Can you picture some two million Israelites with all their animals, possessions, and rolled up tents, standing next to the flooded Jordan River, wondering how they’ll get across to the Promised Land?
Here comes Joshua with the answer: The Lord of all the earth is going to part the waters so you can walk across on dry ground! He says it twice (3:11, 13).
You probably know that the people of Canaan worshiped many gods–gods of fertility, love, war, thunder, fire, the heavens, and more. In fact, to gain favorable outcomes, they sacrificed to more than 60 deities who were “in charge” of various aspects of nature!
But here at the Jordan it became crystal clear who was really in charge of the world–the Lord of all the earth!
Now here we are thirty-four hundred years later, in 2020. And a virus has come upon the earth, Covid-19 by name.
But if you listen very carefully as Joshua speaks to the Israelites, you can hear Joshua saying to us as well, the Lord of all the earth is still in charge!
In fact, the Lord of all the earth is in charge of everything that is concerning to you right now: your finances, relationships, security, job, future, health, loved ones . . . everything!
I don’t often hear people referring to or praying to God as “Lord of all the earth,” but perhaps we should. Even as the words cross our lips they remind us of who’s in complete control, despite the chaos all around us.