WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: Remember that you are coming into the presence of a holy God. Take time to confess your sins and seek his forgiveness afresh.

Real hope
What happens in this chapter is of course of great significance, but did you notice why we’re told about it? Partly to validate and vindicate Joshua as the people’s leader and Moses’ successor (v 7); partly to reassure the people that God is with them and will indeed give them the land (v 10).

So this great miracle, which of course echoes the great parting of the Red Sea (more of that next week), is important not only in itself, but because of what it promises. God holds out real hope to his people and to Joshua. If he can do this for them, is there anything he will not do?

God’s holiness
But the people must respond. Did you notice just how far the people have to stay away from the Ark? Two thousand cubits is about 900 metres or over half a mile.

That’s the kind of distance God’s holiness requires. A sinful people cannot come too near, and for them to be involved in God’s work they must have a zero-tolerance approach to sin (v 5).

Respond: Nothing has changed. We too must be intolerant of sin in our lives. We must be holy for a holy God, so that we can ‘enter in’ to what he has for us in the future. Pray for a growing impatience with sin in your life.

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-02-03