Sermon: "Trusting God's Marching Orders"

5th in the "The Full Armor of God" series.
Delivered July 29, 2007 by Rev. Laura Crihfield.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

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Good morning. That was not a very awake good morning. I know that you are awake because I just had to flicker the lights too you know; Good morning. There you go, alright. Well today we are wrapping up what has been, in my opinion, a terrific series of sermons; I hope you agree, on the Full Armor of God. Over the past few weeks Pastor George has walked us through Paul's challenge to do all that we can do to be spiritually prepared for the battle that is a reality of life in this world. In the middle of that series Pastor John pointed us to the Old Testament for a reminder that there is much more to the battle than appears on the surface, that there is a lot that is unseen and that while that is true, the other reality is that we have much in terms of resources that is also unseen to help us in that battle.

Well today we are looking once again to the Old Testament for insight into the final step of spiritual preparedness. Specifically, we are going to be looking at how Joshua prepared himself and equally as important was prepared by God for all that lay ahead of him and his people. As we will discover by looking at Joshua's experience, being prepared is not just about doing what we can do to get ready, but it's also about trusting the Lord to do his part and surrendering to his plan. Let me set the scene for you; it may be familiar, but just in case. For 40 years, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness Israel is finally ready under Joshua leadership to claim what God committed to their ancestors; the Promised Land, the land said to be flowing with mild and honey, which after 40 years of quail and manna had to sound pretty good, right? As they got ready to claim it there stood Jericho. It's the first literal hindrance physically in front of them that stands in the way between them and the Promised Land. They knew that Jericho had to be defeated. The question was how.

Well as they waited on the far side of the Jordan River, you may recall they sent spies into Jericho to assess what their possibility was for success. And in Joshua 2:24 we see that they have gotten word back from those spies, the text they said to Joshua the Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands. All the people are melting in fear because of us. Melting in fear; that's a good thing if you are Joshua and the Israelites. And with that assurance they crossed the Jordan with a bit of God's help in holding back the floodwaters similar to the way he did with the Red Sea. And that is where our text picks up. It is a long text that we've got today in front of us so we are going to read it section by section and talk about it as we go instead of reading the whole thing at once. So I am going to invite you if you want to follow along with me. It will be up on the screen, but I am looking at Joshua Chapter 5, beginning in Verse 13. Let's pray before we look into God's word.

Holy God, thank you for this time and your word, thank you that you allow us to study it and to learn from it and to live by it. I pray God that this time would be profitable for us that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together would be acceptable to you. Speak to us Lord, for we have come to listen. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Joshua Chapter 5, Verses 13 to 15 to begin:

"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" The commander of the Lord's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so."

I love how this story begins. There is Joshua that essentially is the general in this army of Israelites ready to take on Jericho, as prepared as he could be, when he looks up and sees a man that he doesn't recognize. Well Joshua immediately asks the really logical and appropriate question at that moment as he is thinking about war and battles; "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither" is the reply. But as the commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. With that Joshua's spiritual eyes are opened and he gets it. He realized at that moment that he was in the presence of the Lord and there was no hesitation on his part. He immediately submitted to the reality of God's presence, to the reality of God's will. He bows in reverence. He asks what the message is from the Lord and then he complies when he is told to take off his sandals, which to us may see insignificant, but in that day that was an amazing sign of surrender and saying, "I can't do this. I know I am at your will."

Submission to God's will. It's crucial as we think about fully trusting God's marching orders for our lives. It's also arguably one of the most difficult things we are called to as believers. Whether we are talking about a small issue or a huge life-altering decision I would be willing to bet that not many of us enjoy surrendering to the will of another at all. I don't like to submit to anybody's will but my own and sometimes I struggle with even that. Submitting requires letting go; trusting, surrendering control. Perhaps it requires letting go or giving up a hope or a dream and placing ourselves at the mercy of another. I don't know about you, but I don't like it. I want what I want, when I want it, how I want it. Are you with me? Yeah. But wanting things done on our terms and done in the way that we want and the way we think is best is not the model of faithfulness that we see in scripture. Instead we see countless stories similar to Joshua's where believers surrender their wills to that of the Father in total submission. It's that little word that we don't like to use in our vocabulary very much. But that is what the Lord wants from us; to be like Joshua and place ourselves at his feet in surrender, to take off our sandals and say "I can't do it. I know that you need to be in control. I surrender."

James 4:10 tells believers

"To humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up."

1st Peter 5 through 6 presents the same challenge. It says,

"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time."

Don't you wish that little last "in due time", that prepositional phrase wasn't there? It's not in our time. It's in God's time.

Well, Joshua didn't have these passages as a reminder, he must have known on some level, as he looked at Jericho that submission was his only hope for victory and so he trusted, humbling himself before the Lord. Do we do the same? Do we recognize or have our spiritual eyes open to the reality of God's presence and to the call that he puts before us? Do we willingly submit to his will no matter how difficult?

As I said, I am not very good at it and I want to be careful here for just a second, this may seem like a little tangent, but I want to take us on it for just a second. I want to be careful not to sound as if it's not okay to wrestle with God or to say to God "I don't like this very much. What are you doing here God? What's going on? I don't understand it. I don't like this." I am not suggesting that we have to act like everything is okay when it's not simply for the appearance of being faithful. I am not suggesting that at all. God is able and willing to handle all of our questions and all of our struggles. He is big enough for that. He knows that life gets tough and he wants us to be honest with him. He wants that. The challenge for us as believers is that as we do, as we are honest before the Lord that we enter into those conversations with a heart open to what God has for us and with a spirit that's humble and willing to submit to whatever God has for us. Have the conversation, but enter them with that submissive, willing, humble spirit.

The Lord knows that submission for all of us is difficult. He created us. It's not a surprise to him. Which is why I think he gives us throughout scripture countless reminders of why we can trust him. If we look at Jeremiah 29:11, a familiar passage to many,

"For I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Romans 8:28 is another New Testament reminder. Paul says that,

"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Really what God is giving us in passages like these throughout scripture is assurance; something he has been giving people for as long as people have existed, assurance that we can trust him.

Joshua is no exception to that. If you look with me at Chapter 6, Verses 1 and 2 we see that. Beginning at Verse 1:

"Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men."

I have delivered Jericho into your hands. God assures Joshua as he stands on the verge of this battle; letting him know that the victory is a sure thing. And notice that it is in the past tense. I find that really interesting. It doesn't say "I might deliver Jericho into your hands" or "in the future I am going to deliver Jericho into your hands" or "if I feel like it I will deliver Jericho into your hands", or "if you just fight hard enough I will deliver Jericho in to your hands." I have delivered (past tense) Jericho into your hands. From Joshua's perspective, the battle hadn't even begun yet right? But from God's perspective, which is not the human perspective, somehow that battle was already won. And God lets Joshua know it. He could enter into battle against Jericho knowing that the Lord had on some level, in some mysterious way, already defeated the enemy. Now submission and follow-through from Joshua and Joshua's army the Israelites is crucial in order for them to realize that victory, but there was no question as to the outcome, because there was no question about God's sovereign rule over this world. Victory would be Joshua's and the people of Israels. They were assured of this.

In thinking about bringing it to today and the battles we face as followers of Jesus, we can rest in that same assurance that God gave to Joshua. We know that because of what Jesus did on the cross for us and because of what God did in raising him up from the dead that the war has been won. Amen? Amen. It's been won. It is past tense. We can talk about it in past tense. There will be battles that we will face, there will be struggles and trials in life, because we live in the reality of a world that has not yet been completely redeemed. We live in a fallen world. This is that mystery that we often talk about of the already and not yet. God has won and yet its not all yet realized and our call, like Joshua's, is to remain faithful in the assurance that victory is ours. Assurance is really what gives us the ability to accept, right? To accept God's sometimes strange plan.

Pick up the story with me if you will in Verse 3. I am going to read through Verse 14.

"March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."

So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord."

When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord's covenant followed them. The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!" So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there.

Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days."

Six days; that's a lot of days. Six days they get up and march around the city, they come back to camp and play solitaire? I don't know what they did. Hung out? And then they do it again the next day. For six days; I wonder what Joshua was thinking when he heard this plan. After all Jericho was a formidable city; not something that was going to be easily conquered. According to scholars and you may be familiar with this, but the outer wall was 20 feet tall and 6 feet wide. The inner wall was 30 ft tall and 12 feet wide and in between these two walls was a 15-foot wide passageway that was constantly guarded and here they were outside the city marching around it. How are we going to get in? Ludicrous, right from a human perspective; just really crazy that this was the plan. There was no talk of armor or soldiers or spears. There was no talk of strategy or spies or weapons. Okay, let's figure it out, how are we going to get in to the city? There was none of that. God's plan involved the Ark of the Covenant, priests, trumpets and people walking around the city. It was crazy. And yet it was exactly what God called them to do. And it was exactly what Joshua and his men did.

Imagine what the people of Jericho who on the one hand are melting in fear because of the Israelites; imagine what they must have been thinking. Why are we afraid of these people; all they are doing is marching around the city? Or, okay these folks must be crazy, because all they are doing is marching around the city.

Imagine what the Israelites must have been feeling, as they, as I would imagine, experience some humiliation, some danger. These folks in Jericho are going to figure us out. We are doing the same thing every day for six days. They could attack. Crazy plan, but because Joshua believed the words of assurance that he received from the Lord, he trusted God and that God had his and all of the Israelites best interest in mind. He trusted this strange plan so much so he was able to lead his people. It's one thing to trust for myself, its one thing for Joshua to trust for himself, but to have such confidence that he could lead God's people and build them up and say, "I know it's a crazy plan, but God is calling us to do it. Let's do it. That takes another level of trust in my opinion and Joshua had it. He believed that God's plan would succeed and succeed it did. Victory as we know and we will read in just a second was theirs because of God's power. It was God's power and not anything they did that made those walls come down.

Look with me starting at Verse 15 and I am going to read 15 and 16 and then skip over to 20 just for the sake of time.

"On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!"

Verse 20:

"When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it-men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys."

I would have loved to be there for that moment, wouldn't you? What a thrill it had to have been to watch as we have our kids sing and then we sometimes sing, "Those Walls come a-tumbling down." They had been faithful to what God had called them to. They do the crazy thing about following this crazy plan that God's got for them and they watched those walls come tumbling down just as God said they would. Because of God's power the victory was certain.

But back to the difficulty of trusting those marching orders. There is no getting around it. It's a tough thing. It requires that we live the truth of what Paul says to the Galations in 2:20. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." To be crucified with Christ means in part to surrender our wills, our desires, our hopes, our dreams and allow them to be replaced by God's will, God's hopes, God's desires, God's dreams for us. It means submitting to God's plan for our life. It means following and trusting God's marching orders.

I want to point us back to an earlier verse in Joshua and its one that I hope if you have been around for the last six months perhaps is familiar. It's been the key verse for us as a congregation over the last six months and it comes at a point in the story of Joshua and Jericho where Joshua and his men are about to cross the Jordan. Joshua knows that God is going to do amazing things and he is encouraging his men to really get themselves ready for that. And I want to read it together. It's familiar I am hoping. Joshua 3:5, there we go. Will you read that with me?

"Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you."

Now, we have been thinking about this passage for the last six months. Here we are July 29th, more than scary as it is halfway through the year, more than that. We've got about five months left in this year and we are going to continue to have this be our focus. It's really appropriate for us today as we think about this passage in relation to submission to God's will, in relation to moving in a way that allows the desires of God's heart to become the desires of our heart. I think it is appropriate for us to ask ourselves a really pointed question and that is on the card that you have on the middle aisle and if you are sitting in the middle aisle, would you pass this down and we are not sure that we have enough for everybody, because of the first and second services; we are not sure that we do, but we think there is enough floating around. Everybody check the seats in front of you and if you have extras in your aisle that you don't need or if you need one would you raise your hand so we can get it to you. Anybody need one that doesn't have one? Praise God, we have enough. That means that those of you who are holding one up, you can fill out two, yeah. Okay, so on one side of the card you have the verse that we just read; the Joshua 3:5 passage. On the other side you have a question. Here is the question that we are all going to ask ourselves and we are going to take some time after I pray to think this through and spend some time with the Lord while the band plays.

The question is, what area or areas of your life do you need to submit to God's will in order to be more fully consecrated to the Lord? What are those areas where God is saying this is it. This is what I need you to give to me in order to really be prepared for the amazing things I am doing in your life.

For each of us that is different, but the question is the same and I want to encourage you in this time, as we said that God is big enough to have us wrestle with him about questions like this. So I want to spend some time, I want to give you some moments to think about that. At the end of the service, sometimes we have you turn cards like this in, kind of in to the offering plate, as a sign of your commitment to it, we don't want you to do that today. We want you to take this card home and allow it to serve as a reminder of what you are being challenged to submit. Put this on your refrigerator or put it wherever you want. Let it serve as a reminder of that. So I am going to pray and then were are going to take some and if feel like actually writing down the question, you've got the space to do that.

Let's pray: Lord God, we call us to surrender to you in obedience, trusting God that you have our best interest in mind. God there are areas in all of our lives that we know need to come into submission to you and to your will, and God as we spend these next few minutes with you, we ask that you would give us the courage to look deep within ourselves to recognize what you are calling us to, to hear your voice, to be in that conversation with you and to come with submissive, willing, humble spirits believing and trusting that in you and because of what Christ has done the victory is ours. Thank you God so much and we ask that you would bless this time now in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2007, Rev. Laura Crihfield
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org