Daily Lesson for July 14, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Joshua chapter 3 verses 14 through 17:

14 So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), 16 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. 17 Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

More on the Joshua Generation's crossing of the Red Sea.  This reflection is a companion piece to yesterday's Lesson which can be found here: http://ryonprice.blogspot.com/2016/07/daily-lesson-for-july-13-2016.html?m=1.

When the priests first dipped their feet into the Jordan we are told then the waters rose into a dammed wall "very far away".  The stopped water would not have been seen or felt at first. As far as the priests would have first known, nothing seemed to be happening because they did not know what had been done upstream.  Yet they remained in the rushing river, trying to ford, trying to cross.

"Faith," we are told by St Paul, "is the substance of things hoped for, yet not seen."  Faith is the substance of those downstream who keep walking in the hope that God is doing something upstream that they cannot yet see.

There is an old Midrashic story that says that the Red Sea did not part until the Israelites were in over their heads.  The point then is that sometimes we not only have to be in, but all in even before we can see what God has done up the stream.