Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Friday the 13th of October,
Are you one of those people who can be superstitious and thus you will be extra cautious on this day, only because it’s a “Friday the 13th”? Do you know some people who will postpone important decisions on this day, or not travel on this day, or not take elevators or trust anything mechanical on this day? So, when you think back on your life, what are the top two or three most significant decisions you’ve made? How long did it take you to reach the decision and then the courage to move forward with that important decision? What risks of failure or disaster were involved in that major decision?
Joshua and more than 1 million people faced such a historic moment, and he recorded it for us in Joshua 3. “Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan river, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp giving orders to the people: ‘When you see the ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about 2000 cubits between you and the Ark, do not go near it.” (Joshua 3:1) Oh my this is powerful! Do you hear the life changing decisions they are being called to make?
Do you see the name of a place where the people were camped called ‘Shittim‘? That’s important because of the terrible things which happened there as recorded in Numbers 25. You may want to take some time to read that remarkable story. Now, as Joshua led these more than 1 million Israelite people from Shittim, it was a new day, moving toward a new future, leaving behind 40 years of living in the desert under the curse of God, for the failure of their parents, when God invited them to follow Him into the land of God’s promise on the other side of the Jordan. Like these Israelites, we’ve all grown up in the shadow of our parents and the decisions they made when we were children. Our children have grown up in the shadow of our decisions. Pause and Ponder that for a moment.
But Joshua and this next generation of Israelites were being given the second chance to be ‘chain breakers’! A generation of people who would NOT continue living either under the curse of their parents’ past rebellion against God, nor making the same God rejecting decisions in the present that their parents made in the past. I can almost feel their excitement, their sense of new hope, as they packed up and left behind the shame of Shittim and journeyed to the banks of the flooded Jordan river, and then set up camp there. As far as I know this would have been the first time, they had seen this river for we have no record of them coming to the Jordan before.
Rivers can be beautiful, but flooded rivers can be daunting, even terrifying in their damage potential. I used to live in a northern city where every spring the annual snow and ice thaw, combined with spring rains created a flood which motivated people to build sandbag walls around their homes and barns. People pounded tall poles into the flood path with inch marks so they could watch and measure the rising water hoping they had enough sandbags, and the sandbag walls would hold! They watched and they listened to all weather predictions very carefully.
Therefore, it’s not difficult for me to imagine these people who have only seen desert sand for 40 years, now camping near a flooded river wondering… Would the river keep rising, were they camped too close? How long before the river would recede low enough that they could possibly risk crossing with all their belongings and animals? And then, after they’d been there a day or two, Israelite leaders going through the camp saying, ‘get ready to cross the flooded river!?’ Can you see the confused looks, can you hear the shouts of disbelief? Can we imagine the people trying to understand the plan as announced by those leaders?
There was no mention of a bridge or waiting until the water recedes. No mention of digging a channel to divert the water or attempting to build a dam to stop the torrent. Only one command… be ready, be watchful, and when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD carried by the Levites heading toward the flood…follow at a respectful distance! If you were an adult, what would you have told your children to do? Do you see the challenging promise of Joshua to the people? “When you SEE the ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to MOVE OUT from your positions and FOLLOW it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have NEVER been this way before.”
This raises a fundamental question for every person who claims a relationship with God: How do you discern when God is speaking to you, giving you instructions and what is your response to God? Or, how do you discern when God is directing you to take specific action, and again, what is your response to God? What have you SEEN in the past which has been the evidence that God is working around you and inviting you to join with Him in what HE is doing?
Now watch this my friends: for these more than 1 million Israelites, since the days their parents fled Egypt, God had led them by a cloud over them by day or a pillar of fire by night. (Exodus 13:21,22; Numbers 9:17-23) But do you notice there is NO mention of the cloud moving here? We can assume the cloud is over them at Shittim, even though their behavior there was wicked. Perhaps the cloud led them to the Jordan River, but their instructions now change.
They are to WATCH, not for a cloud, but for the Ark of the Covenant moving toward the flooded Jordan River and follow it at a safe distance. Their instructions were: ‘When you SEE the ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”
Now it is true they were about to step through the Jordan river and then into a new land which NONE of them, except Joshua and Caleb, had ever seen much less walked. This would be totally new territory. Oh, my friends, I love the significance of this very clear instruction: The only way THROUGH that flooded Jordan would be to FOLLOW the Ark of the Covenant. That golden box, as you may recall, contained the two tablets of stone, engraved by the finger of God, which Moses had brought down from Mount Sinai. Those 10 Commandments were a significant part of the Covenant God made with these people the Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob’s sons.
This was a major principal God was teaching these people… moving forward, each new day, they were to follow God Himself, as their Covenant keeping God, and they were to be obedient, Covenant keeping people, and God would guide them, protect them, provide for them and they would experience God’s Presence with them. What an amazing way to live, would you agree?
There on the banks of the flooded Jordan river, the people had heard God’s directive, and they were given time to decide. Would they follow the Ark forward, trusting God, or would they be like their faithless parents?
It’s the very same question you and I face every day, isn’t it my friends? So, let’s pause with them… On this Friday the 13th, what is your response to God who challenges you to trust Him, obey Him, and follow Him into the future HE has for you, since you’ve never walked this way before. Each day is a new day you’ve never lived before, and with Jesus, we never walk alone, right?! Here’s a song to help us reflect on this, my friends, and I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow…
Today’s Scripture is Joshua 3:1-4.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.