Joshua 3 First things First

This is a military campaign

"A campaign is a phase of a war involving a series of operations related in time and space and aimed towards a single, specific, strategic objective or result in the war.

Its time

“When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God carried by the Levitical priests, you are to break camp and follow it.

English Standard Version (Chapter 25)

The people were to follow the ark of the covenant (v. 3)

The ark was a box of wood overlaid with gold. Inside the box was a Heb 9:5 gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.v 5 The cherubim of glory were above the ark overshadowing the mercy seat. This was a gold slab which covered the box. On each end of it was a golden cherub who was looking down at the mercy seat. The mercy seat was the place where the high priest of Israel sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.

The ark represented the presence of God with his people on the basis of their sins being forgiven through the shed blood. The fact that the people were to follow the ark served as a picture of God guiding the people of Israel as they entered Canaan. It also pictured for them how their success in Canaan would be achieved, namely, by following the Lord.

22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

Numbers 7:89 And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him.

Aarons staff

Numbers 17 1-12

17 The LORD instructed Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and take one staff from them for each ancestral tribe,A twelve staffs from all the leaders of their tribes.B Write each man’s name on his staff. 3 Write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff, because there is to be one staff for the head of each tribe. 4 Then place them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony where I meet with you. 5 The staff of the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of the Israelites’ complaints that they have been making about you.”6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each of the leaders of their tribes, twelve staffs in all. Aaron’s staff was among them.e 7 Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the tent of the testimony.8 The next day Moses entered the tent of the testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, formed buds, blossomed, and produced almonds! 9 Moses then brought out all the staffs from the LORD’s presence to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man took his own staff. 10 The LORD told Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebels, so that you may put an end to their complaints before me, or else they will die.”g 11 So Moses did as the LORD commanded him.12 Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we’re perishing! We’re lost; we’re all lost! 13 Anyone who comes near the LORD’s tabernacle will die.h Will we all perish?”

God should be first

Joshua 3:7 (CSB)

The Lord spoke to Joshua: “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they will know that I will be with you just as I was with Moses.

The people were to keep their distance from the ark (v. 4)

The fact that the ark would be readily visible did not mean the people could get close to it. They were called to look at it and follow it while staying at least 900 metres away from it!

David M. Howard, Jr. writes, ‘These two aspects of God’s nature—his close, comforting presence and his awesome, fearsome glory—are kept in a healthy balance in the Bible, but the latter is in danger of being forgotten in some wings of the church today.’

What Do we see in this section????

The importance of following the Lord

This passage reminds us that the Lord always has a way for us to go in every situation of life. If we expect to have success, we must follow that way. Where do we discover God’s way? It is in the Word of God!

The importance of reverence

In these days of easy familiarity with God, we would do well to reflect long and hard on the distance the Israelites were to maintain from the ark. The privilege of knowing God through faith in Christ does not change the fact that God is to be treated with deepest awe. Angels, who are much higher than human beings, still reverence God. How much more should we!

5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow.” 6 Then he said to the priests, “Carry the ark of the covenant and go on ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of them.

Incovenient orders

15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season.

19The worst time to be faithful and the worst time to be asked to be faithful

Its easy to be faithful when the coast is clear.

Ask Mary, it would of been more convenient

Convenient faithfulness

If you have been conditioned to a defining Gods will by your Convenience

God has some inconvenient request.

Loving your negbor....

Give and it shall be given...

Heb 12) Despising the shame

Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The one in the middle

17 The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan

The water stopped for God

There were 3

John 19:16

Then they took Jesus away.C 17 Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Jesus was in the Middle of two Guys one ready to receive forgiveness and one ready to die

2 Corinthians 5:19

16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sinG for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ministry of reconciliation Kirk Franklin

Their breakage was public

Their mending was public

My Grand Father: Never apologized

Just like the priest in the Jordan

Many people should get to meet the savior because he takes resadence in us.....