(Covenant Series) 8. What Stands Between You and the Life of Victory — Al Whittinghill

Father, we thank you for the Word of God, we thank you for the privilege of having been together these days, studying eternal truth. We want you to plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth in our life, the foundation of Jesus, and the building up of the house of God in your people.

Lord, we know that you've done many things in many hearts together in these hours, and we give you total glory and total praise, no man, only God. We thank you. We ask you that we will hear your voice and live and obey, and that over these next months you will keep your people in that way of holiness, in the way of righteousness, in the way of peace, in the way that is Jesus.

We trust you for this. We ask you now to take your Word and show us there's no such thing as an end, really, when we're in Jesus, because it's eternal. We go on and on in that way, and show us tonight is really the beginning of the rest of our life.

We pray it in Jesus' name, asking you to bind the devil from obscuring truth tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel give us a wonderful picture in their journey out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into Canaan, of much truth for our Christian life.

Israel’s Journey as a Picture of the Christian Life

In fact, the New Testament tells us without any doubt that the things that were written before time were written for our instruction, for our learning, those of us upon whom the ends of the earth have come, that there are types, there are figures.

And we see very clearly of the Israelite nation in Egypt as God's people under bondage, brought out by the blood of the Lamb, and then wandering, brought out from Egypt, out from bondage, but yet in a period of time, moving into a time of real blessing and fulness in the fulness of the inheritance.

And this inheritance, being Canaan, is certainly not a picture of heaven for us, because there's warfare in Canaan, and it's a picture, then, of the victorious life, a life of abundance, experiencing all the promises of God, and living a life in warfare against the enemies of God.

Well, Israel was brought out of bondage and darkness and called to enter into God's promises, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, led by the Holy Spirit, and God wanted them to come right on into all that he had for them.

They come to Kadesh Barnea. After forty years of being in the wilderness, they come back to the same place, and God speaks to them in Deuteronomy chapter 4. If we should turn there, and we want to look at a few scriptures there, and we've got a lot of scriptures to cover tonight, so we're going to be zipping through.

Because of our preliminaries, we'll be through a little later than nine o 'clock tonight. We'll take our full time in the Word. If you need to leave early, don't feel badly that you need to. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 36.

Out of heaven he has made you, Israel, to hear his voice, in order that he might instruct you. And upon earth he showed you his great fire, and you have heard his word out of the midst of the fire. And because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose thy seed after them, and brought thee out in his presence with his mighty power out of Egypt.

He brought thee out, that phrase. In order to drive out the nations from in front of you to a greater and mightier than you are, to bring you in. You see those two phrases? He brought you out that he might bring you in.

It's not just bringing us out of darkness. God never does a one-sided thing. He brings us out of darkness to put us into light. He brings us out of pain to put us into peace. He brings us out of the kingdom of the devil to put us into the kingdom of his dear son.

He turns us away from dead idols to serve the living God. It's always a from to salvation. And so he says, know therefore this day, consider in your heart that the Lord, he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath there is nothing else.

Well, God redeemed us for his purposes. Look in chapter six and you see the word of God to God's people as they're at a crucial point in their history. They're facing a new day and God reminds them, verse three, chapter six here, therefore, O Israel and observe to do it, that it might be well with thee and that you might increase mightily as the Lord God of your fathers has promised to you in the land that flows with milk and honey.

You're about to begin a new chapter. He's saying you're going to enter into the promises of God here. This, O Israel, verse four, the Lord, our God, he is one God. Jehovah Elohim is one Jehovah. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind.

These words that I command you this day shall be in your head. Now, in your heart, it says, and you teach them diligently to your children. Talk of them when you sit in your house, when you're walking and when you're lying down and when you're rising up, bind them continually for a sign upon your hand and there'll be frontlets between your eyes.

Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Verse 20, and when your son asks you in time to come saying, what do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgment which the Lord, our God, hath commanded you?

What do they mean? Then you say to your son, we were Pharaoh's bondmen, servants in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong, mighty hand. And the Lord showed us signs and wonders, great and terrible upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh and all his house before our very eyes.

And he brought us out from there in order that he might bring us in. You see the reason? He brought us out, not just so that we'd be free from Pharaoh, but he brought us out with a purpose in mind, what?

To bring us in, to give us the land that he swore to our fathers. He brought us out from bondage so that he might bring us into blessing, the fullness of his covenant. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord, our God, for our good always.

Not for our trouble, not to be grievous, but for our good so that he might preserve us alive as it is this day. Disobedience is insanity. It shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments in the presence of the Lord, our God, as he has commanded us.

So we have a from, to salvation. And these Jewish people now are standing right where they stood 40 years before. They've taken an 11-day journey. That's what it took to go from Egypt to Canaan, Deuteronomy 1 tells us that.

It took 11 days walking. It would take 11 days had they gone. But they turned an 11-day journey into 40 years. And you know something? A lot of us can take a process, a time of sanctification that God intends to take time, but not a length and length of time and turn it into 40 or 50 years for the same reason that they did.

What was it? Unbelief kept them in a low state and in wilderness living for 40 years. And it took Israel 40 years because of unbelief. Now look at Hebrews chapter three and you see this picture again is used as a warning for us.

Those that have taken Hebrews will see this scripture as we've studied it before. Hebrews chapter three, verse seven, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost keeps on saying today, if you choose, hear his voice.

Do not go on hardening your hearts like in the provocation, in the day of testing, in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, says God, proved me and they saw my mighty works for 40 years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said, they're always erring in their hearts.

They haven't known my ways. Ah, they knew his miracles, his acts, but they didn't know his character or his ways. How many people today know all that God can do, but don't know who he is? Well, that's the problem.

So I swore in my wrath, they'll not enter into my rest or victory in this case, verse 12, take heed brothers, lest there be in any of you in the same way. It's implying a heart of unbelief in departing, falling away from the living God, exhort one another every day while it's still called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

And the sin that it's speaking about is the one that is down, look at verse 17. With whom was he grieved for 40 years? Was it not with those that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and to whom he swore that they wouldn't enter into his wrath, but was it not to those who did not believe?

And so we see that they could not enter in to the full promises of God because of unbelief. Chapter four, verse one, forget the chapter division, let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest.

Any of you should seem to come short of it for unto us, it was, was the gospel preached as well as unto them. Yes, Israel, the gospel, but the word preached did not profit them because it wasn't mixed with faith in those that heard it.

Look over at verse nine. There remains therefore a resting to the people of God. Here's the rest. The one who has entered into God's rest has ceased from his own independent works just like God ceased from his.

Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. And then it talks about the word because the word is the way we enter into the rest by believing the word of God.

We labor to believe, we wrestle to lay hold of, we labor not to do, we labor to cease. It's a labor of putting aside our own ideas and our own imaginations and our own thoughts and letting this mind of Jesus through the scriptures become our very mind.

Unbelief and the Wilderness Life

Well, for those people, then unbelief kept them away from victory. And in our day, I just talked to a dear person today who was letting unbelief keep them from a life of victory. They know so much, but they just have to go through the pain of it, I suppose.

But they were, they just could not believe in their hearts that they have victory in Jesus. It's as if they had to struggle some more or see some things or they couldn't just lay hold by faith of everything Jesus died to make them at this particular moment where God was grieved with them.

You know, only love can be grieved. Policemen aren't grieved with people that make the, they're just mad perhaps, or they're upset, but lovers are grieved when something is hurt. And God is grieved when we don't take him at his word.

God did everything to exhort them to enter into his promised rest and out of bondage, but they weren't yet into blessing. And so we're warned here, don't make Israel's mistake. Don't let unbelief turn a process into a lengthy, lengthy, lengthy thing.

Certainly it takes forever until we go to heaven to be complete in experience in the things of God. But there are things that take a lot longer than God wants them to take, I believe, because of our dullness and because of our unbelief and because of our selfishness.

These people existed in a self-imposed poverty. That's what it was. They, but the sad thing was, I mean, the amazing thing is that they were out of Egypt, but they weren't into Canaan and they couldn't enjoy the flesh pots of Egypt and they couldn't experience the blessings of Canaan.

It's like so many people, I call them wilderness Christians, wilderness homes. They've been delivered out of the bondage of the world and they can't go back to the bars and the brothels and all those things.

They can't enjoy those things, but yet they're not experiencing the abundant life. And they're lost in some desolate place and they're wondering why they aren't experiencing victory and they circle around in circles like those people did in the wilderness.

And they look back across the river, back into Egypt like it says they did. And it says that these people, they remembered, they remembered the flesh pots of Egypt and they longed for the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlics and I bet they had awful breath.

But anyway, but they longed for those things, but they couldn't have them. Just like some Christians, they began, because of the wilderness, to long for the way that used to be in the world. I remember how happy I used to be when I was out with all my buddies and all that.

And why can't I have that now? But they can't get back and they wouldn't if they really could. And then they go around and go to a Bible study and they look across the River Jordan into the promises of God and they say, oh, I want to go there so badly.

But they don't cross the River Jordan in their experience. And they're going in circular living, self-imposed poverty, saved but stuck, I call it, saved but stuck. And these people in the wilderness now, they ended up unconsciously dishonoring the very name of God.

They dishonored the name of God because for 40 years, God waited for them to take Him simply at His word. Well, a lot of Christians begin well, like we heard earlier, but they come to a standstill. And if they come to a standstill, sometimes they might go back to Egypt or even go away.

And they're content with just the thought, perhaps, of being converted. Or maybe even they believe the satanic lie that they could never have victory. And so how often the church huddles in unbelief, in wilderness experience, and can't go to the world.

The world's laughing at us. We can't experience Canaan and they're laughing at us across the river. But yet the promise to us is still like the promise to them, go up and possess the land. I have already given it to you.

Everything that you need to be all that I've called you to be, I have already given it to you. Well, unbelief in this sense is not non-belief. Unbelief is wrong belief. And actually this too, unbelief is not a failure to understand.

These people understood. Unbelief is rather to fail to obey the clear command of the Holy Spirit. In this case, when he says, trust God, despite what your better sense tells you on your fleshy level. And you know what carnality is?

Carnality is that which constantly begs God to give all he's already given, but yet doesn't have the courage to take it. Isn't that amazing? We beg God for all he's promised that has already been given to us in Jesus, but yet we don't really have the will to lay hold of it.

It can be quite sincere, carnality, and quite emotional, but yet it misses that missing link which is faith, as we'll see tonight. How to enter in to all this glorious, wonderful promises of God. Wilderness living.

It describes what it was all about. In Deuteronomy 12 .8, it said that these people in the wilderness did what was right in their own eyes. By their own estimation, their life was just a nice life. Deuteronomy 12 .8, they did what was right in their own eyes, not what was wrong, oh no.

They wouldn't compromise. They just did what they thought was right. They lived within their own conscience instead of the word of God. Like so many people do today. They just live by their own situational ethics as Christians, or by their own denomination or something instead of what God's word says.

Listen, business ethic is not nearly as godly, it's not at all godly, but it's not even coming close to God's ethic. You see, it's a lot of different there, and a businessman can satisfy the business community and totally let God be grieved.

They did what was right in their own eyes. They kept looking back to Egypt, envying all the fish and cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlics, saying, our soul is famishing. We have to eat this manna, this provision, this is not enough.

And they wanted more. And thirdly, when they were dealing with superficials, thirdly, they said perverse things. Number 16 .3. We are holy. When they weren't. Let me tell you something, everybody's always holy by their own standards.

Look around, and I saw on the tube the other night on the John Ankerberg show, this group that he was questioning that said, you have to be baptized in our church and do it this way or you aren't part of the body of Christ.

Well, of course, I mean, we're always holy by our own standards. It's great. We set the standards. If you don't live up to them, you're out of it. You see, that's wilderness living, total wilderness. Well, he brought me out so he could bring me in.

Mercy, Grace, and the Call to Act in Faith

God's mercy was not giving me what I deserve. He brought me out. That's mercy, not giving me what I deserve. Now he'll bring me in. That's his grace. That's giving me what I don't deserve. See, mercy doesn't give me what I do deserve.

Grace gives me what I don't deserve. That's the beauty of those two things. And I'm afraid in America, we don't appreciate God's mercy. We may understand some of his grace, but we don't realize what we deserve.

Therefore, we're not thankful. After 40 years of hard lessons, it came time to act in faith. And so tonight we come to our text. That's my introduction, believe it or not, in the book of Joshua. We come to the book of Joshua, and we've seen now that they've been exhorted by God.

That's all the book of Deuteronomy is an exhortation for 40 years. Because you've blown it, now act on what you know. Some of you have thought that something lies between you and victory. What is it that lies between you and victory in your Christian experience?

Maybe you've been struggling with one thing for 30 years. And let me tell you something, unless you deal with what God says, you'll die as a Christian in the wilderness. There are a lot of people as Christians that have laid their head on the pillow and gone to be with the Lord from the wilderness.

There are. Look around. Who would deny it? Well, so we come to Joshua, and that's a book about possessing our possessions. Every New Testament truth has a counterpart in the old. And I would say that the book of Ephesians and the book of Joshua go hand in hand.

I mean, it's about warfare. One is a visual representation of warfare. That's Joshua, where Ephesians talks about we also fight, but not against flesh and blood like Joshua. It's against what Joshua was a picture of.

And so Moses has to die. You know why? Because the law can never take you into Canaan. The full promises of God. It can't ever bring you into the promised rest principles and do it this way. And what your pastor says, it's going to have to be one on one.

It's going to have to be following Jesus. And that's why Yeshua, Joshua, it's the Old Testament word for Jesus. Jehovah is salvation. He's the one that's got to bring us in. He's the captain of the Lord's army.

Did you hear how the Methodist Church has just decided to take onward Christian soldiers just yesterday out of the hymn book because it's too radical? It sounds too militant. Oh, my backward chocolate soldiers running from the fight.

I can't believe it. Well, anyway, that's just an aside. The captain of our faith leading us into the full promises of our possessions. So Canaan is the abundant life, and it takes Jesus to lead the redeemed into it.

You're not just saved from the world or from hell or from your sin. You're saved from those. Yes, but to Jesus, to the abundant life, to Christ in you, the hope of glory. And it's not complete, friends, until right now you're experiencing both.

Don't content yourself with just the idea of, well, at least I'm going to heaven. Don't settle for that satanic halfway. That may be wonderful, but I tell you, God has more. Look at Joshua chapter one, verse one.

The first word is actually and because it's built right on Deuteronomy instead of now it's and. And after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of none, Moses' servant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead.

Now, therefore, arise and go over this Jordan, you and all this people into the land which I give them, even to the children of Israel and every place that the sole of your foot will walk upon. That have I given unto you, just like I said to Moses, what do you see here?

You see that the sole of your foot is required. I've already given it to you, but to experience it, you're going to have to walk on it. You're going to have to walk this out. And as you walk it out, you will experience it step by step.

It's a walk of faith. You see it right here. And it's so clear in Hebrews 13, five, the Lord said, I am with you. So look at look at verse five. There shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life as I was with Moses.

So I will be with you and will not fail thee or forsake thee. That's the verse that's quoted in Hebrews 13, five for us. I will never, never, never, never, never five. Never is there. Leave you or forsake you.

It's really there in the Greek five negatives in Hebrews 13, five and in English, the double negative is wrong. But in Greek, the more negatives you put, the stronger it gets. That's one of the strongest in the whole Bible.

I will never, never, never, never, never leave you or forsake you. Really, Lord, be with me. I mean, do you see? Be with us, Lord. After he said, I'll never, never, never, never, never, never, never leave you or forsake you.

Lord, would you please be with us? Can you imagine that? You see what I mean? Unbelief. We don't have the mind of God and see his heart in this. And then he goes on, verse six, be strong and of a good courage for unto this people.

You will divide for inheritance this land, which I've sworn to their fathers to give to them. God's words behind it. Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law.

Now, that's not performance. That's fulfillment. You see, God has already given them grace. They're walking in it. He says, now follow the word of God, which Moses, your servant commanded. Don't turn from it to the right or to the left so that you can prosper wherever you're going.

This book of the law will not depart out of your mouth. You will meditate there in day and night so you can observe to do according to everything written in it. For then you'll make your way prosperous and then you'll have good success.

Haven't I commanded you? It's God saying that. Be strong, be of good courage, which means they were weak and they were afraid. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you are going.

Three times, God says, be strong and be of good courage. You know why I said it three times? Because we needed to hear it that many times. It's easy to be weak and of little faith. And he says once, be not afraid.

He says once, be not dismayed. In other words, don't do what comes naturally at a time like this. It's natural to be afraid. It's natural to lose heart. All those things are natural, but don't do it. You're going to have to go by God's word.

Just like Hebrews 4 .12 said, it's God's word. You're going to have to be strong enough by God's grace to believe the word of God and to meditate in it. And so in verse 9, you see God speaking to Joshua.

In verse 10, you see Joshua commanding the leaders. Joshua commanded the officers of the people. And then in the next verse, the officers go through the host and command the people. So you have the preacher and the leaders and the people.

All of those people saying here, prepare food for within three days you'll pass over Jordan. To go in to possess the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess it. It's a picture of getting ready to move in by faith into the full promises of God that Jesus died, not just to bring us out of Egypt, but into Canaan.

In the Christian experience, the rest that's remaining for the children of God. In that verse 17, we see unity and prayer in God's people. They're saying, according as we hearken to Moses in all things, we will hearken to you.

Only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses. The people are saying that unity and prayer. Am I losing you? You're looking at me funny. I don't know. It just makes me wonder why you're looking at me like that for.

Crossing the Jordan by Faith

They came to the edge of the Jordan River. And over in chapter 3, verse 15, you'll see it later. I'm going to turn there. But it says that Jordan was overflowing its banks at this time. Once a year when Lebanon's mountains melt the snow, Jordan fills up and it overflows its banks.

And it becomes a mile wide right at this point. It's a big river. Before it might be a little finger that you could have no big problem. But now it's a mile wide. It's the most difficult time of the year to cross the Jordan River.

And that's when God brings them there. Just as easy for God to walk on still water as raging water. No big deal for God. It's all his work anyway. Well, they come to the Jordan River and Joshua, chapter 2, verse 1.

The son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go look at the land, even Jericho. That's the biggie. That's the mainstay. That's the stronghold. That's the main defense of the devil.

Go in and side it out. And they went and came to an harlot's house named Rahab. And they stayed there. And it was told to the king of Jericho saying, There come in men here tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country.

And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, Bring out the men that have come to you that are entered to your house. They've come to spy out all the country. Well, she'd hidden them beneath the cotton on the roof.

And then the people looking for them left. And we see as they come out and they say a final word to Rahab. I want you to look at verse 8. And I want you to see what they when she spoke to them after their pursuers were gone.

She says, verse 8. Before they were laid down, she came up to them upon the roof and she said to the men, I know that the Lord, she confesses his sovereignty, that the Lord has given you this land and that your fear has fallen upon us.

And that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea. That's 40 years before. We've heard how the Lord did that. And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, Og and Bashan on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og.

I mean, you were utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. There wasn't any more courage in any man because of you, because the Lord, your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Do you see that that the Canaanites had heard about it 40 years before and that they could have come in 40 years before? God's fear had already fallen on the enemy. The way had been open. And I'll tell you something.

The fear of God has already fallen on the devil and his hosts. That you will take God at his word and enter in fully to the abundant life by grace as a victory gift, not as a effort growth. Take it from God, you see, the way we're going to see here.

Take it from God. And the devils are trembling. The fear of God is on them because the way is absolutely open. Well, the spies go back. Verse 23 of chapter two, they give a good report. The two men return and descend from the mountain, passing over and come to Joshua, the son of none, telling him all the things that fell on them.

And they said to Joshua, truly, the Lord has delivered into our hands all the land because all the inhabitants of the country are fainting. They're scared, silly because of us. Now they're preparing to enter in.

How do you do it? Verse one, chapter three, Joshua rose up early in the morning. See, that's the leadership hearing from God. He got up to meet with God. Joshua rose up early in the morning and they removed from Chitim and came to Jordan.

And he and all the children of Israel and lives there before they passed over time with God. It came to pass after three days. You see, don't be in a hurry. Don't rush. Wait on the Lord. The officers went through the host and they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord, your God and the priests, the preachers bearing it, you shall remove from your place and follow after it.

Wait on the Lord. When you see the presence of God, that's the ark. You follow the presence of God. You follow the leading of the spirit. Look at verse four. Yet leave a space between you and it. About 2000 cubits by measure.

Don't come near it so that you can know the way by which you must go because you have not been this way before. This is a new experience for you. Victory by the power of another. Don't crowd God. Give yourself time to see what he's doing.

See, instead of getting up right around the ark and saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go. Let God go out about 2000 cubits out there so you can see and you can learn. Don't crowd. Don't push, but wait and go patiently following God step by step.

Is that clear? And then you find out later that the ark would go three days ahead, three days ahead of God's people. To seek out a resting place in the land, just like Jesus, the spiritual ark of the covenant, the one in whom God kept his law, the one where the blood was sprinkled, the one upon whom the presence of God should kind of rest.

He went ahead of us three days and three nights into the grave to look for a resting place. God raised him from the dead. If you want a real study, study the journeys of the ark of the covenant and study the journeys of Jesus, and you'll find their parallel.

I mean, it's a visual picture of the word made flesh walking around. They even wrapped the ark of the covenant in the same colors of cloth that Jesus wore for his clothes. I'll tell you, if you study this book carefully, it'll blow your gourds out of your head or whatever.

If you don't have gourds, the reason I said that is because I was at this retreat this weekend and we get in line and get in and we're going to have lunch. And I'd say, go ahead. And they'd all say, oh, no, you gourd head.

They always call me gourd head all weekend. I couldn't figure out why they call me gourd head. Anyway, there's nothing in it. He didn't catch that. There's nothing in my gourd head. In verse five, anyway, and Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourselves, because tomorrow, tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

You see, you're getting ready to cross over into new territory, a new experience of life. Sanctify yourselves. Set your heart on one purpose. That's what sanctifying yourself is. Just for one thing, you exist, and that's to obey God.

You get your heart right. Get before God and sanctify yourselves. Be clean. Be set apart. Well, verse nine, Joshua said to the children of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord, your God.

And Joshua said, by this you will know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Gergesites, the Amorites and the Jebusites.

You'll know it by this. The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth. He'll pass over before you into Jordan. God is always previous. Wherever you go as a Christian, he's always previous and he's gone before you.

And this is how you'll know he's gone first. This is the symbol for the presence of God. That's what the ark was. That's why it was in the holiest of all. You couldn't touch it. You'd die. It was a symbol for holy God.

And so here they come to Jordan. Jordan means spreading or rolling judgment. It's a picture of death. It's an amazing thing because the ark goes first. It represents Calvary. It represents death to self.

It represents the identification with Jesus. They come here to the place called Beth Abbarah. If you went to Israel today and looked on a tour, they'd point you out down by the Dead Sea over a ways. You'd see kind of a grassy spot and they'd say, that's Beth Abbarah.

Beth means house and Abbarah means of the passage. It means the place where they came across from over on the other side into the promised land. It's the place where they passed over. Well, in the New Testament, in John chapter one, it says that John the Baptist was out preaching at a place called Beth Abbarah and all the people came out and they said, we need to be baptized.