How Great the Day!
Joshua 14:5
The people of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses; they allotted the land.
Joshua 14:5 is up there with the greatest moment in all recorded Scripture, even though no enthralling Red Sea crossings are performed, and no Goliaths are felled, and no faithful prophets are rescued from lions, and no prodigal missionaries are swallowed alive by giant fish, and no judge wipes out an army with a jawbone, and no fire falls from heaven against four hundred false prophets. This Scripture is as mundane a verse as you’ll ever read, and, because of that, it’s precisely the sort of line that I far too easily tend to skip over. Yet the lack of the spectacular here doesn’t take away from the grandeur and significance of the events recorded. The people of Israel did as the LORD commanded. But wait—a skeptic might butt in here. They only allotted a bit of land, right? Isn’t it hyperbolic to call this deed a monumental one? No, because every remarkable advance in the life of faith is summed up in that simple, fundamental step of obedience to God’s Word. Likewise, every calamitous fall backward is summed up by the reverse.
Friend, I’m sure you wish the day ahead would be one of those mountain-moving sort of days, don’t you? The sort of day bathed in the tangible and undeniable wonder of God working on your behalf. The sort that, were it a Bible story, would be reread over again from generation to generation, inspiring thrill and awe in young and old alike. But whether or not the sun stands at your request or the rivers part at the approach of your footsteps or the giants fall defeated at your defense, these twenty-four hours, as mundane as they may seem at present, will be a great day—up there with the greatest days in all of history—If you will choose to obey the commands of God and walk according to His wisdom in all you do.
Whether you’re leading a nation or homeschooling children, whether you’re nailing 95 theses to start a Reformation or nailing down the next board of a broken deck, whether you’re heading up a missionary advance to unreached tribes or coaching a little league baseball team in your rural town, do all to the glory of God.