“Crossing over” Joshua Ch. 3
We’re on this journey through the book of Joshua. Joshua was a great leader at a time in Israel when they really needed leadership. Last week I talked to you about how the people he was leading, the Israelites, overcame fear and faced up to the challenge of conquering the promise land. We talked about fear driven pitfalls and the paralyzing effect they have on us. This week we get to unfold yet another exciting portion of the story. Joshua Ch. 3 is a turning point in the early History Israel. Joshua at the time, had the recipe for success, God gave him the ingredients for victory. It was because of His fine leadership that the children of Israel were brought right to the brink of blessing. But there was yet a couple things that stood in the way, and I want to describe each of them to you. But let us first hear the story...(read Joshua Ch. 3: 1-13)
Have you ever been excited about a vacation or trip and then for some reason experienced a delay? If you fly the friendly skies very often you probably know something about flight delays. We’re very fortunate here in the NW, our skies aren’t as crowded and we don’t have many weather delays when it comes to travel. But that’s not the case in other parts of the country. It’s not unusual to fly threw Chicago and hit an ice, wind or thunderstorm. There are all kinds of incliment conditions that prevent on time departures. I’ve flown through a couple of those situations myself. Experiencing delays and facing obstacles are an acceptable part of life. I love the flashing electronic signs on the highways that you see when there is construction that read, “Expect delays.” Those signs are a very fitting description of life. Expecting delays is a life truth! We ought to expect delays, and predict obstacles that’s part of our existance. Even when things are going well and when we are right where God wants us to be, you can expect delays.
Some of you know, that we’ve been working on this parking lot project for sometime now. For uhum, quite some time now. And guess what, we’ve experienced quit a number of delays trying to get that project in motion and make sure it’s going to be funded. Delays are a part of process, difficulties and obstacles can be expected.
And so it was for the children of Israel when they faced the prospect of entering into the promiseland. They woke up early in the morning to this new and exciting possibility. Anticipation filled the camp. Joshua, their revered leader, woke everybody up with a really loud wake up call. So they broke camp there at Shitim and proceeded to move West toward the great river of Jordan. When they got to the Jordan river they camped and prepared to crossover into the promiseland. But there was only one problem...There was a huge obstacle in the way, it was the river itself. The Jordan river flowed into the dead sea, during the harvest season or the rainey season the water levels were extremely high, in fact, at the time the Israelites arrive water in the river was at flood stage. And that was a problem. Because there was only one way into the land of Canaan and that was either over or through the river. Under normal conditions the river is crossable by foot, in many places it is only waste deep. But during the harvest time of the year the river rages! And that was a problem, that was an obstacle. This was Joshua’s first true-to-life test of leadership. How to convince the children of Israel to crossover. Half of them could easily get swept down stream and end up drowned in the dead sea?
That was the first obstacle they encountered on their journey into the Promise- land, the raging river of difficulty. It was staring them right in the face. So what about you have you ever faced a raging river of difficulty? The rivers of difficulty often rage especially when something good is about to happen. If you haven’t faced them you will, it’s part of life.
The second obstacle they faced was the unknown. This was a new generation, they had never been this way before. They didn’t know what to expect. They had never followed God like this before, it was all brand new. Notice what verse 4 says, “you’ve never been this way before!” That’s Joshua speaking, He described what was ahead. He acknowledged the newness of it, and the strangeness of it. He admitted they had never tried it before. They had no idea what was ahead of them. They were facing the great unknown. You know what this reminds me of? I’m reminds me of the Star Trek mission to boldly go where no man has gone before. That’s a fair way to sum up what they were facing in Ch. 3, they were facing the great unknown. God was calling them to go where they had never gone before and to do something they had never done.
And I want us to just pause right here for a moment and consider the implications. This is how you know God is at work. When there is a genuine move of God in our lives and in our Church we too will find ourselves facing the Israelites faced: new territory. When God is at work among us and within us we can’t help but hear the beckon call to go forward. When God is at work, we are sometimes moved right out of our comfort zones into the path of new opportunities. God spoke through Isaiah and said, “Forget the former things don’t dwell on the past, behold I am doing a new thing.” This is a concept that a lot of people and dare I say Churches and whole movements struggle to come to terms with. It’s the old “We’ve never done it this way before.” But God says in His word over and over again, “behold I am doing a new thing.” Jesus spoke of this, He called it new wineskins. And He said, “You can’t put old wine into new wineskins” they’ll break. So a new thing can be good a thing! New songs can be worshipful, New programs can be effective, New leadership is helpful. Folks the God of old is the God of the new. Some of us miss the days of old we grieve over the past, and sometimes I do to. But keep this in mind, the God of the old is God of the new. And if you don’t embrace all the new things that God is doing and blessing then sooner or later you miss out the whole ballgame. When God moves and when God speaks new things come into being, new wineskins are created. And it’s important to understand that and be ready for it. The children of Israel were facing the great unknown. They were taking off in a new direction. The territory God wanted them to possess was to them altogether new.
And yes they faced obstacles and experienced delays. But best part of it all was that God provided them with a guide. God delivered to the israelites a guide to the great unknown. He provided them with a very specific sense of direction. He gave them a very tangible means of getting there. And it took the form of an object called the Ark of the Covenant? The ark was God’s instrument, it was His way of leading them to their new home. It was God’s way of taking them into the great unknown.
Let me give you a little history of it. The Ark was a 4 foot by 2 foot chest carried around by the Israelites with a golden slab on top of it and two angels on either side. It had in the middle of it something called the mercy seat. And inside lie two slabs with the ten commandments recorded on it. Now I want you to pay attention to what God commanded them to do with it. God said take this object and put it out in front of you. God said to Joshua put the Ark in the front of the line and face the raging river of Jordan. The guide to the great unknown was this Ark.
Let me explain it’s significance. The ark was symbolic of God’s presence among the people of Israel. And notice how God uses this object to lead the people. The ark is mentioned 10 times in Ch. 3. And God said to them, when the Ark moves, keep your eye on it, when the ark moves, go after it, because you’ve never gone this way before and you need a little help. This was a dramatic change from the wanderings of 40 years previous. During that time, the Ark had always been in their midst, but they quit regarding it, and stop talking about it. They had possession of it, but that wasn’t enough, God had them reposition it. Instead of it being in their midst, God said put it out in front you and follow it. God said, don’t just drag it along like excess baggage, put it out front and let it lead the way. Woah! What a difference a little repositioning makes. Instead of having the Ark in the back of the line or in the middle of the line to protect it, God said put it out in front of you and let it protect YOU!
Can I say something about this? We can take from here a lesson. The Ark represents God’s presence. Some say it’s picture of what Jesus offers us. Now think of it, when we put Jesus out in front us and make Him our leader, think of the sense of direction we could have. Allowing Christ to assume His rightful position in our lives will ultimately lead us to victory. Jesus Christ is more than just a great possession, He’s a person with a great position. When we allow Jesus to take his rightful position, we can face all the delays, difficulties and obstacles and still cross over and have the victory. Instead of Him just being out there among us, we need to allow Him to be out in front of us as our Lord! He is either Lord of all, or not Lord at all. He needs to be more than resident, He needs to be president! What a difference it makes when the Christ that abides comes to preside. Does that make sense to you? It sure does to me!
You see, when we get in a hurry and run out ahead of the Lord, we can sure make a big mess out things. The bible gives us many examples of this: Abraham was one. God promised Him a great big family, problem was His wife Sarah was barren, so Abraham got a little antsy and ran out ahead of God and laid with Hagar, Hagar brought a son into the world named Ishmael. Abraham got in a hurry and got ahead of God, He made a tragic mistake by taking His eyes off of the promise that God gave Him and not following instructions.
Joshua in His day, had very good instructions. God gave him a unique sense of direction. He commanded him to cross over. God said keep your eye on the Ark, when it moves, you move, when it stops you stop, when it goes into the water, you go in after it. And had they not listened to God completely and followed behind closely, the crossing the river of Jordan could have been a diaster in the making.
That’s what I love about this story! God gave Joshua a guide to the great unknown, it was the Ark, it was a guarantee of His presence. A sure way to victory. And the good news is that you and I have the same privilege in Jesus Christ. God has given us a guarantee of His presence, and it’s in the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus is out there in front of us, you and I can be assured of the victory. In Christ, we can know for certain that great things are going to follow.
Great things did in fact follow Joshua and His people. Allow me read you a brief conclusion. (read Joshua 3:14-17) The great conclusion is simple, they crossed over on dry land. Now how often is a river bed dry? Not very often! But they made it. They entered in. As soon as their feet got wet, God apprehended the flood waters and permitted them to walk through safely to the other side. No towells needed! What a story. What a victory.
And you know how this victory was won. It was won with anticipation. It was won on the heals of people with great faith. They succeeded not just because Joshua and His great leadership, The battle was won because the people of God were faithful! Watch this, jump back up into verse 3, Joshua told the people before they even got near the water to, “consecrate yourselves for tommorow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” And you know what, they listened, they obeyed. It was the people of God that carried out the mission. The victory was won on the heals o faithful people that followed the Lord. Joshua had a mobilized following of enthusiastic-committed people. He had an army of obedient, consecrated, sanctified people who were willing to do whatever God wanted them to do. They were all in the cross over line. And we have every reason to believe that all entered in that day.
Now let me close by drawing out one more point. Any pastor will tell you, without faithful, obedient, consecrated, sanctified people you’re sunk!! And I say that to say, “Folks we’ve got some crossing over to do.” We have some territory to claim, in fact we have some territory to reclaim. And I’m going to need your help. I’m asking you to get your feet wet, if you haven’t already. I sure can’t do it alone.
And I believe God wants to do some amazing things among us, and yes, we are going to face obstacles, delays and maybe even a few diffculties. But we need to stay committed and be faithful. Now is not the time to panic and get ahead of God or shrink back with a fear of failure or conflict. Now is the time and today is the day to get our feet wet and be prepared for the amazing things that God wants to do among us.
We have the potential folks to go all the way in, and take full possession. But in order to do so, we need to be fully devoted and completely committed to the Lord and to His work. Folks, I need you! And we need each other. And we’re going to cross over, I believe there are some bright days ahead of us, let me close by offering you a verse from Galatians 6:9 “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.!”
Prayer:
Jesus, take full command of this army of believers. We relinquish our positions, we rest our prideful ambitions, we simply ask you to be our leader and guide us into the great unknown. You may lead us to places unfamiliar. You may take us a way we haven’t gone. Lord, you have our permission be out front. Today we consecrate ourselves, much like the people of Israel did before they crossed over. We anticipate the great things that will follow. Amen.
