The Beginning in the New Land

From: Messages of God's Love: 1938

It was on the tenth day of the first month of their year that the people of Israel came up from the Jordan River and made their first camp in the land of Canaan (Josh. 4:19¹⁹And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. (Joshua 4:19)).

They were the children, grown to be men and women, whose parents were slaves in Egypt; perhaps some of them could remember the crossing of the Red Sea. Their parents could not enter Canaan because they had not believed God’s power to help them. He had told them their children should have the land, and now that was to come true. And He gave them the chance to keep His laws and have His blessings.

They kept the passover feast on the 14th day of the month, at this camping place, which was called Gilgal. The tune of the Passover in our land is our spring season, but in Canaan it is the harvest time. And the next day after the Passover, they ate of the grain of Canaan. The next day the small, white ‘manna did not lie on the ground for them to gather, as it had all the forty years, but their food was the grain and fruit of the land (Joshua 5:10-13¹⁰And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. ¹²And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. ¹³And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? (Joshua 5:10‑13)).

As we read of these people and their new life in Canaan, we think of the new start God gives all who trust in Jesus: to keep His words and honor Him. He does not now promise houses or fields, but joy and peace and to learn of Him.

ML 03/13/1938

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