Joshua 3:1-17 - Crossing The Jordan

Welcome to the Well

I have to say tonight, it is really good to hear everybody sing. I’m so grateful that you let out, and Trevor, I’m grateful for you. We’ve had the privilege of doing life group together with our families—just doing life, talking about what God is doing, and trying to walk out this messy process of life with God together. To share tonight with you, to hear you sing, and to do life together as a community is awesome.

Welcome to the Well; I’m glad you’re here. If you happen to be a guest with us, midweek is an interesting gathering. You’re usually hustling to get here from work, trying to calm down and open up to the Lord. We sing a little bit, we hear from the Word of God, and then we break up into what we call “open groups.” These are just opportunities to gather around the table and talk about what you just heard. If you’re interested in finding a chance to get involved with community, we’d love to have you do that.

If you have your Bibles, we are in a series in Joshua. We’re going to be in Joshua chapter three. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Brad. I’m one of the elders and the lead pastor here. Tonight, we’re talking about the faithfulness of our God and the strength with which He goes before His people. We’re going to ask and answer the question: Is God still faithful even to us today?

The Story of Rahab

If you were with us last week, you heard Josh teach on the story of Rahab. Just by way of reminder, look at chapter two, verses nine through eleven. Here is this woman, Rahab the harlot, and she sees these spies who had come in to scout out the city of Jericho.

Joshua 2:9-11 (NASB)

and said to the men, ’I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. ’For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. ’When we heard [it], our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

How did she know? Did she turn on the TV and hear news about this Red Sea crossing? Was she scrolling Instagram and seeing updates? Did she get a push notification? It’s interesting how she heard about this. There are three trade routes that go north-south in Israel. One goes along the western coast called the Via Maris. One goes right down the center called the Way of the Patriarchs. One is Transjordan, called the King’s Highway.

All three of those roads would have gone right near and through Jericho. Traders would go down to Egypt and see decimation. They were used to seeing a Costco that was stocked and markets that were great, but instead, they saw destruction. Then, coming back through the wilderness, they saw this massive horde of people just stirring up dust. They’d been out there for forty years. You can’t survive for two days in that heat without water, yet they were surviving in the wasteland. People were coming to Jericho with that story on their lips, and when Rahab heard it, her heart melted like wax.

I love the Rahab story because it gives me hope. I don’t know what your life was like before you came to know Christ, or what it’s like right now. But this woman, known forever as “Rahab the harlot,” is mentioned in Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Faith. She’s mentioned by James as an example of faith in practice. And in Matthew chapter one, she is in the very genealogy of Jesus our Lord. What does that say? It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish. Regardless of what your past might be, we serve a God who is rewriting our stories.

Stacking the Deck

As we look at chapter three, it’s like, “Meanwhile, back in the camp…” We are with Joshua and the people of God, and they are moving toward the Jordan to prepare to cross.

Joshua 3:1 (NASB)

Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and he and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and they lodged there before they crossed.

Now, how high was this mighty Jordan River? If you glance down at verse 15, it says the Jordan overflows all its banks during the days of the harvest. God is constantly stacking the deck against Himself to make sure that when He does the impossible, you know it wasn’t humankind that did it—it was God. This is not a creek; this is a river at flood level. They are camped about six miles from Jericho, and this battle of crossing the Jordan is God’s battle. This is not about their power and might; it’s about the faithfulness of God.

Joshua 3:2-3 (NASB)

At the end of three days the officers went through the midst of the camp; and they commanded the people, saying, ’When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

This begs the question: What is the Ark of the Covenant? Back in Exodus 25, God told Moses to build a tabernacle—a mobile tent structure. There was a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. If the cloud moved, you packed up and followed. Inside the tabernacle was a box called the Ark of the Covenant. Inside were three things: a jar of manna, Aaron’s rod that had budded, and the Ten Commandments. The significance of the Ark is that it’s where the presence of God descended and dwelled.

Why the Ark? Because God goes first. This conquest is not about having a Seal Team Six that was super brave. This is about God going first. To show that it’s God, He sends the Ark carried by unarmed priests into the land of the enemy.

Proximity and Holiness

However, in verse four, there is a warning. Be careful that you do not get too close to the presence of God.

Joshua 3:4 (NASB)

‘However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.’

Two thousand cubits is a little over half a mile. God is saying, “I am with you, but keep your distance.” Why? We need to remember His attributes. God is perfectly holy, and a holy God and an unholy people cannot have close proximity. What happened if they tried to close that distance?

In Exodus 19, Moses was told to warn the people not to come near the mountain or they would die. In Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu mismeasured an incense offering and God took their lives. In 1 Chronicles 13, when David was transporting the Ark and it started to tip, a man named Uzzah reached out to steady it, and God took his life. The point is this: God is terrifyingly holy. You don’t just say, “Yeah, I know what God said, but I’m going to do what I want.”

Wonders Among Us

With that in mind, Joshua tells the people to consecrate themselves.

Joshua 3:5 (NASB)

Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.’

Joshua doesn’t say, “Tomorrow, I’m going to be awesome,” or “Follow the commanders because they’re awesome.” He says the Lord will do wonders. Then God gives Joshua a special word of encouragement. Remember, in chapter one, God told him three times to be strong and courageous. Why? Because he was scared to death! He was following Moses, who was the GOAT of the Old Testament.

Joshua 3:7 (NASB)

Now the LORD said to Joshua, ’This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.

Imagine that assurance from the Lord. God then tells him to command the priests to stand in the Jordan. They weren’t in a hurry. This wasn’t like a land rush where you put the throttle down to avoid getting stuck. They walked in, and when their toes hit the water, the water parted. They stood in the middle until everyone passed. Think about that—somewhere between one and two and a half million people had to cross. Those priests were standing there for a long time, probably in shifts!

Joshua 3:9 (NASB)

Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, ‘Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God.’

Joshua tells them that God is going to dispossess the “-ites”—the Canaanites, Hittites, and all the rest. This can feel harsh, but remember, this land was promised to Abraham’s descendants, and the people currently living there were involved in horrific spiritual practices.

Psalms 106:35-38 (NASB)

But they mingled with the nations And learned their practices, And served their idols, Which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with the blood.

They were sacrificing their children to demons. That is the spiritual darkness God was dealing with.

Red Sea Part Two

Now, look at the miracle itself.

Joshua 3:13 (NASB)

‘It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, [and] the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap.’

This is Red Sea Part Two. Just as God was with Moses, He is with Joshua. When the priests’ feet dipped into the edge of the water, the flow stopped twenty miles upriver at a city called Adam. This wasn’t a freak of nature or a goat blocking the stream; this was God miraculously shutting off the valves.

Joshua 3:17 (NASB)

And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

They crossed on dry ground. Picture the population of Fresno and Clovis combined trying to cross a river at once. It was a massive movement of people, and God was clearly with them.

Is He With Us?

It’s easy to see God was with them. But the question I want to ask is: Is He with us? I’ve never seen a sea part. I’ve never witnessed a river stop.

I’ve often replayed a fictional interaction in my mind. One day, in glory, I’d like to have coffee with Moses and ask, “Dude, what was it like when the Red Sea parted?” Or ask Joshua, “What was it like to see the Jordan dry up?” But here’s the irony: I wouldn’t be surprised if they stopped me mid-sentence and said, “No, no, no. God was with us, but God was in you. You were sealed with the Holy Spirit. What was that like?”

We focus on the external miracles, but the men and women of the Old Testament never experienced what we experience. When Joshua led the people, God was half a mile away. Something different has happened for us. I call it the pneumatological reality of our faith. “Pneuma” means breath or spirit. The real miracle is not the Jordan River crossing; the real miracle is how a holy God can indwell a sinful person like you or me. Because let’s be honest—we are a hot mess.

The Spirit in Us

Our God is a triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God would come upon people for a season and then be taken away. Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson all experienced this. Even David prayed in the Psalms.

Psalms 51:10-11 (NASB)

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

But when the New Testament comes, Jesus starts saying things that sound crazy to the disciples.

John 14:16-17 (NASB)

’I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; [that is] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, [but] you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

Jesus says the Spirit will not just be with you, but in you. He even says it is to our advantage that He goes away, because if He doesn’t, the Helper won’t come. Because of the Gospel, the Spirit can live inside us. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God. When the Spirit dwells in us, it is holiness living in holiness because of Christ.

Ephesians 1:13-14 (NASB)

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.

If you are in Christ, you are a temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16 (NASB)

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?

The same God who spoke the world into existence and parted the Red Sea is actually in you. He has cut the chains of sin and freed you to live by His power. He is with you in the awesome and the awful. He doesn’t leave when you suck; He is the one who convicts you and encourages you to repent.

Raising the Sails

Just like Joshua had to learn to trust God, we have to learn to yield to His leading. We are sealed with the Spirit, but we still live in a “bag of flesh.” We have to choose which one to obey.

Galatians 5:16 (NASB)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

The word “walk” there means to walk along with—to open up to the presence of God in your life. It can be easy to get wonky when talking about the Spirit, so let’s keep the Bible in hand. How do we open to the Spirit? We bring our lives into alignment.

When we read about the burning bush or the Jordan crossing and ask, “What about me, God?” remember that He is with you and in you. It is a profound miracle. Whether you are driving, at a job you hate, or feeling overwhelmed with your kids, He is there.

In John 3, Jesus compares the Spirit to the wind. You don’t know where it’s coming from or where it’s going, but you see the effects. To live the Christian life in fullness is to embrace the miracle that He is with me and to learn to raise my proverbial sails to catch what God is doing. It’s a lot easier to raise your sails than to try to row upstream.

Let’s be a people who recognize the miracle—that a holy God, through the work of Jesus, chooses not to stay half a mile away, but chooses to be with us always.

Closing Prayer

God, I’m so grateful for Your Word and for the reality of the Spirit of God in us. We know that apart from You, we can do nothing. In our flesh, we are incapable of pleasing You, but thankfully, You have filled us with Your Spirit that we might delight in life with You. Thank You for the Red Sea and the Jordan, but even more, thank You for the rich deposit of the Spirit in our hearts. Help us to walk with You and allow Your Spirit to drive us into a life of faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.