JOSHUA 3-4

Joshua 3-4

One common application of this passage I have heard is this: God promises he will remove all our barriers, but we must first must step out into the water in faith. Thus, it is compared to the NT example of Peter's attempts to walk on the water. However, in both cases, God went into the water first (either as the ark, which represented the presence of God, or as Jesus, the very image of God). And the text says that Moses first stood in the Jordan and then those who carried the ark only dipped their feet in the water before it stopped flowing. I see a different application here.

The Jordan River was looked on as a barrier to the Jews. Borders between lands were believed to be where supernatural entities guarded the access to land belonging to other gods. For example, Jacob had a vision of God when he camped the first night after leaving his homeland, and an angel of God wrestled with him when he was about to reenter the land. It is somewhat like the old story of the little girl in the 19^th century praying, “Goodbye, God, we're going to San Francisco.” Or it is similar to Garrison Keillor's story about the fundamentalist Lake Wobegon residents who would visit the big city and pretend that they were Presbyterians or even Catholics so that they could do anything they wanted to do.

Do we ever leave God behind when we are not around church folk, or in a different environment?

A. Read about the crossing itself, but not from Book of Joshua. Go to Psalm 114. Several times in recorded history, the Jordan has been damned up by rockfalls caused by earthquakes. Does that mean it wasn't a miracle? God can use “natural” phenomenon to accomplish his ends (like a strong wind in crossing of the Red Sea).

B. See a spiritual parallel. Wandering had become normal to the people. Earlier the wilderness had seemed worse to the Israelites than Egypt and bondage. What if Canaan is worse than the wilderness?

There is a parallel here to a believer's pilgrimage, which can take place in three stages:

1. bondage: before coming to Christ

2. freedom but no home: We are wanderers here on earth, but feel this is home instead of Canaan.

3. freedom and home (heaven): That is why dying was often called crossing the Jordan.

C. Getting back to the story itself...As we said in the first lesson, Joshua was told by God to not to be afraid. Fear is our natural response to new situations God puts us in.

Concentrate on the people's feelings this time instead of Joshua's. Why would they be apprehensive?

1. Up to that time they had pillar of cloud and fire before them as God's visible presence, and now they just had a gold box to carry around with them.

2. They didn't have to worry about food, but now the manna had stopped and they had to forage on their own.

3. As mentioned above, there was a popular feeling of people in those days that gods were local deities who lost their strength when they went into different territories.

4. They had never seen the crossing of the Red Sea like their parents had. The Jordan in flood stage probably looked insurmountable.

But God gives them confidence on all accounts.

Think about a stressful change in your life and how God helped you handle it.

Do you have memorials you have set up?

Does the church have any memorials to physically remind us of what God has done for us?

1. communion

2. baptism