That you may know the way

Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before." – Joshua 3v4

Finally. Forty years later, for the entire adult of everyone but Joshua and Caleb the time had come to enter the long sought after Promised Land.

I would imagine the scene being something like the boarding call for a Ryan Air flight with everyone rushing to the gate to be first and to claim their spot. I hate that but I get caught up in it as well.

I think that is human nature. I also think of the old grainy photograph of the settlers lining up for the start of rush for free land as a result of the Homestead Act in the United States. Thousands of people are lined up waiting for the gunshot that would send them on their way to stake their claims.

I can almost see Israel doing the same. ‘All we have to do is cross that river and claim our land.’

But God said wait. ‘The ark is going first. You all stay a kilometre back and wait because you have never been this way before.’

Think about that. Here is the chance to finally settle in the land and God tells you that you have to stay back 1000 metres, ten football pitches. Knowing me I would have been exactly at the 1000 metre mark anxiously watching every move.

God knew that it was best for them to hold back and watch Him before they acted. That goes against my nature. I don’t want to stay back and wait for God. I would rather just jump in to a situation that needs to be sorted.

In reality I don’t know what is around the next bend. God does. I need to hold back and watch His leadership before I act in my own wisdom.