Joshua was up early and on his way from Shittim with all the people of Israel with him. He arrived at the Jordan and camped before crossing over. After three days, leaders went through the camp and gave out orders to the people: “When you see the Covenant-Chest of God, your God, carried by the Levitical priests, start moving. Follow it. Make sure you keep a proper distance between you and it, about half a mile—be sure now to keep your distance!—and you’ll see clearly the route to take. You’ve never been on this road before.”
Then Joshua addressed the people: “Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow, God will work miracle-wonders among you.”
Joshua 3: 1-5 MSG
It’s Saturday. God is in the grave. God has been dead for a day or two. Tomorrow, he will rise.
Today is Sabbath. There is not much anyone can do according to Jewish tradition. So we sit around waiting. Waiting to visit the tomb of God. We are distraught, devastated. We are still in shock.
Silence is the loudest thing today.
We can barely look at one another. There is absolutely nothing we can do.
Pray? Pray for what?
God, the Messiah, is dead. The very one who we thought would save us is dead. It all happened so quickly. We thought this could never happen. He is God, the Son of God. They may take him and torture him, but kill him?
Never!
This wasn’t the plan.
This wasn’t our plan! Pause….
This wasn’t our plan! Pause….
This. Wasn’t. Our. Plan.
There it is. This wasn’t our plan. That’s it. You’re right. This was never our plan. It was God’s.
Joshua tells us what it was like prior to entering the promised land. He told us, “You’ve never been on this road before.” He gives specific instructions for following the priests through the Jordan River. It is important that they follow order. If they do, they will clearly see the path before them.
He also said, “God will work miracle-wonders among you.”
This sounds easy. Just follow instructions.
When the priests feet touch the water on the over flowing banks of the Jordan, the water heaped up in a pile. They crossed without anyone’s feet getting wet!
What a miracle! I imagine what this must have felt like to witness such a miracle. The very miracle God performed as they left Egypt is the same miracle he performed to take them into the promised land.
There were generations who did not witness the first miracle. They only heard the story. And now, this day, they are a witness to this miracle-wonder!
I wonder whatbrheybfelt to sit on the brink of the promised land? I wonder if they had expectations or if they were open to whatever they encountered?
Did the disciples know they were sitting on the brink of a miracle? Did they know the promised land, the promised plan, was unfolding? What were they now expecting since “their plan” had been crushed?
There was no leader. The leader had been killed and sealed in a tomb.
There was no one to give orders, no one to rally the team, no one to encourage the people.
No one knew what to do. So they hid in a room with locked doors. Afraid that they, too, would be killed.
Tomorrow was coming… There was no plan, but Sabbath would be over. They were sitting on the brink of a miracle-wonder, and they didn’t even know it.
Or did they? Perhaps somewhere deep inside, they believed there had to be more.
With God, there is always more.
God surprises us.
It’s Holy Saturday.
Shall we wait for the miracle-wonder?
marieproctor.com 
Leave a comment