Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

Joshua had repeatedly witnessed the infallible results achieved when God was the Leader. He had seen Him at work in Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Red Sea crossing, the giving of the law, and in the design and erection of the sanctuary. He had experienced the perfection exhibited in the leadership of Christ in the cloud by day and fire by night. He was present dur ing the final days of successful marching which brought them to Kadesh, where he saw how quickly success turned to failure when the people dismissed God from His role as Plan Maker and instituted themselves in His place. During Israel’s forty long years in the desert, Joshua had op portunity to reflect on the reason for their continued confine ment to the wilderness. The result of faith without God’s works would surely have become apparent to him there. Then he wit nessed God’s ways being employed in the conquests of the Am orites, Og, and finally, of Jericho after the miraculous Jordan crossing. In these struggles and their totally successful out comes, God alone had been the Plan Maker. After Joshua had observed so much of God’s wonderful ways, we might imagine that never again would this man follow any but the divinely appointed formula for success. But unfortunate ly this was not the case. While the memory of the victory at Jer icho was still fresh in his mind, Joshua dealt with the problem of conquering Ai in a very different way. His success buoyed up his self-confidence until he began to forget God in his self-reliance. “The great victory that God had gained for them had made the Israelites self-confident. Because He had promised them the land of Canaan they felt secure, and failed to realize that di vine help alone could give them success. Even Joshua laid his plans for the conquest of Ai without seeking counsel from God.” Patriarchs and Prophets , 493.4. This time Joshua did not turn to his heavenly Problem Solver. He did not ask his divine Commander for orders. Instead, he de vised a plan which involved sending two spies to examine the city of Ai and bring back a strategy for the forthcoming attack on it. “Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, ‘Go up and spy out the region.’ So the men went up and spied out Ai. When they re turned to Joshua, they said, ‘Not all the people will have to go up