Joshua 3

February 8, 2004                       

God’s Guidance

A group wanted to go hiking in southern Kentucky; so they hired a man who claimed to be the best guide in the state. They hiked for a few hours, and pretty soon they noticed the guide had a perplexed look on his face. Soon they noticed they were going in circles, and apparently were lost.

One of the hikers said, "I thought you were the best guide in Kentucky?"

To which the guide responded:  "That's just it. I'm afraid we're in Tennessee!"

There is nothing more frightening than being lost. Not knowing which way to go or what to do next is unsettling. We desperately want to know what is around the bend, firmly believe that God can and will lead, yet we remain in a fog of uncertainty as what to do. We may plead for a clear sign only to hear nothing … or move ahead with great certainty of God’s guidance only to meet with failure.

We may become easily discouraged, for if God does indeed foreordain whatsoever shall come to pass, why do I feel so in the dark as to God’s guidance in my life?

Our passage this morning illustrates God’s guidance by clarifying what God demands of us as we are being guided by God and what God provides for us in that guidance. As with so much of our Christian lives, there is a relationship between what God expects of us and what God provides. To confuse those is to miss the good God has for us. READ Joshua 3

Israel is camped on the eastern shore of the Jordan River. Joshua is now in charge as Moses has died and Israel is about to receive what was promised six hundred years before to Abraham. Scouts have returned from Jericho, encouraged by God’s protection of them and the professed faith of a prostitute. Now comes the hard part, taking the next step of entering the Promised Land.

The day has come to take that step … but how? With several million people to ford the river it would not be a simple task. In order to appreciate the complexity of the situation at hand, we need to have a better picture of what they faced.

The Jordan Valley between the Sea of Galilee to the north and the Dead Sea to the south varies from 3 to 14 miles. Israel has camped at Shittim, the site of tremendous failure, as men from Israel engaged in immorality with the daughters of Moab, and great success, as a repentant people of God defeated the Moabites at this spot. The place name, Shittim, also describes the area. Shittim means Acacia grove, a forest of trees and brush common to this area. This is not a wide expanse of desert and rocks, but a verdant valley. What they must do is move from this plain, down into the Jordan valley and cross the river.

The river normally is placid, but v8 says that this is spring when the river was at its flood stage. The Jordan, over its 95 miles trek from Mt. Hebron to the Dead Sea, drops 10,000 feet. In the spring the waters would not only be wide, but raging torrent with a flood plain from 200 yards to a mile across and it was packed with tangled brush and jungle growth.

With this difficult next step before them, the people are commanded to prepare to cross the Jordan, but in so doing, they enter a new phase of God’s work in their lives. What happens here illustrates for us God’s guidance in our lives as well. God’s guidance first demands both perspective and preparation on our part; for God’s guidance provides both is presence and power to do what He calls us to do.

God’s guidance demands perspective   vv1-4

We must have the perspective that God is before us

The way God guides his people radically changes at this point. Throughout the desert guidance was by the pillar of cloud and fire. The Ark of the Covenant traveled in the midst of the people, but here it goes out in front. As they face the Promised Land, Joshua sends out not an Army Corps of Engineers, but his priests carrying the ark. The problem they faced was not physical, but spiritual.

This visible representation of God’s presence is mentioned ten times in our passage, forming the focal point of our attention as much as it was the focal point for Israel.

What is so important about the Ark?

The Ark contained the two tablets of the Law, God’s covenant etched on stone, defining how Israel was to live. There was the jar of manna, the reminder of God’s daily provision, six days a week. Aaron’s staff, which continued to bud, taught that God’s protection never ceases and that which was considered dead is now alive. Over the top of the ark was the mercy seat, for while the demands of the Law are unyielding, God provides atonement through sacrifice.

The ark summarized God’s grace, pointing to Christ. The just demands of a holy God, forcing his people to recognize their inability to comply, his provision and protection all covered by his mercy.

• Christ fulfilled the Law. Where law condemns us, he obeyed its demands. What we could not do, he did in our place by living a perfect life.
• Christ is the bread of life. The manna in the wilderness came and went, but we are still nourished by faith in all Christ has done for us.
• Christ is the branch of David, the new branch from the dead stump, once dead, but now alive. There is resurrection hope for Christ remains alive.
• Christ is the mercy seat, it was his blood that provides our freedom. Atonement is made and we are set free to serve God.  

God’s guidance first and foremost comes in the form of God’s good news about our relationship with him. Rather than guidance that has my goals in focus, here attention is to God’s grace.

We can move ahead with confidence only as we first know that God’s just demands are satisfied in Christ. God has gone before us, settling once and for all our failure to do what God has commanded us to do. Just as the ark was to go before them, God guides us by going before us, as he has established reconciliation, as he has redeemed us and applied that to our lives.

We must have the perspective that God is above us

But just as God is before us, he is also above us. They were to keep their distance from the ark for a reason. They were to follow the ark at a distance. Why? Two reasons

• The holiness of God is the reason in 2 Samuel 6 when David brought the ark into Jerusalem. While the people were elated to have God’s presence before them, they forgot God’s holiness and treated the ark as a common object. Placing it on an ox cart, the ark began to totter off and Uzzah went to steady it, but in so doing, God’s anger struck Uzzah dead for his impertinence.
• The second reason is given in Joshua 3. The distance between Israel and the ark is 2000 cubits or about 3000 feet, a half mile. The reason given is simple – you will need to know which way to go. With millions gathered along the river, there needs be enough distance so all can see. 

People will wring their hands wanting to know what God would have them to do. They want guidance and direction, yet ignore the correct perspective – that God is before us and above us.

This starting point is critical. You must always begin with your standing in Christ, knowing your status before God is secure, that he is leading the way not to destroy you, but to do good to you.

To know God’s guidance you have to have a clear goal. If you were to go up to a stranger for directions, but don’t tell them where you want to go … you would be foolish. But often we go to God for guidance, wanting Him to confirm our decisions, not knowing our goal.  

Instead God has made it his guidance clear in God’s Word. That is where we must turn for direction. As I read in preparation for this message so much of what I found when discussing God’s guidance focused on the inward and experiential direction of God without any mention of God’s revealed will. If you wish to know with certainty what you should do, you must begin with God’s written Word. That in turn will point you again to your standing in Christ.

What is your perspective in life? Is God’s Word at the forefront of your decision making? Is your standing before God on the basis of Christ your starting point?

God’s guidance demands preparation  vv5-6

We must prepare for God’s guidance

When we have the right perspective we will make the right preparation. Joshua instructs Israel to consecrate themselves. As God is holy, so are his people to be holy. When our perspective is God’s demands in the law and the grace which is ours in Christ, we will seek to honor him with our lives. 

If you wish God’s guidance in your life, but are living in a manner which is contrary to God’s demands, how can you expect God to guide? God’s guidance demands our preparation which includes repenting of known sin, of breaking off from that which is contrary to his revealed will.

This time of year as the road spray road gunk on your windshield, the dirt obscures where you are going. What is worse is when you’re out of wiper fluid so the blades produce a smudge. Try reading a road sign then. It is easy to get lost. You are not prepared. 

We must prepare to expect God to do great things

God demands his people to prepare themselves for Gods’ presence, expecting God to do great things.

Far too often we hedged our lives by lowering our expectations. We do not wish to be hurt by deflated aspirations, so we exclude the possibility that God will do great things. Consequently our prayers are insipid and safe, our steps are calculated and predictable. Rather than conforming our lives to God’s Word, rather than living holy lives, but ignore God’s transforming power to make us what we are not. We don’t expect God to stifle the lustful thoughts. We can’t image that he would stop the harsh tongue. We don’t picture life any differently than the depressed state to which we have become accustomed. We are not prepared for his presence 

God’s guidance provides presence                   vv7-8

It isn’t until v7 that God speaks. Joshua is moving ahead because he believes that God is at work, but all the while we are not told if he has yet to receive any clear instructions. But even when God speaks, what is said confirms what was said before. God still does not clarify what exactly will take place.

But what God does do is to remind Joshua of his character. The God who was with Moses is with Joshua. In light of that, even though Joshua is a different person, God has not changed. Therefore, the variable, us, does not matter, only the constant – the unchanging God.

God’s guiding presence commands they move forward and then to wait.

At the edge of the Jordan they are to stand still. This aspect of guidance is frustrating to us, especially those of us who love to act, for whom reflection is a waste of time and patience is a virtue best mastered while we sleep. We want interaction with God, but we want our marching orders now, not later. To move forward only to stand still seems a waste of time and effort.

A cashier at a bookstore laughed at the selection of one customer whose combination of books provided an insight her character. She placed on the counter two bestsellers. The first was titled Conversations With God. The second? How to Argue and Win Every Time.

God’s guidance is not something we conjure up when we are uncertain. Rather God’s guidance is ongoing as the Spirit of God indwells us. Romans 8:14 is often used as evidence of inward guidance, but the context here speaks of leading us to repentance, not which college to attend.

Yet the guidance of Romans is what brings out the good God has for us.

God’s guidance provides power                                    vv9-17

We must trust that God is active

Joshua instructs the people with the firm conviction that the God who is present before them is the God who will act powerfully on their behalf. God’s guidance is a powerful presence for the Lord is the living God (v10). Defining God this way reinforces the idea that God’s guidance is powerful. Unlike the gods of the nations they are about to face, the Lord God of Israel is alive.

Far too often we act as though God was inactive, disinterested … as though he were dead. But to know God’s guidance is to trust in his power to work even now in our lives.

We must trust that God will keep his word

That God is alive means that God will keep his Word. What was promised centuries before to Abraham in Genesis 15, what was promised a generation before to Moses, is now to be fulfilled.

God has promised you and me freedom from bondage to sin. God is living and active, guiding us to live lives pleasing to him. That should be enough for us to step forward in obedience, looking to him, not to our own flesh, to obey his commands.

We must trust that God will complete what he has begun

What God does next he does through his people. It is God’s feat through the priest’s feet. They must step out in faith but then wait, wait for God to complete what he has promised. With their sandals getting wet on the banks of the Jordan, God acts.

The waters cease to flow, several miles upstream, the waters collect. While the priest’s carrying the ark were half mile away, the people crossed over not through sticky mud, but on dry ground until the last Israelite got across. God uses the flooded Jordan to show his guidance.

Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. When the situation appears desperate, the Lord waits to be gracious. Here was Israel ready to enter Canaan, and there was the Jordan overflowing his banks. It is easy to reason this is not the time for God to guide, but it was the perfect place for God to display his sufficiency.

God works in our lives for the greatest good and there is nothing that will stop him from continuing to do so. The trouble is, we often doubt that good or mis-define it.

Two men stand at a river that they are about to cross when they notice crocodiles looking at them. "Are you afraid?" says one to the other. "Don't you know that God is merciful and good?" "Yes, I do," says the frightened man. "But what if God suddenly chooses right now to be good to the crocodiles?"

But when we think this way, we miss the greatest good of God’s guidance. It is not that nothing terrible will come to us, so that when it does we imagine God no longer loves us.  Rather nothing evil can separate us from God’s love for us.

Our starting point is always God’s grace to rescue us from sin. If he has done that, whatever the next step may be is easy. He may stop us short at the bank of a new phase in our life and ask us to get our feet wet in the raging torrent of a might river. Then we must stand still, not knowing what the completed picture looks like, but remembering that God knows.

The goal of God’s guidance is not to spell out our future so that we need no longer trust him, but that we rely on him all the more. The goal of guidance is our sanctification, our growth in being more like Christ. When life is tough, rather than doubting God’s guidance in that time, be assured, this is when God wants you to see Christ even more. The goal of guidance is not a destination, but a changed life.

What kind of decisions are you facing? Where do you most clearly what God to guide you? It may or may not be life altering. It may be a career change, which college, marriage partner. No matter what it is, more than knowing the specific choice you must make, you must know Christ.

Do you perceive Christ’s work for you as you consider what you should do now in life?

Are you preparing your life for God to work through you? Do you trust God’s presence and power to take you wherever He deems it best to have you see his love for you in Christ?