Israel Crosses The Jordan (Joshua Chapter 3)

Tonight we're gonna be looking at Joshua chapter 3. 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 the river is parted or at least it's 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 Joshua chapter 3. 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 in 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 twelve 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 Zerutah so the waters that went down into the

Sea of Arabah 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 so Joshua chapter 3 verse 1 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 what's ahead to get the promised land to take the promised land what are they gonna have to do yeah they're gonna cross the

Jordan and then in the land they're gonna be up against John 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 there 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 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 and the sea look at verse 2 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

Ten 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 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 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 there 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 to stop up the

Jordan 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 2 ,000 cubits how far is that we don't have measurements today in cubits how far would that be 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 3 ,000 feet that's what 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 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 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 going to 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 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 you know maybe why why would someone do it usually it's a crucifix but they'd have a cross around their neck and they you know kiss it well what 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 wearing something around your neck or kissing it or bowing to it certainly that's not right so that's 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 worship 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 the church that bread is the divinity of Christ is in that bread so I think so really that becomes superstition once you detach that and I'm sure you know you can you can look at the bread in the cup and treat it as a holy thing and I think you should really at the end of the day it's 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 missing the whole point okay so any comments before we move on yeah it's easy to be superstitious about things and to fall into that and yeah but we need to try to be try to be cautious the only thing you should bow down to is 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 okay verse 5 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 you know they're filled with wonder like how 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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 okay so to glorify

God and just 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 the purpose of miracles primarily is to authenticate the miracle worker so you just remember that the the purpose of miracles is to authenticate the miracle worker who's the man that God is exalting in this story right

Joshua look at verse 7 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 that 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 7 again what does it say in the

Lord what 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 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 God said to me and 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 yeah well that's one thing if they give a prophecy and then it actually happens and it's got to 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 that's the divine proof God uses miracles to authenticate the miracle worker any questions on that or comments follow

God he did the thing on the mountain with the sacrificing of the video yeah he filled it up and he took his and you know filled it up with water flooded it and God and he had answered the thing that I saw was that he prayed same as Joshua he must have 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 want to tell you yeah well it doesn't tell us right it doesn't really tell us how as conjecture

I suppose but any instances is where the men that God in these instances they would pray 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'm I don't want to 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 are you 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 what that 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 that 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 to yeah well

David to see David never worked a miracle did he 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 chapter 16 verse 20 if you want to 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 if 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 you said well there 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 he was 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 was rough the the worst is is yet to come so we want to make sure that we are 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 5 remember when

Joshua is walking along and he 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 he says yeah

I don't know if he knew who 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 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 is anybody else have a different rendering of that stand as a heap like a wall that sounds familiar doesn't it right when

God through Moses part of the Red Sea they walk 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 much smaller body of water than the

Red Sea but then I got to thinking about it and you know I 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 to me that seems a lot more complicated than the

Red Sea just parted 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 a 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 you know 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 if you know there's been plenty of Christians who have prayed for healings and they get

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 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 I find more interesting than the waters stopping is the dry ground because how long after a mud puddle disappears does the take for the ground to dry you know in today's but right there they have passed through and if the river was that flood flood stage and spread out through a large open field the ground is saturated right and mucky yep but they pass through say yeah

I 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 want to 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 not even that I mean that's pretty amazing too yeah when

Joshua commands the Sun to stand still in the sky I mean do you realize how many things would have to yeah 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 as easy or difficult as me talking right now probably even easier but if you think about the the

Jordan being you're 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 yeah six hundred thousand men that are soldiers which you estimate the nation is at least two million people based on that maybe two and a half million three million maybe at the most so this isn't getting two or three 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 they here's their take on it they said well we think that what happened was there's 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 think of 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 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 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 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 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