Worship for Today: God shows us the way!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Joshua 3:3b-4a,

 

"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. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before."

 

This is the direction the officers of Israel gave the people when they were to cross the Jordan into the land promised them. They werre to follow the ark of the Lord to know the way. This ark contained the law of God codified in the Ten Commandments and formed the basis for the covenant between the Lord and his people. The presence of the Lord among the Israelites was embodied in the ark and would provide the way for the people.

 

Rich in symbolism, this event speaks to the reality that the law God gave Israel was not just a dusty book upon which people were to order their lives. It was and still is today a road map that puposefully takes us somewhere. Of it Paul says, "The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." Galatians 3:24. As the ark, containing the Ten Commandments, provided direction to the Israelites into the promised land, so the Ten commandments lead us to Jesus Christ into the resurrection of life.

 

We are all born with a sinful nature and are incapable of living lives acceptable to God. Worse yet, in our sinful condition, we cannot find our way, lost in the garden of Eden, back to our Creator with whom we must be in good standing in order to have a place in his family for eternity. What the law does is to demonstrate our sinful condition and personally show us our need to be saved. In this way it leads us to Christ. Jesus Christ paid for the penalty for our sins and provides us a right standing with God that we might have a place at his table. If we fail to recognize our need of him, we will miss the way and wander off in some lost direction.

 

Today I worship our God who has shown us the way, as he did the Israelites to enter into the promised land! Truly, Jesus Christ is the way, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6.

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com