March 7, 2022: Day 50 – Joshua 1-3 and Acts 1-3

Moses dies and now it is up to Joshua to take the people into the promised land.  The Lord pumps Joshua up and encourages him to be strong and courageous as he prepares to enter the land.  He sends and expeditionary force out in front who happen to stay overnight at the home of a prostitute, not sure why this isn’t spoken about more.  It would not be where I would encourage my men to stay when they are on a top secret mission.  Rahab, the prostitute, is actually Jesus’ great great great so on grandmother.

Chapter 3 contains some of the most powerful didactic elements in the entire Old Testament.  God commands the priests to go forward with the ark, about 3,000 feet forward and to stand in the Jordan in order to dry it up, ala the Red Sea.  He tells the priests, you have to get your feet wet before the Jordan is going to dry up.  Isn’t that often the case with us?  We want to sea to part in front of us before we put our feet in the sea, if we have to risk it and actually put our feet in, well, then it may not be worth it.  God calls us to get out of the boat if we want to walk on water, he calls us to get our feet wet in order to see God’s miracles.  What a great lesson.

In Acts we have Jesus’ last words to his disciples where he sends them out into all the world.  We then have the day of Pentecost, also known as the birth-day of the church when the Holy Spirit falls powerfully on the apostles and all those who were gathered.  It is interesting that they were a group of 120 people and then once the Holy Spirit falls they swell into more than 3,000 people.