Oct
1
Don’t Get Ahead
Filed Under Devotional
Armies have a speed limit. When large armies are pushing through enemy territory they can’t go full out. If the armor gets ahead of the artillery, they are vulnerable to enemy that’s dug in. If the spearhead gets ahead of the supply chain, it can run short on gas and food, or even be cut off by a smart enemy. Getting ahead of the plan can be very dangerous.
I like the picture of Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan river into the Promised Land:
“Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on the dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” Joshua 3:15-17
The Jordan was at flood stage. When rivers around here are flooding, they are both deep and fast and, therefore, quite dangerous. If anyone had run ahead of the ark to try to swim across, he would have been swept away and probably killed. But, by simply letting the ark go first, the entire nation crossed on dry ground safely and easily.
The lesson I take from this is to not get ahead of God. Follow Him. Don’t try to lead Him. Let Him mark the path and blaze the trail ahead. Get ahead of God and you’re liable to end up a few miles downstream with a long walk back to where you started.