Studies in Joshua
Study 5 – Chapter 3
Introduction
Last week in our study of the book of Joshua our attention was drawn to and we considered in some detail the faith of an individual, that individual being Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho. This evening as we come to consider chapter 3 we are going to be thinking about the faith of a great company of people and how the exercise of such faith was required, encouraged, demonstrated and rewarded.
God had brought Israel out of Egypt in order to bring them into Canaan. His plan and purpose for them was not that they, having been redeemed from their bondage in Egypt, would then spend the rest of their life as a nation wandering in the no-man’s land of the wilderness, but rather that they would enter into and enjoy the wonderful blessings of that inheritance he had promised to them – the land of Canaan.
Those blessings were now before them. They were there for the taking. The spies had returned from their reconnaissance mission with good news. The people of Canaan were terrified of them and were certain that their cities and towns would fall whenever the Children of Israel attacked. There was much then to encourage the Children of Israel to go in and take the land.
However when we come to chapter three we learn that there is a bit of a problem, indeed a problem of major proportions, a problem which would be the first major test of the people’s faith in God at this crucial point in their life. And it is with a view to identifying this problem and seeing how they dealt with it that we turn our thoughts this evening to this chapter.
Notice with me in the first place this evening
1) How Their faith Was Tested:
After the spies had returned with their encouraging report, informing the people that the inhabitants of Jericho and the people’s of the surrounding nations were terrified of them, Joshua early the next morning told the people to break camp and to head for the banks of the Jordan. The journey from Shittim, which is where they had been camped, to the Jordan would have taken them most of the day, but I am sure that the day passed quickly for the people who would have been in good heart and in a somewhat upbeat mood. That upbeat mood in all likelihood changed considerably when they arrived at the edge of the Jordan for they found themselves facing what must have seemed an insurmountable obstacle to them even entering, never mind conquering the land, and that obstacle was the Jordan river itself. According to verse 15 (and this is an important piece of information) they had arrived at the edge of the Jordan at the time of the harvest, that is at that time of the year when the Jordan river always overflows its banks and engulfs the surrounding floodplain. This floodplain was packed with tangled bushes and thick undergrowth. When the river was in full flood, as it was what this time, it stretched over a mile wide and could be anything up to twelve feet deep in places. As well as that the river current was very strong due to the drop in elevation, in some places 40 feet per mile and on average 9feet per mile. Now what this means is that the river that ran between the eastern plains where the children of Israel were now camped, and the western plains which comprised the land of Canaan, the promised land, that dividing river was no placid, shallow, easy to cross little stream such as one would find for example along certain stretches of the River Roe. It was in fact a raging torrent about a mile wide, full of dense undergrowth and perilous currents. It was too wide, too deep and far too dangerous to swim across, there were no bridges that they could walk across, and there was no local ferry service that they could use to sail across. How on earth were they going to overcome this seemingly insurmountable obstacle? How were 1 million people (approx), many of them old, many fo them very young, together with their animals and all their belongings going to get across this river? From being initially encouraged by the spies reports and enthusiastic about the prospect of taking possession of Canaan, the children of Israel’s enthusiasm must have been greatly deflated when they saw this obstacle that lay before them. And they had plenty of time to take in the seemingly impossible situation, for they were camped along the river for three days. God had brought them into a situation that on the human level seemed impossible to overcome. A situation in which the people must have felt totally helpless.
Why did God do this? Why did he bring them to the border of Canaan just at this time of the year when the Jordan was at its widest and flowing most fiercely? Why didn’t he bring them to the edge of Canaan in the spring-time when the river was only about 100 feet wide and not all that deep in places. It would have been much easier for them to cross then. If God had got his timing right they would not have had to face this problem, they would not be in this seemingly impossible situation.
Well, the fact of the matter was that God had got his timing just perfect because he had a purpose in bringing the people to the Jordan at this time. He wanted to test their faith. He wanted to see if they would trust him and believe in Him and hold on to His promises in the face of impossible circumstances. Their forefathers had failed the test forty years previously, was this generation any better? Was their faith stronger? Not only that God also wanted to strengthen their faith for the days ahead. The way in which they were going to conquer Jericho required great faith on the part of the people. How much easier it would be for them to trust God and exercise such faith as they looked back to this crossing of the Jordan incident. They could then reason – ‘if God was with us then and exercised his power on our behalf in such circumstances, we believe that He will do it for us now as we attack Jericho.’ And not only that, I believe another purpose for God bringing them to the Jordan at the time it was in flood was to not only cause them to feel their own helplessness in this situation but also to manifest and magnify His greatness and power by bringing them through this difficulty, by causing them to overcome this seemingly insurmountable obstacle and by proving Himself sufficient for any and every crisis in their life.
So here you have the children of Israel standing on the brink of wonderful blessings, but before they enter into and enjoy those blessings God brings them into a situation which tests their faith in Him and in His promises.
And brethren isn’t it true that God in His sovereign providential dealings with us does from time to time cause us to face such faith testing situations in life. Seemingly impossible situations where we feel vulnerable and helpless and wonder how we are ever going to get to the other side of that raging torrent that stands before us. And that situation that we faced proved to be a real test of our faith.
That day, for example, when you were told that our loved one had died, Oh how deep the waters of that particular Jordan flood appeared, how raging was the torrent, how fearful you felt, how impossible it seemed that you could ever get to the other side of this great flood.
That day when the Jordan stream of life’s circumstances burst its banks and the flood plain of our lives was engulfed with the deep and treacherous waters of family problems – problems with our children, problems with our spouse, problems with our wider family circle.
That day when the peaceful stream of life’s circumstances suddenly turned into a raging torrent that threatened to engulf us as the waters of unemployment and all the practical implications for ourselves and our family suddenly rose up before us across the flood-plain of life.
For others the flooded Jordan of life was a time of facing serious illness, either personally or within the family and all that was involved in that, for still others a time of major financial and business hardship; And there are many other flood waters besides. Philip Keller in his book on Joshua picks up on this theme when he comments “For all of us there are bound to be formidable ‘floods’ in the stream of life. Just as Joshua and Israel now faced a raging river that overflowed its banks and inundated its flood plains, so will we. God does not try to hold us back from the rampaging currents of life. He does not ask us to retreat or to withdraw from the threat that would engulf us. He does not urge us to try and find some way around the apparently impossible barriers before us. He asks us to believe that He brought us here; It is he who will keep us and preserve us here and it is He who will take us on from here…For ultimately it is the Lord who shows himself strong on behalf of those who…quietly step out in the surging streams of life. They will see what wonders God can perform.’
And isn’t it true brethren that having come through such faith testing circumstances in life and having, by God’s help and by God’s power made it to the other side of that surging, swollen river, we have found that our faith in God has not only proven to be genuine but has also been greatly strengthened by our experience. We feel that should we have to face another faith testing experience in the future we will as a result of what we came through be better equipped to do so. We know that any future trial would not be easy to cope with but we also know that our strengthened faith will be a great help and a great asset to us should such a situation arise.
And just as we as individuals and families have to face ‘Jordan Flood’ experiences in life so too such experiences sometimes have to be faced by congregations. Situations that humanly speaking seem impossible to overcome, problems or difficulties that seem insurmountable. Sometimes those problems are of such a nature that they are known to all within the congregation. At other times their nature is such that they are known to and addressed by only a few. In the short time that I have been with you in Limavady we haven’t had many such experiences, thank God, but we have had a few. And yet deep as the waters undoubtedly were, strong as the current proved to be, so strong that there was the danger of some being swept away by it, treacherous as the entangling undergrowth beneath the surface of the waters was, the Lord enabled us to cross over to the other side; to put the swollen flooded river, the seemingly insurmountable obstacle to blessing behind us and to go forward towards and into the blessing that lies beyond it . And in enabling us to do so God greatly strengthened our faith in Him.
How their faith was tested.
Then secondly I want you to notice
2) How Their faith Was Encouraged:
Here was this great company of people facing this seemingly insurmountable obstacle. They knew they had to get to the other side of the swollen river if they were ever going to take possession of and enjoy the blessings of their inheritance. How were they to do that? Well the bottom line was they were going to have to exercise implicit, unwavering faith in God. They were going to have to listen to what God wanted them to do, trust Him completely in the situation and step out in faith in obedience to his instructions. However the exercise of faith to which God was calling them was not an irrational, blind leap in the dark. Their faith was to be rooted in what they knew to be true of God’s relationship to them and of the power which He had exercised in the past on their behalf with a view to fulfilling His covenant obligations towards them. And that is why, as you read through these two chapters, time and time again you find reference to the Ark of the Covenant. In fact if you do a little bit of adding up you discover that the Ark is mentioned seventeen times. This piece of furniture was a visible reminder of the covenant relationship that exited between God and Israel. It was a visible reminder that they were special and precious in His sight and that he was not only present among them but that he was the one who had been and was continuing to lead them. And here as they stand on the banks of the Jordan staring at its raging rapids wondering how on earth they are ever going to cross it God by way of dispelling their doubts and their fears on the one hand and encouraging their faith on the other in effect tells them to get their eyes on Him. That was the reason God through Joshua gave the people those instructions that are recorded in v3,4 (KJV not NIV) “When you see the Ark of the, covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests who are Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 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…’ The reason they were to keep this distance of about ½ mile between them and the ark was so that they would be able to see it there in front of them. That they would have before their eyes as they headed towards the waters of the Jordan, that which testified to them that God was not only among them but that He was going before them leading them where he wanted them to go. What an encouragement to their faith to know that Jehovah was going before them and preparing the way for them.
But as well as being encouraged by God’s presence among them the people’s faith in God was also encouraged by God’s Promise to them. Look at v5 “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord WILL DO WONDERS AMONG YOU” God, through Joshua, was telling the people, Tomorrow as I go before you, you are going to see amazing things happening. Here was a specific promise that the people could lay hold of. God had given His word that He was going to do wonders for them the next day as they stepped out in faith.
And added to these two sources of encouragement to their faith there was the encouragement that the people received from the Priest’s Example To Them. Look at v14 “When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the covenant went ahead of them…as soon (15) as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the waters edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing… (17) the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan…” In other words these Priests, the leaders of the people set the people an example to follow. When they walked down to the waters edge and put their feet in the water the river was still at that stage in full flow. These priests showed tremendous faith and trust in God by being the first ones to get their feet wet. And as they did so the waters receded. Now those who came after them still had to exercise faith, because looked at on a human level they had to come to terms with the possibility that the waters might start flowing again at any time while they were crossing and that those waters could come sweeping down with such force as to carry many of them away. So even though the river bed and flood plain was dry when the people themselves came to it they still had to exercise faith and step into and walk across that mile wide flood plain and river bed. But Oh how much easier it must have been for them to do so in the wake of the example set by their leaders.
The flooded Jordan was a real test of the people’s faith, but in the midst of it all God encouraged their faith in Him.
And you know brethren if or should I say when you and I find ourselves facing the Jordan floods of life, those faith trying situations which at first sight seem insurmountable and which we perhaps initially think we will never get through, situations which call us to exercise implicit faith in God, how important it is for us at such times to remember and to draw assurance and strength from the knowledge that God is not only with us where we are but also going before us preparing the way ahead in which he would have us go. How important it is at such times to lay hold of His promises to us. Surely such things, the knowledge of His presence and the assurance of his promises will encourage our faith and help us to trust implicitly in Him.
And surely there is a lesson here for those of us who are leaders in the Church. The example of these priests reminds us that we have a responsibility as spiritual leaders to be such an example to our people in word and in deed that we encourage them to a deeper and stronger faith and trust in God. If we as leaders run about like headless chickens when we meet a crisis in our lives and panic and fret and worry ourselves sick and so on, we ought not to be surprised if our people do likewise. Whereas if we are living examples of what it is to trust God in any and every circumstance in life, especially in times of trial, then hopefully God will use our example as a means of encouraging others to greater faith in God.
That brings me to consider thirdly this evening
3) How their Faith Was Demonstrated:
Look at the end of v 16 – and the end of v 17. “the people crossed over, opposite Jericho…all Israel crossed over…”
God through Joshua had called every one of these people to trust him and to obey him. He had said that He would perform great wonders on their behalf, but, and this is the point brethren, the performance of those wonders, His doing amazing things for them, was conditional upon them trusting Him and obeying him. The priests had to get their feet wet, then the people had to follow in their footsteps and actually commit themselves to going into that river bed from which the waters were being held back. Had the priests refused to go into the fast flowing river, had they for fear of their life refused to take that step of faith, the waters would not have been held back, the miracle would not have been performed, the pathway to blessing would not have opened up. And had the people refused to commit themselves to the way God had opened up before them, had they stood on the bank with a ‘no way are we going in there’ attitude, they would never have entered into and subsequently experienced the blessing that God intended them to enjoy. That they did trust God was seen in their obedience to His command. Their inner faith was demonstrated in practical obedience as one by one they stepped down into that river bed and ventured forth trusting God.
God calls us to go forward with Him. Whether it is as individuals as we face a ‘Jordan Flood’ faith trying situation in life, or whether it is as a congregation facing what from the human perspective seems to be insurmountable obstacles that stand in the way of our experiencing and enjoyment of blessing. Doubts and fears will hold us back, faith will thrust us forward. Faith says this is what God wants me to do in this situation and it goes ahead and does it despite the apparent difficulty or even seeming impossibility of the situation.
Let me give you just one example in the realm of congregational life. We look around us in this community in Limavady in which God has placed us and we see many men women and young people in the grip of Satan. God calls us to evangelise them. Our heart’s desire would be to see many of them coming to know Christ as saviour. None of us would deny that it would be a wonderful thing to witness, to be part of and to enjoy. But even as we think of such things isn’t it true that huge seemingly insurmountable obstacles very quickly rise up before us. And there is no doubt that the obstacles are not figments of our imagination, they are real obstacles that do exist obstacles that from a human perspective seem to stand between us and the much desired fruits of effective local evangelism. They are as real as the flooded Jordan was to the Israelites. Obstacles such as the evident apathy of the people around us towards spiritual things; or the obstacle of the already existing demands on our own time that make it difficult to find the extra hours needed to engage in such a work; Or the obstacle of lack of personnel, and I am sure that you can think of other such obstacles. But I sometimes wonder brethren, is the greatest obstacle to our enjoying blessing in this particular sphere, our lack of faith. Our inability to believe that God could and would push aside any and every obstacles if only we would only step out in faith and in a spirit of anticipation and in a spirit of expectation, get on with the work. Let me quote Philip Keller once again, speaking of God performing wonders for His people, and there is no doubt that it would take God to perform wonders for us if we were to see many people in our town being saved, he writes “this never happens if we hold back on the riverbank waiting for the dry season to come…Joshua knew that it was utterly imperative … to set foot in the rushing muddy waters as a deliberate act of faith. This was to set down the soles of their feet in an impossible situation claiming the ground by faith. Then and only then would they see the intervention of the Most High…here is a classic demonstration to all men of all time that when they move out of their tents of ease and comfort to take new steps of faith in Christ, tremendous things happen.’
Speaking to the two blind men who came to Him for healing Jesus said “according to your faith it will be done to you”
Sometimes in doing the work of the Lord we expect little blessing, and God gives us what we expect. Perhaps if we expected more we would receive more. It was the godly Richard Sibbes who said, the larger faith we bring to Christ, the larger measure we carry from Christ. Some of us come to God with a thimble full of faith, and we receive a thimble full of blessing. Should we not, knowing the greatness and the power of our God, be coming rather with a 10 gallon drum full of faith
That brings me to my last point this evening and that is
4) How Their Faith was Rewarded:
The people believed the word of the Lord through Joshua as recorded in v5 “the Lord will do amazing things among you” and in v13 “as soon as the Priests who carry the ark of the Lord set foot in the Jordan, the water flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” They believed that God was going to perform wonders for them. And in that believing spirit they broke camp, followed the Ark and headed for the waters of the Jordan v14. And that which they believed in their heart they soon saw with their eyes. God’s power was unleashed. The Jordan river dried up before them. The waters stopped flowing and stood up in a heap some distance upstream and they were able to cross to the other side. The ‘impossible’ happened.
It was Augustine who once wrote – “Faith is to believe what we do not see and the reward of faith is to see what we believe.”
I wonder brethren - Do we believe that more and more people around us are going to be saved? Do we believe that our congregation is going to go from strength to strength? Do we believe that that loved one for whom we have been praying will come to faith in Christ? Do we believe that we are going to be able to get through those difficult circumstances we are currently facing in life?
The disciples came to Jesus on one occasion and said “Lord increase our faith” Let us make that prayer our own this evening by the grace of God with increased faith let us like William Carey - expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.
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