Joshua and the People: Victorious Faith

Hebrews 11:29-30

Steve Magness is a performance coach who has worked with Olympians and professional athletes. So he’s become an expert on resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back or keep going when things go wrong. In sports, resilience is the quarterback who leads his team on a game winning drive moments after throwing a bad interception. Or a skater who comes out and skates the best she’s ever skated after falling during her previous program. One of the things Steve Magness has learned is that admitting our weaknesses can actually increase our resilience.

Imagine being dropped in the woods with a friend or two and asked to live off the land to survive. In the U.S. military, this is part of everyone’s training. It’s called SERE: survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. Studies find that up to 96 percent of individuals experience dissociation during the training – the fog of war. Some handle it better than others.

Magness talked to individuals who went through this brutal training, and they reported the same thing. As one soldier put it,

When there’s a difference between what you project about your abilities to others and what you are actually capable of, it all crumbles under stressful situations. On the other hand, if you’re honest with yourself, and acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, what you’re capable of and what might scare you, then you can come to terms with what you’re facing and deal with it. It’s not bravado, it’s humble confidence.

Research backs this up. We want our perception of the difficulty of a challenge and our ability to handle it to be realistic and overlap. When we go in with bravado, it backfires because at the first inkling that things may be not be going well, our brain freaks out.[i]

Life eventually brings all of us to the end of ourselves. To the end of what we think we an handle. To the end of what we actually CAN handle. And if you live your life as a follower of Jesus, that’s still going to be true of you. In Matthew 5:45, Jesus said that God, “ … makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Natural blessings, trials, and life experiences happen to all of us in this fallen, broken world. But there are times when it is God himself who brings us to the end of ourselves, not to punish us, but to show us again the depth of HIS grace, strength, and faithfulness. Because mature followers of Jesus don’t grow to become LESS dependent on God. They become MORE dependent on God.

Like the bridges and dams that failed here in Northern Michigan over the past week – structures that were pushed beyond their breaking point – life, even life in Christ, pushes each one of us to our breaking point and beyond. If our faith is in our own physical and emotional strength, or in our own intelligence or financial stability alone, we’re going to break. Turn with me to Hebrews 11:29-30.

In this chapter of Hebrews that is often referred to as the faith hall of fame, the loving pastor who wrote the sermon that is the book of Hebrews has given us a definition of faith and then begun to illustrate faith with example after example from Old Testament history. We don’t know exactly who that pastor was, but the most common theories are New Testament church leaders Apollos, who was a contemporary of St. Paul, Barnabas, who traveled and ministered with St. Paul, and Priscilla, who along with her husband Aquilla often helped Paul as well.

The definition of faith our pastor has given us is found in verse 1 of this chapter. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The word “assurance” is related to the word “sure.” Faith is living confidently in the power of God now with full assurance that his promises that remain yet unfulfilled will be fulfilled – that Christ WILL return one day, not on my schedule but when the Father says “go.” That his blood covers me and my redemption in Christ will one day be completely fulfilled and I will spend eternity with him. Faith is focused both on God’s power and presence in my life now, and in the future fulfillment of the remaining promises.

Our pastor has been moving through Old Testament history with example after example of this kind of faith, from Abel to Enoch to Noah to Abraham to Sarah to Isaac and Jacob to Joseph to Moses. And now he or she transitions from Moses to Joshua and the people of Israel. So we get two examples, one as the people left Egypt under Moses, and the other as they entered the Promised Land under Joshua.

The first is the people crossing the Red Sea as they left Egypt, with the powerful Egyptian army bearing down on them. Flip over to Exodus 14. God was guiding the people in the form of a pillar in the sky that went before them, leading them where God wanted them to God. It was in the form of a cloud during the day, and fire at night. When God stopped, they stopped. When God moved, they moved. It was a constant, tangible reminder that God was with them, leading them, guiding them, and protecting them.

And God took them right to the edge of the Red Sea and said, camp here. From a purely human point of view, from a military strategy perspective, this was a really bad move. They were sandwiched between the sea and the pursuing Egyptian Army. And by most estimates there were between 2 and 3 million Israelites. They couldn’t exactly pivot on a dime and flee quickly. They were trapped. God led them to a place where they couldn’t move.

In Exodus 14:3 God specifically says to Moses, “Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ (In other words, “They’re trapped.) And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.” God led them to this place where they were trapped, with their backs to the wall, SO THAT by his deliverance of them he would be glorified in Egypt and that they might be drawn to him. And also so that Israel would have real, tangible, unforgettable proof that He was with them and would fight their battles for them, regardless of how things looked to their human minds.

Moses and, through Moses, the people, have a divine encounter with God. Remember, God said of Moses, “With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord” (Num. 12:8). God was clear about what he wanted Moses to do. He didn’t speak in a dream or an inner prompting. He spoke with Moses directly. This is what I want you to do.

But when the Egyptian army got close, the Bible says that “the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?” (Ex. 14:10-11).

With human eyes they look and see the approaching, well-trained, combat-hardened Egyptian army and then they look around them and realize they’re trapped. Egypt on one side, Red Sea on the other. There is nowhere for them to go. They’re doomed. And from a purely human perspective, they were right.

God had asked them to do something absurd. And they hadn’t mis-heard God. They hadn’t misunderstood. Gotten it wrong somehow and gotten themselves into this mess on their own. They had followed God, who was visible to them in the cloud and fire, stopped right where He told them to stop, and now they were trapped and were going to die in the wilderness when Pharoah and his charioteers charged.

So Moses turns to them and says, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Ex. 14:13-14). This isn’t about us and our ability or lack of ability and military training. This is about God. God’s power and mercy and grace are going to come shining through. Not only do we not have to fight them, we don’t need to speak. We just have to follow him.

But then Moses must have said something to God. Kind of a “Boy, I sure hope you know what you’re doing here. I’m going out on a limb for you. Your promise to Abraham, your reputation before the watching world, it’s all on the line here.” Because in the very next verse, God says to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.” I love that! “Why are you talking to me now? I’ve told you what I want you to do. Less talking and more walking Moses. Get moving.”

So Moses stretches out his hand over the sea, and God began to blow back the waters to create a dry, clear path across. But there’s something else here I want you to see. Remember the pillar of cloud and fire? It had been in front, leading the people. As the wind began to blow over the sea, the pillar moved back behind the people and settled between them and the Egyptians. The unseen God was making himself visible to all and was actively protecting his people. God was showing them in a tangible way that even though the way seemed blocked, they were in His hands, He was with them, and He would fight for them.

And then, the next day, the people crossed the sea on dry ground. The word used for “dry ground” means completely and totally dry ground. Not only were the waters driven back, but the ground was firm beneath their feet. They didn’t even get their sandals muddy. And then, when the last Israelite stepped onto the bank on the other side, Moses lifted his hand again and the waters returned to their normal place. The Bible says the pursuing Egyptians who were trying to cross the sea on the same path the Israelites had taken were “swallowed up.” The word means “completely engulfed.”

God won a complete and total victory for His people. The part of the powerful Egyptian army that had been pursuing them was devastated. Soundly defeated. Corpses washing up on the shore. Moses’ role was to lift up his arms twice, and all the people did was walk. Not much, as far as military tactics go. But there were the Egyptian soldiers, dead in the sea. And there they were, dry feet, on the other side. A complete and total victory, and aside from Moses, no one had lifted a finger.

In the face of the absurdity and impossibility of the position God had placed them in, they had, with knees shaking, been willing to trust God enough to obey him and step out into the dry lake bed and cross. Trust leads to obedience. And obedience leads to God’s victory. Obedience reveals faith and trust. Disobedience reveals a lack of faith and trust. When we’re disobedient to God, it’s because we aren’t trusting God. We aren’t trusting that God is good and faithful, and from our human perspective that may seem true in the moment. We have to trust that God is there and working, even when we can’t see how that could possibly be true.

So after bringing up the Red Sea crossing, our pastor fast forwards a little over 40 years to Israel’s entry into the Promised Land and their first battle there.

It didn’t have to be 40 years later. If the wilderness generation – the ones who watched as God positioned himself between them and their enemies, the ones who walked on a dry seabed that just a few hours earlier had been covered with water, the ones who watched God decimate an enemy bent on re-enslaving them while they didn’t have to lift a single sword or spear – if they had allowed God’s miraculous, saving power and grace to penetrate deeply, they would have marched right to the Promised Land, asked God what He wanted them to do, and then did it. But that isn’t what happened. Oh, they went right to the edge of the Promised Land. But when the spies came back with reports of a bounteous land yes, but also a land filled with impenetrably walled cities and mighty, gigantic warriors like Goliath, instead of remembering what God had already done for them, they shrank back. Remember, we’re still somewhere between 300 and 450 years before David took out Goliath, and David and his army actually took out a total of five mighty giant warriors during David’s reign.

Deuteronomy 1:28 records their words to Moses, and to God. “Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ What are we thinking? We can’t do this. This is nuts. And they shrank back. It never dawned on them that God would, again and again, fight for them. Strengthen them. Guide them. Save them.

No matter what God did, it was never enough to prove His faithfulness and his love towards them. All they could see was insurmountable obstacles and their own lack. Its good and healthy to come at things with a healthy caution. It should drive us to greater dependence on God. But all they wanted to do was cut and run back to Egypt. And so, one by one, they died in the wilderness as Israel went from place to place, missing out on the salvation and rest that God had for them.

Until a new generation was raised up and, under Joshua’s leadership, they were willing to cross the Jordan River and enter the land and face the giants. God even took them into the Promised Land in the same way he brought them out of Egypt, through the river on a dry river bed after he again pushed the waters back for them. Just a little reminder that He was with them. That they could, and therefore should, trust Him.

And then God brought them face to face with the mighty walled city of Jericho. Walls somewhere between 25 and 40 feet tall, and roughly 20 feet thick. And the Bible tells us that Jericho’s gates were tightly shut, and that the city was filled with mighty men of valor. Trained and proven warriors and an impenetrable fortress. What could a bunch of nomads do against that? The thought was, just as at the Red Sea, absurd. God again brought them to the end of themselves to show them his faithfulness and grace.

Joshua went secretly to see the city for himself, to survey things, probably to develop some kind of strategy. But when he got there, what he experienced instead was an encounter with God. In Joshua 5:13-15, we read, “When Joshua was by Jericho …” The word “by” here indicates that Joshua was right up by the city wall. He had snuck up there by night to get a good, close look. Maybe he could find a weak spot.

But when “… he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.”

Most commentators believe that this wasn’t just an angelic commander of the armies of heaven. It was God himself. And what part of the trinity comes to earth in human form? The eternal Son. Why do we think this? Because Joshua worshipped him, and he didn’t stop Joshua. In fact, he actually told Joshua to take his worship a step further and take of his shoes, for he was standing on holy ground. The same words used when God himself spoke to Moses from the burning bush. Angels don’t make things holy. God does. God was, again, there to fight for them. Sword drawn and ready.

I absolutely love what God said to Joshua next. “And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor” (Jos. 6:2). Joshua, seeing this mighty heavenly warrior standing before him, sword drawn, HAS to be thinking, “Oh, this is going to be good. I can’t wait to hear what God wants us to do. Ok God, how?”

And then God gave Joshua his marching orders. And they were as absurd as the idea of storming Jericho. They were going to take a representative sample of each tribe and arrange themselves with a forward guard of warriors, and then some of the people, and then, in the center of the procession, the priests and the Ark of the Covenant, which represents the presence of God in their midst. And then more of the people behind, and finally, a rear guard. And they were to march around the city once a day for six days. And then, on the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times, and then the priests would blow their rams horn war horns, and the people would shout, and the walls of the city would fall before them. Huh? That’s the plan God?

Step into the absurdity, trust God, obey God, and watch God work. This time, Israel listened. They’d learned their lesson. They did exactly as they were told. And God did exactly what God had told them He would do. The walls fell, and God gave them the city.

But it was never about the city. It was never about the land. It was about the ultimate future God had for them, and has for us, in his presence. It was about their, and our, willingness to recognize our own smallness, and trust God to do what only God can do. And why was God doing things this way? To reveal his power and might and superiority over the false gods Israel encountered wherever they went. God was revealing himself to the residents of the Holy Land as Israel went in, showing himself to be superior in every way to the false gods they worshipped and depended on.

We live in a land of false gods too. The false gods of power and pleasure and wealth and the security and easy life we think they’ll bring. Until the cancer diagnosis. Or the car accident. Or the flood. What do you do when the walls before you seem insurmountable? When the dam breaks and the bridges are washed away and it looks like there’s no hope. Will you still trust him when there’s a foot of water in your basement, literally or figuratively? Will you step into the absurdity of it all in trust and obedience, or shrink back?

As we grow in Christ, mature as followers of Jesus, we don’t depend less and less on him and more and more on ourselves. We depend even less and less on ourselves and more and more and more on him. That’s resilient faith. That’s victorious faith. That’s faith that will last through the storm and the flood. Let’s pray.

[i] Steve Magness, “Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness,” The Next Big Idea Club (7-29-22)