Living in the Promised Land: A study in the book of Joshua
To view this online as a video:
Lesson Four: Go against the flow (Part 2)
A. Introduction
1. Overview
[For those online, see this book overview from The Bible Project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqJlFF_eU )
In today’s episode at the Jordan River, a change happens. Remember, the usual reality was that the Jordan would overflow at this season, bringing its own irrigation to the many. Chapter 3, Verse 15 says,
“When those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest)”
We discussed this last week and said, “God indeed is Lord over all the earth and the usual flooded Jordan now becomes a heap. Remember when Moses led the Jewish people out of Egypt, the Red Sea also became a heap, and according to the traditions, there were actually 12 lanes of escape, one for each of the 12 tribes to facilitate the escape/ the Exodus from Egypt.”
God demonstrates his power to his people, so that we will trust him and trust his soldier/ general Joshua. And the main item in view today is a pile of rocks, actually two piles, one inside the river and the other outside on the Israel or west side of the Jordan. We will consider those in just a moment.
Reminders
For now, let’s ponder the whole idea of reminders.
My local shopping centre sent me a note confirming my joining their community by downloading their app. In the follow-up email, I found one of my benefits in joining was that I could:
"Check your parking time and set a 30-minute reminder"
What a good feature. Don't you hate it when you get caught one-minute late and have to pay an extra $4 or whatever they assess? In fact reminders like this are useful in many arenas.
Think about the oil light on your car. To some, it's an annoying little alarm that blinks too often or SHOUTS as a red light while you are trying to drive your normal routes. They say we are supposed to change our batteries on our household smoke alarms when the clocks either spring forward or fall back. And if you don't perform that changeover, those little alarms make some serious alarming beeps until we both notice and respond to their reminder.
Reminders can be welcomed or rejected, but they exist for us in all our lives. And if we get them right, we will be right. The oil alert will save the engine. The smoke alarm will keep us safe.
Reminders make sense. Do you set an alarm to awaken you each night? Yes, you may hit the snooze bar and get seven more minutes of 'rest', but the alarm is there to alert us to what's ahead and to help us get into the day.
Each of these reminders are about future events. But today I'm also thinking about reminders of the past. That is, things or calendar circles that trigger memories of days gone by. For some, it's that old sweater in the closet that you used to wear when you dated your high-school sweetheart. And you still fit in it. For some it's the memory while driving past the golf course where you hit that eagle on the par-5 13th.
Applewatch has features for memory's sake, like anniversaries and birthdays. Don't forget to remember!
The God of the Bible wants us to remember things also. He has done some significant things in the life and story of the Jewish people, like making us from one man (Abraham) and delivering us from slavery under Moses in the Exodus account. Providing for 3 million wilderness wanderers is no small feat for an army of chefs, but God did this for 4 decades without any help.
That deliverance is celebrated every year by Jewish people in the holiday coming up tomorrow week named Passover. We eat unleavened bread, spiced with horseradish, and remember the House of Bondage in which we suffered for hundreds of years. Some eat lamb, and most have a lamb shankbone to remind us that we were spared not because we were Jews alone, but by the blood of lambs applied to the doorposts of our homes in Goshen. That perpetual memory is a reminder that God is alive and well, and he saves to the uttermost those who put their trust in him.
As Passover finishes in 2021, the holiday of Easter will take place. What is Easter you ask? It's the day on the Christian calendar remembering the death, burial and especially the resurrection of a Jew named Yeshua. According to the story, his death was a crucifixion on a Roman gallows called a 'cross.' The burial near the Mt of Olives in Jerusalem was so severe that a Roman leader demanded his people guard the tomb securely and even sealed the overlaying rock. Then on what has become known as Easter, the Jewish man rose from the dead, and afterwards appeared to 500 Jews for 6 weeks.
Reminders matter. Like taking communion. Like my mentioning a street in your old neighbourhood, like Bronte Road or even the name of the suburb or the name of the village where your grandmother lived like Tonganoxie. Just a flash of a name will bring back memories.
With all that as a philosophical background, look at verse 1.
“When all the nation had finished crossing”. Remember the word Eber or crossing is used 22 times in this episode and it’s obvious God wants us to ponder and process who we are, with whom we are crossing, how we will cross, and the memories of crossing. As some of us discussed last week in the question period after the lecture, crossing over can be symbolic of our walking with God, leaving the dark side, moving on up to the East Side, changing from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Light, it’s about redemption and finding new life. It’s all those things and more. We are not the same. We are in a new place.
Did the nation actually finish yet? No, the priests were still in the water, but synecdoche, that it, the part for the whole, a term we will revisit with Achan and again later in this book, is in view here. Enough of the nation had passed by that we would use the term, “while Israel was passing by…”
We are told that one man from each tribe is to be chosen again.
אִישׁ־אֶחָ֥ד אִישׁ־אֶחָ֖ד
Both in verse 2 and in verse 4. Repeated phrase. One man. One man. The emphasis is clear. Don’t exaggerate. Don’t stack the deck. One man. That’s enough. Only 12? Yup, that’s all that’s needful. Joshua knows that 10 out of 12 could cause the Jewish people to wander 38 more years in the wilderness if we get it wrong. He wants individuals who will be responsible to fetch one stone each. I sense individual responsibility and individual care in this thought.
Note the command from the commander, “take a stone each. .from the right location… to the right location” God told Joshua in verse 2 and 3. Then Joshua did in verses 4 and following. The people obeyed. Commands should be seen as authoritative. These aren’t suggestions or options; these are commands. As a people, unless we obey what God tells us from his chosen ones, we are going to suffer consequences. In fact, there are consequences for obedience as well as disobedience.
Just now I want us to ponder the purpose of the rocks. Joshua tells us this in verse 6. Your children will ask. You will have an answer. Sounds like the Passover story, doesn’t it? Exodus 12. The rocks are to remind you and to inform your kids.
Think about Stonehenge. Or the rocks at a Jewish grave. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobmendo/2404348571/in/photolist-4EsV4H-aebeDQ-ag28ZW-ag1ZtL-9YvinX-QfLQdp-9pCJF9-9dcqCa-9a22Sc-9a5ecb-9a5eMq-9a241K-9a58xN-9a58Mb-9a58Rq-9a58iJ-23pAB2a-8CMYgd-8CMXB9-8CJRnV-8CMXQo-8CMY3f-8CMWzE-8CJQXD-8CMXcL-8CJQJX-7ToHAD-71wT4B-6vc8gW-6tUiXD-6tUimi-6rErSv-6rErJH-6z2njF-5T2KV9-5yZ8o8-5yZzDz-5yZA4k-5xuAuD-5mRN4v-8fPSAq-5mRNsk-5mW3dW-4YGxeY-4YCg5g-4YGxqu-4Wd7Ep-4DWqT2-4fasdF-NnR73) A pile of rocks tells a story.
Dale Davis says this, “the greatest enemy of faith may be forgetfulness (See Dt. 8) Just as in a marriage, the real threat may not be infidelity, but simply a slow process of forgetting and a gradual failure to remember the preciousness of the other person. So Joshua says, ‘You must remember what Yahweh has done, and these stones are to serve as visual aids to that end.” (page 39)
Consider this, also from David, “there is an implication here. If Yahweh so insists that Israel remember this day, it implies that this event was unique and that Yahweh does not usually work with such visibly raw power. If Yahweh did something of this magnitude every 5th Wednesday or so, why should Israel need to remember Jordan Day?” This is a great point. Miracles are unusual. Don’t announce “Sunday is miracle Sunday. We have Miracle Sunday every month on the 3rd Sunday…” Super-natural. Extra-ordinary. Un-usual.
The purpose of the rocks was for obedience that day and for conversation to the children and grandchildren going forward that each of them would have faith and would grow in faith. If God did stuff for my people, maybe he’s interested in me. If he did stuff for the people at their river crossing, maybe when I have two roads diverged in a yellow wood, he will do stuff for me, and that has made all the difference. (with apologies and a nod to Robert Frost).
Verse 8: Who moved the stones? B’nei Yisrael. Who actually did this? 12 men. See, this is synecdoche again. What one man does counts for the whole.
They obeyed. They took the stones to the lodging place. And verse 9 is a conundrum. Most commentators think that Joshua set up the new 12 in the river as an-almost clandestine reminder to himself and to the priests that God used them. I have no problem with that interpretation. Richard Hess however says, “Thus a translation relating these stones to the first set is preferred: Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan …”
OK, either way, if there are 12 or there are 24 stones, the reality is that the Stones are in view and are the main concern today. Yes, there is the ark, the priests, the river itself, and the people, but the stones—that’s chapter 4.
Oh, and this… verse 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.” The purposes of this chapter then are seen in the exaltation of Joshua and the memorial for the children and for posterity for the sake of their faith in the God who does all things well.
Verse 15ff. God commands again. And again Joshua obeys. Are you seeing this pattern? It would be very hard to miss this.
Verse 18: Some want to diminish the reality of the wet, then dry crossing, then priests exit, then wet again. And scientists long to find answers when there are none, and for them I often cheer, but when the Bible is silent about how this stoppage of the waters happened, but only records THAT it happened, I will join in their silence.
History has shown that due to collapse of the banks or even a localized earthquake that the Jordan ‘stopped’ in 1267, 1906 and again in 1927. The method of stopping, as I said, is irrelevant. The issue is the timing and the momentous nature of the event. And one more thing, the land which had been wet suddenly stopped being wet. That conversion of nature doesn’t just happen. Like the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea 40 years previously, the sea floor suddenly turned dry. So it is with this crossing. And it’s equally miraculous.
I say 40 years, and I want you to see verse 19. The 10th of the First month. What do you remember about this day in the calendar? That’s when God told the Jewish people to ‘take a lamb for themselves…” (Exodus 12) in Egypt and to be ready to escape on the 14th of Nissan. 10th of Nissan is the beginning of the actual Exodus. The redemption of the Jewish people out of slavery, which we will celebrate in person at our homes tomorrow week, and will celebrate in the community seder on Tuesday the 30th in Watsons Bay, began on the 10th of Nissan. Without bringing in the lamb, there would be no sacrifice. Without the bringing in of the lamb, there would be no blood on the doorposts. There would be no escape. Our redemption began on the 10th of Nissan. And here in verse 19, we see our redemption is ‘complete.’ We enter the Land of Promise exactly 40 years later to the day.
But most of you on this zoom call today know that this really is not the end of the Redemption story. Look at verse 24. The stones and the liturgy of the conversation are designed for our children, and…what does it say, “so that all the people of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
God saved the Jews in Passover.
God saved the Jews at Sinai.
God saved the Jews at the Jordan.
We set up the stones so that our children ‘get it.’
SO THAT everyone, everywhere, all nations of the earth may ‘get it’ that God is awesome and full of might. That God wants to have a relationship with you.
How is that done?
By redemption.
Did you ever collect S & H Green Stamps or do you currently collect Fly Buys or frequent flyer miles? Those loyalty systems are designed to keep you hooked into a company. And they work.
When you are ready to purchase something with the stamp book or with the internet transfer of miles, you redeem those for something you want. Redemption is to buy, to buy with a value attributed by another.
We are redeemed by God in Passover, and as such we turned in our emptiness for his deliverance. Our incapacity for his power.
We are redeemed by God in the Gospel, when Yeshua dies for our sins and buys us back from sin and death. Our incapacity for his grace and strength. He buys us. We cannot buy ourselves. The Psalmist says, “No man can by any means redeem his brother.”
“BUT God, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with him.” (Ephesians 2)
Invitation
Dear friends, do you have such redemption today? if you have never asked Yeshua to be your Saviour, today as we keep learning from Joshua, would you choose to believe the Lord of life? What does it mean to be strong and courageous in light of learning about Yeshua? Would you be willing to take a stand for him who took a stand and died on a Roman cross for you?
If you’d like to do that today, just now, join me as we pray.
Say something like this: “Father in Yeshua’s name, forgive me my sin, I was wrong to dismiss you and to disbelieve in you. I need your mercy. I deserve punishment but you are kind and merciful and I receive your grace. I repent. I receive Yeshua as my saviour and Lord. I will live because of my faith in Messiah Yeshua. Amen.
If you prayed that, please let us know of your profession by writing straightaway, won’t you? Bob@JewsforJesus.org.au We’d love to hear from you.
Conclusion
We are delighted you have joined us today. Please join us next week and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2021 and beyond. I hope to see you next week just before Passover as we continue our studies in Joshua. You will certainly see yourself in the readings and in the lessons. Line by line. It will be worthwhile! Next week we will look at chapter 5 and see what lessons we can draw for ourselves from Gilgal, especially about circumcision and faith-- another major event!
Hope to see you then… until then, Shabbat shalom!
Bibliography
Butler, Trent C., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 7. Joshua. Word, Waco, 1983.
Davis, Dale Ralph, Joshua: No Falling Words, Christian Focus, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, 2019.
Hess, Richard. Tyndale Commentary Complete.
Meyer, F.B., Joshua and the Land of Promise, Christian Literature Crusade, Ft Washington PA, 1977.
Sanders, J. Oswald, Promised-Land Living, Moody Press, Chicago, 1984.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Strong: Putting God's Power to Work in Your Life. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs, 2010.
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D-Groups for this week
1) Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse
2) Monday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White
(Contact our office for zoom details)
If you’d like to host a D-Group either online or in person, please contact bob@jewsforjesus.org.au for further details. It’s time to step up. Ponder this—who will be in your D-Group?
