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[0:00] If you remember, the book of Joshua is the bridge that closes the gap between the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and the historical writings, which really we find beginning in the book of Judges and going throughout the period of the judges and kings of the nation of Israel.

[0:17] Because what we have in the Pentateuch is God delivering His people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt and bringing them out in order to bring them in. So He led them out in order to take them in.

[0:29] And there was an end goal in mind. There was a place that He was leading them to in that wilderness wandering. And Deuteronomy ends with the conclusion of the wilderness wandering and the challenge of Moses and the passing of the mantle from Moses to Joshua and the death of Moses as He sees the land.

[0:47] And the people are mourning. They are going through a 30-day period of mourning and weeping over the death of Moses, which is something that is ascribed of the Lord. There is this time of mourning and weeping and lamenting.

[0:59] And they walk through that. And if we go right into the historical writings in the book of Judges, we find them inhabiting the land. We find the spiral, the downward fall of the nation.

[1:10] We are moving into the books of Chronicles and Kings and 1 and 2 Samuel, and we see the historical aspects of it. But what we don't understand is how they get the land. And the book of Joshua does that.

[1:21] And it closes the gap. It shows us Joshua, God's appointed man, leading the nation into the promised land and distributing the land among them. We have seen how Joshua's faith is encouraged and he is moved by God speaking to him and reminding him and undergirding him in the first chapter of Joshua chapter 1.

[1:42] Be strong and courageous, right? Because God is using him to fulfill the purpose that he has called and commissioned him to do. Joshua has both a calling and a commissioning of the Lord.

[1:53] The Lord called him by name and then he commissioned him in the tent of meeting as he was present with Moses there. The spirit of the Lord rested upon Joshua as much, not as much, but in part as it did upon Moses.

[2:06] And he is commissioned to do this. And then he is commissioned before the nation of Israel by Moses himself as he laid hands upon him. And now Joshua is about to do exactly what God commanded him to do or has really appointed him to do.

[2:20] This is his one primary purpose, his one main task. All the years of preparation, what we would call in Scripture quite often we refer to as the silent years, the years behind the scene.

[2:33] We have the curtains pulled back for us on the lives of individuals when the Lord is using them for their purpose in their time, at their season. What we don't always see or what we don't always pay attention to are the silent years where God prepares them over years and decades for this work.

[2:53] Moses has the years in the wilderness, right? He's 40 years in Egypt in the Egyptian courts. He's 40 years in the backside of the desert as a shepherd. And then God uses him for 40 years as he leads the people.

[3:06] Joshua has those years of being next to Moses, of accompanying him, of remaining at the Ten of Meaning, of going up at least further than anyone else on Mount Sinai.

[3:17] There when Moses comes down with the Ten Commandments. All these silent years, every time he's mentioned, he's mentioned in connection with Moses or being close to Moses. And now this is his day.

[3:28] This is his time. God's going to use him. This is what all the preparation has been for. This is what all God's dealings with him has been about. It's about this time. The application to that is pretty clear.

[3:40] God has a work for his people. God's not in a hurry to prepare his people for that work. But God will take whatever time he needs to in order to ensure that when that time comes, his people will be fully prepared to accomplish that which he has called and appointed them to do.

[3:55] Scripture tells us that before we were born, God had a work set forth for us, right? He has works before the foundation of the Lord laid out for us to do things to accomplish. And that is why when we live in the day that he has appointed us to, and we understand that Christ has a purpose for us and a calling for us and a giftedness to us, then it is our ambition, or it ought to be our ambition, to at least understand that purpose and then to fulfill what he has called and commissioned us to do.

[4:25] And we see this going on in the life of Joshua. If you remember, I know this is a long introduction to the third chapter, but if you remember, chapter one kind of runs through real quick, because in chapter one it's like after three days we're going to go into the land, and then we kind of have this intermission in Joshua chapter two, where we have the account of the two spies going in, staying with Rahab the harlot, there on the wall of Jericho, understanding what the people and being encouraged by Rahab, hanging the scarlet cord, she hung the scarlet cord in her window, and now we're kind of going back, because what goes on in Joshua chapter two is Joshua has been encouraged of the Lord, God has told him he's going to give him the land, but he's also been wise in his planning.

[5:09] He's also done things with discretion. To move forward in faith is not to move forward haphazardly, it is to move forward with a faithful assurance that God is going to do what he has commanded us to do, but we ought to be as wise as serpent and as gentle as doves.

[5:27] He has taken the time to understand militaristically how they should move forward. If you were to look at a map, you would understand that he does it very intentionally. He goes right through the heart of the land of Canaan, divides it in two, takes his forces and conquers the southern portion of the land of Canaan, and then turns around and goes and conquers the portion of the northern part.

[5:47] Jericho is that first city they come to as they're cutting it in half. Okay? So he moves forward intelligently, again, as God had gifted him naturally, but redeemed for those purposes.

[6:01] Now we're into the point, Joshua three and four, those two chapters where they actually go in. They actually go into the promised land. This is what everything's been leading up to all the way back, starting in the book of Exodus.

[6:18] Now is the time, right? So you've got Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Now they're about to go. Apart from two other random mentionings of the people of Israel referred to as a nation, as God refers to them and speaking to them as a nation, the first time that they are actually called the nation of Israel is here in chapter 4 when they go into the land.

[6:47] Because they were a wandering people. Now they are an inhabiting nation. They were a people in the wilderness. Now they're going to be nation in the place where God has called them to be.

[6:57] So we begin to see that entrance. When we introduced the book, we saw the reality that we live victoriously through faith. Faith is that victory.

[7:08] Literally, faith is the victory that overcomes the world, right? Move forward in faith. And faith gains the victory all through the book of Joshua. So they're moving forward in faith.

[7:20] Last time we were together, we looked at the reality that Canaan, or the promised land, is not a type of heaven, though we refer to it in some of the songs that we sing.

[7:31] We shouldn't decry the songs, and we shouldn't be upset when we understand this. Canaan is not necessarily a picture of heaven, because it's a place of conflict.

[7:42] It's a place where you can be removed from. It's a place of failure. It's a place of sinning. None of those things can be ascribed to our eternal home and glory. Okay?

[7:52] We can never be removed. It's not a place of conflict. It's a place of cessation. It's not a place of battle. It's not a place of sin. It's a place of completeness. Many believe that Canaan, in Scripture, is really a picture of the fullness of Christ.

[8:07] Moving forward in faith. It is referred to that manner in such a way in the book of Hebrews. As Hebrews chapter 4 looks at this point of Kadesh Barnea and their failure to enter in because of a lack of faith, and that we should not fail, and we should not cease to move forward.

[8:26] It is this encouragement to move forward in faith. And we have seen how to cross the Jordan River is to go all in. To go all in and to move forward completely abandoned to what God has called them to do.

[8:39] So tonight, as we see Joshua chapter 3, we're going to look at what it looks like to go all in in faith. Joshua chapter 3 says this. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and he and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and they lodged there before they crossed.

[8:59] At the end of three days, the officers went through the midst of the camp, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

[9:10] However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.

[9:22] Then Joshua said to the people, Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people.

[9:33] So they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people. Now the Lord said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.

[9:45] You shall moreover command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God.

[10:00] Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Gregershite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite.

[10:11] Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan. Now then take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe.

[10:23] It shall come about when the souls of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap.

[10:35] So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest.

[10:51] The waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan. And those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Araba, the salt sea were completely cut off.

[11:06] So the people crossed opposite Jericho, and the people who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

[11:20] Joshua chapter 3. We're looking at what it looks like to go all in. Here they actually cross. Chapter 3 and chapter 4 go together as we study this, because chapter 4 would be a repetition of some of the events which are recorded for us in chapter 3.

[11:36] We will find out in chapter 4 why these 12 men were chosen, namely that they pick up stones and they pile these stones up. We will also find out that Joshua himself puts a second pile of stones in the middle of the Jordan as a testimony to where the priests stood.

[11:51] Some people see kind of a conflict in these passages that they seem to be kind of an uncoraborated collection collection of stories put together that don't seem to be reconciled, but as we see it really, it is a full picture of what is going on.

[12:07] As some has explained, the author gives a lot of attention to each event, the ascension into the water, the actual passing through the water, and the coming out of the water on the other side to signify the reality that the nation actually did it.

[12:21] We begin to see here the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land, and everything on the other side is absolutely different. And here we see what it looks like to go all in as the people prepare and actually accomplish what God had set them out to do some 40 years prior to this.

[12:39] This is the reason God led them out of Egypt. He led them out in order to bring them in. He didn't lead them out so that they would be a free people wandering around in the wilderness. He led them out so that they would be a redeemed people who could go into a land of promise.

[12:54] If we want to bring that application today is we are not set free and redeemed and forgiven of our sins so that we may be a free people to wander around however we want to. We are a redeemed people who have the ability to go all in with Christ and to be absolutely surrendered completely to Him in the land of the living so that when we get to the land of eternity what we have been doing here will just continue there.

[13:18] We see the reality that we are commanded not just to be content with freedom, but we are not to settle in the wilderness of freedom, but we are to live in the steadfastness of faith which continues to push forward and go all in.

[13:33] The book of Joshua itself ends with the admonition there is still much land to be conquered. Even though they had moved forward and went all the way into the land there was still much to be done because the life and the living and the labor and the work of faith never stops.

[13:51] It never does. It is continuously pushing forward and it continues to move forward until that day of completeness in Christ. And we see here this reality when the nation goes all in and exactly what it takes to do so.

[14:04] The first thing we see is they had a purpose that they committed to. There was a purpose that they committed to. What we read in the third chapter here is on the heels of Joshua getting the news back from the two spies.

[14:18] If you remember he sent the two spies out secretly. He did not send them out so that they could come back and issue a report to the entirety of the nation. He sent them out so that they could come back and give him their report.

[14:30] Not so that the nation could be encouraged but so that he could be educated. Right? He wanted to make an intelligent decision. Remember, Joshua is not a spiritual leader. He is a political leader of mighty force.

[14:44] Joshua is not the spiritual leader. He is not appointed as priest. He is not the one who intercedes for the nation. That's Eleazar by this time. The descendant of Aaron. He is not the one who is there interceding for them and praying for them.

[14:57] He is there being used of the Lord to fulfill this purpose to be the military leader who would lead them into the land of promise. And Joshua's name literally means Yeshua saves.

[15:10] He is a representative of the one who is going to set them free and redeem for them this land ahead of them. And so he wants to know fully what's going on. So he gets the report back and then he moves the people.

[15:23] So we see this purpose that they committed to because it tells us now Joshua rose early. Joshua rose early. Warren Wiersbe says that throughout Scripture if you pay attention to it, the people that God uses are the people who got up early and made it a point to commune with the Lord their God.

[15:41] that the first order of their day was to commune with the Lord their God. That they disciplined their body to the point that first things first they met with the Lord and then they fulfilled their work.

[15:58] We see this that Joshua rose early. Now I tell people if you're more of a night person than a morning person then do it at your best time. Right? Give the Lord your best time. I remember reading an account one time Richard Blackaby who wrote Experiencing God I remember reading an account of his son Henry Blackaby he said that his dad was retired Richard was already retired and was pretty advanced in years and he went up to Canada to stay with his son Henry and Henry was like I was trying to be really quiet he said I thought I got up early and he said so I got up at my normal time which was sometime around 8 o'clock he said I thought that maybe too early to wake my dad so I was kind of creeping to the kitchen he said I went to go make a pot of coffee and he said my dad was sitting at the table he said by the time I got up my dad had written five full pages of note from Bible study that morning he'd already had three hours of study in scripture Henry Blackaby at that time was a Christian university president he said

[16:59] I was rebuked because my dad who didn't have to get up had already got up and had made time when the stillness of the morning and as Wiersbe said it seems to be this reality that God's people that he uses are people who make time it says so Joshua rose early and after he rose early everybody got up and then he got everybody up and he says he rose early in the morning and he and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim now if you're reading the King James or the New King James it says Acacia Grove because the word Shittim literally means that it is the Hebrew word for Acacia Grove a grove of acacia plants and trees and a place that is pleasant it says they moved from there to the Jordan or to the banks of the Jordan River now you need to understand that there is the Jordan Valley and the geography of the land so there's these rifts that go down just to put it simply they moved 10 miles they moved from a place of comfort and ease a grove of acacia trees literally to the battle line of the banks of the Jordan River it is not a small undertaking to move over a million people 10 miles and you don't move there unless you're committed to the purpose of what you're about to do

[18:10] Joshua being fully encouraged by the Lord's word to him and being fully informed by the report of the spies who came back to him now makes a decisive decision and encourages all the people and before they can go all in they have to be committed to the purpose and the purpose was to go into the promised land and we know they're committed because they all got up and it's not just men now we know we have two and a half tribes that send all their warriors and they leave their young and their old and their wives behind but everybody else they're moving livestock and women and children and they're moving their entire families and they move them 10 miles from the acacia grove to the banks of the Jordan River and they're committed because literally what happened is they came out in the open because the inhabitants of Jericho had heard about them remember that and many people believe the reality that as they moved the inhabitants of Jericho would have seen them and they were committed see there's one thing to talk about doing it all day long there's one thing in the plains of Moab or in the acacia grove to say yeah we ought to go into the promised land and we can talk about it over here where we've already defeated these two kings Sihon and

[19:24] Og and we've also already got back to the Moabites because of our failure there with Balaam and Balak and we're in this place of victory but this is on the wrong side of the Jordan River and we're in this place of comfort because we already have land and remember it's a luscious land because that's why the two and a half tribes wanted to stay there it was a land suitable for livestock and they had much livestock so this was a fertile land because everywhere in the Jordan Valley is very fertile and this is a place of comfort and a place of ease and it's not a place of conflict yet they know what God has commanded them to do is to cross the Jordan River and when you cross the Jordan River you're automatically going into a place of conflict nobody wants you coming there but they committed to that purpose and we know they did because they moved they moved James says what faith without works is dead you can say you have all the faith in the world that God's going to lead you across but until you move and do something doesn't matter we demonstrate the reality of our faith by the purposes we commit to not the purposes we converse about and commitment always means action here we see the purpose they were committed to they went to the banks of the Jordan

[20:50] River and they were there you never go all in until you have a purpose it's worth committing to never the second thing we see is the presence they followed there was the purpose they committed to there will be the presence that they follow notice there is no longer any mention of the pillar of fire by night or the pillar of cloud by day none of that anymore because once they get to the plains of Moab once they get to this region once they get to that side and God has has led them to defeat Sihon and Og and they've inhabited all this land there's no longer any mention of that but rather there is this display of God's presence before them because it says that when you see the ark of the covenant move then you move over and over and over again I want to think upwards of almost 20 times the ark is mentioned in chapter 3 and chapter 4 somewhere between 15 and 20 times there's this repetition mention of the ark the ark the ark of the covenant the ark of the covenant the ark of the covenant and the ark of the covenant if you remember is the place where the ten commandments were in the stone tablets it had this gold plate across the top of it also had the the cherubim above it had the mercy seat remember the mercy seat which one day a year on the day of atonement the priest would go in and sprinkle blood upon it right and it's this representation of the

[22:10] Shekinah glory of God hovered over it and the Shekinah glory of God hovering over the law and between the glory of God and the law and the standard of man was the mercy seat or the propitiation seat and that propitiation seat was covered with the blood of the lamb and we have seen how that really is a picture of Christ because he is the mercy seat the new testament tells us he is our propitiation that's a hard thing for a southern tongue to say but he is that he is that mercy seat he is the blood that stands between the holy standard of God and the holy presence of God and allows the people of God to commune with him and this ark of the covenant was to go before them Adrian Rogers says that if you look in the wilderness wanderings the ark is always among them here as they're about to go in he's going before them because as some have said he is our forerunner he is our trailblazer he is our savior but he is not our buddy we have a friend in

[23:16] Jesus but he's also holy so maintain a distance of 2,000 cubits don't get too close for one you don't know where he's going that distance is about half a mile stay a half a mile away so that you can see clearly where he's going because they are leading you the ark of the covenant he is leading you here is the presence that they absolutely relied upon because it is the one that set the direction Joshua did not set the direction the spies council did not set the direction the ark of the covenant is that which set the direction for the people to follow because to go all in there's only one to follow which reminds us of that reality that we've seen over and over again the ark was going to move the people had to make a decision to move because you cannot follow the Lord and be still it was going to move every individual had the responsibility to decide to follow it when it moved it wasn't waiting on anyone else it wasn't waiting for the encouragement of anyone else it was going to move and here we see that it is the Levitical priests that are carrying it not those who are given the responsibilities and the taking down of the tabernacle which carry it it is the priests themselves because this is a holy work this is not just moving it from one location to another this is the

[24:47] Lord God leading his people into a place of promise we see the presence they followed we know they go all in because of the preparations they make not only they had a purpose they were committed to and there was a presence they were going to follow there was the preparations that they would make we come across a phrase which we read also at Mount Sinai and we read it in other locations as well consecrate yourselves consecrate yourselves for God is going to do wonders among you tomorrow if you remember Mount Sinai Moses was commanded to tell the people to spend two days in consecration or separation from everything else they were to set themselves apart because God was going to meet with them here Joshua much like what Moses says there commands the people to consecrate themselves because the next day God was going to do wonders among them we see this perfect balance that God was going to do the wondrous work but man had a responsibility right we it almost appears as if the work that God was going to do among them was dependent upon them that God was calling them to set themselves entirely apart that

[26:11] God was calling them to set themselves apart as holy something that is consecrated is set apart for holy use to be set apart for a holy use and a holy purpose and to be set aside wholly totally committed to the Lord God and this is a personal preparation they would have done things like take a bath which to us seems kind of odd because it's easy to take a bath to take a bath and to change clothes to them is a is a great sign when David is mourning for the loss of his child and he's weeping and crying remember after sin with Bathsheba and his child is sick and he's mourning and he's mourning and then he finds out that his child dies and then he gets up the Bible says that he rose up he took a bath he changed clothes and he went and ate because to wash and to change clothes is to always show a new start we read that other places in scripture in a land where water was scarce to use it for something as simple as taking a bath is a big undertaking it is to signify a new start tomorrow God's doing something new tomorrow God is going to do wonders among us we're going into the land we're actually following him and we're going all in we're casting aside our wilderness wondering and now we're moving forward in faith to the promised land inhabiting we're no longer who we used to be a people wondering in the wilderness now we're a nation living in a land we're going to forget even this freedom we had to wonder and be committed in faith to the Savior who leads us they had to prepare themselves unfortunately I think what happens is a number of followers of Christ today fail to see the wonders of God because of a lack of personal preparation preparation because of a lack of personal preparation one of the things that we see in scripture and I think we've referred to it quite often especially when we get to the book of Psalms the book of Psalms by the way is the only I guess we can say authorized worship book that we have just like if we want to know what the early church if we want to know what the church should look like we open up the book of

[28:38] Acts because here's the church in its beginning right if we want to know what worship through song looks like we open up the book of Psalms because here's God's ordained appointed revealed worship book and we see them worshiping with instruments we see them worshiping all number of things but when we get to the end of the book of Psalms are those little short Psalms that we we tend to skim over they're very quick and very short and but if you read the heading of them you'll realize they are Psalms of ascent Psalms of ascent and as we've looked at in the past these are the Psalms or the songs that the people were encouraged because this is a Jewish praise book the book of Psalms that's what it is this is how they worship and these were the songs that they would sing on the way to the temple some of them are songs that they would sing as they ascend the steps of the temple one in particular is who will open up for us the doors who will open up for us the gates as they were climbing and climbing to the Lord God

[29:43] Almighty and worshiping and worshiping and worshiping because see worship didn't take place when they got into the temple they prepared themselves by worshiping on their way to the temple so that when they got there they were ready they were prepared to see the wonders of God unfortunately I think many of us myself included forget about the preparations to be made in order to see the wonders of God we see this here as they go all in they spend the night consecrating themselves being prepared to see what God is going to do with a holy expectation a holy expectation why do we see so little consecration and sending a part of ourselves because there is so little holy expectation that tomorrow God's going to do something wondrous how many of us actually believe I mean honestly it's just stop from the instruction and stop from the exposition for just a moment and go to just a clear application how many of us actually believe that if we were to spend a day or spend our night in holy consecration that tomorrow we would see him do something wondrous I'll tell you the ones who really believe it they're the ones that are really doing it and they wake up and they see God do some amazing things because see there is the preparations to go all in the fourth and final thing we see is the power that they absolutely relied upon it's the same power that has been leading them but it is to be reminded here is the power they absolutely relied upon Joshua leads the people to move to the battle line so to say Joshua encourages the priests in their responsibility Joshua commands the commanders to go tell the people to consecrate themselves and the Lord speaks to Joshua and he tells them that what he's about to do is going to be a sign to the people see it's not really about Joshua here it's not about

[32:05] Joshua we see a lot of the same repetitions of what God did with Moses as they came across the Red Sea he also did with Joshua as they go across the Jordan River as a matter of fact even the wording they stood on dry ground and they were crossed on dry ground in the original language in the book of Exodus when they crossed the Red Sea there are two different words used for dry ground in the book of Joshua those same two words in the same exact order are used for dry ground there's this intentional mirroring this intentional of what Moses did Joshua did of what God did through him God's doing through him and God says the reason he's doing this is so that he will demonstrate in the sight of all Israel it says there in verse 7 that they may know that as I have been with Moses I will be with you one reason for what is going to take place is to clearly demonstrate to the people that the power that was with Moses is the power that's with Joshua that the God of Moses is the God of Joshua that the God who is leading out of Egypt it is God who is leading into the promised land that he is still there that though the leaders have changed the power his presence has not changed he is demonstrating not only that he is the one doing it but also as Joshua encourages them he says by this you shall know that the living God is among you that he is there that he is that he will surely dispossess from before you the Canaanite the Hittite the Hivite the

[33:47] Perizzite the Gregorishite the Amorite the Jebusite so he's encouraging that this event is going to be an encouragement moving forward that whenever you go into battle you're going to be like yes but he allowed us to cross the Jordan River on dry ground the power that stopped the Jordan River is the same power who's going to enable us to win the battle and I want to call your attention to something that we don't see in our English translations as much but it's here and we need to pay attention to it because over and over and over again we have this repetition of the Lord Yahweh Yahweh capital L capital O capital R capital D and now when we're when we're getting ready to go here it says in verse 11 behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth because he's just spoken of the reality that God's going to hand all these nations over to you right and now here he's referred as the Lord of all the earth that is the word Adonai that means he is the Lord reigner of all the earth and he repeats it in case we missed it okay he refers to him as Adonai and then it comes down again verse 13 it shall come about when the souls of the feet of the priest who carry the ark of the Lord Yahweh capital L capital O capital R capital

[34:53] D the Lord of all the earth Adonai that the priest who carry the ark of Yahweh who is Adonai when they come the waters are going to stop the reason that this is important is because he has just spoken in reference to the reality that the sea or the Jordan River will be dried up and that the inhabitants of the land will be handed over now Yahweh is the God of Israel Adonai is the God of all the earth as Yahweh he's in covenant relationship with his people as Adonai he has the right to give his land whoever he wants to we understand that right as Yahweh he leads his people as Adonai he dispossesses other people because that's not their land that's his land he is Adonai he is the Lord of all the earth and that's important to remember because we say oh did he really have a right yes he has a right he is Adonai he is the Lord of all the earth and he also has the right to tell the Jordan River when to stop when he wants to and we see the reliance upon this power because we notice here that as the priest take the ark of the covenant and they move forward it says as soon as their feet hit the water which means that as weirs be said true faith leads us to get our feet wet it says when they stepped into the bank or stepped into the edge of the water then the water stopped then the water did not stop until the feet of the priest stepped into it they could have stood on the bank all day long they could have waited and they could have stood there for for months going well we'll just wait till it stops wait till it stops it would not stop until they showed their reliance upon the power by stepping into it sometimes most times God commands us to step into what he's about to stop and we can wait all day long but until we show the faith that will step into it trusting the power that has told us about it we'll never see it happen and we're told here that this is the time of the year when the Jordan River floods its banks which at a normal time there's there's a lot here God does things in perfect timing right we understand this at a normal stage the Jordan River would have been about a hundred feet wide somewhere sometimes very narrow would have been easily crossed during this time of the year when the spring rains and the snow melt and everything was coming down and everything was going towards the salt sea it was much much much wider actually you couldn't afford it or cross it or it was very dangerous to swim across it and you definitely wouldn't take over a million people across it in one day strategically thinking this is the best time to attack a city because nobody nobody expects a military attack to cross the Jordan River this time of the year theologically God does it to show that he can overcome even the greatest odds at this point the Jordan River is really because when it floods its banks if you ever look at all the wadis and the dry dry river beds and things that are coming down from here it really overflows really in some places up to about a mile wide and it tells us as soon as they stepped into it now the wording is intentional we need to pay attention to this that the river stopped in one heap it heaped up in a place called Adam

[38:44] I can't even remember who said it but I love the picture of this that is Joshua's name represents Yeshua saves it is the name of Christ leading man into the fullness of God's promise that is the promised land that the very thing which was hindering them from going into the fullness of God's promise was flowing from Adam which is man the very thing that hinders us from going into the fullness of Christ is ourself and it had to stop at Adam in order to go in now nobody really knows Adam is one of those lost cities of ancient times with many archaeologists and biblical scholars have a pretty good idea where it was located it's about 20 miles north of where they cross the water stopped 16 to 20 miles north of there and heaped up in that very location I think in the 1920s there was a mudslide that actually stopped the flow of the Jordan River so some people say oh well it's probably a mudslide well that's fine God can use the normal to do that extraordinary right the fact that the mudslide happened to say that moment that the priest's feet hit it is pretty extraordinary I don't care how he does it as long as he does it and he says he's going to do it but what's even more amazing is it doesn't say that they cross on a muddy riverbed it says they crossed on dry land so he heaped it up in one place and not only did he heap it up in one place which is Adam 20 miles north of there that's the Jordan River but it also says that all the waters that flow to the Jordan that is all the waddies and dry river beds that will be flowing from the wilderness that actually flow in there as a result of snow but they stopped up as well so there had to be multiple mudslides that was the case because there are many of them in that 20 mile stretch from Adam down to where they crossed and all those stopped as well in one big heap and they crossed on dry land they crossed on dry land much like when they crossed the red sea the says the wind blew and the breath of God blowing back the waters they crossed on dry land here the water stopped at the moment and they needed to and they crossed on dry land as a visible demonstration of the power they were relying on not only to get there but to do all that God had commanded them to do here we see the absolute power they were relying upon and how it was brought about we will see the next chapter how when that water is dry and they're standing on that dry land they get the stones and they set them up as a testimony for the generations to come and as a Ebenezer reminder of what God did there but here we see what it takes to go all in a purpose that you commit to a presence that you follow the preparations that are made and a power that is absolutely relied upon at the very moment it's needed and it will not fail Joshua chapter 3 thank you brothers so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so i asked so

[42:27] Thank you.

[42:57] Thank you.