S118P14 – Loaded statements: Joshua
Jos. 3:9-11
So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” 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: Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.”
Before Joshua spoke to the people, the Lord spoke to Joshua. God told him that he would be used in a mighty way, and that mighty way would not be something completely new. The plan God had for him would be reminiscent of another great figure and another great act of deliverance that these people surely would have known. God guaranteed his presence with Joshua by saying that it would be just like his presence with Moses. Yes, waters would part, and the people would be delivered, even if not in exactly the same way. Although the people might not have known these words of God to Joshua, the words of Joshua himself here certainly make the allusion.
The crossing of the Jordan river was a moment. When the words of Joshua here manifested themselves into action, the scene was rather compelling. Joshua told them that the waters would stop at the presence of the priests’ feet, and it did. He told them that the waters would stand like a heap, and they did. Joshua had painted a picture similar to that of the Red Sea parting, but now it was a reality. All of this should have driven home that the God who had miraculously delivered his people in the past was the same God keeping them now. That was the point. It all served to show the people that God had not changed and would not change. Any difference in their relationship with him was based on their changing.
This is just one biblical example of many that illustrates to us the constant nature of the Lord. He has not stopped creating miracles. He has not stopped delivering his people. He has not stopped going before them into strange lands and preparing the way for them. For God and his character, there is no yesterday, today, or tomorrow. He does not change temperament or loyalties as we sometimes do. His faithfulness is constant, no lesser or greater than ever. When you need, He will make the waters stand on end for you. Father, remind us the way You reminded Joshua and his people that we serve the same powerful God they did.