Joshua – Lesson 24

A Step of Faith

One writer says that it is a never-to-be-forgotten experience when we hear a promise of God and step out in faith and then see God doing things on our behalf. The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan River saw God at work. It would not have been enough for them to have stood close to the edge of the water and to have believed on the great ability of God to stop the flow several miles upstream and pile up the waters as though there was a great dam there.

Now if you are asked, “Is God able to do such a thing?” We would surely say, yes. But if each of us had to answer the question, “Will God do this for me?” What would the answer be?

Every Christian is as special to God as the Israelites were and what He did for them He will do for us. Let’s say it another way; If we truly believe that we have died with Jesus and have been buried with Him and raised again, and act on this fact, then step out in faith to walk in spiritual warfare with Him, we will experience amazing things in our lives. We don’t often see this happen today and the biblical record is so far in the past that the evidence does not really impact on us.

We need to note that the Israelites did not make the mistake of standing at the edge of the Jordan believing that God had the ability to do what He promised. When they received their marching orders to go into the river with the priests leading the way with the Ark, then the waters parted. The priests “got their feet wet”. That’s the way faith operates.

Humanly speaking, the passage of the Jordan River at that time seemed impossible. But God gave the victory and it was a victory that had been won 40 years earlier at the Red Sea. Israel was now claiming what had been promised years before.

Israel’s walk into Canaan was to be a walk of faith. They had the promise that the land where they traveled would be theirs. We have been promised many spiritual blessings, but like the Israelites, we have to claim them by faith.

So many people see this as too big a risk to take. But in fact, we take much bigger risks every day and think nothing of it. We risk our money on some of the products we buy or the investments we make; or the simple matter of driving our cars on a busy highway, trusting in other drivers or the brakes on our car. We also trust other people whose record of being trustworthy is far short of the record of promise-keeping God. So why not trust God and believe Him?

Listen to this amazing promise in:

· Isaiah 43:2-3,2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

The sense of these verses is that whatever your situation in life, when we are living according to God’s will, He is with us and the clear meaning here is that He will protect us.

· Joshua 3: 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."

Can you visualize this event? The priests, being obedient, stepped into the water carrying the Ark of the Covenant and the water stopped flowing. Several miles upstream the water began to pile up in a wall of water. Then the people began to walk through the land where the Jordan River had been flowing.

There is a lesson here for us. When we are in the midst of spiritual warfare, we do not always see where the danger lies. We may not see the Devil working behind the scenes, but we do not need such information if we are following God and His promises. Just as the Israelites were to keep their eyes on the Ark as they crossed the Jordan.

· James 4:4-7, You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?   6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you

So we are told to look to Him and submit to Him.