What have you learned about God? What is He like? What do the stories and experiences we have covered in this series of blogs tell us about Him? Has He kept His promises to you just as he did to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph? Have you experienced His power and provision as Moses did when life has presented you with a task or challenge too diddicult for you to handle? God is all-powerful and wise beyond our ability to grasp, and His love is unfathomable!
In all the stories and incidents we have covered in the past two years, there is a “thread” that we haven’t said much about, God’s timing. God is sovereign, ultimately in control of everything, and He knows exactly when certain things will happen to accomplish His plan to redeem the world He created. This is the aspect of God’s wisdom Paul references in Galatians 4:4, “When the fullness of time came, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the law.” God’s timing is purposeful and exact to the moment, and is not dependant on human calendars, expectations or wishes.
When Noah finished the ark, God brought the flood. God’s timing! When Abraham took Isaac to the mountain to sacrifice him, God was sending a ram as a substiute just at the right moment. God’s timing! What about God’s timing in allowing Joseph to be sold to the Egyptian official named Potiphar? God’s timing! God made him the prime minister of Egypt, saving his family from death by the drought that was devastating the area.
Today’s story, based on Joshua 3, is another example of God’s timing. As last week’s blog ended, the two spies had made a covenant with Rahab to spare her family, and after three days returned to report their findings to Joshua. https://www.cosdavis.com/rahabs-faith-continued/ prepares you for what happens next.
Three days before this happened, Joshua told the Israelite leaders to instruct the people, ” Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are going to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess it.” Joshua 1:11.
All the plans seem to be “coming together.” Rahab is getting her family together, the scarlet cord is in her window, and the spies have reported the good news that the hearts of the inhabitants of Jericho have “melted’ in fear of God and His people.
This is how Joshua 3 opens, “Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and he and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and they lodged there before they crossed.” Joshua 3:1.
Notice how this verse ends, “And they lodged there before they crossed.” Why did they not go immediately and take Jericho? Why wait? Get this battle over; we know God is giving us the victory. Joshua waited for further instruction from God because he was a wise leader. He trusted God’s timing and did not want to jepordize God’s plan by acting foolishly.
Joshua had learned that God is wiser than any man, knowing all details and circumstances of every battle we face. He trusted God’s timing by sevring faithfully under Moses, never seeking to repalce Moses when the people wanted to get rid of him. He never sought the leadership position, but allowed God to put him there when the time was right.
He, like those he was leading, had waited forty years for the circumstances in God’s timing to be right for taking the Promised Land. But, he waited on God. Led by his reliance on God, Joshua gave the priests and the people precise instructions how the were to cross the Jordan. Joshua 3:4-6.
Joshua 3:7 tells us how God rewarded Joshua for his patience and obedience. “Now the Lord said to Joshua, ‘” This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.”
Scripture teaches us to rely on God’s love and faithfulness by waiting on Him to guide us in dealing with our problems. Waiting on the Lord can save us from many foolish mistakes. For example, Proverbs 20:22 tells us to wait on the Lord instead of taking vengence against someone who has hurt us, “Do not say,”‘ I will repay evil”‘; Wait for the Lord and He will save you.”
Isaiah 40: 31 promises renewal and strength when we are going through hard times. If you are you experiencing difficulties that seem too much for you to deal with, here is God’s word to you, “Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” If this is where you are in life, claim this promise and wait for God to act on your behalf.
In Acts 1: 4, Jesus instructed the disciples to “wait for what the Father had promised.” What did the disciples do? They waited seventy days on God and the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, “and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:4.
As an old hymn says, “Wait on the Lord, trust His word and be patient, have faith in God, He’ll answer yet.”
Whatever you’re dealing with, whatever your’re praying about, depend on God’s timing; He is always on time.