Study inJoshua

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Crossing The Jordan

Chap 3v1- 4v4

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IntroductionThe River Jordan stood between Israel and the blessing of God. The fulfilment of God's promises lay just across the river, but as far as Israel was concerned, their inheritance might just as well be a million miles away. An impossible barrier lay between them and blessing. Have you shared in that frustration? Does God's picture book echo what has been, and may continue to be, true of your experience? Some seemingly insurmountable difficulty challenges your enjoyment of God's blessing. In your Christian experience are you faced with some "Mission Impossible" situation? Does the inheritance, which others are enjoying, seem to you to be an unattainable dream? If so then this passage has lessons to teach.

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The Barrier To Blessing As we look at the barrier facing Israel the first thing we need to appreciate is its significance. The saving work of God directed towards Israel had both a negative and a positive side to it. Negatively God delivered them from the tyranny and bondage of Egypt. Positively God intended to deliver them into a land of blessing and plenty. Their salvation involved both elements! And the River Jordan formed the barrier between them.Similarly, God's saving work in Christ, contains a negative, deliverance from sins power and penalty and a positive of spiritual blessing. And again there are often Jordans, that appear to prevent us from entering into that blessing.

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The Barrier To Blessing Secondly, the Jordan provided a test of faith. Think of the discouragement to which Israel were exposed. The 'Jordan was in spate' v15 . It was humanly impossible to get women, children, herds and baggage safely across. How would they respond to the crisis of discouragement?

The Japanese word for ‘crisis’ is a compound of two words 'danger' and 'opportunity'. In crisis, we so often see the 'dangers' but we seldom see the 'opportunities'. The Jordan in spate presented Israel with the opportunity of displaying their faith and trust in God.

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危 機

The Barrier To Blessing Barriers that seem to cut us off from God’s blessing provide us with opportunities to prove God. Such barriers vary from person to person, for some it is fear of cross-bearing, or criticism by family, friends or workmates. For others it is an inability to trust God completely with their future. Or, it may be some besetting sin from which they seem unable to break free no matter how hard they try. Whatever the barrier we need to see it as an opportunity to prove our God.

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The Barrier To Blessing Thirdly, consider the nature of this barrier. They were hemmed in by it. Crossing the Jordan was not one of many options or, one of several routes into their inheritance. It was this route or not all. This was the route out of wilderness wandering and spiritual sterility and into the blessing of God. There was no other! Failure to advance would result in God leaving them to languish in the desert. There was only one way to go! Have you discovered that God has an amazing capacity to hem us in. He does so by what can only be described as a relentless love. We're left with no working alternative but to trust him.

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The Barrier To Blessing This had been Jacob's experience years earlier as he wrestled with God at the River Jabbock. All his life Jacob had lived by his wits. He could always come up with an alternative to trusting in God.

But at Jabbock, he found himself in a vice and he was feeling the squeeze. He had alienated his wives’ family to the North and then news had arrived to say that his estranged brother Esau along with 400 men were marching out to meet him from the South.

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The Barrier To Blessing Jacob was hemmed in to the necessity of abandoning himself to God. God's kindness brings us to places of human extremity in order to force us to cast ourselves upon him. This was also the experience of Paul who writes

“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again”. 2Cor.1.8-10

William Carey, missionary to India learned also this lesson and bequeathed a little epigram to the church, “Mans extremity is God's opportunity.”

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God Deals With The Barrier God indicates through Joshua how barriers of this nature are to be dealt with. First, the people are called upon to consecrate themselves v5. In Israel, consecration had both an internal and external element associated with it. cf. Ex.19:10, 14-15.

Externally, they were to wash their clothes, an action that symbolised the washing of their hearts. It was a reminder of their need of repentance, it was to focus their thinking upon the purity and spotlessness of the God with whom they had to do.

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God Deals With The Barrier But more importantly is the internal element associated with consecration. Namely, the preparation of one’s heart for God. This involved engaging in meditation and prayer, waiting in reverence before God's word and allowing it do its work in their hearts. You may recall the words of Jesus intercession in his high priestly prayer for his followers in Jn.17v17 ‘Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth’.

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God Deals With The Barrier In Israel's situation this process involved a time for pondering the commands and promises of God thus allowing them to dispel any anxiety of heart. It was a time for humbling themselves in expectant faith in the face of a humanly insurmountable obstacle. It was a time to serve a notice of eviction on all of the anxious and distracting thoughts that would impede their advance. As one writer puts it, ‘to behold God's wonders one must be in the proper frame of mind.’

There is a world of difference between approaching difficulties in a spirit of presumption and an approach of confident faith.

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God Deals With The Barrier The second thing the people of God are told to do is to follow the ark as it is carried towards the Jordan. You will notice from v4 that Israel had to ‘follow from a distance’. The practical nature of this command was to enable Israel to see what God had to teach through the Ark of the Covenant. By commanding the ark to be carried into the Jordan. God was departing from the previously established practice. The ark was normally carried in the midst of Israel. What was God's intention here?

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God Deals With The Barrier We are provided with a clue in v4, if they followed the ark, ‘then they would know which way to go since they had never travelled in this manner before,’ that is the force of the Hebrew. Up until this point in time Israel had been led by the supernatural pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. But now they are to complete their journey, leaving aside the extraordinary for something less spectacular. Remember too, that the ark was the repository of the Word of God. It contained the two tables of the law of Moses. In future they were to allow themselves to be led by the Word of God, which would be for them a safe guide! They had to grow up in the faith and trust in the God who spoke through Scripture.

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God Deals With The Barrier When a Christian is prepared to find his guidance in God's Word that is a sign of spiritual maturity. Craving the spectacular is a sign of spiritual immaturity. God was determined to upgrade Scripture in the thinking of his people. Don’t we need to do that today, when unstable souls are being enticed by the promise of spiritual signs and wonders. When our minds are captive to the Word of God and our lives obedient to its teaching, we will begin to see impossible barriers being swept away by the hand of God. But when the church refuses to allow God’s Word to lead her, then there can be no advance. And we ask, ‘Why are we constantly hitting our head against a brick wall?’

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God Deals With The Barrier The second lesson taught by the ark is drawn from what happens to the Jordan immediately the priests set foot in it v16....

The ark not only contained God's Word, it symbolised his presence. God intended to go before his people to dismantle every barrier that stood in the way of their enjoyment of their inheritance. Israel watched the drama. When the priests were about to step into the water, the water dispersed!

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God Deals With The Barrier God was saying to his people, “Just as I have dispersed this Jordan so will I deal with every barrier that comes between you and the inheritance I have promised you.” It was God's way of impressing on his people that he had taken upon himself the responsibility for dismantling barriers. Do you stand overawed by the barriers that prevent you from enjoying the blessing of God? Then says God, "Trust me to deal with every barrier no matter how large! I go before you to do precisely that!" If it was important for Israel to have a clear view of God's power it is equally necessary for the Christian to recognise that the same obstacle-removing-God is at work on their behalf, in order that their faith may be encouraged.

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God Deals With The Barrier The book of Hebrews was written to Christians who were discouraged and tempted to turn back. They were hesitant about entering into their God-given inheritance. How does the writer address himself to their situation? He reminds them of Israel's initial failure to enter their inheritance, Heb.3.14-4.1. But when he exhorts his readers to enter into their inheritance he doesn’t use the Jordan incident to illustrate God's presence and power at work on their behalf. Instead, to points to a fuller manifestation of God's presence and a greater demonstration of God's power. ‘Look to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith’. Heb. 12v2

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God Deals With The Barrier How does this help? The author of Hebrews describes how Jesus dismantled the barriers that stood in the way of his reader’s enjoyment of God; He dealt with the sin that separates us. He triumphed over the enemy of our souls. He acts as a heavenly Mediator, a faithful High Priest who knows our ‘weakness’ and prays effectually for us. Last of all he blazed a trail into the Fathers presence. Throughout the epistle the author is saying, “Look at Jesus. From a high vantage point view this vast panorama of Christ's activity on your behalf.” As we do that our faith is strengthened and we find encouragement to advance. Nothing can stand before the power of Christ exercised on our behalf.

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God Deals With The Barrier A final lesson Israel learned on the banks of the Jordan was the value of godly example. The priests, the spiritual leaders of Israel, did not merely go to the edge of the Jordan! They stepped in! And only as they demonstrated their confidence in God did the waters recede.

God dealt with the barrier when faith was exercised in crisis and not before the barrier is reached. And note, once they stepped in they remained in the middle of the river bed until all Israel had crossed over safely.

The priest's faith emboldened all Israel to cross the dry riverbed. Surely it was the priests obedient motionless stance in the middle of the dry riverbed that inspired the people of Israel to cross over?

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God Deals With The Barrier We must not underestimate the value of example. Those in positions of spiritual leadership have a unique role to play in shaping and encouraging the development of faith in those under their care. What a responsibility!

There is also great value in reading the biographies of the great men and women of faith who have stepped into their Jordans. Their example has stimulated the faith of others. Countless Christians have been greatly influenced by reading the biographies of Hudson Taylor, Mary Slessor, George Whitfield, C. H. Spurgeon and R. M. McCheyne to name but a few. If you don't read Christian biographies then perhaps it's time to start.

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ConclusionHas God led you to a seemingly insurmountable barrier? You say, “I have tried to obey God to the best of my ability, but circumstances are against me, my situation is beyond me, this Jordan is too deep, or too wide, for me to cross.” God tests our faith. He brings us to the river’s edge before acting on our behalf. God would later say to Israel through Isaiah:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour”. Isa.43.1-3.

May God use the great truths of Scripture and the examples of men and women of faith to dismantle the barriers confronting us and so lead us into the fullness of his blessing.

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