I just finished reading the Pentateuch, and there is a saying, "The Pentateuch is where Bible reading plans go to die." This is true for many. The reward for completing those books is knowing God better and understanding the history of His faithfulness. After the five books of the Pentateuch, they set up more incredible stories in upcoming books that make the Bible hard to put down, for all the intrigue and crafting of the storyline that will enthrall and captivate any patient reader.
My reading took me to the book of Joshua, and I encountered a familiar scene. The people of the Pentateuch stood obstructed by a body of water, unable to cross to the Promised Land. This new generation in the book of Joshua would face a similar trial as their parents and grandparents. This generation would go through with faith and boldness, while the past generations went through with fear and trepidation. The older generation scolded and threatened their leader, Moses. They complained and jeered at the God who showed Himself strong on their behalf.
Both face the water's edge and God's deliverance, opening the water for each to pass. Both were able to testify of God's faithfulness. Both groups had experienced God's miracle-working power. The first group lived through deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They saw God's plagues on their captors; they walked out, being freely given treasurers from the Egyptian people. They heard the wailing of people waking to the death of firstborns filling the nation. They saw the Death Angel spare their lives, passing over their homes as they obediently marked their doorpost with the blood of a lamb, as others died who did not claim such salvation. As they faced the trial of the sea that would seemingly thwart their freedom, they did not take to heart all they knew about the God who promised to rescue and make them a great nation.
With this barricade standing before them and looking behind them, Pharaoh and the Egyptians overtaking them, they cried out, "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness?" In their panic, they revealed their hearts. They watched the power of God through the plagues in Egypt while they were untouched by the same disasters. In the panic, the words of their mouths revealed the condition of their hearts, "Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still slaves? Let us be slaves in Egypt rather than a corpse in the wilderness!" Their words proved faithlessness deep in their core. That faithlessness revealed a foul and odious view of the promises and character of God.
Praise God: He revealed Himself more remarkable, compassionate, and longsuffering than their sin deserved. He is the same in dealing with us. He always makes a way of escape, not only through our trials but for the maturing of our faith. Their way of escape comes through Moses' declaration of encouragement, “Don’t be afraid, just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today…” This generation was told to face this trial: "Just stand still and watch…”
What did they see as they stood still and watched? God commanded Moses, “Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea.” They watched “The angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. The cloud settled between the Egyptians and Israel camps.” Israelites stood still and saw all this; there was still no new rescue path. Would this be enough to build their faith? Should they have seen all that God did in these moments, began to repent of their doubt, and become stalwart in faithfulness towards God? Yes! But the rescue still hadn’t happened, only some movement of pieces. They would not believe it until they were rescued. Is that faithfulness?
This is where we get stuck in our faith. We want everything to come to an end when we are facing turmoil. We don’t always appreciate the call to, “Don’t be afraid, just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today…” We want immediate relief. Appreciating the movement of God in ways that we are assured He’s working out our situation is not always enough if the path is not cleared entirely in our trial. This generation had to sweat it out overnight, “As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night.” It is hard to appreciate these moments if our trial is not over in all these actions God takes to show up in powerful ways. We want to escape from, not see things rearranged. We become frustrated when the obstacle remains, even as God is preparing our escape through, not from.
This generation had to wait and watch without fear. That was the instructions for them facing the Red Sea that stood in front of them and their rescue. Their Red Sea was necessary for them to see, “The LORD himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” God planned to destroy those Egyptians so Israel would never see them again. Israel did not know they needed this Red Sea experience to add to the building of their faith. This was a necessary part of building their relationship with God. Their dependency for everything was being shaped.
We are the same way. We don’t always know why God stretches out a trial on our behalf. There are reasons we may not get to know. There is dross He must burn, gold that needs refining, and a heart that needs changing. There is a sanctifying process that will help us bend our lives even lower for God’s control and our trust in Him. This night of watching and waiting for their way of escape was necessary for this generation of Israelites. God did with their Red Sea what would help them walk through as different people. It was an opportunity for God’s glory and their faith to build.
The generation encountered in Joshua would face the Jordan River, but God would require something different in their crossing. This is the same with us. God may allow a similar, if not the same, trial, but His reasons for it in each life will differ. His rescue may be different. This does not mean His love vacillates; it is that He sees our needs in any given trial for any given child differently.
This new generation would have experienced God’s care through 40 years of wandering the wilderness. They would have experienced passing through land where other nations would have taunted them. They would have eaten the manna and sat through dinners with quail as the protein. They would have seen their shoes not break down from all the walking. They would have heard the stories of their ancestors rejecting entering the land under Moses’ leadership as they were about to enter it under Joshua's leadership. They experienced 40 years of God’s natural and supernatural care as God saw fit. They were no more or less prepared than their grandparents. All of them would have known, experienced, and seen God’s power in their lives from differing advantages, but both generations had no excuses for faithlessness. Neither generation should have feared the water.
When Joshua was put in charge of this generation of Israelites, now all grown up, they would arrive at the point of being able to take what their parents and grandparents rejected, “… tell the people to get their provisions ready. In three days, you will cross the Jordan River and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
They were reminded of Moses's commands from the LORD: "The LORD your God is giving you a place to rest. He has given you this land…” Both generations had watched God deliver through trials prepared for them. Both generations experienced God’s provisions. Both generations had the same promises. Not both generations trusted God. The difference was each had to take all they knew of God and choose to be faithful in return for His proven faithfulness. You can see yourself in the picture of one or the other generation. Yes, this new generation would face their sinfulness and stumble in the land of promise, but that is to come. Right now, they are obeying faithfully to get to the promise God has for them. When we think of Israel, we must read each moment of their story as the Bible depicts them. There are sad moments of grave faithlessness in the face of having seen the power of God, as in the prior generations. There are great moments of faithfulness in this new generation that Joshua led, where they obeyed, and God’s Light was seen in the nations around them.
For instance, under Joshua, the spies came back with a report about the people of the land they were going to capture, “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. For we have heard how the LORD made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt.” If other nations heard of these stories, we know the generation living out God's promises would have been told the same and now have opportunities to be built in their faith when the days come for them to cross their sea. The Book of Deuteronomy lets us know Moses was commanded to re-tell the commands, stories of God’s deliverance, and His expectations of those who remained alive after wandering for 40 years.
Now, the time had come for this new generation to head toward the Promised Land. This moment is reminiscent of their ancestors walking out of Egypt. Both generations gathered their belonging and then traveled at God’s command through the leader He gave them. Each generation was given information from spies sent out to search the land. The earlier generation was told, “It is indeed a bountiful country land flowing with milk and honey… But the people are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” This faithless generation's Sea crossing and all they saw had not grown their faith or made them more stalwart in their obedience to God.
The spies Joshua sent on behalf of this new generation reported, “The LORD has
given us the whole land. For all the people in the land are terrified of us.” This report was a reason for strengthened faith among Joshua and then for this new generation. Remember, God had not left their ancestors without the opportunity to resolve themselves to be faithful. We are all given reasons, experiences, and the history written in Scripture that allows us to grow in our faith, to trust God without trepidation, and to walk in obedience because of all of this. The new generation chose faithfulness. They decided to believe God would continue showing His strength on their behalf. They were told not to fear, and they did not.
The day to take the land came, and the people arrived at the Jodan River; it had to be crossed. The people were instructed to “follow the Levitical Priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, move out from your positions and follow them.” The people had never traveled this way before. There was much they could have feared. Unexpected obstacles could have fomented worry that might have caused doubt and fear to surface. They were told that the Priest would guide them so that they would stay about half a mile behind them. The distance also set boundaries between them and the Ark.
There were three days between the report and the departure. Three days to wait and see what God would do to get them across the Jordan River. The waiting could allow for thoughts to run rampant. Thoughts that could militate anarchy and chaos. Thoughts of doubt might bring uncertainty about God’s power to deliver what He promised. They had to wait. Waiting is the worst part. Their waiting wasn’t empty of instructions. They were told to “Purify yourselves, for the LORD will do great wonders among you.” Their wait was purposeful.
We forget that as God instructs us to wait, we are not to spend our time allowing our thoughts to betray us. We are taught to pray while waiting. Prayer offers our concerns, doubts, and questions to God. We are told to give thanks while waiting, so our minds are filled with reminders of the faithfulness of God. We are told to fill our time with rejoicing. That is not some pretense that everything is ok. We rejoice in the certainty that we are His, and He is ours, and His rescue, as in other times, is sure. This is how we purify ourselves while we wait for God’s escape through our waters.
“In the morning, they started …” God gave Joshua instructions when they “reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.” One watery obstacle was received with fear and complaining, the other with faith and obedience. The latter would come to the water's edge during “harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks.” That could be a reason for fear to begin to drown out faith, and questioning of God’s character could have risen. The priests were examples of faith to the people. They followed their instructions without equivocation, and “as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, the water above the point began backing up a great distance away… the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.”
To see yourself come through a trial faithfully where others may have struggled is not a reason for pride but a reason to be assured that you are in a place of maturity. You are in a place to walk with another sister or brother who is doubting. It doesn’t mean your next trial will find you in the same place, but you know you’ve been tested and not found wanting right now. It is a reason to rejoice. I bet some in the crowd had these thoughts in mind. I bet some may have even compared themselves to their parents in pride. That would not have been good. Others may have rejoiced in the faithfulness God was building in their character and how they rose to the occasion of the moment. Their opportunity to fail will come. So will ours, but God waits for a repentant child to recognize and humble themselves again. Victory for the Christian is in Christ, not ours to boast in. Our victory is at the expense of becoming more of a tool to help others in the Kingdom, not for self-aggrandizing.
These generations taught us some fantastic lessons. Faithlessness and faithfulness are ours to choose. God has done enough in all our lives to prove He is a promise keeper. The Word tells us God always makes a way of escape, so we don’t need to sin, doubt, become worried, or disillusioned, as the first generation exemplified. Trusting God’s character and His Word leads us to a water’s edge and offers us the faith to know God has planned a way to get us through on dry land. He remained in their midst with both generations as they confronted their watery obstacle. He did that for the faithless and the faithful. He remained faithful. He knew what he would use the water for with each generation to accomplish. He did not throw away the faithless. He offered other opportunities for them to become faithful. That is a reason to rejoice. Our failure to trust God in one area doesn't thwart Him from continuing to grow us up through other trials.
I address the waters figuratively for our trials. I bet when Israel was told by Isaiah, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you,” those words were a through back to both these experiences in the history of their people. Those words would not have fallen on deaf ears. Today, even figuratively, when God leads us to the waters of circumstances we must trust Him to cross, know He is there with a planned rescue, probably not from it, but through it.
The question is, which generation’s example will you follow?
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