Tonight we are going to look a story that covers three chapters in the book of Joshua. Joshua 3 through Joshua 5. So go ahead and turn there. Joshua chapter 3.

I'm going to break this down into seven sections. We'll read the scripture as we get to each one.

Let's start with the first section, which we will call

1. The Moving

Look at chapter 3 verse number 1:

[!bible] Joshua 3:1 - KJV

1. And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.

So the children of Israel are about to go over Jordan and into the promised land. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, they are about to take what is theirs and receive the promise of God.

But first, there is a problem. The problem is how do you get 3,000,000 people and all of their stuff over a raging river.

Now, the Jordan River isn't the Mississippi. It isn't the Nile. But it is about 100 feet across and about 10 feet deep, and the Bible tells us that it was flooded for the harvest season - so it's deeper and much wider than normal.

So how are you going to get across this river? Joshua tells the people "we are going to do it" and they come to the river and they just camp there, ready to go over, for several days.

Can you imagine the questions? The murmuring?

• "Joshua brought us here and he has no plan on getting us over there."
• "If he thinks I'm getting this dress wet, he has another thing coming."

And truth be told, Joshua probably didn't know at this point how they were going to cross - he just knew that God had instructed them to go there and God was going to get them across.

Someone has said

Faith is not believing in spite of evidence but obeying in spite of consequence.

In other words, faith doesn't mean we see a cow and say "duck." But it does mean if God says go, you go - even if you know going means problems.

It means if God says "You shall have no other gods before me." You don't kneel to the giant statue even if that means the fiery furnace.

It means if God wants you to pray, you still pray if it means you are spending the night with starving lions.

Faith is obeying in spite of consequence. God told Joshua to go. When to go. Where to go. So Joshua was going.

The second part of this story we will call...

2. The messages

From verses 3 to verse 13 there are four different messages.

The first one is a message by the elders in verses 2-4:

[!bible] Joshua 3:2-4 - KJV 2. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; 3. And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. 4. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.

Now, apparently this message came from Joshua. The ark was going to lead the way, and the people were to follow the ark at almost a mile back. They weren't to get too close to it.

That ark represented the presence of God - and God was going to go before them into the river. God was going to lead them.

If God is leading, you follow. It doesn't matter if God is leading you right up to the Red Sea and you have nowhere to go and the greatest army in the world is bearing down on you. When God is leading, you go.

They were to follow the ark. To follow the leading of God.

The second message is in verses 5-6. This is a message of Joshua to the people.

[!bible] Joshua 3:5-6 - KJV 5. And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you. 6. And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

Joshua told them to sanctify themselves. To get themselves ready. They weren't to be doing casual, everyday things. They were to set themselves apart because God was about to show up and do something.

But then God shows up with a third message. Look at verses 7-8:

[!bible] Joshua 3:7-8 - KJV 7. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. 8. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.

God told Joshua that He was going to magnify Joshua. He was going to make it clear to the people that Joshua was His man. That they were to follow Him.

Joshua had obeyed God in faith, and God was encouraging Joshua.

So that brings us to a fourth message in this chapter. Look at verses 9-13:

[!bible] Joshua 3:9-13 - KJV 9. And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God. 10. And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. 12. Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 13. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.

So I just love this. Joshua's message to the people is this: God is alive. God is not dead. God is alive and God is going to keep his promises as we follow Him in faith.

Can I tell you church - God is alive. If we obey Him in faith, God will keep His promises. God will show Himself alive.

Don't we want our kids to know that God is alive? Don't we want our grandkids to be able to look back on us and see that God did something?

Do we want the message of our lives to be: God used to show up, but He doesn't anymore?

Church, God's work isn't done. There are still people who need saving. There are still conquests to be made. And we will never see God work if we do not obey Him in faith.

Do we spend our time staring at the river and thinking "It can't be done, we can't get across there, this is impossible." Or do we obey God and step out in faith?

Listen, this generation hadn't lived in Egypt. They didn't see the Red Sea. They didn't see the plagues. All they had known was wandering in the wilderness. Sure, God had provided for them via manna - but they probably took that for granted. God wanted them to step out and follow Him.

Church, I want to see God do something. I want this generation coming up to see God working. I don't want them to know nothing but retreat. I want my kids to see conquest.

• So the moving - God moved them to a difficult place again.
• The messages from Joshua and from God.

Let's look at the third part of this story...

3. The miracle

Look at verses 14-17:

[!bible] Joshua 3:14-17 - KJV 14. And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; 15. And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) 16. That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. 17. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

Listen to this - the waters did not move until the priests with the ark put their feet in there. They had to obey in faith. But as soon as they did. As soon as a little bit of moisture was on their sandled toes - God did a mighty miracle.

Miles up the river God stopped the Jordan in a heap. Literally a hundred foot wall of water. It would have been visible to all the people in Jericho and many of the people in the land. God was sending a message to the land that He was there and He was working.

It says the people passed over right against Jericho. The people in that mighty city - probably their biggest foe - they could see God working. They could see this miracle. It filled them with fear.

Church don't you long to see God do something that makes Him big? I read about what God did through D.L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon and about Hudson Taylor and I want to see God do just a little of that. I read about what God did through John R. Rice and Frank Norris and Lee Robberson and I wander sometimes - is that God still working?

Is God still saving people? Changing people's lives? Turning the world upside down? Is He the same yesterday, today and forever? Is He still building His church?

I don't think the problem is that God has changed and I don't think the problem is that the world has changed. The world has always been rotten. You can't tell me the world of the ancient Romans was any less rotten than the world we live in today. No, God has changed and the world hasn't changed - we've changed. We have stopped expecting God to work. We've become content with small things.

I want to see a miracle. Don't you? Wouldn't it be cool if the people in Oklahoma or Pennsylvania heard about Mattoon, IL and they thought - oh, isn't that the place where God is doing something. That is the place where all those people are getting saved. That is the place where all those preachers are coming out of.

Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Why not? Would that not glorify God?

Speaking of glorifying God. Let's move onto the next section of the story.

We've talked about the moving, the messages, the miracle, now number 4:

4. The Monuments.

Look at chapter 4. Let's read the first 9 verses:

[!bible] Joshua 4:1-9 - KJV

1. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
2. Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
3. And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.
4. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:
5. And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
6. That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
7. Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.
8. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.
9. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.

God instructed Joshua to get 12 men together, one from each tribe. These guys had an unenviable job - they had to take large stones from the dry riverbed and carry them to their camp site - which was a few miles away. There they made a giant pile of twelve stones.

But Joshua did one better, He made a second monument. He made another pile of 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan river, one that no one would see when the waters came down.

What was the point of this? The point was so when later generations asked "What's the deal with these rocks? What's up with this giant pile of boulders" they would say "That is where God brought us over Jordan on dry land, that is where God started to give us our inheritance, oh, and you can't see it, but in the bottom of the Jordan there is another pile of rocks just like it, where we left our old life of wandering behind."

Pastor Sexton loved this passage and would preach on it often. At Crown College, right in the middle of the parking lot, there was this little park with a big ugly water feature - it was twelve boulders on top of each other.

He used to say we should erect monuments to God's work in our life. Things that make our children and grandchildren say "What mean these stones?"

Church, I want to see God do something in our midst that we can point our kids to and our grandkids to and say "this is where God did this." Don't you? Don't you want to be able to point to signs of a living God?

I'm not going to take the time to read it, but this story is reiterated in verses 19-24. Actually, many times in the book of Joshua God did something and they made a pile of stones as a monument to what God did.

So the children of Israel have passed over Jordan, they have made a monument.

Let's look at the fifth section in this story...

5. The medical procedure

Look at chapter 5 verses 1-9

[!bible] Joshua 5:1-9 - KJV

1. And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.
2. At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
3. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
4. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.
5. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.
6. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
7. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.
8. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.
9. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

This is interesting. It's another test of faith. The children of Israel are not circumcised. Apparently, they stopped practicing circumcision in the wilderness. So you have this whole army of men who have not been circumcised and right after they cross the Jordan, when they are camping in eyeshot of their most formidable enemy - God says "now it's time for you to be circumcised."

Think about that. You have this huge army of young men, they are in enemy territory and all of them are recovering from surgery. None of them are battle ready.

Look at verse 9 again:

[!bible] Joshua 5:9 - KJV 9. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

What reproach? I think it was the faithfulness of their fathers. It was their faithfulness in not entering the land those forty years ago. Their fathers left Egypt, but Egypt never left their fathers.

Warren Weirsbe put it this way:

I think that “the reproach of Egypt” refers to the ridicule of the enemy when Israel failed to trust God at Kadesh Barnea and enter the Promised Land.

They didn't obey God. They didn't step out in faith, and so Egypt heard about it and shook their head.

Here they have obeyed God, they have renewed the covenant with God - and God is going to work through them.

Gilgal, the place where this happened, because a very important place in Israel. Gilgal became Joshua's home base for Israel's conquest. When kings were anointed, it was at Gilgal. Later on, when Elisha setup his school of the prophets, they had a location in Gilgal. This became a special place - and there is a significant new beginning that is about to happen here.

Let's read verses 10-12:

[!bible] Joshua 5:10-12 - KJV 10. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. 11. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. 12. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

We've talked about the moving, the messages, the miracle, the monument and now the medical procedure. Two more things.

The sixth part of this story is...

6. The memorial

This is the first time since Sinia that it is recorded that they kept the Passover. All that time wandering in the wilderness they weren't keeping the passover. For forty years - no passover, no remembrance of how God delivered them.

But now, it's like they are starting over. And they start by taking time to remember what God did for them back in Egypt.

They remember how they were delivered by the death of the firstborn and the blood of the lamb.

They looked back again with fresh eyes on their Salvation.

Church, we've been delivered by the blood of the Lamb and by the death of God's only begotten son. We've been set free from slavery and made a people who were no people. We are heirs to the promises of God.

When they were walking through that long death march, they seem to have lost sight of all of that. They seem to have forgotten what God had done for them. What a miserable existence.

I don't know about you, but I want to live in faith and victory and not in defeat and faithfuless. I want my life to be a life of taking the promised land, not a life of wandering in the wilderness of sin and faithlessness.

You know a lot of Christians never realize their promised land, they spend their whole Christian life in this kind of half-way state. The gospel isn't very exciting to them. What God has done for them isn't very meaningful.

The more we are walking with God - the more we want to celebrate His salvation.

Something else special happens here at Gilgal. Look at verse 12. Notice that the manna ceased. God stopped raining bread down from heaven for them. Do you know why? They didn't need it anymore. They were in their own place. Image how sweet that bread was - the bread of their land - the bread of their inheritance.

There is one more part of this story for us to consider. The last part - the seventh, is...

7. The Meeting

Look at verses 13-15:

[!bible] Joshua 5:13-15 - KJV 13. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? 14. And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? 15. And the captain of the LORD’S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.

Joshua sees a soldier he doesn't recognize outside of Jericho and boldly asks "are you with us or against us?" No middle ground.

But the soldier says "neither. I am the captain of the host of the Lord." This was the pre-incarnate Christ.

He tells Joshua "take your shoes off, you are on holy ground." So Joshua falls on his face and worships Him.