In 1519, Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernan Cortes landed on the shores of Mexico having sailed from Cuba. He then had his ships destroyed. There is a lot of myth and debate about how and why. Some say it was to stop any future revolts. Some said he did it under the guise that they were not seaworthy. Still others suggest that he had the ships burned to encourage the men for the task at hand. He was under a lot of pressure from Spain to succeed in his mission of conquest. His message to the men was, “We will either succeed or die trying. Only cowards would go back to the ship.” The world may never know the exact reason. However, this idea of a push toward motivation would’ve been quite effective. There have been many in the Biblical record that have burned the boats.
When the Israelites crossed over the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua, he gave them instruction to follow behind the ark of the covenant about half a mile but to keep it in sight, “that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before” (Josh. 3:4). They had traveled all over the Sinai wilderness. This was a new place they were going into. It wasn’t by accident that the ark went before them. It signified God as their leader along with all the promises He had made and the law He had given them. When we burn the boats, we might be going into new territory.
At the commandments of God, Noah built a boat to figuratively burn the boats of a wicked world (Heb 11:7). What he was doing was for the salvation of eight souls and the condemnation of the rest of the world (1 Pet. 3:20). Noah had faith in the commandments of God to do something that had never been done before. It is possible that when we burned our boats, we launched into a life that none of our family had previously. We had to say goodbye to an old world.
Abraham also had to leave a world behind. God called him into the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:1-3). He had left Ur with his father, Terah, with the intentions of going to Canaan. They made it as far as Haran, now Southern Turkey (Gen. 11:31-32). After the death of his father, Haran, God called him to go and promised him a great nation, great land and a great influence on the nations of the world. He died not seeing any of that by sight, but by faith (Heb. 11:8-13). When Abraham burned the boats, he set things in motion that God had planned from the beginning of time, the salvation of mankind.
There might be some things you are holding onto, some boats that need to be burned in your life. Trust God to go into that new territory. Trust God enough to say goodbye to the world you knew. Trust God enough to see, by faith, what God has set in your life and the life of those after you.