Day 63: Joshua 3-4 - Rights of Passage

It was finally time to cross. There was nothing more holding them back. God opened the door that none could shut, then shut it again, so that no one could reopen it. The moment was sealed with a pillar of stones. 

Follow the ark, for you do not the way, as you have not been this way before (chapter 3)

The commanders went to the camps and instructed the Jews to be ready to follow the ark in the morning of the 4th day.

Every walk of faith is one of "following the ark", which contains the mix of His word and laws, his staff of authority and instruction, and his sustaining provision of daily bread.

It is a metaphor for Jesus: the word of God, the bread of life and the good shepherd of our souls.

We do not know where we are going. We follow anyway.

It will be true throughout our long journey with God. It will rarely be clear what we should do or where we should turn, as we face diversions and distractions with so many possibilities for losing our way. It is best to just follow in faith.

The steps of the righteous are ordered by God, so looking back you will see the many ways that he led you in spite of yourself and when you weren’t even aware of his hand on you.

Israel was told to give the ark about half-mile head-start and then to follow, so that they could clearly see the ark ahead of them and follow instead of crowding it in confusion.

Metaphorically, they left Shittim, a place of trees in the trans-Jordan heights, to pause before the river for God was helping them to see the wood from the trees. 

God opened the door

As the priests bearing the ark stood in the water, the upstream river banked up “into a heap”.

For 40 years 5 million souls could not forge a narrow river, because God forbade it. Yet, when the time was right, he legitimized their passage by opening the way.

Psalm 75 rightly said, “promotion comes neither from the east or west but form the Lord”. 

In Revelation 3:8, Jesus said “I open doors that no man will shut and close doors that no man will open”. That is the kind of authority that was with them that morning.

Had they crossed on their own terms, they would have been spiritually trespassing, which can invoke significant spiritual problems and setbacks.

But if God legitimizes our passage, nothing can stop that and nothing will. The way ahead will also yield to us as we raise his staff over the land before us.

Mark your passage with the touchstone and beacon of grace (chapter 4)

One man from every tribe had to carry a stone, for his tribe, to the other side.

It was all that they carried. The river symbolically washed away all the past and truly provided an open door to the future, while shutting the door on the past.

All they carried out of the wilderness that they left behind, were the 12 stones, which would serve as a beacon, a touchstone, a reminder that there was nothing to go back to.

Jews understand such way-points well. Like an aircraft following trig beacons, they see the heaps of stones that Jacob once used, as a point of departure, as in “we go from here”.

The first rule of navigation is to go from where you are, not where you were or will yet be.  

Let God take you as you are and with what you have, to lead you from there and build on what you have become and what he has invested in you.

That way your heap of stones will become the cornerstone of your future

What a beautiful moment when Israel finally washed the dirt of the wilderness out of their clothing, shoes and souls, to rise up the far bank into their God-given heritage.

It may have looked the same as the land they left behind, but the legal rights made it so different, just as different as a border post alters the rights of a citizen returning home.

When we finally reach ground that is legitimately ours, not borrowed, not a passage to a distant future, not a wasteland where none settle, but a mandate that is ours, sealed by God and assured by heaven: our joy in Christ will be complete.

Think of your life in terms of your calling and the years it has taken for that to be fulfilled, years lost to the locusts. Well God will restore those years and make it all count in the future.  

That is what a God-given mandate implies. It is a place where you can be fulfilled, where none can take what is finally yours to possess, till, plant and multiply for his glory.

That is God’s promise for us all

We labor, as Hebrews 4 implied, to enter into rest – but God has reserved  a rest for us all. That implies not a place to be at ease. On the contrary, it is an active rest.

Shalom, the Hebrew for peace or rest, is defined by Strong’s as a place of fulfillment, completeness and harmony, not a place of idle rest.

It implies a rest from striving, a rest from the angst of your soul, your vanity and your search for identity. Indeed, the essence of their rest lay in the seal of identity. 

They were no longer a disenfranchised rabble as they had title to a land of their own.

That provided a secure platform for the advancement of their dreams and the extension of their tent-pegs. They had ceased to be wandering slaves. 

It alludes to the true, real rest that God reserves for us when our struggle with self and the old man, finally settles us in Him so we can be about our father’s business.

What a hope he reserves for us. Glory to God. 

(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com