Joshua 3:7 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
God is Present
{"file":"/FirstLight10-31-16.mp3","place":"user:19"}
I don’t know about you, but I love new things. I love the new car smell. I love the smell of new cowboy boots. I love opening the front door of a big western-wear store and just inhaling that new cowboy boot smell. I love the new packaging on Apple products. Their packaging is just exquisite. I love new things, don’t you?
I also love old things. I love history and the relics that remind us of days gone by. I love antiques. I love a fine polish on old furniture. I love old and I love new, and there is a balance of both in life.
That is something of which we are reminded in Joshua 3-4. What was new was the land of Canaan. What was timeless was God’s provision for His people as they came into this new land. What you see over and again is that God wanted to remind His people that while Moses was off the scene, and while this was a new generation, God had not aged. God had not left His people.
God is present. He is present in time and space. For instance, Joshua 3:7 says, “And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.” God reaffirms this in the next chapter. God was with Moses, and God will be with Joshua. He will not stop.
Later, in Joshua 4, after they had crossed the Jordan River, God commanded the people to set up a memorial of stones, one per tribe, to help them remember what God had done. This was crucial because what they were about to face would be overwhelming to them but not to God. They needed to remember that as God had helped them before, God would help them again. He helped Moses; He would help Joshua. He parted the Red Sea and the Jordan. He wanted them to know that He was sufficient for everything that lay in their future.
The lesson for us is that God is present. Don’t forget His grace in your past, and don’t fear your foes in the future. Those who have the best picture of what will be in the future are those who have paid the best attention to what has been in the past.
Let me urge you to take a moment and think about the last five years. Don’t just think about the hardships, think about God’s grace in those hardships. Don’t just think about the provision, think about Who it was that gave that provision. Remember Who it was that gave the help you needed. Your life should bespeak the providence, provision, protection, and guidance of God. When I am actively, intentionally remembering God in my own story, then I am fearless for the future because the only One I need fear is God. When you fear God, you need fear nothing else. God is present. He was, He will be, and He is.