For ye have not passed this way heretofore. Joshua 3:4
OS 3:4{We have not passed this way heretofore, but the Lord Jesus has. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb. 4:15). It is all untrodden and unknown ground to us, but He knows it all by personal experience; the steep bits that take away our breath, the stony bits that make our feet ache so, the hot shade less stretches that make us feel so exhausted, the rushing rivers that we have to pass through, our Shepherd has gone through it all before us. Not some but all the many waters went over Him, and yet they did not quench His love. "All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me" (Psa. 42:7). "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it" (Sos. 8:7). He was made a perfect Leader by the things He suffered. "To make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.... and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him" (Heb. 2:10;5:9). For now He knows all about it, and leads us softly according as we are able to endure: "For He knoweth our frame" (Psa. 103:14). And He does not only know, with that sort of up-on-the-shelf knowledge which is often guilty of want of thought among ourselves, but He remember, that we are dust. "For He remembered that they were but flesh" (Psa. 78:39). Think of that when you are tempted to question the gentleness of His leading. He is remembering all the time; and not one step will He make you take beyond what your foot is able to endure. Never mind if you think it will not be able for the step that seems to come next; either He will so strengthen it that it shall be able, or He will call a sudden halt, and you shall not have to take it at all.
I, the Lord, am with thee, be thou not afraid!
I will help and strengthen, be thou not dismayed!
Yea, I will uphold thee with My own right hand;
Thou art called and chosen in My sight to stand.
Onward then, and fear not, children of the day!
For His word shall never, never pass away!
For the year before us, oh, what rich supplies!
For the poor and needy living streams shall rise;
For the sad and sinful shall His grace abound;
For the faint and feeble perfect strength be found.