{"id":468,"date":"2012-02-25T06:12:26","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T14:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/?p=468"},"modified":"2012-02-25T06:12:26","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T14:12:26","slug":"joshua-222-313","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/?p=468","title":{"rendered":"Joshua 2:22-3:13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua 2:22-3:13.\u00a0 So the story continues.\u00a0 Rahab sent the spies in to the hills to the west and told them to wait for three days.\u00a0 Then they could return east across the river to the Israelite camp.\u00a0 After three days they returned and gave a good report to Joshua.\u00a0 Much better than the spy mission Joshua went on forty years before (See \u201cIntro to Joshua\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The story is pretty simple but there are a few things I would like to mention.\u00a0\u00a0 Remember, this is it sort of).\u00a0 About 600 years before this God promised Abraham that his descendants would have this land.\u00a0 Now the Israelites are ready to enter.\u00a0 But first a few instructions.\u00a0 The Ark of the Covenant was to be carried before the Israelites as they journeyed into the promised land (This was one of the items used in the Tabernacle (I think I mentioned the Tabernacle in the post 2\/23\/12<\/a> or the \u201cIntro to Joshua\u201d<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0 The Ark was a wooden box covered with gold. On top it had two angel statues.\u00a0 Inside were stone tablets with the first ten rules that God gave to Moses and a stick that had been part of a miracle in Egypt. When the tabernacle was set up only a Priest could approach it.\u00a0 Only Priests could carry or touch it.\u00a0 It represented God\u2019s presence.) The Israelites were to stay about 1000 yards behind the Ark.\u00a0 During the wandering in the wilderness the Israelites always followed the Ark.\u00a0 During the day it would have a column of smoke above it and at night light would come up from it. Remember that there are about two million people here plus animals and carts.\u00a0 Quite a caravan.\u00a0 The Israelites were to \u201cconsecrate\u201d themselves for the journey.\u00a0 The word means to \u201cprepare for something special\u201d.\u00a0 And they were assured that something special was going to happen the next day.\u00a0 Notice too that the author makes a special point that the priests carrying the ark were Levites.<\/p>\n

God then told Joshua that, starting that day, He would exalt Joshua.\u00a0 Exalt means to lift up, it\u2019s kind of like what happens after a sporting event when all of the players lift up a coach or another player.\u00a0 They are showing the world who they think is the greatest or best.\u00a0 God was going to lift up Joshua in the eyes of the Israelites.\u00a0 They knew God had been leading Moses, now they would see that God was leading Joshua too.\u00a0 Joshua then told the Israelites that they could be sure that God was with them because of what they would see the next day.\u00a0 The Jordan River would separate and they would cross over on dry ground.\u00a0 The miracle would give them assurance tha God would be with them and that He would push out the people that were living in the land.\u00a0 This whole process mimics what had happened forty year before with Moses when they left Egypt.\u00a0 The rules, the Levites, and the miracle all point to God leading.\u00a0 Tomorrow we will look at the miracle a little closer.<\/p>\n

Scholars like to say that the distance between the Ark and the people was because God wanted to make a real point of His holiness (being pure and separate).\u00a0 The way the sentence is constructed in Hebrew is like, \u201cStay Back!\u201d\u00a0 Like on the back of a fire truck.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get too close.\u00a0 The reason given by the author is that the people would know which way to go because they had not gone this way before. Some say the wording points to more that just a physical path but also to a spiritual attitude of keeping God in front and remembering that He is special.\u00a0\u00a0 It seems that the point is they really needed to let God lead and needed to see that He actually was leading.<\/p>\n

If you have read \u201cThe Old testament Connection\u201d<\/a> you know God is in the process of restoring the relationship between mankind and Himself.\u00a0 But it is not a general relationship, God and Mankind as a group.\u00a0 It is a specific relationship God and individuals.\u00a0 In the book of Revelation (Revelation 5:9)\u00a0 we see angels in Heaven praising Jesus because his blood paid the price for people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. It may seem like a lot of time went by from Abraham to Joshua but God is working out His plan. 2 Peter 3:9 says God is not slow about his promise to come and rule the earth.\u00a0 But He wants to maximize his kingdom.\u00a0 He is not willing for any to perish but want all to turn back to him.\u00a0 The reality is many will not turn back to God but many will and it all takes time.\u00a0 Time to be born, to grow up, to hear, and to respond.\u00a0 The Israelites waited over 600 years to be born, to grow up, to hear, and to respond.\u00a0 And still really it was not enough time.\u00a0 As we saw in our reading in Judges they went their own way again pretty quickly.\u00a0 Even after a miracle like water standing in a pile like a wall.\u00a0 They needed God in them each day.\u00a0 They needed the gap closed from 1000 yards to 0.\u00a0 They needed a ride on the fire truck with God at the wheel. That is what we all need our lives to be.\u00a0 We need god up close and personal and for that we need Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0 By his death he gave us access to God (See Ephesians 2:11-22).\u00a0 But we need to \u201cconsecrate ourselves\u201d, we need to \u201csanctify Christ as Lord of our hearts\u201d\u00a0 (1 Peter 3:15).\u00a0 Those words, \u201cconsecrate\u201d and \u201csanctify\u201d, mean the same thing, \u201cset apart\u201d or \u201cdedicate\u201d.\u00a0 We need to dedicate our lives to God.\u00a0 We need to follow His way not our own (that is what \u201crepent\u201d means) and we will enter the ultimate promised land.\u00a0 God help me follow your way.\u00a0 Be the driver in my life.\u00a0 Slap my hand if I try to grab the wheel (not too hard though, please).\u00a0 Thank you for letting me be a member of your kingdom.\u00a0 Help me be patient as we wait for others to come too.\u00a0 Let me call out to others as we pass by and reach out to help them on board.\u00a0 Thank you God for your mercy and patience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joshua 2:22-3:13.\u00a0 So the story continues.\u00a0 Rahab sent the spies in to the hills to the west and told them to wait for three days.\u00a0 Then they could return east across the river to the Israelite camp.\u00a0 After three days they returned and gave a good report to Joshua.\u00a0 Much better than the spy mission […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}