Joshua 3:1 And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. :2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; :3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. :4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.
We've come to the chapter in Joshua where they cross the River Jordan and there are somethings we need to take note of. We have been talking about conquering our Canaan and by that we mean living in the plan and will of God for our life. By the way as we have already said and will see again that Gods will is not some lost treasure that we have to expend all our time, money and energy trying to find. His will is one step of obedience at a time. Your journey with God will be taken one step at a time. This is illusrtated in our verses today, notice: And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. :2 And it came to pass after three days.....
Joshua and the children of Israel had already set up camp at the banks of the river they knew they had to cross. They had came as far as they could and they were there waiting on further instruction as to how they were to cross a flooding river with millions of people according to Jewish historians. See they did not know how to cross a flooding river but they did know how to march to the banks of it and set up camp. The point I'm making is don't, expect God to do what you can't until you've done what you can. They did all that they could do, they went as far as they could go and the only thing left to do was to wait. So in our journey make sure you've done all you can do, gone as far as you could go and then you can look for and expect a miracle from God.
Now that they have done all they can do the next step was to follow the ark of the covenant, which in that time was the power and presence of God. There are those times when we are doing what we know to do as christians. Then there comes a time when we've went as far as we can go we're doing what we know to do and we need to God to lead us in a special way. For them it was no ordinary trip to the next city they were going some where they had never gone before, notice: "for ye have not passed this way heretofore."
Sometimes God calls us into uncharted waters and that is when we need special instruction as to where to go and what to do. That is part of the miracle within it's self! When God calls a man to preach, often times that man has spent his life as a farmer or mechanic or electrician but then God ask that man to do something that he has never trained for. When God calls a preacher to leave his country to go to a foreign land to preach the Gospel often times that preacher isn't well versed in world travel or living abroad. See God was fixing to take a group of wandering tent building Israelite's and turn them into warriors. When God ask you to do something you know nothing about about it would you benefit you to follow him and wait on him for instruction. That is why they had to follow at a distance so they would know the way to take.
Notice:
When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. :4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.
Now what would have happen if they had not waited on God? They would have marched to their death. Dear reader, it is imperative that you wait on God to do his work. Often times God will put a call on someones life to do something and they think it should happen instantly. If God calls you to the mission field, do what you can to prepare your self, call churches, give your testimony all the things you can do but wait on God to show you the details. If God calls you to preach you don't have to take a pastorate the next day and neither should you. Preach in the nursing homes, preach in the schools, preach in the jails, preach wherever opportunity arises. Then wait on God for the special instructions. We talked at the beginning of this devotion about doing what we can before expecting God to do what we can't but now we are talking about expecting God and not ourselves to do the impossible. God doesn't expect you to do the impossible, He expects you to follow him through impossible situations. Do you remember the words of our Savior in Luke 18:27? And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
Trust God for the impossible and the impassable. He can make a way where there is no way. Stop trying to figure it out and wait on God for instruction. He will lead you in a plain path.
Trust and obey for there's no other way!
Onward Christian Soldier!!