Even as Christians, one of our most difficult challenges is that of waiting. Especially when we’re anticipating something stressful, we can find ourselves being overcome with anxiety and fear, or trying to ignore or hide from the impending threat. What does God want? Joshua’s waiting experience offers us a few helpful exercises:

Reflect
Respond
Remain
Remember

Reflect

We’re fixing to jump into the Book of Joshua, and of course we can’t do that until we’ve gotten to know him a little bit. I’ve selected three events in his life which I think will help us understand who this man was who God used to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land, since Moses disqualified himself from doing that.

Reading from Exodus 24, beginning in verse 12:

"Now the LORD said to Moses, ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.’

So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. But to the elders he said, ‘Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a legal matter, let him approach them.

Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. And the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day, He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop. And Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights."

Most of us don’t like to wait. I don’t like to wait. Stoplights, the checkout line in the grocery store, and of course, aren’t we the ones in a hurry? The worst place of all, I think, is waiting at the courthouse.

These are routine issues in life, and most of us, when it comes time to wait, feel a tug at our souls. It’s a resistance to this. Why? Because our personal agenda, through no act of our own, is suddenly, without invitation, put on hold. So in small matters, that irritates us. In large matters, it taxes us.

There are mundane and routine waiting situations, and there are those that are big deals. Some of them are occupational: waiting for an interview, waiting to hear, waiting and wondering, and perhaps stewing and worrying a bit.

Relational: issues having to do with other people, waiting on them, being involved in some sort of conflict situation where you know there’s got to be a showdown and you know it’s coming, and you dread the waiting time for that. We wait and we fret.

We wait in the waiting room at the hospital, too, don’t we? There’s a waiting room outside surgery, outside ICU. That’s where some extremely tense moments are endured.

We have a natural aversion to waiting. It’s hard for us because in waiting, we are not in control. In waiting, we are forced to silence; we are forced either to keep our foot on the brake pedal, or we’re forced into inactivity where we would very much love to jump ahead and be in control. That’s human nature.

I think the reason we struggle so with waiting is because we far too often forget the big picture of what our sovereign God is all about.

Joshua goes up on Mount Sinai. We’ve established already that he is Moses’ right hand man, but Joshua climbed the mountain. His was a bit of a unique situation, but not totally unknown to us. For one, he’s in a place he’s never been before. Sometimes our most tense times of waiting are from positions with which we’re not familiar at all.

In the south central Sinai Desert, Joshua is on a 6000-foot mountain with sheer walls on several sides, a tough one to climb; all valleys leading in. There’s a cloud, there’s been lightning and thunder and all sorts of heavenly activity. His partner Moses is with him, and yet Moses has disappeared into the cloud. Here sits Joshua in an unfamiliar spot. Furthermore, Joshua has no way of knowing how long he’ll be there.

Maybe what makes our waiting experience so difficult from time to time is that we don’t know how long it will last. The challenge is when we don’t know the duration and we’re not sure of the outcome.

Joshua didn’t know the duration, but he did know that beyond the waiting, the challenge of his life was there for him. He also knew that God was doing a great work. Somehow Joshua knows he’s involved in a tremendous working of God, and I think that to the extent we appreciate that, to that extent we will wait well, like he did.

I have here a few of what we might call, exercises for waiting. There will be a bit of a review as we start with Joshua on the mountain.

Joshua is probably near Moses, but we don’t know if he and Moses were in close company. Nevertheless, as he waits – and, remember, it was six days of silence for Moses before God spoke on the seventh day – we wonder, what is Joshua thinking? How is he reflecting? I think we can learn from him.

First of all, go back to Exodus 19. The first thing I believe that Joshua was reflecting upon, and what I suspect dominated his thinking as he’s pondering God’s grand purpose, he’s reminding himself as minutes go to hours and hours go to days, in the economy of a God who is never late nor never early, is that this really is a big thing. God is really working here.

In Exodus 19:4, Moses is hearing these words from God:

"You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself."

Think back, Joshua. Think back to the heritage of your people. Think back to the miracle birth of an entire nation through Abraham. Think back to the drudgery of that nation under the heavy hand of the Egyptians, the ten plagues, the Passover sacrifice, the Red Sea. Think back on what God is about. What does He want them to do? He says in verse 5:

"Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."

"Listen, Moses and Joshua. What I’m about is taking this miracle nation and turning it into a unique and effective witness to the entire world, just like the promise to Abraham, ‘In your seed all the nations of the world shall be blessed.’" Whatever Joshua is about now, whatever it is he’s involved in, it has to do with God’s big plan. He’s going to touch the world. Joshua, in the years to come, will have some difficult interaction with the nations of the world, and he’ll need to remember that this is what God is all about.

He’s reflecting also on God’s great person, on Who God is. Look at verse 4 again:

"You yourselves have seen [God is speaking] what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself."

God’s great person in His goodness. "Moses, Joshua, Israelites, don’t you know that your freedom today, your release from Egypt, all this is My good doing? I did it. I am treating you with benevolence and with kindness. I bore you as an eagle would fly for her young, beneath them, making sure they stay aloft as they learn to test their wings. Without her, they would perish. In My kindness, I have done that and in My grace and in My mercy, I have brought you to Myself. What have you done, Israelites, to deserve that?" The answer: nothing.

Not only is Joshua reflecting on how good God is in His greatness, but also, as in the words of the apostle Paul, on the goodness and the severity of the Lord; on the might of God and His power. As the people are invited to an audience with God on Mount Sinai, it says in Exodus 19:18-24:

"Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently…Then the LORD spoke to Moses, ‘Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.’

"And Moses said to the LORD, ‘The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for

Thou didst warn us, saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain and consecrate it.’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘Go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break forth upon them."

Rope off this area; make them keep their distance. This isn’t a time of casual acquaintance with God. This is a time when God is impressing them with His might and His power, and filling them with holy fear; and let the priests also who come near to the LORD, consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.

So there’s a good side, a kind side, but a strict side, a severe side to God. And Joshua, as he sits on Mount Sinai, enshrouded in a cloud, he’s reflecting on both. What he must be thinking is what an awesome thing God has done. Called us out, saved us by His mighty right hand. He’s reflecting on God’s great person as well as His grand purpose, but he’s also got to be thinking on the frailty of people.

In Exodus 19, the people are told, "You don’t just come casually waltzing into the presence of the Almighty. We’re going to have this audience on Sinai, but you cannot come as you are. He said you must be consecrated." Why must they be consecrated? In verse 10 of chapter 19 the Lord said to Moses,

"…Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready…"

The only reason people are ever consecrated is because they need it. They need it because they’re unclean, common, profane, and God is holy, and He’s making sure at the very outset of His relationship with this people, that they understand that distinction.

They must be washed and consecrated, and it takes three days of waiting, three days of reflecting for the people now, on Who God is, and what He’s done and where He’s taking them in accordance with His promise. They’re unclean in their frailty, and they’re also fearful. I think that’s good. Look at verse 16.

"So it came about on the third day [following the consecration period], when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled."

From that awesome setting, God spoke the words of the Ten Commandments, sharing them with the people. Exodus 20:18:

"And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.’"

They were, at this point, so aware of their frailty and their distance and their uncleanness and their fearfulness, that they did not even feel as though they could withstand a direct address from God. People are frail, you see.

"And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.’ So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was."

Joshua is pondering on these things, and surely he’s thinking, "Where do I want to put my confidence? In whom should I place my trust in accordance with wisdom -- this God who is awesome and severe and good, or in these people who are fearful and unclean?"

We already know the direction he wants to step. Furthermore, I’m confident that Joshua was reflecting on the honesty, the truthfulness, and the value of God’s Word. He heard the Ten Commandments. It’s interesting, as you read these chapters through, the entire narrative from 19 through 33, how God actually communicated His Word to these people.

He first told them the basics, including the Ten Commandments, and then He called Moses to the mountain and literally wrote it down for him. And Moses took those two tablets back down the mountain.

Joshua had to have been impressed with the clear communication from God. Exodus 31:18:

"And when He had finished speaking with him [Moses] upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God."

Exodus 32:15:

"Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other. And the tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets."

The Bible goes to great length here to point out to us that God’s word was deliberately and distinctly written, recorded in writing. I think that became more precious to Joshua as time went on. Remember after Moses had finished fighting the Amalekites in the Valley of Rephidim a week ago, Moses was told, "Write this down in a book and give it to Joshua. He’s going to need it some day." He’s going to need this writing some day too.

Brothers and sisters, we desperately need the written Word of God. Why does God bother writing it? Wasn’t there some other avenue? He spoke it to the people -- the Ten Commandments and a bunch of other rules besides, beginning in the 20^th chapter of Exodus. How well did they do with that? After 40 days, they got a little bit forgetful. They got doubtful and they began to misinterpret what God had said.

There is value in the written Word. Jesus said it. There are several reasons why God saw to it that His Word was written in a language that was known and understandable. One of the earliest languages in all human history was the Hebrew language in which Moses dealt in those days. Presumably, that was the language that God used, and there are reasons for it.

For one is this – that which is written is objective. That means it is there, not to be misunderstood. It’s there for keeps. It means one thing, the author’s intended meaning is the objective slant to any written word, and it’s there to be seen. It’s objective. Because it’s objective, it’s also clear. What part of the Ten Commandments do you supposed was difficult to understand?

When you read your Bible, you see what God has said, what God has recorded in His Word. Happily it’s translated now into a language that you and I can understand, and every time we open our Bible, John 3:16 reads the same. It’s clear, it’s standard, and it’s permanent. We have manuscripts that go back to 250 B.C., that’s pretty old. The manuscripts that were written in 250 B.C. align perfectly with those that were written almost 1200 years later. They stayed the same. And both those sets come to us today in the form of our Bible.

It’s permanent. Whatever Moses said, whatever God said, whatever one of God’s prophets said, as it was recorded, it lends itself to permanence. It’s there perpetually. We’re reading in this Bible the exact words Jesus read and used and Isaiah read and used.

The value of the written word is unsurpassed. It doesn’t lend itself as well to misunderstanding. It shows that God desires to communicate, not in some weird language that no one’s ever heard of before, coming in some strange fashion, but in a real language used by real people in actual history that today can be read and studied and understood.

Because God does not change and God’s Word does not change, it’s important to God that His Word, which communicates those two things, does not change either. We should thank God that we have a written Bible, and we’re not just sitting around holding hands waiting for something to come to one of us, because I can assure you that that which would come to you, would not come to me, and there would be more than chaos among God’s people, and it would have been that way all through history. Joshua understood the written Word to be precious.

God not only communicates clearly, but He anticipates fallen hearts. He communicates clearly and he hits His audience between the landing lights.

Have you ever thought about why it is that the Ten Commandments are so negative? "You shall not do this; you shall not do that." Sometimes people who are unfamiliar with the faith or ignorant, will say, "What a negative religion you have. Everything is ‘don’t do this and don’t do that.’"

Do you think God is taken by surprise here? When God hears someone say, "God, why did you make it such a negative thing?", do you think that God should stop and apologize? Maybe He should say, "I should have been nicer. Instead of saying, ‘You shall not murder,’ I should have said, ‘This is how you love. Go love.’ Instead of saying ‘Thou shall not steal,’ I should have said, ‘This is how you share; go share.’"

What did God know? God understood the inclination of the human heart, and He understood that the natural inclination of the human heart is, by birth, automatically toward self, not toward God, nor toward others.

It is naturally and immediately and consistently and universally a self-centered issue. So if God desires behavior, He has to start there. Our natural inclination is to exploit for our own benefit. Our natural inclination is to exalt and advance self, so the commandments are worded accordingly.

But there’s another reason that the commandments are worded such. This is the design of the Ten Commandments. Here you have all these people, they’re in the wilderness; they’re hearing the commandments. We’re going to see how quickly and how completely they violated several key commandments.

Paul wrote to the Galatians that those commandments, worded negatively, are our schoolmaster, God’s schoolmaster, to bring us to faith. How does that work?

Paul used coveting in Romans 7 in his example. "Thou shalt not covet." If we are honest, sooner or later, somewhere along in life, coveting, wanting something that is not legitimately our own, to a degree that’s not pleasing to God. We covet.

The way it’s intended to work, is that when I see myself behaving that way, I see myself as a breaker of the law. God says, "Thou shall not covet." I find myself coveting. What does that make me? Guilty! I’m now a lawbreaker; I’m now a coveter. I now have failed to measure up to God’s standards and now I’m guilty.

When I’m guilty, what do I need? I need forgiveness, I need grace, I need to throw myself at the feet of God and say, "God, I have broken your law." And that’s why the law is phrased that way, so that we will know when we’ve broken it and our need of His grace and forgiveness will be quickened in our hearts and we will go to Him.

That’s what the whole sacrificial system was about. Did God only stop with the "Thou shalt not’s?" No, He made provision for the violations that were sure to come. The Ten Commandments, then, are not really negative, are they? No, they’re not; they’re quite helpful, actually, in bringing us to faith. They are an expression of the grace and goodness of God. There they are for all to read.

Joshua is reflecting on these things, and now we have crises.

Respond

In Exodus 32:1, Moses and Joshua are up on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.

"Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron, and said to him, ‘Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’"

So we need a god; we want a god quickly; we don’t know what happened to Moses. He’s been gone several weeks and we don’t know where he is.

You know what’s happening here? People aren’t waiting very well, are they? Isn’t it interesting – it’s been the same amount of time for Joshua, it’s been the same amount of time for Moses as for these people, and they’re ready now for a god they can see.

Disregarding the first and second commandments that God had given them verbally not long before, they say, "We want a god." Aaron said, "Give me all your gold and bring it to me," so they did, and Aaron took that and melted it all down and fashioned it and made a calf, then said, "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt…Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord."

What they struggled with was that they couldn’t see Him any more; they wanted a god they could see. They were willing to give him the same name and to accord him the same worship. Their memories were short, their sense of respect for God and His goodness and His severity and God in His Word, has dwindled away to nothing, and now they’re saying, "We have to have something we can see!" Isn’t that the problem with our waiting? We want to get our hands on something. We want it in front of us. We want to make it and we want it now!

And so we have a problem. God gives Moses a heads up. God spoke to Moses in verses 7-10:

"Then the LORD spoke to Moses, ‘Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

I assume Joshua was in on this conversation, and he realizes, having the recall of what God could do, that these people are in real trouble if God follows through.

They start down the mountain. Moses falls before the Lord and entreats Him not to do what He had spoken. "You know, God, You brought them out. The Egyptians are going to hear about this; remember the promise You made!" Those are the three points Moses makes before God, so God did not wipe them out. He could have, arguably, should have, but didn’t.

Joshua picked up on that. He remembered God’s promise too. Remember, it says, now that he’s in crises and getting ready to face this mess, he remembers the big picture. Whatever it is that’s going on down there, Lord, whatever it is I’ve been waiting on all these weeks, has something to do with Your promise and You are going to fulfill it.

So he moves in wisdom, and observes the forbearance of God and the grace of God in not wiping those people out.

As they get down the mountain, law in hand, Joshua thinks, "Sounds like war to me." (He had just come off that scrap with the Amalekites.) Moses is thinking, "That would be easy if it was a war with our enemies, but these are people of our own house and we’ve got a problem."

Exodus 32:18:

Moses said, "It is not the sound of the cry of triumph, Nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat; But the sound of singing I hear."

Verse 19: "It came about, as soon as Moses came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned…" and then he really let them have it. He was absolutely and totally fed up. Joshua is remembering the promise; he’s remembering the power and the goodness of God. He’s seeing God’s forbearance, he’s seeing these people’s behavior, and it’s very clear to him that they have a problem with their hearts. Then he sees God’s judgment executed through the faithful Levites, as they single out those who were causing the problem, and do them in.

They’re basically, then, positioned for something of a fresh start, although you never quite get over something like that, do you?

The people at the bottom of the mountain didn’t wait well. They tend to be like me, and maybe like you. When we don’t wait well, we leave ourselves open to what our flesh wants. It happens all the time. What did these people want? What are they doing down there? Praying? No, they’re in revelry. In the old language, they would be "given over to lasciviousness in their revelry." Sinful, fleshly, sensuous revelry, is where they ended up.

What did they want? They wanted a golden calf that would sanction their fleshly behavior. Folks, when we don’t wait well, we are prone to similar mistakes. We make fleshly decisions. Some examples:

We want to have it now, so we go into debt, rather than wait to save, wait for something, wait for conditions to change. Many, many people are living with debilitating debt today, because they don’t wait.

Many people have partnered up with the wrong spouse today, because they’ve not been willing to wait. Waiting on God’s timing.

Many people, through impulsive activity, have entered into partnerships, or taken life directions, because they didn’t wait.

Wait in reflecting, as Joshua did; responding as Joshua did. When it comes to issues with other people, other Christians, other family members, people all the time jump to conclusions far too quickly. We enter into knee-jerk reactions, having only heard one side of a story. We get hurt and we hurt and offend others because we are reluctant to wait so very frequently.

Not waiting well, will bring us grief. Not waiting well will dishonor God, and both happened at the base of Mount Sinai that day. What is Joshua’s response? His mind was made up. He aligned himself with God’s position, with Moses and the Levites. He’s been reflecting on the promise and on the person of God, and he already knows what he’s going to do.

Remain

In chapter 33, the journey gets underway again. The crisis is somewhat past, but even though the promise to deliver the people into the land of Israel is repeated in verse 2, the assessment of God’s people is a little more pointed. In verse 5, they’re called obstinate.

The people are obstinate and they are likely to be destroyed. They’re on thin ice. God’s presence accompanies them, nevertheless. Moses strikes the tent that is known as the tent of meeting. The presence of God is there and Joshua’s choice is this. (Exodus 33:11):

"Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent."

He’s staying there. He’s abiding in the presence of God. He has reflected, he’s seen the choices in response, and he’s going to remain where the Lord is.

Remember

Remember this. God’s design is ultimately heaven. It’s not by accident that when the children of Israel approached God in the Sinai Wilderness, they approached Him at the highest mountain, where their eyes had to be directed skyward. Gothic architecture did the same thing, forced participants to look up.

Because God is a God who dwells in heaven, and heaven is the destination of God’s people, He’s taking us there. Whatever we’re waiting on, ultimately has a heavenly purpose. Joshua knew that.

Secondly, God’s Word is absolutely essential. It is clear, lasting, truthful; communication from a God of grace. Our waiting should always involve meditation on His truths. That’s where direction will come from. That’s where strength will come from for the wait. That’s where peace will come from, too, in those hard waiting times.

Third, God’s judgment is sure and His grace is available.

Paul said in Galatians 6:7, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." That’s just a given. Behold the goodness and severity of a God who always keeps His promise.

Waiting on Him, reflecting, responding, remaining, like Joshua did, allows us to access and appreciate His amazing grace for the journey at hand. Your journey, my journey, a bittersweet, earthly adventure for us all, culminating in unspeakable joy.

© Jim Carlson 2003, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA