HOLD

After crossing the Red Sea, the children of Israel, who had spent 400 years in Egyptian slavery, wandered around the desert toward the land promised to them by God on a journey that should have taken a month.  But it took them forty years because of their disobedience.  God kept them out in the desert until they had learned their lesson.  And finally - after a whole generation of walking in the hot sun and sand, the big moment is here.  It’s Promised Land time.

So here they are, over a million of them, some of whom have waited all their lives for this.  It’s a crowd like Summerfest on steroids, only they’re sober.  They’re out in the desert, and all that stands between them and the Promised Land is the Jordan River - yet another body of water, like the Red Sea decades before.

Imagine the excitement and anticipation as their leader, Joshua, is giving them final instructions before crossing over.  He tells them when they see the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant into the river, they should just follow them; just follow the priests and walk on thru the river.

'You hold on.'

But the Israelites soon discover Joshua has left out one tiny, but very important detail: it’s harvest season and the river is at flood stage.  Any other time of year, they could have waded across, but it’s a raging rapids now.  So imagine how terrifying the Jordan River must have looked to mothers holding the hands of their three-year olds, or to elderly couples embracing one another getting ready to go in the deep water - and what about disabled people?

And here’s what happened: “The Jordan is at flood stage all during the 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 ... so the people crossed over opposite Jericho.”  (Joshua 3:15, 16)

Notice something: the water stopped flowing upstream at a town called Adam.  Adam was miles upstream from where the Israelites stood, far from where they could see.  It was a miracle, the source of which they couldn’t see because God performed the miracle upstream.

Here’s what we should understand about God and here’s what we need to remember when we’re going through times of disappointment and hurt and we wonder whether or not God is greater than that thing that interrupts our sleep — remember this:  Focus on the God who has already been good to you - the God who is greater than.  Focus on the God you can’t see right now, but who is at work upstream.

Because when He seems silent and you’re facing hurt or brokenness or disappointment of the worst kind, the God who is greater than is at work out of your line of sight upstream, preparing a miracle for you.

You hold on.

And be blessed.