June 14, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Joshua? Here’s today’s reading:
Joshua 3 (NIV)
Crossing the Jordan
1 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.........Continue Reading
Joshua 2 & 3
Absolutely LOVE how our Lord used the prostitutes. The thieves. The tax collectors. Not kings queens and dignitaries. To show his character Makes me feel warm in my soul. He chose me. I did not come for the healthy. But for the sick!!
Joshua 1-3
God once again stops the mighty waters for His people to cross on dry ground! Nothing is too big for our God and I so agree with Mark that He does such amazing things with the least of people!
The commentary about how the water was at flood stage, and that it piled up upriver puts to rest the idea that low tide or something similar allowed people to cross the river. When presented with miracles, the non-believer will try his hardest to rationalize it away; to take away God’s power.
I wish there was a way to “like” people’s comments, just to let them know that I read and appreciated their insight! I appreciated Mark’s comment about God using the unexpected people. “The weak things to shame the wise.” Also, Ken is right, (and Elise said this in our women’s Bible study) that we tend to explain away miracles by some natural explanation.
Joshua tells the people that because of this event, of the crossing of the Jordan on DRY ground (not muddy mucky ground, but dry ground!) that the Israelites will know that God is going to clear the nations before them. It is reassuring to look back on things the Lord has done in the past, even in my own past – answered prayers, provisions, victory over sin and struggles – to assure me that He is working….always working!
God provides a miracle for this new generation doing what the past generation didn’t…actually cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. The situation also provides God with an opportunity to work in people’s hearts to affirm Joshua as the new leader. How amazing is it that God provides affirmation and not just command for doing the things He calls us to. I also like that He is identified as the Lord of all the earth….a fitting title for One who would give victory over all the various nations in Canaan as well as stop the river flowing and dry up the ground for good measure!
9Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”