Let's start by reading Joshua 5:2-8,
"2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.[b]
4 Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. 5 All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. 6 The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed." (NIV Translation)
The whole story around the Israelite's is kind of crazy- they left Egypt, saw all these miraculous ways in which God provided for them (because He loved them so much which you can read about from Exodus, through to Joshua) and still disobeyed the Lord.
Moses died and had a beautiful burial from the Lord, and Moses' wisdom was passed on to Joshua to lead the people. He had big shoes to fill.
But isn't it crazy that Moses was one of the few people to see God face-to-face, they had a special relationship, but yet Moses never saw the Promised Land because of his sin?
Moses continued to lead the people to the Promised Land, knowing he would never see it.
I keep thinking- what is my purpose here? What is your purpose here? To lead people to a place that you'll never see?
Is there something, some sin, that has kept us from our "Promised Land"?
The Israelite's heard and perhaps forgot, but also made choices to ignore what God had commanded them to do and I don't think we much different from them.
We don't know how to listen very well to God's commands because sometimes they wreck our ideologies of God-- oh, He really is in complete control? That means I have no control.
John 15:1-17 is a passage we are very familiar with, the vine and the branches.
The passage is clear about our role: we are not the Gardener, neither are we the Vine. We are the branches. The branches which the Gardener will cut off or prune.
Megan Fate Marshman made a good point in saying that the time when the Gardener is closest to the branches is when He is doing some cutting. If we are separated from the Vine then we are not ABIDING/ REMAINING in Him, which means no fruit.
In this way, we become like the Israelite's and we continue to turn to our sin to free us from the desert and the pruning.
Maybe we need to learn to rest in Him more, to ABIDE, LISTEN and then OBEY.
Would you continue on, being faithful to God knowing that you won't make it in to the Promised Land? God still loved Moses through his sin, but Moses just couldn't reap the reward on all his years of leading these difficult people through the wilderness.
When we disconnect from God we won't see the fruit, and we will definitely struggle to hear His voice.
So will you hold on to the Lord's commands and wait to see the fruit, as you remain in Him?
-Caryn
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