Hokey Pokey Faith

January 26, 2014

Joshua:  Turning Obedience Into Blessing

Joshua 3:  Hokey Pokey Faith                             NOT EDITED

SIS—If we take the first step of faith, God will take care of the rest.

Ever hear the phrase: "getting your feet wet?" It refers to experiencing something for the first time. It describes the process by which an idea becomes an experience. This idiom comes from Joshua 3 according to most sources. In this chapter God parts the waters of the Jordan at flood stage so the Israelites could enter the Promised Land. Sadly, most church-goers live on the Wilderness Side of Life instead forging the waters of decision to enter the Promised Land. For most American Christians, faith is an idea, not an experience. An idea, however wonderful, will never bring about significant results until that idea is turned into an action. Real faith makes a real difference in life and a real difference in our world. I call this:  "Hokey Pokey Faith." If your feet ain’t movin’ your faith ain’t workin’.  James described real faith in this same way:

2:18  Show me your faith without works,

and I will show you faith from my works.

Real faith gets it feet wet.  Real faith has three requirements:

1) Reevaluate Your Position (4, 15)

⁴ But keep a distance of about 1,000 yards  between yourselves and the ark. Don’t go near it, so that you can see the way to go, for you haven’t traveled this way before.”

Many people suffer from a “victim complex.”  Their circumstances define their self-identity.  They become their problems and life becomes an enemy to be avoided at all cost.  Not every person that suffers from a “victim complex” suffers to the same degree, but many suffer from it to some degree and we all can be caught in this net if we are not careful.

Verse 4 is a difficult verse in the context of this story.  Bible students do not agree completely on what this means.  Even without a clear, univocal interpretation, some pretty clear applications seem to derive from this verse.  I don’t think this verse is intended in any way to teach that God is aloof and apathetic about His creation, as some teach such as Deists.  Certainly His holiness is in view because that’s what the Ark of the Covenant was all about.  It was the only furniture in the portion of the Tabernacle called the “Holy of Holies.”  The Holy of Holies was such a sacred place that only the High Priest could enter and only once a year after following very strict guidelines of ritual purification.  So, the distance between the Ark and the people certainly demonstrates the awesome holiness of God.  The Bible teaches that God is Our Heavenly Father, but this does not support the kind of familiarity toward God we see in the church today.  As we learn in 2Samuel 6, even the mere touching of the Ark brought instant death to a man called Uzzah.  The Ark was a “holy” artifact representing the very real and immediate Presence of God.  So, we should not get so “familiar” with God that we lose our perspective on His holiness.

I think we can draw another line of application from this verse by focusing on the idea of “distance” instead of the artifact of the Ark, itself.  God is leading the Israelite people right into the biggest challenge of their lives to date.  Look at verse 10-11

¹⁰ He said: “You will know that the living God is among you  and that He will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites  ¹¹ when the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth  goes ahead of you into the Jordan.

The Israelites would soon be neck deep in a difficult encounter with pagan squatters in the land God had promised to them.  These were fearsome peoples who had a generation earlier caused the last generation to panic and be paralyzed by fear.  God wanted to show that He had it all under control and would be in the land securing it on their behalf long before they arrived.  With a half a mile distance th4 full congregation could keep the Ark in view.  They could see God leading them ever closer to the Promised Land.  God would arrive long before the congregation.  Victory was assured.

Another challenge faced Israel besides the pagans they would need to fight.  They would soon face the Jordan River, raging at flood stage.  Look at verse 15:

Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season.

The references to these two challenges, the pagans and the raging waters of the flood stage represent the various challenges we must face in life.  The Ark represents God’s presence that goes before us in every battle we must face.

I think we can apply this idea of keeping a distance from the Ark we in two ways:  1)  we must never take for granted God’s holiness—and  2 ) we must never lose sight of God’s presence that goes before us regardless of how difficult our circumstances may be.  His Presence both guides us and guards us.

From time to time we must reevaluate our position in regard to God’s Presence in our life.  Faith requires we constantly scan the horizon of our lives to see where we are positioned in regard to God’s presence in our lives.

This is important so let me repeat it:  Faith requires we constantly scan the horizon of our lives to see where we are positioned in regard to God’s presence in our lives.

2.  True faith requires we REORDER our Priorities (5)

⁵ Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves,  because the Lord will do wonders  among you tomorrow.”

God is holy.  He expects us to pursue holiness.  Holiness is a bit hard to define, especially since the same word applies to God as it does to His children.  The Word of God says in several places in the O.T.

Be holy as I am holy (Lev. 11:45; 19:2; 20:7)

Peter repeats this same phrase (1:6).  What does this mean?  Certainly, it does not mean that I can “become like God in essence” as Mormons teach—no matter how dedicated a Mormon one might be.  You will not become holy in any manner or to any degree that God is holy in His essence. 

Holiness for God is something He already possesses and can never lose.  Holiness for man is something we pursue and can never gain fully apart from the working of grace in our lives.  The Word says,

²³ Now may the God of peace  Himself sanctify you completely. And may your spirit,  soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming  of our Lord  Jesus Christ.

God, Himself, makes us holy and blameless.  It is not what we do, but what God has already done in Christ.  Our task is to manifest the holiness He provides through righteous living.

Let’s step back into our text.  The whole thing with the Ark reminds us, as we have seen, that God is Absolutely, even terrifyingly, holy—and we are not.  Yet, then we come to verse 5:

⁵ Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves,  because the Lord will do wonders  among you tomorrow.”

I’ve told you many times that Hebrew verbs build upon a basic root by adding what is called, “stems,” or different variations on the root.  In the case of the Hebrew word translated, “consecrate,” two issues are put in play by the stematic form.  This particular stem is the reflexive—stay with me it isn’t that hard—form of the piel stem.  It is the hithpiel stem.  The piel stem refers to an action that ends in an identifiable state.  An example would be, Bob flew the airplane.  The direct object, airplane, is put into the state of flight.  The hithpiel stem does the same thing but the action refers back to the actor as in:  Bob flew the airplane himself.

So, the idea of consecration is simply this:  create a state of godliness by your attitude and actions, and each of us has to do that form himself or herself.  Parents can’t consecrate us.  Priests can’t consecrate us.  Religious rituals cannot consecrate us.  We have to consecrate ourselves by reordering the priorities of our lives to reflect the place that God holds in our lives.  He is our Creator, and also our Redeemer. 

We have a responsibility to God as Our Creator and Redeemer to “put ourselves into a state of holiness.”  In other words, we should reorder our priorities to reflect Who we say God is.  Consecration is the act of matching what you do with what you say.

I think the number one reason that individuals and churches do not grow is because we have our priorities out of order.  For many church members this would be an easy matter to prove simply by looking at one’s bank statement and comparing how much was spent on “fleshly” needs and desires and how much is spent on “spiritual” endeavors.  I’m sure the same conclusion would derive by a simple “time use analysis” for any given week in our lives.  How much time did we spend on “earthly and fleshly needs and desires,” and how much time did we spend on “spiritual pursuits.”

Now, this bites into our ego.  It stings like salt in a wound.  We recoil at such preaching that actually takes serious the Word of God and applies without softening the chastisement that God’s Word often brings.  But, the simple matter is we cannot move forward in faith if we have our priorities out of order.

A very successful lawyer parked his brand-new Lexus in front of the office, ready to show it off to his colleagues. As he opened the door, a truck came along, and completely tore off the driver's door! The attorney immediately grabbed his cell phone, hit speed dial for 911, and had a policeman there in 3 minutes. Before the cop had a chance to ask any questions, the lawyer started screaming hysterically. He had just picked up the Lexus the day before, and now it would never be the same, no matter how good a job the body shop does.

After the lawyer finally wound down from his rant, the cop shook his head in disgust and disbelief. "I can't believe how materialistic you lawyers are," he said. " You are so focused on your possessions that you don't notice anything else.""How can you say such a thing?" he responded indignantly. The cop replied, "You didn't even notice that your left arm is missing from the elbow down! It must have been torn off when the truck hit you." "OH, NO!" screamed the lawyer in shock. "Where is my Rolex?!?"

“Consecration” is quite simply the matter of reordering our priorities to reflect our view of the holiness and majesty of God. 

As we seek to get our feet wet in faith, and practice “Hokey Pokey Faith” we must reevaluate our position in regard to God and our problems—the greatest problem of course being our sinful nature which alienates us from God.  Secondly, once we have reevaluated our position in regard to God and our problems, we need to reorder our priorities to reflect our view of God’s holiness and majesty.  Third, to experience the kind of faith that is “filled with the wonders of God” (v5) we must:

3.  Resist our fears (v 13)

³ When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the Jordan’s waters, its waters will be cut off. The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.”

This verse is where we get the idiom:  “getting your feet wet,” meaning turning and idea into action, or belief into practice.  It is the only faith that is Biblical faith.  Faith with dry feet is not real faith.

Here’s one of the most remarkable teachings in the Bible, and there are many.  Obedience always leads to blessing.  When we “do” what God calls us to “do” we receive God’s “wonders.”  That is, when we get our feet wet in faith, God does amazing things for us, in us, and through us.

But, let me be quick to point out that “obedience to God” is not an easy thing.  Almost every path to God’s wonderful providence goes through some deep valley, over some towering mountain, or in this case faces raging waters.  Don’t take the challenges of life lightly.  They are real.  Faith, true faith, is a dangerous thing.  True faith puts you in some precarious predicaments that cause fear and anxiety to rise up in our spirit.  That’s why three times in chapter one God said to Joshua:

Be strong and courageous (1:6, 7, 8)

I grew up near the mighty Ohio River in the days before they added all the locks and dams and other flood control measures.  The Ohio was (is) a mighty river in most places, but when rain waters poured into her, she became a raging, white-capped monster.  I remember this usually calm river becoming a menacing, thundering torrent.  Many swam in the Ohio and for the most part she was a kind and safe host—but not at flood stage.  At flood stage, a normally calm river becomes a harbinger of death.  This is what was taking place in regard to the Jordan.

Stepping into the Jordan at flood stage would be done only at great personal risk.  Fear would be a natural companion that day.

Faith that experiences God’s wonders must sometimes do the “hokey pokey” with risk and danger.  Faith that experiences God’s wonders must “resist fear.”  Fear is a healthy companion to obedience as long as you don’t let it keep you from getting your feet wet.

Fear is a God-given reaction to danger.  Fear puts us on high alert so that we can deal appropriately with difficult or dangerous situations.  Fear is also the impulse to avoid the source of our anxiety.  This is the fear that we must resist with faith. When fear causes us to avoid doing what God has called us to do, we move into a state of rebellion.  This is why former generation spent forty years in the Wilderness until they died—they feared the pagans that lived in the land God had promised to them—the Promised Land.

Avoidance is a serious obstacle to dealing with fear because it works--temporarily.  For a time we feel good by avoiding the object of fear. But, dealing with fear by “avoidance” eventually gives our fears control of our lives.  Fear not resisted reduces faith to an idea.  Such fear traps us into wandering aimlessly in the Wilderness.

It is normal to feel fear when facing danger.  But, fear must be resisted and overcome so that fear does not become paralysis.

That’s how faith works.  You have to “put your feet into it—it being whatever situation you are facing.”  In any given challenge, when something simply must be done, the only absolutely wrong action to take is to take no action.  We cannot let fear paralyze our faith.  Yet, many of us do this on a regular basis.

As I was reading in preparation for this sermon I came across one of the most profound statements on resisting fear that I have ever seen.  The statement says, “Thinking will never overcome fear—action will.” 

This is the whole idea behind the idiom, “getting your feet wet.”  You cannot experience life by thinking about things—you have to “do” something.  You have to get your feet wet.

What “next” step do you need to take in order to “get your feet wet” and begin the crossing over into the Promised Land?  Are you willing to reevaluate where you stand in relation to God?  Are you living in His presence?  Have you given your heart and soul to Him as the Lord of your life?  What about your priorities?  Have you recently evaluated whether you life matches what you believe about God’s holiness and majesty?  What about the fear of falling completely in love with the Lord?  What about the fear of giving regularly to support the work of the church and trusting God to meet your needs?  What about the fear of making that decision you are facing?

What next step do you need to take today to “get your feet wet with faith?” 

How’s that “Hokey Pokey” song go? “You put your right foot in . . . “

You can learn a lot about faith by doing the “Hokey Pokey.”

If nothing changes . . . nothing changes!  You can do nothing all day long and you will never see God’s wonders in your life.  If you don’t “get your feet wet,” your relationship with God is going to be as dry as a desert.  If your faith does not have wet feet, you are condemned to remain on the Wilderness Side of the Jordan.

Let me bring this message home to our church family.  As the raging torrents of circumstances flood the banks of our lives separating us from the Promised Land of Victorious Christian Living, we have to make some decisive changes in our lives.  We have to take off our shoes and socks, roll up our pants and step into the water. 

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