In the account of Israel’s redemption from Egypt, it is easy to pass from the wilderness to the promised land without pausing too long at Joshua 3 and 4, but to do so would be a disastrous shortcut. God has much to teach us about ourselves here.

Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,  the water from upstream stopped flowing …
(Joshua 3:15-16, NIV)

The roar of the waters, mixed with the churning brown torrent, were a forbidding objection, “You shall not pass!” A flooded Jordan was no Red Sea, yet the effect was just as devastating. Cut-off from the promised inheritance, it must have been tempting to lose hope and complain, after all, they had been culturally conditioned for such a response.

But God intervenes. When God acts, creation bends to his command. When God speaks, light erupts in dark places and paths appear in ways untrodden.

In the account of Israel’s redemption from Egypt, it is easy to pass from the wilderness to the promised land without pausing too long at Joshua 3 and 4, but to do so would be a disastrous shortcut. God has much to teach us about ourselves here.

As Joshua steps forward in obedience, as the priests place their feet into the churning waters of the flooded Jordan, Israel discovers what has always been true of our God—He is a God who saves. More significantly, He is a God who saves by grace. The crossing of the Red sea—just a story to all but Joshua and Caleb—becomes a living reality beneath their feet as they pass from punishment to promise.

God rescues. God saves. God provides. He did then. He does now.

You and I weren’t there that day, we didn’t feel the wet sand clinging to our feet as we walked forward in wonder, but it is here that our story unites with theirs.

God rescues, but we are forgetful. God saves, but we are prone to short-term memory. God provides, but we are in continual danger of self-sufficiency. Yet even in this, despite our tendency to enjoy the benefits of salvation without acknowledging our saviour, God’s grace continues to our calloused hearts.

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