Trusting through Transitions

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says it’s important to capture God’s story so you can pass it on.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You may do it through a journal. You may do it through pictures. You may do it through spoken or recorded words, visible reminders. I want to encourage you to establish and leave behind memorials, monuments, so to speak, of God's faithfulness, so that after you're long gone, your children and their children and others, your neighborhood, your community, people in your church, will know that's what that means.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, coauthor of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for December 27, 2024. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Today you’re getting a sneak preview of a great, big project Nancy’s hard at work on these days. In 2027, she’ll roll out a year-long audio and video teaching series called “Wonder of the Word.” It will be an opportunity for you as a listener to study through the entire Bible alongside Nancy. And today we’re going to sample some of that series by hopping into her session at the beginning of the book of Joshua. 

Let’s preview Day 45 of “Wonder of the Word.” Here’s Nancy.

Nancy: Remember that our goal is to get a bird's eye view through the course of a year of the whole of Scripture. That means, as I've said often, we're taking a helicopter ride. We're not going on a hike. So we're skipping a lot of really important things. We’re just trying to give a sense of the highlights and how the whole story fits together, and how it all points us to Jesus. 

So today we come to the book of Joshua. If you can follow along in your Bible or scrolling on a phone, let me encourage you to open it, because whatever you see for yourself, you're going to get even more out than what I read to you.

Here the people are transitioning into the Promised Land—out of the wilderness into the Promised Land. Joshua is the first of twelve books that are often called the books of Old Testament history—beginning with Joshua and ending with Esther. 

You may think, I don't know that I like history. My goal through all of this series is for you to love every piece and part of God's Word in a way that you never have before . . . and I'm experiencing that myself. So, Joshua 1, verse 1: 

After the death of Moses the LORD's servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses's assistant: [and here's what he said] “Moses my servant is dead.” (vv. 1–2) 

Now before we move on here, let's just put ourselves a little bit in the situation. This is a huge loss for the people of God. Moses, the servant of the Lord, is the only spiritual leader these people have ever known, and now he's dead. But thankfully, God is not dead. God's purpose and God's plan to get His people into the Promised Land was still going to happen. And now, God had sovereignly raised up a new leader to help His people get into that Promised Land. 

So we have Joshua, who's already been introduced to us in Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, we've already heard quite a bit about him. But you remember that Joshua was born in Egypt as a slave. He had served for years once they got out of Egypt as an assistant to Moses. He had been the general of the army. You remember Exodus 17 where he led the battle against the Amalekites. And now, Joshua has been chosen. He's been commissioned by God to be Moses' successor. 

Here in Joshua 1, God reminds Joshua of his calling. There has been grief, but the time for grieving is over. This is not a time to be paralyzed. This is a time to move forward in carrying out God's mission for His people. And so, God gives instructions to His servant, Joshua. Joshua 1, verse 2: 

Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I am giving the Israelites. I have given you every place where the sole of your feet treads, just as I promised Moses. Your territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great river, the Euphrates River—all the land of the Hittites—and west to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or abandon you. Be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to their ancestors to give them as an inheritance. (vv. 2–6) 

And there in this paragraph, you have the basic outline for the book of Joshua. It's pretty simple. 

• First, chapters 1–5, they are going to cross over the Jordan into the Promised Land. We're going to look at that section today. 
• And then number two, chapters 6–12, they're going to take the land that God has given to them. We sometimes call that the conquest. This is going to involve battles. It's going to involve fierce opposition. We're going to read a lot about that in chapters 6–12. 
• Then in chapters 13–21, most of the rest of the book, we're going to see that Joshua is going to distribute the land to the tribes so they can begin to settle into the Promised Land. 

So first they cross over the Jordan, then they conquer the land, take the land, and then they distribute the land among the tribes and settle into it. And then the last few chapters, we're going to see something of an epilogue and Joshua's farewell and final charge to his people. 

So, there's Joshua's part in what's going to happen, and there is God's part. See if you can see both. As I continue in chapter 1, verse 7, God says to Joshua: 

“Above all, be strong and very courageous [Who's supposed to do that? Joshua. Be strong, be courageous] to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (vv. 7–9) 

So Joshua's part and the human part is to hold fast to God's Word, to meditate on it day and night, to obey it carefully. And if Joshua will do that, if the people will do that, if we will do that, they will be strengthened. They will be unafraid. They will be blessed, and they will be successful. 

I've thought about this passage as I've been preparing to teach, because it's been so hard. To say, “What parts do you talk about? What parts do you leave out?” It's all so precious and so powerful and so beautiful. I want to say to you, we're going to do, Lord willing, in five days, the book of Joshua. I'm just touching on some high points. But there's no substitute for you reading it, for yourself, soaking in it, even if you're very familiar with it. I've learned so many new things this time through the book of Joshua. I can't emphasize this enough—the priority and the power of being women and family members, friends, people of God, who soak in the Word of God. 

What is God's part? Here's His message to Joshua: “Don't be afraid. I will be with you.” That's God's message to His people all the way throughout Scripture. You'll see it again and again and again. “Don't be afraid. I will be with you.” That's God's message to His people today, that's God's message to you wherever you're living here and now: “Don't be afraid. I will be with you. Yahweh will be with you. I will never leave you. I will never abandon you.” 

You see that throughout the Old Testament. You see it throughout the New Testament. The Great Commission includes this promise, as Jesus is ascended back to heaven, “I will be with you to the end of the age” (see Matt. 28:20). Hebrews 13, “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you” (see v. 5). So Joshua exercised faith in God's promises. Verse 10 of Joshua 1:

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you will be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you to inherit.’” (vv. 10–11)

Now, just a little parenthesis here. We often think of the Promised Land as representing heaven, and crossing over Jordan, which the Israelites are about to do. There are many traditional beloved songs and hymns that talk about Jordan and make it sound like that's dying. So dying is crossing over Jordan, and then we're in the Promised Land. We're in heaven. There's an ultimate sense in which that is true. But the problem is, when the Israelites went into the Promised Land, they still faced years of opposition, of warfare, of battles, of enemies, of idolaters. There won't be any of those things in heaven. Can I hear an amen? Thank you, Lord. 

So as we read the book of Joshua, keep in mind this is not just about some pie in the sky future thing that is irrelevant for us today. This is truth we need for where we live, in the battles, in the war, in the sin, in the problems, in the opposition that we face in the here and now. Keep that in mind as we go through Joshua. 

Now, in Egypt, the people of God had been in slavery to sin and to Satan. In the Exodus they crossed the Red Sea. That's where they experienced salvation and deliverance from Egypt. Then there were those years of wandering in the wilderness, as we've seen. It was the result of disobedience and unbelief, not what God intended for them. But isn't that where a lot of us spend a lot of our time as believers? In unbelief, in disobedience. So the Promised Land is a land of blessing that is the result of walking with God in faith and in obedience to His Word. 

 

Yes, there will be battles. Yes, there will be enemies out there and in here. You've heard it said that the Christian life is not a playground, it's a battleground. I don't have to tell you that's true. But here's what we're going to see in the book of Joshua . . . through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be victorious. We can overcome sin and Satan and self and doubt.

So we come to chapter 2, where Joshua sends two men as spies into the Promised Land, he says in verse 1:

“Go and scout the land, especially Jericho.” So they left, and they came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and stayed there. 

Rahab is the first person we're introduced to in the Promised Land, a prostitute. She was a Canaanite, which was a wicked, violent, pagan culture for centuries. And not only was the culture in which this woman was living wicked, but she had lived a sinful life. This culture hated everything God loved and loved everything God hated. And so it was with this woman. As they were idolaters, so was she. As they were immoral, so was she. She had practiced and profited from the evil of that culture. 

So, these two spies ended up in her house. The king of Jericho sent messengers to apprehend these spies, but the woman, Rahab, the prostitute, hid the men on the roof, sent the messengers on their way on a wild goose chase. Then she said to the men, verse 9: 

“I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.” (vv. 9–11) 

This is the first confession of faith in the Bible, certainly in this way, by a non-believer. She says, “We have heard.” Now, the Red Sea crossing had taken place forty years earlier. This woman lived in a pagan culture. She had no other means of spiritual light. But the Spirit of God had used those reports to open her eyes, to reveal the truth to her, and to give her faith in the God of Israel. 

The pagan gods that the people in Canaan worshiped were believed to rule over different parts of heaven and earth. But now Rahab had come to believe that Israel's God reigns supremely over heaven and earth, that He is the one and only true God. She says in verse 8, “I know that the LORD has given you the land.” She knew the strength of Jericho. She knew the fierceness of many of the powers in Canaan. But she believed that the God of Israel was going to destroy Jericho and give the land to the Israelites.

Rahab believed what God had revealed to her when no one else did. They had heard these reports. They knew of Yahweh. They had heard these same stories. They knew about the Red Sea crossing. But Rahab alone believed and repented while all others perished. You see, God had been working in her heart, and that seed of faith had taken root and had grown up, and now she believed. 

And here she is with these two spies, and she pleads for mercy. She pleads to be spared from the judgment to come, to be allowed to live. And the men agreed that they would spare her life when they came into the land on these conditions: she was to tie a scarlet cord from her house, hang it out the window for her house (we're told it was on the edge of the city wall). Hang that cord, and leave it there until the Israelites came into the land. She was to bring her whole family with her into the house. And then, she was to promise not to report their mission. 

Thinking about that scarlet cord hanging from outside her window, it brings to mind a night that had been about forty years earlier. We read about this in Exodus chapter 12, where each family of the tribe of Israel was to select a lamb from their flock, a lamb without blemish. They were to kill that lamb and then take the blood and spread it on the doorposts and the lintel of their home. God saw the blood on the doorposts and spared their lives. 

Well, the spies returned back to the Israelites on the other side of the Jordan in verse 24 of Joshua 2. 

They told Joshua, “Everyone who lives in the land is also panicking because of us.” 

Think how different that report is from the one that the ten unbelieving spies had brought back years earlier. They were scared to death. They were the ones panicked. They said we should be the people in this land. They're huge. They're giants. They're fierce. Their cities are big and well armed, and their walls are tall. There's no way we can go in. 

But when the two spies went in this time and listened to this woman who lived on the city wall there, a home on the city wall, they learned that, in fact, the people of the land were panicked because of the Israelites. Well, then we come to chapter 3, and the crossing over Jordan into the Promised Land. Chapter 3, verse 5: 

Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves [your translation may say “sanctify yourselves”] because the LORD will do wonders among you tomorrow.” 

They were to prepare to go across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. Now, the preparation isn't exactly what we might have expected. They weren't holding meetings to determine some military strategy. The preparation was a spiritual preparation for a very physical battle. 

When we're facing battles of various kinds, we tend to focus more on the methods, the strategies, the mechanics. How are we going to do this? How are we going to figure this out? But God says, “You get your hearts ready, and I'll move. I'll go with you.” Do you need wonders in your life, in your marriage, in your church, in your workplace? The question is, “Are you prepared? Are you consecrated? Are you set apart? Are you ready for God to bless and intervene in your life? Are we ready for God to show up and do the supernatural?” Consecrate yourselves, He said. Verse 15 of Joshua 3. 

Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season.

This is an important little detail here, an important big detail. Because most of the year the Jordan is about 100 feet wide, and it can easily be crossed. But in the early spring, the melting snow comes down from Mount Hermon and swells the river until it overflows its banks. It can be a mile wide.

God waited until the river was impossible for the Israelites to cross. He could have done it when it was just a little brook there, but He waited until it overflowed its banks. Why? Well, only God knows why He does what He does. But He wanted the people to be dependent on Him. He wanted this to be something that no one could explain apart from God, and no one else could get the credit apart from God.

Now, as you see the people of Israel crossing over in chapter 3, one of the things I want you to look for, and always look for, are repeated words, repeated phrases. The Ark of the Covenant is central in this chapter. You see it again and again, representing the presence of Yahweh, the presence of God.

As they crossed the river the Ark of the Covenant was carried by the priests on poles as the Lord had required. They went before the people carrying the ark into the middle of the Jordan, and then they stood in the middle of that dry river bed, for God caused the waters to part, as he had with the Red Sea years earlier, while the people of the whole nation (we're talking two to three million people perhaps, this is mammoth) crossed over on dry land. Then we see in chapter 4, verse 11: 

After everyone had finished crossing, the priests with the ark of the LORD crossed in the sight of the people. 

 

They went first, and they went last. It’s just a reminder that you and I dare not strike out on our own to do anything for God, to fight any battles, on our own. We must have His presence to go with us. Well, look at chapter 4 of Joshua, verse 1. 

After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua: “Choose twelve men from the people, one man for each tribe, and command them: Take twelve stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.” [the first night in the Promised Land] . . . The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camped at Gilgal on the eastern limits of Jericho. (vv. 1–3, 19) 

So here we have the people who have crossed over from the east side of the Jordan. They have crossed over Jordan. Now they're on the west side of Jordan, and they park at a place called Gilgal, which will be their base of operations for this first part of the campaign. They're situated west of the Jordan but just to the east of the city of Jericho. Verse 20: 

Then Joshua set up in Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan. 

These twelve stones were the first of many memorials that were set up in the book of Joshua. A memorial was a visible symbol, a visible picture of something God had done, something God had told them, some encounter they had with the Lord. The purpose of these memorials was to be a reminder to this current generation, those who had just crossed over the Jordan. Verse 6 of chapter 4: 

“This will be a sign among you . . . so that you may always fear the LORD your God.” (vv. 6, 24)

The children of Israel would face some difficult times in Canaan, a lot of battles. They would often be tempted to get discouraged and to give up, to go back to wherever. But here's Gilgal where they would be camped for much of the conquest. They would return there often. They would have these stones as a constant reminder of the promises and the power of God. 

But the memorial wasn't just a reminder to them, it was also a reminder to their children and to future generations, as their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren for generations to come would see these stones and would ask their parents, “What does this mean?” And then the parents would tell their children how God dried up the water of this river so that His people could cross over on dry ground. Each memorial had a story attached to it to remind the children of Israel and their children of what God had done. 

So it's a reminder for Israel in this generation. It's a reminder for the next generation. And it was a reminder for the pagans around them, for other nations, for unbelievers. Look at verse 24 of chapter 4, “This . . .” that is, this memorial, these stones. 

“This is so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD [the hand of Yahweh] is mighty.”

These memorials commemorated these key moments of God's provision, His protection, His blessing, even His discipline; so that they would never forget, so they could always remember, and so they could tell others the works of the Lord. 

As you read about these Old Testament memorials, we're reminded of two important memorials given to us as New Testament believers. One is the ordinance of baptism, our own baptism. I remember mine so well at the age of five, and it's something. It's a memorial for me of the works of God and a visible picture of a work God had been doing in my own heart. But not only our own baptism. Maybe like mine, yours has been many years ago. But each time you see other believers baptized and expressing their faith in Christ, this is a reminder that we belong to the Lord, that we've been chosen by Him. 

And then a second memorial is the Lord's Supper, as we take the bread, as we partake of the bread and the cup. Jesus said in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, “‘Do this in remembrance of me’” (v. 24). It's a memorial, a means of testimony, a means of witness, a means of preserving our faith and passing it on from one generation to the next. 

How well do your children know God's story? How well do they know God's story in this Book? First and foremost, how well do they know God's story in your life, in the lives of other family members. Tell them what God has done, and then look for practical ways to preserve that story for generations to come. 

You may do it through a journal. You may do it through pictures. You may do it through spoken or recorded words, visible reminders. I want to encourage you to establish and leave behind memorials, monuments, so to speak, of God's faithfulness, so that after you're long gone, your children and their children and others, your neighborhood, your community, people in your church, will know that's what that means. That's what that was about. 

I have pictures all through my house that are memorials to God's faithfulness. I hope that long after I'm in heaven, those belong to someone or ones who will be treasuring and remembering what God has done, His dealings in my life. 

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is helping us feast on truth from the opening chapters of Joshua. She’ll be right back with more.

Today’s program is a sample of an upcoming series. Nancy is planning to take all of 2027 on Revive Our Hearts to work her way through the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It’s a series exploring the Wonder of the Word. Now, I realize we’re not quite into 2025 right now, but we’re so excited for what God is going to do in a couple of years, and we wanted you to get a sneak peek. 

We were encouraged to hear recently from a listener named Bev. She wrote to say:

I’m inspired by your exciting task of teaching the whole Bible. I’m attempting to do the same with nine young girls at my church on a much smaller scale. My prayers go with you as the Lord transforms us into women of the Word. All for Jesus, He is worthy!

Amen, and thank you Bev. 

You know, projects like Wonder of the Word are made possible because friends like you give to help support Revive Our Hearts. So thank you so much. We can’t do it without you. Our December matching challenge is almost up. You can go to our website and find the progress bar for up-to-date information. We still have a ways to go before we meet our year-end matching challenge amount of two million dollars.

If you’ve already given here in December, thank you! If you haven’t, would you consider making a donation to Revive Our Hearts? Remember, your gift will be matched by some friends of Revive Our Hearts, up to that total amount of two million dollars. But we need to hear from you by Tuesday, the last day of December. Time’s running out!

To make a donation, there are several ways you can do it. Any one will work fine. Online, go to ReviveOurHearts.com. On the phone, call us at 1-800-569-5959. Or you can mail a check to this address:

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Thank you so much!

As we near the close of 2024 and look forward to 2025, let’s remember that God has plans for our transition times, too. Here’s Nancy, once again.

Nancy: Well, as we close this session, I want to take us back for just a moment to Joshua chapter 1, where Moses has died. Joshua and the people of Israel are no doubt wondering, What do we do now? Where to from here? Can we ever make it into the Promised Land? 

I had those kinds of questions in my heart more than forty-five years ago, when the Lord suddenly took my dad to heaven as a result of a heart attack. He was gone instantly, fifty-three years old, a man of God. He left behind a widow, just about forty years of age, with seven children ages eight to twenty-one. It was the weekend of my twenty-first birthday. 

I could never forget it. At that time, none of us could have imagined how we would go on, how we would move forward without the life and the leadership and the love of this precious man of God. It wasn't just his family and children that wondered. Many that my dad had led to know Christ, many he had blessed with his life and his witness and his generosity, so many were wondering, What's next? How do we move on?

I'll never forget, about ten days after my dad's homegoing, how hundreds and hundreds of people came together for a memorial service, there at the Church of the Savior in Wayne, Pennsylvania. It was a long service, but at the very beginning, the very first thing was a man of God, a pastor who had been a dear friend of my dad and of our family. He opened the service in prayer. I want you to hear for yourself what we heard as we sat, seven of us children on the front row with my mother and hundreds others, gathered to celebrate the life and grieve the loss of the homegoing of Art DeMoss. Here's how that service began. 

Pastor: Our heavenly Father, we are reminded of those inspired words, "Moses, My servant, is dead. Now therefore, arise and go over this Jordan, thou and all this people." That is what we wish to do, but we need Your help. Help us, then, even tonight, to hear what we need to hear, to feel what we need to feel, in order that we may go out of here this evening and over this Jordan and those Jordans that are yet to come; that the work of our Lord, manifested through this, Thy servant, Art DeMoss, might be extended through us.

May many Joshuas be raised up tonight—men and women who would not have been raised up had Art not fallen—and cause that the greater day of fruitfulness and evangelism and expansion of the kingdom of God be affected because, contrary to our logic, Your ways, far above our ways, have prevailed. In Jesus’ name, asking for this dear family grace beyond anything we can imagine, amen.”

Nancy: Would you pray with me? As I hear those words that I heard for the first time nearly fifty years ago, I'm amazed; I'm overwhelmed. I'm stunned to think of how you heard that prayer back then, and how powerfully and beautifully you have answered it over these years in many ways that I'm aware of, and I'm sure many more that I'm not. 

So thank you, Lord, that Your work has been extended through those of us who were in that service. You have raised up many Joshuas to move forward. There has been a greater day of fruitfulness and evangelism and expansion of Your kingdom, because, contrary to our logic, Your ways far above our ways, prevailed in taking Art DeMoss, Your servant, home. 

So Lord, we pray today from wherever we may be situated, knowing that we need Your help as we go over this Jordan. We go into the land You have set before us. We face battles, we face enemies, we face giants. We need Your help. 

And oh Lord, how I pray as that precious pastor prayed for our family that night, I pray now for someone listening to my voice who may be in a great place of loss or pain or doubt. I pray that You would lavish grace upon that sister, that friend, that person—grace far beyond anything they can imagine, that you may be glorified as we move forward into all that you have for us. I pray in Jesus' name with thanksgiving, amen. 

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