STRONG MEN NEEDED – besides the women

 Our pastor has been taking us through the story of Joshua, and now was painting a graphic picture. The whole nation had assembled on the banks of the turbulent river Jordan, but before God worked the miracle of causing the river to dry up, the priests had had to take the great risk of carrying the ark right into the water. Then, and only then did the waters cease to flow and they were able to stand right in the middle of the river bed while the whole nation crossed. It must have taken many hours. Now at last they too could cross to safety, - but no.

Joshua had a last command. He called out one man specially chosen from each of the twelve tribes to go back into the river bed and to carry back a boulder, obviously the bigger the better, so that they might build a monument there, on the banks of the river.

For what purpose? It was to be a memorial, so that they might tell the story to their
children and this wonderful story never be forgotten. I love this, for it is always on my heart that we must teach our children. But what arrested me now as we were told this story was the picture of these strong men hefting the boulders onto their shoulders. Joshua had obviously been considering their strength when he had selected them.

I remember  watching  the contest for Britain’s Strongest Man as they too had lifted boulders of ever increasing weight. They had obviously been in training, working out at the gym day after day. So, how would these men Joshua had selected have been training? No gyms in those days. It must have been just the rigor of life in the wilderness that had been used to develop their strength. Maybe it was on those days when everything had seemed to go wrong that their strength had been tested to the hilt. Perhaps a cart had been stuck and they been called to help get it out of the mire or up an incline, or a bull had had to be wrestled into submission. Perhaps they were not too pleased that having proved their strength they were the first to be called in an emergency, but oh, how glad they must have been to have been called on this occasion to represent their tribe to build this lasting memorial.

God was speaking to me through this story, telling me that it is in days when the load seems to be getting heavier, and others seem to look to us to help to bear their burdens, that God is strengthening us and preparing us for future opportunities and privileges of service.

There is a precious promise Jesus gave his first disciples, a promise for us too, that when they had to endure hard experiences that ‘it would be turned to  a testimony.’(Luke 21:13)

Lockdown and Covid seem to be hard and ongoing trials, but let us trust that even this can be used by God as part of his training, and yes, that even this will  turn out to be a testimony.