an epic "re do"

Today is a BIG day for the Israelites.  They are finally crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land ... 40 years later than planned.  Yesterday I was reading the account of how Rahab saved the spies from her people and her family from the Israelites' invasion.  She had heard about the God of the Israelites and came to believe and trust Him ... just by word of mouth.  amazing.  I know scripture is clear that men are without excuse and that God gets His name out there.  But I have a part in telling His story.  I need to be more intentional (there's that word again!) about giving God His credit ... about sharing His work, even in the lives of others because I don't know when there is a Rahab listening whose life might just be changed by the story of our God!  (And she had an important job to do ... she was the mother of Boaz who married Ruth who is in the lineage of Christ!   All of that from a prostitute who hid some spies because she feared their God more than her own people!  Now, that's redemption ... and no one is beyond it!)

I was just talking with one of my students last week about what a blessing it is to have grown up in church hearing Bible stories as a child.    When I was in high school, a friend explained to me what a blessing that was since he had become a believer IN high school ... and felt like he was far behind the curve trying to learn what we had known since childhood.  I also think it's a blessing because what we learned as a child, we don't tend to question so much.  There's that childhood faith that let us believe it just because God said it.  Just think of what you might ask about the firey furnace or Noah's Ark or creation Daniel in the lion's den or the talking donkey if you only heard them for the first time as an adult!!  But, then of course, there are things we laugh at, understand more, treasure because we see it through more mature eyes ... like Elisha being called "baldy" by a bunch of youth and them getting mauled by bears (2 Kings 2:22-24 ).  Not gonna lie, wanted to call down one of those curses on my high schoolers some days when I taught school.  But, my POINT ... yeh, I lost sight of it for a minute, too!  :0)  Sometimes we lose the timeline and connections between "stories" as we learn them as chuldren.  It's only as I study the Word, in context, as an adult that I come to see how things fit within the bigger scheme.  Like ... the fact that Joshua and the battle of Jericho is part of the taking of the Promised Land ... not some random OT skirmish!  Or that these Israelites who will cross over the Jordan today are the children and grandchildren of those who crossed the Red Sea and later died in the desert.  And kind of ironic that they complained to Moses (and to God) early on in their travels ... "were there no cemetaries in Egypt that He had to drag us out hear to die instead?" (Karen's paraphrase).  Hmmmmm .... well, that's exactly what they did.  Not because of God's choice but because of their own disobedience.

I had kind of forgotten which of the Israelites' offenses actually netted them 40 years in the wilderness!  Was it their incessant complaining?  the golden calf?  Moses and the 10 commandments (well, that sealed HIS fate) ... nope, it was their response to the first group of spies sent out to scout Canaan.  Remember them?  (check out Num 14 or Dt. 1)  12 spies went out (because the people begged and Moses relented).  Again, details you don't remember as a child (I remember grasshoppers and grapes!!).  Moses had already told them, "The Lord your God has given you this land.  Go and take possession of it... do not be afraid and do not be discouraged."  When they returned, only Joshua and Caleb brought a report that was in favor of trusting God and moving on.  In Numbers 14, they said,

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, "The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good.  If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us.  Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them."

They even brought back some monster-sized grapes to prove how GOOD the land was!  And the people wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb ... and God wanted to strike the people dead RIGHT there.  He was duh-uuunnnn!!  Moses, again, tried to reason with God.  Man, he might not be an eloquent speaker, but he'd have made a great litigator.  In the end, this was God's decision ...

"The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:  "How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites.  So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say:  In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.  Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.  As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected.  But you—your bodies will fall in this desert.  Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert.  For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.'  I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die."  (Numbers 14:26-35)

WOW!!  Kind of makes me rethink some of the complaining I do to God. 

So, that means, the oldest of these who are now to enter into the Promised Land are 60 years old.  They have wandered with their bitter and complaining parents and grandparents until that entire generation died out ... in the desert, having blown their shot at Promised Land living by continually refusing to believe the God who carried them across the Red Sea, who led them in a cloud by day and by fire at night, who provided them manna and fresh water where there was no food or drink, who kept their clothes and shoes from wearing out, and who had said, I am giving you this land.  You need only possess it.

Again, I am faced with the question: What has God promised that my own disbelief, rebellion, or stubborness has kept me from possessing?

What did the Israelites do?  They prepared themselves for the big day.  Joshua told them to consecrate themselves for the amazing things the Lord would do.

Then, they followed the Lord ... as He led the Priests carrying the ark of the covenant.

And they faced a HUGE obstacle.  The Jordan River was at flood stage.

But, they obeyed!  The Priests did as they were instructed.  God kept His word.  Once again, the people started their journey to the Promised Land by walking through on dry land ... 40 years later!

Man, I don't want to wait 40 more years for the Promised Land!  Time to get moving!