Category Archives: Joshua

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Ready, Fire, Aim

Seek God First

SYNOPSIS: Joshua 9 tells the story of an ill-advised peace treaty with the Gibeonites. Why was it such a bad thing? As the text says, twice: “But they didn’t ask God about it.” Joshua’s failure to seek God first should serve as a cautionary tale as you make your decisions today. Even in small, seemingly insignificant ones, be innocent of hastiness. As Jesus would say, in all matters, large and small, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” May you always, always say, “I will ask God first!”

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 9:14-16

The men of Israel looked the Gibeonites over and accepted the evidence [that they came from a long distance away]. But they didn’t ask God about it. They examined their food and it appeared old, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety, and the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath. Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually lived nearby!

“But they didn’t ask God about it.” No matter how overwhelming the evidence, no matter how good the idea, not matter how much something makes sense, we dishonor God and in the long run, if not the short term, hurt ourselves when we leave God out of the picture.

In this case, Joshua and his leaders made a hasty decision about a nation-tribe that lived in the land of Canaan, the Gibeonites. The Lord had instructed the Israelites, in order to possess the land, to dispossess the peoples who lived there. They should have destroyed the Gibeonites according to God’s orders, but the Gibeonites deceived Joshua’s leadership team into thinking they were not a part of those city-states that were devoted to destruction.

Joshua’s mistake was in assuming! In the spiritual realm, assuming pre-decides the will of God; it presumes. The sin of presumption is a big deal in the Old Testament, and the outcome of this sin is particularly destructive to the kingdom life in Israel. Had Joshua’s team asked God for his wisdom in the matter on the front side, the leaders would have been spared this embarrassing disobedience on the backside.

Interestingly, even after discovering that the Gibeonites had deceived Israel into making this peace treaty, Joshua nevertheless honored the treaty he had just made with them. Even though it had been made under false pretenses, Joshua was not guilt free in this matter. He had not consulted the Lord. I suspect Joshua’s attitude was a precursor to what the psalmist spoke of in Psalm 15, when he spoke of those who walked blamelessly in God’s sight. Among the characteristics of such people,

They keep their promises even when it hurts. (Psalm 15:4)

Now by all rights, Joshua could have broken the treaty he had just made and killed them—but their submissive posture and willingness to take on the faith commands of the Israelite community spared them from destruction. Joshua kept his oath, even though it hurt.

Fast forward to your life. Do you assume God’s will and fail to seek his input in your daily decisions, both great and small. Do you presume upon God? Are you guilty of a ready, fire, aim approach to living out your faith in the world where God has asked you to represent him? This is so easy to do, and we probably commit Joshua’s sin more often than we think.

Today, may Joshua’s failure to ask God first serve as a cautionary tale as you make decisions. Even in small, seemingly insignificant ones, be innocent of hastiness. Seek God first in all matters, large and small. And when you are ready to move forward in a matter, follow the correct protocol: ready, AIM, fire. May you always, always say, “I will seek the Lord first!”

Hmmm…sounds like something to which the Founder of our faith has called us: seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Be a seek first person!

Going Deeper: What is on your to do list today? What is on the drawing board for your future? Have you asked God first? Have you sought his input before you move a step forward? If not, do it. If you have, keep doing it!

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Don’t Sacrifice Future Blessings For Temporal Fixes

Trust and Obey, For There's No Other Way

SYNOPSIS: God desires to bless us—he really does. But there is a path to blessing that we must follow. The path is against the grain of human reasoning and self-gratification, but it is the one and only path that God has chosen for his people to walk. What is that path? It is to ruthlessly truth and completely obey God! Walk it, my friend! It always leads to untold blessing! And on that path, don’t sacrifice a future of promised blessing that arrives only through trust and obedience for quick but temporal fixes that will end up destroying you.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 8:2

You will destroy Ai this time as you destroyed Jericho and its king. And this time, you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves.

God told Israel to completely destroy Jericho—an evil city that was a part of an exceedingly evil culture—which happened to stand directly in the way as Israel entered the Promised Land. It was the first city of conquest, and as such, it was the first-fruits of sorts—the initial battle of the many battles to come in their conquest of Canaan. These first-fruits belong to God—in this case, and in every case. God says, “Give me the best (that is, the first part), then I will give you the rest. This is how you will honor me and keep me first in your life.” Thus with Jericho, the spoils of the battle were to be totally devoted to the Lord by totally annihilating this evil city and everything in it.

Yet one man, Achan, secretly, selfishly, and in willful disregard to what God has just commanded, took some plunder for himself (Joshua 7:20-21), and as a result of his individual disobedience, national disgrace settled upon Israel. The Israelites lost the next battle—one they should have easily won—and scores of warriors died. Because of the sin of one man, the whole nation suffered. Sound familiar? That is exactly what happened when Adam sinned,

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12)

When you read the story of Achan’s punishment—and the brutality of his entire family being executed for his sin—and you are both feeling sorry for them and miffed that God overreacted, keep in mind that thousands of Israelites were mourning the deaths of their warrior sons who had been killed in battled because of this one man’s selfish act. That will put the harsh consequences of disobedience placed upon Achan, along with his entire family, into a sobering but more understandable light.

The take-away from this story, and it is a sad one, is that Achan could have had everything his heart desired had he just followed the Lord’s commands. As we see in this next battle, the soldiers were free to take the plunder.

When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. (Joshua 8:24-27)

Achan made the mistake we often make: We sacrifice a future of promised blessing that arrives only through trust and obedience for quick but temporal fixes that will end up destroying us. Call it what you will—delayed gratification, long-range planning, ruthless trust—waiting upon God in faith and obedience is the job of the Christian. And scripture is replete with promises for those who do:

No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. (Psalm 25:3)

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. (Psalm 37:4-5)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33)

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

God desires to bless us—he really does. But there is a path to blessing that we must follow. The path is against the grain of human reasoning and self-gratification, but it is the one and only path that God has chosen for his people to walk.

Walk it, my friend! It always leads to untold blessing!

Going Deeper: Here is a prayer I would invite you to join me in lifting to the Lord: “Dear Father, would I have been an Achan if I were in his place? Would I have given into temptation and disobeyed you? Am I doing that now in some area of my life? Oh Lord, I don’t even want an answer to that—I just want you to purge me of any disobedience and faithlessness. I want to be pleasing to you. I don’t want to bring shame and injury upon my family or my church. I want to partake of the amazing blessings that come by trust and obedience. I want to be a part of the Joshua crowd, not the Achan clan. Lord, cleanse me and set my feet on solid ground. Lead me in the way everlasting. Establish my coming and my going so that I am completely devoted and pleasing to you!”

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Painful Lessons

Private Actions Affect Public Relationships

SYNOPSIS: Does God still punish a community of faith when there is sin in the camp like he did when the whole nation of Israel suffered for the sin of one man, Achan? Of course, Israel was unique in that it was a theocracy, and we don’t live under that system today in our pluralistic democracy. So what was applied to Israel may not be exactly applied in our nation—although I suspect there is still a divine principle at play. Yet each of us does live in theocratic community if we belong to a family or a church. And in that sense, we need to give careful thought as to how our individual behavior might affect those who share life with us in the community. Here’s the deal: My private actions affect my public relationships.

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 7:11-13

The Lord replied to Joshua, “Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings. That is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction. Get up! Command the people to purify themselves in preparation for tomorrow. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Hidden among you, O Israel, are things set apart for the Lord. You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you.

Israel had just experienced the extreme thrill of defeating the great walled city of Jericho. It was an impenetrable fortress by ancient standards, but it collapsed like a house of cards before the Lord’s people. Then, just days later in the next battle, Israel was unexpectedly stunned at the fierce resistance of the small band of fighters at a little village called Ai. In a matter of hours, God’s people went from the sublime to the ridiculous. Ai was a relatively small and defenseless city of no account, yet its defenders fought for their very existence against the superior Israelite army—and Ai punched Israel in the mouth. Thirty-six of Israel’s fighting men were immediately killed in battle, and the rout was on. Israel was stunned, humiliated and disheartened.

All because of the sin of one man—Achan!

No matter how many times we moderns read the ancient story of the Israelites, we run across stories like this, Achan’s sin, and are left shaking our heads in wonderment—and not in the positive sense of wonderment. This is not a warm, fuzzy and inspiring story. And there are many like it with which we must contend as we journey through the Old Testament.

When we read these stories—and admittedly, we don’t have the backstory in every case—we are struck with a bad case of the fear of the Lord. There is no denying the anxiety we feel over his fierce holiness along with his swift and sweeping judgment against human violation of that holiness, for if this happened because of one sin, we don’t stand a chance before God for our many sins.

Furthermore, the story in Joshua 7 is not just a one off; there have been plenty. To name a few, we have witnessed the death of Nadab and Abihu for offering unholy fire on the altar (Leviticus 10), the execution of a blasphemer who cursed God’s name during a fight (Leviticus 24:10-23), the gruesome killing of a man who brought a Moabite woman into his tent to have sex with her—in broad daylight (Numbers 25), and now the stoning of a young man named Achan, along with his entire family, because he kept some of the expensive plunder from the battle of Jericho for himself.

Not that we would condone any of these sins—nobody who truly follows the Lord would justify any of these deliberate violations of God’s commands. Even still, the immediacy and severity of the punishment is hard to swallow for people like us who live at a time where consequences for actions seem to be decreasingly certain. So we read stories like this, and if we do anything with them at all, we simply toss them into the “Painful Lessons” file.

One of those painful lessons here is the corporate-ness of sin. In our culture, we worship individualism. In fact, the early heroes who built our nation are praised for their rugged individualism. We are proud of that and happen to believe that it is the superior way to live. While we nod our heads in agreement that whole community is important, we tend to see the parts as more important than the whole; the many are servant to the one. What child at school hasn’t whined that the whole class was punished for the actions of one student? To our western mindset, that is the height of unfairness.

Yet while we embrace the idea of unity, and the blessings that derive from it, why would we not accept the opposite? Why should we be surprised when the whole community suffers because an individual violates its values? If God favors corporate unity (Psalm 133:1-3), why would he not lift his favor from the community when sin invades it through an individual member? It cuts both ways—the whole is blessed when the parts are right; the whole is cursed when the parts are wrong.

I suspect you are still not convinced. I don’t like it either. But we have been so steeped in a cultural mindset of individualism that we simply cannot, or will not embrace God’s response to community when life in the community goes sideways. Of course, Israel was unique in that it was a theocracy, and we don’t live under that system today in our pluralistic democracy. So what was applied to Israel may not be applied to the same degree in our nation—although I suspect there is still a divine principle at play.

Yet each of us does live in theocratic community if we belong to a family or small group or ministry team or church. And in that sense, we need to give careful thought as to how our individual behavior might affect those who share life with us in the community. And while we don’t suffer the same degree of punishment that Achan and his family suffered, we can—and should—learn the painful lesson of Achan: My private actions affect my public relationships.

I love painful lessons, said no one ever—but thank God for them.

Going Deeper: Take a moment to prayerfully consider how your private attitudes, habits and actions affect your public relationships.

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Make Jesus Famous

Your One and Only Job

SYNOPSIS: Never in the history of Christianity have we had so many famous pastors—and those wanting to become famous—as we do now. But the true spiritual leader, the one with whom God is pleased, has one job and one job only: to make Jesus famous! And if Jesus wants to make the leader famous, well, that is Jesus’ business.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 6:27

So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

With the advent of television—and all the media technologies that followed—came the rise of the celebrity preacher. Never in the history of Christianity have we had so many famous pastors—and those wanting to become famous—as we do now. If you’re a spiritual leader and you aren’t hawking several books you have authored, beaming your mug to adoring congregants in a muli-site campus, tweeting to your six figure Twitter followers and getting quoted by the media on the issue du jour, you ain’t all that much.

Of course, media technologies now allow us to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world in unprecedented ways—and that is a great thing. But inherent in this ability to communicate to the masses is the danger of showcasing ourselves. The god of fame is lurking; the seduction of celebrity has never being stronger in the Christian world than it is right now—and that’s not a great thing!

The true spiritual leader, the one with whom God is well pleased, has one job and one job only: to make Jesus famous! And if Jesus wants to make the leader famous, well, that is Jesus’ business. Joshua was a leader that God decided to make famous. Joshua 2:7 and 4:14 says,

The Lord told Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses.” …That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites, and for the rest of his life they revered him as much as they had revered Moses.

And of course, our featured verse today says, “God was with Joshua. He became famous all over the land.” (The Message) How refreshing! In today’s culture of celebrity where leaders do everything they can to make themselves famous, here is a guy who didn’t have to. God did it. And there is no better PR firm that the Holy Trinity!

What makes a leader great and opens the door to his or her fame? Some would say charisma is the key. Others might say it’s a combination of skill, intellect and the ability to inspire others to accomplish a compelling mission. Then there are those who would argue that not only are charisma and persuasion necessary, but it’s also a matter of being the right person in the right place at the right time.

I wouldn’t argue with any of those ideas. But above all else I would argue that what makes a leader a great and fame-worthy leader is simply God’s touch upon his or her life. Where God makes a man or woman great in the eyes of the people, there you have the makings of a leader who is one for the ages. Joshua was just such a leader.

In Joshua, you find true success! Not that he leveraged his considerable talents, sharp intellect, political capital and magnanimous personality to lead the people to victory, but that God made him great in the eyes of the people. Never did Joshua take any credit for himself in the victories and miracles that God performed. As Moses had been a humble leader, so too was Joshua. Like his predecessor, he was a true servant of God and of the Israelites. He served at God’s pleasure and recognized that his success came only by God’s power and grace. And it was God who made Joshua great before all Israel.

That’s the kind of leader I want to be. I want to be a great leader because of the touch of God on my life; because of the work that he does in, for and through me. If there is anything that makes me worth following, may it be because of what God has done. What I do through my own gifts, personality and personal determination will, at best, quickly fade. But what God does through me will last for all eternity, and best of all, bring all the glory to the God who has equipped me to lead.

What about you? Do you desire to be a leader—a person of influence in your home, school, business or some other arena? You might feel unqualified and unworthy. Part of you may want to let someone else lead; someone more qualified, smarter, holier, better than you. But it could be that God has placed in you the kinds of gifts, talents, brainpower and favor that he wants to use in leading people to extend his Kingdom in this world.

If God is calling you to leadership, submit your life to him. Then, if he chooses, let God make you great in the eyes of those you would lead.

Going Deeper: When you evaluate the spiritual leader whom God has placed over your life, make sure this is the chief indicator of their greatness: their consuming passion is to make Jesus famous. If it isn’t, seriously pray for that leader. If it is, thank God for them, and do everything you can to affirm their leadership.

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The One Thing You Will Never Regret

Put Your Confidence in God

SYNOPSIS: Whenever you step forward in faith, God will do the rest: rivers will part, dry land will appear, walls will fall, enemies will flee, the sun will stand still, and the Land of Promise will become your Land of Possession. You will never regret putting your trust in the Lord.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 5:1

When all the Amorite kings …and all the Canaanite kings…heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with fear because of them.

Contrast this to the story in Numbers 13-14 when the 12 spies returned from surveying Canaan. Ten of them brought a negative report, and it was the people of Israel who lost heart and were paralyzed with fear.

But the ten spies said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel. They said, “We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.” The whole community was in an uproar, wailing all night long. All the People of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The entire community was in on it: “Why didn’t we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don’t we just head back to Egypt? And right now!” Soon they were all saying it to one another: “Let’s pick a new leader; let’s head back to Egypt.” (Numbers 13:31-14:4, MSG)

What a lost opportunity—if only they had remained faithful to God and confident in his call, the same story that the Israelites experienced in Joshua 5 would have been theirs. That same race of giants, the Nephilim, that made the Israelites feel like grasshoppers were now the ones who were feeling small:

Their hearts sank; the courage drained out of them just thinking about the People of Israel. (Joshua 5:1, MSG)

Joshua 5 could have occurred forty years earlier and the people Moses led out of Egypt would have entered their Promised Land. Instead, they forfeited the promises of God for death in the wilderness because of fear and disobedience. Untold numbers of people died over four decades with the most disheartening words in the library of human language on their lips: if only. What might have been had they just trusted the God who had led them.

Fortunately, the next generation learned a very difficult lesson at their parent’s expense. They witnessed the unbelief of their fathers and mothers, and the harsh consequences of shrinking back in fear, and they determined that while there might be other sins, that particular one would not be theirs. They stepped forward in faith, and behold, God did the rest: rivers parted, dry land appeared, walls fell, enemies fled, the sun stood still, and the Land of Promise became the Land of Possession.

No one has ever regretted trusting God. Obedience to the call of the Lord has never left a person disappointed. No one who has followed God has ever been abandoned by God. No one who stepped out to put God’s promises to the test has ever died with “what might have been if I had just NOT trusted God so much” on their lips. As the prophet said in Jeremiah 17:7-8,

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

Trust God completely, and you will live a full life of no regrets!

Going Deeper: Trust God! Whatever is before you today, walk into it with confidence. If you are obeying God, he is not only with you, he is before you.

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The Making of a Leader

Let God Touch Your Life

SYNOPSIS: What a makes a leader great? Some would say charisma is the key. Others might say it’s a combination of skill, intellect and the ability to inspire others to accomplish the mission. Then there are those who would argue that not only are charisma and persuasion necessary, but it’s a matter of also being the right person in the right place at the right time. I wouldn’t argue with any of those ideas. But first and foremost I would argue that what makes a leader a great leader is simply God’s touch upon his or her life.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 4:14

That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites, and for the rest of his life they revered him as much as they had revered Moses. ”

What a makes a leader great? Some would say charisma is the key. Others might say it’s a combination of skill, intellect and the ability to inspire others to accomplish the mission. Then there are those who would argue that not only are charisma and persuasion necessary, but it’s a matter of also being the right person in the right place at the right time.

I wouldn’t argue with any of those ideas. But first and foremost I would argue that what makes a leader a great leader is simply God’s touch upon his or her life. Or at least that’s what should be the defining factor in great leadership. Where God makes a man or woman great in the eyes of the people, there you have the makings of a leader who is one for the ages. Joshua was just such a leader.

In Joshua, you find true success! Not that he leveraged his considerable talents, sharp intellect, political capital and magnanimous personality to lead the people to victory, but that God made him great in the eyes of the people. Never did Joshua take any credit for himself in the victories and miracles that God performed. As Moses had been a humble leader, so too was Joshua. Like his predecessor, he was a true servant of God and priestly guide of the Israelites. He served at God’s pleasure and recognized that his success came only by God’s power and grace. And God made Joshua great before all Israel. Notice the backstory to the verse I selected for today’s reading; here is Joshua 2:7 in combination with Joshua 4:14:

The Lord told Joshua, ‘Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses’…. That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites, and for the rest of his life they revered him as much as they had revered Moses.

That’s the kind of leader I want to be. I want to be a great leader because of God’s touch on my life; because of the work that he does in, for and through me. If there is anything that makes me worth following, may it be because of what God has done. What I do through my own gifts, personality and personal determination will, at best, quickly fade. But what God does through me will last for all eternity, and best of all, bring all the glory to the God who has equipped me to lead.

What about you? Do you desire to be a leader? You might feel unqualified and unworthy. Part of you may want to let someone else lead; someone more qualified, smarter, holier, better than you. But it could be that God has placed in you the kinds of gifts, talents, brainpower, and favor that he wants to use in leading people to extend his Kingdom in this world.

If God is calling you to leadership, submit your life to him. Then let God make you great in the eyes of those you would lead.

Going Deeper: When you think of the advancement of God’s kingdom over the millennia, it is amazing how many times this saying has been true of its leaders: “God didn’t call the qualified, He qualified the called.” Maybe he is wanting to qualify you—he is still looking for a few good men…and women!

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Faith Makes Things Possible, Not Easy

Step Out!

SYNOPSIS: Step out in faith! Wherever God calls you to walk, there he is, waiting for you to show up. Faith believes that, faith generates the courage to act, and faith empowers the steps that will take you where God calls you to go. That is why God always calls his people to steps of faith. It is simply the law of the Kingdom. Expressing faith in the spiritual realm is akin to inhaling oxygen in the physical realm. That is just the way God operates. So get ready to walk the walk of faith today!

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 3:8,13

Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’ … 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.

In matters great and small, God always calls his people to steps of faith. It is simply the law of the Kingdom. Expressing faith in the spiritual realm is akin to inhaling oxygen in the physical realm. That is just the way God operates. In fact, so fundamental to our relationship with God is faith that the writer of Hebrews explains,

No one can please God without faith, for whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 TEV)

In this case, the Israelites needed to cross the Jordan River to take passion of the land that God had promised to give them. Furthermore, the river was at flood stage. Interestingly, Promised Lands never mean lack of problems, challenges, obstacles and otherwise “impossible” situations.

Now if God had helped the Israelites all along the way through their forty years in the wilderness, he would have a plan for them this time, too. And he did! So what was the Divine plan? Have the priest carry the Ark of the Covenant and step out into the river—remember, it’s a swirling torrent at flood stage—and as soon as they do, God will dam the flooding Jordan upriver and two million Israelites will walk across on dry land. Right!

Of course, they obeyed, God did what he said he would do, and the Israelites crossed on dry ground. We get to read ahead in the story, so no big deal, right! But think of it from their perspective—especially the priests. This was a seriously risky step God was asking them to take.

Now since without faith it is impossible to please God, he will make sure we, too, have plenty of opportunities to express it—and on some occasions, that will mean stepping into our own Jordan at flood stage. And like the Israelites, we will have to take that step without the perspective already knowing the end of the story? So what can we learn from them about those steps of faith? Two things to keep in mind:

First, God already knows the end of the story, even though we don’t. We only see the next step—which often looks scary and impossible. God sees the rest of the road ahead, and he will never ask of us a step that will harm us, but only that which will strengthen our confidence in his care and competence. Furthermore, while it seems we are taking a step into thin air, God’s track record of faithfulness is to build the highway of faith under our feet, albeit one step at a time. So go ahead—take the step!

Second, God’s purpose in our steps of faith is always to bring greater glory to himself—through us. Notice what Joshua said to the Israelites at the end of the story in Joshua 4:20-24—after they had, indeed, walked across the raging Jordan during flood stage on dry ground,

And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Faith makes things possible, not easy! Steps of faith from your perspective will never be comfortable. But you can trust God, who best work comes as you take those steps. And while he does the impossible and he brings glory to himself, he is giving you an enduring testimony. Best of all, when you step into your Jordan, the very stuff that is necessary to pleasing God—faith—is dramatically increased in your life.

So go ahead—take that step!

Going Deeper: Are you being called to take a step of faith? Remember, God is already waiting where you are walking.