Daily Lesson for July 18, 2018

Today Daily Lesson comes from Joshua chapter 3 verses 1 through 6:

Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over. 2At the end of three days the officers went through the camp 3and commanded the people, ‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place. Follow it, 4so that you may know the way you should go, for you have not passed this way before. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits; do not come any nearer to it.’5Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’ 6To the priests Joshua said, ‘Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass on in front of the people.’ So they took up the ark of the covenant and went in front of the people.

The spirituality of the journey calls us to go places where we have not yet passed before.

Our tendency is to stay put. We want to remain in the familiar. We instinctively know where we are is not where we must be. But it is safe and it is known. So we decide right here will do.

But the LORD in today’s Lesson says, “Set out,” and the priests go. Then, as if knowing the people’s hesitation, the LORD says, “Follow.” And to the priests too, who have must have reservation of their own, the LORD commands, “Pass on . . .”

We are a pilgrim people. We are a journeying people. This means the LORD is always commanding us to pack up and move forward. Where we are now is not where we are to stay. It’s not the Promised Land. 

The Promised Land is out there, beyond our experience, and beyond even our field of vision. And that means if we’re going to get there, we can’t stay here. The Promised Land is beyond Jordan; and so that means the people of the Promise have got to be willing to rise up, break camp, and cross all the way over to the other side of the river.

NOTE: For the sake of rest and travel, Daily Lessons will be suspended for until the beginning of August. Until then, be well fellow pilgrims.