Laying a Foundation For Faith

Although many people think faith in God is to a blind faith and are afraid to step out, God never asks us to follow him blindly.  Before he led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he repearedly demonstrated his ability to keep his promises with the various plagues he sent.  He had also demonstrated that Moses was the man he chosen to lead them.  As a result, they had every reason to believe God could get them across the Red Sea, though many did not.  For the next forty years, they had seen God’s power repeatedly, with Moses always setting the example for trusting God.  

 

Joshua had led the army in the battle with the Amalekites just a few weeks after they left Egypt.  He had served as Moses’s assistant from the time Moses went up on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments until Moses appointed him as his successor.  As a result, they had every reason to believe he was being led of God when they followed him across the Jordan river.  The way God helped them across the river was reminiscent of how god had brought them across the Red sea, reinforcing the conviction that God had chosen Joshua as Moses’ successor, as Joshua 4;14 tells us.  “On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.”

 

Unfortunately people sometimes begin to mythologize what God has happened, denying that it really happened.  God had had them build a pile of stones in the middle of the river, and another on the west bank as proof they had miraculously crossed the Jordan at that point, as Joshua 4:15-24 tells us.  “And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.   

 

Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.  And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.  And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.  And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.

 

And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?  Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.  For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:  That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.”

 

I have read that even today, some thirty five hundred years after they crossed the Jordan, the pile of rocks in the middle of the river can still be seen, and that they appear to be cemented together by some kind of natural cement. For centuries, it has born testimony of God’s power and faithfulness.   Future generations would not have to blindly trust God because they had evidence to prove what he had done in the past.  If he has done it in the past he can probably do it again.  Our faith is based on his promises and what we know he has done in the past.  God has deliberately given evidence throughout history to prove he has done the things he said so that we can be assured of his power and truthfulness.  At the same time, he has concealed other things, such as Moses’ grave because people might begin to worship those things instead of God. The evidence he has preserved provides a foundation for us to trust him.  We are not expected to blindly trust him.