Joshua 3&4

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Joshua 3:1-17

“And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim; and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. 2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; 3 and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. 4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits [half mile or 1,000 yards] by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. 5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you. 6 And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. 7 And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. 8 And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. 9 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God. 10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye 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. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. 12 Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap. 14 And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; 15 and as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) 16 that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city of Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. 17 And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.”

Introduction

“We have come to the end of the chapter in regards to Rahab the harlot, and have now come to the crossing of the Jordan, the two spies have come back. They’ve told Joshua about their encounter, the important thing being that the inhabitants of the land are melting, they’re terrified standing in the presence of the children of Israel, seeing them on the other side of the Jordan. Now the problem is, that they’re on the other side of the Jordan, that is the problem in our picture here. And this is early spring, in March, about that time. The snows of Mount Herman, and the waters coming down from the Sea of Galilee, the Galilee is a thousand foot higher than the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on the face of the earth. And the waters coming down the Jordan Valley drop a thousand foot in elevation. And at this time of the year is when Jordan overflowed its banks. So the river that normally meandered in a general S-curve would overflow all of those banks, sometimes being a quarter to a half mile wide. Without any dams at this point in time at the Sea of Galilee, without any irrigation being taken out of the river, it was sometimes something to behold. So you have the children of Israel camped on one side, looking over this raging water, and you have those in Jericho, no doubt, completely aware, as the spies came back and told Joshua, and looking off of their fortress on the walls of Jericho, and Israel encamped on the other side, seeing the pillar of cloud in the day, the pillar of fire by night, they’re intimidated, they’re watching how this whole process is going to take place. And now God begins to talk to Joshua about the crossing of the Jordan. He’s going to do it in such a way that the people will recognize ‘That I am with you as I have been with Moses.’ God is not only taking the children of Israel across the Jordan, he’s going to do it in a miraculous way, which will stir their faith, which will continue to terrorize the Canaanites, but will make the children of Israel realize that they need to listen to Joshua as they had listened to Moses, that he is God’s appointed leader.

Three Days To Stare At An Impossible River-Crossing

So chapter 3, a new generation, facing this Jordan River now that’s in front of them, it says, “And Joshua rose early in the morning” and that is his practice, if you in your spare time look at chapter 6, verse 12, chapter 7, verse 16, chapter 8, verse 10, we always hear that Joshua rises early to seek the LORD, “And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, (the Acacia grove) and came to Jordan (about 8 miles or so), he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.” (verse 1) Now, from the walls of Jericho they must have seen them make this initial move, must have taken the better part, at least all of one day, as they came down towards the Jordan. And it says, “he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host;” (verse 2) so they’re encamped there for three days, three days for them to look at the Jordan River in its flood stage, three days for the kids to be asking their parents ‘Mommy, Daddy, how we going to get across there?’ three days for people asking ‘What’s the plan here, we’re not making any preparations, we’re not building any barges, we’re not building any boats?’ which would have been a large number of boats to get a million and a half to two million people across this river. God allows them to look at the impossibility of this situation for three days, resurrection time, three days, interesting to look at this here. Three days, “it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.” (verses 2-3)

This Is Something New, You’ve Never Been Led This Way Before

Now we’re going to hear in the next two chapters of the ark of the covenant 16 times, it’s called “the ark,” simply, just “the ark” three times, it’s called “the ark of God” three times, and it’s called “the ark of the covenant” ten times. “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.” (verse 3) No longer following Moses, no longer following the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud, this is a new generation, this will be a new experience. They will be following the ark. Now we’re going to see, that God’s going to tell them, he wants them at least 3,000 feet away from it, he wants them back off from it so they can see it, almost a half mile, a little over a half mile. The reason is, because you have an encampment of between a million and a half to two million people, and they’re not going to follow this pillar that goes way up into the sky now, they’re going to follow the ark of the covenant. The nation was made aware that that was as it were, the throne of God, it was the place where God dwelt between the cherubim on the lid there, it would symbolize the presence of God. So they’re going to have to see that, so God says ‘put a distance between the ark of the covenant and the people,’ and probably there’s another part of that, there should be that reverence. Some people talk about ‘the Man upstairs,’ about God like he’s their buddy or something. There was a pretty awesome picture that’s given to us here. ‘So when you see the ark of the covenant move, then you’re going to follow after it.’ “Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits (3,000 feet for the 18” cubit, or half a mile) by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.” (verse 4) because if they’re all crowded around it, nobody can see it. So he says ‘don’t get any closer than that, because I want you to see the path that you’re going to follow,’ “for ye have not passed this way heretofore.” (verse 4c) ‘you’ve never been led this way before, you’ve never made this journey before, you’ve never experienced this before, this is something new.’ “And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” (verse 5) Now Joshua doesn’t say ‘target practice,’ doesn’t say ‘sharpen your swords,’ doesn’t say ‘build your barges, get your grappling hooks ready.’ It’s very interesting, he says to the nation “Sanctify yourselves.” There’s the impossibility of the Jordan River in front of them, there’s no instruction about how it’s going to be crossed. They’re being told, ‘The ark of the covenant is going to go in front of you, don’t get too close to it,’ the people are probably figuring, ‘I’m glad of that, cause if they get washed away, maybe they’ll start another program here.’ They don’t know what’s going to happen, they never read the chapter before. And here’s Joshua now, going through all the camp and saying ‘Sanctify yourselves, do this, this is the thing that’s necessary. Not your strength, not your marshal arts, not your art of war, not your expertise in battle, sanctify yourselves, consecrate yourselves, set your lives aside.’ Certainly there is a lesson here for us [this lesson was taught in the famous B-17 bomber movie “12 O’clock High”]. Moses says in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 23, ‘that the LORD brought you out (speaking of Egypt) that he might bring you in.’ There’s a profound truth there. You know, coming out of Egypt it was the blood of the lamb on the night of the Passover, that’s a picture of our salvation, being brought out of Egypt. God didn’t just save us so that we could be saved waiting, just to go to heaven [or more accurately, just to be resurrected in the resurrection to immortality and placed into the eternal Kingdom of God, which will end up on earth, cf. Revelation 21:1-23] and be here in neutral, there’s no neutral in the Kingdom, there’s no being static. He brought us out so that he could bring us in. And the promises of God that we’re to enter into are not just the future, they certainly are the future, the eternal state, but there are things now. God saved me from my past life, but he had something new for me to enter into. My life has changed. Those things are, you know, old things pass away, all things become new. So he’s brought us out to bring us in. He wants us to be changed. We’re to be living Epistles, known and read of all men, we’re supposed to leave off the works of iniquity, those things are to fall behind us. God brought us out, washed us in the blood of his Son, that he might bring us in to newness of life, that he might bring us in to a different experience in this world while we’re waiting. And certainly that’s the picture of crossing into the Promised Land. Again, the Promised Land is not heaven, there’s giants, there’s battles, there’s all kinds of things. But God wants us to understand the way we enter into those things is the same way that we come out of Egypt, by a miracle, not by anything you can do, not by anything you deserve, it’s again by his grace. For you and I to enter into the fulness of what God has for us tonight and tomorrow and this week, we are just as dependent upon him as we were when we came out of Egypt, when we were saved. And he wants to make that abundantly clear here. There will be a miracle as profound as the miracle of them coming out of Egypt, and it’s what he’s putting before them here. So, Joshua says to them ‘I want you to sanctify yourselves,’ “for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” (verse 5) “And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.” (verse 6) Now, this is an interesting picture, and I’m not sure what to do with it. You’re entitled to your own distorted opinion, because I have tried ad nauseum to nail it down. In the Book of Numbers we’re strictly told that it was the Kohathites, who were Levites but not priests, who bore the ark of the covenant. In this picture it specifically says these that are baring the ark of the covenant are priests. And the ark of the covenant is going before the people to be seen. There are some questions, is it covered? We know when the Kohathites carried it, it was covered in skins so it couldn’t be seen. This seems to be something different. We’re going to see at other times now, the ark of the covenant carried ahead of them into battle. It was normally after the tribe of Judah, and the way the tabernacle was moved, it was protected with Judah and other tribes ahead of it. This now is a picture of the presence of God going specifically before his people, it is the priests that are carrying it, and not just the Levites, it says specifically the priests (the Kohathites are not priests), so we have a question there. And the other question, is it covered or uncovered? Are the children of Israel, for the first time in their experience, actually seeing this golden box glistening in the sun, out in front of them by about half a mile? And you know the sun in that part of the world is quite incredible. Is it open to their view in that sense? It’s not specific, it doesn’t say. But I’m filled with wonder, personally, as I watch this scene here, and I think of what’s taking place. You know, you have this experience of a generation, you know, that some of them were alive now that had come out of Egypt, but they were children when they came out of Egypt. The older ones, the adults, that generation, their carcasses had died in the Wilderness. But you have some that are elderly now, that remember coming through the Red Sea. You have some that are adults that remember being terrified as children that night, crossing the Red Sea, and the waters being like a wall on one side and a wall on the other side. You have those that traveled and have seen God’s victory in the desert, in the rock bringing forth the water and so forth. And you have a new generation that are younger, they’re going to be part of the army, that were born in the wilderness. So this is a very interesting experience as we look at this and this new generation looking across the Jordan ‘You know, we’ve heard about this our whole lives, we heard about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the promises made, we remember when our parents wept when we were in Egypt, and we remember that night of the Passover, we remember the Red Sea, we remember being camped by Horeb and God speaking the Ten Commandments, that we were terrified, we remember all of these things.’ And now they’re sitting there on the edge of the Promised Land, Moses is dead, the pillar’s going to stop and so forth, and this is an entirely new experience for them, entirely new experience even for the younger ones who were born in the Wilderness.

The Blocking Of The Jordan River

And it says “And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.” (verses 6-7) So the crossing of the Jordan is going to be a miraculous experience. That’s important because when we get over there (in our Israel trip) there’s going to be all kinds of naturalistic explanations, by the time you read all of those scholars, you can take God out of the Bible and cross the Jordan without him. I don’t see that here. He says, ‘that they may know,’ he’s going to do it in such a way, like the Red Sea, “that they might know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.” (verses 7b-8) Now we don’t know what the priests thought about this. Joshua said, they hadn’t read the chapter either, the priests, Joshua is going to say ‘You get way out in front of us, we’re going to follow about a half mile behind you, and don’t worry about nothing,’ ‘Well how you getting across Jordan?’ ‘Don’t worry about that, God’s just said ‘Go, stand in the Jordan river, just go and stand in it.’ ‘then what?’ ‘It doesn’t matter what, you just go do that, and we’ll do what God wants us to do.’ And the priests are probably saying ‘what about the rod thing, you got Moses’ rod, part the river, you get any of that going on?’ and Joshua says ‘No, you just go down there.’ It’s all in faith, because again they never read the chapter, they had never been led this way “heretofore,” King James says. “And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God.” (verse 9) Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word, “And Joshua said, Hereby ye 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.” (verse 10) “Behold,” consider this, “the ark of the covenant of the LORD of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.” (verses 11-13) Now, that seems cut and dry to me. Imagine what Joshua’s telling them, ‘Now I want you to get me a man from each of your tribes, because you see the priest out there in front of you? when they get down and their feet, their ankles get ankle deep in the Jordan River, snap! it’s going to dry up, the water’s going to start to pile up in a heap.’ Now this water is rushing, this is white-water, this is the Spring, this is overflowing its banks. It’s going to start to stack up, he says. How high that pile gets is left to our imagination. [Comment: at the deepest point of ocean of the Red Sea crossing, where they crossed, is about 800 feet deep, so how high with God is not a factor.] No doubt it was visible, because an impression will be made, and they will know that as God was with Moses, so is he with Joshua. ‘The waters shall stand up in a heap.’ “And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; and as they that bare the ark were come into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)” we’re going to find out that’s exactly when it was, “that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city of Adam,” now this is the only time this is mentioned in the Scripture, this is a town that most archeologists have identified 16 to 19 miles north of the place of the crossing, but it is interesting, the city of Adam here it’s called, “that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.” (verses 14-16) If you live in Jericho you’ve got a baaad feeling about all this. So, the ankles of the priests get into the water. The water starts to pile up, it says up by the city of Adam, about 16 miles north of there. The waters that are coming down, it says, deplete and disappear down into the Dead Sea. And by the way that means the Jabbok and all the tributaries and everything, they were all shut up too, anything below the city of Adam, between there, those had to all be backed up also [the mouth of the Jabbok River is right at the city of Adam]. Now you read through this, and some of the scholars want to tell us, because in December 8^th in the year 1267 there was an earthquake up in that specific area where they identify the city, and the banks caved in, and the Jordan River stopped flowing for ten hours. Then again in 1927 an earthquake up in the same area, the banks of the Jordan caved in, and the Jordan River stopped flowing for 21 hours. And neither of these, from what we know of, of course happened during the flood stage of the river. Ah, if you listen to these “scholars,” I read through them and think ‘You guys, you don’t even need God in the Book of Joshua…’ and of course they’ve got the walls of the city falling down by earthquakes too. Look, think logically about this. The supernatural parts of this are this, it was predicted, ok, hard to do with earthquakes. Joshua said ‘When the ankles of the priests get in the river, the river’s gonna dry up.’ Secondly, it happened just that way, the timing was exact. It’s hard to time earthquakes like that. Again, third, it happened at flood stage. Fourthly, the heap that built up, how long does it take? It took all night for this many people, it took over 8 hours, and they would have had to been so many miles wide, over five thousand abreast to cover and get through the Red Sea in one night, how many hours? Is it a 12-hour passage? Is it a 16-hour passage? How long did this take? For many, many hours the floodtide of the Jordan is stacking up. So you got a, for 16-miles from the walls of Jericho, you can see 16 miles easy. And as they’re looking upstream from the walls of Jericho, they’re seeing this black wall, it’s like the Hoover Dam without the dam, seeing the water behind the Hoover Dam without the Hoover Dam in front of it, just kind of getting bigger and bigger. Fourthly, you take note of the fact, as we read through, it says ‘that they crossed over on dry land.’ It’s not a bunch of kids, ‘Mommy!’ slopping through the mud to get across, there’s a supernatural aspect to this. When the water stopped flowing, it says the riverbed was completely dry. And last of all, the river comes back on que. So it’s hard to rule the supernatural out of this, unless you’re a non-believer. I don’t have any trouble with this, I love this story. I like this water stacking way up like that. Interesting picture of course, our problems, what keeps us from entering into the promises of God sometimes, the things that flow from the city of Adam as it were? of our carnal nature, the things that flow from the natural man so often, are the things that stand in the way of us entering in. But God’s given us his Spirit, he’s empowered us so that we can live a certain way. There isn’t anything really that’s withholding us from entering into those promises. But when it does, it’s always that which flows from Adam. It’s just an interesting picture, it’s the only thing here, time in the Bible we have the phrase. So we see this whole picture develop. Verse 17 says, “And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.” So imagine people in Jericho standing there, they’re terrified because they had said ‘We heard what God did to the Egyptians in the Red Sea,’ now they’re standing on the walls of Jericho, their mouths must be hanging wide open, they’re looking up to their left, they see the water piling up and up. Because the city of Philadelphia is a million and half residents, imagine a group of people larger than the city of Philadelphia crossing over, and you’re watching this entire process, while the waters, everything dries up, and they just come walking across. In Jericho they must have been thinking before this happened, ‘If they build boats we’ll get our archers down there, we’ll hit them while they’re in the middle…’ they’re thinking all this, and all of a sudden they watch this box come walking down, the guys step into the river and the river does…dries up, and they’re just, they’re looking at this. Just imagine what it was like for them. I’m glad I’m on the right side of all of this.”

Joshua 4:1-24

“And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, 2 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 3 and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: 5 and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of tribes of the children of Israel: 6 that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? 7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. 8 And the children did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel [12, not just the tribe of Judah, the Jews, but 12], and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. 10 For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over. 11 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. 12 And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them: 13 About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho. 14 On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel: and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. 15 And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, 16 Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. 17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. 18 And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before. 19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month [four days before Passover], and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. 20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. 21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? 22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. 23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up before us, until we were gone over. 24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.”

‘When Your Children Ask’

“It says “And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.” where they’re going to encamp, “Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan,” now that’s passing over in the sense of going back to where it was, “and take ye up every man a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.” (verses 1-7) Now I’m not sure if all your translations there in verse 6 say “that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers,” because it’s in italics, “your” there is masculine, so it insinuates the fathers. But if you look over in verse 21, it says, “And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stone?” and it’s clearly there in the Hebrew, so we have this same lesson. Please take notice as we look at this. It doesn’t say ‘If your children ask,’ God said they’re gonna ask. You put a pile of twelve stones anywhere and kids are gonna ask, ‘Can I play on ‘em, can I jump on ‘em? Can we do this, can we do that?’ He said they’re gonna ask, ‘Well what are these stones, why can’t I touch them, why can’t I mess with them, why are they there?’ It doesn’t say if he says ‘When they ask.’ And he says very specifically ‘When they ask their fathers,’ not the priests, not the Levites, not the Sunday school teachers, Dads, front and center. One of the huge problems with our nation and our culture is absentee dads. Not only the homes where there is no father in the home, and we pray for our single moms, we pray for those here in the ministry to them, and of course in the Book of Numbers we do have the “daughters of Zelophehad,” you should know that. If you don’t, shame on you. But the daughters of Zelophehad were given an inheritance in the land, though there were no men, they had no husbands, they were given, the lot was able to fall to them, also God honoured them. But the point here is, “fathers,” not just fatherless homes, but how many homes have a father, and the father doesn’t take the responsibility to do these things? It says here kids are going to ask the fathers. You know, Proverbs 17, verse 6 says “Children’s children are a joy, a blessing, to the fathers;” and I can say that, I got children’s children now, what a blessing it is to have grandkids. And it says “and the glory of children are their fathers.” And there is a God-given responsibility we have as dads, and every memorial that God has established, he establishes with a future generation in his heart and in his mind. God can look past this picture, he can see the Gideon’s, he can see the Samson’s, he can see the Ruth’s and the Boaz’s, he can see the David’s and the Isaiah’s, and he says ‘This is a memorial, this is to be kept as a memorial, and it’s to be seen, it’s to be discussed, and it’s the father’s responsibility to do this, when your sons and daughters ask, Dads, you’re the one whose to be able to say, Because our God is a faithful God, because our God has made us promises, because our God is the Living God, he is the only God, because our God is the Lord of lords, and he’s the King of kings.’ I don’t know how many times I’ve told my kids, “Because you’re on loan, you’re not mine, you’re Gods’, and one day I’m gonna give an account, that’s why. And it isn’t because I’m a pastor, it’ll never be that reason, because we have a rule book, and if I was a farmer or if I was an astronaut or whatever I was, we would still have the same rule book, it has nothing to do with your whining about, you’re going to do what I say because you’re not mine, you’re on loan from God, you belong to him, and one day I’m going to stand in front of him, and he’s gonna ask me what kind of job I did with you, his kid’s on loan to me. That’s why.” That’s why. But they need to understand your beliefs. There isn’t anything worse than the confusion that’s established in a home, when a father or a mother professing with their mouth the True and Living God and then living in sin, watching pornography, just that whole trail. It doesn’t mean, look, if you failed that you can’t repent. It doesn’t mean this, that you can’t go to your kids and say ‘Forgive me, I have sinned, I’m supposed to be an example to you, and I’ve blown it, but the God that I serve and love is a forgiving God, and I want you to know that I’m committed to do what is right, to live a certain way, I want you to pray for me.’ Those things are wonderful, that’s redemption, it’s repentance, there are lessons in those things. But it’s so important as we look at his, he says, ‘A sign.’ Look, all the way to the days of Jesus Christ, very interesting, it tells us that John the Baptist was baptizing at Beth Bara, in John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verse 28, which is The Valley of the Passage or The Place of Passage, traditionally the place where Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River. And John said to the Pharisees and Sadducees who came down there, ‘Think not to say within your hearts ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ because God is able out of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.’ And John the Baptist shows us that this is all of faith, don’t think because you have Abraham, that you have a bloodline, that you have some special thing, Abraham, it was accounted unto him as righteousness because he believed, it was by faith. And those stones, no doubt, in the very days of Jesus Christ, still bore testimony. And it was a particular place, and for generations there was a memorial, something to remind us, something to be put in our heads so that we are reminded, because of the tendency we all have of course to forget. He says, “That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?” King James says “Then ye shall answer them,” the Hebrew says “Then you must say to them,” it’s imperative. ‘You MUST say to them,’ It doesn’t say ‘Ya, the stones, it’s part of our tradition,’ no, he says “You MUST say to them, that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.” (verses 6-7) ‘not by an earthquake, not by a bunch of hocus pokus, this happened by miraculous means, that’s what you MUST say, that’s what these memorials are about.’ “that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.” (verse 7) “And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelves stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.” (verse 8) they put them in a pile. “And Joshua set up twelves stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.” (verse 9) they are there when the writer’s writing. I wonder if they are here to this day? So there are memorials, public and private, it’s a very interesting picture. It says that they took these twelve huge stones, they carried them out of the bed of the Jordan River, and they piled them up there by Gilgal where they’re going to encamp, to build a memorial. And then it says Joshua took 12 stones from the land, the land of Canaan, the Promised Land they had waited for, carried them into the river and put them in the bed of the river where the priests were standing, and then the writer says ‘and they are there to this day.’ Wouldn’t that be an interesting archeological find, to find 12 stones in the muddy Jordan River today, pilled up there somewhere? I guarantee you, they’re there somewhere. During the Millennium they’ll probably be a tourist attraction, they’re there somewhere. God’s faithfulness. Important for us to have memorials that are both public and private. Look, ‘As often as you do break this bread and drink this cup, you show forth the Lord’s death until he comes. Do this in remembrance of me.’ It’s a memorial, it’s our great memorial [and memorials are meant to be observed once a year, like the ancient Passover memorial, so should Jesus’ memorial be, as the early Church did on the 14^th Nisan, as observed once a year by the apostle John, Polycarp and Policrates, see https://unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm. And in a very real sense the Passover was and is a memorial for the Jews and all of Israel, a memorial for God supernaturally bringing all of them out of slavery in Egypt, and for us too, for Jesus with his sacrifice, bringing us out of slavery to sin. Each of God’s Holy Days is a memorial of a major prophetic event in God’s plan of salvation, both for his people and for us as believers (see https://unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Holydayshadows.htm).] When we do that, we’re not remembering that he walked on the water, that he rebuked the wind and the sea, that he cleansed lepers, raised the dead, what we’re remembering is that his body was broken for us and his blood was shed for us. We need constant reminders, we’re to do that on a regular basis. How often did they go and look at this pile of stones? How often did they look at it where they were reminded of God’s faithfulness [not enough, as OT history shows us]. Memorials are important. There are public memorials that are important to all of us. And in each of our lives I think there should be private memorials. I have some things in my life that are personal. I have some things between me and the Lord that are not for me and my wife and the Lord, but for me and the Lord, that are not for me and the church and the Lord, but for me and the Lord, I have some of those. Probably if I told people about it they’d think I was nuts anyhow, but they mean something to me. It’s important to have those, interesting, how quickly we forget. In the Book of Judges, in the second chapter, it says “And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.” (verses 8-10) One generation after Joshua it tells us in the Book of Judges, there arose a generation that didn’t know the LORD or his works. Fathers, what did those fathers that were exhorted here do? They didn’t do what God told them to do. In one generation there arose a generation that didn’t know the LORD and didn’t know his works, in a single generation. We’re one generation from extinction, and it isn’t my responsibility. I love your homes and your marriages and your kids and your grandkids, it is a delight to me when kids who I have dedicated as babies come back and they ask me if I’ll do their weddings. Because I think some day they’re going to say ‘Pastor Joe’s an old fogie, let’s find some young cool pastor.’ So if they come and say ‘Pastor Joe, would you come and do our wedding?’ I’m always flattered and I’m always honored and I’m so glad, because I love them, and it’s such a privilege for me to dedicate them. And when I started the ministry here, I never thought any of this would happen, I didn’t realize the longevity of all of this. Again, if the Lord would have handed me a blank check, I would have said ‘If 200 people would ever come, we’ll have arrived,’ I had no idea what he wanted to do, I had no idea about all the churches that would be born here, I had no idea of the thousands of babies that I would dedicate, and that I would do their weddings. Now I’m dedicating babies of babies I dedicated. So now I keep ring-pops in my office, because I realize the longevity, and I get to have this little line of kids all the time, and I give them ring-pops, so that when they’re 15 or 16, if they do something stupid I can yell at them, and say ‘I got years of ring-pops in you, you owe me, sit down and talk to me, tell me what’s going on in your life.’ But that is not ultimately my responsibility, it’s yours, fathers, it’s yours fathers. In one generation in the Book of Judges, the next generation didn’t know the LORD, they didn’t know his works. It’s heartbreaking, you know. It’s heartbreaking to see God do a great thing, to see a move of God, and then see a generation that grows up in the “Christian” culture, a Christian by attendance, a Christian by Christian school, by Christian music, a Christian by Christian concerts, Christians by Christian salt & pepper shakers on their table, everything except in the very center of that, you’re longing for them to take hold of Jesus, the very thing [Person] that changed our lives in the beginning. And without him, all of this is futility. And here, they’re instructed, ‘This is what you must tell them.’ And Joshua said ‘You know, there’s a pile of stones here on the side, let me tell you something, right in the middle of that raging river under all that water there’s another pile there.’ Just so anybody’s not going to say ‘Oh, they just took these.’ ‘No, no, these are the stones that came out of the riverbed, and in the riverbed there’s stones that came from dry land, there’s a memorial there too.’ We’ll have to swim there and look down some day. [Do it when the river is at its driest, when the water is hardly flowing. Use a raft or small boat with sonar.]

What About The 2 ½ Tribes That Were Going To Stay On The Eastern Side Of The Jordan River?

“and they are there unto this day.” (verse 9c) “For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.” (verse 10) I guess you did, particularly if you were at the end of the line and a pile of water as high as the Hoover Dam without the dam in front of it, the water’s getting higher and higher, I guess you did haste over, ah, if you’re there at the end of the line. So, they hasted over, I bet they did. “And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them: about forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.” (verses 11-13) Now the sad thing about this is, Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh were so attracted to the highlands in Gilead, the Golan Heights, that area, that they asked Moses, ‘This is good enough for us, we got cattle, this is great grazing land.’ Again, more interested in making a living than making a life. [And those two and a half tribes were some of the first to go into idolatry, and the first to be conquered and taken in captivity later on by the Assyrian Empire.] And Moses said ‘Well ya, you can do this, but I’ll tell you this, you’re not going to relax and enjoy your inheritance until all of your brethren enjoy it on the other side, so you can leave your wives and kids here in the cities we’ve taken, but the men are going to pass over and go to war, and when the wars of Canaan are finished and all your brethren enter their inheritance, then you can come back here and enjoy the land.’ Now if you read on your own and go back to Numbers chapter 26, verses 7, 18 and 34, the total number of the males aged 20 years and over and prepared to go to war were 136,930. That’s how many men should have passed over here with the children of Israel. But it says only 40,000, 29 percent crossed over. So two thirds of them did not come. Two thirds of them did not have the experience of walking on dry land through the Jordan River. Those families and tribes who wanted God’s best, their toddlers walked across that riverbed dry, their teenagers walked across with their mouths hanging open. Their junior high kids walked across that riverbed, their grandpas and grandmas who remembered the Red Sea walked across. These families that came in to God’s best were the ones who were going to see the walls of Jericho fall, they’re going to see the sun stand still, and the moon in the Valley of Ajalon [Joshua chapter 10]. It’s very interesting as you trace the history of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, they were the first ones carried off by the Assyrians. There’s going to be war on either side of Jordan. Our Christian experience, and sometime we act surprised, read through the New Testament and see how many times you hear the word “armour, shield, warfare, enemy,” you get the idea very quickly that there’s a side to this that’s not just fun and games, you have an enemy, there is warfare. It takes place here [pointing to his head], and the weapons of our warfare, they’re not carnal, but they’re powerful to the pulling down of strongholds, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ, we do have an enemy, there is a struggle (cf. 2^nd Corinthians 10:3-6 and Ephesians 6:10-13). If you’re gonna be in the war anyway, I want to be on the side of the river where the Lord’s doing miracles, if I’m gonna be in it anyway, I want to be where I’m going to be seeing his power, seeing his hand, seeing the things that he’s going to do. Because you have, basically, a hundred thousand men that could be valiant warriors who don’t witness this, and their wives, and their children who never see this Jordan River standing up in a heap, who don’t see these twelve stones. They’re going to come back later and try to make some kind of memorial for themselves. Who really don’t see the walls of Jericho collapse, who don’t see the sun standing still in the Valley of Ajalon, because they settled for less. If we’re going to be in warfare anyway, let’s be on the frontlines. It says here that “about forty thousand prepared for war,” verse 13, “passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.” “On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.” (verses 13-14) I guess they did, he gave them this, imagine telling his generals, ‘You don’t need grappling hooks, you don’t need swords, get down there with the ark of the covenant, the priests are going to stand in the river, the river is going to stop flowing,’ ‘Are you sure? Can you go back and double-check with God before we get involved in this one?’ By the end of the day they were very aware they had a leader that was very much ordained by God as Moses was.

A New Beginning--God Is Still At Work In The World We Live In

“And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.” (verses 15-17) So he’s standing close enough that all the people could hear him, he must be yelling at them ‘Alright! Get out of there!’ and they must have said ‘Yes Sir!’ They must have been happy, as that wall of water keeps getting bigger, and they come up out of the bed of the Jordan, “And it come to pass when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up onto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.” (verse 18) Imagine the sight, the sound, the quaking, the roaring of the water, just imagine that much water all coming down at one time, just the force and the power and the awe of that, and those standing on the walls of Jericho just going, ‘Oh man, this is baaad.’ It must have caused the walls of Jericho to rumble as this much force was let loose. And the children of Israel then, look, all of a sudden they look around, they’re on the other side of Jordan, they look back, the miraculous thing that just took place, there’s no more pillar, there’s no pillar of cloud, there’s no pillar of fire, there’s going to be no more manna, there’s no more Moses, no more Wilderness wanderings, all of a sudden they’re in the land, they look back across Jordan to the Plains of Moab where they had been encamped for so long. A new beginning, a new beginning. What a wonderful thing it is when we sense that. Look, it’s a wonderful thing for any one of us, if we get up and spend time alone with him, and we just repent of the sins of the day before, and say ‘Lord, I really blew it yesterday,’ and he reminds us that his mercies are new every morning, and we get a fresh start, and we look back across the Jordan and we realize this is a new beginning, your power, what you’ve accomplished, what a wonderful thing, Father, how gracious you are, what a testimony I have to give to my children and so forth. “And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month,” four days before the Passover, “and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know,” again the Hebrew says “you must tell them,” really, that’s how it’s written out, then ye must tell your children, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.” (verses 19-22) How amazing. “For the LORD YOUR God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.” (verses 23-24) that’s you and I by the way, people of the earth, here we are. Instruction for you and I, as we would enter in on any of the things that God has for us, sanctify yourselves, set yourselves apart. In the day that we live in, watching the world we live in, watching the elections, watching what’s happening, God still draws a line of demarcation between his people and the people of the world. There is still a distinction between the believer and the unbeliever. The unbeliever still stands in awe when he encounters true believers, and he sees what’s happening in their lives. And this very God is still at work in the world that we live in. Watch the Middle East, don’t watch Washington and Moscow and all of that, keep your eyes on the Middle East. There’s a Haman in Persia again. In case you don’t know, Iran is Persia. There’s a ruler there again like Haman was there, whose again saying “I’m going to wipe the Jews off the face of the map” [good luck!] He’s about to be hung on his own gallows, all over again. The same God, the same principles, the same Great God, Mighty God that we serve, he’s working all around us today, and wonderfully he’s working in our lives. We should sanctify ourselves. As we watch him work, we should have memorials. We have the public ones here as we come and we gather together [Passover, and the rest of God’s Holy Days], there should be private ones. And look, we sanctify ourselves, we present ourselves, we consecrate ourselves, why? because we’re worthy? No, no, Paul says to us in Romans “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God,” the first 8 chapters, “by the mercies of God, that you present yourselves a living sacrifice--don’t be conformed to this world, but be rather transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may prove out to completion what is the good and perfect acceptable will of God for your life.” (Romans 12:1-2) By the mercies of God, that’s how we get to present ourselves. You know, Paul will say in 2^nd Corinthians, chapter 7, at the end of chapter 6, “Wherefore come out from among them, be ye separate, sanctify yourselves, put yourselves apart, sayeth the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing, I will receive you, I will be a father unto you, you shall be my sons and my daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” We’re told in 2^nd Timothy ‘that we should sanctify ourselves that we should be vessels of honour, fit for the Master’s use.’ So again, what’s going to happen tomorrow? I’m not exactly sure. We’ve got a sketch in the Bible of some of the things that are going to take place in the world that we live in (see https://unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm). We don’t know the exact timing of them. But we know the last chapter, we know of the real King and of the real Kingdom. We know that he’s washed away our sins in his own blood. We know that he can do great and mighty things in our lives today, sometimes we see wonderful things happen. We know he’s called us to be faithful, not just in the big things but in the small things he’s set in front of us. And if we’re faithful in those things, he said he’ll allow us to be faithful in much. All he asks of us is to avail ourselves of all that he’s given us, by his mercies, not by our own merit, but by his mercies to present ourselves, a living sacrifice, here I am. We should be doing that to greater and greater degrees. There of course it’s in the sense eorotis, once and for all we should do that. But I find there are degrees attached, I’m more serious about it now than I was before. Of course, as you go on in life you get more serious about committing yourself to the Lord. At 40 you’re more serious than you were at 30, at 50 you’re more serious than 40, at 60 you’re more serious than 50, once you get in the 80’s you’re very serious about committing yourself to the Lord. When you can see back further than you can see forward, there’s less time to mess around with all of this, you know. But the idea is, even for us today, to sanctify ourselves, commit ourselves, to cross into the things that he has for us. He doesn’t ask us to fight the battle by ourselves, he doesn’t ask us to build the boats, just give me your lives. Look, elders, husband of one wife, not given to filthy lucre, not given to wine, having your house in order. He only says “apt to teach,” we build seminaries and Bible schools around those three words. The whole passage says ‘If you’ll give me your heart, and if you’ll give me your life, if you’ll sanctify yourself, I will take ‘apt to teach’ and anoint that as much as I want to. Give me your hearts, give me your lives.’ Isn’t that what we want from our own kids? Isn’t that what we want to see in them when we say ‘You see these twelve stones, see what God has done here? Let me tell you about it.’ We long for the day when we hear in the lives of our own kids [and grandkids], ‘Look, I serve him now not because he’s your God, mom and dad, but because he’s my God…I love him too, he’s my God.’ What a wonderful, wonderful thing. If we don’t sanctify ourselves we have little chance of winning the next generation or accomplishing anything for the Lord. And again, my challenge would be to those of you who are here tonight, dads, dads, front and center, front and center…let’s stand, let’s pray. Read ahead, now Gilgal, now the battle of Jericho and all of these things…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Joshua 3:1-17 and Joshua 4:1-24, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]