We come to Joshua 3, and the people are full of confidence! God's promise of presence, and success. And Joshua’s two spies have returned from scoping out Jericho and the hill country (home to the gigantic sons of Anak), and they report that everyone is terrified of this nation Israel and its ”god”: Josh 2.23-24 Then the two men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they related to him all that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, “Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us.”
Sadly, this is same song different verse: [Ex. 15:1,11,14-18 Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders? The peoples have heard, they tremble; anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; the leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them; by the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; until Your people pass over, O LORD, You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance. The LORD shall reign forever and ever.”]. Right after this Israel takes out the Amalekites. Stopover at Mt Sinai, then they spy out the land - and overnight Israel becomes the ones who melt away [Deut 1.28*]. What happened? How do you go from melter to meltee so quickly?
But so now here we are, a new generation, on the [overflowing banks] of the Jordan, overflowing with confidence, ready to trust the Lord. Trusting the promise of God. Who works wonders. Josh. 3:5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD WILL do wonders among you.” God promises wonders - and He delivers [13-17]. The flooded Jordan river rises up in a heap at Adam (~15-20mi north?). And the people walk across on dry ground!
But here’s the point: Wonders are NOT the point. Wonders are not the end. The point of wonders is to produce wonder and awe [9-10a]. The point of wonders is ultimately to point people to the God of wonders. The end game, if you will, of the awesome is to end in awe. But it’s no game. And even awe is not the end.
Joshua says, the holy awesome God of wonders is going to do what He do - so consecrate yourselves. The root idea of consecration is something that is holy. Set apart. Sacred. Devoted TO the Lord. Earthly things and beings come to be regarded as sacred because they have been devoted to the Lord. The end of awe - is devotion.
Israel are promised a wonder. And God brings it, big time. We may not have that same promise per se, but we have the same awesome God of wonders (Who is the same today, yesterday and forever). So the question for us remains that of devotion. And should we not devote ourselves, consecrate and set apart OURselves, OUR hearts, OUR lives to that which is supremely awesome and wondrous? This God of glory? Consecrate yourselves, he says.
And does it not follow that, as we consecrate ourselves, as we devote ourselves to knowing/following/pursuing this great God of glory, that our chances of glimpsing glory increase exponentially? A prospect of wonders...!
Some of us may wonder, what wonder has the Lord done for me? I’ve never seen a wonder. Really? How about YOU? You ARE a wonder. A wonderful impossible. Psa. 139:13-14 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. I’m not so sure we do know it very well anymore. Each and every person is a living breathing miracle. A wonderful impossible. And I know, you might be thinking, well, some of these wonderful impossibles sure are impossible. Sure would be easier if everybody were just like us, just as wonderful as we are. But how boring would that be? Isn’t part of the adventure of life learning to appreciate the unique fingerprint of God, the expression of His breathtakingly good image we find in each one of His precious image-bearers? People may be messy, but we’re all messy miracles.
We need to understand what’s going on in our society today. In our world. A world which is desperate to remove God from the equation. A world which wants to be free of all restraints, free to do anything it wants. Our society has been systematically trying to dilute and remove the truth about God as Creator from the public square for generations, and look at the result. Look at the trends, rise in hopelessness, rise in suicides, rise in violence, rise in family breakdown and disrespect of authority, rise in skepticism and cynicism and confusion. If you remove God from the equation, what you’re left with is a fluke. A hopeless accident. A freak of nature. A cosmic coincidence. And coincidences are meaningless. If you remove God from the equation, life becomes meaningless. It IS just survival of the fittest, literally dog eat dog till you die and then the dogs (or the worms) eat you.
Some of us never get to the place of wonder. We’ve never been awed by the God of wonders. We’ve yet to be floored by His greatness, His holiness, His awesome majesty. We’ve swallowed the lie. "God doesn’t do that." "He definitely didn’t do that." A lot of us, we just aren’t looking in the right place. We’re looking at screens [a whole lot of them]. We’re looking at our problems. Navel gazing. We’re looking around at all the brokenness. I get it. But where we spend our time looking makes a huge difference. How much time do you & I devote to pursuing glimpses of greatness? We definitely need to be on the lookout for wonders. [This is one reason I began having our family take not just play/lie on the beach vacations, but actual Adventure vacations - looking to increase the prospects for glimpsing greatness!]
God says, I promise you, this is who I am - the wonderful wonder-working God. Consecrate yourselves, devote yourselves. Cuz this is what I do, I work wonders. Astonishing, awesome, supernatural wonderful impossibles. I’ve recorded them for you in the pages of My Book. The promise of God to you - He is the God of wonders. And He is still in the wonder-working business. Every morning - ponderous new mercies. Wonderful grace. At the cross and the empty tomb - talk about a whoa moment! Miracles of cleansing and forgiveness and healing. Each time a new life is conceived in the womb of a daughter of Eve - a miracle of new life, fearfully and wonderfully made [140m babies born/yr plus another 24m/yr who never make it out of the womb —> 5/sec][ Simply making it out of the womb is a whoa moment!] And the list of whoa-moments goes on and on [read "Heavenly Man" to find a BUNCH!]. We really only need to open our eyes. And ask…
For what wonder I wonder am I asking? James 4:2b You do not have because you do not ask. The corollary is also true - James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Do you want this miracle for yourself? Or do you have a view to others getting a glimpse of the God of glory? Eph. 3:20 Who is able to do far more than we could ever ask for or imagine…
So the question for us as we finish today is, to what am I devoting myself? What are my enthusiasms? My enthusiasms. What kind of excellence am I rooting for? Am I devoting myself to? Maybe some sports team? I think we will each find that, in the light of the glory and grace of our great God and Savior, the things of earth do grow strangely dim. Which of my enthusiasms are pointing my heart and others to the God of wonders?
*Deut. 1:28 ‘Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.”’
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