The Untrodden Future

Ye have not passed this way heretofore.
Joshua 3:4

A new era was beginning for the children of Israel. Behind them lay forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Before them was the imminent prospect of the promised land. They were reminded in these words that the path before them was untrodden and unknown to them, yet not unknown to their God. No doubt they had mixed feelings: expectancy and hope mingled with fear and misgivings. But though they faced a major crisis in their history, they still had the consolation and assurance in their hearts that the future path, though unknown to them, was in the hands of God.

They were assured that the way before them was not of their own appointment. They traced a higher hand than man's in the affairs of Israel. So may we trace a higher hand in our future, uncharted days. The path before us is not of our own appointment; it is appointed and controlled by a soverign purpose of eternal love. With Rutherford we can say,

I'll bless the hand that guided,
I'll bless the heart that planned,
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's land.

How easy it is to acquiesce in God's appointments of sunshine. But what about his appointments of shadow; days when the sun refuses to shine; when the shadows of affliction, sorrow, disappointment and discouragement cross our sky? We are likewise appointed to these (1 Thessalonians 3:3).

Can we not learn from such experiences? The prophet said, "Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." Can we not trust our covenant God in the shadow as well as in the sunshine, and know that He doeth all things well?

We do not know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the the future.
Willis J. Ray

by Rev R.J. Beggs, minister of the Ballymena congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. Taken from the book "Footprints of Faith" edited by Dr Alan Cairns and published by Ambassador Productions.

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