God reminds His people that He is faithful. They can trust Him to fulfill His promises. So can we.
God reminds His people that He is faithful. They can trust Him to fulfill His promises. So can we.
Advent Day 11, The River and the Wall.
God regularly expresses his presence and purpose in strange, yet perfect ways.
We witness this reality all throughout the Bible.
God tells Noah to build a mark.
God invites Abraham to travel without giving him a destination.
In today's episode, we'll visit Joshua and the strange, yet perfect encounters and events that shape both his life and the lives of the Israelites.
After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, God's people behold the river bordering the Promised Land.
It is harvest season.
The Jordan River thunders.
The Jordan River roars.
The Jordan River overflows and washes out the banks.
This is the water they are supposed to pass through?
God with us.
On the banks of the Jordan River, Joshua invites the people to come and listen to the words of the Lord.
And Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.
And Joshua said, here is how you shall know that the living God is among you.
Joshua 3, verse 9.
This passage repeats, and Joshua said, and Joshua said, come here and listen.
And Joshua said, here is how you shall know.
What effect does the repetition have on how you imagine Joshua interacting with the people?
Who first invited you to come and listen to the words of the Lord?
The people listen.
The people obey.
When the priests' feet touch the waters of the Jordan, the waters pile up.
The people experience God with us as they walk through the river on dry ground.
Dry ground from a flooded plain.
Waters separated from the earth.
Impossible.
Inconceivable.
But not for God.
The people beholder city.
Tightly shut.
Its walls rise and rise, crowding out the sky.
This is the city they are supposed to overthrow?
God with us.
With the city's walls as a backdrop, Joshua invites the people to come and receive instruction from the Lord.
And the Lord said to Joshua, see I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor.
You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once.
Thus shall you do for six days.
Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.
On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.
Joshua 6:2-5.
Why do you think God gave these instructions?
And how do you think the people received the instructions?
How would you have received them?
The people listen.
The people obey, and the city's walls fall flat.
God with us, in a stunning, only God could have done this kind of way.
Before the crossing of a river, the demolition of a city, God speaks with Joshua.
God reassures Joshua.
Joshua is the right person in the right place at the right time.
The Lord said to Joshua, today 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.
Joshua 3, verse 7.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
How or why would these words have reassured, comforted, or given confidence to Joshua?
God also gives the next generation of Israelites a location and a place by which to remember him.
The Jordan River re-enacts the Red Sea.
Why?
So that the next generation might see God's mighty power and faithful love.
Why is it important for us to remember God's past faithfulness while anticipating the same faithfulness in the present?
God also tells the people to record their crossing through the water with memorial stones.
These stones serve as a sign.
God with us, the stones cry out.
The sign, like Noah's rainbow, isn't for the Israelites or their generation alone.
If anyone asks about the stones, the people are to tell of God's faithful love and unmasked power.
What events or moments in your life stand out as some of your memorial stones?
And how do they help you remember and trust in God?
God accomplishes his purposes in strange yet perfect ways.
God demonstrates this reality most fully and vividly with the birth of his son, Jesus.
Jesus closed in flesh that God had visible and seen.
God with us.
Jesus performs miracles and wonders only attributable to God.
At the same time, he continues the strange yet perfect method God chose at the beginning.
God works with and through humans.
Jesus is both God and man.
Why is it good news to you that God works in strange yet perfect ways to accomplish his purposes?
God with us.
God is not distant but near.
He promises and assures before he commands.
What do his promises and assurances indicate about our God?
Well, for one thing, God desires relationships with his people.
God doesn't call us just warriors.
He calls us sons and daughters.
And what is it that God commands us to do as his children?
To invite people to come and listen to God's words.
To remember and tell God's story.
To hope and wait and to love deeply.
That's what our God does.
And that's what he desires us to do.
We sometimes set God's instructions and commands before his promises instead of the other way around.
What can happen when we get his commands and his promises out of order?
Which of God's promises do you need to remember this Advent and Christmas season?
Write them down and revisit them every day this week.
Heavenly Father, Your strange yet perfect acts remind us of Your presence and purpose.
While we may not see a river split in two or a city collapsed by a shout, You still invite us to come, listen, and believe You are who You say You are.
You invite us to tell the world who You are.
What a thought.
You could do anything, and yet You choose us.
What a strange thing.
But what a perfect thing too.
Your Son, born as a baby, God with us, confirms You delight in the strange and in the perfect.
Thank You for him.
Amen.