A Promise-Keeping God

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn in your Bibles with me to Joshua chapter 3, Joshua chapter 3. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Joshua chapter three. If you're using your pew Bibles and your King James Version there, you'll be able to find that on page one hundred ninety five. Joshua chapter three.

Prayer for Illumination

Before we read, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And we pray, Father, that as we come to a familiar passage, that you would make it unfamiliar to us. We pray that it would not be dull in our ears or just another plain Bible story. But Father, we pray that you would use it by the power of your spirit To fill our eyes with amazement at your goodness in Jesus's name.

Sermon

Amen. The Israelites are at the edge of. The Jordan River, the spies have gone, they've returned, they said, we got this. They're all scared. We can do it. Joshua ended in the last chapter and he said, three days are going. Get ready. We're going to cross the Jordan. And now in this passage here, they're at the edge of the Jordan River. And is it going to happen? Is it going to happen?

Well, I was watching a movie with the kids the other day, and we were watching this movie, and there's this scene in the movie where the parents are They're running a real estate business and both of them have these Bluetooth headphones on and they're talking and talking and talking to clients. And the son comes in the room and he wants to talk to them and say, we promise we'll stop in five minutes. And the kid is kind of pacified for a brief second. And then you hear them talking on the phone and right away, what do the parents say to their clients? We never stop. We promise. We never stop. If it's the weekends, just call us. We never stop. If it's Christmas, don't worry. We never stop. We really work on Christmas? Yeah, don't worry. Just call us. It's fine. We never stop.

And you realize what they had promised their son, we'll stop in five minutes, was an empty promise. Does God deal in empty promises? When he promised Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, verse 7, that he would give him the land of Canaan. Would God make good on his promise?

Well, that's the question we have when we come to Joshua, chapter three. 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. So it was after three days that the officers went throughout the camp and they commanded the people saying, when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, your God and the priest, the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

Yet. There shall be a space between you and it, about 2000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it. You may know the way which you must go. For you have not passed this way before. They're standing at the edge of the Jordan River. It's there that they are standing there and their officers start going throughout the camp. They go throughout the camp and they tell them their marching orders.

And you would expect. As you have marching orders to go in an ancient Near East culture, who would lead the people? Who would go in front of the people? You would expect either the strongest of the army or you would expect the ruler of the people. But notice who is going before the people.

When you see the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh, your God and the priests, the Levites bearing it, that you shall set out from the place, from your place and go after it. Right. This is the arc of the covenant of, again, you notice there in verse three, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. This is a specific covenant name for God, Yahweh or Jehovah. God himself.

This is when we think of the Ark, this chest that is acacia wood and overlaid with gold and has gold rings on the corners with acacia poles that would go through the rings and even the acacia poles were overlaid with gold and they would have to put a curtain or a ramskin over the Ark and then they would put the curtains of the Holy of Holies over the Ark so that no one could ever see it and on top of the Ark that you would see just the form of the cherubim that were on top of the Ark. And what was the top of the Ark called? What was that? It was the mercy seat of God.

This was supposed to represent the throne of God himself. Not God, that we would find out later in Israelite history, they started to treat the Ark as if it was some type of talisman or something like that, some type of idol. But this was the image of the Lord of the Covenant himself going before his people. It was going to be the Lord who led them. It was going to be the Lord who took them. It was going to be the Lord who was going to command them and lead them into the land of Canaan. Yet, there's a space between them.

In verse 4, they can't just all pile up right behind the Ark of the Covenant and go right behind it. No, there's got to be a space of about 2,000 cubits or roughly about 3,000 feet. There's got to be there's got to be a good distance between the two of them. Why? Because it is not the people who by horde are going to swarm into the land of Canaan. But as the people think about that's just under half a mile or so. How far ahead is the ark? It's not right there. It's not for me to the door. No, it's way out there. It is absolutely clear. It is the Lord who's going to be the one leading the way. It is God who is going to be leading his people. You've never known this way before, you have not passed this way before.

And so Joshua speaks to the people in verses six and seven. He speaks to the people and then he speaks to the priest. Verse five, Joshua speaks to the people and he said, Then Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Then 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 went before the people. Joshua says to them, Consecrate yourselves. This is the idea of washing yourselves clean and abstaining from marital relationships.

Make sure that you are fully focused on who God is and what God is doing here. And as you get ready, He's going to do a marvelous thing in front of you. He's going to fill your eyes with wonder. He's going to show you something that you couldn't even imagine. God himself is going to do what you talk to theologians and philosophers.

They talk about God working through primary causes and secondary causes. We see secondary causes all the time. God promises Noah that he's going to bring the seed time and the harvest time. All the changing of the seasons are a sign of his mercy. And we see that every single year. Farmers, you just had to buy chemicals. Because he's going to bring the next year. You're going to have to plant seeds because he's going to bring the next season. He's going to do these things and he does it by what we might just think our nature.

But no, it's God moving his creation to do what he wants to do. But there are rare and amazing times where he doesn't just work through his providence, but he divinely, primarily, directly interacts and does something miraculous. Just so you know, that's not the normal way God does things.

People read the Bible and they read the Bible stories and they think, oh, man, I just want to see a miracle from God. The majority, the vast majority of Christians. You're never going to see a miracle. So don't let the movies fool you. These are these are ways in which God is making something very specifically known. And here is going to be one of them. And Joshua is telling them that. And so he tells the priest, get ready.

Pick up the ark and go through the people, right, carry it out from. Remember, as the camp was set up and we learned if you've read through the Pentateuch before, it was the tabernacle that was at the center of the camp with all the different camps around it, all the tribes of camp around it. And now he's telling the Levites, he's telling them, all right, pick it up and walk through the camp. Because no longer is it going to be this tribe, this tribe, this tribe, this tribe, and then the ark and then all these other tribes. Now the ark is going in front because God is going to do the primary moving here. God is going to be the one going forward. And they do it, verse six, so they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

And then something changes, look at verse seven. And the Lord said to Joshua. When I was translating this, I was not ready for that transition. They're getting ready to do this. I mean, the plans are already in place, but now all of a sudden the Lord is speaking directly to Joshua.

The Lord himself speaks. And when we come to a passage anywhere in the Bible where it says, and Yahweh spoke, we need to lean into that passage and go, OK, hold on. What is God himself saying here? Now, obviously, all scripture is God breathed, but this is a way in which the Holy Spirit is cluing us in that this is really important here. So what does the Lord say to Joshua? Verse seven, this day, I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that you may know That as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

What a great promise that is, isn't it? God has told him in chapter one, be strong and very courageous. God has told him he would never leave him nor forsake him. God has promised him that his constant, his constant care for him. And yet here, what does he say?

As they are on the precipice of this great conquest, as they are in this pregnant moment waiting to cross over and finally start obtaining the promised land. God makes sure he knows you're not going to be playing second fiddle. I'm going to exalt you. I'm going to make you great. The people are going to respect you just like they did Moses.

Imagine you were the on the ship. We always had the you had the admiral who was over the carrier strike group. And then you had the captain and then you had the XO, the executive officer, the executive officer and the captain were the same rank. Often they had been in the Navy for the same amount of time. And yet one of them was in charge of everything on the ship. And the other one was in charge of the people on the ship. Joshua had been referred to time and time again as the servant of Moses in chapter one.

And now God's saying, I'm I'm promoting you. You're not just going to stay at XO, but you're going to be the captain. And I'm going to make you great in the sight of the people, and they're going to follow you. This is a great thing for the leader of an army to know that the people are going to respect and that the people are going to follow him. This is a promise that God says. And so he says God commands Joshua.

He says in verse eight, you shall command the priest 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. Now, that is interesting. He's the commander, the priest who bear the Ark of the Covenant.

By the way, if you're if you've read through this chapter, I challenge you to count how many times the Lord talks about the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark, the Ark, the Ark. As I counted it, no less than eight times is the Lord bringing attention to his presence and his people. But but here's what does he say? What are they supposed to do with this Ark of the Covenant?

Go stand in the water. Think about being one of those Levites for a moment. You're one of the people, one of those few people of the tribe, of the family of the Kohathites. You're a Levite. You're carrying the ark. You got it on your shoulders. You're walking, you're walking, you're walking. Everyone else is way back, half a mile behind you. What happens if you're in battle array and you're leading in front of the people? What happens? You're a target. And these guys are way in front of everybody. They have the ark on their shoulders. And then what is Joshua telling them to do?

You know, the muddy banks of the Jordan where the silt accumulates. Go stand in it. Go ahead, go stand in the dirt that your feet are going, you know, have you ever stepped in silt before when you try to step and you try to pick up and it's like you're there's like there's suction cups underneath the soles of your feet and you can't even get away. He's telling the Levites, go, go stand in the in the edge of the of the water of the Jordan. And so Joshua does it, verse nine. So Joshua said to the children of Israel, come here and hear the words of Yahweh, your God. And Joshua said, by this you 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. He's telling them, you're going to know this. You have a living God, you don't have the ark of the covenant is nothing but that is just an ark, it's just a dead piece of wood with gold, but you serve a living God and he's about to show himself. He's about to prove to you that all the land is going to be yours, that all the Hittites are going to fall to you, that all the Hittites are going to fall to you, that all the Girgashites are going to are going to flee before you. It's going to happen and he's going to show you this, how? Verse 11. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord. And all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe.

We'll come back to that in a later chapter. And it shall come to pass. How does Joshua know this? I don't know, but he knows what God's about to do. He knows the miracle and it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the priests who bear the Ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, and the waters that come down from upstream, they shall stand up as a heap." A few things to point out as we read that passage. What does he say? He says that you're going to come to the edge, and as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests touch The banks of the Jordan.

The water upstream is going to stop. It's going to stand up like a wall. It's going to be cut off. And who is going to do this? It's the Lord of all the earth. Why doesn't he just say. And Yahweh is going to do this. Why does he Use it this way. Why does he say this? And it shall come. That's what it says in verse 13. And it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of your feet, of the feet of the priests who bear the Ark of Yahweh. Why put in the comma after that?

The Lord of all the earth. Because the Lord owns everything. The land that they're about to enter into was the land that the Lord promised, because the Lord is the one who eventually at the end of the day, it's the Lord's name who is on the bottom of the deed. All the land of the earth belongs to the Lord. The Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills and he owns the hills that they're on. The Lord is the one who created the sun and the moon and the earth and the trees, the rivers and the ocean and all the creatures that are in it.

They're all his. He's the Lord of all the earth and he could do with the earth as he wants to do with the earth. And people who will come to these passage with naturalistic tendencies and they'll try to explain away the miracles of God don't recognize that he is the God of all the earth. He is the Lord. The word Lord there is the ruler, the maker, the master, the owner.

He's the one who has control over the over all the lands and he can do with it as he pleases because it's his. And so he could do with the Jordan River what he wants to do with it because it's his. Interestingly, this is the same way we see Jesus Christ operate.

If Jesus wants the wind and the waves to be quiet so He can get a nap, He'll stand up and rebuke His disciples and say, Oh, you of little faith. And He'll display His power. And He'll tell the great storm to be calm. And even the wind and the waves obey Him. Because they're His. Because they do His bidding. Because he tells the waves, hear and know further and the waves obey. Because he tells the sun to rise up and the sun obeys. Because he tells the storehouses of heaven to open up and to let down the winter snow and the storehouses of heaven obey the Lord because they're his.

Do we trust this God? Will they follow this God? Will they actually believe that the God who brought them up out of Egypt is still the Lord of the universe? Is he actually able to do this? Is he a God who makes promises, but he's not actually able to fulfill them, or is it God or is he a God that they could actually believe? Who has both the right to give the land and the power to actually make his promise good.

Verse 14, so it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people. And as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, surprise, surprise, what happens? And the feet of the priest who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water. For the Jordan overflows at all its banks during the whole time of the harvest. And the waters which came from the upstream stood still and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zeratan. So the waters that went down to the sea of Ereba, the salt sea, failed and were cut off. And the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

Make no mistake. These people had to believe the Lord. Make no mistake. Every household had to decide when Joshua said, pull up camp, would they actually pack up their belongings? When the officers of the army said, all right, come on, in three days we're leaving, get ready. Would they actually saddle their animals and go for it? Every step that they took towards that Jordan River was a step of faith. Every single time that they put an article of clothing in their bag so they could go once again on another march, would the wall or would the Jordan River end up just being a wall to them? The Jordan River is flooding at this point. It's the harvest time. It's most likely somewhere between mid-March and early May. It's either the barley or the wheat harvest time and it's there and the river is flooding over.

Will they have to ford the river? Will they have to wade through the Jordan? How will they be able to get over? How will they not just become prey to the arrows of their enemies, the spears of those who might want to kill them? It's at this moment that God displays His glory. At the exact moment the souls of the priests touch the edge of the Jordan, the waters far up north stop, and they cross over on bare land. It's the Red Sea all over again. What did Hebrews chapter 11 tells us? How did the Israelites cross through the Red Sea? By faith. But when the Egyptians tried to pass through the Red Sea, what happened? They drowned.

By faith, these people took every step from the Acacia Grove to the banks of the Jordan and through the Jordan River. It's because they believed that Yahweh was Lord over all Earth. and that He was going to make His promises good, that they were able to cross through that Jordan River. Verse 17, Then the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm not on silty, murky ground, but on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed over completely before the Jordan. God keeps His promises.

The Lord is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change His mind. He's not like fleeting shadows. He does not look one way today and turn again a different way tomorrow. No, we believe in what we call the immutability of God. God does not change. He's the same yesterday, today and forevermore. His mercies are new every morning.

He is not a God who is weak and unable to bring about His promises, but He is the omnipotent God who has all ability to make His promises good. And He is an omniscient God. He is the all-knowing God who, when He makes a promise, knows exactly how to bring it to fruition.

What promises has God made you? What promises? Has the Lord made you who are in Christ? Do you actually believe that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion? Do you believe that if you confess your sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you of all your unrighteousness? Do you believe that there will be a resurrection of the dead? Do you believe that death isn't the end of the story? Do you believe, even though it might cost you persecution, oppression, being ostracized, sawn in two, cast away, do you actually believe the promises that Christ has given you that he went to heaven to prepare a mansion, a room for you in the mansion of his father's house. Do you believe that he sent his Holy Spirit? Do you believe his promises? Do you believe his words? Do you believe in his covenant? Do you believe that he is Lord of all the earth? Do you believe that he is living God? I'm going to leave you with that question this morning. Are you one who walks by faith? Do you cling to the promises of God? This is how we walk by faith.

In hope of the things not yet seen. He's promised us great things. Do we believe? Father, we do believe. Father, we do confess that we do believe these things happened in the past. We do believe your word. And we believe that you have raised up for us Jesus Christ.

Our true Joshua. The commander of our faith. Lord, I pray for those today. Who may say, Father, I believe, but help me in my disbelief. Lord, we pray that you would let us hang our hope on the far greater promises than Joshua ever had. But hang our hope on Jesus Christ, the object of our faith. Lord, we pray that we would walk in that faith. We pray that we would believe in you and persevere until the very end. Father, we lift all these things up to you, believing that you only hear them, for we pray them in the name of our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Amen. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.