God's Undeniable Leadership-5 Series

GOD's UNDENIABLE LEADERSHIP-V—Joshua 3:7-17

Attention:

Recognize This?

A blonde police officer pulls over a blonde woman in a convertible sports car for speeding. He walks up to the car & asks the blonde for her driver's license. The driver searches through her purse in vain.

Finally she asks, "What does it look like?"

The police officer rolls his eyes & tells her, “It's that thing with your picture on it.” The blonde driver searches for a few more seconds, pulls out her compact, opens it, & sure enough sees herself.

She hands the compact to the blonde cop. After a few seconds looking at the compact, the blonde cop shakes his head in disbelief, hands the compact back to the driver, & says, “If you would have told me you were a police officer when I first pulled you over, we could have avoided this whole thing.”

Sometimes its not easy to recognize true leadership!

The quality of leadership can be questionable!

We are faced with a lack of integrity in leaders in the world today.

We should not tolerate it in Christian circles. God must be in control!

God began to magnify Joshua’s ministry among Israel.

*God makes His leadership undeniable among His people.

How does God endear leadership to His people?

Where is God’s leadership undeniable?

We’ve found previously that God’s leadership is Undeniable in...

1. CONTINUITY(:7)

2. DIRECTION(:8-9)

3. HOPE(:10)

4. OBEDIENCE(:11-13)

5. EXPECTANT FAITH(:13)

6—God’s leadership is Undeniable in...

FAITH’s WITNESS(:14-17)

Explanation:(:14-17)

:14—“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,”

The people left their tents in order to cross the Jordan. They acted in faith, whereas previously they had only heard.

The priests went ahead of the people(2000 cubits or 1/2 mile, cf.-:4).

“Was/Came to pass/Came about”—hyh haw-yaw—1) To be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out. Strong—a primitive root [compare awh haw-vaw'; or hwh[ properly--To breathe; To be(in the sense of existence)]]; To exist, i.e. Be or become, come to pass(always emphatic, & not a mere copula or auxiliary).

“Set out/Removed/Broke(camp)”—eon naw-sah'—1) To pull out, pull up, set out, journey, remove, set forward, depart. Strong—a primitive root; properly--To pull up(especially the tent-pins), i.e. Start on a journey.

“Tents/Camp”—lha o'-hel—1) Tent—1a) Nomad's tent, & thus symbolic of wilderness life, transience, 1b) Dwelling, home, habitation,1c) The sacred tent of Jehovah(the tabernacle). Strong—A tent(as clearly conspicuous from a distance).

:15—“& as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, & 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),”

The waters were at flood stage when this occurred.

The crossing occurred during “harvest.” The “harvest” would have been “the early summer harvest”(of barley?) when the river would have been swollen due to “melting snow & spring rains”—NAC, NIVAC

According to 4:19, They actually made the crossing on the “tenth day of the first month.” Nisan/Abib on the very day that the Passover lamb was to be secured by each family(Ex. 12:2-3, 6). They camped at Gilgal located on the eastern border of Jericho. “Bore”2X—asn naw-saw’—Qal Participle Active—1) To lift, bear up, carry, take. Strong—a primitive root; to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal & figurative, absolute & relative.

“Dipped in”—lbj taw-bal’—Niphal(passive/reflexive) Perfect—1) To dip, dip into, plunge. Strong—a primitive root; To dip, to immerse. Used 16X.

“Edge/Brim”(See :8)—huq kaw-tseh’—Noun Masc.—1) End, extremity—1a) End, mouth, extremity, 1b) Border, outskirts, 1c) The whole(condensed term for what is included within extremities), 1d) At the end of(a certain time). Strong—from huq kaw-tsaw’[To cut off, destroy, scrape off].

“Overflows”—alm maw-lay’—Qal Perfect—1) To fill, be full. Strong—a primitive root--To fill or intransitively--Be full of, in a wide application(literally & figuratively).

“Banks”—hdg gaw-daw’—Noun Fem.—1) A river bank. Strong—from an unused root(meaning to cut off); A border of a river(as cut into by the stream). Used 4X.

“During”—le ‘al—Prep.—1) Upon, on the ground of, according to, on account of, on behalf of, concerning, beside, in addition to, together with, beyond, above, over, by, on to, towards, to, against. Strong—Above, over, upon, or against(yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applications.

“Whole”—lk kol—Noun Masc.—1) All, the whole. Strong—properly--The whole; hence--All, any or every.

“Time”—Mwy yowm—Noun Masc.—1) Day, time, year. Strong—from an unused root meaning to be hot; A day(as the warm hours), whether literal(from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative--A space of time defined by an associated term, [often used adverb].

“Harvest”—ryuq kaw-tseer'—1) Harvest, harvesting—1a) Process of harvesting, 1b) Crop, what is harvested or reaped, 1c) Time of harvest; 2) Boughs, branches. Strong—Severed, i.e. Harvest(as reaped), the crop, the time, the reaper, or figuratively; also--A limb(of a tree, or simply foliage).