Alan Bennett
Read Joshua 4
We have left the priests and the Ark of the Covenant standing in the river bed for a week now. We don’t know how long it took for perhaps up to 700,000 people to cross over the Jordan river. Possibly it was just one day if the crossing front was wide. I for one would not have been happy on Ark night duty, knowing the river wasn’t far away, waiting to return at any moment. So it is now time for them too to come up into the promised land.
At first reading Ch 4 may not seem to contain much for us. But there is always something for us in scripture – if we dig for it.
Good Preparation and Planning… We have already seen in Ch.3 the hard work Joshua put into getting the people ready for this epic event in Israel’s development, some 40 years after Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt. Now those 12 men, first chosen in 3:12 are to step forward. They come, one each from the 12 tribes – for unity, for equal sharing and participation in the Lord’s work. This speaks to me of the importance of involving a wide cross section of a congregation in church affairs and ministries. Note they were CHOSEN, they were not volunteers. A church leader must have the freedom and the courage to divinely tap people on the shoulder for ministry according to the spiritual gifting and potential he may see in them. This is what happened in Acts 6 when the church CHOSE 7 men to take food to the widows. That event, of getting the right well educated young men into a low profile “meals on wheels” work soon led to v7 “The word of God spread, the number of disciples increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the truth.” Acts 6:7. Please Lord do it again and again, do it here in Calvin –AMEN.!
God and doing His will…In v3-4 we see an important principle and lesson for us. God did not give Joshua the whole picture as to “how” and “what” he was doing with Israel or even with Joshua himself. We see God “drip feeding” guidance and direction into Joshua as he and the people moved along. Here the life of faith and obedience is illustrated so clearly. We try to make ourselves God, by wanting to know the end from the beginning. When the last person had crossed I reckon those priests were busting to get out of there. But their role, their job was to stand, to stand in the middle holding back the flood with the word of God until every person had crossed including the slow 12 stone carriers. They were there to mark the path with the truth and power of the Word until God said otherwise. And when He did, they came out and the flood returned. In today’s world we are so obsessed with defining “outcomes” and “results”, God is obsessed with faith and obedience. When will we learn!
I love the detail found in scripture. Did you notice in v6 that the men were to take up stones and carry them on their shoulders. At one stone each that tells me they were not stones, they were boulders. Shoulders are for boulders.! Don’t let us forget that Jesus talked of putting our backs to the plough, taking up our cross. Our cross is not a tiny silver emblem on a chain around our neck, though nothing wrong with that, but it is what Simon of Cyrene carried the day Jesus was crucified. Isn’t this what is meant when Paul testifies in Col.1:24 “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, the church.” It is Jesus invitation to come on board with Him. The Christian life is a partnership with Jesus and His people, the church of God on earth.
God and Miracles… Perhaps a word here about miracles. This second crossing of a deep waterway by Israel was no mere “convergence of nature” or “circumstance of timing”. This miracle started by faith and obedience when the toes of the priests met the water. It was maintained for a God determined period by the steadfast obedience of those priests and the faith of all Israel as they crossed on dry land, and it ended when God saw it was no longer necessary.. From start to finish it was God initiated. V18 tells us that the conclusion was, “the water ran as before.” This tells me it wasn’t just dammed up by a timely earthquake or rock-fall or anything else that just happened to come along. If it had been dammed up and then come free it would have rampaged back down at a level far greater than flood level and swept all Israel away, as they were still sorting themselves out on or near the riverbank. We do not have to explain how God does miraculous.
V23 tells us, “He did to the Jordan just what he did to the Red Sea.” Hallelujah, my God is not a “one off” God. – AMEN.! He fed 5000 and then he went on to feed 4,000. He healed the lepers, He healed the blind, and above all else He saved me, and He saved you and you and you, and now, today, He wants to save you and you and you. This is our God, a great God of love, mercy, forgiveness, of justice and salvation.. And why does he do it? Joshua gives us the answer-v24 “He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and that you might always fear the Lord your God.” Put another way I believe miracles are for evangelizing the lost and for purifying His church
God and Memory …
Southland loves it’s stones. The Baptists, St Andrew, Calvin etc. Lumsden has it’s Millenium stone – “marking the work of the HS in the area”. Myanmar or Burma is in the news….
Illus.. 8 mile church in Yangon has a huge stone with an open Bible on it beside the open baptistery on a busy intersection and bus interchange. – for all to see. (sound system as well)
Averil and I have learnt much from browsing among the tombstones of the new places we visit. Most memorable was in St Paul’s Church, Malacca, Malaysia just before we were designated to work in Central Thailand. and expecting our first-born. There is a temporary burial crypt of Francis Xavier, the pioneer RC missionary to China and parts of Asia. And in the surrounding graveyard of the 18th – 19th century. One family, “To God be the Glory” 2 children, father, 1 child, mother, then 2 more children all died and buried in space of one month – Cholera. Sorry to be ending on a seemingly sad note. But for the Christian, death is not the end There is joy for us in heaven. And there is joy for us now in crossing our rivers daily taking God’s word seriously and doing His will that he has planned and purposed for us.
In closing, the question arises, “How do you and I wish to be remembered? What do you and I want written on our tombstone? Have our lives brought glory to God? Do you know this God of miracles who above all else miraculously crossed from heaven to earth, to take your sin, your shame, your fears and by nailing them to His cross has opened the door for your forgiveness and new life in His promised land prepared for you here and in the hereafter. As we leave this place this morning take another look at the rock and the cross at the front of the church. Reflect on them as memorials to your great salvation. Then ask yourself these two questions.. Am I standing on the rock Christ Jesus?
Am I taking up my cross daily and following Him?
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