CROSSING THE JORDAN	

Text: Joshua chapters 3 and 4.
Readings: Joshua 3:1-4:3,19-24, Matthew 12:38-50
Theme: The Lord miraculously led Israel across the Jordan to confirm the leadership of Joshua and God's presence with them and power. 
Purpose: To help us remember God's presence with us and his power for us in and through Jesus. 

Congregation,

If you want to remember something important then you usually organise a reminder for yourself. You might write it down on the calender or in your diary.  Or you might put something out in a prominent place so you can see it and remember.

Nations too often want to remember some event of the past. 
They might write it down in a book so that it is recorded as an historical account. 
Or they might build a monument to help them remember.

If you drive around the towns of our area you'll find that most of them have a memorial to remember those who died in one or both of the world wars of last century. 
The people of Israel also had an important event they had to remember. 
God enabled them to cross the Jordan river, that boundary into the promised land. 
It was such an amazing event (3:5) and so full of lessons for them (3:10) that God wanted them to set up a memorial to remember it (chp 4).

Let's first of all look at the crossing itself and then at three lessons God wanted Israel to learn from this. 

THE CROSSING

The people of Israel moved from Shittim to the Jordan and they camped there on the edge of the river for three days. It was springtime so the river was in flood. 
Maybe the Lord wanted to show them the difficulty they faced so as to emphasise the greatness of his power and the miracle he was about to perform. 

The River Jordan ran from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea which was about 400 metres below sea level. This means that the river runs through the world's deepest land valley. 
For much of the year it doesn't carry a lot of water and most of the time the river by Jericho is about 30 metres across. However in the spring the snow in the mountains would melt and all that water would cause the river to flood. Then the river filled the whole of its broader bed and was over a kilometre wide and was very difficult to cross.  

After spending three days by the river the leaders gave instructions to the people: They were to pack up their tents again and get ready to move. Then when they saw the priests going out carrying the ark of the Lord they were to follow it, but at a distance.

The priests were told to carry the ark directly to the Jordan river and to step into it and stand there (vs 8). God promised that he would then stop the flow of the waters. 
This took a great deal of faith on the part of the priests. The eyes of all the people were on them as they led the way and stepped into the water!

Then God did as he promised. The water downstream drained away while the water upstream was held back. Its not clear from chp 3:16 whether the waters were stopped right at that point of the crossing and then banked up all the way to the town of Adam; or whether the blockage occurred at Adam, which was about 25 kms upstream. 

Neither do we know whether God used any natural means to cause this blockage. 
Many parts of the Jordan have steep bank and high mountains and there have been landslides that have blocked the river. 
In 1267 the river was blocked for 10 hours and in 1927 it was blocked for 20 hours. 
God could have used a landslide or he could have done it directly and supernaturally. Either way it is a miracle. 

The priests then stood in the middle of the river and the people streamed across on dry ground making it safely to the other side, into the land of Canaan.

The Lord God did this to get them into the land of Canaan but there was more to it than this. The Lord explains three purposes for this great miracle: 
1. To confirm Joshua as leader.
2. To confirm God presence with Israel.
3. To confirm God's power for his people.

The first purpose then, was TO CONFIRM JOSHUA AS LEADER

God explains this in chapter 3:7, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know I am with you as I was with Moses."

He mentions Moses who had led the people of Israel out of Egypt. Right at that time God had helped the Israelites escape the army of Pharaoh by creating a path through the Red Sea. That had been a great miracle. It happened right at the beginning of the leadership of Moses over Israel and it helped confirm him as their leader. But many of those who had seen that event had died. All those over 20 had perished during the 40 years of wandering in the desert. 
Now there was a new leader. Joshua had taken over. This was the beginning of his leadership. And God wanted to confirm that this was the man for the job. He did that with another great miracle. 

By this the Lord "exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel" (4:14). They faced difficult days, strongly fortified cities, many enemies and huge battles. It was vital that they have a leader they could trust - someone they could rely on and have confidence in. We are told that "they revered him all the days of his life just as they had revered Moses" (4:14). They esteemed him. 

Not that they trusted in Joshua because he was so powerful. He hadn't held back the water. It wasn't his miracle. It did not show them his power. 
But it did show them that God was with him. This was the crucial lesson. It was "so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses" (3:7) That's why the people of Israel were ready to follow him. That, of course, needs to be evident in Christian leaders today - that God is with them.

That was supremely evident in the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua acts as a type of Christ - he is an example or a pattern of what Jesus was going to be and do. Jesus too was the leader of his people and God the Father was with him. 

The Father confirmed that about His Son at the beginning of His earthly ministry at the river Jordan. Jesus was baptised by John and a voice came from heaven; "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." (Matt 3:17).

God confirmed the ministry of Jesus by the great miracles he did. Those miracles were signs that He was who he claimed to be - the Son of God. The greatest proof of that was in his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven. 

This Jesus is our Great Leader today. 
Just as the people of Israel needed to trust in Joshua so today you need to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their trials and troubles and challenges are a pattern of what we are going through and will go through. But in every situation of life you can rely on Jesus and depend on him. You can put all your confidence in him. 
The writer of Hebrews says; "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfector of our faith." (Heb12:2)

The second purpose of this great miracle was to
CONFIRM GOD'S PRESENCE WITH HIS PEOPLE

Before they crossed the river Joshua gathered them together and spoke to them. "Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God." (3:9) He wanted to emphasise the importance of what he was about to say. They had to listen to the word of God. 
This is also true today of the reading and preaching of God's word - it is important because God is speaking to us.
Joshua told them that this miracle would show that God was among them. 
In verse 10 he says;  "This is how you will know that the living God is among you."
Notice that God is described as "the Living God". The Scriptures described the futility of serving idols that are deaf, dumb and blind. They are lifeless. But the Lord is the living God. He is the One who was and is and is to come. 

They knew God was with them because of the symbolism of the ark of the covenant. The ark is mentioned again and again in these two chapters. The ark led the way into the Jordan. The priest stood with the ark in the middle of the river bed while the people crossed over. 

As soon as they carried the ark out of the river bed the water began flowing again. 
The ark was a symbol of the presence of God. It reminded them that God was among them - He was there; He was faithful; He would keep the promises of His covenant; He would maintain His relationship with them. 

We don't know what happened to the ark. Maybe it was destroyed by the Babylonians when they razed Solomon's temple. Maybe it was destroyed by the Romans when they wrecked Herod's temple. It doesn't really matter. 

We have someone much greater than the ark, for we have the Lord Jesus. Jesus is not the symbol of God's presence - he is God, and he was present with his people as a man, and he is present with us today through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is Emmanuel - God with us. 
That is a great comfort and help to us. God is with you in all you do - in everything you face. Just as Israel had to follow the ark so you too must follow the Lord Jesus. 

This miracle confirmed Joshua's leadership and
it confirmed God's presence with his people. and thirdly
IT CONFIRMED GOD'S POWER. 
In verse 10 God assured them that he would "certainly drive out" the nations of Canaan.

The crossing of the Jordan was a great display of the power that God would exercise on behalf of his people. They would face many enemies and they would fight great battles. But if God could stop up the waters of the Jordan in flood then he could certainly help them win their battles! 

You see this emphasised in the description of God in verse 11 and 13 where he is described as "the Lord of all the earth."
He is the God of the whole world. He is not a local god whose power is weak and feeble and limited. No, He rules over the entire universe and that power is exercised for His people.

The Lord is still using that power for us today. Jesus said; "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me..." (Matt 28:18). You can go forward in this spiritual battle knowing that the Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus is all powerful and that He is with you.

But this power was not only displayed to Israel, it was also displayed to the nations. Joshua explained the significance of all this in chapter 4:24 by saying; "He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful."

Then in chapter 5:1 we read that when all the Amorite and Canaanite kings heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan so Israel could cross over "their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites." This action was a testimony to the nations of the mighty power of God. 
That was also true of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The New Testament cites that as the greatest demonstration of the power and the might of God. It is the proof that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and that sin had been paid for and that the victory over satan and death had been won. 

You need to believe this, especially in today's secular world where people don't take God seriously; where they don't believe in His presence or his power. It's easy for that to rub off on us. But a story like this brings this home to us again and reminds us that the Lord our God is almighty!

The Lord did not want the people of Israel to forget this, so he commanded them to build a memorial of 12 stones to remind them of this event - one stone for each of the 12 tribes. 

The command to build a memorial showed that miracles like this were unusual. 
It wasn't going to be every day that the Lord would dry up rivers so the people cold walk across them. Most of the time people would have to build bridges and take ferries. Don't expect miracles all the time. They are unusual - out of the ordinary. 
The Jews of Jesus' day asked him for a sign - another miracle. He told them that they would have no sign except the sign of the prophet Jonah - which was a reference to his resurrection. 
This memorial of stones was an opportunity for reflection, remembrance and instruction. Years later a father and son would be out walking along the banks of the Jordan and they would come across this monument. "What does this mean Dad?" the boy would ask. Then the father could explain what had happened and how this helped the people of Israel to trust in Joshua as their leader; but even more, how God had proved that he was with them and that he was powerful. 

Today we have the same opportunities in the memorials God has given to us: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These two sacraments take us back to the central realities of our faith. 
They give us an opportunity to remind each other, and our children, of who God is, of all he has done for us in the Lord Jesus, and of all that he wants us to do as well. These are truths to remember.  

Let's learn the lessons God wanted to teach the people of Israel:
God has done all this so that "all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God." (4:24)

Amen.