171. Lord will do Wonders
Joshua 3:5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
This promise, of course, is specific for a particular event for one time, one place and one people. The Lord caused the waters of the Jordan River to stop flowing so that all the people could cross over on dry land into the Promised Land. And so it happened as promised. The wonders of that miraculous event were memorialized and taught for centuries to come.
The truth of that particular promise may also be applied to us in regard to the “signs, miracles and wonders” that the Lord is going to do in our lives. The greatest wonder that the Lord ever did for us was the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our forgiveness, life and eternal salvation. And many wonders have followed from that Christ-event for the disciples of the New Testament age and for Christian believers throughout the world even until this day.
We do well to remember and believe these words (“tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you”), and apply the promise to our own present needs and answers to prayers according to the will of God. Our Lord is still doing wonders among us. Most of the “wonders” that God does in our lives very often don’t look like more than natural occurrences and coincidences. But sometimes they are truly wonders, because they cause us to wonder how they happened. Sometimes miracles occur that cannot be explained away. If we believe we will attribute the wonders to the Lord who can and will do great things when and where He pleases.
Joshua said, “Sanctify yourselves.” And so should we. What does that mean? We cannot truly “make ourselves holy” for we are spiritually blind and dead in sin, utterly powerless to do anything holy. We sanctify ourselves by daily repentance for sin and faith in Christ for forgiveness. Only God Himself can make us holy: He does so through the work of Christ and working out of His work by the Holy Spirit operating through the spoken or written Word of Gospel. When we hear the gospel and believe it we are “sanctified,” by God, not by ourselves. Jesus Christ is our sanctification. We believe in Him and in so doing we have “sanctified ourselves.”
Once we have repented and believed we get ready to see the Lord at work in life to do wonders among us. We keep our eyes of faith open for “God sightings,” for we would miss them if we were not open and looking and ready for our Lord to show up and do a wonderful thing. We don’t say, “the river just stopped flowing at the right time;” Instead, we thank God for doing a wonder.