Sunday Morning Service

Joshua 3

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“Moving Toward Fullness” • 11.3.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- In Joshua 1, God installed a new servant leader over the people of Israel. Before him, there had only been one other leader and he was tremendous!

- Beginning in chapter 3, God wants to further reveal to the people that He endorses Joshua and wants them to thoroughly trust in his leadership. Let's pick it up at verse 1.

Text

• Joshua 3:1 : "Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over." : The people of Israel have now come to the shoreline of the Jordan river. They numbered well over 2 million!

- Joshua rose up early before the Lord, I'm sure with a great desire to move forward. He's been waiting 40 years for this and this 3 mile trek to the Jordan will be done before the heat of the day.

- They came to the Jordan river and lodged there. Nothing would happen immediately. They were where they needed to be and now they would wait upon the Lord. Now, about the Jordan river.

- The Jordan river is fed from the sea of Galilee, which is in northern Israel and is 153 miles long and about 45 feet wide in it's normal stage.

- Three other fresh water sources feed into the Jordan, all of which eventually flow into the Dead sea in the south of Israel.

- In modern times, much of the water from the Jordan is diverted for Israel and Syria's domestic water supply.

- During Joshua's time, it was a relatively untapped resource that flowed mightily. It was in fact flowing much more powerfully at this time.

- You will recall that Rahab had harvested a large enough collection of flax to efficiently hide the bodies of the two Hebrew spies, letting us know that the barley harvest season was occuring.

- Verse 15 of this chapter tells us that this caused the river to be at floodstage, as perennially it overflowed it's banks at the time of the harvest.

- This is what the Israelis are looking at! They are on the banks of an incrossable river, rushing wildly in front of them. Beyond that were 7 hostile, well established nations that inhabited the land!

- Two guys could traverse the river from one side to the other, but two million!? That would take quite a miracle indeed!

- Notice that God camped them there, staring at the impassable river. He sits themvthere and let's them confront the reality that this will take more than they have!

• Joshua 3:2-4 : "So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; and they commanded the people, saying, 'When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.'" : Three days later! Three days of staring at the river, wondering how they were going to get across, anxiously considering their fate!

- I'm sure that any news was better than no news, but the officers came only with further instruction, not much more in the way of illumination.

- They were to wait there on the banks, but not to precede the Ark of the Covenant, which was to be carried by the Priests before them. "That's it!?" No cutting down trees for canoes!?

- They were to allow the symbol of the very throne and presence of God to go before them, about a mile and a half between them.

- Prior to this, they could simply walk under the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. At this point, God's symbolic throne was to be out in front enough for the whole nation to see it.

- There's a good principle here. Whatever circumstance we are facing, we must always adjust our eyes to see His sovereign throne ruling over all that's in front of us!

- The whole nation had to focus it's attention on the presence of God! Their eyes needed to be averted from the raging river, the impassable chaos that nature can often bring.

- I imagine large foliage giving way under the force of the river's current and the imminent danger of keeping little ones from moving too close.

- What will be the only thing that can quiet the raging or control the chaos? The vision of the presence of God Almighty, seated still, unbothered upon His throne!

- Beside the principle, there was also the practicality. Keeping space in front of it was more than a good and safe idea. It was indeed a real safety threat as evidenced later in their history.

- When the Philistines captured the Ark in I Samuel 4, they found in I Samuel 5 that this was no ordinary god. God's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod, afflicting them with "emerods."

- In I Samuel 6, the Ark was sent safely back into Israeli territory, but when the men of that city became a little too familiar with it, 50,070 people died because they looked into it!

- Years later, David attempts to bring the Ark to Jerusalem and Uzzah attempts to keep it from falling and dies for touching it! (I Chronicles 13:10,11)

- Suffice it to say, there is every reason to keep a clear distance from the Ark of the Covenant, the Holiness of God's presence. But there is even another reason.

- Ultimately, this war was not between Israel and Canaan. It was between God and Canaan's false system of idolatry that had plunged the citizens of Canaan into demonic debasement.

- In their unwillingness to honor God, God had abandoned them to vile lusts and wicked practices, some of which we explored in our studies of the Pentateuch.

- Their evil extended beyond their vile sexual deviance, all the way to literal child sacrifice!

- The Israeli's had never faced a foe like this before and the way before them was uncharted to their feet. God was going to go before them personally and employ them corporately to wage war.

• Joshua 3:5,6 : "And Joshua said to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.' Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, 'Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.' So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people." : Joshua commands the people to "sanctify" or cleanse themselves for God's use.

- Joshua does not tell them to ready themselves for war or to fight. He doesn't rally them with emotional speeches or hype them up with motivational pretext.

- He said to them straightforward, "sanctify" yourselves. They are to set themselves apart in their minds and bodies.

- What did this mean to them? It meant that their clothes were washed, their bodies were set apart totally for God's use, to the point of avoiding marital relations.

- Their minds were readied and watchful for what God was about to do in their midst. They are focused and prepared in every feasible way for God to move in their midst.

- There are times when people report that they don't feel God or sense His voice speaking to them. I often wonder if it's not the recipient whose life and worry is not too loud!

- Don't blame God! What the Israelis did physically at the river, we are to practice principally in our lives. We need to unplug from certain distractions and focus our attention upon Him.

- When I read this phrase, my mind immediately traveled to the Lord's words on the night before His crucifixion.

- In His prayer, He said, "Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth!" (John 17:17)

- How can we expect to focus our attention or hear Him speaking to us, if we are not allowing the Word of God, the Truth of God, to permeate our souls! This is how we sanctify ourselves!

- To some extent, as they physically washed their clothes, they thought about their God's command and His works in their distant and not too distant past.

- As they washed themselves, they were readying themselves for God to do similar things for them. That was Joshua's word to them: God will do wonders among you!

- God was going to do great, extraordinary, marvelous things things among them! They were about to see God's power right before their very eyes in a way that was indisputably Him!

- This is what a miracle is by the way: Something that can only be explained by God's immediate intervention. It's good to be careful in employing that word.

- These people were going to see a genuine break in the natural order of things. Joshua told the priests that the time was right for the ark to proceed forward.

- Aaron's descendants would take the gold overlaid acacia wood poles and slide them through the rings of the ark of the covenant, bearing the weight of the chest upon their shoulders.

• Joshua 3:7,8 : "And the Lord said to Joshua, 'This day 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 shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.’" : There's no doubt that there was a need for affirmation, perhaps not for himself, but certainly in the eyes of the people.

- They needed confidence and confirmation that Joshua was the annointed leader as Moses had been. God would begin to bring that goal to pass in this action.

- How was God going to begin to exalt or increase his stature among the people of Israel? It would begin by Joshua going out in front of the priests who were holding the ark of the covenant.

- The symbolic presence of God would follow Joshua into the Jordan. Most of you are beginning to see the type that is unveiling itself.

- Joshua's name means "God is salvation." He is the one who physically leads the people into the promised land, but is a picture and shadow of the greater Joshua, Jesus.

- Jesus and Joshua literally share the same name, Jesus being the Greek version. It was in the Jordan river when Jesus was baptized that God's presence descended upon Him like a dove.

- God spoke, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased!" God put His stamp of approval on Jesus Christ as the One that was acceptable to lead His people into the full life of God!

- In essence, that is what God does for Joshua here! "He is the one I endorse to lead you!"

• Joshua 3:9-13 : "So Joshua said to the children of Israel, 'Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.' And Joshua said, 'By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.'" : Why was God going to do this for the people of Israel? Because they needed to cross? Definitely!

- But the greater purpose was to establish credibility for the greater miracle. "By this" miraculous intervention by God, they would know, be confident of His ability to deal with the nations!

- Each of these nations were independent of one another, but were related in their unwillingness to honor God!

- There was no way in human comprehension that the Israelis would have been able to unseat these powerful nations. But God was among them!

- Joshua tells them that after the 12 representatives and the priests who are carrying the Ark come forward, that God would then miraculously stop up the water flowing from the North.

- I like the NIV's translation, as it says, "the river will stand up like a wall!"

- Consider what is happening here: God has just annointed Joshua as the lead servant of Israel. 40 years earlier, the Red Sea parted and Moses led the people out of Egypt's slavery.

- On this day, God would stop up the Jordan river and the Joshua would lead the people into their inheritance.

- This new generation of people had a daily miracle of manna provision and the powerful display of His power over Sihon and Og.

- That all occured under Moses' administration. This miracle would happen under Joshua's administration! God was going to authenticate His minister once again!

• Joshua 3:14-17 : "So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan." : Just as God said it would happen, it did, but they did not know this. They had not read this chapter!

- They set out at God's Word, believing that what He said would be the case and so it was!

- I wonder what would have happened if they waited there and just decided that it would be more practical to wait for God to do something and then move!

- I wonder what would have occurred if they would have reasoned in their minds that moving would be an actual breach of faith!

- The river receded when the priests moved into the water! And the moment that they touched the banks the river stopped up, it turns out, about 18 miles up the river in the city of Adam.

- All the water south of their position failed. The idea is that the water broke off from running and came to halt without any current to sustain it!

- The priests stood still in the midst of the Jordan river. The symbol of God's throne hung on their shoulders and the power of nature held back it's force!

- Every person from the 12 tribes of Israel came across the Jordan on dry ground until every single one had crossed over completely.

- Remember that the stoppage happened 18 miles from their center position, meaning that you could move in a wide arrangement forward.

- It's feasible that they could have moved across in just an hour or two with that kind of length.

- Every person, every child that were coming crossed over completely. What an experience that must have been?

- Notice that God did two things in this chapter: He centered the people's attention upon Him and He commended His leader before them!

- God led them by His symbolic presence and the first person to enter into the midst of the Jordan was Joshua.

- Paul writes in I Corinthians 10:2 that all of Israel was baptized into Moses and in the sea. They had been freed from the world and the slavery that they had known.

- This Jordan river symbolizes our baptism, our initiation into the Holy Spirit, and a life that is powered by Him!

- Sadly, there are many Christians who have been freed from the slavery of sin and have come out from the world enough to know that they are saved.

- However, there is little enthusiasm for life, little power reserve under trials and little direction for their souls. In essence, there is a lack of a full understanding of the role of God's Spirit.

- When you came to Christ, you were baptized into the Holy Spirit. He gave you life, but that life is dynamic and Paul will later command the Ephesians to continually be filled with the Spirit!

- The victory that you possess in life will be directly related to your willingness to be directed by the power of the Holy Spirit!

- What is the key element to a life directed in the Holy Spirit? Is it tongues or gifts? No. Remember this verse: 'This day 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.' (Joshua 3:7)

- The Holy Spirit's job is to focus our attention upon Jesus Christ, to shine the light of illumination upon His centrality and His worthiness.

- When we do that, we are living a Spirit filled life and that draws attention not to ourselves, but to Jesus Christ who has lit up our lives!

Conclusion

- If you have never asked the Lord to fill you with His Spirit, you have missed one of the greatest commands and provisions in the entire Bible!

- If you have wondered where your joy in Christ is, it is there in the proverbial hands of the Holy Spirit. If you have lacked direction in your life, it is there in the mind of the Holy Spirit!

- If you sense that there is something missing that you know God intends you to have because others have it, you guessed it: It's the person and work of God's Holy Spirit!

- If you are a relatively new Christian, today is the day that you are to walk toward the river banks and experience God's power.

- If you are an old Christian, today is the day that you freshly receive a new filling, as we can never be filled enough. Let's pray toward that end together.