The Great Known

The Great Unknown

In job interviews, frequently they will ask crazy questions.

How many trees are in Colorado?

I don’t know

What would you do? “Hey, Google. How many trees are in Colorado?”

It isn’t really about the question, it is about seeking the answer. How do you wrestle with it and try to get an answer. That reveals how you are thinking and, if you practice that sort of thing, it actually shapes how you think.

The answer is in the question

The answer is in the question

You ever play hide and seek with someone who cheats? Captain no fun!

You ever play hide and seek with someone who cheats? Captain no fun!

What’s Wrong with Easy

So… here’s a question to ponder: why can’t God just make it easy? Or at least easier?

Sometimes life seems to going along perfectly and then something happens, tragedy, or someone does something sinful or stupid, and it all falls apart.

And we can get into the fine details of whether God did it… or whether God allowed it… but the truth is, when you are angry and hurting, there isn’t much difference there! Everything was fine and it was working, why let it fall apart?

What’s wrong with things going right for a change? What’s wrong with easy?

When the support falls out

The Life of Joshua

Especially in our relationship with God

God has no interest in “easy”. The “scary unknown” is an invitation to greater faith and deeper relationship with God. Ultimately, He is the only known.

The “scary unknown” is an invitation to greater faith and deeper relationship with God. Ultimately, He is the only known.

God is going to use difficult, dangerous and disastrous circumstances to teach his people. He isn’t interested in a comfortable status quo. (I am, He isn’t).

There is a leadership void and this will be the repeating pattern for the next 400+ years.

Why doesn’t God put in place a succession plan or better government?

In the void of leadership there is creative action. It is a call to action.

From the known to the unknown, so He can make Himself known. It is God wooing and pursuing His people, rescuing them again and again, re-teaching generation after generation.

Why 110 years old? Moses got 120? Caleb outlives Joshua. Where is the succession plan?

It is messy and it gets ugly… but it is never hopeless.

God is going to use difficult, dangerous and disastrous circumstances to teach his people. He isn’t interested in a comfortable status quo. (I am, He isn’t). There is no leader who is sufficient, no prophet, no judge, no King but God himself. He gives and takes away and so draws us to Himself.

Our world is full of need.

Our world is mostly void. It is full of need.

Joshua’s Story

He is a man grown, in his 40s when Moses returns to his people in slavery in Egypt and brings with him the name of the God of their fathers: Yahweh. He follows Moses out of Egypt, miracle upon miracle, into Sinai. He is there when God makes the covenant with Israel, and he begins to assist Moses. He is one of the twelve spies and, with Caleb, Moses and Aaron, they alone believe that God would deliver Canaan into their hands.

He is a man grown, in his 40s when Moses returns to his people in slavery in Egypt and brings with him the name of the God of their fathers: Yahweh. He follows Moses out of Egypt, miracle upon miracle, into Sinai. He is there when God makes the covenant with Israel, and he begins to assist Moses. He is one of the twelve spies and, with Caleb, Moses and Aaron, they alone believe that God would deliver Canaan into their hands.

And so everyone at that point of military age dies. Joshua assists Moses for 40 years wandering in the desert. Then, as they cross the Jordan river, he takes on the mantle of authority from Moses and leads the people, all the tribes of Israel into war. Fight after fight, miracle after miracle, they take cities and they take territory and they take their place in the land. For 30 years Joshua leads the people of Israel.

And then he calls the people of Israel together. They renew the covenant first made at Sinai 70 years ago. He prophetically identifies the area of holiness and faithfulness they are most likely to struggle with: following after other Gods… and urges and commands his people to love God wholly instead. And then...

Joshua 24:29–33 ESV

After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. And they buried him in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel. As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of Phinehas his son, which had been given him in the hill country of Ephraim.

Judges 2:6-10

Judges 2:6–10 ESV

When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

Now imagine you are anyone other than Caleb. Joshua and Caleb are the only men left alive older than you, and they are older than anyone else by at least 20 years. For your entire life, it has been Moses and then, for the last three decades, it has been Joshua. If their was a problem in Israel, who solved it? Joshua. If there was something to be heard from God, who heard it? Joshua. Joshua is the man, he stands as a unifying figure, judge and leader and prophet, almost a king, really.

There is no one in their country who looms quite as large.

And then he dies. There is no one in their country who looms quite as large.

There is no talk of anyone inheriting Joshua’s mantle as Joshua inherited Moses’.

What is the succession plan? Who will lead the people? It seems unplanned and unprepared, kind of reckless.

And if I am an Israelite, all sense of

The bottom just fell out

And if I am an Israelite, all sense of life-as-I-know-it just radically altered. There is no unifying leader. I am going to have to figure this out, my family will work together, my tribe will band together a bit, and hopefully we can still count on our brother tribes… but it’s basically anarchy.

What form of government did God setup here? It’s a “theocracy”. God is the king. That is fantastic. Seriously though, who is going to be functionally in charge? Who is the interpreter of God’s will on a daily practical basis? Is everyone just going to do what is right in their own eyes, seeking to find and discover and follow God’s will.

Yes.

For the next 400-500 years this is what happens, and it is the theme of our next book. Judges.

Judges 17:6 ESV

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This pattern repeats itself again and again. God raises up Joshua. Joshua dies… and no one takes his place. Israel turns away, God gives them over to their enemies, God raises up a judge to rescue them, that judge leads them back to God...

But then, just like Joshua, the judge dies and there is no functional succession plan. Everyone goes back to doing what is right in their eyes.

The Israelites kept getting it wrong… but in fairness, this is hard mode!

God could have extended Joshua’s life. He didn’t. God could have had Joshua preparing another faithful and worthy successor… he didn’t. It is understandable, as Kelly shared last week, that after 100s of years of this, the people are begging for a king.

What does God have against easy? He could set it up so it is easy for Israel to follow him, because they have an unending supply of faithful and righteous leaders. He could smooth the way, reveal himself a bit more to more people, explain a little more.... and just make it a little easier to find and follow him!

But that isn’t the way He seems to work.

God is going to use difficult, dangerous and disastrous circumstances to teach his people.

He isn’t interested in a comfortable status quo. (I am, He isn’t). God doesn’t seem to be interested in comfortable or easy.

He wants us to be asking a question. He wants us to be seeking.

In the void of leadership there is creative action. It is a call to action. Will the people be faithful?

Why doesn’t God put in place a succession plan or better government?

As “each man did what was right in his eyes...” would they use their freedom to follow? Fight to follow, fight for love?

In the void of leadership there is creative action. It is a call to action.

They step from the known (Joshua) into the unknown (a void of leadership). They do it again with each judge.

What is the purpose? Why the uncertainty? Why not make it easy? I think we get a hint of an answer in Paul’s words. Paul preaches on Mars hill to the Athenians. He speaks of all their representation of gods, including an idol to an unknown God. Another Great Unknown. And why the diversity, humanity scattered through different nations across the earth… why has God ordered the world in this way?

From the known to the unknown, so He can make Himself known. It is God wooing and pursuing His people, rescuing them again and again, re-teaching generation after generation.

Why 110 years old? Moses got 120? Caleb outlives Joshua. Where is the succession plan?

It is messy and it gets ugly… but it is never hopeless.

God is going to use difficult, dangerous and disastrous circumstances to teach his people. He isn’t interested in a comfortable status quo. (I am, He isn’t). There is no leader who is sufficient, no prophet, no judge, no King but God himself. He gives and takes away and so draws us to Himself.

Acts 17:15–18 ESV

Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

Acts 17:26–27 ESV

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

acts 17:

Here is the purpose. That they should seek.

And in the seeking, perhaps, (such a beautiful hopefulness in that) perhaps feel their way toward him. And find him. To know him, to hold onto him, to be with Him. And it isn’t a cruel game, it isn’t hide and seek, he is actually not far from each one of us.

But he desires that we seek him… the seeking is necessary for the finding! The answer is in the question. It is in the seeking that we become and discover. It is in the seeking that He shapes us and prepares us and reveals himself to us.

He invites us into the Great Unknown so that He can make Himself Known.

Invitation to Swim

From the known to the unknown, so He can make Himself known. It is God wooing and pursuing His people, rescuing them again and again, re-teaching generation after generation.

God uses difficult, dangerous and disastrous circumstances to teach me

… and I don’t like it.

When a pillar of your life gets knocked out from underneath you… it doesn’t feel like great exciting opportunity. It feels like loss and insecurity and unanswered questions.

I have had a job disappear from underneath me. That was the plan, that was KNOWN. Nope. Into the Great Unknown. But I have bills and plans and expectations. Nope. But despite the way that it feels and the true loss… God has used it to teach me and to shape me, that I should seek him and perhaps feel my way toward him and find him… though he has actually not been far from me at any moment.

I don’t think divorce is on anyone’s 10 year life plan. It is a difficult, dangerous and disastrous circumstance. Even that, even this, God uses to teach me and shape me. I seek… feeling my way… I find Him.

The Great Unknown

Here is what I can’t and won’t do. When you find yourself in the midst of tragedy, I will not parachute in and say “God is doing this for a purpose.”

God may yet rescue a purpose, that is in His timing. You may yet seek and discover God’s hand in the midst of your trial. “Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”

But I do believe this: God is calling you into the Great Unknown. In a hundred different ways… and different ways at different times. And it is scary (that’s the Unknown part). But He is, in every way, drawing you from Unknown to the Great Known: the Great Knower.

In the end, He is the only constant, the only thing to Discover and Know… and he is actually not far from each one of us.

"He calls us out into the waters. The Great Unknown, where feet may fail. And there we find Him in the mystery. In oceans deep, there my faith will stand.”