S222P6 – Lessons from Joshua: after our small steps

Jos. 10:9-11

So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal.  And the LORD threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah.  And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died.  There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

At this point, Joshua had followed the direction of the Lord a number of times despite fear or the appearance of circumstances.  The common pattern of events was that the Lord would call him to move and then reassure him that things were taken care of.  The command came from God, and the man was given the confidence to move according to that command.  Here, things are different.  The Lord had not commanded Joshua to help protect Gibeon, but Joshua elected to help them on his own.  He made a choice to do the right thing, and the Lord was right there with him.  The interesting thing is the degree of help the Lord provided.

After Joshua made his way to help Gibeon, the Lord spoke to him a familiar phrase.  He told Joshua to have courage because those people had been given into his hand. [v. 8]  This time, Joshua moved first in doing the right thing, then the Lord backed him up.  Not only that, the support that God gave him went well beyond what Joshua was able to accomplish with his men.  God did more to reach Joshua’s goal than Joshua did.  This is an incredible stamp of approval on Joshua’s decision.  The question is whether Joshua or his men knew the extent to which God went to support their work.  It should make us question how much God does the same for us without our knowledge.

We know that God does what we cannot do.  We know that He helps us because in so many ways we are simply incapable.  We should expect that if we make the right decision, the Lord will help us along.  His help, however, is not small.  We might think that He helps get us that little bit further or that He just props us up that last inch or so, but He does so much more.  If we could know the full measure of his work on our behalf, I think it would look like what we see in this passage.  We do the little we can for him, and He does immeasurably more for us.  Father, thank You for the work You do that we do not see and could never dream of accomplishing on our own.