Proper Preparation
Notes
Transcript
Good morning everyone!
Thanks so much for being with us this morning.
It is a joy to be up here, it’s a joy to see you all, to spend time with you all every week…
I feel like I need to address something before we get into Joshua 3 today, and it’s something I don’t say often enough, but I love you all.
The reason I’m here, the reason that I preach every week and come here to worship with you all every week is because I love and care about you guys.
It truly make me joyful to see you, my face lights up when we gather, and I want to see every single person in this room get closer to Jesus and to love and be loved by this community.
So, let’s pray and get into Joshua chapter 3.
Pray
This is where you recap the events so far
Okay, so like usual, I want to just quickly recap where we are in the story of Joshua, and what we’ve covered this far…
A couple weeks ago, we covered Deuteronomy, and Moses’s death, and his hand over of power to Joshua, his assistant and protege.
Then, we covered the first chapter where we really found the themes of what Joshua as a book or story is about, which is the call to go claim a foreign land full of God’s enemies, and the nation of Israel, even in the face of this, was commanded to be strong and courageous.
They were supposed to continually remind themselves of God’s covenant, his faithfulness and his presence among the people wherever they went, and they were supposed to meditate constantly on the word of God.
And that led last week to Israelite spies going into the city of Jericho, a heavily fortified city across from their camp, across from the Jordan River, and these spies met a lady named Rahab, a prostitute, who hid the spies and allows them to escape back to Joshua to report everything about the city of Jericho,
But, Rahab had a stipulation, she and her family were to be spared when, inevitably, the Israelite army would crush the city of Jericho.
And this was a brilliant display of faith on Rahab’s part, she was a Canaanite woman, a prostitute, a lowly member of society, looked down on, yet she displayed the greatest story of faith perhaps in the entire Bible.
And Rahab hung a scarlet cord out her window to signify that her family was faithful to God. And this is a great allusion to not only the passover, where the blood of an animal was put on your doorpost to signify your family’s loyalty to God, so He would passover your family and not kill your firstborn…
But also to the blood of Jesus Christ being our saving grace, and it alone is the marker of our faith.
So, this takes us to Joshua chapters 3 and 4, which we will be covering today.
Context and World Building
Chapter 3 of Joshua starts by in the same place chapter 2 left off - the Israelites and Joshua are in their camp, this is on the east side of the Jordan river, they’re looking into the promised land which is situated over the Jordan river, and that is the barrier they are currently looking to cross.
So, the Israelites are wondering “how are we all getting across this river?”
And this is where the story begins: with…
The Command to Step Into the Jordan
The Command to Step Into the Jordan
So, it’s bright and early in the morning, the kids are probably just waking up, everyone is started their days, fires starting and breakfast being cooked, this is the dawn of a new day.
And right off the entire nation picks up in the morning, leaves their camp, and makes their way to the bank of the Jordan river.
And remember, this isn’t a small tribe, this is like 2 million people, maybe more, moving from their camps.
This is more of a migration rather than a mild move.
And this nation is looking at the Jordan, wondering how they’ll cross. I mean think about it - they had elderly, they had kids, they had animals, they had their belongings.
They couldn’t just dive in and swim across.
They also saw what was on the other side, because when they crossed, even if they survived, they would now be in enemy territory with a river at their backs.
Enemy territory, including Jericho, who knew they were coming, and were preparing for battle.
Best case scenario was total survival followed by all their enemies swarming them in their defenseless state of chaos.
So, no great solution.
And here’s the thing about the Jordan river - this was in the spring time.
And what happens in the spring time? Well, many people are thankful for it, but the snow melts.
And near Jericho, in the spring, the snow melts from the mountains and runs down the valley right into the Jordan river.
And it makes the river a huge torrent that is more than 100 feet wide and 10-12 feet deep.
It’s a relatively shallow river, which means the water runs really fast and winds down the way.
So, during this time, navigating the waters was extremely dangerous. In fact, this is what the Jordan looks like at that time and place.
Imagine taking yourself through there, let alone your baby, or your grandma, or your donkey, it’s totally illogical.
You would absolutely be swept away.
I’m sure the people were wondering: how on earth is this going to work?
Let’s read what they were commanded to do:
2 After three days the officers went through the camp 3 and commanded the people, “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. 4 But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between yourselves and the ark. Don’t go near it, so that you can see the way to go, for you haven’t traveled this way before.”
So check this out: how would the people know it was go time?
Because logic would say: let’s wait until the flood waters go down to cross. Let’s wait until it makes sense, until the harvest season is over, everything calms down, let’s just wait.
But the command was much different.
See, the marker of when to move was something unexpected: it was the movement of the priests and the ark of the covenant.
Okay, I’m sorry, but what? If the a leader ever says to me “hey, go to war with these giants, and with these super well-equipped armies with walls, of and by the way, cross this big nasty river”
And then follows it up with: and follow the priests into battle.
I’ve gotta question it a little bit.
Follow the priests? Are you kidding me? The nerds?
I’m not saying I’m a priest by any means, please don’t misunderstand me, but if an army comes to American and I’m on the front lines, the A-team, and the backups, and their backups, have been dead for some time.
I’m the C team, if they’re recruiting me, I’m what’s left. We’re in a real pickle.
What Joshua and the leaders say to the people is: look, when the Ark of the Covenant and the priests move, you move, but keep your distance, about 1,000 yards.
And the important bit of this command is the object of the verse, the Ark of the Covenant.
And if you don’t know what that is, this is from the days of Moses.
See, the Israelites were commanded to build this thing called the Ark, different from Noah’s Ark, it was essentially a large box made of wood and overlayed with gold.
This box had a cover on it, called the mercy seat, and the priests put poles through rings on it’s sides allowing them to transport the Ark.
And yes, in the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is what they’re looking for.
The special thing about this Ark of the Convent is divine presence.
The ark operated as divine power, it’s where God was supposed to be, enthroned on the ark, on the mercy seat.
It was the symbol of Almighty God’s presence, it was the place of the Living God.
It was a declaration of divine commitment and faithfulness, remember, God promised to be with his people.
And the Ark represented this.
It was the presence of God.
This is what caused the people to move. Joshua was telling the people - be strong and courageous, because when God moves, he’ll be ahead of you, and then you can move.
And there are two reasons this is very normal in the culture of the ancient near east,
One - the king, when invading a foreign land, he would be central, riding on a cart or a mobile pedestal, giving commands and being insulated by the roayl guard.
This kept them central, and in command of the army.
And two - the people and army would be instructed to keep a certain distance away from the king, not only because the royal guard was surrounding the king, but so the opposing army wouldn’t be directed to the king immediately.
This is why the Ark of the Covenant is out ahead of the people - if you’ll notice, the priests are carrying the Ark (this is the royal bodyguard, the closest and most trained to what the king needs)….
And the Ark (God) is among the people, giving orders through Joshua.
Now, why is this so important?
Well, this is a designation of God as King. Remember, Israel doesn’t have a king at the moment.
Look at every other nation Israel has and will encounter, they have a king.
And Israel’s God is known as the king crusher, the inheritance breaker.
God being with his people in battle signifies that God is Israel’s King. Joshua is not king. Moses was not king. The priests are not kings.
God alone is King. This is how Israel was supposed to function.
It was never supposed to be the people asking for a king, being like all the other evil nations...
There was never supposed to be a king that would take their daughters as wives, send their sons and brothers and fathers to war, tax them, take their crops, use their land…
It was supposed to be what’s described in Iaiah33:
22 For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us.
Yet it turned into this after entering the promised land:
6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.
And not much has changed, because today we still look to our rulers and leaders as a king, and rarely wait on God.
So, the people are behind the Ark, the King of Armies, following Him into battle, and He goes on to command this:
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.
So, while the people are waiting on the Ark to move, what are they supposed to do?
Cook a bunch of food, sharpen their swords, start making rafts and paddles?
No.
They are to consecrate themselves..why? Because the Lord is about do something that will blow your mind.
And that word, consecrate, it’s not a word we use very often. In fact, I’ve only heard it in religious contexts, not ever anywhere else, it’s a deeply religious term.
But the Hebrew word here can be traced back to the idea of cutting. To cut. To be cut off.
And in this particular context, it means to be in a state of ritual purity.
So the root makes sense - it’s the idea of holiness, to be set apart, to be ritually pure, not tainted, or dirty, but to be presentable before the living God, nothing against you.
They we’re called to be in a season of connection, and focus, and consecration, to God.
And why is that?
Well, admittedly, I got pretty fixated on a specific word in verse 5, you’re never gonna guess what it is:
It’s the word because.
To us, this is just a common word, but in Hebrew, this is the word key.
And key, translated because, is what’s know as a casual conjunction.
“Casual conjunction”, who does this guy think he is…
But a casual conjunction, or connector, is more than just a sequence of events.
It’s two interconnected events happening that can’t happen without each other.
Let me explain.
I’m not saying that the Israelites consecrated themselves, thereby convincing God to do their bidding and conquering the land in front of them.
I’m not even saying that consecrating themselves changed the outcome that God already has planned anyway.
Look back again at what it says:
Consecrate yourselves because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow.
The fact that the Lord is doing wonders is already established. It’s going to happen.
In response to that, the people of Israel are to consecrate themselves.
What God is about to accomplish, this big miracle, the people are supposed to be consecrated for.
And look, the rest of the story speaks for itself.
14 When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people. 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge 16 and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan.
The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah—the Dead Sea—was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho. 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.
So, why consecrate themselves if the miracle was already going to happen?
I mean this was certainly a miracle, a wonder, it says the banks of the Jordan were overflowing, bursting out the sides,
Yet here’s the entire nation of Israel crossing on bone dry ground.
Well, I think it’s the word key is used not just as a connecting word between the wonder and the consecration,
It’s because they were supposed to expect the miracle.
Expect the Miracle
Expect the Miracle
And look, we could say this story is all about God “parting our Jordan, or parting our Red Sea, or helping us to slay our giants”,
But that’s not what the Bible is about.
The Bible is God doing something wonderful that we don’t deserve, and responding properly to it.
Because consecration, being holy, being totally focused on God,
This is what allows God to work with us and through us.
It allows God to work through his people.
We are supposed to expect the miracle, and then if properly consecrated, if properly prepared, if properly aligned with God,
We can work with Him in the miracle.
These people, the Israelites, they’re crossing the swollen Jordan river, about to enter Jericho, enemy territory, this moment in time should be treated with the utmost seriousness, this is a pivotal time for their nation.
Imagine if at this moment they suddenly lost faith and hope.
Imagine if now, after wandering in the desert for 40 years, now they decided to stop doing what God said, now they stopped following His commands.
There would be no other way, they would be devastated.
Because the entire history of Israel up to this point, ever since they left Egypt, has been grumbling, and tiredness, and lack of obedience,
If you think about it, the entire wilderness experience has been a test of consecration.
It’s been practice, for this moment.
And at this moment, they should be prepared. They should be consecrated, actually, they should have done this 40 years ago,
But now they have focus, they’re about to see a miracle.
And if they aren’t prepared, they’re going to miss it.
Unfortunately, this is how we live our lives a lot of the time.
Look, this topic of consecration, it’s something the Lord has laid on my heart, it’s probably the biggest topic on my mind as of lately.
Because I see it in my own life more than anything. I see it in our city, it see it in our culture.
We are lacking in preparation. We are an unprepared people when it comes to spirituality and God.
We do not expect the miracle, and even if we do, we feel it’s disconnected from us.
We do not take our religion seriously, we tend to fit into the world just right, we don’t want to offend, we want to be nice and spare feelings, we want to have fun and comfort.
And look, for those of you who know me well, you know I love to joke around and have fun, I’m not saying we need to stop doing those things,
But may I suggest at times we do it at the cost of wonder and power that God is calling us to?
While we’re out preparing our lives, whether it be chasing money, or comfort, or sport, or hobbies, whatever it is.
We lack preparing our souls for a miracle.
We should at the very least be equally in prayer and fasting and interceding and evangelizing and worshipping and teaching our kids as we do worldly things,
But we’ve stopped taking taking Christianity seriously. And the world suffers from that,
Because we’re all headed toward hell and death. Thankfully, those of us in Christ this morning, we have a beautiful Savior that will swoops down and grab us and save us from the clutches of hell,
But there’s a world out there who will that will not happen to.
There’s a world out there dangling over hell, and we have the solution, we have the miracle in our back pocket, the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
But we’d rather not offend. We forget to pray for them. We forget to be kind to them, to tell the truth to them.
And if were totally honest, we forget about them.
It’s because we are not a people of preparation.
God wants to do a miracle through us, for the salvation of the nations, of the people, of the entire globe,
But he can’t us us because we are not consecrated to Him. We have lost focus.
Lukewarm Christianity will lead more people to hell than any atheist ever could.
A few years ago, our pastoral team went down to Franklin TN to learn how to preach better,
And I know what you’re thinking, I should’ve gone back a few times because it clearly didn’t take…
But the first speaker of the night was a guy named Jon Tyson, a pastor in New York,
And as a young man, he was asking some of his mentors to critique his preaching.
And they said a few things, but after one of Jons favorite sermons ever, one of his mentors said this:
Such good content, so little power. (repeat)
I feel like this is how we live our lives.
We have great content in our lives, the world approves, logic approves, but we lack the power of the Spirit, who’s trying and wants so baldy to work through us and in us and perform powerful miracles with our hand,
Yet we lack the because. We lack the connector between the miracle, which is consecration and preparation of our souls.
He then followed it up with this verse:
20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
The kingdom of God does not move with content. It does not move with facts, and logic, and comfort.
The Kingdom of God will not move if we are living lives of compromise.
3 For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Only the power of God can break down strongholds. But, the power can only be harnessed through consecration.
So, how exactly does Joshua’s Holy War, his entering into the promised land, how does this have anything to do with Jesus and where we are now?
Well, the war hasn’t changed.
We Are Currently in a Holy War
We Are Currently in a Holy War
And this is kind of a weird term that we sometimes associate with the crusades,
But I would argue that this term, Holy War, shouldn’t really be used to distinguish Joshua’s military campaign, because every war was a war of religions in his day.
Every single nation went to war with another nation under a specific diety, or religion, or god.
There was no war without the gods.
And what would happen is your god would go out ahead of you, and enter the land, and fight the other gods in the spirit realm that were controlling your enemy, and if the god found favor with you, and you prayed hard enough, and if your god was strong enough, it would influence the physical battle below.
This is no different today. Except for one thing: we follow the Most High God who created everything, all spiritual and physical matter, who has compassion for us.
Let me tell you why we’re in a Holy War today.
It all started with a man named John the Baptist. Remember him?
7 He proclaimed, “One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. 10 As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
Why am I talking about the baptism of Jesus, you may be wondering?
Notice the river. It’s the very same waters that God allowed His people through on dry land in Joshua.
Jesus, who is God, the much more literally Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God, steps into the Jordan River and is baptized.
And this time, it wasn’t the river that split.
It was heaven.
And to everyone watching, this meant one thing: get ready, a miracle is coming.
Something big is coming, you better get ready, you better consecrate.
Then, Jesus starts his 3 year earthly ministry. He walks into enemy territory, and he shows the people how to live righteousley. How to be connected with God.
How to love God and others how we are designed.
He defeated Satan in the wilderness. He performed miracles, healed the sick, made the blind see, made the deaf hear, taught with an authority no one had seen before…
But that wasn’t the amazing part.
No, the amazing part was the end of his ministry, when they hung him on a cross.
What did the disciples do? They ran. They lied. They deserted him.
See, they should have been prepared. They should have been thinking “miracles coming”.
But they weren’t properly prepared.
And then, they can’t find Jesus’s body.
And then, they meet Him, a resurrected Jesus, defeating death forever. Our God, Jesus Christ, went out ahead of us, and defeated the spiritual powers of darkness on our behalf, so we might win our Holy War.
This is why Paul can write:
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Spiritual darkness is why the world is the way it is. If there is sin, there is an evil spiritual presence around it, celebrating it.
Friends, this is why consecration is so imporatn.
This is why being prepared, being holy, being above reproach is essential, it’s something we need to beg God for.
Because the enemy is waiting, crouched like a lion, waiting to pounce on a weakness,
And for some reason, we think we hide behind non-spiritual barriers and practices that will shield us from it.
Yet Paul says to put on the full armor of God.
Not the full armor of man. But of God.
Our struggle is never against the people, or the world, as the enemy.
The people out there, every single person who has not yielded to Christ, they are not the enemy, they are people who need a savior, and we are called to point them to Jesus.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
But, as Uncle Ben says in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility.
Jesus Christ led the way for us. He stepped in the waters, he martyred himself and allowed them to kill him on a cross,
And then he defeated death.
He is our God, out ahead of us, holding back the waters, so we can cross on dry ground.
Because of the wonder, because of the miracle, we are to be prepared to receive power from the Spirit.
So, What Now?
So, What Now?
Well, church, I’m going to challenge you this morning.
And when I say you, I mean me. Because, like I said, the Lord had made it apparent that this is a gaping hole in my life.
Consecration, and holiness, it has been on the back burner for me in lieu of busyness and content, and it’s lacked power.
And for that, I’m truly sorry.
So what I’m calling us to is a season of consecration.
Church-wide, it’s time to start expecting the miracle.
It’s time to start expecting the wonder.
It’s time to take over our city and county with the wonderfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we can’t do that without purification, focus, and preparation.
Consecration means ritual purification and purposeful dedication,
And I wish I could give you the perfect checklist of application, but God will lead us to it if we ask,
What we need to do is to be disciplined, purposefully dedicated, and ready to move when God moves.
We need to expect the miracle.
I’ll give you a little sneak peak of next week,
1 When all the Amorite kings across the Jordan to the west and all the Canaanite kings near the sea heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, they lost heart and their courage failed because of the Israelites.
Lost heart literally means to melt away, like ice melting away.
When we cross the river with Jesus, hell hears, and they melt away with fear.
Isn’t that cool?
We have the Ark of the Covenant with us, going headfirst into battle,
But the battle is over before it started.
7 For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. 8 Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
If we consecrate ourselves, we will be able to hear the voice of Jesus, but we must know him:
1 “Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice.
Join me in a season of rededication, of consecration, of focus, and of following God as he goes ahead of us.
