Original Entry:
February 8, 2012
McMinnville, OR
When the whole nation had finished crossing the
Jordan the Lord said to Joshua. Joshua
4:1
A few summers ago dad
took my brother and I to beautiful Sitka, Alaska for a week long fishing
trip. There, I learned from our captain that
they call any halibut caught under 25 pounds a chicken. He also commanded that it is bad luck to
count how many fish you have left to catch.
It’s okay to count fish in the boat, but it’s never okay to count those
not boated.
In other words, don’t
count your chickens before the catch!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
The Nation of Israel
had recently lost Moses as their leader and was now led by Joshua. The generation of Moses witnessed the
splitting of the Red Sea yet walked in disbelief for forty years never entering
the Land of Promise.
In this passage we
see the generation of Joshua under similar circumstances but instead of a sea,
God stops the river’s flow. Instead of escaping their conquerors they are
entering new territory as the conquerors.
Then something
monumental happens. Joshua obeying, “All that Moses had commanded” (11)
sent 12 tribal representatives back into the river to collect 12 boulders for a
monument that, “when your children ask...
you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before
the ark of the covenant of the Lord.’” (6-7)
Moses learned a hard
lesson. A lesson he made sure Joshua would benefit from, celebrate what God has
done. Set up pillars of faith along the
journey of life to your great God. Wait,
however, until you have crossed into the
Land of Promise.
Don’t count your
chickens before the catch!
