Choices, part 3 [Joshua ch.3]

The third chapter of Joshua is about the people of Israel crossing the Jordan River (while it was at flood stage, no less!). There are quite a few fun subtleties woven into the story that are easy to miss because they tend to be hidden in the shadow of the gargantuan centerpiece-miracle.

Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, because tomorrow the Lord will perform miracles among you.” (Chapter 3, verse 5)

I think of purifying myself as tuning a guitar. Like, if I were told that B.B. King was on his way over to my house to jam, I would make sure my guitars were in tune. God is at work: get ready.

Here’s a weird thing: Joshua refers to miracles, plural. How many happened? Or was the crossing of the river so mammoth that it was in fact a composite of a plethora of miracles? Maybe a new miracle was needed each time another Israelite stepped off the bank onto the riverbed.

There might be another miracle imbedded in the story: the nation became ready to place their trust in Joshua. They had been holding it in escrow, as it were, since they’d lost Moses. Now they would be faced with the choice of whether or not they would invest that level of honor in their new leader.

Being willing to follow a flesh-and-blood person who says, “C’mon! Let’s go this way -- God is doing something great over there” requires a lot of faith. And it’s worth pointing out that it also requires a long history of seeing that person’s character revealed in a variety of situations.