Israel Crosses The Jordan (Joshua Chapter 3)

Joshua’s Opening Charge to Cross the Jordan

Tonight, we're gonna be looking at Joshua chapter three, go ahead and open up to that chapter. This is when the miracle occurs that allows the children of Israel to pass over the Jordan River. So that's what I've titled it, Israel crosses the Jordan and they're crossing the Jordan into what?

The promised land. So this miracle under the leadership of Joshua is similar to the miracle that Moses performed or that God performed through Moses at the Red Sea. So really it's a fitting end to the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings.

Because in the Exodus, when they left Egypt, the Red Sea was parted and they marched forward. Canaan was always the goal. And now that they are approaching Canaan, the river is parted or at least it's stopped.

So because of those similarities at the beginning and at the end, it's a fitting end to their wandering. So let's follow along with Joshua chapter three.

Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people.

When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2 ,000 cubits by measure.

Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.

And Joshua said to the people,.

Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Then Joshua spoke to the priests,.

Take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people.

So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people and the Lord said to Joshua,.

This day I will begin to exhort you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant saying, when you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.

So Joshua said to the children of Israel,.

Come here and hear the words of the Lord, your God. By this, you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.

Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore take for yourselves 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe, and it shall come to pass, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests who bear the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off.

The waters that come down from upstream and they shall stand as a heap.

So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people. And as those who bore the Ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priests who bore the Ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest, that the waters which came down from the upstream stood still and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zeritab.

So the waters that went down into the sea of Araba, the salt sea, failed and were cut off. And the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan.

And all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

Faith, the Ark of the Covenant, and God’s Leading Presence

So Joshua chapter three, verse one, then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they crossed over.

So they're making the seven to eight mile journey from Acacia Grove to the Jordan River. And then once they crossed the city of Jericho is another seven miles or so beyond that. And they know what lies ahead of them.

What's ahead? To get the promised land, to take the promised land, what are they gonna have to do? Cross the Jordan. Yep, they're gonna cross the Jordan. And then in the land, they're gonna be up against?

Giants. Yeah, giant. Well, that's what the last generation said. It's funny how when they get in the land, there's no mention of actual giants being there though. So it looks like that was actually not true.

But they're gonna have many battles to fight. The difference now though, is that Israel has faith. They're approaching the promised land with faith in the Lord. That's something they did not have 40 years earlier.

40 years prior, whenever the people faced an obstacle, their response was, well, this is too hard. Or you remember when the Red Sea was, before it was parted, they approached the sea, they're up against it.

And what did they say? Well, God just brought us out here just to kill us. Remember when they accused God of that? So you don't see any of that now. They did not stand before with Moses, God's man, but they are standing with Joshua.

But they need to get across the Jordan. So God is going to perform a similar miracle that what he did with Moses and the sea. Look at verse two. So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests and the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

So when you see the ark, follow it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2 ,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.

So following the ark really is the same as obey my instructions. Follow the ark is following the Lord. Now, just a reminder about the ark. I know most of you know a lot about the ark of the covenant, but in case there's somebody who doesn't or needs a refresher or somebody watching online, what is the ark?

Well, Noah's ark was a boat. The ark of the covenant is a wooden box overlaid with gold. There's something like a chest. Its contents, of course, contain three things. What are they? Okay, the tablets of the testimony, the 10 commandments, that's one object.

Good, Aaron's rod that budded. And the third thing is the, good, the pot, the pot of manna. So these are the items within the chest and the ark was the holiest item they had. The ark was the holiest item in the tabernacle and it basically acted as God's throne here on earth.

And the ark was inside the most holy place. Now people call it the holy of holies, but if you remember when we went and studied that, it's interesting, the Bible doesn't actually use that term, holy of holies.

It's the most holy place, but that's okay. That's what people call it. So the most holy place was like God's throne room and the ark is God's throne, or maybe you could say the footstool to his throne.

So the tribes were camped all around the tabernacle and the center of the tabernacle, or at least the focus, was the ark of the covenant. So the ark you could look at, that's the center of the nation and it represents God dwelling in the midst of his people.

Every once in a while though, did the ark stay there 365 days a year, year after year, always? No, because why? They had to move, right? They're wandering in the wilderness. So they would follow the pillar of cloud and they'd have to break down the tabernacle, which was a tent.

So at different periods of time, the ark would have to be moved. So the ark, when it was moved, there were special instructions on how to do that, but it's somewhat of a rare thing when the ark comes out.

I'm sure if you're an Israelite and you see the ark being carried off in the distance, that was a pretty exciting thing for the people. So what's God gonna do with the ark? What's he gonna use it for?

Well, he's gonna use it along with the priests to stop up the Jordan River, so that the people could pass through on dry ground. So when the people saw the priest carrying the ark, they were to follow it about 2000 cubits.

How far is that? We don't have measurements today in cubits. How far would that be? 920 meters. Okay, meters. Well, we don't use meters in the United States, so. Well, I found a few things. This wouldn't be exact, but it's about 3000 feet.

That's what people estimate. Yeah. So the ark is now being used for a very different purpose. Instead of being at the center of the nation, now it's out front. Now it's leading the way. Before, again, it was the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night that led the way.

But now, at least for this situation, it's the ark leading the way. Now, maybe it's not happening yet, but over time, the ark sort of becomes a little bit of a, for a lack of a better term, it becomes a good luck charm.

You know, the Israelites at a certain point over time, they start to get the idea that as long as we have the ark, we can't lose because the ark represents God with us. So as long as we have this wooden box with us, we're invincible.

Now, is that true? No, you might get the idea based on what happens here that that could be true. I understand how they got to that place, but that was not the case. The ark, at the end of the day, it's a wooden box made by men, right?

Even though it has gold all over it, it's still an object. It's a physical object made by men. So it's not really, the power is not really in the ark, is it? The power is in the God of the ark. So eventually, hundreds of years later, the ark is just gonna disappear from the pages of scripture.

Somewhere around the Babylonian captivity, the ark just disappears. Nobody has any idea what happened to it. So I bring all of that up just to make this one parallel to physical objects today. This was, as far as physical objects go, the ark of the covenant was the top.

For the Israelites, this was the most important object. Do we have anything like that in the New Testament church? Any physical object that Christians might look to and even fall into the trap of worshiping a physical object?

The cross. The cross, okay. That's one thing. Now, there's nothing wrong with the ark, and I don't think there's anything wrong with displaying the cross. But obviously, people do, sometimes they can fall into the trap of having a cross, and to them, it's like a good luck charm.

Have you ever seen some of that? And if you do this, I'm not trying to get on your case, but maybe, why would someone do it? But they have a, usually it's a crucifix, but they'd have a cross around their neck, and they kiss it.

Well, what does that do? It doesn't do any good. It's an object made in a factory somewhere. The power is not in that piece of metal or in that piece of wood. The power is in God. So if you're not following God, if you're not obeying God, if you're not wearing something around your neck or kissing it or bowing to it, certainly that's not right.

So it's completely pointless, and it can become really an idol. Now, what I thought about as far as physical objects that God ordained, that God actually ordained, that people worshiped, my first thought was communion or the Lord's Supper, because in communion, we have physical objects that are part of our worship.

And Jesus told his followers to do that, didn't he? We have a piece of bread, and we have the cup. Do people bow to the bread and the cup? Now, people here don't do that, but there are the large institutional churches, primarily the Roman Catholic Church, where they have adoration services to adore the host.

So it's this big wafer of bread they have in this elaborate casing, and it's up front, and the people, they come in and they bow, adore, and I would argue they worship the host, because according to the church, that bread is, the divinity of Christ is in that bread.

So I think The priest breaks that bread before he distributes it amongst the congregation. Right. He partakes of that, he takes a piece of it. Right.

So really, that becomes superstition. Once you detach that, and I'm, you know, you can look at the bread and the cup and treat it as a holy thing, and I think you should. But really, at the end of the day, it's bread and it's wine, or it's bread and it's grape juice.

Apart from faith in God, what is it? Yeah, apart from obeying God, eating bread, or kissing a cross, or bowing down to a wooden box out in the wilderness, you're missing the whole point. Okay, so any comments before we move on?

You may have seen, as a idol, or something that people worship, is in passing a car, or behind a car, you'll see rotary beads hanging in front of the mirror. Sure. I always thought of that as,.

Must be a good luck charm. Right, yeah. It's easy to be superstitious about things and to fall into that, and yeah. But we need to try to be cautious. The only thing you should bow down to is the Lord.

All right, moving on. So that's just a little bit about the Ark of the Covenant. It was a holy object. It was to be treated with reverence. So whatever God said about it, how to handle it, they needed to obey, because God said so.

Miracles, Divine Revelation, and Authenticating God’s Messenger

Okay, verse five, it continues. And Joshua said to the people, "'Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow "'the Lord will do wonders among you.'". Okay, so the word wonder in scripture, it often refers to the miraculous.

So when people see it, when people see what happens, it's like, wow, they're filled with wonder. How did this happen? I know in the New Testament, there are three words in the New Testament that are used to convey the idea of a miracle.

Or a miracle can be used, one of three words, what are they, signs? Wonders. Wonders and powers. So in stopping the Jordan, this will be a legitimate biblical miracle. And I say that only because there's really no other explanation for it.

There isn't, there's no, this is completely impossible. We'll get into some of the details in a minute. But with the Jordan River, has anyone been to Israel and seen the Jordan River? Okay, is it the size of the Connecticut or bigger or smaller?

Not where I was. Okay. In certain parts, it's wider than others. But when a river stops, I mean, there's a lot going on. What about all the water upstream? What happens there? So this is a supernatural event.

There is no other explanation. So I say it's a true biblical miracle. I say that because the miracles you hear about today are usually not true biblical miracles, meaning that many of the miracle, well, I'm not gonna say all, but many of the miracles you hear about today, there is a natural explanation for it, possibly.

I think today we kind of use the term miracle very loosely. You know, a baby is born and we say, oh, it's a miracle. And it's not really a miracle. It's completely natural, but, and that's fine. But I hear people use, throw around the term miracle.

And then if you investigate, okay, what happened? It's like, well, there could be other explanations. Okay, but this, there is no other explanation. And what's the purpose of miracles? I bring this up from time to time.

So do you remember what is the purpose of miracles?

To glorify God or to show His power. To demonstrate God's power.

Okay, so to glorify God and... Demonstrate God's power. Demonstrate His power. I mean, that's true, that's true. And I'm not saying there's just one purpose for miracles, but what I like to say is the purpose of miracles primarily is to authenticate the miracle worker.

So you just remember that the purpose of miracles is to authenticate the miracle worker. Who's the man that God is exalting in this story? Joshua. Right, Joshua. Look at verse seven. And the Lord said to Joshua, this day, I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

The way that God exalted Joshua is at His command. This is what happened. Joshua is now a miracle worker. And not only that, not only is Joshua being authenticated by God as the unquestionable leader of the nation, Joshua is also given divine revelation.

See, anybody can come along and say, I got a word from God and here's what God showed me in a vision. Here's what God said to me. Okay, anyone can say that. And Joshua claimed, we're reading about, that the Lord spoke to Joshua.

But the fact that he could work miracles, that proves that the Lord spoke to Joshua. Look at verse seven again. What does it say? And the Lord, what? Said unto Joshua. Said to Joshua. And then you see what he said.

You ever wonder, you ever read statements like that and it's like, how did the Lord say it? Well, sometimes I wish they'd give a little more explanation. So not only is this a real miracle, God really spoke to him.

It's a real miracle and God really spoke to him. Not only do we use the term, and I say we, but evangelical Christians, not only do we use the term miracle, I think too loosely at times, evangelicals are really good at saying things like God spoke to me and here's what he said.

You know, God said to me and then they say, here's what I think God would have me to do. And I'm not trying to be too hard on anyone. I'm sure I've probably said that at some point. And most people don't actually mean they got divine revelation from God.

But some people do mean that. So we don't want that kind of confusion. So how do you know if God really spoke to somebody? If it comes to pass. Yeah, well, that's one thing. If they give a prophecy and then it actually happens, and it's gotta be more specific than, hey, tomorrow's gonna be a sunny day and God told me so.

Well, that doesn't really count. That could happen anyways. Well, that's one way. Another way, if they could work miracles, I mean, that's the divine proof. God uses miracles to authenticate the miracle worker.

All right, any questions on that or comments?

Well, there are several characters in the Old Testament where Elijah tried to get the people to understand that they really needed to follow God. And he did the thing on the mountain with the sacrificing of the failed animal.

And then he filled it up and he took his and filled it up with water and flooded it. And God, and he had answered. The thing that I saw was that he prayed, same as Joshua. He must've been praying at the time that God spoke to him.

I can't see that Joshua walking around all of a sudden. Hey, Joshua, I got something I wanna tell you.

Yeah, well, it doesn't tell us, right? It doesn't really tell us how.

As conjecture, I suppose, but in the instances is where the men that God used in these instances, they were praying for an answer.

Okay, actually it does tell us how. I think this is part of next week's lesson because I've been studying for next week too. So I don't wanna confuse the two. But in numbers, it does actually say how God will communicate to Joshua.

Remember Moses, God spoke to Moses face-to-face. So it really was like, hey, Moses, here's what we're gonna do. Like God is speaking directly to him. With Joshua, that may have happened with Joshua, but primarily it was through the high priest.

So God would speak to the high priest. He would use the Urim and the Thummim. And I don't know how that worked, but God would speak to Joshua through the high priest. And God would speak to the kings of Israel through the prophets, kind of from this point forward.

But anyways, yeah, that's the purpose of the miracle to exalt and to authenticate the miracle worker. So God did this with men like Moses, Joshua, Peter, Paul. David. Yeah, well, David, you see, David never worked a miracle, did he?

No. And there were some prophets that never worked miracles. And for the nation to really accept them as a prophet, usually it took a couple hundred years because when the prophets were alive, I mean, you know how it is with preachers.

Preachers say things that nobody else says or that sometimes nobody else would dare to say. So during their lifetime, the prophets were often very unpopular. They were hated and despised often. 200 years later, when their prophecies came true, well, now everyone in the nation loves them, but they didn't love them at the time.

So even if they didn't work a miracle, what they said, it eventually came to pass. But the point is here, God is using Joshua. He's authenticating him because Joshua is also writing scripture. Joshua is an author of scripture.

Mark 16, verse 20, if you wanna make a note of this, say, prove it. Prove that this is what God does with miracles, okay? It says about the apostles of Christ, Mark 16, verse 20, that they went out and preached everywhere and the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.

So God confirmed the word that they were preaching, that this is true. How? He gave them the power to work signs or miracles. I think it's important to note that in the course of biblical history, there were really only three periods where miracles were present.

Generally speaking, during the ministries of Moses and Joshua, that's one. During the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, that's two. So that confirms the law and the prophets, the Old Testament scriptures, and then the third period was during the ministries of Christ and the apostles.

That confirms the New Testament scripture. So God is authenticating these authors of scripture. Okay, look at verse 10. So that's what's going on here. And Joshua said, "'By this you shall know that the living God is among you "'and that he will without fail "'drive out from before you the Canaanites "'and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites "'and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.'".

So God is going to drive them all out. Now, who feels sorry for the Canaanites and the Jebusites? Does anyone feel sorry for them? Somebody told me last week, he said, because people do struggle with this, that God is wiping out all these people groups.

And he said, God was eradicating sin. That's the bottom line. These people were doing wicked things and God was eradicating sin. And God's gonna do it again at the second advent. So if you think the conquest of the land of Canaan was rough, the worst is yet to come.

So we wanna make sure that we're on God's side, amen? I mean, this is the whole Christian message to tell the heathen that you need to get right with God. And in the next chapter or two chapters from now, chapter five, remember when Joshua is walking along and he discovers this man, there's a man standing there with a drawn sword and who is it?

The commander of the Lord's army, almost certainly the pre-incarnate Christ standing there with a drawn sword. And remember what Joshua said to him? Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?

And he says.

He really didn't recognize who it was. He just, he wanted to find out. He wanted to ask that question.

Yeah, I don't know if he knew who it was or not, but are you on our side or on the side of our enemies? And he says, no. Yeah, that's not it. You need to be on my side. That's what it's all about. All right, verse 11.

Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Verse 13. And it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off.

The waters that come down from upstream, they shall stand as a heap. Does anybody else have a different rendering of that? Stand as a heap. Like a wall. Like a wall. All right, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Right, when God through Moses parted the Red Sea, they walked through the midst with a wall of water on either side. So this is a similar miracle. I had said last week it's a similar miracle just on a smaller scale.

And the reason I said that is because the Jordan River is, you know, it's a much smaller body of water than the Red Sea. But then I got to thinking about it, and you know, I'm not so sure that it's really a smaller miracle.

Why? Because in order for the river to stop flowing, and verse 15 implies that the river is that flood stage, in order for it to stand up as a heap, it has to stop all the way back. And it says that it stopped all the way back as far as Adam, which is a city 15 to 20 miles upstream.

And then logically, you would think that that means all the tributaries that go into the Jordan, I mean, they must have stopped too, right? To me, that seems a lot more complicated than the Red Sea just parting.

A river that's constantly flowing to stop, there's just a lot more to that. So I'm not even sure. Maybe this is an even bigger miracle. Of course, what's the problem with saying that? Bigger miracle, smaller miracle?

To God, one miracle is just as simple as the other. Genesis 18, verse 14 says, is anything too hard for the Lord? Now, I generally believe that these kinds of miracles are generally speaking, they're not happening today, but I don't want you to ever think that I'm saying that God never works miracles or that I can say for certain that he stopped.

There's been plenty of Christians who have prayed for healings and yet God healed this person and it was miraculous. Here's the thing. If you ever pray for a miracle, God may say yes, he may say no, but don't ever think that anything is too hard for God.

Even if it's not really a miracle, it's just something you're asking for, you think, well, that could never happen. I don't see how this could work out. It doesn't matter. Nothing is too hard for God, amen?

Yes, Larry. What I find more interesting than the water's stopping is the dry ground. Because how long after a mud puddle disappears does it take for the ground to dry, you know, in today's? But they have passed through and if the river was at flood stage and spread out through a large open field, the ground is saturated and mucky.

Yep. But they pass through on dry ground. So yeah, well, that must, how does that? This is all supernatural.

There's no explanation. There's no natural explanation for it at all. And really the most complicated miracle, if you wanna put it that way, is still up ahead. In the book of Joshua, what's the most complicated miracle that you can't even wrap your mind around?

The palms of Jacob. No, not even that. I mean, that's pretty amazing too. The sun. Yeah, when Joshua commands the sun to stand still in the sky. I mean, do you realize how many things would have to, yeah.

But that's the most complicated miracle, but God, he did it simply by speaking the word. And that's the thing. God created heaven and earth. He created everything simply by speaking the word. So that's how hard it is for God to do all these things.

It's about as easy or difficult as me talking right now. Probably even easier. But if you think about the Jordan being, you know, standing as a heap and the whole nation, I mean, it's the soldiers, I guess, going first, but then the people, how many people are we talking about?

Two million. Yeah, 600 ,000 men that are soldiers, which you estimate the nation is at least 2 million people based on that, maybe 2 .5 million, 3 million maybe at the most. So this isn't getting two or 3 million people across.

This isn't just happening in 20 minutes. I read one estimation and one scholar said that it could have taken up to 29 days. I mean, that seems like a long time, but he's saying day and night, if there's, yeah, I mean, he doesn't really know.

Nobody knows, but it took a long time. That's the point. So all the water stopping for that long, even if it's only half that long, it's just that much more amazing. Then I read some of the liberal scholars and here's their take on it.

They said, well, we think that what happened was there was probably an earthquake and a bunch of debris probably fell in the water and that was sufficient to kind of block the river. So they could, I'm thinking to myself, like you're totally missing the whole point.

You're missing the whole point of the story. This is a story about the power of God. So if you're looking for a natural solution that fits with human logic, I mean, that's a fool's errand. Miracles are not natural, they're supernatural.

And another part of the story is people having faith in the power of God. And if you're gonna say, well, I think it was actually an earthquake, you're lacking faith. I mean, you're worse than the Israelites are.

At least the Israelites knew that God was working miracles. I mean, I just don't get that. I realize it's unbelief, but that's the kind of stuff you're gonna read if you do look at a variety of commentaries.

But yeah, it's the same God though. Here's the kind of the gospel application. It's the same God who parted the Red Sea, who had the power to stop up the Jordan River. It's that same God and that same power that was used to raise Jesus from the bed so that we could be saved from bondage to sin and gain entrance into heaven.

Just as Israel was delivered from bondage in Egypt and gained entrance into the promised land. So I think that's the spiritual application of the whole book. And in both cases, with the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, they had their time of testing, right?

Their probationary period. I think we have that probationary period too. It's called this life. You know, this life is a time of testing. There's gonna be some people who live this life and they lack faith.

They never come to that place where they have faith in God's power. And they don't believe that God had the power that he raised Jesus from the dead. And that's their test that they failed. Others who have faith like the Israelites did, we believe that Jesus died and rose again.

And it's faith that's required to enter into God's rest, whether it's the land of Canaan or his rest in heaven. We'll close with verse 17. It says, then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan.

And all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.