GETTING STARTED
When the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, friends gather around and ring in the New Year to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” It’s a song that many of us only know the chorus to, yet we sing because it reminds us of past friendships and the times we’ve had together. We like to reflect on the good times and see how far we have come. More often than not, we also reflect back on the hurts and the negatives. As Christians, we are called to trust God with our future by reflecting back on his faithfulness in the past.
- What times are you able to reflect back on where God redeemed some of your hurts?
READ THE WORD: JOSHUA 5:10-12 (ESV)
10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. 12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
DIGGING DEEPER
The Passover was a commemoration of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt after their 400 years of slavery (Exodus 12). Now, after 40 long years of wandering in the desert, the Israelites finally enter the land God had promised to them so many years before (Genesis 12:6-7, Exodus 3:8).
- What does the fact that the Israelites had continued to celebrate the Passover after living 40 years in the harshness of the desert tell you about their relationship with God?
- During those 40 years, the Israelites had been eating only manna and quail. It would come from God each day and be only as much as they needed. Immediately after the Passover celebration, what did the Israelites begin to eat (vs. 12)? What must it have been like for them to have an abundance of food from the land after living on so little in the desert?
- How might focusing on God’s faithfulness to you in the past help you to trust him with your present situation? With your future?
RESPOND TO GOD
The desert wandering was a season between two promises for the Israelites. The Passover celebrated a promise fulfilled in the past, that God would redeem them as a people. And, in the desert, the people had the hope of a future promised land flowing with milk and honey—the very picture of abundance. These two promises unite in today’s passage. We, too, have received a hope and a promise of redemption in Christ. It’s a promise we are to remember and hold on to when we enter our own desert times. The Israelites had to wait 40 years before entering the Promised Land. For you, the thought of 40 more years, or even 40 more days, in your circumstance may seem unimaginable. God promises that he will be present with you, just as he was with the Israelites, and that he will provide for you each day and then again the next and the next until the journey is over.
- Pray that you are able to trust God with your present and your future.
- Reflect on Revelation 21 and the promise that we are redeemed, provided for, and that all will one day be made right.