All this week, we have looked at Expectant Prayer. If you want to part the waters, you got to get your feet wet. If you have a need for a harvest, you got to plant a seed in hope. To see Lazarus raised, Martha had to risk raising a stink and Mary had to move a stone. For Peter to walk on water, he had to get out of the boat. So put some skin in the game, your dog in the fight and your horse in the race. Exalt God by stepping out in faith and expecting Him to answer your prayers.
6 Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. 7 And the Lord said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. 12Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap."
Exalt God in Participation: Notice God’s partnership in this. God joined with Joshua who joined with the priests who joined with the ark who joined with the people. Joshua wasn’t alone in the risk; he put the priests out and asked for 12 men from each tribe to go and the people to follow.
If God wanted to, He could just do miracles without you. God wants you to partner with Him. If God wanted to, He could give you a task that makes earthly sense. Gideon could have defeated an army without sending home all but 300 men. But God doesn’t want to just do miracles (Hello, He already made the universe, wasn’t that cool enough?) God doesn’t want you to accomplish human-sized tasks. We are created in God’s image and God seeks fellowship. We too should seek fellowship with Him and partnership in prayers with our fellow believers.
God exalted Joshua to show the people that God was with them and with Joshua.
Do you have a need? God wants you to sow a seed of faith. He wants to exalt you by participating with you. He could do it Himself but He wants to exalt Himself with you as a sign before all of the people.
This same Joshua was going to tell the people to do things that made no earthly sense: March around Jericho, take no spoils from there, send 80-year-old Caleb to lead a battle by going up a mountain! You remember Caleb, right? He and Joshua were two of the twelve spies who 40 years earlier believed they could take down the enemy even though they seemed like grasshoppers in the midst of giants.
Participate with God in God-sized tasks and He will exalt you, but not for your sake, not for your pride to be puffed up, but to show others that God is with you.
Warning: Please note whose idea it was to put the priests in the water. It originated with God. Joshua had experienced God’s presence in prayer and obedience. He and the people had examined themselves personally in reverence and trusting God’s leadership. And they exemplified God’s purity by sanctifying themselves. Don't tempt God by stepping out when He has not told you to.
Final word: Expect God to exalt Himself through fallible humans, like Joshua and the priests. Hebrews 13:7 says this: “Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.”
God had charged Joshua to be strong and courageous (chapter 1). God will call your leaders to step out in faith, and your leaders will call for you to follow. Don’t exalt them. But exalt God through them. If they have proven themselves to be listening to God, glorify God by following those whom He has placed in positions of leadership. Don’t submit to the fallible human you see before you but the God who stands behind him or her!
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