STARING AT A NEW GATE!

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

STARING AT A NEW GATE!

Josh 3:4-5

4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.

5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

           Most of us have heard the phrase “like a calf looking at a new gate.” It pictures the confusion that overtakes one when confronted by something new in his life. Change is itself a challenge to our comfort and the systematic way we live. We do not expect a stump in the middle of a well kept highway and, because it is simply not supposed to be there, we run headlong into it.

           The term “paradigm shift” was first used by Thomas Kuhn in 1962 in his book, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.” It describes a change in the basic assumptions, called paradigms, within the ruling theory of science. The term has now found its way into other areas of study including religion.

           Joshua alerted his people that they were about to embark on a way not yet travelled. Under Moses, they had marched in circles for 40 years but now they were going to enter the land promised to them when they left Egypt. What was previously normal was about to radically change.

           If we are about to enter the moments just prior to the Rapture of the church – and I believe that is the case – some of the horrors of the tribulation period will begin to manifest themselves. Things are about to radically change. Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse. (2 Tim. 3:13)

           My advice is the same as Joshua’s. It is time to “sanctify” ourselves. The Hebrew word for sanctify is qadash which means “to make clean.” Yet many are still busy making themselves dirty. Paul warned the Romans to stop copying the behavior and customs of this world and allow God to transform them into a new person by changing the way they were thinking. (Romans 21:1-2)

Dear Lord, our sense of normal is changing. We see the signs of your soon coming all around us. Help us not to stand paralyzed by the sight but to prepare ourselves for this great change. AMEN