When I was a kid, we camped in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, just across the Mackinaw Bridge. Right along there somewhere, on US 2, was a little convenience store where we bought worms for fishing, and whatever other supplies we forgot at home.
Out front was one of those giant movable type signs, and it always had this message: “FREE BEER TOMORROW.” Now, obviously, they never gave away free beer. But I remember seeing that sign many times as a child before I finally figured out it was a joke.
In Joshua 3:5, Joshua tells the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”
But his message was different than that convenience store sign. Read it again, because what Joshua says to the people is so important. “Tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” It creates this powerful sense of confidence and expectation among the people.
God is going to do amazing things among you
The Israelites were probably a little apprehensive about the plan, which was apparently to cross a flooded river into an occupied land and drive out all the nations that had called it their home for generations. They didn’t see a bridge or a boat or an airplane.
But they saw Joshua stand up, and with confidence say, get yourselves ready, ‘cause God’s going to do something really cool.
And I wonder if we don’t go to bed too often thinking about what tomorrow holds, and not having this sense of expectation, this confidence, that God is going to do amazing things among us.
I wonder if, as the church, we wouldn’t do well to have this sort of expectation that, not just on Sundays, that God is going to do something amazing among us.
I wonder if, as a family, sometimes it wouldn’t benefit us to have a little higher expectation for what God is going to do in our midst.
Or, as an individual, if you aren’t living with that sort of confident expectation that God is going to do something amazing in your midst tomorrow (or even today!), perhaps you are shortchanging the testimony of the God who has done so many amazing things among you before.
So Joshua says to them—you’ve heard the stories, how God led us out of Egypt, how he parted the Red Sea, how he provided food and water in the desert—get ready, because tomorrow, something is going to happen.
Joshua 3:6-13
6 Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.
7 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 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.’”
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 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.”
Verse 10 says, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will drive out before you” all these people that lived in the land.
Do you think that hadn’t crossed their minds? What if we do happen to get across the river, and then all those people who live there aren’t happy about it? They’ll have us trapped. They’ll just destroy us all.
No ordinary river crossing
But Joshua says, this isn’t going to be any ordinary river crossing. No, when you see what happens, when the waters are cut off and stand up in a heap, then you’ll know that God is doing something, and that God is going to give us this land.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Joshua says, this is what we hoped for. This is the land that God has said he was going to give us. Tomorrow, he’s going to do something amazing, and when he does, it will give us assurance that he is here, and that he will continue to work on our behalf.
You see, faith isn’t blind. Faith doesn’t ask us to believe in something we have no confidence will happen. And faith doesn’t say to us believe in this or that without reason.
Faith, the author of Hebrews says, is confidence in what we hope for, and if what you hope for is for God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life, in your midst, then you can be confident that it will happen—and not just because you believe it, but because God has proven himself over and over and over.
Joshua said, when you see the water stop flowing tomorrow in the flooded river, you shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he parted the Red Sea; he gave you food and water today. And when you see him do that, you can be assured that he will do the next thing too.
So how do we know which way to go? How did the Israelites know? They followed the ark of the testimony. And we do the same. Where God has proven himself before, this is the direction we should go.
And how do we know he is with us? Because when we see him work, we know that he will work again. And when we see him work among us, we know that he is among us.
How do you know that God is among you? How has He shown Himself faithful to you and your family or ministry?
In this serious of posts, studying Joshua 3 and 4, we look at faith from the shore of the flooded Jordan River. Other posts include: This is how you will know which way to go, This is how you will cross, and This is how you will remember.