Welcome to Expound a verse
by verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Let's pray. Father, we do thank
you for this time that we have
together as a family, poring over scripture
in your word. We pray your Holy
Spirit would speak to us and then work through us. Take the truths that
you invest into us and pour them out from us as
we go out into this world. In Jesus' name, Amen. There is no greater
combination in my view than a spirit filled
leader surrounded by spirit filled people. You put that combination
together, and sky is the limit. Nothing shall be impossible. We have a man, Joshua, who
succeeded after Moses-- took over the
leadership of Israel, but surrounded by a group
of other leaders and people, who are sitting at the
edge of the Jordan River ready to do whatever
Joshua tells them to do. And they basically say,
look, you heard from God, and we believe that,
and we're ready to march wherever you want us to march. It's the new generation
that's ready to go, and when I read Joshua, I
think, well, how can you lose? Joshua, you've got
the power and strength of God, who promised that
he would be with you, but you've got the
people of God, as well. There's a great
text of scripture when King Saul went
back to Gibeah. It said, "valiant men went with
him whose hearts the Lord had touched," and when you have
a group of men and women and God has touched
their hearts, you're an unstoppable force. And so it is with Joshua. Joshua is the
leader, but he relies on leaders in the tribes,
as well as all of the people being on the same page. I've always loved the story
of the man who had the dream, and you know how dreams can be. They can get really
weird, and nothing really relates to each other, and you
try to explain it to somebody, and they look at
you, like, that's the weirdest-- it
doesn't even make sense, but it felt so real to you. Well, this guy had
a dream like that, and he dreamt that he
was in a big banquet hall and sat at a huge
table, and everybody was in suit and tie
and formal dress along this huge table
with great feasts, all sorts of wonderful foods. The only problem in his
dream is that everybody seated at the table-- their arms were tied
to these little boards. So they're at the table dressed
up nice, but all of them have boards on their arms,
which means they couldn't flex at the elbow, which means
they could reach over and grab the food, but they
couldn't bend their arm to put it in their mouth, so
awfully frustrating to try to eat a meal when you can take
the food, grab it, touch it, but you can't eat with it. Someone had a bright
idea in the dream of taking some of the food,
and reaching across that table, and putting it in
somebody's mouth. And so they thought,
oh, that's a great idea. So they enjoyed a
wonderful banquet, but they had to serve one
another in order to do it. And I've always
loved that analogy. I love that analogy
because really that is the body of Christ. I cook a lot of meals. I have the opportunity to
study and to teach God's word, but I really need
all y'all's help-- helping break it down and
make it applicable as you meet together in homes,
smaller groups, serving one another, volunteering in
a number of positions. I need help getting that food
into the lives of other people. And so thank you
for all your service and your heart filled servitude
to the Lord and to his people. Dwight L. Moody used to say
I would rather put 1,000 men to work than to do
the work of 1,000 men, and so Joshua has a lot of help,
as did Moses, in getting two and and half, maybe three
million people, even, but at least a couple
million of them over from one side of the
Jordan River to another side. So the people now
are ready to go in. They're waiting at
the Jordan River. It's springtime, so it's
an over flooding situation. The Jordan River can be quite
wide during the spring months after the rains, and
especially in old times it could be a daunting
task to get across. If you look at the
Jordan River today, you might think,
well, in some parts, especially this is
like, I can jump across, but the Jordan River of today
is different than it used to be. I'll explain as we
go through this. So there they are
probably wondering what's the order going to be. How are we going to manage
to get from this spot all the way over to that bank? There's no bridge. I doubt we're going to be
able to build rafts to go back and forth to bring us over. We'd be a sitting target
if that were the case. The people in Jericho would see
that, and we'd be dead meat, but they're there by faith,
and they're ready to go. Joshua, give the order,
and we'll do whatever. Now, that is faith,
and you will see a difference between this
crossing and the crossing under Moses of the Red Sea. During that crossing, the Lord
said, Moses, just put your rod out. Stick it out. Hold it up and stick it
out, and as you do that, the waters will part. So the people of Israel, the
forefathers of this generation, were able to watch it open
up before they walked down and cross, but not
on this occasion. On this occasion, you
will see that the priests have to step into the water. The soles of their feet
have to touch the wet water, and they have to get their
feet wet before that water is going to open. It's a step of faith. The priest will go first,
followed by tribal leaders, followed by two
and a half tribes from the east side
of the Jordan, followed by the people of
Israel, but this is true faith. Sometimes people think,
well, I believe God, and I'll do whatever
the Lord wants me to do. Lord, I'm just kind
of hanging out. You know my address. You know my phone number. You can get a hold of
me if you need anything. That kind of passive faith
won't take you very far. There's a difference between
just sort of passively sitting around versus
actively going ahead, and you're going to see
here exercised in chapter three true faith. Faith is not believing
in spite of the evidence. It's obeying in spite
of the consequence. I mean, evidence says that
water is not going to open up, but they're going to say
I'm ready to march ahead. I'm ready to put feet onto
my faith and march forward. So that will always be
the principle of faith throughout the Bible. Abraham believed God--
remember that scripture. He was justified by faith. He believed God, but
his believing God motivated him to
leave [INAUDIBLE] and travel all the
way to the land that God told him to go into. Faith always is
accompanied by action. Faith without works is dead. So verse 1 chapter
3-- "then Joshua rose early in the
morning, and they set out from the acacia grove
and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of
Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over." I don't know, but I love the
fact that Joshua got up early. He was an early riser. He wanted to give
the Lord the best part of his day, the time of
the day when it's the quietest. Your mind is clearest. You go, oh, you don't know
my mind when I wake up, but typically you
are at your peak once you wake up early
in the morning, at least. Even though I've always
been a night person, I find that to be true. And there's something about
seeking the Lord early. The Bible even speaks of that. Jesus got up early, the
Bible says, a great while before the breaking of the day. So Joshua, early to rise, giving
God the best part of his day. And "they set out from
the acacia grove"-- that is where the
children of Israel had been encamped
east of the Jordan-- "and came to the Jordan, he
and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before
they crossed over." The Jordan River of today
is different than the Jordan River of yesteryear. In antiquity, it had
much more water in it. It was wider. It was more daunting
a task to cross it. Over the years,
population has increased. Farms have siphoned water off. They've stopped it up. They've regulated it so that
the Jordan River of today is a shadow of its
former self, but let me explain to you a little
bit about the Jordan River, because no matter where
you go in Israel or Jordan, the Jordan River is
completely below sea level. The Jordan River begins far up
north in a little Roman town now a little bed of ruins called
Caesarea Philippi and just above that there are three
streams that join together from the Mount Hermon area. One is the Dan River. The other is the Banias
River, and the other is the Hasbani River. And they join together, and
they form a single central river called the Jordan. As it descends down south, it
goes for about 15 or 16 miles, and it goes into a valley
today called the Hula Valley. Now, you have Bible maps
in the back of your Bible, and if you were to
look at a Bible map, where it says Israel
or Palestine-- some of the maps say
at the time of Christ-- you will notice on that
map just above the Sea of Galilee a little lake. It's not there today. It doesn't exist,
but it did exist when the waters flowed
through that river at a much greater
pace and magnitude. That was called the
waters of Merom-- the waters of Merom. It's mentioned in the Bible. It's mentioned, in fact, in
the book of Joshua chapter 11-- the waters of Merom. When Israel settled
the land in 1948, they drained it because
it was a swamp area. It had become a
malaria ridden swamp, so they drained the Hula
Valley, and now it's just beautiful farms. There's no water at all. If you go from that beautiful
valley, the Hula Valley, down south, the next
body of water you'll hit is the Sea of Galilee. The Jordan River empties
into the Sea of Galilee, and 13 miles below
the Sea of Galilee, which is the bottom end of
the sea, it empties out again. Then it travels all the
way down to the Dead Sea, where it receives water,
but because it's, again, below sea level-- but now at the
Dead Sea it's 1290 feet below sea level, and it's very dry-- the evaporation is such that
water comes into the Dead Sea, but does not leave the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea
is appropriately called the Dead Sea. It's where water goes to die. It's 30% salt solution saline. Nothing lives there, but 160
miles of the Jordan River is all under sea level. That's what makes it remarkable. A little bit of background
of how the valley got under sea level-- so I'm taking you
now into the realm of geography just a little bit. The earth is comprised
of certain plates-- tectonic plates-- and
at some time in history, two of those plates
moved in that region-- the Nubian plate and
the Somalian plate. They moved, and tore
the earth's crust, and brought that valley
down low below sea level. It's called the Syrio, or
Syrian, African Rift Valley. It goes all the way from
Lebanon down to Africa. And it includes
the Jordan Valley, and so if you were to
look at a cross section, you see sea level. Then it rises up on both
sides into mountains, and then it plummets deep down
below sea level into a ravine. And that 160 miles-- that's the Jordan Valley. So they're camped down south
by the Dead Sea-- just a little bit north of the Dead Sea. Again, if you have a map
in the back of your Bible, you can kind of guess
just a little bit up from the northern
end of the Dead Sea. Your map will also show you
Jericho on the Western side. They're camped just
across from Jericho. That's where they cross over. So it was that 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, the levites bearing it, then you
shall set out from your place and go after it." Now, I'm stopping because
I want to reminisce with you a little bit. Can we do that? Let me take you back a few
books in the Old Testament so you understand
and we understand. We get reminded of the purpose
of the Ark of the Covenant. God instructed that
the children of Israel should build a structure where
he could meet with them, where he could have fellowship
with them based on a system of sacrifices. It's called the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a
portable tent structure that had courts and
furnishings in it. It was 75 feet wide. That's the measurement on the
east side and on the west side, and it was 150 feet
long north to south. You would enter in the
gate of the Tabernacle on the east side, and
if you entered in, the first thing you would see in
front of you would be an altar. It would be about four
and a half feet tall, seven and a half by seven and
a half feet wide and long. It had large protrusions
on it-- horns on the altar. And there sacrifices
would be made. Animals would be
slaughtered on that altar. Also, you would see
on the other side of that as you're moving your
way through the courtyard a laver, a big wash basin
made out of bronze where the priests would
cleanse themselves in the making of
these sacrifices, but then as you go from east to
west in that enclosure of 150 by 75 feet, you'll see
a building made out of tents and hides. And that is the
central sanctuary. That is the tabernacle
proper, and the measurement of that tent is 15 feet
wide by 45 feet deep. It's divided into two rooms. The first room-- now,
you couldn't enter and I couldn't enter
because we're not priests, but let's say we're
priests, and we go through that first room
which is called the holy place. That holy place-- 15 feet
wide by 30 feet deep-- and then that last
little room there's a curtain that
separates the holy place from that last little room. Now, in that holy
place, do you remember on the left hand side would
be the golden candlestick, the menorah? On the right hand
side would be a table of showbread, one
loaf of bread for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And right in the very front
would be an altar of incense where the priest would light
incense speaking of the prayers of God's people, but then there
was that last little room, that cube-- 15 feet, by 15 feet,
by about 15 feet high. You couldn't go in there
even if you were a priest. Only one person could
enter into that room, and that was the
high priest, and he couldn't go in every day. He couldn't say, you know what? I'm kind of bored out here. I want to go hang out with
God in the holy of holies. He would be struck dead. He could only go in once a
year on a special day called Yom Kippur, the
day of atonement, and he had to come
in with blood. And he'd walk in with
the blood of an animal, and he would sprinkle it on
top of an article of furniture. It was the only article of
furniture in that little space. In that holy of holies,
that one piece of furniture was the Ark of the Covenant. You've seen Indian Jones
and the Last Crusade, so you probably have some
idea of what it looks like or Hollywood's idea
of what it looks like. The Ark of the Covenant
was essentially a box, but a very special box. It was a box measuring 45
inches long, by 27 inches wide, by 27 inches tall. It was made out of
wood, covered with gold, but the very top lid
made of solid gold with a cherub on one side
and a cherub on the other-- these two cherubim whose wings
were touching in the center-- that, God said, is the place
where I will meet with you. When we're going to meet,
that's the only place that I will meet with you. So the priest would go in there,
and he would sprinkle the blood on the lid, the mercy seat,
of the Ark of the Covenant. Now, what was all that about? God loved his people. God created us for
fellowship with him, but there was a problem. God can't just pull up a chair,
and sit down next to you, and go, hey dude, what's up? Let's hang out together. He can't do that. You couldn't do that with God. We had told you about
the high priest. He couldn't just go in any time. He had to go in once a year. His heart had to be right. They even put a rope, tradition
tells us, on his ankle in case they heard the bells of
his robe stop ringing because that meant he must
have fallen over dead, and they would drag him out. So God loved his people, loved
a fellowship with his people, but he couldn't
meet with his people because they had broken
the very law he gave. All have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. God gave them the
law, but then the Lord said, oh, that they had a heart
that they were able to do all that I have commanded them. God knew they couldn't keep it. So there had to be
a transformation, and the transformation happened
on the day of Yom Kippur when the priest walked
in, and he sprinkled blood on top of the lid of
the Ark of the Covenant. At that moment, here's
the transformation. It went from a judgment
seat to a mercy seat. Now God could have
fellowship with his people. Now they could be at one. The idea of atonement
is at one-ment. God and man could
fellowship together over the shed
blood of a victim-- of an animal that took
the place of the sinner. There has to be some substitute
that dies for the sinner to allow the sinner to
be cleansed and have a relationship with God. All of that was picturing Jesus
Christ, who would come and do it once and for all,
but at that very moment, the judgment seat was
turned to a mercy seat. Forgiveness flowed. Fellowship was restored. I bring that up because there
is a word in the New Testament. Some of you know it. If you're Bible students,
you definitely know it. It's the word propitiation. Ever heard of the
word propitiation? Propitiation found in the book
of Romans, found in first John, is the Greek word-- listen to this
hilasterion, which is the Greek word in
Hebrews chapter 9. I think it's verse 25-- in describing the
tabernacle, the Greek word used to say mercy seat
is the word hilasterion. The mercy seat of the
Ark of the Covenant is the place of propitiation. So it was a symbol
of God's presence. The idea that the Ark of the
Covenant now, during this time, would go first over
the Jordan River was a picture that God is with
us his presence is with us. He's going to go before us
and open the way before us. So bring out the Ark. We're crossing over the Jordan. It's God's presence that's
going to do the work, and we're going to
follow his presence. Verse 4-- "yet there shall be
a space between you and it." How much of a space? It says about 2000 cubits-- 3,000 feet. Now, that's quite a
distance between you, the people, and the God
who's going to protect you. If you've got
protection going in against the enemy, 3,000 feet-- that's a lot of space. So God is saying I
want you to go for it. Follow after me. Follow after the Ark,
but give me some space. Give me space to work. I do see a principle here. They were to revere the
Ark of the Covenant. Nobody could touch it. Nobody could look on it
except for the high priest, as I mentioned, once a year. It was covered. So the Ark of the Covenant
was covered over with skins as they were going
across, and there was to be a space
between the people and the Ark of the Covenant. You see, the Lord
does want fellowship. He does love us. He does invite us to come
in and hang out with him. However, he's also to be
revered and respected. You can't get so chummy
with God that you lose the reverence for God. Some people-- I hear them talk
about the big guy in the sky, and they just speak in such
familiar terms rather than reverential terms, and
I think it's a mistake. Of course we have
fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we come boldly, but
we come respectfully. We come reverentially. We come realizing he's God. I'm not. I'm not an equal
with him at all. He invites me to be
his friend, Jesus said, but I still have the
fear of the Lord. So there was to be a space
between them and the Ark. "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." I love that. Sanctify yourself today and
watch God work tomorrow. You want to see
God work tomorrow? Sanctify yourselves today. Now what does that
mean-- sanctify yourself? Well, if we were to take our
cues from Mount Sinai when the same language is
used-- sanctify yourself-- what the people did is they
washed themselves with water and put on a change of clothes. They went through
a ritual cleansing, and then they put on
a change of clothes. This is what David did
after he confessed his sin to Nathan the prophet. This is what Jacob did when
he comes back to Bethel and renews the
covenant with God. It's highly symbolic of
starting afresh, starting anew. So sanctify yourselves,
for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. "And Joshua spoke to
the priest saying, take up the Ark of the
Covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the
Ark of the Covenant, and they went
before the people." Let's reminisce again, shall we? Because we've covered the
first five books of Moses. Now we're entering into
the books of history. The tribe of Levi was
the priestly tribe. You know that. Do you remember that
Aaron had three sons? And they were given each
different responsibilities in the tabernacle. So there was Gershon, who was
the father of the Gershonites. There was Merari, who was
over the family of Merari, and there was the Kohathites. Kohath was over the Kohathites. All three of them had
different responsibilities in the tabernacle. I'll jog your memory. The Gershonites-- they had to
pack up and carry the cloths, the tents, the
hangings, the hides-- all the soft stuff
on the tabernacle. They folded it up,
and they carried it through the wilderness. The family, or the
sons of Merari-- their job was the
infrastructure-- the poles, the sockets, the silver
hooks, the silver rods, the implements for the pans,
et cetera, in the tabernacle. That was their job. The Kohathites-- that's where
the high priests would come from-- the family of Kohath,
and the Kohathites-- all of the holy
implements-- the altars, both the altar of sacrifice
and the altar of incense, the menorah, the
table of showbread-- all of that was theirs-- and the Ark of the Covenant. So it is the sons of Aaron,
the family of the Kohathites who are bearing the Ark
into the River Jordan. This should refresh your memory. "And the Lord said to
Joshua,"-- verse 7-- "this day I will begin to exalt
you in the sight of all Israel that they may know 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. You see how different this was
from the crossing of the Red Sea under Moses? It's nice if you can
just put a rod out, watch it open up first,
and then, OK, now I'll go. But this is where
the faith comes in. Get your feet wet, man. Stand in it. It's not going to open
till you stand in it. I'm sure they were
tempted to say, hey, Josh, could you have
him open it first? Then we'll know it's the Lord. Then we'll be happy to go. But no, they had to get
their feet wet first. I personally learned
this principle when I moved from
California to Albuquerque in the very beginning
stages of our ministry. I had a background in radiology. I've told you that story. When I was in
Huntington Beach, I sent resumes to
hospitals in Albuquerque, and Santa Fe, down to Bowlin. I put all my background, all my
education, all my experience. Didn't hear a single
word-- not an invitation, not a job offer anywhere
from this state. So I decided a buddy of mine and
I would go spy out the land-- two spies. You don't need 12. You just need two. So we came here
and looked around, and he was getting involved
in a local radio station. And I remember getting
up that morning, and I may have been
reading Joshua. And after devotion times, I got
up early, and I turned to him, and I said, Kent,
I'm moving here. He said, well,
now wait a minute. I'm moving here. I thought you were just
thinking about moving here. I said, I was, and I am. And not only am I thinking about
moving here, I am moving here. He said, well, that's nice. The only problem is
you don't have a job. It's a great idea, but
you've sent resumes out. You've gotten no offers. I said, I know, but I just
feel the Lord's called me. I'm moving here. And I said, look, I'm young. I'm able to work anywhere. I can work in McDonald's. I can flip hamburgers. I'll find work, but
I'm moving here. I decided in the morning after
quiet time after breakfast. We stayed at some
little hotel on Central. If I showed you where,
you'd think, oh my goodness. It's a miracle you survived. [LAUGHTER] And if I were to
describe the room to you, it is a miracle that I survived. I counted the cockroaches
the next morning. But I decided to go to some
of the offices and hospitals that I had sent my
resume into that no offer or thank you, not interested. I decided I'm going
to go there anyway. By 12:00 noon, I had
not one, not two, but I had three job offers
from local hospitals that I could choose from. So I called my buddy,
Kent, and I said, I told you I was moving here. I got three job offers. Now I'm just going
to pick the best one. But what made the difference to
me was the commitment of faith. I said I feel the
Lord is calling me. I'm going to put my
feet in the, water and I'm going to walk forward. And it's not like
I'm waiting around-- God knows my number, man. He can call me any
time he wants to. I'm just hanging out
over here on Central in the twilight zone, but
I just made the commitment based upon what I read. And I decided I'm going for
it, and then the waters parted. And I've always held
dear to this principle as a personal principle
of how God works. God just wanted to see how
deep my commitment ran. Verse 9-- "so Josh was said
to the children of Israel, come here and hear the
words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said,
by this you shall know that the living
God is among you and that he without fail will
drive out from before you the Canaanite, the Hittites,
the Hivites, the Parazites, the Gergazites, the
Amorites, and the Jebuzites." You could throw in termites
and everything else. There are seven nations
that are mentioned that he would drive out. "Behold the Ark of the Covenant
of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before
you into Jordan." Please notice Joshua's
reference to God. What does he call God? The living God. Why is that important? Because all of the
nations listed here had their own worship systems. They were going into
their territory, but all of those worship
systems were dead. All of the gods that they
worshiped didn't exist. They were made up. They were a fabrication-- a religious fabrication
of their own imagination. There's only one true
God, only one living God, and so Joshua makes
reference to the living God. I'm going to read it to you-- Psalm 115, the Psalm
that says this. "But our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are
silver and gold-- the work of men's hands." Now listen to how
he describes them. "They have mouths, but
they do not speak." How frustrating to pray to
a God who can't talk to you. You can talk to it, you hope. You're looking at a
statue or a picture, and you're talking to
it, which is foolish because that little statue
can't talk back to you. So you're praying to a god that
cannot communicate the will of that god to you in
any fashion in any form. You're talking. You're praying to it, but
all you get is, I'm sorry, the number has been disconnected
or is no longer in use. How frustrating? They have mouths,
but they can't speak. He continues, "eyes, they
have, but they do not see." There is a god that
cannot watch over you. You have to watch over it. You have to make sure nobody
takes your little God. OK, we're going
to sleep tonight. Pack the gods away. Don't want to get them stolen. You laugh, but when Jacob
married Rachel and was fleeing from Laban to go
back home, Rachel had taken his little idols-- her father-in-law's
little idols, Laban's idols-- with
her on the journey. By the time Laban
caught up and had a come to Laban
meeting with him-- had it out-- finally he
burst out in anger and said, why did you steal my gods? Which is a stupid question. If you have to ask that, you're
worshipping the wrong god. You stole my gods. What's wrong? Your God can't keep
itself from being stolen? I'm the protector of your gods? Now, that sounds ludicrous, but
that is the idea in Psalm 115. "They have eyes, but
they do not see." He continues, "they have
ears, but they do not hear." So you're talking to the statue. You're pouring out your heart. Look at the ears. It just stops. It just stops right-- there's no hole that
goes into the head. It's covered up. There's no membrane. There's no capacity for that
deity to hear you at all. I love Elijah the prophet on
Mount Carmel with the contest with the prophets
of Baal, and it says he challenges
them to that contest. And the prophets of Baal
dance, and cut themselves, and they pray loud,
and they cry loud. And Elijah the prophet around
noon starts mocking them. He says, cry louder. Yell louder, for he is a god,
and he might be traveling, or he might be busy. He might be sleeping, and
you need to wake up your god. He's showing them how
stupid it is to follow their system of worship. You're praying to
gods that don't exist. They might have ears
that you put on them, but they can't hear. He continues, "noses they
have, but they don't smell." You can burn incense to it, but
can't appreciate your devotion. "They have hands, but
they do not handle. Feet they have, but
they do not walk, nor do they mutter
through their throat." That god cannot come to
you when you have a need. You have to go to it. They have feet, but
they can't walk. How different this is
from Jesus, who said, I will never leave
you or forsake you. Lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age-- Jesus called
Emmanuel, God with us. So Joshua wants them to
underscore the reality that they're going over
into these seven nations. They have a pantheon
of gods and goddesses they worship, a religious
system that is false, and there is only
one true living God who reveals
himself to mankind, and that's the one
they're trusting. So they're good to go. By this, you shall know that
the living God is among you and that He without fail
will drive them out. Verse 11-- "behold the
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of 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 soles
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, and 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 its banks during the whole
time of the harvest, that the waters, which
came down from upstream stood still and rose
in a heap very far away at Adam, the city
that is beside Zarethan." "So the waters that
went down into the sea of the Arabah, the salt
sea,"-- that's the Dead Sea we've been talking about-- "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." Now, that would have
taken a long time to stand there, because to get
two and a half million people across the water, even though
it's a wide swath that was cut, would take some time. It is interesting how
people try to explain this by natural occurrences,
and I understand the need that people have to try
to understand something supernatural, but there comes
a point where your explanations fall so far short of
a plausible reality in your trying to make
it a plausible reality that it's laughable. And it's just easier to
believe the biblical narrative than the thing you're
trying to come up with. So people have tried
to say, well, probably what happened was
an earthquake that caused the banks of the Jordan
to fall in and dam it up so they could go across. And in that explanation, they
will point to two occurrences where this actually happened at
this spot in the Jordan River. One happened during the 1200s. It's in the history books,
or history parchments, but it's recorded in the 1200s. Around the same area, an
earthquake took place, and the banks of
the Jordan River slid down and for 10 hours
blocked the Jordan River up. It happened again a
second time in 1927. An earthquake caused
the embankment to stop the Jordan
River for 21 hours. The problem is this. Both of those instances
did not happen in the springtime,
the flood season, when you have waters
up to a mile-- making the Jordan
River a mile wide. This happened at flood season. Number two, if it
is an earthquake, it's pretty cool
because as soon as they touch the water with their
feet the earthquake set off the embankment, and it collided. That would be a miracle. Number three, it tells us that
the water stood up in a heap. The waters were in a heap. You have to explain
that somehow. You have to get around that. Number four-- I think
I'm on number four. The bottom part of the river
that had been wet from-- it would still be wet. Even if there was an
earthquake, the riverbed would still be muddy, but it
became dry ground instantly. And then as soon as they were
over, the waters resumed. So you have a lot of
things to overcome in a natural explanation. I find-- I've told you before. Once I get past Genesis 1:1,
it's downhill from there. Let's see. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. Well, if that happened,
I'm good with this. I think you can
just go, eh, stop. Dry. Go ahead. Back. I prefer the
supernatural explanation over any natural explanation. In fact, I think
it takes more faith to believe the natural
explanation because there are just too many
obstacles to get around, too many coincidences
to get around. Before we jump into
the next chapter, fast forward from
this time 1500 years. 1500 years in the future, a man
will come down from Jerusalem to this very area and
baptize people here-- John the Baptist. John the Baptist baptized
in this exact area. John chapter 1 verse 28 tells us
it was the area of Bethabara-- you remember in
your New Testament. Bethabara means the
house of passage or the place of crossing. So he went down there
to baptize people for the remission of
sins in the Jordan River. "And it came to pass," verse
1, "when all the people had completely crossed
over the Jordan that the Lord spoke
to Joshua saying, take for yourselves 12
men from the people, one man from every
tribe, and command them saying take for
yourself 12 stones from here out of the midst of the
Jordan from the place where the priests feet stood firm. You shall carry
them over with you and leave them in the lodging
place where you lodge tonight. Then Joshua called the
12 men whom he appointed from the children
of Israel-- one man out of every tribe--
and Joshua said to them, cross over before
the Ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the
Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on
his shoulder according to the number of the tribes
of the children of Israel." So they put a stone
on their shoulder. I don't know how
big it was, but they had to travel eight
miles to where they're going to camp at a
place called Gilgal, and they're going to set that up
as a memorial, as we will see, before the Lord. Just remember Gilgal in your
study of the Old Testament. It becomes a very
important place to the children of Israel. It's the place where
King Saul will be crowned first King of Israel. It is the place where King
David will be received back into his kingdom after the
revolt of his son Absalom. He will come to Gilgal,
and that will sort of be the gateway for him to
go back up into Jerusalem and resume the throne
of the kingdom of Judah. Gilgal was so important
that Samuel the prophet included Gilgal as part
of his preaching circuit when he would go around
the southern parts and give his prophecies
to the children of Israel. So it becomes very
important in their history-- a very sacred place,
a very solemn place, a place of memorial
before the Lord. And so they took up stones. I love God's monuments. If you compare God's
monuments to men's monuments-- when you commission an
artist to build a monument, they go all out. It's a high budget. It's going to be very
ornate, whether it's the Arc de Triomphe in Paris
or the Arch of Titus in Rome. It's grand. It's awesome. It's jaw dropping. What I like about God-- he goes, just get some stones. Let's keep this
simple, shall we? Just get 12 rocks and just
stick them on the ground, and when people say, what
are those rocks doing there? You can tell them the story,
because the story is more important than the monument. So when we go to Israel-- and one of the reasons
I love going and taking tours to Israel-- even
though I've been 38 times, I love going for this reason. There's something about
sitting on the stones. Sometimes I'll find
a stone, or I'll just sit on the dirt for a time
of worship and Bible study, and to be in that land,
and to look around where those things happened,
there are many buildings. There are many churches in
the area, but as a tour group, we rarely go into
churches unless we have to, because I sort of
feel like they've spoiled it. They say this is the place
where Jesus was crucified, or this is the place where
the tomb is, but you go in, and you just see another
ornate church that you could find in New York City. It looks just like it. So you're going, boy, it's
sort of hard for me to picture that somebody was killed here
or somebody rose from a tomb. Where is the tomb again? You just have to take their
word that that's where it was, because it's covered
up by their church. So I love going out and just
being a part of the land and seeing God's monuments. It's much better
than those churches. And in fact, we've gotten kicked
out of some of the churches, because if you're a little
too loud and obnoxious or your sing-- if you're happy--
well, we've had a tour group kicked out
of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. This is where Jesus was
born, so we started singing. Oh, you can't sing. This is a church. Did you just hear yourself? Was that weird? One guy had shorts
on, and oh no, you can't wear shorts in a church. God doesn't like
to look at knees. Got to cover up. So let's just go out
to the dirt out here, and sit out here, and picture
where the shepherds were, and where this happened,
and forget this. So I love God's monuments. Just bring these stones. Set them up, man. Keep it simple. Verse 6-- "that this
may be a sign among you when your children ask
in time to come saying, what do these
stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them
that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark
of the Covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan. The waters of the
Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be for
a memorial to the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did
so just as Joshua commanded. They took up 12 stones as
the Lord had spoken to Joshua according to the number of
the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried
them over with them to the place where they lodged,
and laid them down there. Then Joshua set up 12 stones
in the midst of the Jordan"-- this is a second monument-- "in the place where the
feet of the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant stood." And there they are to this day. "So the priests who
bore the Ark stood in the midst of the Jordan
until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded
Joshua to speak to the people according to all that
Moses had commanded Joshua, and the people hurried
and crossed over. Interesting that Moses decided-- it seems on his own-- to place that
second set of stones in the midst of the Jordan. God commanded him
to set up a memorial with the first set
of stones, but he didn't command him-- at least
the text doesn't tell us he did. It seemed that Joshua just
decided he wanted to do that. Now, I say it's interesting,
because once the water covers it over, who's going to see it? Nobody except God, and maybe
sort of that was the idea-- is that this is
sort of a monument, a statement I am making
for me to remember this is the place where
we buried the past. Remember, Joshua was there years
before when they should have gone into the land,
and everybody said, no, we're not going
because of the giants. Joshua and Caleb
were still alive now, and they remember we should
have gone 40 years ago, but we didn't, but
we're going now. And so he placed
those stones in there perhaps to say the past is gone. It's buried. It's covered over, and God
sees that sort of like what it says in Romans chapter 6. "We were buried with him
through baptism unto death that just as Christ was raised by
the glory of God the Father, even so we should walk
in newness of life." That's the past. It's buried. It's covered. God sees it. Nobody else has to. We're moving on. But the first set of stones,
the 12 set up at Gilgal-- one day the kids would see
this odd little configuration and say, daddy, what's up
with those rocks over there? They look like they were
put there by somebody. Well, son, I'm glad
you asked, and they would use that as a teaching
point, a teaching moment to transmit God's truth to
the next generation, which is high on God's list. Deuteronomy chapter 6-- "you
shall impress these truths upon your children. You shall talk with them
as you go on the road. You shall speak with them as
you sit down, as you rise up. You shall place the scripture
on the doorpost of your house. You put it on your
forehead and on your hand so you're always reminded. You take what you know, and you
pass it to the next generation. And so this set of stones
were too instruct them. "Then it came to
pass," verse 11, "that all the people had
completely crossed over, that the Ark of the
Lord and the priests crossed over in the
presence of the people." Probably panting. Been there all day. "And the men of
Reuben, the men of Gad, and the half tribe
of Manasseh crossed over armed before the
children of Israel as Moses had spoken to them. About 40,000 prepared
for war crossed over before the Lord for battle
to the plains of Jericho." 40,000-- according to
Numbers chapter 26, there was like 139,900 and
some fighting men aged 20 and above that
became the standing army for the two and a half
tribes east of the Jordan. This represents 29% of the total
going over to fight the battle. Why did the rest stay
behind, the two thirds? It's simple. There's wives and children
on that side of the Jordan. They still need to be protected. So a fighting force of
40,000 foot soldiers from those two and a
half tribes will go over because they made a
promise to Moses-- will settle the land,
then will go back. And so a third of the
standing army goes. Two thirds stay at home to
protect the wife, the kids, sheep, oxen, cats, dogs,
grandmas, and grandpas, whatever. "On that day, the
Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all
Israel, and they feared him as they had feared Moses
all the days of his life. Then the Lord spoke
to Joshua saying, command the priests who bear
the Ark of the testimony to come up from the Jordan. Joshua, therefore, commanded
the priests saying, come up from the
Jordan, and it came to pass when the
priests who bore the Ark of the
Covenant of the Lord had come from the
midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests'
feet touched the dry land. The waters of the Jordan
returned to their place and overflowed all of
its banks as before. Now the people came
up from the Jordan on the 10th day of
the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on
the east border of Jericho. And those 12 stones which they
took out of the Jordan Joshua set up in Gilgal." We know it was the
springtime, because it says in that verse it was the
10th day of the first month. Remember, the Lord
had said in the Torah concerning the
month of Nisan said this shall be the beginning
of months for you. On the 10th day of the month-- do you recall what
happened on the 10th day of the month of Nisan? That's when the lambs
would be selected by the household
for the Passover. Four days later, on
the 14th day of Nisan, that's when the lamb would be
slaughtered for the family. Why is that significant? Because 15 years
later Jesus will stand on the Mount of Olives
just a few miles from this ready to go into
Jerusalem on the 10th day of the first month,
presenting himself as the lamb to the nation,
but let's finish this out. "Then he spoke to the
children of Israel, saying, when your children ask
their fathers in time to come saying, what are these stones? Then you shall let
your children know, saying, Israel crossed over
this Jordan on dry land, for the Lord your God dried
up the waters of the Jordan before you until you crossed
over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which
he dried up before us until we had crossed over." Now, I want you to
notice something. It is time to go,
and we're going to pray in 30, 45 seconds, a
minute and a half, two minutes. This is an instruction
to fathers. You didn't say, dad,
go out and do the work and leave the raising
of the kids, especially spiritual training,
to the womenfolk. Fathers did this. The instruction never
was take your kids to Sunday school, or Sabbath
school, or Levite school, or whatever it was, but
you impress upon them. You teach them. The book of Proverbs
is essentially the instruction of a
father to his children, teaching them what's important
and what's not important, a foolish way to live
versus a wise way to live. Put God first, not your
own interest first-- the fear of the Lord
versus the fear of man. And in that book,
in the 22nd chapter, it says train up a child. It's instruction to his son,
who would have his own kids. Train up a child in the
way that he should go, and when he is old, he
will not depart from it. So much of a child's
well-being, so much of a child's
foundational confidence comes from a father's example
and training in a home. Fathers were to do
this, and God's command as a heavenly Father
was to earthly fathers "that all the
peoples of the earth may know that the hand of
the Lord-- that it his mighty and that you may fear the
Lord your God forever." So sanctify yourself today. Watch God work tomorrow. . Take what you have and
be determined to pass it on to kids and grandkids. Pass it on to the
next generation. If you don't, remember
that Christianity is only one generation
away from extinction-- one generation away. One of the saddest sights I
ever saw was going to England and looking at some of the
great churches of that country that have been turned into
mosques, turned into cafes, coffee shops, homes. Churches abandoned--
they become irrelevant. The great structures of
faith that at one time overflowed with
people sell for cheap. One generation away
from extinction. Not only train your
children, fathers. Live the life before them. They're watching. They're watching your
tone with your wife. They're watching how
you resolve conflict. They're watching how you
talk about her parents and your parents. They're registering that. That's how they'll talk
about you in the future. They soak in so much. When it says train up a child
in the way that he should go, the Hebrew word for
train up is [HEBREW], which means stimulate the
taste buds of a child. And a word the
Hebrews use-- there's a similar word in Arabic. They would take with
their little finger when a child was learning to
go to its mother's breast-- they would take some
date honey in the finger, and they would take a
little daub of date honey, and they would take it on
the pursed lips of the infant and touch. And that would stimulate
the sucking reflex. The little child would go-- it's sweet. It's like, give me
more of that stuff wherever that's coming from. That's like crack cocaine. Give me more of that. Sorry for the analogy,
but you get it. It's like, whoa, sugar, man. And so in stimulating
the sucking reflex, then they would teach that
child to drink from its mother because that reflex
is now working. So train up a child. Stimulate the taste
of a child by the way you live as well
as what you say, because that's passing it
on to the next generation, because one day we'll be
gone, and they take the reins. So Father, we thank you
for this generation. We thank you for the
wonders and works you have done in our
midst, but Lord, we know that there's more to come. The best is yet to come. We look forward to what you
are going to do in our midst, and we just give ourselves to
you, Lord, as living sacrifices and ask that you would do
your work through us to people we meet tomorrow, to
our family members we're going to see tonight,
to our children we're going to pick up from the Sunday
school in just a little bit. Lord, help us to be just
the kind of men and women that stimulate the
taste of these younguns to follow after
you in Jesus' name. Amen. For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
