III
“Will you say that again, Lord, and slowly, please, so I can let it sink in?” Joshua must have thought on the very heels of that tragic announcement, “Moses my servant is dead” (Joshua 1:2)
Moses dead? Why? We’ve come this far through this arid desert, the journey forty years in the making, and just when we get a stone’s throw from the Promised Land, we lose Moses?
“Lord,” he could have pleaded, “we need Moses now more than ever. We need him to to carry us on this final step. But now he’s gone?”
Joshua has a right, I suppose, to be concerned. This shocking turn of events isn’t even close to how Joshua would have planned the ending. In his mind, Moses has always been the one who would do the honors of stepping first into the Promised Land. No other scenario has ever even occurred to him. If it had even crossed his mind, perhaps he could have been semi-prepared, at least.
I guess when he thinks about it, he realizes he probably should have at least thought of it. After all, the Lord has a history of pulling these kinds of things out of the hat, as we say. We have read enough in God’s word, meditated long enough on it, and we’ve heard plenty of those long sermons that make our eyelids heavy to tell us that God doesn’t do things the orthodox way – or, at least, He doesn’t do things the way you and I think He would or should.
And there's more: Startling news doesn’t always come in a single wave. Often it just falls on us like an avalanche. Such is the case here. It is hard to say which part of the Lord’s message is more shocking to the young Joshua, the first part or the last. But for sure, the shock is not over. Here’s the second bombshell.
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to
the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel.”
Joshua knows that the Lord isn’t just making small talk with Him. He has called on him for a reason. Really, the announcement that Moses is dead isn’t the main item on the Lord’s agenda, either. The main course the Lord is here to serve is the message that it’s time for Joshua and all of these people finally to cross over the Jordan River to the Promised Land.
But there’s one more insinuation in the Lord’s message that Joshua by now has figured out. The Lord could have come on out and said it, but I don’t think it's necessary for Him to say, “By the way, Joshua, you do know that you’re the man who will lead my people over the Jordan.”
– Step into these shoes for a moment
The Lord has hundreds of powerful messages in store as we read on in Joshua’s account of Israel’s blessed return to the Promised Land. But for this moment, I want us to stand where Joshua is standing, feel what he’s feeling, wonder all the things he is wondering. Pause here with me, and let’s put these thoughts into a single question:
If the Lord will call upon the somewhat common servant Joshua to do such a great job way back then, what might He be calling you to do?
Make no mistake about it: The Lord has a job out there – maybe big, maybe small – and He needs someone who will do the job well. It’s a job that simply cannot fail, so the Lord has made His choice. It’s not the person you would have thought He would have chosen, either, and it isn’t who you would deem most qualified. It is you. Your name, my friend, is circled in the Lord's ledger. It would not surprise me if He has it circled in red.
For now, for this great old biblical story, it’s a familiar name earmarked for the big job in the Jordan Valley: It’s Joshua of old.
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