Joshua Chapters Three and Four
G.S.Munro, Panania-Milperra Anglican Church, May 21st, 2000.
From http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gsmunro/resource.htm
Introduction: waiting for the day
- We've all experienced waiting for something we've longed for. Give examples - children's birthdays, etc.
Illustration: Susie O'Neill - Australian swimmer who on 18 May 2000 broke the longest standing record in international swimming - Mary T. Meachger's 1981 200M butterfly record, which had stood for nearly 19 years. Susie had been trying for at least six years for this. When interviewed afterwards, she said "I've waited so long for this day."
- The children of Israel waited 40 years for this [expand].
- They should have been there 40 years earlier, but for their disobedience [expand].
- Prior to that, there had been 500 years of waiting since the promises made to the patriarchs [expand - Gen 12:1-3, etc].
But now, Joshua tells the people: 3:5 - consecrate yourselves for you will see the Lord do amazing things.
The Lord will finally fulfil his Promises to Abraham of a People, A place, and a blessing.
1. The Lord Goes Before Us - Our Adequacy is from Him Alone.
First principle from this passage - the Lord Promises, and the Lord keeps his Promise to save and to bless. We do not bring it about ourselves.
It is quite clear from the book of Joshua that Israel did absolutely nothing to save themselves and bring about the blessings God promised. He did it all. He would go before them - that's what the Ark of the covenant represents in this story - and he would fight their battles. It is the same with us. We must cling to the truth of salvation by God's grace alone.
"Aside from the miraculous way the river was crossed, the most important feature of this chapter is the Ark of the Covenant. Its prominence is stressed in the number of times it is mentioned in chapters 3 and 4 (nine times in chapter 3 and seven times in chapter 4) and by the nature of the commands and statements given in its regard.
What's so important about the Ark? It represented the person and promises of God. It pointed to the fact that as the people of Israel set out to cross the Jordan, invade, and possess the land, they must do so not in their own strength, but in God's for it was God Himself who was going before them as their source of victory.
And such is the case with all of life. As Paul cried out when contemplating the challenges and trials of ministry, "And who is adequate for these things?" But he then answered his own question with these words: "And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God" (2 Cor. 3:4-5)." [from Biblical Studies Foundation notes]
Joshua knew that as he led Israel into Canaan. But the Israelites were not just to sit there like stuffed dummies. God works great acts of salvation. But human beings need to respond to what God has done, if they are to receive the blessings promised. And so Israel are told to consecrate themselves to the Lord.
2. We Must Respond in Faith to What the Lord Promises to Do.
- Principle of right response to what the Lord does for us.
"Consecrate" here in verse 5 means, "to set yourselves apart, prepare yourselves." This term points out personal responsibility. We do not save ourselves, but we do need to respond to God's salvation.
[The following few paragraphs are largely from the Biblical Studies Foundation's website]
In the Old Testament this word consecrate is often used in connection with the tabernacle and temple sacrifices, priesthood, washings, and with regard to the children of Israel as God's people. In this regard, it was especially used in connection with confession or cleansing through the use of Old Testament sacrifices, washings, and offerings (Ex. 19:10, 22; 40:13). It portrays the need to deal with sin in the life. It was used of setting something apart for use by the Lord and His purposes in the sense of cleansing, preparing, and dedicating it to the Lord.
Application: Note Joshua 3:5b, "for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." When there is a lack of consecration through confession for the defilement of sin along with a commitment to God's purpose for our lives in service or ministry, we hinder the power of God. But there is more included here in this call for consecration. The people of Israel were to expect God to work a miracle. They were to be eager, gripped by a sense of wonder. Israel was not to lose sight of their God who can do the incredible and the humanly impossible. Two key ideas are involved here-Preparation and Dedication. Because God would do wonders for them, they were to prepare to receive all that he had in store, and dedicate themselves fully to his service. We must do the same in response to what Jesus has achieved at the cross.
Crossing the Jordan was a response of faith to God's promises.
As you look at chapter three and marvel at the miraculous work of God displayed here, let's think about what God is achieving here. Crossing the Jordan at flood time with hundreds of thousands of people had several immediate results:
God was magnified,
Joshua was exalted (3:5),
the people were energized and motivated,
and the people of the land, the Canaanites, were terrorized (cf. 1:9; 5:1).
God was giving them the land. It was a sure thing.
But the people of the land were not going to simply lie down. They would resist with all the resources at their disposal. We saw last week how the king of Jericho had his own counter-intelligence measures to deal with Joshua's spies. The Cold War was already in full swing, even before the "Hot War" began. Crossing the Jordan and possessing their possession was not going to be a piece of cake. It would mean battle after battle. Crossing the Jordan, then, meant two things for Israel. First, they must be totally committed to going against armies, chariots, and fortified cities. But then, if they were to be successful, they must also be committed to a focused walk of faith in Yahweh, the only true and living God rather than, as they had done in the wilderness, a walk according to the flesh and their own resources. This is a complete contrast to the way their forefathers had failed to grasp God's promises and instead trusted in themselves. Whenever we take our sights off God and lower our eyes onto our own abilities and devices, we are sure to fail.
I want to look for a moment at the miracle God does as they enter the land.
3. The Significance and Purpose of the Miracle of the Jordan
The significance of the miracle of the water stopping.
- a new exodus experience for the new generation whose fathers had seen the same thing under Moses at the Sea. See 4:23.
- involves the Ark of the Covenant - ie, it's all about God keeping his Covenant promises, made to the patriarchs under the Abrhamic covenant and confirmed under the Mosaic Covenant at Sinai.
- it was a 'miraculous' event. The Jordan had been known to stop flowing on at least two other occasions in history, in 1267 and 1927, both upstream from the Jericho ford near Adam, and both as the result of an earthquake causing the banks of the river to topple into it. So if this can happen during ordinary times, why should we find it hard to believe that the God of all creation and all history should be able to make it happen when he wishes to? Whether it had a (so-called) 'natural' cause or not, it was certainly a miracle, superintended by God's direct intention and will, for the water stopped flowing at the exact time the priests entered it, and started again at the exact time they left the riverbed.
The purpose of the miracle - v23,24
- to show who God is, to his people and to all the earth.
4. Lest We Forget
Remembering the Past - the covenant with Abraham, the Covenant with Moses.
Remembering the Future - the cairn of stones to remind them.
Joke about the bride to be: goes to engraver with her groom's wedding ring, to have a message inscribed on the inside which would remind him of their wedding day and the vows they had made. Engraver asks what message she wants. She doesn't know. So he asks her "what do you want him to see every time he takes it off?" She thinks for a moment then tells him to engrave these words: "Put it back on!"
The cairn of stones served a similar function to that. Though it is a reminder of somethng great that happened in the past, it is meant to have ongoing present and future effects.
This cairn also reminds us of the Lord's Supper (though not identical - the Lord's Supper is more like the Passover).
20And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' 22tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' 23For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."
Christians are living stones of a holy temple, living memorials of the power of God.
But we too face the threat of forgetting the Lord and looking to ourselves and to the world instead.
Revelation speaks of 12 stones - the foundation of the new Jerusalem, associated with the 12 Apostles - not the men themselves, but their apostolic message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the foundation of the church, in the same way that these 12 stones at the Jordan laid the foundation for Israel's entry into the Promised Land. The Word of God, the gospel of Jesus, is the only foundation for our faith. And we look back to what God has done for us in Christ, when we do things that put us in touch with his Word.
By way of application, what are some of the things we regularly do and are called to do that form memorials of the saving grace of God and our calling as believers in Christ, in the same way the Israelites set up the memorial cairn of stones?
Weekly assembling ourselves together (Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 11:17ff; Heb. 10:23-25).
Taking the Lord's supper, specifically aimed at remembering Him just as were the various feasts and special days like the Passover.
Special services at various times of the year like Christmas, New Years, Easter, form wonderful times to focus on the Lord and to make this real in the lives of our children.
By our daily personal time in the Word, through bible study groups, and fellowship with others.
All those activities call to mind the wonderful things God has done for us in Christ, just as the Israelites were to recall what God did through Joshua.
Conclusion: Entering the Promised Land.
People often talk about crossing the Jordan as a euphemism for death, entering heaven, but the bible sees it more as a picture of a believer's conversion, not of their death. Have you crossed the Jordan? Are you in the Land? John's Gospel tells us that those who put their faith in the Son of God have already crossed over from death to life. Have you made the Crossing yet?
There is also a warning for us here.
What happened to Israel under Moses?
Went through Red Sea, sang the song, danced the dance, and yet within a few days they had forgotten God's goodness to them and were already grumbling and turning against him.
Sadly, their sons did the same, when the miracle of the Red Sea crossing was repeated at the Jordan. As we will see, within a few days, they blew it, and they paid the consequences.
The New Testament warns us not to be like Israel was in the wilderness, but to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Consecrate yourself to the Lord. Turn away from sin in your life. And you will see the Lord do great things.
Read Hebrews 12:1-3, 28-29.
G.S.Munro, Panania-Milperra Anglican Church, May 21, 2000.
From http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gsmunro/resource.htm