He was the first of the twelve. Slowly he walked along; his pace governed by the other eleven. The load on his shoulder was a burden but wasn’t nearly as heavy as his thoughts. His feet moved as if they were on auto pilot and his eyes remained fixed on the river in the distance. The dark brown waters swirled angrily as they raced toward the waiting sea. The harvest floods had caused the river to overflow it’s banks and the water had a cold and dangerous look about it.
And still he walked. His eyes never leaving the raging torrents ahead. He would never question his commander verbally but his mind was filled with whys and how’s.
He wished that he could just stop and think it over but it was apparent that was no longer an option. And besides if he did stop what would the other eleven think? What would his family think after all everybody knew what an honour it had been to be chosen as one of the twelve. Actually it seemed like a pretty dubious honour to him.
And still he walked. Maybe it was all a joke, after all the boss couldn’t seriously expect the twelve of them to just walk into the river, he didn’t even know how to swim. That was it, at any time his commander would holler “hey guys come back it was just a test” but the only sound to break the still air was the tramp of the twenty-four feet closing in on the river. All he could think was “nobody even told us where the rocks are.”
And still he walked, and then they were on the edge of the racing maelstrom, the dark cold water just inches from their feet. The time was gone to hesitate even if he wanted to. The choice was no longer his because as the eleven others plunged ahead his foot began its descent into the racing River Jordan and his mind went back to the events that had led them here.
Here we are in week four of our 3:16 series, though the summer we are looking at some of the various Chapter 3 verse 16s that are found in the bible. So far we’ve been in the book of John, Acts and the 2nd letter that Paul wrote to Timothy. This week we are moving back to the Old Testament to a story told as the people of Israel prepare to claim the promise given to them by God over forty years before. They are preparing to enter the promised Land.
I would suspect that most of us know the broad strokes of the story, if only from Hollywood. Most recently of course was “Exodus: Gods and Kings”, before that Disney gave us “The Prince of Egypt”, In 1995 Ben Kingsley starred in the made for TV movie “Moses” and the most famous one of all would be “The Ten Commandments.”
And well none of them really get it right they do lay the foundation for the story of the Exodus. 400 years after Joseph and his extended family settle in Egypt at the invitation of the Pharaoh the tide of popular opinion has turned against their descendants and the people of Israel are now slaves.
God calls a man named Moses, who confronts the Pharaoh and says “Let my people go”. You’ve seen the movie so you know the story, plagues, release, Red Sea, Pillar of Fire by Night, Column of Smoke by Day, Mount Sanai, Golden Calf, Ten Commandments Mana and quail to eat, water from rocks and lots of grumbling.
And after they arrive at the Promised Land the naysayers have their way and the people spend another 40 years wandering in the desert before they finally prepare to enter into the land that was promised them.
And now a new leader, a man named Joshua, is about to lead them across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. And the only barrier that now stands in their way is the river and we read in Joshua 3:16 the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.
But like all the 3:16s Joshua 3:16 doesn’t and can’t stand by itself, it’s only a part of the story.
In this case the story had begun forty years before, but realistically we only need to go back to the previous day where we read.
Joshua 3:5 Then Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.”
This must have been the highlight of Joshua’s career. When he and Caleb had brought back the report of Canaan forty years before he had felt the surge of victory, had felt the excitement course though his veins only to have it shattered by the disbelief of his people.
Forty years previous, the people of Israel had stood ready to enter the Promised Land and when Joshua and Caleb cast the vision for what God had for them on the other side of the Jordan the people braced their feet and refused to go, that might have been a bit of an understatement, we read their response in Numbers 14:10 But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Not necessarily a resounding endorsement of their leadership.
This time it was Joshua and not Moses who sent out the spies and when they brought back a favourable report he gathers all of his people around him for a gigantic pep rally and he tells them to purify themselves, which simply meant that they were to surrender their wills to God, and with that commandment comes the promise.
“Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.” Maybe in hindsight Joshua might have realized that it might have been more aptly phrased “God will do great wonders through you”
And now, four long decades after their initial refusal God has finally given Joshua and Israel the green light, and this time as the vision is cast we read Joshua 1:16 They answered Joshua, “We will do whatever you command us, and we will go wherever you send us.
This was a defining moment in the life of Israel. God is not only promising the Israelites “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.” the reverse is there as well if not stated at least implied, “do not purify yourselves and the Lord will not do great wonders among you.”
We need only to read the Old Testament to realize that God kept his promise because there is no other people in the world who have seen the hand of God in their history like the Jews.
Probably if you had of talked to the average Israelite at this point they would have told you it was time for a rest, time to kick back and enjoy life for a while. After all they had spent 40 years wandering through the wilderness, 40 years of eating quail and manna, and they were so tired of mana. It was manna this and manna that. Manna loaf and manna burgers, roast, boiled, poached manna and then for dessert it was manana cream pie.
And nobody wanted them for neighbours, they were “Those people” so it was forty years of desert skirmishes.
And now the Jordan River stands between them and the promise. And it wouldn’t be the only barrier they would face. In the next three thousand years the Israelites would have their work cut out for them, claiming a homeland, keeping a homeland and finally reclaiming a homeland and each step was a step of faith.
In Hebrews 11:1 we are told that Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
And it was that type of faith that led the children of Israel into the promised land. A land only seen in its possibilities by Joshua and Caleb. And it was the vision of these two men that kept the promise alive year after year. And it was faith that allowed the children of Israel to claim Canaan.
And as long as their faith was alive they were blessed and when their faith became little so did their blessings. After all it is spelled out fairly plainly in Hebrews 11:6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.
Paul didn’t write, “It is hard to please God Without faith” he wrote “It is impossible to please God without faith”
The Israelites’ very ticket into the Promised Land was the ticket of faith. In Joshua chapter three we read the account of the instructions that God gave to Joshua. How the twelve priest had to carry the Ark of the Covenant down to the river Jordan which was overflowing it’s banks with the freshet. In verse thirteen we read Joshua 3:13 The priests will carry the Ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”
Now I can just imagine the conversation that Joshua must have had with his commanders “Hey Joshua have you got a plan for tomorrow?” “I sure do, twelve men are going to take the ark and they are going to carry it down to the water and then they are going to step into the water and the Jordan’s gonna dry up, got it?” “uh Joshua have you got another plan?”
God could have led the Israelites to a shallow spot in the river, or he could have instructed the Israelites to build a raft. God could have divided the Jordan before the Israelites actually got there and nobody would have had to get their feet wet. But the fact of the matter was that this incident had to happen for two reasons.
The first was to test their faith, they had to answer the question: do we really believe that this is the direction that God wants us to go and do we really believe that he can provide the way?
It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” In this case faith was taking the first step, even while the river was still raging.
And the second reason was even more important. When the twelve tribes of Israel followed the priests and the Ark of the Covenant to the edge of the Jordan, and when they stood there with their hearts in their throats waiting for the priests to step into the muddy swirling water they were proving their willingness to obey God, no matter what.
Had the Israelites stopped at that point, if they had of devised some other scheme to cross the Jordan I am convinced that today we would view Israel as just another ancient, dead civilization.
Once again we see that God never entrusts us with a lot until he tests us with a little.
And it worked, let’s go back to this week’s 3:16.
Joshua 3:16 the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.
Sometimes we are led to believe that all we need is a vision and faith and everything will be all right, but in the case of the people of Israel there was a raging river standing between them and what God had for them, and then there was the city of Jericho and then. . .
And really it all came down to the faith of that one guy, the guy in the lead, if he had of stopped everybody would have had to stop as well. The destiny of a nation rested in the hands of one man.
So the question is, What did he know? Why was he willing to step into a raging river? And maybe you are wondering, “So what? What does crossing a river 3000 years ago have to do with me today?” Well the reality is that if we are following God there will be times as individuals and as a church that we will find rivers of doubt, controversy and conflict that will need to be crossed.
I think that first of all He Knew the Provisions of the Past. For forty years the people of Israel had wandered in the wilderness. Never settling, never establishing a country, always at odds with their environment and their neighbours. And yet during that 40 years they saw God’s hand at work over and over again.
God provided them with food in a desert where they had no land to farm and if they had land the wilderness was so inhospitable no crops would grow. And for forty years they ate. They wandered in a land without rivers and lakes and yet for forty years they didn’t go without water.
And the man in the lead had seen it all, he had tasted the manna, had feasted on quail, had drank water that miraculously sprang from rocks, I guess that would make it a spring.
He had seen God’s hand as the Israelites defending their families against hostile forces. And as a child he had witnessed the entire countries escape from Egypt, he had walked on the floor of the Red Sea and had followed the pillar of fire at night and the column of smoke during the day.
And so he believed that if God was faithful then, then God would be faithful now.
As a church, when we face obstacles we only have to look to the past and how God provided over and over again. When people shook their heads and said Cornerstone would never survive, God had other plans.
When a group averaging fifty, which included the kids, felt that God was calling them to purchase land and build a permanent facility to call their church home, people shook their heads and said it would never happen, but God had other plans.
And each of you has seen God at work in your lives and the lives of your families,
And we have to believe that if God was faithful then, then God will be faithful now.
But he didn’t just know about the past, He Knew the Promise of the Future For forty years he had heard Joshua and Caleb talk about what was on the other side of the river. For forty years he dreamed of the day that he would have land of his own, for forty years he dreamed of a land that flowed with milk and honey.
He knew that their destiny wasn’t the wilderness but was the promised land. There were those who would have settled for a life in the desert, but he knew that God’s promises were much greater than the wilderness.
There were those who would claim that the vision was Joshua’s vision but this man knew that it was God’s vision and that Joshua was simply the messenger. He knew that Joshua had seen the promised land, that Joshua had tasted the fruit of the promised land, and that nobody had sacrificed more for the vision then Joshua had.
There are times in our lives that we can get distracted from the vision. What is it that God wants you to do with your life? What is your vision for your career? For your children? For your education? For your spiritual life? Are you being true to the vision?
Sometimes it’s easy to settle for less than what God wants for us, to settle into complacency in the wilderness and to miss the Promised Land that God has for us. But that is to settle for less than God’s very best. And God’s very best might just be across the river.
As a church the temptation is there to stray from the vision that we were founded on. And sometimes it seems it’s for honourable reasons, someone has a great idea, it doesn’t necessarily match the initial vision but the person is pretty pervasive. And they convince us that it seems the right thing to do and we make a course correction here and a course correction there and pretty soon we aren’t heading in the direction that God pointed us when we began.
But ultimately we need to ask is this what God wants us to do? How does it fit in with the vision?
Because those carrying the Ark believed in Joshua and believe in the vision they weren’t going to let a river stand in their way.
The vision for Cornerstone has always been that we would be a church that would reach the pre-churched, the de-churched and the un-churched. And that has coloured the programs we offer and what our Sunday morning worship experience looks like.
And that means that we won’t always look like other churches and we won’t always do things like other churches. And sometimes it means we have to cross rivers to get to where God is leading us.
And ultimately He Knew His Faith Would be Honoured I’ve said before that all faith requires is that you believe. You can’t demonstrate faith without belief and you can’t demonstrate belief without action.
It wasn’t enough for the first man in the group to proclaim “I believe that God can stop the river so we can cross”, unless he was willing to take that first step and actually step into the river.
There were those who believed in the vision of Cornerstone 22 years ago when there was no Cornerstone, and they showed up and there are some who are in this service today. There were others who said they believed but they never showed up for the first service.
There were those who said they believed we could have a building of our own and when the time came they committed their time and their money to make it a reality. There were others who said they believed that we could have a building of our own but when the time came to step into the river and make the sacrifices necessary, they turned and walked away.
Any time God calls you to do something he first calls you to believe, and then he calls you to step out in faith.
What is it that God is whispering in your ear today, what vision does he have for you for tomorrow, what river is he calling you to cross? Only you can answer that and only you can take the first step.
