The Crossing

Some of the most profound and familiar images in the Bible have to do with water. Noah and the flood of the whole earth, Moses and opening up of the Red Sea, Jesus walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee, water being turned into wine, the pool of Siloam and the healing that Jesus did there, the drying up of the Euphrates river in days yet future, all are miraculous events that have to do with water. So this morning we also look at how God used water to proclaim His present and future sovereignty, when He again overruled the laws of matter and nature to proclaim His glory. As we read Joshua chapter three we?ll examine it in three sections, each section calling us, as it did the Hebrews, to prepare ourselves for what God is about to do.

I. Before You Begin To Step In, Wipe Your Heart Clean. (vs 1-5)

Consider the first five verses ofJoshua 3. The nation of Israel was brought to the edge of the Jordanand there they waited for three days. It was a time of preparation not delay. They were told to do three things, 1. When you see the ark of the covenant being lifted up and carried by the priests, follow it. 2. When you follow it be careful to keep your distance, stay back 3000 feet so that you can see it, for where it leads is where you have never been before 3. Consecrate yourselves for what comes next requires a readied heart. We are about to follow the Word of God here this morning, we are about to move in obedience to what Jesus specifically instructed all His disciples to do as we soon enter into communion. We too need to keep the covenant in view and ready our hearts for where He is about to lead us. We too must consecrate ourselves. For the Hebrews that meant they would wash their clothes as though the act of washing were a means of spiritual preparation. Consecration for us this morning means we must prepare our hearts for what God is about to do in this place. It is a calling of you to stillness?

Psa 4:4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

Psa 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Psa 76:8 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still

Let us consecrate our hearts, first in silence and then in song.

II. Wait and Listen, Wait and Watch, The Lord Is Before You. (vs 6-13)

The people are standing, watching, waiting. Joshua tells the priests that when they come to the edge of the Jordanthey are to stand still. Wait. Often we have the image of the river backed up just next to them. But the river was stopped at the town of Adam, 15 miles upstream (vs16). How long would it take the river to run dry from Adam to where the Israelites stood, more than just a minute? When it was dry the priests in the full view of the people moved into the middle of the dry river bed and waited. Over a million people would pass them by, keeping half a mile above and below them on the dry river bed. Joshua called out to the people, ?Hear the words of the Lord your God? by this you shall know that the living God is among you?? The call of God to us here is also, wait, watch, listen, the Lord your God is among you. Many times when you see God at work you will see nothing?at first. Then the level of the Jordandropped, and then dropped dramatically. In obedience the priests kept their feet in the receding river, it moved and they moved until finally they stood in the middle of a dry river bed. Is it possible that God still moves like that in our lives? He invites us to a faith that is willing to wait and attentive to watch in order to be ready to act. All Israelhad yet to take a step, they watched as God led a handful of priests into the impossible. God has prepared your heart this morning through Consecration, He has readied you through Observation, in a moment He will call you to move before Him. There is an amazing statement that Moses made to the people of Israelbefore he died. He knew they would be tempted to ignore consecration and miss what was right before them. At God's direction he wrote a song (Deut. 32) at the conclusion of it he said this, ?It is not an idle word for you, indeed it is your life?? The songs we now sing are meant to function in the same way, let them ready your heart and feet for action.

III. The Downward Flow Was Cut Off at Adam, There's a Crossing For You! (vs 14-17)

The accountwe've been readingisliteral and historical narrative but it is also pregnant with the greater truths of eternal salvation, not just national salvation. Consider the ark of the covenant. It was like a cedar chest overlaid with gold and it contained the symbols of the Mosaic covenant and likely the written commands of the Palestinian covenant. The Mosaic covenant called the people to a right relationship with God and with each other. We know the basics of it as the ten commandments.. The Palestinian covenant was a call to the people to consecrate themselves continually, to be blessed if they did and to experience the wrath of God if they didn't. Blessings and curses, choose this day which way you will go, see the words of Deut. 30:11-18. The ark represented both of these covenants, it was God's stated agreement and by it Israelwould have life. In an even higher way, Jesus Christ is the one who embodies God's covenant with us. All of God's promises to us are held secure in the person of Jesus Christ, in Christ we have the promise of life through faith. When ever the ark was to be moved it was wrapped up with the curtain that separated the holiest part of the tabernacle from the remainder. The curtain of badger skins and blue cloth veiled the holiness of the ark so that humanity could come close and yet not profane it. The holiness of Jesus was veiled in flesh, He came as God yet born of a woman that we might see and hear and touch the face of God. He came as a man to die for our sin, immortality clothed in mortality to be our sacrifice. The ark was to Israel most precious, yet it preceded all Israel into the Jordan, no armed guard went before it. In vulnerability it went before the people and became for them that which changed the flow of the river, even so far upstream as Adam. How great a picture is this of the preciousness of Christ to the Father and yet He sent Him in the vulnerability of an infant to a manger, that Christ would in all respects be tempted as we are yet without sin. He would go before us and change the flow of the penalty of sin from Adam to the righteousness of God in Christ.

The promises of God to us are contained in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The body of Jesus became the place of our crossing to God, His life for ours. The power of God that stopped rivers is also the power of God to raise man from the dead. As Christ was raised from the dead to a changed and new state so shall all those who have crossed in faith in Him also be raised to a new eternal life at His timing. It was the priests who stood closest to the ark that day, in the midst of the river bed but under the ark. God used them that day to usher a nation into His promises. Today, you who are believers in Christ Jesus are those priests, men and women, adults and children, all who have called out to Christ for forgiveness of their sin, you are the priesthood of believers. It was the power of God through the promises of God carried by the people of God that overrode the laws of matter that day. There are even greater spiritual forces that God will override through the action of the soles of your feet. He will proclaim Himself to His people and to the nations who look on and even to all creation. This is the Almighty One, this is the God of your salvation. Jesus Christ is 'the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.? This Jesus now invites you to enter into the covenant of eternal life through His blood shed on the cross for you. To those who have already done so, He commands you now to proclaim His death and all the meaning therein, until He comes, even by the bread and the cup of communion. There is a crossing here for you today, to new life and to renewed life in Christ Jesus our Lord, He is our ark, He is our God, the God of heaven and the God of all the earth.

Rev. Spence Laycock pastors at Church of the Open Bible, Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.
www.churchoftheopenbible.ab.ca