This morning in our series ‘The Miraculous & The Mundane’, we looked at the life of Joshua. Joshua (first seen in Ex 17:8-16) was the aide of Moses, a military man from the tribe of Ephraim who (along with Caleb) was one of only two men who saw both the miracles God performing in rescuing Israel from Egypt and the miracles He performed to usher them into the Promised Land.
The secret to Joshua’s success was the time he spent in God’s presence, preparation for understanding that the battle belongs to the Lord and victory comes from Him (see Ex 33:7-11). Even in that first battle against the Amalekites, we see his victory was the result of the prayers of Moses and the practical help of Aaron and Hur who held his hands up. (Ex 17:11-12) The miraculous, mundane and very practical often go hand-in-hand.
God intervened in miraculous ways when Joshua succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelites. He gave him explicit instructions (Josh 1:1-6, Josh 3:13-17), but before they actually won their first battle at Jericho, they had to face more mundane tasks, such as circumcising all the men (Joshua 5:2-9) and celebrating Passover (Joshua 5:10-11). We too are called to the mundane task of eating bread and drinking wine to remember the death and resurrection of the Lord (Luke 22:19). We need to understand that our focus must be on what Jesus has done for us and that every spiritual victory ultimately comes from this holy sacrifice.
