The Ways of God
Joshua 1,3, 4
(Scripture reading is from Psalms 77:11-15).
Over the past several weeks we’ve been pushing our way through the book of Joshua, looking closely at some of the ways that God works in the lives of His people. This week I decided it was time for us to step back, take a breath, and look at the big picture.
There is a story about a teenage boy who was deeply interested in scientific subjects, especially astronomy. So his father bought him a very expensive telescope. Since the young fellow had studied the principles of optics, he found the instrument to be most intriguing. He took it apart, examined the lenses, and made detailed calculations on the distance of its point of focus. The youth became so absorbed in gaining a technical knowledge of the telescope itself that he never got around to looking at the stars. He knew a lot about that fine instrument, but he missed seeing the wonders of the heavens.
Sometimes we get so enamored with the details that we forget to look at the big picture.
As I’ve read, prayed, and meditated over these stories we’ve looked at so far in Joshua, I was lead to the scripture in Psa. 77. (read)
That’s the big picture. Or, if you will, that’s the God who paints the picture. A God whose ways are holy, whose arm is powerful, a god who performs great miracles. That’s what we need to see in these stories.
I want to start where we left off last week.
The Jordan River was a barrier to the people. God had called them to enter the Promised Land. But the Jordan was a barrier that separated them from their destination.
God’s people still face barriers. For you it is probably not a river, but a habit, an attitude, a sin, an addiction, a grudge, a financial challenge, joblessness, a divorce, outside expectations, etc.... This church has barriers too. We often face a barrier to reaching out to unsaved and unchurched people, to discipling those young in their faith, etc.
In this account of Israel crossing the Jordan, we will learn three truths of how God still enables His people to cross the barriers before them.
I. God Always Prepares His People (1:1-18).
A. God prepared Israel to cross the Jordan.
1. Last week we learned how God brought Israel to the border of the Promised Land 40 years earlier. Through mighty plagues, He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. He parted the waters of the Red Sea. He gave them His law on Mt. Sinai. He fed them in the wilderness. He defeated their enemies in battle.
2. When He lead them to the land, He told Moses to send in spies to see the land He was "giving" them (Num.13:2). 10 of the 12 spies brought back a "bad report" and the people rebelled against God. As punishment, God allowed that whole generation, everyone over 20 to die in the wilderness.
3. After 40 years of wandering, when the last of the rebels were dead, God brought His people again to the edge of the Promised Land. This time they came to the banks of the Jordan on the east.
B. God prepared Joshua to cross the Jordan (vv.1-9).
1. Moses had recently died and God raised up Joshua as the new national leader. Joshua and Caleb were the two spies who had brought back a faithful report 40 years earlier.
2. I find it significant that God had been preparing Joshua all of his life just for this moment. All of the experiences he had had were used by God to prepare Joshua to lead these people.
3. No doubt, as Joshua, now probably the oldest man among them looked at the rushing waters of the Jordan, God spoke to him.
4. Note v.2, "Arise, go over this Jordan... to the land which I am giving them." God seems to be saying, "Don’t doubt Me, I’m with you."
5. In vv.3, 5-7 God encourages him to not be afraid but to go out and conquer. Over and over He says, "Be strong and of good courage."
6. In vv.8-9, God reminds Joshua of the importance of Scripture.
C. Joshua prepared the people to cross the Jordan (vv.10-18).
1. Joshua told his "officers" to go throughout the camp, over 2 million people and say, "Prepare provisions for yourselves." "Provisions" comes from a Hebrew word that means "food or meat."
2. They were to know that "within three days you will cross over this Jordan." I’m sure as they looked at the churning waters beside their camp they thought, "How will we ever cross that?"
3. The last part of the message is that you will "possess the land which the Lord your God is GIVING you to possess." Note Joshua’s special word to the tribes who would inhabit the eastern bank of the Jordan in v.13
4. The people had not forgotten the lesson their parents learned 40 years earlier. They did not murmur or hesitate. They said in v.16, "All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go."
5. Note v.18, they decided they would tolerate no "grasshopper syndrome" this time. Whoever rebelled would immediately be "put to death."
D. God is preparing us to cross the barriers before us.
1. God is asking many of us to cross some barrier today: habit, attitude, etc...
2. Whatever that barrier is, know that if God is asking you to cross it, God has prepared you for it.
3. As I look back in my life, I can see how God has brought me exactly where I am today. I can see how my childhood, my parents, my education and my experiences of walking with God have brought me to this place.
4. As we anticipate the future of this church, we know that God has prepared us for such a moment as this. He has provided the people, the ability, the leadership, the money and the vision for us to cross over our river, our fear, and our hesitancy, to become the church He wants us to be.
5. God’s vision for you and for this church is not to stay where you are, but to cross over. Why stay in the wilderness? Crossing over is not easy. It requires faith. In fact that is the next truth we will learn.
II. God Always Challenges our Faith (3:1-17).
A. It begins with sanctification. (vv.1-5).
1. Joshua challenged the people with this strong command, "Sanctify [consecrate, purify] yourselves for tomorrow for the Lord will do wonders among you."
2. What a challenge! They were to "sanctify" or make themselves holy. We need that challenge today. We need to put aside all the garbage and filth that keeps us from serving God.
a. 1 Pet.4:3 says, "For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry."
b. In what way do you need to "sanctify" yourself? The Israelites needed to put aside the fear and doubt of the previous generation. You may need to put aside some sin, habit or attitude that keeps you from serving God.
5. What a promise! The people were to "sanctify" themselves because "tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you!" I don’t think I’m stretching this verse any to say that the same is true for us.
a. If you will put God first, He promises you blessings (cf. Mt. 6:33).
b. If our church will seek God first and give Him the glory, He assures us of a fantastic future, beyond our wildest dreams.
B. It begins with the leaders (vv.6-13).
1. According to God’s will Joshua instructed the priests to "take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people" (v.6). They were to take the ark down to the river. V.8 says, "When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river."
2. Most of my life I have pictured this scene as the priests walking across a gently sloping sandy beach. Not so. Because the Jordan River ran so quickly down hill, it cut a deep crevasse in the land and according to scholars was about 12’ deep, even close to the banks. Though it was only 50-75’ across, the rapid flow of the current made it dangerous.
3. Note v.10-13. When the priests put their feet in the water, they had to exercise faith. They would either be in over their heads and pulled downstream by the current (They probably couldn’t swim, they were from the desert!) or it would be dry ground.
4. As I was studying this passage the Lord impressed up on me that He made the priests, the spiritual leaders exercise faith first. That’s quite a challenge. In the church, and in our personal lives, God expects the leaders to step out into the water first. They need to be the ones who lead the way.
C. The people must follow (vv.14-17).
1. V.15 tells us that the Jordan "overflows all its bank during the whole time of harvest." The river was in flood stage! It was especially treacherous!
2. As soon as their feet "dipped into the edge of the water... the waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose up in a heap very far away." The Salt Sea or the Dead Sea to the south was "cut off."
3. V.17 says that the priests with the ark "stood firm on dry ground [no sinking or bogging in mud] in the midst of the Jordan. God not only held back the water but also removed every trace of it from the riverbed!
4. Meanwhile, all the people, some 2 million "crossed completely over the Jordan." Probably only a few could remember the Red Sea crossing. They had now seen God move in a way that would cause people to marvel!
D. The Lord challenges our faith today.
1. Like Israel, when God’s people respond in faithful obedience, the whole world sees God at work!
2. What is your faith challenge?
III. God Always Keeps His Promises (4:1-7).
A. God directed Joshua to place memorial stones from the river for future generations to remember His power (vv.1-3).
1. When everyone had "completely crossed over the Jordan," the Lord told Joshua to take a man from each of the 12 tribes and to go back out into the center of the river at the "place where the priests feet stood firm."
2. They were to take "twelve stones" from this spot in the middle of the river. The only way they could have ever been moved was by stopping the flow of that rushing current.
B. These stones were witnesses of God’s faithfulness (vv.4-7).
1. Just as the Lord had commanded, Joshua sent 12 men out into the midst of the riverbed. Each one took up "a stone upon his shoulder," one for each of the tribes of Israel.
2. Joshua said that these stones would be a "sign" (v.6). Later on when the generations passed and their children would ask what the large stones meant, they were to tell how "the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord..." He went on to say that "these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever."
3. From that time on the stones would remind the nation that God always keeps His promises, that He is a faithful God.
C. We all have stones in our lives.
1. As I look back in my life, I can see many stones... you might call them milestones. These are memorial stones of experiences where God has proven Himself faithful.
2. (My story of God’s provision after my resignation) Lam.3:22-23 says, "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
3. One of these days Cornerstone will have it’s own memorial stones.
4. Don’t fear for the future! Don’t balk at the current of the river. Don’t shrink back from the barriers! On the other side is the promise that God has GIVEN us! God is faithful to keep his promises! The barriers are nothing if we cross in His strength!
