Keeping A Distance

“When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it…But keep a distance…between you and the ark; do not go near it.” Joshua 3:3-4

I absolutely love how God inspired the Holy Writ for application through generations. This event is from the Book of Joshua as he was preparing to lead the children of Israel across the Jordan River. The story of God holding back the waters in this crossing is very common to many people but there are so many details that are omitted as we tell our version of the story. One of the most amazing elements of this story is not so much the receding waters itself because God will always provide a path out of our circumstances. The portion of Scripture that I love is the direction to recognize when to move in your circumstances.

The Ark of the Covenant, (a wonderful Bible Study in itself!) was the manner in which God revealed Himself to His children through the priests. The children became expectant for guidance from following the Ark of the Covenant. The direction from God was to wait until they saw His leadership on the move. Once they knew His movement, they were to ‘move out and follow’. Further instruction was to keep a distance between themselves and God’s leadership.

I cannot help but to believe that the latter command was for the discipline of His children. How many times have we prayed for guidance only to run up ahead of God once we see the direction for which He is taking us? We get a small glimpse and ‘move out’ only to get ahead of God instead of following Him.

We must follow this spiritual recipe for guidance. We must pray for His guidance, watch to see when He moves and follow Him. We should neither tarry nor sprint ahead of Him but obediently and patiently follow Him at His pace. Then one day we will look behind us and see the path through which our strong Leader had brought us.

See, recognize, obey and follow but keep a distance!