Joshua 3

The Jordan River. Joshua leads the people to the river, a river that is overflowing because of the harvest season. Joshua tells the people to make sure they follow the Chest of God and that they will see clearly. He tells them that this is a road that they have never taken. Interesting statement considering all of them knew they had never been there before.

God is leading me to places that I have never been. I have to follow the Lord and keep my eyes on Him. If I take my eyes off of Him I won't know where to go. I might turn to the left or to the right. Remember God warned Joshua not to turn either left or right. He told him to take the Law with him and meditate on it day and night. God is still calling us to take the Word with us, to meditate on it day and night. In the last few months I have been drawn to God's Word more than I ever have in my whole life. Is it because He is taken me to one of those new places? I think so. It is a place I long to go to.

Joshua orders the priests to step into that overflowing river. He tells the people that when they do it, that the flow of the river will stop and it will heap up in a pile. And it even heaped up a far way off. I can't even imagine what that looks like. Now I've seen The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt, but I don't think these movies do justice to what it must have looked like. (I know that was the Red Sea in those movies too.)

What I think is the most amazing thing is that they did it. They stepped into the river. The Bible doesn't say they looked cross-eyed at Joshua. It doesn't say that they asked, "are you sure?". I think I would have, um I take that back I have done just that with God. The Bible says that the people left their tents, followed the priests, and crossed over, and not one foot got wet. Not one foot. Not even the priests who stepped into the water? Did they put their feet into the water and even before it hit the sand underneath it was dry? I never thought about that before, but it says it. It says not one wet foot.

I guess the one things that really strikes me is that the Bible says that they crossed facing Jericho. The challenge they had to face was directly in front of them. I know I am suppose to keep my eyes on God. I am suppose to step into the water when He tells me to. It will either dry up like in did for Joshua and the Israelites or maybe I'll be able to walk on it like Peter. But even as I do all that, I need to realize that the challenge, the walled city is still there. The strongholds He tells me to go up against are waiting on the other side.

I would like to think that if I had the faith to step into the Jordan then the Jericho on the other side would just be gone. I tend to think if I obey, then God might take away the Jericho that He has called me to face. He can, He might even.  He has asked me to cross the Jordan facing the Jericho and it will still be there when I get across. It's not a "see, I did it! So the impenetrable city can go away now, God." He is asking me to not only trust Him with the crossing of the Jordan, but to trust Him that the walls will be coming down.

So I think God is calling me to be putting my feet into some water, but they will be dry once on the other side.