A few months ago God laid it on my heart to share with a group of men at a church in Texas. The church was clearly being carried on the shoulders of just a faithful few at the church.
I was lead to read and share Joshua chapter 4. Here is how I unpacked it.
Moses had just died and Joshua his assistant is now in charge of leading the people of Israel to the promise land. Chapter 1 has the popular passage ‘be strong and courageous’ which we all use very often. That was God’s promise/command to Joshua – you are the one I(God) am going to use to help the people inherit the land that was promised – paraphrased. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. God goes on to remind Joshua to meditate on law and carefully obey.
But God is amazing and so thoughtful. In chapter 3 God tells Joshua that He is going to do a miracle to exalt (Joshua) in the sight of all Israel that they may know that He (God) is with him just as He was with Moses. And we all know its hard to take leadership after a strong leader- What God does for me is so all people may know He is Lord.
He goes on to tell Joshua how. The ark of the covenant was to be carried by the priests before him into the river Jordan.As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests touched the waters it would stop the flow and waters would stand allowing all the people to pass through just like it happened at the Red Sea. But Joshua was to choose one man from each tribe making it twelve men to pick up twelve stones from the bed of Jordan and place them on land at the other side as a memorial forever. And when the children ask about it the people would be able to share this story of how God miraculously allowed them to cross the river on dry ground just like He did for Israel at the Red Sea. – What God does for me is so all people may know He is Lord. And the last verse of chapter 3 says – so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty…
What God does for us is so we may fear the Lord our God as the One True God and that all the peoples of the earth may know him as well. So what is our role – (Joshua 1:7-9) be strong and courageous, being careful to according to all that is commanded us, meditating on God’s word and create environments for the curious little hearts to know our stories (Joshua 4:6-7;21 – 24)
Life and all our God sightings and experiences are not simply for us to treasure its for all the peoples of the world to know that the hand of the Lord is mighty.
I ended that meeting by handing them the different ways and times they could come share their experiences with the children, so that they may ask and the peoples of the world will know that the hand of the Lord is mighty.
So if we are sitting here thinking about how we are learning from God and how we are growing we are not quite fulfilling the entire purpose God has for us. It’s not just about us, or its not just about family ministry or us as families its about the people all over the world that they may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty. How are we setting up memorials for our children and the peoples of this world today?
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