I love the way the Lord confirms Joshua's call to leadership in these chapters. Perhaps the people had questions, and perhaps they even wondered if Joshua was truly the person to lead them. Perhaps God knew the situation and chose to use it to reveal His approval of this new leader. Or perhaps God simply wanted the people to enter the Promised Land without any question of the divine intervention that took place in order to get them there. At any rate, my imagination tells me that this must have been an incredible sight for the Israelites: the Jordan River, teeming with life at it's flood-stage, was crossed by the entire nation! And how did it happen? A step of faith. The plan was simple: set foot in the water, and it will stop flowing. The execution of the plan was the challenge because even someone as large as Goliath would probably be swept down the river the moment his foot touched the water. There are certain stories that I wish I could see firsthand, and this is one such story. Imagine seeing the priests step into the water and entire flow stopping as if a dam was suddenly put into place. Simply incredible
The lesson to be learned here is that sometimes we have to take steps of faith where we simply trust that God will make the way accessible as He did in this situation. We must be careful not to presume upon God and ask Him to bless our actions. But it seems to me that a real walk with Him will include at least one, if not more, step of faith.
I was so excited when after our reading/listening today, my eleven-year-old daughter (without my prompting) excitedly showed me the parallels she saw between Moses’ and Joshua’s start as the God-called leader of Israel. She said, “Look, Mom, they both were told to take off their shoes for they were standing on holy ground.” We also talked about how the Lord once again parted the waters. This leads me to wonder if all pastors are called to lead in very similar ways, even though their assignments may be different. I don’t know how personal this is, but I think it would be neat to know sometime how the different initial callings of our three pastors compare and contrast. As, someone who has been called to follow, I’m curious what it was like to be called to lead.
What I was really challenged with in this reading was the command to build a memorial to represent God’s faithfulness to the Israelite nation. “So when your children ask what this represents, you can share with them how God brought the nation of Israel across the Jordan River.” I am challenged to think of ways I can make ‘memorials’ in my own life, so that I may never forget God’s goodness and faithfulness.