Joshua 3
You can be seated. And turn in your copy of God’s
Word to Joshua 3. When we printed the bulletin,
when I turned in the information, I bit off more than I could chew,
and I thought we would do chapters 3 and 4, but we’ll only do 3,
1 to 13 tonight. And so make your way there, Joshua
3, 1 to 14. Also, just a friendly reminder
that on Wednesday, we will resume our Genesis study. And I have
no idea where we are, but I’ll find out tomorrow. So those of
you who are regulars on Wednesday night, we’ve missed, I think
three, but we’ll be back this week for a couple of weeks. Then
we’ll have to take a few weeks off and be back at it again. So hear God’s word from the book
of Joshua chapter three. Then Joshua arose early in the
morning and they set out from Shittim. They came to the Jordan,
he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they
passed over. At the end of three days, the
officers went through the camp and commanded the people, as
soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God
being carried by the Levitical priest, Then you shall set out
from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance
between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come
near it in order that you may know the way you shall go, for
you have not passed this way before. Then Joshua said to the
people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do
wonders among you. And Joshua said to the priest,
take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.
So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the
people. The Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you
in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with
Moses, so I will be with you. And as for you, command the priest
to bear the Ark of the Covenant. When you come to the brink of
the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. And Joshua said to the people
of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your
God. Joshua said, here is how you shall know that the living
God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from
before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hibbites, the Perizzites,
the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the
ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over
before you into the Jordan. Now therefore take 12 men from
the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man, and when the souls
of the feet of the priest bearing the ark of the Lord The Lord
of all the earth shall rest in the waters, the waters of the
Jordan shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming
down from above shall stand in one heap. And actually we’ll
keep on reading a few more. So when the people set out from
their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priest bearing
the Ark of the Covenant before the people, and as soon as those
bearing the Ark had come as far as the Jordan, the feet of the
priest bearing the Ark were dipped in the brink of the water. Now
the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of
harvest. The waters coming down from above
stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that
is beside Zarethan. And those flowing down toward
the sea of Ereba, the salt sea, were completely cut off. And
the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priest bearing
the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground
in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel was passing over
on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. This is the word of the living
God. Think about grand entrances. In our day and age, a grand entrance
involves tuxedos and evening gowns. It involves limousines
and red carpets. It involves flash photography
and cheers and oohs and ahs. But this grand entrance into
the promised land is a bit different. It’s a band of wilderness survivors,
wilderness wanderers. They’ve been 40 years in the
wilderness. They’re coming to the edge of
the promised land where they must cross the Jordan River.
And how do they make their grand entrance? For sure across the
way, there were people watching them, spying on them, maybe no
binoculars or night vision goggles, but from a distance, there were
probably lookouts and scouts and all the rest. And they saw
a mighty band of people carrying their king’s throne to the edge
of the river, right up to the edge of this terrifying flood
stage river. And can you imagine these scouts,
these lookouts saying, these people think they can cross this
river with their king’s throne in hand? And the answer is exactly. That’s exactly what God will
do. In fact, verses one through three
remind us of how great God is. It speaks of Joshua rising early
in the morning and they set out from their camp. They came to
the Jordan. This whole mass of the people
of Israel, they lodged there three days, they camped three
days, and at the end of three days, they said, as soon as you
see the Ark of the Covenant moving, it will be time to go. Now remember,
these weren’t strange commands. Anytime the Ark was on the move,
the tabernacle packed up, the camp moved. got put down and
the tent rebuilt, reestablished. They stayed and camped for a
while. But this is a strange grand entrance
into the promised land. And the first command of God
is a mighty strange one. He tells the people to stay at
a distance. And at first reading, you think,
oh, okay, the Ark of the Covenant, it’s the throne of God. the Ark,
the presence of God, it’s the cherubim. You know, we read in
the Old Testament over and over that God is enthroned upon the
cherubim. This is his seat of mercy. This
is the presence of God with the people. And so you think at first
he says, keep a distance. Well, that’s because the Ark
is holy and that’s not it at all here. There are other places
where that is true. The reason here is they need to be at a
distance so they can see where the priest and the Levites are
carrying this ark so that they will know the way. This is their
GPS. This is their map system. This
is how they know the way into the promised land. And these
large numbers of people will move. They will make their way
towards the promised land by following the ark of the covenant. Can you imagine what was going
on through the camp of the people? You caught the little parenthesis. I think it’s in verse 16 or 17.
It says, now the river was at flood stage. The river was at
its highest peak. It was harvest time. And you
can imagine as their camp there, they can hear the raging river. They don’t have highways in the
background, you know, with 18 wheelers and they don’t have
car horns and stereos. the sounds of manufacturing and
all the sights and sounds of living in a modern world. They
heard every sound in that area acutely. They wondered what they
could hear. But one thing was for sure, they
could hear the raging river. And can’t you imagine some would
speak up and say, wish Moses was here. Wish Moses was here. We had an older leader, a stronger
leader, because the camp is overlooking a raging flooded river. We’ll say a bit more about it
in a moment, but can’t you imagine there was probably a little murmuring
in the camp. Oh, this can’t happen. We can’t cross this river. What
is the Ark of the Covenant going to do? Well, you can imagine
some did speak up. But verses seven and eight show
us what God is about to do, and God comforts Joshua. He says
in verse seven, today, I will begin to exalt you in the sight
of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses,
so I will be with you. You know, for the last, I don’t
know, what is it now, about 75 days, we’ve been watching live
a war on TV. And we keep hearing about the
resolve and the, I don’t know, the strength that
the Ukrainians have in their fight against a much mightier
nation. And we’re hearing about the morale, the loss thereof
among the Russians. We’re hearing about, well, a mighty nation losing
to a smaller nation. And of course they have help.
They have outside help and strength, but they are outgunned and outmanned
and outsmarted and all the rest, but they have confidence in their
leaders. maybe not so much so on the other
side of that war. And don’t you know that if you
don’t have confidence in your leadership, you’re, you’re not
going to make a successful campaign. And so God almighty is showing
himself here to be powerful, his Ark, but he’s going to show
Joshua, his man on the ground to be mighty and powerful. And
so if they have any doubts in their minds as they camp with
the sound of the raging river within earshot, God is about
to make a way. And he describes the way, I think,
in verses nine through 13. He says, come listen to the words
of the Lord. Here is how you shall know that the living God
is among you and that he without fail will drive out from before
you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites,
the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Jebusites. Behold, the ark
of the Lord, the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is
passing over before you the Jordan. And so if they have any doubts
at all, God is making it plain. I will make a way. I will see
you across the river. And the river is the least of
their worries. There’s all the ites. There’s
the people of Jericho. And so he says, stand back and
see the way, stand back and watch God work. Now, This arc of the
covenant we have to remember was a little bitty thing. It
was only about two, two and a half plus feet long. It was, or wide. It was a couple, you know, three
feet long, more or less. It was a little box and it was
carried by the Levites on, on Acacia poles that went through
the rings. Maybe some of you are reading
the chronological, the daily Bible reading plan, but the chronological
one that takes you through, the Bible chronologically. And maybe
this week you read about David bringing the Ark to Jerusalem
and how it was put on a brand new cart. And as the oxen were
pulling it on this brand new cart, the oxen stumbled, the
Ark began to tip and Uzzah reached out and touched the Ark to stabilize
it. God struck him dead. And David went home angry at
the Lord that he had broken out against Uzzah. And so for a couple
months, The Ark stayed somewhere. It blessed the people whose house
it was in. And then David decided we’re
going to do this the right way. And if you, if you read in your
daily Bible reading this week, it had a Samuel reading and a
Chronicles reading. And in the Chronicles reading,
I believe it said, David kind of said this, we’re going to
do it right this time. He got the Levitical priest, got them to do it the
right way. So nobody was struck dead. And so you can imagine
here, the Ark is carefully carried. It is carried correctly by the
Levitical priest. And you wonder, why is the ark
the central figure in this passage? Well, if you look at chapters
three and four, it’s mentioned 17 times. That’s a lot of mentions. And that’s not repetitive, or
oversight. It’s because the presence of
the Lord, the presence of the Lord, the presence of the Almighty,
the presence of Yahweh, The leader of the people of Israel was with
them. That’s why I put as the sermon title, Yahweh crosses
the Jordan. If he had not crossed the Jordan,
no one else would have crossed. Jesus is the leader and he’s
also here the head of the water department. He controls the flow
of the river. And so the ark is important.
There’s another interesting thing that’s important in this passage.
Chapter five says, Consecrate yourselves. God is about to do
mighty things. God is about to show up. And
anytime in the Old Testament, you see the word consecrate yourselves,
it usually means wash up, put on clean clothes. It means abstain
from certain activities, confess your sins, and get ready to be
in the presence of God, to see him do mighty things. And that’s,
I think, a good challenge for us. We should do that daily. Spend time in the Word, spend
time in prayer, prepare to live before the face of almighty God,
but we should especially do that before each Sunday. That’s why
we send out the bulletin and put out in the newsletter, the
readings and the songs and the Psalms and the other parts of
worship so that you can be familiar with them before you come to
church. And so God almighty is about
to do great things there to be consecrated. But he’s also, I
think this is really the main part of this passage. He’s going
to strengthen their faith. In front of them is a raging
river. In front of them is a city of Jericho. In front of them
are the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites and the Perizzites
and all the, all the ites. These, these folks are like pioneers. I know a couple of you in the
church are reading through the little house on the prairie and
as they go West, you know, we know from our geography, they
had to cross some pretty big rivers. They had to wait to the
right time of year. They had to go to the right Ford.
They had to go to the correct crossing. They had to go where,
um, you know, people had successfully crossed before. There were some
fairies, uh, along the way, but, but you put your entire family,
your entire livelihood, the entire contents of everything you own
that’s in a wagon, your livestock, everything, uh, you, you put
it at risk as you cross. And that’s what they’re facing
as they make their way into the promised land. But God is going
to strengthen, uh, their faith. Now this river, The little parentheses
says the river was raging, basically. Sometimes we like to go canoe
the Hall River, so we get on the internet and look at the
river gauge from the U.S. Geological Association or whatever
it is. We look at the gauge and we see
how high the river is, and you know at a certain level you can
run it. If it’s too low, you won’t get
through. If it’s too high, it’ll be too dangerous. And sometimes
as you make your way down the river, you scout out trees and
other debris that could get in the way. Now, when a river is
at flood stage, you should not go near it. That’s exactly where
the Jordan is. The Jordan is typically a small
river, maybe a couple feet deep, maybe a hundred feet wide. But
in this particular area where they cross, and he’s very specific
to name the area where they cross, the river at the flood stage
is about a mile wide. The river at flood stage is a
very dangerous territory. Maybe some of you are watching
the news at our southern border and you’re seeing these people
swim across into our country. And you’re seeing, you know,
there’s, there’s kind of a bramble and underbrush and undergrowth
and all kinds of things. But when the water floods up
and you try to make your way through that, you can’t see what’s
below. And so it’s a very dangerous spot. That’s maybe in a sense
why God said to stay back 2000 cubits. So you can see the larger
view of the pathway through this. But this river, this Jordan Valley
is at a very dangerous stage, but also it’s at a very dangerous
location. The river drops in elevation
very quickly, about 10 feet per mile at this particular part.
And so they’re going through one of the most dangerous territories
in the Middle East that we know of in this day and time. And
why do you think that is? If God is gonna strengthen their
faith, doesn’t he do it best when he, parts of the Red Sea
with the Egyptians on your tail. Doesn’t he do it best when you’re
facing the Jordan River with the city of Jericho on the other
side? Or maybe you sit in the doctor’s
office and you get some pretty difficult news that against all
odds, you’re not going to make it or it’s not going to go well
or it’s going to be painful or a long trial and tribulation.
This is where God works best. I think it was back in February,
you know, our sister in the faith, Lola Knox passed away. And before
she died, I went and visited with her and I was listening
to some of her favorite Bible verses, which we brought into
her funeral service. And one of her favorite passages
is from the book of Isaiah. When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you. And I know sometimes we have
these verses we like, and they mean so much to us. And we take
them out of context. So at her funeral service, I
wanted to take a few minutes to explain this Bible verse. Three river crossings, or three
crossings when you pass through the waters. One would be the
Red Sea. God opened up the sea, they passed
through on dry land, and he closed the sea up on Pharaoh and his
horsemen. And then what did Miriam and
Moses sing? I will sing unto the Lord for
he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and rider have been
thrown into the sea. So when they passed through the waters
of the Red Sea, God was with them. The second crossing obviously
would be this one. When we pass through the waters
of Jordan, God is with us. But the third, the third passing
through the waters we might consider, and I think that’s why this verse
is so near and dear to us, I think would be the waters of death.
The waters of trial and tribulations. We think we’re at a helpless
spot. Sometimes as we get older, we feel our body wasting away
and mentally we know everything that’s going on physically. We
struggle because we think here I am in this body, I’m trapped
in this body and I’m afraid of death. I’m afraid of dying. I’m
afraid of being sick. I’m afraid of being whatever
you fill in the blank. And it’s a good reminder here
that when we face these turbulent waters, when we pass through
these waters of tribulation or even death, God is with us and
we are not washed away if we are found in Jesus Christ. What a sweet reminder that is
for us. Let’s do pause and pray. Our
God, we thank you for these truths from your word that you mean
to do mighty things before our eyes so that our faith is strengthened
and that your church is successful in marching design, making our
way to the heavenly city. We thank you that as we pass
through the waters, you make the way through and you glorify
yourself and you strengthen the faith of your people. May that
be so of us tonight. We do pray in Jesus name. Amen.