SOAP 04/18/2015; Joshua 5:12

Today's reading: Joshua 5

S) "¹² The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year."

Joshua 5:12  (NASB)

O) The Israelites had just crossed the Jordan, and were camped at Gilgal just as the Passover was coming. So, they camped at Gilgal and celebrated the Passover there. This was the first time they had eaten the produce of the Promised Land, and so the promises of God were coming to a literal fruition. The manna was only ever to sustain them until the promises of God were fulfilled. Once they promise came, they no longer needed the manna, as miraculous as it was.

A) There are a lot of clever sayings about doors and windows and God orchestrating things. This verse can be taken that way, but it seems to me to speak to a bigger issue. God fulfills His promises, and asks His people to move forward, from promise fulfilled to promise given. God's purpose for the manna had been accomplished, so trying to hold on to the manna, when the fulfillment of the bigger promise had been done, would be pointless. The purpose for the law and the prophets of the Old Testament were accomplished in Christ Jesus, so trying to hold onto those is also more hindrance than anything fruitful (not that the Old Testament is not beneficial, but it is a shadow of the greater promises we have in the new covenant). In the same way, God has blessed me in many areas of my life, in many seasons. Some of those blessings are gone, because God is bringing me to new places. I think about my time as a youth pastor, and how difficult it was to move on from that. If I tried to hold that, while God had fulfilled its purpose and promise, and was giving me new direction and calling, I would have been stagnant, unfruitful, and ultimately disobedient. I need to recognize when God is ending the manna, because the real food has come.

P) Father, You are a God of continual improvement. You are constantly bringing growth and newness of life. I don't want to inhibit that because of my own narrow or nostalgic views. Open my eyes to see when You are doing a new thing in my life. Give me the courage to say goodbye to the old, when You are calling me to the new. However accustomed I may become to the flavor of manna, I would never want to miss the good food You have in store for me. Let Your will be done, Father God. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.