Exit or Entry Strategy

Joshua, chapter 3, is a fascinating Old Testament read. Joshua has been assigned the role of leader for the nation of Israel. They are still in exile in the wilderness, but are preparing to cross the Jordan River and claim their inheritance. Of course, there were people living in the land they were to inherit—poachers on their land. These poachers had been there a long time and had totally turned their backs on God. The Lord’s patience had expired toward these Canaanites and He was combining the entrance of Israel with the judgment on Canaan.
In this chapter God tells Joshua to cross the Jordan River. Once again He will part a large body of water and allow His people to cross on dry land. Now God doesn’t often repeat His miracles. He’s such a creative God that He doesn’t need to do reruns and He’s so perfect that He doesn’t need do-overs. No mulligan needed for Jehovah. But on occasion He has repeated Himself, which is what He was about to do for Israel. It would be new for most of the nation since everyone who was older than 40 when Israel snubbed her nose at God has died. People, say 55 and older, would remember the first crossing when they were leaving Egypt.
My, oh my, how 40 years changes things. When Israel first experienced the parting of waters the nation was exiting Egypt and avoiding conflict with Pharaoh’s army. This new parting—of the Jordan River—would be different. This one was an entrance to accept conflict. Totally different strategies: one to exit and avoid; the second to enter and fight.
Amazing how God can change people. Forty years earlier He had rescued a group of slaves who were, for the most part, a bunch of cowards. They feared confrontation with Pharaoh, with his army, and with the wilderness nations. Strangely enough, they didn’t fear confronting and criticizing Moses; they didn’t fear confronting/criticizing God EVEN THOUGH they had observed first-hand what He did to Egypt, ala the ten plagues. When they first arrived at the Jordan and saw Canaan, they were more fearful of confronting the Canaanites than facing God’s wrath. That decision cost them BIG TIME! You’d think that after watching Him systematically take Egypt apart, plague-by-plague, they would have trusted Him to do the same to the Canaanites. He had crushed the Egyptian army by collapsing walls of water when the Red Sea returned to its’ pre-parting ways. Why didn’t they recognize that He could have crushed any Canaanite army even absent the water walls of a sea?
Now, 40 years later, after wasting all this time in the desert, they’re finally moving forward. Forty years of wasted living—of existing in the desert eating the same thing three times a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, for………. 40…………. long…………. years. All during this time Canaan had been producing fruit and vegetables—a land flowing with milk and honey—while they ate the same stuff! Forty years of wearing the same clothes, permanently living in tents (that’s permanently living in impermanence), always packing and unpacking. Forty years of unproductive living, just waiting to die so the survivors could move on to accomplish God’s purposes. (I wonder if, toward the end when only a few of the old-timers were still alive, if maybe, just maybe, the younger folks were tempted to put a pillow over the faces of the elderly as they slept. Maybe try to shorten the extended stay in the wilderness just a little?)
Forty years earlier their ancestors had been given a choice: the security of the monotonous VS. the insecurity of the adventurous. They’d chosen/settled for security of the known as opposed to the insecurity of the unknown. And it cost them—DEARLY!
How many times have I—have you—settled for security over adventure? How many times have we missed the productive years of being able to enjoy the fruit of our Canaan adventure because we chickened out on following God when He asked us to take a step of faith into the unknown? This is bothering me today. Is it a question you struggle with as well?