Joshua 04: Crossing Jordan

This section is a great reminder of the power of God.

3 points about God’s power.

• A power to submit to
• A power that saves
• A power that is to be remembered

 

God’s power is a Power that we need to submit to.

In these chapters there are a number of instructions that God’s people need to obey.

In verse 2 the officers of the people are giving them instructions, about what they need to do.

² After three days the officers went throughout the camp,³ giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it

In verse 3 we see that they are to submit to God’s instructions. And this would happen by them keeping their eyes on the ark.

The ark that is being spoken about here is the ark of the covenant. It was a gold covered box. Inside this box was the 10 commandments. Which was God’s law for His people. The ark was a symbol of God’s presence with his people. So when they looked at it they were reminded of His presence. They were reminded of His holiness. They were reminded of his mercy.

So there in verse 3 we see the officers giving orders, as instructed by God, and the ark is leading the way. You are to follow the ark. You are to follow the representation of God’s presence. You are to keep your eyes on God.

But notice how they are to also keep their distance from the ark. They are told to keep a distance of about 2000 cubits. (900 metres) Why? Because God is holy, and we are sinful. Talk about social distancing. But the distance kept from the ark, is a reminder that sinners cannot just freely come into God’s presence. With God being pure and holy, and human beings who are sinful, who are sinners, who are impure, cannot just have free access without anything being done about it.

Verse 5,  you see that Joshua asks them to consecrate themselves. This was hectic cleaning. You wash yourself, you wash all your clothes. This also involved inner consecration. Renewing their dependence on God.

They’re about to experience something big. God is about to do something powerful among them, and they are to prepare themselves for this. They are to show that they submit to him. His power is a power that demands obedience. A power that we must obey. 

And then in verse 6 we see the priests taking instruction from Joshua, and they obey Joshua. They take up this instruction to take up the ark of the covenant and head on ahead of the people. They obey Joshua, and they obey Joshua because they are obedient to God. They are obedient to the all powerful God.

God is about to do something great. And all he requires is their obedience.

And so we see Israel being obedient, and then we see God working powerfully. Look at what happens.

¹⁴ So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. ¹⁵ Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ¹⁶ the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷ The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

So, you have this amazing miracle taking place. You have the Jordan river, which is at flood stage. It’s at the point where it is overflowing. So it’s at it’s highest. How are you going to get a whole nation to cross this river? People with all their belongings. Remember they would have had livestock and all sorts of other things they would have had to take across.

But God had promised that He would cut off the water and make it stand in a heap. God had done something similar before, with the Red Sea, so they knew that he could do it again. They knew He was a powerful God, so they trusted him.

Because God is God, when he makes a promise, there is nothing stopping Him from keeping that promise.

Have you ever made a promise that you couldn’t keep? A promise that you made because you were certain that you’d be able to keep it. But then something happened. Something happened that made it impossible for you to keep that promise. When we make promises, they generally have to have disclaimers next to them. “I will only be able to keep this promise if certain things remain the same.” We aren’t powerful enough to perform miracles. We can’t make things happen that are beyond our control.

But God can. Whatever promise God makes, he will keep it. And he can keep it. Because He is God.

We need to realize that God’s faithfulness and God’s power go hand in hand. Because not only is God a faithful God, and because he is faithful we know that he will honour the promises that He has made. But He is a powerful God, and He has the power to keep those promises.

Israel knew that, so they followed him. So they obeyed Him.

Do you know that? You may be sitting there at the moment thinking that God has left the planet. That he’s just abandoned everyone, and left the world to sort itself out. Especially in your own life. You’ve got lots of questions. Why is this happening? Why have you had to take such a big pay cut? Or maybe even you’ve lost your job, and you’re wondering, how could God allow that to happen. “Aren’t I one of his children? Didn’t God promise to never leave me?” So why is he allowing me to go through what I’m going through at the moment?

You may even be thinking that God has given up on the world. You need to remember that God is God. God is faithful, He is Powerful, and we need to keep our eyes on Him. We need to keep following Him. We need to keep obeying Him. Because He has made a promise to His children and he will keep it. Because he is faithful, and nothing can stand in his way. Nothing can compare with the power that he has to keep his promises. A river like the Jordan, that is at it’s overflowing flooding stage. He can stop the water flowing. He can make it stop in a heap.

It is power that must be obeyed. We don’t like the word ‘obey’, because it means we must do something that somebody else wants us to do. Maybe you’ve had people in authority over your life, who have caused you not to trust, and not be willing to obey any other authority.

God who created the heavens and the earth can be trusted. And we can obey him without question. We can obey him knowing that his ways are better than our ways. He knows best.

And not only can we obey him, but we MUST obey Him. He demands it.  

God’s power is a power that must be obeyed.

God’s power is a power that saves.

God’s power is a power that rescues.  it’s a power that will carry out God’s plan of salvation.

We’ve already seen what God did to open the Jordan for the Israelites to cross. But there’s something else that is interesting that happens in these 2 chapters.

Look at chapter 3 vs 7.

⁷ And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.”

So what’s that all about? God exalting Joshua? So that they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.

So you get to chapter 4 and verse 14 and look what happens:

¹⁴ That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses.

So on this day, we see Joshua being exalted. We see here that the people stand in awe of Him just as they stood in awe of Moses.

Isn’t God supposed to be the hero of this story? Why is Joshua being exalted? Why are people in awe of Joshua as they were in awe of Moses?

Joshua doesn’t do anything particularly special. He just obeys God. He just does what God tells him to do. We need to be looking at the bigger picture. God is pointing us to something greater than what is actually physically happening. God is giving us a picture of when all His promises are finally fulfilled. And what we see here in Joshua is pointing to what God will do for us in Christ.

The Israelites have the promised land that they are about to go in and inherit. We have the eternal inheritance to look forward to. God is saving / redeeming / He’s rescuing His people by opening up the Jordan for them to cross. But this points to a greater redemption.

Notice how in this story, it’s all God’s work. Yes Joshua is exalted. Yes Joshua leads the people. But it’s all God’s work. God does the work. The people trust and obey. And they marvel at what God does before them.

It’s by God’s grace that we can enter into a relationship with Him. We sit back and marvel at what He has done.

What about Joshua being exalted?

Joshua being exalted and revered as Moses was is very significant. What is happening here in Joshua, is that God is accomplishing his salvation through the man that He exalts. Even though it’s all God’s work, God uses Joshua to lead his people into the promised land.

And this is a pattern we see happening throughout the Old Testament. God using someone to lead his people as he rescues them. As he fulfils His purpose. And as I mentioned before, Joshua is the Hebrew word for Jesus. So Joshua is pointing to Jesus. So as Joshua leads the people, and God is with him. When we get to the New Testament and we see Jesus, and God is with Jesus much more than he was with Joshua.  

And what does God ask of those who are about to enter the promised land. He asks them to trust and obey. What are we required to do? We are required to trust and obey. And even more specificially God’s people were required to follow Joshua. They were required to look to Joshua. To even revere him. Exalt him as God’s appointed person. What are we required to do? To exalt Jesus. To exalt Jesus by submitting to Him.

Have you submitted to Jesus? Have you exalted Jesus? Are you following Jesus, letting him lead you into the promised land? How do you do that? You approach him humbly, admitting that you’re a sinner who needs a saviour. You admit that you’re someone who doesn’t deserve God’s mercy. You don’t deserve God’s grace. You admit that you need to rely on God’s power to save you and rescue you, because you can’t do it on your own.

God’s power is a power that saves. God carried out His plan of salvation. We see it in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he continues to work out that power in you.

Ephesians 1vs18.  

¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

 This mighty powerful God, who performed this miracle at the Jordan. That same power raised Jesus to life again. And that same power is at work in you and I.

That is God’s power, working out His plan of Salvation. And Joshua was pointing us to that.

God’s power is a power to be remembered.

At the beginning of chapter 4, Joshua instructs the tribes to each send a representative. And they must each bring a stone, and these stones will serve as a memorial. See verse 19:

¹⁹ On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. ²⁰ And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²² tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea^[b] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. ²⁴ He 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.”

God’s power is a power to be remembered so that people will fear the LORD God.

Eg Ravi Zacharias memorabilia, will be a reminder of the legacy of Ravi Zacharias. And in generations to come, someone can show those things to other generations, as they are telling them about Ravi Zacharias, this man whom God used to share the gospel throughout the world.

God wanted Israel to put these stones in this spot, to serve as an ongoing reminder. A reminder that God is powerful and he is to be feared.

And God’s people need reminders because they forget. Jesus gave us a great reminder to keep pointing us back to God and what God has done for us in communion, It’s a constant reminder of what Jesus has done.

That’s why Christian habits are good. Bible reading, prayer, going to church, etc. Not to be legalistic, but to keep reminding us. As Christians we need to build things into our lives where we are constantly reminding ourselves about what the Lord has done. And not just habits, but make it part of your everyday life.

Christian holidays are great reminders of what God has done. Pentecost Sunday. Easter / Christmas / Ascension etc.

The greatest reminder we have today is the Bible.

Maybe you need to be reminded. Maybe there was a time in your life, when you were well aware of the power of God. You were so aware of it that it changed your life. You were so aware of it that you feared God. And I’m talking about fear in a healthy way. An awareness that God is Holy and mighty and powerful. Where you realize that He is God. He is the one who calls the shots. He is the one to whom you must submit.

But somehow you’ve forgotten. Pick up your Bible. Read this story again. Let God remind you how powerful and mighty He is.

A power to submit to. A power that saves. A power that needs remembering. Because God is a God who we submit, a God who saves, a God that needs remembering.

 

Home Group Questions:

Read Joshua 3 and 4

• How does knowing that God is powerful help you to obey Him?
• How does knowing that God is powerful help you to trust in Him for salvation?
• How does what is happening to Israel point to God’s greater plan of salvation?
• Why is it important that we constantly remind ourselves and others of God’s power?