Joshua 4-6

It took me 10 minutes to read this part of the conquest of the Promised Land.  All expressions of faith begin by walking toward the task God sets before us.  God has told Israel to march into their inheritance and take it.  By faith they began walking; armed and ready to battle their enemies.  Their eyes of flesh looked ahead of them and saw a flood swollen river, but their faith insisted that they keep marching.  So they marched on.  God had told Joshua what would happen, and the new leader of Israel may have told the people what would happen, but no one had ever seen anything like this.  At the Red Sea the path was opened and then the people began their march across the seabed.  As the priests approached the Jordan there was no path.  The walked in faith that God would open a path when they needed it.  The path didn’t form when the priests were 100 feet from the water, or 50 feet, or 10 feet.  The path was not visible one step away from the water.  The path didn’t open until the priests set one foot down on what looked like river water.  Then God did something wonderful; he took the water away.  When the priest expected a wet foot, because of their faith, God provided dry ground.  With each step God revealed more dry ground.  God made the ground dry on both sides of the river, until the entire river was dry.  Why did God work in this way?  Joshua explained it to the people; “so that everyone around us would see God’s strength, and so that we will hold God in awe.”  That is the same reason God calls Christians to a walk of faith.

Stuart