God is the Only Link
And the
LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel,
so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses." Joshua 3:7
One of the things that is remarkable to me about the transition from Moses'
leadership to Joshua's leadership, is the total absence of any degree of sentimentality
regarding the death of Moses.
God does give them a month to grieve Moses.
But then God goes to Joshua and tells him that he, Joshua, is going to
be confirmed by God as Moses replacement and that God would do a miracle
to show that the same power Moses had, is now resident with Joshua.
There is a phrase in French. "Le roi est mort. Vive le roi!" "The
king is dead. Long live the king!"
There are no special Moses memorial banners they carry. God sees to it
that there is no Moses shrine erected. That is why Moses burial was in secret.
God did not want them creating a shrine to Moses.
You think of the contrast with Lenin's tomb.
Following the death of Lenin, his body was embalmed and his body placed
in a glass covered coffin and put on public display in Red Square in Moscow
for generations to visit. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin
wanted to take the body off public display, but this did not happen. Now
private donors contribute the $200 a month required to keep the body looking
life like.
When you go to Paris, you can visit the tomb and see the burial place of
Napoleon; and of course, the coffins of many of Great Britain's monarchs are
on display in Westminster Abby.
God permits no such veneration of humans. Respect yes--veneration, no.
In fact, following Moses death and a suitable mourning period, God replaces
Moses with Joshua in a way clearly meant to send a message--Moses may be gone,
but you have Joshua and more importantly, you have the Living God.
A young man comes to Jesus and asks for special permission to leave what
he is doing with Jesus to bury a parent. Jesus' remark is almost shockingly
abrupt. "Let the dead bury the dead," he says.
He is not just saying that life is for the living, because Jesus understood
and God understands our grieving when we lose a loved one. In sermon on the
mount Jesus says, "blessed are those who mourn, for they will find comfort."
There is a difference between mourning a loss and refusing to let go of
the dead.
God allows Israel a time of mourning, but he does not permit them to hang
onto Moses, even in death.
Joshua is waiting in the wings and once the grieving period is over, Joshua
is ordained by God and they move on.
What God does to confirm Joshua was to command the priests to take the
ark of the covenant and go before the people to the Jordan River, which was
in flood. The priests were to walk right out into the river, obeying God.
What was promised was that God would stop the river in its tracks and they
would pass over the river of dry ground. The priests were told to take the
ark and step out into the water and that when they did, God would do a miracle.
They took the ark as was commanded and the priests walked out to the river
carrying the ark.
We are not told what Joshua might have said to them individually, but I
can imagine each one of them had to ask himself the question, "can I do this?"
And one by one they each decided in their own mind, "yes, I can do it."
When the moment comes, Joshua gives the order and those priests pick up
the ark and step out into the swift, muddy and deep water of the Jordan river.
It is not until the sandals get wet that anything happens, but as soon
as they go ankle deep in the river something happens.
The river immediately begins to quiet and starts to drop until in a very
short time the river bed is gleaming in the sunshine.
Somehow God has stopped thewater at a town called Adam some distance up
river. Maybe there was a landslide up-river in one of the gorges the
Jordan flowed through.
In 1927 there was an earthquake that collapsed the clay banks upriver from
Jericho and dammed river for almost 21 hours.
How God did it is not as important as the idea that God has duplicated
the miracle done for Moses at the Red Sea.
He is showing in as concrete a way as possible that with Joshua, they have
lost nothing of God's power.
And across they go where a few minutes before would have been certain death
by drowning--very near where Jesus would be baptized centuries later.
And so God has confirmed Joshua as the new leader of Israel.
God is saying, when you have Me, you have everything you need.
Moses is gone, but I am as strong with Joshua as I ever was with Moses.
It's time to move on.
And this is no disrespect to Moses.
But it is critically important to Israel. After all, Moses was the only
leader they had ever known--them or their parents.
He had led them from Egypt across the wilderness to the edge of the Promised
Land.
Had Moses taken them in, it might have been difficult for them to not have
been confused about who it was that had done this for them.
But now there is no doubt.
As great as Moses was, it is God who has been their guide and protector.
Moses was just the vessel, nothing more. God was the content.
And of course, God has a totally different perspective.
When you go to Britain, there are many mazes you can visit and its fun
to walk around in a well laid out maze.
You really can get lost in the larger ones, and when you are lost
in one, you have no idea where you are, where the exit is or where anyone
else is for that matter.
But someone with a perspective of fifty feet above you could see it all.
That is the way it is with those who die and those who are left behind.
It is impossible for us to see them or the exit.
And we are sometimes like someone caught in a maze, hollering over the
top to locate the person who is now out of sight.
From above it would be obvious.
Martha has an experience like that.
Her brother Lazarus is dead and she is devastated and is chiding Jesus
about not doing more to save him.
Jesus promises her that she will see her brother again.
Martha says, "yes, I know-- at the resurrection." But in the moment
when she says that, the resurrection might as well be over the rainbow because
in the here and now, he is gone.
Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life."
In effect, he is saying, "when you are connected to me, you are connected
to Lazarus. I am the link."
The same is true for Moses.
God is saying, I am the only link to Moses.
God is the only one who sees those alive in this world, and those alive
in the next at the same time, like someone looking down on a maze from a
balcony on the third floor.
Trying to make contact with those who have died and gone before us is futile.
We cannot holler across the top of the maze.
But they are alive to God just as we are.
The only link between us and those who have died is through God who stands
astride the barrier between what we call life and death.
When someone we love dies, it hurts.
The only way through grief is to feel the pain and to let it carry you
like a river until it dries up.
Actually it is similar to Israel crossing the river.
If you turn from grief and pain, you will never get across.
Just like to the priests; it looks scary, and we think we will drown in
its sorrow.
But when in faith we walk out into it, God brings us across to a new day.
And in that new day we learn that it is God who carries us across the river
of sorrow just like he did with Joshua and the Israelites, and it is God who
is the only link between where we are now and our loved ones who have died.
But in the meantime we must remember who it is who is to be honored.
Not the dead, like Lenin in his tomb.
But God who is alive and who holds all we treasure in the palm of his hand.
He is our link. He is our only link.
But He is our reliable link, not only to all we treasure, but He is our
treasure.
Don't be afraid. Walk in faith and let God open the doors that need opening.
Let God lead you through rivers that need to be crossed. Remember your loved
ones, not in despair, but in thanksgiving.
He is still the resurrection and the life.
Preached November 2, 2008
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia
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