Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Lord, we just bless your holy name tonight, God. We thank you, God, for this
spring-like weather, even though we suspect it won't last.
But we praise you for it, God.
You are the one that manages and created all of creation, Lord.
And we thank you, Lord, for the warm, and we thank you for the cold, and we thank you for everything.
We just give you praise and glory tonight, Lord,
for your word as we delve into Joshua, God.
And we pray that as you've been doing with this group here, Lord, that you would just make your
your scriptures come alive, Lord, to us.
Just anoint them, Lord, and get them into our hearts, Lord, and our minds, Lord, and help us
dig deeper, God, into the text, Lord, and draw closer to you
through it. We pray, God, for your spirit to be here tonight, Lord, amongst us, Lord,
to open up our hearts and minds, Lord, be with us in our conversation and discussions, Lord.
And we give you all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, so tonight we are in Joshua 3, crossing into the promise.
I feel like I feel like it's been
forever since the Israelites have kind of been on the on the edge of crossing over, right?
You know, we've been talking about, they're right here.
They're at the end of their journey.
They're getting ready to cross over.
And this has been going on for for for quite a number of chapters.
Well, I'm here to tell you that tonight is the night.
OK, tonight is the night.
And it's it's an it's an exciting.
It's an exciting bit of scripture.
So, you know, Israel, you know, is on the edge of the promised land.
They've been wandering for for 40 years, as we know.
And the Jordan River is the final obstacle
that is in front of them before they can receive God's promise.
And God is calling them to take that step of faith, take that leap of faith
and to trust him even though this this this river is is right in front of them.
So let's take a look here.
What we have, you know, what, you know, they
the major moments thus far in what we've been studying.
So they were they were delivered
from Egypt through the Red Sea, which was parted in a similar way
that that the Jordan will be parted.
They they witnessed the new covenant and the 10 commandments on on
and the foot of Mount Sinai.
They were in the wilderness for testing and rebellion over that 40 years.
They experienced the death of the unbelieving generation that did not cross over.
Moses just died.
And now Joshua is appointed as as their new as their new leader.
And as I was as I was studying and meditating on this, this
this piece of scripture, you know, I was thinking to myself,
God, God was taking me to that place of, you know, you know,
what are what are these threshold moments, you know, in my life
or in our lives that we face?
What are you know, what are my what are my personal Jordans?
The Jordan Jordan rivers for me, you know, whether it's big decisions
that that were in front of me or transitions or career moves or family
or a relation or spiritual, you know, callings.
You know, what are these?
What are these moments, you know, that I can just, you know, say, wow,
I can I can relate to what was happening in in their minds?
You know, so often, you know, I could relate to the
Israelites by, you know, wandering, you know, in the desert of indecision,
you know, with something and not taking that step of faith
that God wants me to.
But I know that God, you know, calls me and calls us
and was calling the Israelites to move forward
regardless of what they saw
in front of them, regardless of what was visible to them.
You know, and I think this idea of crossing over,
you know, whether it be our personal Jordan rivers or theirs,
you know, really requires this this this trust and this faith in God.
And, you know, by nature.
We like safety nets, right?
We like to know that, OK, well, if I make this move,
you know, I got to know that there's there's something
that's going to keep me from from falling or in this case,
keep me from from drowning.
And what faith means is it means stepping forward
and trusting God when he's taking us into unknown territory,
because that's exactly what what was happening with with the Israelites.
So let's let's jump into the text and we're going to we're going to go
verses one to four as they're preparing for the crossing.
So early in the morning,
Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittam
and went to the Jordan where they camped before the cross,
before crossing over.
After three days, the officers went throughout the camp,
giving orders to the people.
When when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, your God
and the Levitical priest carrying it,
you are to move out from your positions and follow it.
Then you will know which way to go
since you have never been this way before.
But keep your distance
of about two thousand cubits
between you and the Ark and do not get near it.
So. Three days of waiting before they they crossed
and you know, how often does God call us to wait when we're in a position?
I hate waiting.
I mean, I hate I hate waiting.
I really I really do.
I mean, I really don't.
I don't like the wait, you know, wait for things.
I'm patients is something that that I that I am continually growing in.
And I feel like as I get older, I'm getting more patient.
But I like I like to do things.
So, you know, you know, I want to want to do something, you know,
whether it's in the kingdom or whether it's at work, whether it's at the family.
I don't like that that that waiting period.
But often God calls us to wait to prepare our hearts for things
and so that we can get ready.
And he gave in very specific instructions to to the Israelites about this.
The arc being the very presence of God leading and guiding, you know,
and they're saying, keep your follow, but keep your keep your distance.
Looking at this
at the river here, I wish I wish I had a pointer, but I don't have a pointer.
This is a this gives you a little bit of idea of of where they were.
You know, you could see there shitam where where they came down
from and where they crossed over.
And there's a couple other versions of of this, this map,
you know, that that I'm going to that I'm going to show you.
But, you know, this was this was, you know,
me, when I'm thinking of the Jordan, I'm thinking, oh, a nice river.
And it was just kind of this beautiful, beautiful area.
Yeah, I mean, that's that's not a nice looking area.
It's very rough.
And I'm going to show you something in a little bit that gives you a little bit
more more perspective on it.
But they're at the edge of of of the Jordan here.
They're on the brink of of crossing over the passageway
from what was the wilderness where they were a place of trials,
a place of testing, you know, a place of,
you know, it was just, you know, dry place to a promised land
where a place of abundance and a place of rest for them.
You know, the river, you know, to me also looked like,
you know, this this passageway from kind of death, death to life.
You know, the desert, you know, when you think of a desert
and you think of where where they were, there's not much life growing there.
There's not much life to be had there.
A place of desert and death into a place of promise and life.
You know, just as Jesus did for ourself, where we took where he took us
from a place of death.
Into a place of life and acceptance.
This gives you another little perspective on, you know, on this land.
And what I what I didn't realize, you know, when I was thinking of this
was these these these mountains on on either side.
I don't know if you've ever been in mountains like that, but I have.
And they're scary and they're big and they're hard to navigate through.
And they're not easy, easy to go through.
And the other thing that I didn't realize was how.
How low it was.
I mean, it's actually about fourteen hundred feet.
Below below sea level.
So it is not.
A place of easy terrain for them.
And to add to that, at this point in time,
scripture tells us that the river was in its flood stage.
So it was even bigger and more powerful than than normal.
So the other thing that I had thought of as as I was considering this river
and looking at this river is this idea of, you know, going under the water,
not into the water, but kind of under this water through.
Is this more or less this idea of of baptism and immersion?
And and the Jordan, the Jordan is really associated with this,
this this purification kind of representing the washing away of the old life and the new.
And I believe that what the Israelites did here in this in this landmark crossing
and what they did is they kind of created this area that was really viewed as
as a very, very spiritual area for the for the Jews,
because this is actually the spot where where John the Baptist baptized Jesus
in the Jordan right in there.
So there's there's a lot happening within this.
But again, you know, I tried to, you know,
it's easy to read through read through these stories and just kind of.
You know, go through them in a very liturgical way
and a reading in a systematic way without really putting yourself
in their shoes and trying to imagine what they were feeling going through this.
So you got to think that there was some level.
Of anticipation, right?
So they were they were anticipated.
We're finally moving out of the desert and moving into this promised land.
But along with that, there had to be this this uncertainty,
this this idea of nervousness, you know, our anxiety or even fear
of where they were at, because, you know, not only was the river big
and in flood stages, but on the other side of the river,
it was not a you know, they weren't rolling out the red carpet and saying,
hey, welcome, guys.
These were hostile, hostile nations, hostile nations.
So there had to be a bit of all of that going on in their mind.
I think, you know, when I get into a situation where I know I'm making a big move,
I often reflect, you know, I reflect on, OK, how did God get me here?
What did I go through to get to this place where God God brought me?
So were they, you know, remembering their time in the wilderness?
Were they, you know, reflecting on, you know, their failures
and kind of getting down on that?
Or were they remembering when God, you know, God moved so so mightily?
You know, did they have hope?
Was there was it was there this idea of OK, we've spent the last 40 years
doing this and now we're moving into this this this hopeful situation
where everything, everything is going to change the possibilities
that that that were in front of them.
And was there a level of excitement that that went along with that?
I'm sure there was a myriad of emotions
that that they were going through as as they sat there
and looked at what was in front of them.
So let's let's continue five through six.
We're we're God's talking about the preparation here.
So Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves
for tomorrow, the Lord will do amazing things among you.
Joshua said that a priest take up the ark of the covenant
and pass on ahead of the people.
So they took it up and went ahead of them.
So this idea of of consecrating,
consecrating oneself, it's a it's a it's a it's a big word.
But it's it's a it really is a simple, simple thing
of, you know, setting ourselves apart for God.
You might have an area of your life that you have to say,
I need to really consecrate this, you know, to God,
because it's taken a position in my life that's that's too big
or is is above, you know, my spiritual things.
You know, the Jews had had their spiritual processes of cleansing
and, you know, all of this, you know, was it a matter of really,
you know, looking at this idea of, of, of, you know,
consecrating, you know, what's behind and looking to what's
what's in front of obedience and preparation?
Exodus 19.
Oh, I mean, I got to look that up here because I cut that off.
Exodus, Exodus 19 10.
Says in the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and
consecrate them today and tomorrow, have them wash their
clothes and be ready by the third day, because on the
third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the
sight of all the people.
Romans 12 one says, therefore, I urge you brothers and
sisters in the view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as
living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
This is your true and proper worship.
So when we set ourselves apart as holy for God, we are
consecrating ourselves to Him.
So Joseph was really laying this out in front of them and
saying, consecrate yourself because this is a big, this is
a big moment.
Really check your hearts.
If you have things that you haven't surrendered to God or
you haven't fully given over to God, consecrate them to God
now.
Here, I had it right in front of me.
Sorry about that, guys, could have pulled it right up.
So let's keep going here.
Verses seven through eight.
This is where God affirms Joseph Joshua as leader.
And the Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you
in the eyes of Israel, of all of Israel.
So they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.
Tell the priests who carry the Ark of the covenant, when you
reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the
river.
This is a huge, huge statement.
I mean, how often do we read in Scripture, you know, that God
is exalting someone?
So that's a big, it's a big thing.
And to say that he is going to be with Joshua like he was
with Moses.
That's some big shoes to fill, right?
And there are comparisons in Scripture to Moses.
You know, obviously we're getting comparison right here
with Joshua, but Elijah, Jeremiah, Jesus, Matthew, the
gospel writer was making a case in his gospel about
Jesus being the second Moses in comparison to him.
So this is not something that you gloss over when you read
it.
It's a big, big declaration that God is making here.
And what a faithful leader Joshua must have been, that
God so knew his heart that he would make a statement like
that, because that to me is a big, big thing.
You know, God establishes and empowers leaders who are
faithful to him and following him and are trusted.
And he knows their heart.
Let's get into the last grouping here.
It's a long one.
I kind of packed this all together because this is kind
of the meat of what we're going to be getting at here.
So this is 9 through 17, you know, where we really see
God's power that's on display.
Joshua said to the Israelites, come here and listen to
the words of the Lord, your God.
This is how you will know that the living God is among
you and that he will certainly drive out before you
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Purites,
the Gigerishites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
See the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the
earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.
Now, then choose 12 men from the tribes of Israel,
one from each tribe.
And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the
Lord, the Lord of all the earth set foot in the
Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut
off and stand up in a heap.
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan,
the priest carrying the ark of the covenant went
ahead of them.
Now the Jordan is at its flood stage all during
the harvest.
Yet as soon as the priest who carried the ark
reached the Jordan and in their feet touch the
water's edge, the water from upstream stopped
flowing.
It piled up into a heap and a great distance away at
a town called Adam in the vicinity of Narathen
where the water flowing down to the sea of
Erebeth, that is now the dead sea, was completely
cut off.
So the people crossed over opposite to Jericho.
The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of
the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and
stood on the dry ground while all Israel passed
by until the whole nation had completed the
crossing on dry ground.
Joshua gathers the people and announces that God
will demonstrate his power by stopping the Jordan
when the priests step in.
So the all that they must have been experiencing
here, I mean just imagine, you know, you know,
God goes before them, the ark, you know, the
Lord, the Lord himself, you know, and God
reveals his power and his work right in front
of them.
And this is something too that is a special moment
because it's what distinguishes the God of
Israel from false Gods and other Gods is his
power and how he acts.
So God stops the river and the waters are pulled
back and they are experiencing the kind of
all in reverence that their grandparents and
parents saw.
None of them, you got to remember, none of these
would have been alive to see the Red Sea parted
when they came out of Israel.
They wouldn't have.
They wouldn't have seen the plagues.
They wouldn't have seen God speaking on
Sinai.
All they would have had was their parents and
grandparents talking about it, which is powerful.
The oral tradition within the Jewish community is
still to this day, a powerful thing.
But as I see this, this was God giving this
next generation, their own encounter with him,
their personal encounter with him, because the
Lord knows the importance and the power of
firsthand encounters with him and passing that
down to the next generation.
Psalm 78 4 reads, we will tell the next
generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power and the wonders that he has done.
So to have this kind of impact on them, you
know, God intended for them to to see it and
experience it and to be able to tell others
about it so that others would hear about it and
know and trust in God and obey him and talk
about the wonder of this.
And isn't this how the miraculous word of
Jesus spread was by those who experienced firsthand
what God had done, what Jesus had done.
And they were so impacted by this that they went
out and changed the world from it.
So this is this is God working here in in
their midst.
The water stopped flowing.
The river had piled up streams.
The priest had gone gone apart.
They've removed this obstacle and it mirrors this
the Red Sea that they had all heard about and
they're face to face with with the power of
God and they're taking that that that step of
faith into into the water.
And how often have we seen miracles happen as we
step out and take that step of faith, whether
it's praying for someone, whether it's, you know,
being obedient to God in faith in some way.
God God wants that obedience and then miracles
follow after that.
So this was a significant, significant
obstacle for them.
It was it was it and they they took that step
of faith.
And the other thing to consider is, you know,
we you know, I think about this in my mind
as I'm going through the scripture and I'm not
realizing that there were at least two million
Jews crossing over here.
So this didn't just happen, you know, in in the
blink of an eye, two million people.
I was at I was at an event one time back back in
the 90s down down in Washington, where they
said there were there were a million, a million
followers of Jesus.
And man, that was some and trying to get to the
trains.
It was insane.
I mean, it was insane.
The amount of people in a crowd like that just
doesn't move, move fast.
So there there are some some experts to say they
were they were they were far in excess of two
million.
But two million is definitely a safe, a safe
number.
You know, faith means acting on God's promises,
even when circumstances appear impossible, when
what's in front of us looks impossible.
That's where faith is important the most.
So crossing this Jordan for them mark the end of
their wandering and the beginning of their
inheritance.
You know, God was not only delivering Israel
from from something, he was leading them into
something greater.
He wasn't just taking them out of the desert, but
he was leading them into into something even
greater.
And for this generation, this became their
testimony for for God.
The promised land of Israel was this physical
inheritance.
And for us, we have this great spiritual
inheritance through through Jesus, you know, just
as Israel, you know, entered into the land by
trusting in God, we receive our inheritance
through Jesus, our inheritance in his kingdom
through faith, through faith in Christ.
First Peter 1 3 to 4 says, praise be to the
God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in his
great mercy, he has given us new birth into a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead and into the inheritance
that can never that can never perish, spoil or
fade.
Matthew 25 34.
This is an excerpt from from the parable of the
sheep and the goats and and Jesus, you know,
invites those who who were in be obedient,
invites the sheep, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world.
Inherit this kingdom, this great spiritual.
So as they were looking at this at the
abundance of this land that God God was
providing for them and transitioning from this
desolate desert into this the land flowing with
milk and honey, as they say into this great
land, we have such a greater, greater
inheritance that that's in front of us from
God.
They were faced with obstacles that that
they could not overcome on their own.
But God always, always, always provides a way
for us.
And he asked that we trust him enough to step
forward as he leads.
Just like with the arc leading, he will lead
us.
He's not asked.
He's not asking us to go out without him.
He is leading us.
The Promised Land was a temporary physical
inheritance and we have this greater eternal
inheritance through through Jesus.
As I as I looked at this at the teaching of
them entering, you know, these four things
really, really stuck out to me, this idea of
preparing for what God has for me, you know,
whatever that be, whether it's a small
step, whether it's a big step, whether it's a
major transition, whether it's a Jordan
River, whatever it is, that my heart would be
prepared, that I would be centered around Jesus,
that I would be trusting in his spirit to
guide me and trusting that God God is not
leading me into somewhere where he is not
going to be and that he would give me the
courage to step forward in faith and this
idea of participating with God when he
moves.
So many times we're saying, you know, God,
you know, move, let your, you know, let your
spirit move here, you know, create revival
here, do this and do that.
And God's Spirit is within us.
He dwells within us where we go, his presence
goes, where we go, the environment changes.
So God is wanting us to participate in these
movements with him, not just sit there and
watch and that's what the Israelites were doing.
They were participating with what God was
doing, something that would be talked, that's
thousands of years later, they participated
with God, with God in this.
So that is Joshua 3.
I think there's a lot to talk about in here.
So we will, we'll break down into, into
groups and kind of have some, have some
chatting and see what God opens up, right?
We can, a lot of stuff to wrestle with,
wrestle with in here.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life
Church as we praise God and discuss his
word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live
Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.