The Other Side

I am linking
[http://christianrocker.com/cornerstone_worship_center/video.php]
to a video that I recently received. It features my cousin's grandson, Elisha; I get confused as to how to describe cousins after the first generation so I can't tell you the exact relation but that's beside the point.

It was really moving to me and I thought others might like to see it as well. The mom and dad put it together for Elisha's dedication. It takes about 15 minutes to view but I think if you add in a cup of coffee - you will find it time well spent.

The video pulled into focus some scripture I have recently encountered and thoughts they have provoked.

Wilderness Teaching Trials
When we walk through a "teaching trial" and the experience is allowed to have it's proper affect on us - we can emerge bruised and tired but wonderfully refreshed. There is just something ... well ... magical about that time ( I'm sorry, magical is not a very spiritual word but I think - to me anyway -it fits here).

In Joshua 5 the Hebrews found themselves in that enchanted place just on the other side of the wilderness. This chapter describes brand new events and monumental changes for them; but they were eager to comply, ready to leap into the challenges, wonderfully refreshed.

Why? Because God had spent the past 40 years with this roaming nation of people, teaching them to shake off the slave -mentality that had oppressed them the previous three centuries. Now all but two people had died from the generation that walked out of Egypt and into the desert. Now it was time to do what they set out to do on that first day of freedom forty years prior: to occupy the Promised Land.

It was a bleak forty years: punishment, death, disappointment, disease, struggle, want, discontentment -bitterness all marked that wilderness teaching experience. But the generation in Joshua 5 emerged eager to believe and grateful for the journey.

Encapsulated by Water
Okay, I don't know if this is even significant and if so, I don't know why; but it is intriguing to me that the whole wilderness experience was surrounded by water. I mean they could only enter the desert through a miraculous crossing of a body of water (the Red Sea). Then in Joshua 4 we learn that they could only leave the desert through - again- a miraculous crossing of a body of water (the Jordan River). I will leave that there since I don't know what to do with it.

Less Miracles - More Traditions
Being full-gospel and pentecostal in my belief system, I don't like the sound of this heading. I tend to think that we should be more about shirking off traditions and expecting the unexpected. However, I think Joshua 5 may be saying that there are times we must survive by living miracle to miracle and there are times when we set aside traditions and rituals; but then there may follow some time in which the miracles aren't so evident, the excitement changes and the intensity is not so constant.

The Jewish males bore a physical mark on their bodies that set them apart from other nations. It symbolized their being unique and precious to God. It was circumcision. Through the wilderness years, the Israelites had skipped that tradition. Now God instructed Joshua to reinstate it.

Also in chapter five as they camped near the Jordan River crossing, the Hebrews celebrated Passover. I guess this was actually the first commemoration of that event that had signaled their departure from Egypt.

During some of our trial experiences, we may find ourselves putting aside some of our closely held traditions or practices. On the other side, it might be a good idea to pick some of those up again.

After Passover, they began to eat from the produce of the crops outside of Jericho. Maybe they commandeered the fields, or maybe the people of the land gave them food in hopes of gaining favor. But they ate the grains and vegetables of the land.

And the next morning the manna ceased.

Now that just seems sad to me. For forty years, every morning this reminder of God's constant provision just lay on the ground. Through the daily manna, God showed them that He, and the Word He spoke - would provide for them when there was no bread and no place to plant any crops. Jesus repeated God's statement on this subject when He was tempted in another wilderness... "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Manna was a miracle every morning but now it was going away. God would provide for them in the Promised land in a more traditional way.

Wilderness teaching experiences that we go through can include some amazing miracles. On the other side of the wilderness, God's provision may be no less miraculous - it just may not be as exciting.

Using What You Learned In the Wilderness
At the end of the chapter, Joshua encountered the "Captain of the Lord's Host" who gave him instruction on how to begin to defeat the enemies that lay before him.
Just as an aside, I believe this "Captain" was Jesus, Himself - the "Captain of Our Salvation" (Hebrews 2:10) .

The Hebrews had learned to trust God and to obey Him in the wilderness; He had led them to victory in some battles already. Now it was time to take the tools and weapons they had gained from the wilderness experience and use them in battle.

The wilderness teaching trial that the Hebrews endured - like the ones we encounter - are there for a purpose. When we embrace that fact, it usually signals that we are emerging from the desert.
When we do come out of it - it may be only to face new enemies or to take on new challenges - but rest assured that God was aware of both the wilderness and the challenges that now lay ahead.
All along He was equipping us for His next adventure.


Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved