Following God's Orders

 

Joshua 4: 15-24

 

And the Lord said to Joshua,  “Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.”   So, Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”   And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.   And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.   And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’  then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’   For the Lord, your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over,  so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”

Joshua was a faithful, reliable man, not on Joshua, but on God, we must be that kind of people if our nation survives.   The people knew who would lead his name was Joshua, but they also knew who was pulling the string, it was Joshua obeying God.  When you have a leader that follows God's orders, you have the people passing the Jordan on to dry land, and once the priest did as told and set their feet on dry ground the flood water returned.

 

We talked about markets yesterday, and once more we see the importance of markers in our lives, for our children, and grandchildren.

 

From the Back Porch

 

Bob Rice