No Longer

Joshua 5:10-12

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^[a] they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.”

When I left for college, I packed up my Honda and headed to Austin. I did not have a place to stay, nor did I have a job but school started soon. I arrived in Austin and quickly found a place to live with my roommate Vance. I then began the trek of finding a job, which I did and the rest, they say is history. One thing that I remember when I left home is the feeling of I am on my own now. God had opened a door for me to go to the University of Texas at Austin and I went, unprepared and having little money to spend. It was a new dawn for me, an awakening of a new era. This would mark the first step of my life and it would start in Austin, TX.

The Israelites were in the same spot. They had just spent forty years wandering around in the desert under the guidance of Moses. Moses was gone and Joshua was the leader now. The Lord showed that His hand was on this group of ex-slaves from Egypt by the miracle of crossing the Jordan river at flood stage on dry ground. Word got around about this miracle and every king from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean coast was stricken with fear (5:1). To top things off, the Bible tells us they camped at Gilgal during Passover. This is a minor detail until you understand that Jericho was not too far away, only a few miles. So the people of Jericho had to watch all of Israel getting prepared to fight for days on end just outside their walls. The opening verse in chapter 6 tells us the gates of Jericho were barred and no one went out and no one came in.

Also during this time the manna stopped. The bread-like substance that they collected for over forty years stopped. It no longer was provided by God, they “ate the produce of Canaan.” I can see the normal course of action every morning that they had been accustomed to. Get up, get dressed, go outside and collect manna for the day. Day after day and year after year this was the normal morning routine, but now it all stopped. The people of Israel were to eat the produce of the land instead of having their sustenance provided for by God.

It was a new dawn for the Israelites, a new way, a new set of action plans. No longer were they to be following a piler of fire by night and a cloud by day all over the wilderness. This time, they had to listen to Joshua, the man of God, and follow his instructions.

You may be on the same sort of journey today. You just finished college and now you are looking for a job. You might have ended a relationship that you thought had a future. You might be moving to a new town or just moving out of your childhood home and getting your life started. I can tell you that the Lord did not just leave the Israelites on the Jordan plain and said, “its your turn now, I will see when the Messiah comes”. No, God was with the Israelites. Yes things were changing and they would have to learn some lessons but God never left them.

When the Lord moves you to a new place, don’t think He won’t go with you. He will be there with you no matter where you go. Verse 9 tells us what the Lord does for Joshua, it says, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Your past does not have to follow you. The Lord had removed your reproach when you accepted Christ. He bore those scars and the pain they caused and you are set free.

So today, get up and put on your battle gear for today. You have to city to conquer for the Lord has given you the city.

Prayer: Father, help us in our unbelief. Help us put our trust in you and you alone. I pray that the we don’t listen to all the negative voices around us telling us we cannot do this or that. I pray that we move forward under your guidance in all things. I also pray that the we don’t become complacent not moving until we hear your voice because we walk faith and not by sight. So I pray we move forward in faith knowing your hand will be upon us in all we do as we seek to follow you in all things. In Jesus name, amen.