Sometimes we are best to hurry over.
When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight." Joshua 4:1-3
Imagine standing on dry ground...where moments before a river had flowed. "Take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan." The middle is an interesting place to pause. Middle by definition is in-between: being neither at the beginning nor at the end in a series. Halfway...often a place of sudden doubt and indecision.
It was this message that fell on my ears a few weeks ago during my Bible study. I still remember on the short drive over...asking God to give me peace on a specific issue...and then arriving to hear this message.
In between the banks of the Jordan...certainly a place of doubt and indecision. Gazing ahead to the unknown promised land...yet glancing over their shoulders to the security they were leaving behind.
"Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over." Joshua 4:10
Sometimes when we are contemplating the unknown promise of the future...or returning to the comfort of our past...perhaps it is best that we too...hurry over.
"And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before." Joshua 4:18
Perhaps He is holding the waters just long enough...for us to cross.
3 comments:
I remember this lesson from Beth Moore's "Believing God." It is a good one, reminding us to trust God, and yes, to "hurry over" to His loving arms. Great message.
Donna M.
Hurry indeed, and for good reason.
With the coming of the dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, Hurry!...or you will be swept away when the city (Sodom) is punished…When he hesitated the men (the angels) took his hand …and let them safely out of the city…Don’t look back (the angels said) and don’t stop anywhere…flee to the mountains…But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:15-26).
What was behind Lot and his family was not good, thus they were not to look back and desire the old ways. They were to hurry to leave the bad and hurry to enter the good.
The Lord said I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt…So I have come down to rescue them…and bring them up out of that land into a into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… (Exodus 3:7-8) The Exodus group failed to enter into the Promised land when they first came to it because they feared the “powerful” people who lived there. Only Caleb and Joshua of the spies said the land could be conquered – thus all were send back into the desert for 40 years where all men who refused to fight the first time died, save Caleb and Joshua. On the way out of Egypt they cried to return for fear of death at the hands of the oncoming Egyptian army, they wanted to return to the “misery” the Lord saw them in as opposed to going to the land of milk and honey.
If they escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it (the world) and overcome, they are worse off…Of them the proverbs are true: A dog returns to its vomit and A sow that is washed goes back to… wallowing in the mud. (2 Peter 2 20-22)
I’m not sure we look back to the old ways for “security they (we) are leaving behind” so much as not wanting to grasp the safety of the promise ahead. We are to hurry to the good as much as we are to hurry away from the bad. As you stated so well in your Sing for Joy blog; “I simply jumped after the promise of joy.” You didn’t jump up, down, or backward, but you jumped forward away from the destruction of your past, to the “promise of joy” set before you. Enjoy the view.
Regarding being in the “middle,” you noted there might be “doubt and indecision” in the middle. Note also in your Joshua 4 reference what/who was in the middle – it was “the ark of the covenant of the Lord” which represented God’s glory at that time. He is in the middle to help your hurry to the good and hurry away from the bad. There was nothing but desert waiting behind them, but God’s “promise” was waiting before them. Yes, they had to fight for it, but with God on their side, they couldn’t be defeated even if they lost a battle.
Thanks for helping me study this week!
BobM
I find myself sometimes in the "middle," meandering around not moving forward, occasionally standing still and even just moving laterally.
The next thing I know I look up, knowing full well that I didn't move backward, I have fallen behind while others continue to move forward.
Being left behind (not in the book sense) is never fun. When we aren't active, or hurrying up, we stand still, while God and others move forward.
I'm not sure if that made any sense, it's late. (:
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