“Changing”
by Keith Leach, April 2025

Joshua 5:10-12 While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the Passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

This passage is a significant change for the people of God and their relationship with God. For forty years, as the Israelites moved to the place God had made for them, God had directly fed the Israelites by providing manna for their daily food needs. On the day that they arrived at the place that is the “Promised Land” the people of God now will live by gathering, growing, raising and hunting for their own provisions.

It may seem strange that God would stop the manna so suddenly. After all, these people had no remembrance of a time when God did not directly provide food. It seems a rather abrupt thing. However, God, an ever changing God, seems to have done this so that they could learn to trust God, especially in a time of change. God is constantly changing things to make the divine, perfect way for all to come into God’s own kingdom.

God had said that the manna would stop only when they entered into the new land that flowed with milk and honey. With God, faltering from the path was not an option. Thus they, and we, learn that God’s promises are real and unchanging. Sometimes the promised outcomes may look different, but God is always faithful. God is not like humans.

Perhaps another reason that God planned this change was so that the people of God could find God’s love in their labor of growing and herding. It gave them then, and us now, the joy of labor with positive results. Not that they, or we, are self-sufficient. We need God’s blessings for our true survival and health. Yet, we do find great satisfaction when we are in God’s plan, helping things to grow and to be harvested. That feeling of joy when crops are harvested and new lambs are born brings us closer to understanding God’s good plans for all creation. Without this participation, we would tend to be idle, and hence nearer to getting into trouble.

We should always be looking for the positive things that God brings to us with changes in seasons, locations, jobs and life in general. In them all, we will find the path that is best for us.