Based on Joshua 5:9-12

 

When I first read this scripture, my initial thought was, “Why in the world is this in the Lenten readings?”  After all, we haven’t been reading the Exodus story.  There are certainly other verses in Joshua that are more inspirational. 

But as I’ve wrestled with this scripture over the last week, wanting to dismiss it for these reasons and others, it has kept returning to me, challenging me to allow God to speak to me, and hopefully to us, through it.

This morning it finally became clear to me just how significant these few verses are.  They don’t seem like much when taken at surface value and out of context, but when you put them in the context of the larger story, this is an incredible moment of awe and celebration.

For hundreds of years the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt.  After Moses convinced Pharaoh to let his people go, things didn’t get much better.  They wandered around the wilderness for forty years, trusting in God to provide manna and water for them each day.  Even Moses had his set backs during this time, often frustrating God as well as the people.  This was a difficult way to live and the people often complained and doubted both God’s and Moses’ direction and provision, asking to go back to Egypt.

But throughout this long and frustrating forty year journey, there was always this promise before them.  There was always this promise of a land that would be theirs, given to them by God, a land flowing with milk and honey.  They would no longer be slaves in a foreign land.  They would no longer be refugees wandering in the desert.  They would have a home.

In these few verses, the promise comes to realization.  God forgives them for the times they have fallen away and doubted in the wilderness and they feast on the produce of a new land—Canaan.  This is their first non-manna meal in forty years!  Can you imagine what that felt like, what that tasted like?  They don’t just celebrate any meal as their first either.  They celebrate the Passover.  They take this opportunity to remember the big picture of how God has intervened and saved and provided for them in so many ways over the last forty years. 

The forty days of Lent remind us of these forty years.  They remind us to keep the bigger picture in mind.  Often, like the Israelites, we get frustrated and want to give up on God, especially when it feels like we’ve been wandering in the wilderness for a long and difficult time.  But God is faithful and has a plan for each of us that is bigger than just these moments, or even these years. 

It can seem like we spend a lot of time talking about difficult issues such as repentance and confession and self-
examination during these forty days of Lent.  But this time of Lent reminds us that God has a bigger plan in mind—Easter.  There is always new life in Jesus Christ.  Easter is coming.  The promised land is coming.  God has a plan to redeem even the darkest hours of our lives.  Let us cling to and never give up on that hope.

 

 

Prayer:  God, help us to trust you.  You are eternally faithful to us.  Help us to see even the most difficult of situations in the light of your larger plan.  Thank you for always fulfilling your promises.  Amen.

 

Joshua 5:9-12 NIV
    9 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. 10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. 11 The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. 12 The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.