Wet Feet

Sometimes we have to get our feet wet.

We say that when we're trying to motivate someone, or ourselves into a new venture. A job might require us stepping out of our comfort zone and trying something new. Getting started in a new school might challenge us to work hard at finding new friends.

Did you know that this idiom actually comes from the Bible?

As the children of Israel are on the west side of the Jordan, ready to go into the Promised Land under Joshua's command, the banks of the Jordan are overflowing. A raging river is probably extra scary to people who have lived in a desert for forty years!

God gives instructions to Joshua to command the Levites who are carrying the ark,"When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan" (Joshua 3:8).

God was going to perform a miracle. "And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap" (v 13).

Some of these men were teenagers when God parted the Red Sea. They had experienced God doing this type of a miracle. And they have heard it recounted over and over during the last 40 years.

But this is different. This time, they have to step into the water, the raging river.

God was expecting obedience before the blessing.

The Levites had to get their feet wet before they would see God work.

Does God expect that of us, too?

Over and over.

But it's not easy. It can be scary when we see the raging river and God commands us to step into it.

Obedience is an act of trust. If I step in the water, the Lord will do what He said He will do. I have to trust God. Trust that He is really who He says He is.