“Crossing the Jordan” Joshua 3:1-­‐17; Joshua 4:1-­‐7, 19-­‐24 Rev. Bruce Stanley Intro: How’s your memory? Have you ever forgotten anything important? A birthday? Anniversary? A child pick up?! Or maybe you forget things that have happened? That’s why we take photos and videos of important events isn’t it? So even when they’re over, we can look back and remember. Like weddings, or birthdays. It’s easy to forget things. It’s easy for our memories to fade. Often it’s a sign of getting old, or that our lives are too busy. Or we just don’t think certain things are worth remembering perhaps? Like what you ate last Tuesday for dinner – do you remember? Is it important to remember? Is it possible that in our busy lives, and with all of our different concerns, we can forget God? Joshua 3 and 4 is about remembering. And the big idea that God’s wants Israel to remember at this time is this: God is their ruler. And God is powerful. What Joshua 3 and 4 gives us is an account of a God-­‐driven event. God is doing everything. And he wants his people to remember this. That HE is the ruler over his people and that everything that happens will be done by HIS power. GOD’S RULE Turn to chapter 3. And the first thing we notice is that as they enter the Promised Land, God’s ark goes first. 3:8 “Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’ ” The ark of the covenant goes first. This is significant. Because the ark of the covenant was the symbol of God’s presence with his people. For the ark to go first means that God is going first. The ark contained the stone tablets of the law (1 Kings 8:9). It was a “testimony”. Evidence. A witness – that God was with them and that they were under his law, under His rule. Later on in their history, God’s presence with his people was shown by the temple. Even when they lost the ark, the temple was the symbol of God’s presence with them. And then Jesus came. And Jesus became more than a symbol of God’s presence. Jesus was God’s actual presence among his people. And today, Jesus is in heaven, and he has left his Holy Spirit with us – the Holy Spirit is God’s presence in our lives. He is our “ark”. 1 What we need to see is the continuing presence of God on earth and in our lives. The ark, the temple, Jesus, and now, personally, in the Holy Spirit. God is always with us, and he always has been with us. So when God tells them to walk across the Jordan carrying the ark first, this is God physically leading them into the Promised Land. The ark contained the law to show that they were not only lead by God, but they were under his law, his rule. Verse 10: 10This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. So let’s look at what happens when God leads them into the Promised Land… GOD’S POWER 3:14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The waters stopped flowing. It sounds familiar doesn’t it? Just like the Exodus from Egypt. When Moses crossed the Red Sea and the waters stopped flowing until all the Israelites had crossed over to safety. It’s a powerful symbol of God’s work. God wanted them to know that it was HE who was delivering them from Egypt, and that now it was HE who was leading them into the Promised Land. He wanted them to know with certainty that it was by HIS power that they would enter and take possession of the land. They stepped into a flooding Jordan River. Dangerous. Fast. Deep. Impossible for a whole nation to cross in in flood season. This was Israel’s confidence in action. They were trusting God even when it didn’t feel “safe”. Is that something we can do? Do we know that God is the one who is leading us in life? Do we know that he is the one with the power to save us? And do we trust him with that – not just when it’s safe, but when it doesn’t feel safe? When it comes to the way we share the gospel with other people, do we only do it when we feel safe or comfortable? Or are we confident that God is leading the way and that he is powerful in those situations? 2 And what about the great god of our culture – money? Do we trust God with our money only to the extent that it’s safe for us? Or comfortable? Or do we recognise that he is Lord over everything we have? You see, it’s not like we’re being asked to take risks. We’re being asked, like Israel, to be obedient. We stand every day in the very presence of God. In the presence of the one who calls us to follow him. To be disciples. To take up our cross. To put everything in our lives a distant second to him. And He is faithful. He will always be faithful, even when we are not. So do we trust him even when it feels unsafe, or uncomfortable? Why is it so hard? The Israelites consistently rebelled against God, despite the signs of his rule and power. Why? Because they forgot. REMEMBERING This is the purpose of the memorial in chapter 4:1-­‐3 1When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2“Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” God instructs them to build a monument – a memorial – to remember this event. To remember that He led them across the Jordan. God wants them to remember his rule and his power. And this is how: 21He (JOSHUA) said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” He did this so that: • all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful • and so that you might always fear the Lord your God God wanted the nations to know of God’s power. And he wanted Israel to remember to fear him – and “fear” here means to “honour and respect him” as Lord. As ruler. It’s easy to drift away from God when we forget. It’s easy to be distracted by the things of this world when we take our eyes off God and his work for us at the cross of Jesus. The Israelites had a memorial monument to remind them of God’s rule and power. Today, we have something much more amazing… 3 TODAY we remember differently: God’s rule was shown through his presence with the ark. Our ark is the Holy Spirit. Jesus was God on earth. He showed his rule over all things. Sickness, death, nature, sin. And then he left us his Holy Spirit so we would always be reminded of his rule in our lives. He is a living testimony. That’s much more than some building or memorial or ark can give us. He rules in our lives by the presence of His Holy Spirit. Second, our memorial is the empty cross of Jesus. Much better than 12 stones! The empty cross reminds us of God’s power. His power over sin and his power over death. He did much more than just stop a flooding river. He put an end to death for us. And the empty cross reminds us of that power. Earlier this week, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in Indonesia. Reports were that the two of them, along with the 6 others executed that day, had come to follow Jesus as Lord. Reports were that they faced the firing squad without blindfolds, singing praise to God in the words of “Amazing Grace” and “10,000 reasons”. Where was God then? Where was God for them? When the guns were aimed at them, as they sang his praises, where was God? He was exactly where he was for the Israelites. He was holding back the Jordan River for them to cross over. If Andrew and Myuran were men who had given their lives to Jesus, then they were preparing to cross their Jordan, to cross into their promised eternal life. And God was holding back the Jordan River – the tidal wave of sin and death. God was holding back the punishment, holding back his wrath. God was holding back his judgement, allowing them to cross safely from this life, into eternal life. Israel’s story is OUR story. Israel’s story is about being set free from slavery in Egypt to enter the promised land of Canaan. Our story is being set free from slavery to sin and death, to enter the Promised Land of eternal life, heaven. So for those of us who put their faith in Jesus, when we face death, like Andrew and Myuran, we will also face it as convicted criminals, as people guilty of sin against the highest authority. But when we face our death, and judgement, it is BECAUSE of our faith in Jesus that God our Father will be holding back the Jordan River of sin and death, allowing us to cross over into eternal life with him. And isn’t that where we’ll want him to be at that time?! So do we remember? God is the ruler who has the power to lead us into our Promised Land. Let’s pray. 4