentionally to help us really just kind of appreciate what's what's all taking place and to consider it for ourselves. And so the question I I come back to for myself is this Am I slowing myself down enough to listen to God? Right? In verse 9, it starts off with that that whole idea, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. Before, and they're right on the brink. Before we move in, come here, listen to the words of the Lord your God. And they're about to take action. This isn't about just being in a place of of of being stopped. This is just paying attention, being tuned in to the Lord. And so come here, listen, listen to the words of the Lord your God. And sometimes in our society, in our fast-paced world, that can be a challenge. It can be hard for us to say, you know what, this is important. This is important enough for me to stop what I'm doing or to even plan ahead, right? And make sure that this is going to be a regular part of my life. And the second piece is really kind of tying back into what I was asking and talking about at the beginning of this episode, but I want to phrase it a little bit differently. Will I let God stand in the river and hold back the water for me? Will I let God stand in the river for me? And where I'm going with that, I don't mean that in a pretentious way like it could sound. I'm not in charge here, I'm not confused about that. But am I willing to truly let the Lord not only guide my path but make it happen? And you know, it is true. We we do need to be responsible, we do need to make plans, but in the context of our relationship with God, I think it's so critical that that not only do we not just like make our plans and then submit them to God for his blessing, but we're we're involved in that process, that planning process with him, surrender to him right from the very beginning. And I think that when we do that, just incredible things can happen in our lives. Are they always miraculous? No, of course not. But I think that when we let God lead, and we're still, you know, we're active in that conversation, but when we let him go and just pave the way through, it's so much different than when we try to do things on our own. Let me bring it back to our story of Joshua and the people. So I'm quite sure, actually, that the people in the nation of Israel, that there were people in there that had minds like an engineer, right? That they were quite brilliant, that they were able to come up with different solutions, they had that gift. I'm sure that they could have found a way to make crossing this river work, right? Maybe they could have tried at a different time of year. They could have just said, hey, we're gonna go into this into this land, the river's kind of high, we're gonna wait until, you know, until the the dry season when the flow will be a little bit less, it'll make it easier for us. They could have done that. They could have crossed at a different spot. They could have just taken a different route to go in there. Those were all real options. I'm just acknowledging that there was a human-driven way for them to enter the land of Canaan. And you know what? There is a very human way for us to do life, right? Most of us are very familiar with that. And yet when we when we go ahead of God or when we choose to just do things our way, we rob ourselves of that trust that can be built. And also the results tend to not be the things that God wants for us. And then we wonder why we feel empty, we wonder why we're disappointed, we wonder why things aren't the way that they really ought to be. And don't overhear this. This isn't me saying, follow God's way and your life will be a breeze. That's that's not true at all. But it will be rich, it will be fulfilling. You will have the ability to lay your your head down at night and just be at rest in your soul. You will have that life where where you feel clean and good and connected to God. Something for you to think about. Let me pray for us. Jesus, we love you and we want to follow you and and let you do the things that only you can do. God, show us our part in that process, but help us to not run ahead or to the right or to the left. Help us to follow you. We ask this in your name. Amen.