Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the Lord and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war.
That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses. Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Command the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan." So Joshua commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan."
And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.
On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God."
Joshua 4:10-24
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The Jordan was parted by the Lord and “the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle”. After “the people hurried over”, scripture tells us “about forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war”. What a majestic sight this must have been as Israel finally entered the Promised Land!
We read where the Lord exalted Joshua “in the sight of all Israel” before telling him to "Command the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan." So Joshua did as the Lord commanded and the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. And “no sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before”. God’s latest miracle was complete.
So now in Canaan, the people “went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho”…”on the tenth day of the first month”. There Joshua set up “the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan before telling the Israelites:
“In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?', tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God."
It was the Lord’s expectation that the day of the Jordan crossing never be forgotten…not by the Israelites who experienced it or by the generations to follow. To ensure God’s expectation was met, we see Joshua setting up the stones at Gilgal as a memorial to the work of the Lord’s powerful hand…a reminder of how God parted the flood-stage waters to allow safe passage for His people.
Question: What memories do you have of how the Lord’s powerful hand has worked in your life or the lives of those you love? Have you committed yourself to always tell future generations of all the good things the Lord has done through His power…just as Israel was to tell their children about what the Lord had done?
For me, it was when my wife, Grace, contracted a bone marrow disease in 2002. She went to the emergency room with abdominal pains and less than 24 hours later, ended up in Intensive Care in the hospital’s critical care ward with a platelet count over 4 million (normal is 100,000 to 400,000). I remember praying for the Lord to work a miracle of healing so Grace would live. And the Lord did deliver but only because it was His will to do so. He still had much for Grace to do for Him and she remains in remission to this day…praise God! But the Lord did tell me one important thing as I prayed outside of my wife’s room. It was comprised of four words that would transform my mindset on losing a loved one and help me minister to others who were facing the same issue. The four words? They were “Grace belongs to Me.”
In other words, Grace wasn’t mine even though we were married. No…she was the Lord’s. She was His child. He had only blessed me with an opportunity to marry her and serve Him with her. The joy and happiness I received from the marriage was just an awesome by-product of our efforts every day to glorify God personally and collectively. Indeed, God ordained our coming together and He ordained every day we had to spend together from that point on to this very moment. It was a rich blessing to be celebrated and praised. But it never was intended to last forever…but rather only as long as the Lord wished to have Grace in the world. There is going to be a day when the Lord will call Grace home and do so with the power of His mighty hand. And when He does, I’ll not feel slighted in anyway…begrudging that she is no longer with me. No…I will rejoice and give thanks for every single minute that the Lord allowed us to spend together. In other words, I learned to acutely appreciate what the Lord had blessed me with…in my marriage and in all other things as well.
This was just my testimony. How about yours? For the good news is that God’s powerful hand never stops working. He is a God that is making miracles happening every second of every minute of every hour of every day…all through the work of His powerful hand. Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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