"A Wondrous Thing!"

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts Him! Psalm 34:8

Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word. Open my eyes that I might see Wondrous things from Your law. Psalm 119:17-18

The answer is Joshua. I know you might be wondering what these two verses and today's message have in common and the answer is Joshua. Joshua got a taste of God. He tasted, saw that God was good, and then He simply trusted. We don't know where or when that happened. Maybe he was in the front of the crowd and he got to see first hand that moment when Moses stretched out his staff over the waters. The wind started to blow, and the waters started to move back, to heap up, and become as walls on either side. I tend to think that would have been a good moment to taste and see the faithfulness of God, what with the cloud and the Angel of God behind them, guarding them as He made them a way of escape, and the waters heaping up in front of them. (Ex. 14:19-22) Yea, that was a good moment to see a wondrous thing, the faithfulness of an amazing God!

Again, we don't know how or why but we do know that He did get a taste of heaven and it caused him to trust and serve God to the point that throughout all his days, God dealt bountifully with him and showed Him so many wondrous things. Actually, the first time Joshua is mentioned in scripture is in Exodus 17:9 were Moses puts him in charge of choosing some men to take into battle against Amalek as he, Arron and Hur stood on top of the hill holding the staff up so that Joshua and his men might prevail. The word also tells us in this account in verse 14 that God told Moses to write it down and to make sure to recount or rehearse it in the hearing of Joshua so that he would know and remember that God would blot out Amalek. It seems Joshua was being called, chosen, and prepared for the wondrous events to come.

The next time we see him is in Exodus 24:13 ...So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up the mountain of God. Joshua at this point is known as his assistant. Interesting to note. Most people think Moses was up there all alone, this verse tells us that he wasn't. Joshua went as well.  In chapter 32:17 it says that he heard the noise of the people as they came down. He wasn't part of that whole making an idol scene, he was up the mountain with Moses and God. How about this next moment in Exodus 33:11 ...So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Talk about a taste for God. He didn't even like to leave God's presence and go home. All these events took place as he was being raised up and prepared to be a leader, a servant of the most High God.

My point is that Joshua got a taste of something good, God. He trusted and served God all the days of his life. He experienced God dealing bountifully with him. He saw so many wondrous events throughout his life, from walls being destroyed with a shout, the sun and moon standing still at his word, a face to face with the Commander of the army of the Lord to name a few.

Actually, I've said all this to come to this moment, when I get to show you this wondrous thing that the Lord showed me. It can be found at the end of Joshua's life. Joshua 24 verses 14-15 is Joshua's famous quote ..."Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." In verse 21-24 we see the people's response ... And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the Lord!" So Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him." And they said, "We are witnesses." "Now therefore," he said, "put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel." And the people said to Joshua,"The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey."

I'm not sure if you see what I do here but it is pretty significant. Joshua didn't choose for them. As the leader he could have declared and made law this that and the other thing trying to force them to serve God as a nation. He didn't, He put it to them. Choose. Choose this day!  They did and here is the wondrous thing ... They did, they served Him all on there own.

So Joshua let the people depart, each to his own inheritance. Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred and ten years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, which is in the mountain of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. (Here it come, the most wondrous thing) Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua who had known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Joshua 28-31

Can you imagine - Joshua, tasted, trusted, served, saw and impacted his generation with the knowledge of a God who deals bountifully with His people to the point that they stayed faithful! They kept their word to serve and obey Him even after they were away from Joshua's presence. They stayed faithful even after his death. They continued to keep their promise to the very last one of them, to their very last breath.

A faithful nation - now that is a wondrous thing!