Day 113
Joshua 3:1-5:12, Luke 22:1-38, Psalm 50:1-15
It feels like a momentous day, the crossing of the Jordan often plays second fiddle to the crossing of the sea on the way out of Egypt, and yet today Joshua and the people have made that crossing to the promised land. There are a couple of hurdles to cross, but they are there.
What struck me today though is the humility of this man Joshua. God says that he will make him great in the sight of the people, he will raise him up to the same level that Moses was on, but Joshua commands the people and simply says that they will see God do amazing things amongst them. It could have been quite easy for him to build himself up, tell the people that what they are about to see is to show them that he is the successor for Moses. And yet his priority is their relationship with God, he is a powerful leader and yet he leads from a position of humility. Jesus in the Gospel speaks of the one who is least being the greatest and the master being the servant. The truth is that only one is great, and that is the Lord. Joshua understand this and lives it out in his leadership.
There is also a symbolic significance for what has happened here. The people have come through the waters of the Jordan and then they are circumcised, this covenant gesture is renewed in the people that day. It doesn't tell us the reason here why circumcision didn't happen in the desert, but it didn't. So Joshua sorts that out and God says "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you". The people did a lot of rebellion in Egypt and on the way out and all the fighting men didn't make it to the promised land because of that, but in this act God has wiped that away. They have passed through the waters of the Jordan and they are cleansed from past sin, ready for the fight and the life that lies ahead. Then Jesus is baptised in the Jordan and we share that in our own baptismal waters. Sometimes we see a thread that actually stretches a long way through the Bible to us today.
It is interesting that this theme comes alongside the last supper. Baptism and Communion are the only two sacraments within the Methodist church, both are physical signs of the inward working of God's grace in our life. Just as we are changed and cleansed by the waters of baptism, so we are renewed and changed by the act of communion. We cannot fail to be moved by the God for whom it can be said that every animal of the forest is his, the world is his and all that is in it.
It feels like a momentous day, the crossing of the Jordan often plays second fiddle to the crossing of the sea on the way out of Egypt, and yet today Joshua and the people have made that crossing to the promised land. There are a couple of hurdles to cross, but they are there.
What struck me today though is the humility of this man Joshua. God says that he will make him great in the sight of the people, he will raise him up to the same level that Moses was on, but Joshua commands the people and simply says that they will see God do amazing things amongst them. It could have been quite easy for him to build himself up, tell the people that what they are about to see is to show them that he is the successor for Moses. And yet his priority is their relationship with God, he is a powerful leader and yet he leads from a position of humility. Jesus in the Gospel speaks of the one who is least being the greatest and the master being the servant. The truth is that only one is great, and that is the Lord. Joshua understand this and lives it out in his leadership.
There is also a symbolic significance for what has happened here. The people have come through the waters of the Jordan and then they are circumcised, this covenant gesture is renewed in the people that day. It doesn't tell us the reason here why circumcision didn't happen in the desert, but it didn't. So Joshua sorts that out and God says "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you". The people did a lot of rebellion in Egypt and on the way out and all the fighting men didn't make it to the promised land because of that, but in this act God has wiped that away. They have passed through the waters of the Jordan and they are cleansed from past sin, ready for the fight and the life that lies ahead. Then Jesus is baptised in the Jordan and we share that in our own baptismal waters. Sometimes we see a thread that actually stretches a long way through the Bible to us today.
It is interesting that this theme comes alongside the last supper. Baptism and Communion are the only two sacraments within the Methodist church, both are physical signs of the inward working of God's grace in our life. Just as we are changed and cleansed by the waters of baptism, so we are renewed and changed by the act of communion. We cannot fail to be moved by the God for whom it can be said that every animal of the forest is his, the world is his and all that is in it.
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