The Bible books of Joshua and Judges cover around 300 years of the history of Israel between 1400 and 1100 BC. Out of all the events we read about in that period, the best known is certainly what we know as the Battle of Jericho in Joshua chapter 6. However, the most important event by far in all of those centuries is recorded in Joshua 3 and 4 and it would be criminal to gloss over that. So I am going to tackle two passages in one sermon. Thankfully they both teach us exactly the same things.
The Israelites had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. In God’s masterplan the time had come for them to enter Canaan and take possession the land flowing with milk and honey which God had promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob hundreds of years earlier. There was just one little problem. Canaan was over the other side of the River Jordan. Normally in that region the Jordan would only be 50 feet wide. But actually there was a second little problem because this was the flood season. At that time, due to the spring rains and the snow melting from Mount Hermon the Jordan was probably closer to a mile wide, 12 feet deep and flowing very, very fast. And actually there was another tiny problem because there were somewhere between two and three MILLION Israelites, men women and children, queuing up to cross the Jordan.
It had taken the miracle of God parting the Red Sea for all the Israelites to escape from Egypt. And it would take another miracle for this generation to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. For Israel, crossing the Jordan would be the most important event between the Exodus and the birth of Samuel and the reign of King David. We have just read about it in Joshua 3 POWERPOINT 1
Joshua 3 14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is in flood all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
For God’s plan of salvation, the people needed a miracle and God gave them a miracle. This was such a massively important event in the history of Israel that God wanted the people never to forget it. So we read in chapter 4 that Joshua commanded twelve men, one from each tribe, to pick up twelve great stones from the middle of where the Jordan had dried up, and place them beside the bank of the Jordan in Canaan. They would form a memorial,
POWERPOINT 2 Joshua said,
4 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, “What do these stones mean?” 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel for ever.’
It is so easy to forget the miracles God has worked in our lives. Perhaps we need memorial stones to remind us of God’s mighty acts of salvation. In any case, it was this amazing miracle which established Joshua as the leader of the nation.
4 14 That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses.
More than that, news of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan spread throughout Canaan and we read in Joshua 5:1 Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.
That is the amazing way the Israelites crossed the River Jordan into Canaan and that brings us to our second story. We sometimes call it the Battle of Jericho but in fact there was no battle at all. If we didn’t know the story already, we have just heard how God told Joshua what the Israelites had to do.
On six days, Israel’s army marched around the impenetrable fortress of Jericho, led by seven priests blowing trumpets and following the ark of the covenant. Then they returned to camp for the night. But on the seventh day the army went around the city seven times.
6 16 The seventh time round, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!
And then came the battle which wasn’t even a battle. POWERPOINT 3
6 20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.
The walls came tumbling down. The miraculous crossing of the Jordan and the tumbling walls of Jericho both teach us the same very obvious thing.

GOD DID THAT! POWERPOINT 4
This is a truth so self-evident that we can easily overlook it. God did that. It wasn’t Joshua’s leadership or the priests’ obedience which dried up the River Jordan so that the millions of Israelites could enter into the Land of Canaan. It was the mighty act of the Almighty God! God did that! And all the Israelites knew it! POWERPOINT 5
3 9 Joshua said to the Israelites, ‘Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites (and all the other nations) … 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.’
God did that!
4 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.’
Crossing the Jordan. God did that! And when we come to the so-called battle of Jericho, Joshua knew very well that it was God giving them the victory.
6 2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.
POWERPOINT 6
God did that! And all the Israelites knew that it was God who had given them the victory.
6:16 Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!
So despite what Hebrews 11 says, it was not actually the faith of the Israelites which brought down the walls of Jericho. It was the mighty act of the Almighty God. God did that! The same is true of all the important events in God’s masterplan of salvation: the plagues on Egypt, the Passover, the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry land and the waters then drowning all the pursuing Egyptian army, the waters from the rock and the manna and quail which sustained the people of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. It was Almighty God who worked all these amazing miracles. Our God is great big God. God did that! POWERPOINT 7
The Old Testament is not the story of God’s chosen people Israel. It is not the story of great leaders like Moses and Joshua. The most important stories in the Bible are not even the examples of faith and obedience of the great saints which we have been looking at for nearly a year. Instead, at heart the Bible is really the story of the amazing mighty acts of God giving salvation to His people. It’s all about God! God did that!
When it comes the Israelites crossing the Jordan and then taking possession of Canaan, the Old Testament doesn’t talk about the Israelite’s victorious battles. Moses had looked ahead to God giving the promised land to the Israelites like this.
Dt 7:1 | When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations … seven nations larger and stronger than you 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, …
So the Israelites always knew that it was God who would give them the promised land. In the time of the Judges, God reminded his people of this fact. He said,
Judges 6 8… I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land.
Even centuries later, King Jehoshophat looked back 2 Chronicles 20 “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. 7 O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?
God did that! The Israelites never claimed to have won the battles for themselves. They recognised the truth – God did that! Three things will follow for us too.

WE MUST PRAISE GOD POWERPOINT 8
The Bible talks about praise more than 450 times, and half of those come in the Psalms. Of course we praise God for who He is, almighty, eternal, Creator of heaven and earth. But then we are also called to praise God for his mighty acts of salvation.
Psalm 145 4 One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. … 5 They will speak of the glorious splendour of your majesty, …6 They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds.
Psa 105 1 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
Psa 78 4 … we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.
The Israelites celebrated God’s historic mighty acts of salvation. And it is right that we should also remember and praise God for all he has ever done in our lives too. Our God IS a great big God, and He holds us in His hands!
1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Our God is a great big God. He deserves our praise. Walter Moberley once wrote to Christians, “If one-tenth of what you believe is true, you ought to be ten times as excited as you are.
God has provided us with such an amazing salvation! The least we can do is praise him!

IT’S ALL ABOUT GOD, NOT ABOUT US POWERPOINT 9
God’s masterplan of salvation was never about great leaders and powerful armies. Israel’s salvation and our salvation are all about the mighty acts of God. God did that!
Psalm 44 1 We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.
2 With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. ….
It’s not about us. It’s all about God. God did that!
6 I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; 7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
Over the decades I have been a minister it seems to me that many Christians and many churches have been forgetting this important truth. I hear people worried about the future of the church. Many Christians and even some ministers talk as though the future of the church rests on our human efforts. We need to welcome people more and love people more and tell more people about Jesus. We need to work harder and be more obedient and pray more and have more faith. These things do matter a bit. But here is the thing. It’s not really about us. It never has been. It never will be. It’s all about God. Our God is a great big God. God did that!
I can sing “I am free, Yet not I but through Christ in me!
I shall overcome, Yet not I, but through Christ in me!
It’s not about us – it’s all about God. And so we cry out

SHOW YOUR POWER O LORD POWERPOINT 10
We can look back at mighty acts of God in the Old Testament, so many occasions when God did that! Our God is a great big God! Then of course as Christians today we are still celebrating Easter and the most amazing and glorious act of divine power when God raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. The stone was rolled away. The grave was empty. Jesus had risen from the dead, never more to die. Death has been defeated. Because He lives, we will live also. God did that!
But more than that. The resurrection was the greatest of God’s mighty acts, but it was not the last. Miracles of healing and deliverance and transformed lives continued through the Book of Acts and through the Early Church and through the ages even into the church today. Romans 8:11 tells us that the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us! Powerpoint 11
Our God is a great big God! The God who piled up the floodwaters of the great River Jordan lives in us. The God who brought down the walls of Jericho lives in us. The God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in us! So we long for the almighty eternal and unchanging God to show his power and send his power, to work mighty acts of salvation even in our lives and in our church.
He longs to do much more than Our faith has yet allowed
To thrill us and surprise us With His sovereign power
Restore, O Lord, The honour of Your name,
In works of sovereign power Come shake the earth again;
His touch has still its ancient power! We can ask and expect that God will still work in power in signs and wonders in our lives and in our church, even today, even in us. Show your power, O Lord. Send your power, O Lord! We long for God to move among US in mighty acts of salvation, so that everyone will praise and glorify God, shouting out “God did that!”