{"id":12751,"date":"2020-11-26T21:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T04:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_2_14-24-copy\/"},"modified":"2020-11-22T20:54:31","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T03:54:31","slug":"joshua_3_1-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_3_1-8\/","title":{"rendered":"When You\u2019re Not Sure Which Way to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua 3:1-8\u00a0\u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 3:1-8.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 3:1-4a (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0After three days the officers went throughout the camp,
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-4a:\u00a0\u00a0Here Joshua and the Israelites are preparing to cross the Jordan River on their way to Canaan, also known as the promised land.\u00a0\u00a0Joshua orders his officers, who in turn order the people to move out and follow two things: (1) the ark of the covenant, which was an ornate, gold-plated box that symbolized the presence of God; and (2) and the priests carrying that ark.\u00a0\u00a0That way they knew which way to go (v4).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0When you\u2019re not sure which way to go in life, watch and wait for God’s leading.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Keep your heart, eyes and ears open to the presence of God and where God may leading you.\u00a0 Also keep your heart, eyes and ears open to your God-given leaders, who carry God\u2019s presence and are used by God to lead you and to speak into your life.<\/p>\n

2. A united team follows its leaders.<\/p>\n

Joshua 3:4b (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n\u2026But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 4b:\u00a0\u00a0In the Old Testament, the ark of the covenant (briefly explained above) symbolized God\u2019s holy presence.\u00a0\u00a0To emphasize how holy God is, people were not to touch the ark or go near it.\u00a0\u00a0For their own safety they had to keep a distance from the ark.<\/p>\n

Since God is just as holy today as he was in Joshua\u2019s time, we too would have to keep a distance and not go near God\u2019s presence, since we are sinners who cannot approach a holy God.\u00a0\u00a0But because God loves us and wants us to be near Him, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, so that by His perfect blood our sins are forgiven.\u00a0\u00a0Through Jesus\u2019 shed blood we can now draw near to God\u2019s holy presence without fear.\u00a0\u00a0Praise God!\u00a0\u00a0Because of Jesus, we don\u2019t need to stay a distance from God\u2019s presence; rather we can draw near to Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joshua 3:5 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the\u00a0LORD\u00a0will do amazing things among you.”<\/p>\n

On verse 5:\u00a0\u00a0The word \u201cconsecrate\u201d (v5) means to prepare.\u00a0\u00a0Likewise, if we don\u2019t want to miss the amazing things that God wants to do among us, we need to prepare and consecrate ourselves as well.\u00a0\u00a0How do we do that?\u00a0\u00a0We prepare ourselves by having an attitude of worship, drawing near to God, praying, reading His Word, asking for His help, and focusing on Him.<\/p>\n

Joshua 3:6-8 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 6-8:\u00a0\u00a0Here God\u2019s presence, represented by the ark, goes ahead of the people (v6), as do the priests carrying the ark.\u00a0\u00a0Know that God goes ahead of you to lead the way for you as well, so that you would know His power and that others would witness His power working in your life.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0May you be sensitive to His leading.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for being the God who prepares and leads the way for me. May I not run ahead of You.\u00a0\u00a0Instead may I be aware of how and where You\u2019re leading.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that when I could not get close to Your holy presence because of my sin, You sent Your Son to pay for my sins so that now I can live near Your presence.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 3:1-8.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 3:1-4a (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.\u00a0
\n2\u00a0\u00a0After three days the officers went throughout the camp,\u00a0
\n3\u00a0\u00a0giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.\u00a0
\n4\u00a0\u00a0Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-4a:\u00a0\u00a0Here Joshua and the Israelites are preparing to cross the Jordan River on their way to Canaan, also known as the promised land.\u00a0\u00a0Joshua orders his officers, who in turn order the people to move out and follow two things: (1) the ark of the covenant, which was an ornate, gold-plated box that symbolized the presence of God; and (2) and the priests carrying that ark.\u00a0\u00a0That way they knew which way to go (v4).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12752,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12751\/revisions\/12752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}