Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - The living God has vanquished the dead gods. Jos 3:1-13

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - The living God has vanquished the dead gods. JOS 3:1-13   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

What is the goal of man or mankind? Is it always to have enough food, drink, and sexual intercourse, amusement, art, science, and the longest life possible? If so, Christ completely failed at it.

 

Yet Christ is the way, the life, and the truth. So then, if that is true, then we can ask again, what should be the goal of man? Many in our day have come to believe that true life is only the fulfillment of our basest instincts. This philosophy, if it can be called that, has poisoned the minds of two generations. In it there is no honor or good but just an itch and it should be scratched. Those who herald it, herald it as man finally conquering his world and indeed himself and when enough of us give into it man will have his ultimate power, but this power is, in reality, a power possessed by some men, which may or may not, allow other men to profit by it. In this, man's final conquest, himself, is actually the abolition of man.

 

God could have used a storm or fire from heaven and vanquished all of the Canaanites, but it is not in the spirit of man, as God desires him to be, to just simply exist or to just live at ease. In life there is truth, virtue, and will; knowledge, honor, and drive, both in times of peace and in times of great opposition.  

 

JOS 3:1 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.

 

The people moved the short distance from Shittim to the bank of the Jordan, about 5 miles or so, and there they rested.

 

JOS 3:2 And it came about at the end of three days that the officers went through the midst of the camp;

 

JOS 3:3 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.

 

JOS 3:4 However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure [0.57 mile]. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before."

 

At 2000 cubits [0.57 miles] the people would have only seen the sun's reflection of golden light. They would not hardly see the priests - they were not to focus on man.

 

JOS 3:5 Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

 

EXO 34:10

Then God said, "Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.

 

JOS 3:6 And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

 

JOS 3:7 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.

 

JOS 3:8 "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.'"

 

The miraculous guidance of the people through the Jordan was only the beginning of the whole series of miracles by which the Lord put His people in possession of the promised land, and glorifies Joshua in the sight of Israel in the fulfillment of his office, as He had glorified Moses before. Just as Moses was accredited in the sight of the people, as the servant of the Lord in whom they could trust, by the miraculous division of the Red Sea, so Joshua was accredited as the leader of Israel, whom the Almighty God acknowledged as He had His servant Moses, by the similar miracle, the division of the waters of Jordan.

 

When they came with the ark to the end of the waters of Jordan-i.e., not to the opposite side, but to the nearest bank; that is to say, as soon as they reached the water in the bed of the river-they were to stand still, in order, as we see from what follows, to form a dam as it were against the force of the water, which was miraculously arrested in its course, and piled up in a heap. Moses divided the waters of the Red Sea with his rod; Joshua was to do the same to the Jordan with the ark of the covenant, the appointed symbol and vehicle of the presence of the Almighty God since the conclusion of the covenant.

 

Moses splits the Red Sea with the rod. Joshua splits the Jordan with the ark. God does not act in an arbitrary manner in the selection of His means. He is a God of order and grace.

 

JOS 3:9 Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, "Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God."

 

JOS 3:10 And 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 Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite.

 

The summons to the children of Israel, i.e., to the whole nation in the persons of its representatives, to draw near to hear the words of the Lord its God, points to the importance of the following announcement by which Israel was to learn that there was a living God in the midst of it, who had the power to fulfill His word.

 

Jehovah is called a "living God," in contrast with the dead gods of the heathen. He spoke, did, led, and punished, while the false gods were dumb statues or mountains.

 

He is a God who proved Himself to be living, with special reference to those divine operations by which God had shown that He was living and watchful on behalf of His people.

 

He wasn't a statue or a mountain but a pillar of fire and cloud, a light from the midst of the tabernacle, speaking, doing, and quickly punishing. Even Rahab had come to know this.

 

So then, He wasn't a naked presence, but a striking presence who performed extraordinary operations and manifested intimate care.

 

The God of Israel would now manifest himself as a living God by the extermination of the Canaanites, seven tribes of whom are enumerated, as in DEU 7:1.

 

The promise of destruction of the Canaanite tribes was to fill the Israelites with confidence, but it was also a reminder of the dangers that came with intermingling with them rather than destroying them - idol worship.

 

These particular tribes are mentioned as a reminder of the warning that they are to place the ban on all of them. The ban meant to "cut off," and denotes that which is taken away from use and abuse on the part of men, and surrendered to God in an irrevocable and unredeemable manner.

 

The ban - to "cut off." Under the ban humans are put to death. Cattle and material objects are either destroyed or given to the temple sanctuary.

 

Human beings under the ban are to be put to death. Cattle and inanimate objects are either given to the sanctuary or destroyed for the glory of the Lord. Some cities in the Promised Land were to be spared so that the Israelites could live in them; others were to be completely destroyed. The people were to be destroyed in every case and they escaped death from battle they were not allowed to return, but must be removed from the land.

 

They therefore were not to live with them as neighbors, not to intermarry with them because if they allowed this then their false gods would eventually infiltrate the Israelites and the root of poison would defile many.

 

Remember that Deuteronomy is the farewell speech of Moses. This long message, containing many reminders about commands and their history in the wilderness, was given a little more than a month before the crossing. So then it is fresh in their ears.

 

DEU 7:1 "When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you,

 

DEU 7:2 and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

 

DEU 7:3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

 

DEU 7:4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.

 

DEU 7:5 But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.

 

DEU 7:6 "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

 

DEU 7:7 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

 

DEU 7:8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

 

As the Israelites were warned against idolatry in Deut 6:14, so here are they exhorted to beware of the false tolerance of sparing the Canaanites and enduring their idolatry.

 

DEU 6:14 You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,

 

DEU 6:15 for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

 

When the Lord drove out the tribes of Canaan before the Israelites, and gave them up to them and smote them, they were to put them under the ban, to make no treaty with them, and to contract no marriage with them. They were to destroy them as a function of God's discipline upon them.

 

GEN 15:16

Then in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete."

 

DEU 7:1 states that these tribes are to be cleared away. The Hebrew word nashal means to draw out or to cast away. These nations are to be driven out from their lands and possessions.

 

Canaanites are to be driven away or they will draw the people away from following God. This is a clear reminder to us that we all must be careful what we allow in our own personal lives.

 

Sometimes we allow sinful and idolatrous things to exist before us and self-justify that we are strong enough to not allow it to influence us. We self-justify because we really do want the idolatry to continue, albeit, often in secret.

 

PSA 101:3

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;

I hate the work of those who fall away;

It shall not fasten its grip on me.

 

In Joshua's farewell he admonishes them that if they do not decide to serve the Lord from the heart, and not only because of the letter of the Law that their only options are the gods of Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites - feeble choices indeed.

 

JOS 24:15 And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."