Joshua and Judges: A monument to what God can do and a recall to the Abrahamic Covenant; what God will do. Jos 4:9-5:3.

Title: Joshua and Judges: A monument to what God can do and a recall to the Abrahamic Covenant; what God will do. JOS 4:9-5:3.   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

JOS 4:9 Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day.

 

JOS 4:10 For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed;

 

It's not that Moses gave Joshua any commands about crossing the Jordan, but Moses did instruct Joshua to be strong and courageous and to lead the people into the Promised Land and to obey all the word of the Lord.

 

The people hurried so as to complete the crossing before nightfall. The priests stood with the ark for at least twelve hours.

 

As with the priests, what God calls us to do might be uncomfortable and strenuous and it may be overshadowed by other things and not noticed. It is the Lord whom we serve.

 

They are always overshadowed by the ark that they carry. One wonders if anyone really noticed them at all.

 

JOS 4:11 and it came about when all the people had finished crossing, that the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed before the people.

 

JOS 4:12 And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them;

 

JOS 4:13 about 40,000, equipped for war, crossed for battle before the Lord to the desert plains of Jericho.

 

The crossing of the soldiers had not yet been mentioned. This would seem to be mentioned here for the completion of the narrative. It cannot mean that the soldiers crossed after the ark had been taken from the river bed, since the water returned immediately after that. The soldiers crossed with the mass of people and then the ark finally, after all had crossed, was taken out of the river and it was taken past all the column of people and again to the head of the company.

 

As the people passed the ark when they crossed in a sort of military procession before the Lord now the ark, the presence of the Lord, passes before the people to again be the head of the people.

 

It is to be observed, that, in the words "the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests," the priests are subordinate to the ark, because it was through the medium of the ark of the Lord that the miracle of drying up the river had been effected: it was not by the priests, but by Jehovah the Almighty God, who was enthroned upon the ark, that the waters were commanded to stand still.

 

The priests are subordinate to the ark as is the royal priest in the Church:

 

1PE 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

 

Joshua thus far held the record for moving such a large company of military and civilian peoples across a formidable barrier such as the surging Jordan river. Nothing like this was ever done before and Joshua, with God of course, pulled it off seamlessly.

 

JOS 4:14 On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him, just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life.

 

And so, Joshua was exalted in the sight of all the people and he was revered as their leader all the rest of his life.

 

God promotes leaders, but leaders have to prepare by being a great follower, a follower of the Lord. If God does not promote you, you are not promoted.

 

On one occasion when Samuel Brengle (Commisioner of the Salvation Army) was introduced as the great Doctor Brengle, he noted in his diary:

 

"If I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him, and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so concerned that He uses me and that it is not of me the work is done. The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside; it becomes only old iron. O that I may never lose sight of this." [Samuel Brengle]

 

JOS 4:15 Now the Lord said to Joshua,

 

JOS 4:16 "Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan."

 

JOS 4:17 So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, "Come up from the Jordan."

 

JOS 4:18 And it came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before.

 

This affirms clearly as possible that it was the ark that kept the waters back. Now it's time to travel about five miles. They will camp about three miles to the north east of Jericho, and there they will circumcise all the males who were born in the wilderness and were not circumcised. This is necessary to affirm to them and all Israel the covenant to Abraham. With this completed they will then be able to celebrate the Passover. We have no record of them celebrating in since 39 prior at Sinai. It is likely that they haven't and so just as the feast was celebrated on the eve of their emancipation from Egypt, so now, at the first of being in the land of promise they will celebrate freedom through Pascal Lamb yet again.

 

JOS 4:19 Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.

 

This is the same day, exactly forty years prior, that they prepared to take flight from Egypt by setting apart a pascal lamb.

 

EXO 12:3

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household.

 

JOS 4:20 And those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.

 

The Jews would call the place this. Gilgal = to roll away. God rolled away the reproach of Israel.

 

EXO 32:12

"Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth'?

 

The reproach isn't so much their slavery in Egypt or the pain of the wilderness wandering, but more so the reproach of the Egyptians and all others who were against them that bragged that their God Jehovah had not taken them from Egypt to give them freedom and a land flowing with milk and honey, but that He brought them into the wilderness in order to kill them. It was this very thing that God tempted Moses with when, as in the above passage, He said He was determined to wipe them out and start another nation with Moses. Moses responded correctly and in love, as God knew he would, that the reproach of God's enemies would boast over Him that He was not able to deliver such a people.

 

Now at Gilgal, the place of the approach being rolled away, the Jews will celebrate their freedom with the Passover yet again, a freedom provided by the one true God and Messiah for the people of God, there can be no doubt that the boasting of the enemy was indeed unfounded and false.

 

Joshua set up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan as a memorial to the fact that all the tribes of Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

 

JOS 4:21 And he said to the sons of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?'

 

JOS 4:22 then you shall inform your children, saying,' Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.'

 

It is vitally important that our children understand the history of God's people as well as the history of those who have been godly and ungodly.

 

It is no wonder that Satan has attempted to remove sound history from the public schools and replaced it with multicultural, politically correct interpretations of history, and he has been successful. Parents and grandparents have to step up and fill in the gap. By the way, public school is only a recent phenomena, being instituted around the end of the nineteenth century. So except for two hundred years out of all human history, most children, except for the very rich, leaned most of their education in the home from their parents.

 

JOS 4:23 "For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed;

 

JOS 4:24 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever."

 

The first reason for the monument is to remind the children of Israel. The second reason is for the Canaanites to be reminded of the mighty power of Jehovah.

 

If for however long those stones remained there, if some idol worshipping Canaanite asked what they were there for and he was told, if he stated that it is impossible for such a thing to happen, then he would have to ask himself how the whole land of Canaan is full of Jews who rule it. How did they get there and how did they conquer the whole land?

 

Still, many are quite obstinate in the face of such realities as they always have been and will continue to be.

 

The drying up of the Jordan had the desired effect.

 

JOS 5:1 Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer, because of the sons of Israel.

 

Many were scared before, as we heard from Rahab in Jericho. They had heard of the ten plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. They had heard how Israel routed the great Amorite kings Sihon and Og and their armies. And now, added to this, that the God of the Jews could stop the flow of the Jordan river.

 

No spirit refers to fear that drains the energy of a man to a point where he can do nothing. He is literally frozen with fear.

 

The Amorites, stronger than the Canaanites, dwelt among the mountains and they were more warlike that the Canaanites who dwelt in the plains near the coast who were traders.

 

When the Israelites had trodden the soil of Canaan, Joshua began immediately to make arrangements for conquering the land, and destroying its inhabitants. As the Lord had only promised His assistance on condition that the law given by Moses was faithfully observed, it was necessary that he should proceed first of all to impose it as an inviolable obligation, not only upon himself, but also upon all the people entrusted to his charge, to fulfill all the precepts of the law. Those born in the wilderness were not circumcised and they did not, as far as we know, celebrate the Passover.

 

It's not enough to just run at Jericho. I'm sure some were anxious to get moving on the city, maybe even Joshua, but things must be done in God's way.

 

Doing things properly supersedes doing things quickly. Basic techniques must be done slowly and methodically.

 

The first duty which devolved upon him in this respect, was to perform the rite of circumcision upon the generation that had been born in the wilderness, and had grown up without circumcision, so that the whole congregation might be included in the covenant of the Lord, and be able to keep the Passover, which was to be celebrated in a few days in the manner prescribed by the law.

 

JOS 5:2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time."

 

This does not mean that circumcision was performed twice upon the men, but that this circumcision was as it had first been done.