Day 4
Memory Verse – 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
We left yesterday a bit discouraged. Once again, God’s people had fallen into the sin of thinking their ways were better than God’s ways. Once again, God had saved them, only to have them try to bring about their own purposes. Over the next 40 years, the people of God would fall into sin over and over again; and God would save them out of their sin over and over again. They chose not to trust Him to bring them into the Promised Land, the new Eden, that He had promised to Abraham and His descendants centuries before. And they wandered because of it, living in a land of desolation and disorder until finally they had the faith to walk into His promise.
Here is where we will pick up the story. Moses is dead, as are nearly everyone who had been delivered from Egypt. Only two men, Joshua and Caleb remained. These men had trusted the Lord when no one else did, and they are about to be rewarded for it. Joshua means God is Deliverance, and we will see that God is about to use Joshua to deliver His people from desolation to creation. But there is a problem – between the people and the land of promise stands an obstacle. There is a body of water, a rushing river that is overflowing its banks, keeping them from their salvation out of the wilderness.
Read Joshua 3
Do you see it? The chaotic waters once again posed a threat to keep out the life and salvation that God wanted for His people! But again, God provided a way – a dry land emerged out of the water and the people walked over into the land and life He had prepared for them.
So you might notice that there is no wind present this time as it had been the previous times. But what is there? The Ark of the Covenant! If you are not familiar with the item, let me tell you about it. The Ark had been built by Moses under God’s command. It was a box overlaid with gold with two seraphim angels on top covering it. We find the instructions for the building of the Ark in Exodus 25. After its construction, the Presence of God came to dwell in the Ark in the midst of the people.
Leviticus 16:2 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover — the place of atonement — is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover”
The cloud of the Holy Spirit was present at this moment when the people were brought through the Jordan River on dry land into the Promised Land! The people entered the land to establish God’s order in the chaos that had existed there previously. Or at least they tried to. Once again, their purpose was thwarted by their enemy, and before long this land of promise – this beautiful creation – was marred by sin and corruption of the people. Will we ever see an end to this cycle?