Joshua 3:1-17; 4:10-18 – Got Any Rivers?
Today we are continuing through our studies in the OT book of Joshua. Today we are looking at chapters 3 and 4, which make up one of my very favorite Bible stories. Let’s read 3:1-17 and 4:10-18.
Now, the Israelites are poised at the eastern side of the Jordan River. The river’s at flood stage. That means it’s the spring of the year, with the rains that go with the season, and the melting snows off the Lebanon Mountains. Normally, the river is between 3 to 10 feet deep, and perhaps 60 feet wide. But at flood season, the Jordan overflows its banks, making it over 200 feet wide. The River had gone from being an easily crossable stream to a raging torrent, next to impossible for an entire nation to cross. A wide, cold and fast-flowing river is a problem.
One lady wrote once, “In dire need of a beauty make-over, I went to my salon with a fashion magazine photo of a gorgeous, young, lustrous-haired model. I showed the stylist the trendy new cut I wanted and settled into the chair as he began humming a catchy tune and got to work on my thin, graying hair.
I was delighted by his cheerful attitude until I recognized the melody. It was the theme from the old TV show ‘Mission: Impossible’.”
Well, that’s what the Israelites were faced with – an impossible mission, more to the point, an impassable river. Because of God’s guiding, the Israelites were at the edge of a very trying situation. But you need to know – it didn’t just “pop up” that way. No, they were exactly where God had led them.
If you wanted to look at a map of the Holy Land, you could see that there was another way into the Promised Land. They could have just come in from the south. They could have gone through the Desert of Sin, right directly below where they wanted to get. Yes, there were foreign nations there, but they would face foreign nations soon enough. They could have avoided the River. God did not have to make them cross the Jordan.
But God chose that path. God wanted His people to come to the River, as a test. God wanted them to have a visible sign, letting them know that the Old was gone and the New had come. It was a new day for His people. It was a fresh start and a clean slate. And the waters of the River were evidence that God was leading them into new and exciting territory, despite its challenges.
Today, I want to speak to you about victorious living. The book of Joshua is all about victory, winning the day despite the odds. And you need to know, the situation the Israelites faced isn’t so much different from the challenges of our lives, too.
Over the years, “crossing the Jordan” has been mis-interpreted. For years, people used the phrase to mean dying and going to heaven. Granted, the Promised Land is a picture of heaven, but not a very good one. You see, in order for the Israelites to gain Canaan, they had to fight, kick and chew every step of the way. God had guaranteed them the victory, but they still had to work for it. There would still be wars and bloodshed, unlike what heaven will be.
I think a better idea of the Promised Land is seen like this: When the people were in Egypt, they were slaves. That was us in sin, slaves to our fears and passions and desires and lusts. The crossing of the Red Sea was our salvation, the past being put behind us. Now, the Israelites wandered for 40 years. They had the Law, but didn’t know what to do with it. They were free, but they weren’t at home or at peace.
You know, that’s where so many Christians camp out. They are forgiven, on their way to heaven, but they have never really established who’s in charge. They know what they should do, but don’t or can’t fulfill it. They never really rise above temptation. They never bring themselves to forgive that person, and so remain slaves to their past. They are content to settle for less than God’s best for them.
But the good news is that just as God had something better for the Israelites than wandering, God has something more for you, too. You need to know that even if your performance isn’t always 100%, your heart can be. Listen to me: you don’t have to sin on purpose! God can change your heart to make it pure and clean.
If you think I’m exaggerating, then you must think that Paul was too when he said that God “always leads us in triumphal procession” in Christ. Maybe Paul didn’t understand present and future tenses when he said that God “gives us the victory” through Jesus. Maybe Paul was taking it too far when he prayed that God would set the Thessalonian believers apart “through and through” – fully, completely, entirely. And you must think that Jesus really was only joking when, in the context of loving God and loving others, He told us to be perfect.
If you think that God has to wait for you to die for Him to perfect you, then you may as well curl up and croak now. But if perhaps, just perhaps, God wants to do a fuller, deeper work in your heart, then you are in the same position as the Israelites. You are there, camped on the shores of a decision, like Moses, being able to see that better place, but not being able to get there. Well, I’ve got good news. That Promised Land is available. Victory over sin and guilt, victory over the enemy and the voices of the world – that is possible for you. But there’s only one problem. You have to step into the river.
For the Israelites, the river was where their faith would be put to the test. Could they get across? Would they survive? Would it be worth it? Yes, yes, and very much yes. But it takes all the faith you can muster. Listen: Promised Land living starts with believing in faith that God wants you to have more than you already have. It means that we walk by faith, not by sight, and not by feelings. It means trusting God even when we cannot see how we’ll get by. It means that once we know what God wants, we must step out into nothing, and trust God with the results.
That’s what the Israelites did. They got the Ark of the Covenant and put it first. Why the Ark, the box which held the tablets of the 10 Commandments? Because it represented the character and the promises of God. It pointed to the fact that as the people of Israel set out to cross the Jordan, invade, and possess the land, they would have to do it not in their own strength, but in God’s. It was God Himself who was going before them as their source of victory.
Folks, you have to put God’s purposes first. You have to step into the water in order for God to move things. You have to move in faith, not with sight.
Now, with the Israelites, this wouldn’t be the only time they would have to act in faith. But it was the first. It was important. It was significant. And I remember in my own life, it took a lot more faith for me to believe that God could get me to Bible college than for me to believe God would and could forgive me.
Listen: you will be faced with more challenges than just “can God save me?” I read a story that a Christian speaker told. He said that after giving a message at a Bible conference on how to cope with discouragement, 3 people came up to him. The 1st was a young mother who hadn’t slept the night before because her husband had come home at 10:30 p.m. and announced he was divorcing her. The 2nd was a pastor whose teenage daughter was rebelling against God. And the 3rd was a Christian worker whose husband had entered the hospital for treatment of a brain tumor.
A pastor said, “The trouble is that we are facing problems that we cannot solve: this customer I must sell, that exam I must take, this debt I must pay, those in-laws I must endure, that habit I must break, this marriage I must save.” And that’s life. That’s part of this world. These are very real rivers that people face.
But what they mean is that God wants to give you the victory over them. If God could give Paul victory – he had been in jail, been stoned, shipwrecked, lied about, rejected, abused, abandoned – if God could give him victory despite the odds, He can give you victory too.
But you gotta get your feet wet. The waters didn’t part until the priests stepped in them. If you don’t embrace your fears head on, if you don’t muster up the courage to take God at His word, if you don’t iron things out between you and Him, you may never see your rivers part. If you always wait to see how the answer will come about before you step out, you are living in the realm of sight, not faith. If you don’t believe that God has the power to change your heart and your behavior, you will never see Him do it.
Promised Land living means victory over our sins and victory over our situations. But it means we have to put Him first, as shown by the Ark of the Covenant. And it means stepping out with courage and obedience, despite the odds. It means praying and trusting that God will do what He said. It means not worrying about where the money will come from, if you know that whatever it is is God’s idea. In order to get to where God wants you to live spiritually, you need to trust God with that river, that struggle, that you have. You need to turn it over to Him and say, “I can’t see where this is leading me, but I’m trusting you anyway, Lord.”
One last thing: you’ll notice that the river closed in behind them after they crossed. You know what that tells me? It means that once you cross a river, things will never be the same. You will never be able to go back to the way you were. Your faith will be different, your life will be different. It doesn’t mean that you will never have to trust Him again. That will not be your last test of faith. But you will never be the same again. You will have crossed over into a new land of living. You will be different from the person you were.
And that’s a good thing. 2 Cor.5:17 - “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Revelation 21:5 – “He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"” Romans 6:4 – “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Isaiah 43:19 – “See, I am doing a new thing!” You are that new thing. Your life is that new thing. Your spiritual vitality is that new thing.
Leave the way you were, when you thought you were in control and making the decisions. Leave your wanderings, wondering who the boss is. Be done with half-heartedness, away with lukewarmness. Trust God to do what He said. But you have to get your feet wet first.
It took courage for Jesus to leave His Father’s side and come to earth as a sacrifice…
