The stories told in the Hebrew Bible about the history of the Hebrew people can be downright amazing.
In today's story we have a nation, not a group of people or a few tribes but an entire nation, who are traveling into a new land where they will prosper and grow. They travel with the laws as given to Moses by God in what's come to be known as the Ark of the Covenant, which leads them on all of their journeys as a reminder that God is always with them. The problem is that in order to get to their new land, the nation of people need to cross a river that is swollen to overflowing proportions.
Not a problem for God, though. Joshua, who now leads the Hebrew people after the death of Moses, has a meeting with God who tells him to simply tell the leaders of the journey (those carrying the Ark) to dip their toes into the river and all will be taken care of. The Hebrew people reach the Jordan River and Joshua and his band of Ark-carriers, with God's help, stop an overflowing river in its tracks and create a gap wide enough for an entire nation to pass through.
There's the lesson. With God's leadership all things can be overcome.
When we learn to read the bible as it's meant to be - a collection of stories that talk about how God is at work in and through the lives of people - we can see better what the lessons really are. Did God stop an overflowing river? Maybe, maybe not. Did an entire nation of people travel across the dry riverbed into a new land? Maybe, maybe not?
Did the trust and faith in God's leadership help a nation survive even the most seemingly dangerous journey? Absolutely. When we put that same faith and trust into following what God is trying to lead us into, we too can overcome great obstacles; we too can stop an overflowing river in its tracks. And really, that's what the writers and recorders of the history of the Hebrew people want to carry on as their legacy - that when we allow our relationships to grow into having that same high level of faith and trust, we too can overcome the obstacles in our lives, no matter how big they might be.
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