Joshua Part 4 - Coming Safely Home

Gavin Wright preaches on the next part of the book of Joshua. The Bible text is Joshua 3v1 - 4v24. This sermon is from Sunday 5th Oct 2025.

Transcript

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As we read your word this morning and consider it, that you would help us as your people to remember you and to remember your promises, promises of God's people in uh God's place under his rule with his blessing. And please work that in our hearts. Give me faithfulness of tongue as I speak and all for your glory. Amen. Do sit down, friends. You'll need uh a Bible. If you haven't got one, raise a hand in the air and uh one will make its way to you from the back. We're going to be in Joshua. That was exciting. We're going to be in Joshua chapters three and four this morning. There are some children's learning sheets coming around to help younger ones follow along with what we are doing. Joshua chapters three and four. If you've got a church Bible, that's page 179. We'll read this in little chunks as we go through. Well, relatively large chunks as we go through. But before we begin reading, just a reminder where we are, okay? The end is in sight. The end is in sight. God's people have been wandering in the desert under God's judgment for 40 years. In that time, the whole first generation of people who were delivered from slavery in Egypt, they have died. And only Joshua and Caleb remain. And so this entire generation that we are reading about this morning, they have known nothing but the life of a nomad and a wanderer. They have grown up constantly moving from place to place in the arid wilderness of the desert. And now they have arrived at the Jordan River at last, and they are so close to being home. Could almost touch it. And that is where we're going to pick up our story today in chapter 3. I'm going to read verses 1 to 11 for us. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shetem, and they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, As soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant, the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about two thousand cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. Then Joshua said to the people, Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And Joshua said to the priests, Take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people. So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. The Lord said to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And as for you, command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenants. When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. And Joshua said to the people of Israel, Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizites, the Gergeshites, the Amorites, the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. We thank God for his wonderful words. And now back in chapter one, God had told Joshua to get the people ready, to prepare for that crossing. And now they are waiting on the banks of the Jordan, ready to cross. The spies have returned. Everything is ready at last. And to make the point that this is this really genuinely significant moment in Israel's history, in this passage, that the Hebrew verb passover or crossover, it gets used again and again and again. This is the thing that's happening. They are crossing over, they are moving from here to there. Twenty-two times it comes up. And the point is that this is not just a river they are crossing. They're trying to find the safest and the most efficient route. This is a boundary. This is a line of demarcation, a point of transition, beyond which nothing will ever be the same again. On the eastern shore where they stand, they were pilgrims, homeless wanderers, restless. But on the western banks of the river, they will be home at last. The eastern bank, a place of wilderness, where the judgment of God and their sin was still felt, but the western shore, a place of covenant blessing. On this side, wilderness, and on that side, a land of milk and honey. You can always smell it. And the River Jordan, it is the boundary between the two. Now, this is not just the story of getting from here to there, it is a transition from curse to blessedness, from wrath to grace, from homeless wandering to rest in the promised lands. And for this to happen for them, you'll notice that they were given some very instruct uh very specific instructions, weren't they? They weren't allowed to cross whenever they felt like it, however they fancied through whatever route seemed best. They had to follow the Ark of the Covenant, we are told, because they had not passed this way before. They had not passed this way before, verse 4. This is something entirely new in their experience, something utterly unprecedented. And that is funny in a sense, because actually, in a sense, this isn't new or it shouldn't be new. I mean, 40 years ago, God's people stood on the edge of a river. God's people stood there as the sound of Pharaoh's chariots thundered close behind them. God's people stood there helpless, and God delivered them. God stopped the waters, he led them across on dry land, saved them from the wrath of Egypt. God's people knew, or should have known, what it was to be carried safely through the water. Except they forgot. They forgot God's might and his deliverance and they forgot his care. And it is because they forgot that they ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years, as they stopped trusting the God of their salvation. And it's because they forgot that they suffered his rebuke. And it is because they forgot that an entirely new generation now stood on the banks of the Jordan, not knowing what it was like to cross the water under the care of God. We'll see in a few minutes, when we get to chapter four, that remembering this time is going to be really important. They've got to remember this time. But here they are, now on the edge of a new land, a new start, from wandering to coming home, from curse to blessing. But how then do they make this transition? How do they cross that barrier? How does it happen? How do they receive the promises of God? And if you follow the story, verse four, they were told to keep their distance from the Ark of the Covenant. So they're to stay about 2,000 cubits behind, we're told. That's a thousand yards. And we might think, well, it's the Ark of the Covenant as it goes. That's because the Ark of the Covenant is such a mighty and weighty and awesome thing, which it was. Because it was too dangerous to go that close to the holiness of God. But actually, here in Joshua, that might be true, but that's not the reason they needed to keep their distance as they moved towards the river. So, yes, the Ark of the Covenant, it's this great symbol of the presence of God in the midst of his people. Yes, the Ark is terrifyingly holy. But the whole point of what is happening here is the presence of God in the ark going first. Do you see that? That is what happens. God Himself is going to bring them across. And he wanted them to see that it was only because of his presence in their midst, only because he is going first to do the work that they were safely delivered from one shore to the other. And so they were to sort of keep their distance, to stand back and see, to know God in their midst, the one who is delivering them. It's a little bit like, in some ways, like a tour guide in the middle of London holding a big yellow umbrella so everyone can see what's going on, everyone can follow the right way. Or a primary school teacher wearing a high-vis jacket on a school trip. God wants his presence to be the one thing they don't miss or lose sight of. Not the water standing in a heap-up stream, and not the dry ground miraculously under their feet, but the presence of God who opens the way for them across the Jordan. Verse 5. The Lord will do wonders among you. Verse 10, have a look at that. Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Gergeshites, Amorites, and Jebusites. How do they know? Verse 11, behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. How do you go from curse to blessing, from wandering from to home, from death to life, only by the presence of the Lord of all the earth? He alone brings people across that dividing line. And just as we think about this, just to pop your eyes back to verse 4, you've got to follow the Ark of the Covenant, we are told, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. And you think that's funny. Of course, they've not passed this way before. One does not simply walk across the water. But it reminded me as I was reading that earlier this week of the disciples. The disciples in John's Gospel. In John 14, Jesus has just told them, I am going to prepare for you a place in my father's house. He's getting ready to bring them home. And then Thomas says to him, But but we don't know where you're going. How are we supposed to know the way? Jesus' answer to Thomas is, of course, I am the way. I am the way. No one comes to the Father but through me. He's the way. Jesus goes first. He leads. His people follow. And in John 14, as he's talking to his disciples, as he's talking to them about going to prepare a room for them in his father's house, where is he going? He's on his way to the cross. He goes to the cross to prepare a room for his people in the Father's house. Jesus dies for us, and that is our way home. That is the only way from curse to blessing, from death to life, from wandering restlessness to perfect rest in him. God takes the lead and he says, Follow me. Follow him into new life, which is something that only Jesus can give. Follow him into eternity. Follow him and know that he will bring us home to his father's perfect home, eventually one day in heaven. How can we know the way across the great river? We follow Jesus. God takes the lead. And then as we pick up our story, I guess what happens next is sort of the main events. Look down at your Bibles again, are going to read from verse twelve. Now, this is Joshua speaking. Therefore, take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man, and when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand up in one heap. So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is behind Zarathan, and those flowing down towards the Sea of Arabah, the salt sea, were completely cut off, and the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priests, bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. So Joshua lays out the plan. The ark and twelve guys, one from each tribe, will go down to the river, and as soon as their feet are in the water, it will stop flowing. And the waters coming down from above are going to pile up in a big heap. That's the plan. A miracle is promised to them. And so they go down, don't they? And they get their feet wet, they're sort of paddling. But before the thing actually happens, before the river stops, we just get this little interruption in the narrative in verse 15, this little comment. We're told, now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. And you slightly wonder why this detail here is? It sounds like something from a geography lesson. Is this important? Is it something to do with Oxbow Lakes? Does it add anything to the story? But actually, I think it does. The River Jordan is in flood and it overflows its banks for all the whole harvest season. Now, uh, chapter 4, verse 19, we'll read it in a minute, but it gives us a clue about the timing. They crossed the river, we are told, on the tenth day of the first month. We're going to come back to that date. But the bottom line is it is springtime, which is when the harvest took place in Israel. So the snow has melted on the mountains of Hermon, and the March rains have turned the Jordan River into a raging torrent. For much of the year, to be honest, the Jordan is not much of a barrier. It is wide, it's shallow. There are a number of fords that make it easy to cross, except for this one short period when it is extremely difficult. And so, why then, you might ask, would the Lord bring his people to the Jordan at this particular moment? He has them delay until now. A few weeks earlier or later, the river wouldn't be nearly as dangerous. But here they are with children and the sick and the infirm with their livestock and all of their worldly possessions in tow. An entire nation faced with the deafening roar and the strong currents of the Jordan at its fastest and its fullest. The people stand there on the edge and it would be a genuinely scary moment for a moment. But of course, as soon as their feet then touch the water, the promise of the Lord comes true, and the waters heap up and downstream, they're cut off. It is wonderful. But why did God have to do it the hard way? And it's often the way that God works, isn't it? You think of Jesus with his friend Lazarus, for instance. Jesus hears that Lazarus is ill, and you'd think that the obvious thing to do would be to go now and deal with it, make him better. But Jesus waits for two days before he does anything. He chooses his timing carefully, even when it means that his friend dies. Why does he wait? Well, Jesus tells us there it is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. And Jesus says, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. When he finally does arrive, he doesn't just heal Lazarus, he raises him from the dead. And there is method when it seems like madness, when God's answers don't come when it's easy, when things are harder and harder, when the river bursts its banks in a raging flood, what is he doing? That is our question. And part of the answer is that in our deepest need, when the waters are at their deepest, we see his grace and his glory more brilliantly, more rightly. And he is at work to teach us to trust him, not just when the river is easy to cross, but when it is apparently this impenetrable barrier. And sometimes we learn that best when we learn the hard way, if necessary, that there are no rivers that his power cannot stop, there are no barriers he cannot surmount. And there is no one so stuck, so lost, that he cannot save to the uttermost all who come to him through Jesus, and not even death will stop him taking his people home. He shows the last verse of chapter four that his hand is mighty, and that we might we may rightly learn to fear him. And in a way, that's sort of the end of the story, right? God is the one who works mightily, God is the one to be feared, God is the one who brings his people home, who leads and calls us to follow. But the book of Joshua wants us to get one more thing from this story. That is not just that we know that to be true, but that we remember. But that we remember it to be true. Let me pick up in chapter four. Verse 1. When all the nation have finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, Take twelve men from the people, one uh sorry, from each tribe a man, and commands them, saying, Take twelve stones from here out the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight. Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe, and Joshua said to them, Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? And you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off, so these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant had stood, and they are there to this day. For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste. And when all the people had finished passing over the ark of the Lord and the priests passed over before the people, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh passed over before the people of Israel, as Moses had told them. About forty thousand, ready for war, passed over before the Lord for battle to the plains of Jericho. On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him, just as they had stood in awe of Moses all the days of his life. And the Lord said to Joshua, Command the priests bearing the ark of the Testament to come up out of the Jordan. So Joshua commanded the priests, Come up out of the Jordan. And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, that the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and overflowed all its banks as before. The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho, and those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, When your children ask their fathers in times to come, what do these stones mean? Then you shall let your children know, Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over. So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. Chapter twelve, sorry, chapter four, that tells us that the people are to collect these twelve stones then, and carry them on their shoulders from the middle of the river beds, and set them on the far shore on the side of the promised land. Verse 9, actually, Joshua, we read briefly, is to do a similar thing in the middle of the river, so that presumably when the waters die down, you can sort of see the stones rising up out the top of the water there. And verse six tells us what this whole thing is about. Why are they doing all of this? And one person has called it sort of the Canaanite catechism. You get this sort of question and answer. Actually, and you get it twice. You get it for the first time in verse six, that's sort of the shorter catechism. And then you get it repeated in verse 21, that's sort of the longer Canaanite catechism. We're just going to look down at verse 21, actually. Just look at what those verses say. What do these stones mean? Then you shall let your children know. Israel passed over this Jordan on dry grounds. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over. And then notice this carefully. Just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. So what are these stones for? That they are a memorial of salvation, aren't they? As we sort of touched on earlier, verse 23 explains that the crossing of the Jordan, it is sort of a reenactment for a new generation of the Exodus crossing of the Red Sea. And the connection of these two events is really important. We see it a couple of times here in verse 23, but actually also back in verse 19. Do you remember I told you about that little detail, that date, the tenth day of the first month that this is happening? That might not mean much to you with your uh Jewish calendars out. Uh, but it is an amazing detail. Because it is on that day, 40 years earlier, that the lambs were slaughtered, and their blood was painted on the door frames of the houses of God's people during that first Passover, that the firstborn of each family might be saved from death. It is the date of the Passover. What is going on? This whole thing, this whole event, it is a memorial of God's salvation from death and judgment. He has delivered his people. That's the message. And by putting up these two stone monuments, God wanted to make sure that they never forgot it. And God doesn't want us to forget either, does he? And he's given us symbols too of salvation. Yeah, our attention in this passage is drawn as we look at the Jordan to the Passover and to the crossing of the Red Sea, and both of those events, those are taken up as well in the New Testament, aren't they? And in very different ways, they point to Christ and the cross. And the Passover points to the cross, doesn't it? The death of Jesus, the Lamb, as he prepares the way to bring us home, of which the Lord's Supper, which we will be sharing today in God's providence, is now the great memorial of Christ's death in our place. And the Red Sea, 1 Corinthians 10, it points to the cleansing of sins secured at the cross of which Christian baptism is the great sign. And so while these two piles of stones preached a message about God's gracious salvation to Israel, we have even better monuments to grace, don't we? Much clearer and fuller. Baptism and the Lord's Supper speak to us about the cross where the Lamb of God shed his blood, our Passover Lamb that we might live, and where Christ, the great substitute and representative of his people, was drowned beneath the flood of God's judgment that our sin might be washed away. He was giving us a far more precious memorial by which we may enter through faith into the benefits of his saving love. As we take the Lord's supper today, I pray that it speaks to you of the new life you have in Christ. I pray that it speaks to you as uh of every promise of God that is securely yours because of his death and his resurrection. I pray that you will remember your God and how he keeps his promises and how he promises to bring us home fully and finally one day. God makes the way from death to life, from curse to blessing, and he mightily leads his people home. I pray this morning, friends, that you would follow him and that you would remember him in order that you might love him and rightly fear him. And I'm gonna pray that for us now. Our Father God. Mightier often than we appreciate or remember. I ask that you would teach that again, teach us that again. And Father, help us please never to forget or live our. As if we forget what you have done for us. Help us to have the cross, have your Son clear in our minds as each day passes, that we might trust in Him and love Him and live for Him. I ask that you would keep us secure as we walk in the shadow of the cross, always remembering Him, that you would grant us assurance of forgiveness given and hope to come. Help us know that you will bring your people home. Amen.