Utterly Defenseless

 “At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.”

I thought that my faith had been tested to the limit.  I followed the Lord’s command to lead the Israelites through the Jordan at the height of harvest season, when the waters overflowed their banks.  The first step of faith parted the waters and we walked through on dry land and every one of us were completely amazed.  There are no words when you witness the impossible.   

The moment reality collides with an invisible force, who has that kind of power, everything you know profoundly changes.  I will never be the same.   The God of Presence is the God of Power.   If He is for us, whom or what shall I fear? 

 Yesterday, I was sure there was nothing you could ask that I wouldn’t do.  Yesterday, the calm assurance that You were completely in control of the Universe and I had nothing to fear felt unshakable.  And yet here we are on this side of the Jordan, with the walls of Jericho standing erect and impenetrable across the plain and You have commanded us to be circumcised.

Surrounded by enemies, You would have us as defenseless as newborn babies.  You would test our devotion and demand complete and total trust.  Even as I submit to your command I know that I never had any confidence in my flesh and You alone are my fortress, so thy will be done. 

Today, every male in the camp will be circumcised and we will display the mark of the covenant in our flesh.  We will step into the land you have promised us after first dedicating our whole selves to your will, your ways, and your word. 

Today, is the greatest test we have faced so far.  We will be utterly defenseless and completely dependent upon you to protect us…  but the truth is You have always been our strength.

I flashback to that day forty years ago as we stood on another shore terrified because there was no way of escape.  We had fled from Egypt and just as we reached the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his army came into view…  Moses raised his staff and plunged it into the water and right before our eyes the water surged up on two sides with a path to walk through the sea in front us.  We ushered millions into the valley made by the mountains of water on either side and as we reached the opposite shore the mountains of water crashed down on Pharaoh and his army.  God had buried our enemies in the heart of the sea.  We had been utterly defenseless then and you protected us.  We can trust you now. 

“And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in the camp until they were healed.  Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.’…  On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while they were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover.  The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain.  The manna stopped the day after they ate the food from the land; there was no longer manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.”  Joshua 5:9-12

How amazing to be the generation who stepped into the fulfilled promises that had been 400 years in the making.  To be the people who walk through the Jordan River on dry ground, to see the walls of Jericho fall.  To eat the fruit of the land, defeat enemies greater than themselves.  To live in houses, they didn’t build and enjoy vineyards they didn’t plant. 

With each new step of faith, they were witnesses to God’s faithfulness and miracles on their behalf.  With every painful, scary act of obedience they moved into a new level of dependence and trust. 

What Jordan are you facing today?  What is God asking you to trust him completely with?  The hard things we are facing today are the very places God wants to prove his faithfulness to us.  We may not understand.  It may be the wrong time or the wrong place.  It may be scary and feel impossible to trust God right now, but this is our moment in time to step out.

What the Israelites had no way of knowing at that moment was that the rumor of God stopping up the waters of Jordan had totally incapacitated their enemies as we can see from Joshua 5:1.  Just the rumor of His power had made them lose heart.  The children of Israel had never been safer than they were at that moment.