Supernatural
“Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.”
Today’s Text: Joshua 24:25-33 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
The people of Israel, and especially Joshua and the elders, experienced some incredible supernatural things at the hand of God. And He did those things for the sake of the people who call upon His name exclusively. And so, ultimately, it was for the sake of His own name—that is, for the sake of His glory. That which is for the sake of God’s glory is for the sake of God’s people.
Most of us have not experienced supernatural phenomenon, at least in terms of how people normally understand the word “supernatural.” I believe that supernatural things are happening all around us even in the very ordinary things we experience day to day. Strictly speaking, every breath we take is supernatural. The very fact that we can think and create is pretty supernatural. The fact that humans can even communicate with one another is pretty supernatural.
But we have never experienced God doing whatever it is that He did to keep the sun in the sky for 24 hours (Joshua 10). We have never experienced God doing whatever it is that He did to part the waters of the Jordan (Joshua 3) or the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 14).
Some people have tried to explain those supernatural phenomena as natural phenomena. A landslide may have caused a dam upstream in the Jordan River, which blocked the flow of water to allow Israel to cross over. A great wind might have caused a low tide of the Red Sea to “pile up” allowing the Israelites to cross.
People who try to explain the supernatural phenomena in the Bible in natural terms believe that God caused those events, but that He used the natural systems that are already at work in the world which God created.
No matter how those supernatural phenomena happened, though, God’s timing is what makes those events supernatural. God caused those events to happen at a specific place and a specific time to further His great plan of salvation for the world in Christ Jesus.
One thing that cannot be explained on natural terms, however, is the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ (maybe along with the creation of the universe and all life) is the most purely supernatural event in all history.
Because of His resurrection, we can be absolutely sure that, by God’s grace and through faith, we have been reconciled to God and that we too will be resurrected to eternal life.
God’s grace is given by what He has done for us. Our faith and corresponding faithfulness is the variable.
We have been told about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we need to experience His resurrection as if we were there to witness it ourselves. That is faith. And we must live out our lives in the reality of His resurrection daily. Because those who believe are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do.
Broadly speaking, the work that God has called us to do, because of faith, is called obedience. May we grow in that faithfulness in 2026.
Father, I live only because You have willed it. Jesus came and lived a perfect life and died for all our sins and was resurrected to eternal life for our hope, all because You have willed it. And it is Your will also that we obey Your word. Forgive me when I do not. Because You know my weakness. And yet in my weakness, I have the power of Your love in me through faith. Make me more faithful by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
