“So What Has the Lord Done for Us Today?”

Scripture: Joshua 24:1-13

For the next two weeks, we will be considering Joshua’s message to the people of Israel when they gathered together at Shechem. They had arrived in the Promised Land many years before, and had been involved in many battles with the people who were already living there. Crossing the Jordan may have been the end of the previous journey, but it was just the beginning of a new one. But eventually, the other nations would be defeated, areas would be divided between the various tribes, and peace would come over the region.
But peace, at least for Joshua, wasn’t enough. He remembered the covenant that Yahweh had made with Israel, and he felt the need for a reaffirmation with the nation. At the end of the previous chapter, we read his challenge to Israel – (23:16) “If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”

As with every covenant that every person or nation will ever make, we need to periodically have a refresher as to what it really means for us. When was the last time you read our Declaration of Independence? Or the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Complacency is one of the greatest enemies that anyone will ever face, and it is doubly dangerous for every Christian. We accept a relationship with the Lord when we claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior; it is acknowledged and confirmed in our baptism; we renew that bond in our membership vows; we affirm it in our marriage ceremony – but is all of this it enough? It doesn’t appear to be!
Joshua understood the importance of remembering that God’s bond with us is not dictatorial – that it is relational, and he called the people to assemble at Shechem for the opportunity to reaffirm the Godly union that had sustained them through hundreds of years in captivity, and 40 years in the wilderness, and countless years of conflict. But did the people not only remember what the Lord had done for them, but also understand what he had done?

Read Joshua 24:1-4

“Do you remember this story?” “Do you remember what God promised to Abraham and his descendents?” “And didn’t it happen just that way?” “Do you see now how it has all worked for your good?”

I’m sure that you’ve heard the old the past saying – “Hind sight is 20/20!” We seem to understand the things of yesterday far better than we can trust in the things of tomorrow! And yet, that is exactly what the Lord is asking us to do! Trust him! In all things! In all ways! In all situations!
Do you think that Joseph understood why everything started to go against him? (Genesis 37-50)First threats of death from his own brothers, then a pit, then slavery, then the lies of his master’s wife, then prison. How many of us could have remained faithful in light of all that? Jacob and all of his family would find themselves on the verge of dying of starvation, until the “lost son” brought them out of death in Canaan and into salvation in Egypt.
Could Abram have envisioned all of this when he and Sarai were lead to Egypt? (Genesis 12:10-20) That one day, his great grandson would be second only to Pharaoh in this mighty nation? And we haven’t even begun to consider what would come after this!

Hindsight! But even in knowing the story, Israel had a hard time putting it all together, and Joshua had to spell it out for them.

Read Joshua 24:5-7

“In retrospect, do you now understand what I have done for you?”

Some days, it is nearly impossible to hear God voice above the roar that inundates our lives. The demands of our jobs, family, society, nation, government, illness, pain, loss - even “church” can claim all of our attention, and God’s word, that “still, small voice” that whispers to our spirit, goes unheard. We listen to those things that will, one day, all fall away, and they begin to take control our life. And that one and only voice, the one that is perfect and consistent and eternal is pushed to the rear. Is it any wonder that we seldom hear God’s plan, and even less certain that we will understand and follow it?
We need to be reminded, every hour of every day, that God not only had a marvelous plan working in the lives of Abraham and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and Joshua, but that he also has one in place for each of us. Do you trust in that promise? Do you believe in that promise? Can you see it working for an ultimate good in you?

Like the Israelites, we sometimes find ourselves in a desert wasteland. No hope, no means, no future to speak of – just devastation and loss and darkness. Israel had been trapped between the sea and the most powerful army in all the world, and yet their God, who is more powerful than either of those, rescued them. Not by might, but by faith. Not because Moses had a great plan to rescue the nation, but because the Lord did. But after being spared from death at the hands of the sea and the Egyptians, their next step would lead them into the wilderness, and because of their lack of faith in what God could do, because they didn’t trust that the Almighty was working on their behalf, they wound up spending the next 40 years wandering in the vastness of nothingness, surviving solely on the benevolence of the God they had rejected. Nothing could defeat the Plan, but it could be delayed.

That’s what our ways of complacency, pride, self-confidence, self centeredness will do every time. It’s only when we step out in faith that our all powerful God can begin to do the truly great things in and through us. It’s only when we readily admit that we will never be able to do something, but at the same time, know that we have to go and begin the task just the same. We know that our participation is needed if the mission is ever to be accomplished. Whether it is a missional opportunity, or a ministry, or a personal endeavor, or some other calling, it is more than just responding to the voice that is speaking to us, it is the matter of trusting in the One who we know is speaking.

The Lord knows our voice, but do we know his?

Read Joshua 24:8-13

A young man wanted to change his life, so he went into a church and sat down in the sanctuary for awhile. He took out a piece of paper and a pencil and began writing down a long list of things that he promised he would do to change his life - a whole page of things - and he signed his name at the bottom,took it up and placed it on the altar, and sat down again in the sanctuary.

As he was sitting there, however, he began to sense the voice of God speaking softly in his own soul. And the more he listened to it, the more he heard God saying to him, “You've done it all wrong. I want you to go back up there and get the piece of paper and tear it up. And then I'll give you another instruction.”
So, the young man got out of his pew, walked up to the altar and did as the Lord told him. And then he went back to sit down in the pew and waited for the Lord to instruct him. It did not happen immediately, but finally the message came through. The Lord said to him, very gently, “Now take a piece of paper and sign your name to it at the bottom and let me fill in all the rest!”
--From Barry P. Boulware, First United Methodist Church, Kansas City, Missouri, who got it from Norman Neaves, a colleague

For Israel, and for us, it isn’t about God acting on our list – it’s about our trusting in his! For Israel, it wasn’t about their skill and might in war, it wasn’t about their plan to built great cities, it wasn’t about their planting and cultivating wonderful vineyards and fields – it was about God’s preparing everything for them and their loving and faithful care of his wonderful gift!

What has God done for us lately? The simple answer is this: “Everything!!” The real question for us, though, is “What have we done for the Lord lately?” And we’ll talk about that next week!