GLORY LATENT IN DESPERATE DEPENDENCE
After God dried up the Jordan river for Joshua and the Israelites to cross on dry ground, their enemy armies heard of this and trembled with fear. They lost courage to fight them, but the Israelites were on their way nonetheless. However, something stopped them right after they had gotten on a roll. Or rather, someone stopped them: the same God who had just made a way forward for them.
At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.[1]
It must have been confusing for them, for such a command to come at what probably seemed like the worst possible time. Since the Israelites had been walking in the desert for forty years, the younger generation was born in the wilderness on their way out of Egypt, and none of them were circumcised yet. I would imagine Joshua understood this much. But the timing…?
God had just done this wild, astonishing miracle, specifically for the purpose of showing them He was with them [2]. God obviously knew there were seven armies waiting to attack them, they needed help and intervention. Right in the middle of this intense time of battle and desperation, God commands Joshua to completely debilitate his armies. To cut the most sensitive part of these men’s bodies (not to mention with homemade flint knives) would’ve incapacitated them right at the moment of their greatest need for strength. I can just imagine them thinking, “can’t this wait until we get home?” I don’t know what it’s like to have seven armies chasing me, but I know it’s the last moment I’d want to become physically incapacitated.
Because God was the one who ordered this, Joshua had the confidence to walk in audacious faith and obedience. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that this strangely timed, scary instruction came right on the heels of an astounding miracle God used to make them certain He was present with them. It was now their turn to respond to His goodness to them, and trust what He said. Obeying this risky instruction gave them an opportunity to worship God for who He had shown Himself to be. God said, “step into the Jordan, it’ll dry up after you put your feet there, and I will make a way for you to prove the Living God is among you.” Now His people had the chance to reply, “We have seen you move amongst us, and you’re trustworthy.”
The Israelites camped at Gilgal as their bodies healed, so they were forced to be still and trust Him. The last time God dried up a body of water to make a way for them, He made one thing very clear: “The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.”[3] He had protected and delivered them before, and He would do it again. But they wouldn’t have gotten to experience this extent of His power on display had they not been desperately, uncomfortably dependent.
We have to mark the words He speaks to us in moments of crisis. The moments we’re desperately in need, we haven’t seen the way out yet, and there’s something He wants us to learn from that place, before the deliverance.
After the armies were healed, God spoke again: “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”[4] And the place they waited in trust was named after His deliverance of them.
These things are easier to read about when they happened to other people thousands of years ago. But what about the circumstances happening to us today that make us weak, debilitated, and totally dependent on God? I can’t think of an example of this that’s fun to go through. We all want to see God move, but no one wants to be put in a position where a miracle is the only way out. Furthermore, what about the times when God Himself makes us vulnerable and dependent on Him? Do we believe in His loving kindness even then?
Paul describes the thorn left in his side, despite his prayers for deliverance from it, as being something that intentionally weakened him. He surrendered to being brought low in this area he actually needed—because it humbled him—to the point where he could say he delighted in it.[5] In order to see God’s power made perfect in our weakness, we have to accept the weakness first. Jesus lowered Himself as a crown of mockery was placed on His head,[6] He felt the sting of the thorns pressed into His flesh while He bled. He surrendered to the process of being made nothing, and this is exactly what made Him king. God has always made a habit of revealing Himself to the meek and lowly. The moment we surrender to whatever thorns are being pressed into us is the moment we cross the threshold into the process of God showing us Himself. It serves us well to find the areas where we’re resisting being made meek and lowly, doing everything we can to create or maintain our own “strength.” These are the exact areas He wants to put His glory on display in our lives.
If you were about to face a battle in life that would require incredible strength, and you prayed for help, then God’s answer came and it required you to completely debilitate yourself… would you say yes? Would you tell your children about not only your accomplishments, but the times when you’ve been at your weakest, so they can see how God intervenes on our behalf? It’s so easy to feel the pain of the areas where we’re weak in this life, and immediately start asking God, “why are you afflicting me?” But if we ask this same question non-rhetorically, and genuinely wait on Him to respond, His answer might be painstakingly beautiful.
And God said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful, and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” [7]
Autumn Crew is the Managing Editor of FAI Publishing. She lives in the Middle East and serves a number of disciple-making initiatives. She can be reached at autumncrew@faimission.org.