The Lord may graciously help
me. I would turn your prayerful attention to a verse you will
find in Deuteronomy 31 and verse 8. Deuteronomy 31 and verse 8.
And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee. He will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee. Fear not, neither be dismayed. That's Deuteronomy 31 and verse
8. These words Moses spoke to encourage
Joshua who was going to lead, whose job was to lead Israel
over the Jordan, into the Promised Land, to possess the inheritance
that God had given them. It had been given them by an
inheritance, they weren't to buy it. They'd been given it,
and yet they had to possess it. A picture of the Lord's people,
they'd been given that inheritance and the blessings in the Gospel,
but they must possess that. they must lay hold upon the hope
set before them in the Gospel and growing grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I want, as the
Lord helps, to look at this precious text. We have this obviously
at the beginning of the year. We so much want the Lord to to
go before us in this new year of time. I wanted to look at
this text really as a summary of what we've read of it being
outworked in the life of Joshua. as he and Israel go across the
River Jordan. of Christ's work and what he
would accomplish in overcoming the enemies and the obstacles
that lay before Israel and lie before each one of us. There's
many obstacles. There's many things that Satan
would love to turn us out of the way. He'd love to break up
the churches. He'd love to cause these things
to be overcome. But, you see, we want the Lord
to go before us. and to be that one who stands
and stops that stream of Jordan so that we can pass through on
dry land. Well, if we look at this chapter
in Joshua chapter 3, in the earlier parts of Joshua we have Joshua
sending out those two spies to spy out the land. They go into
Jericho, they find that Rahab gives them shelter and tells
them how that the whole land is so fearful because of them,
and she encourages them, and she spares their lives from being
killed by the king of Jericho, and then she makes that agreement
with them, that they would be merciful to her, and that she
realizes that the God of Israel is the true God. Amazing. The faith of Rahab. She had a
lot more faith than a lot of the people in Israel at the time.
She had a God-given faith that she believed that Israel's God
was the true God and the city walls of Jericho were nothing
for the God of Israel to overcome. A wonderful faith that dear woman
had. Well, in Joshua chapter 3 we
read that Joshua rose early in the morning and they removed
from Shittim. This was a place they'd been
in for some time. It's also a place where they
had committed whoredom with Moab as well. There was sad events
happened there as well. And we read, and it came to pass
after three days, this is chapter 3 verse 2, it came to pass after
three days that the officers went through the host. So they
were to come to the bank and camp at the banks of the River
Jordan. Think of this, two million people,
something like that, camping on the banks of a swollen river. overflowing its banks, and they
were to stay there for three days to consider the impossibility
of naturally getting over that river. They weren't commanded
to start building bridges or anything like that. They were
just to, as it were, sit there and observe the impossibility
that lay before them. you see the Lord's people we
have to sometimes look at the impossibilities and we have to
trust that the Lord is going to make a way where there is
no way and it came to pass after three days you see there was
three days looking at the impossibility it was so with Abraham three
days journey journey into um the land of Moriah with his son
on death row as it were, the impossibility of how would this
son live as it were when he was destined to death. But you see,
on the third day there was going to be a deliverance for Abraham.
There would be a deliverance for Joshua and the people of
Israel. And there was a deliverance on
the third day, when Christ rose from the dead, triumphant over
sin, death, hell and the grave. You see, three days is through
the scripture. It's a time of, three days, a time of testing
and a time of deliverance. And it came to pass after three
days that the officers went through the host, and there was a command.
And they commanded the people, saying, When you see the Ark
of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priest bearing it,
then you shall remove from your place. You should follow it,
you see. And you see the whole command
that we've read as a text, and the Lord, here it is that doth
go before you. He's going to bring you through
the Jordan. He's going to bring you through the impossibilities.
And you might say, well, naturally speaking, we would choose a time
to go across Jordan when the river's at its lowest. But not
so with God. He caused Israel to go across
Jordan when it overflowed all its banks. How often the Lord
brings in possibilities into our lives and then he works to
show that it's his hand and his power that has brought and gone
before us. It gives glory to his name. The
same with Lazarus, wasn't it? He didn't raise a sick Lazarus.
He raised a dead Lazarus when the impossibility was at its
greatest. And they commanded, saying, when you see the Ark
of the Covenant of the Lord your God. What a great name that was
given. And of course, it symbolized God himself, the Ark, the Covenant
of the Lord. And in it, you see, was the Ten
Commandments unbroken. And you see that they were kept
safe, and how that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
how he kept the law and made it honorable. Well, they were
to come and they were to follow this ark when they saw it being
carried. And you see, the Levites were
to bear it up. They were to lift up this ark.
And you see, there's a picture there of how we are to... Christ
is lifted up in the preaching of the gospel. And as he's lifted
up, you see, the people can see him. And there is to be that
worship, as we think of I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
men unto me. Yet there shall be a space. There
would be a space of respect. They were to respect this ark.
They weren't in a crowd so close. You think of it when Jesus was
preaching. He asked to go into Peter's boat
so he could go a little bit out to land so that they couldn't
get quite so close. Because when you're very close
to somebody, the people very close see, but the people further
away can't see a distance. So all of Israel could see this
arc going before them. And then we read, Yet there shall be a space between
you of about 2,000 cubits, half a mile, and that ye may know
the way in which ye must go. For ye have not passed this way
heretofore. The children of Israel had never
entered the promised land before. This was going to be a new place,
and they were going to go across, and God was going to go before
them. The Ark of the Covenant was going to be so central. You
see, this was not the case when they went across the Red Sea.
The Ark hadn't been made at that point, but here you see the Ark
was so central as picturing Christ And what's so special, you see,
about the River Jordan? There's something unique about
the River Jordan. It begins in the In the mountains,
something like 2,800 meters high, that's where it begins, in the
north of Israel. And it flows down, but what's
unique about it is the normal river flows down to the sea,
and therefore it stops at the sea level. But you see the river
Jordan goes down 400 meters below sea level, because the Dead Sea
is the lowest the lowest water in the earth. So you see it goes,
it's the deepest river on the face of the earth is the river
Jordan. It's this river you see that
the ark of the covenant of the Lord our God was going to stand
in the midst of it. You think of that, the deepness
of the river, how Christ came and stood in the depths of our
sin, and stop that torrent of the wrath of God against sin
for his people. He was going to stand, and the
waters were going to stop. They weren't going to stop forever,
they were going to stop for the entire Church of God, as it were,
to get across the Jordan, and then it was going to flow with
all the full strength again. But you see there was going to
be a passage made as Christ goes before his people, making a way
where there is no way. He was going to bring them safely
through. Well, we read in verse 6, And
Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the
covenant and pass over before the people. And they took up
the ark of the covenant. And went before the people in verse
7 it says and the Lord said unto Joshua this day Will I begin
to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel? Now if this was
Joshua just as a man surely there's a problem here We don't magnify
man, but you see as a picture of how this was portraying Joshua
as a type of Christ and how Christ was going to be magnified, you
see, as his people were brought safe to glory, safe into the
Canaan, that there was going to be a glory, and this was going
to be a glory of Christ. This day will I begin to magnify
thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I
was with Moses, so I will be with thee. In verse 8, And thou
shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant,
saying, When ye come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall
stand still in Jordan. So they were just to touch the
edges of this river that was brimming over, and they were
just to stand there. Not run away, just stand there
with their feet in it. Think of the Lord Jesus as he
was in that garden of Gethsemane. And they came to him with all
their hosts that were headed up with Judas Iscariot. And he said, whom seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth, I am. He just
stood there. They all fell backwards. He just
stood there. And all those enemies were defeated
at that time. Well we read, And they came to
the brink of the water of Jordan, and ye shall stand still. Stand still. And Joshua said
unto the children of Israel, Come hither and hear the words
of the Lord your God. This was not just about how to
get across a river. There was something rich symbolism,
showing something of how the Lord guides his people to glory,
guides the people through their lives, through their trials,
through their difficulties. Come hither and hear the words
of the Lord your God. And in verse 10, it says, and
Joshua said, hereby shall you know that the living God is among
you. What was going to happen in them
getting through the Jordan was going to be an earnest for all of the victories that
they were going to gain in the land of Canaan. Hereby ye shall
know that the living God is among you and that he will without
fail. Remember what it said, Moses said to Joshua, He will
be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee. You
see, we have a God that gives promises, and then we have a
fulfilment of those promises. Here we have this in Joshua chapter
3, a fulfilment of the promise given to Joshua, some time before
while Moses was still alive. He will without fail drive out
from before you the Canaanites and there's a whole list of all
the people that were going to be driven out. And the earnest
of that was the fact that this water was going to dry up and
that they were going to be able to pass by. on dry land and in
verse 11 it says behold the ark of the covenant of the lord of
all the earth passeth over before you into jordan into that jordan
well obviously sometimes jordan is pictured as the river of death
and the lord will do that he will pass over before his people
the last enemy is death and he will there he will be with them
in that But also it can be pictured the difficulties of the people
of Israel and how that Jordan was not the end, was it? They
had to then have many things after that. And if it was only
picturing, as it were, going into glory in heaven, there'll
be no more struggles after that, would it? There was yet to be
much land to be possessed, many fights to be fought after this
passing across Jordan. So some of the trials and the
difficulties. that the Lord's people have to
pass through. And behold, the ark of the covenant
of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into
Jordan, into the deepest places, the deepest places. Now therefore
take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every
tribe a man. There was going to be twelve
appointed men and they were going to have a job of moving some stones later
on that we'll read about. And it came to pass, as soon
as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of
the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters
of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off. You
see, when that ark being carried by that priest The feet touched
the water. It was going to have an effect.
You'd say normally, well, it was just the water would go around
their feet and they'd get more and more wet as they went in.
The river wouldn't worry, normally speaking, but it did. This had
an effect. The whole river. It's totally
miraculous, isn't it? Totally contrary to how we understand
water to flow. It totally changed the course
of that river. as those priests put their feet
in the waters of the river Jordan. And the waters of Jordan shall
be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they
shall stand upon a heap." Water doesn't stand naturally of its
own laws of nature. It doesn't stand up on a heap.
It naturally goes level. It goes as to the lowest possible
position. It doesn't do this naturally.
This was a miracle. This was the effect that the
Ark of the Covenant had on this river of Jordan. And this is
a picture, you see, of how Christ, you see, is one that has an effect. And you see, when there was that
torrent of the wrath of God against sin, against his people, there
was to be the Ark of the Covenant was going to stand in the very
depths of that river of the wrath of God against sin, against his
people. And that river was going to stop no flowing for the whole time
that the children of Israel would pass over Jordan. A picture of
how that wrath of God was satisfied and Christ, as it were, was in
the very depths, the very lowest place of the earth, you could
say, the riverbed of Jordan and the Jordan's flowing. This was
very close to where it flows into the the Dead Sea, very close. And so it's one of the lowest
parts of the earth. And how Christ descended into
the depths, you see, with this mission of mercy to save his
people from their sins. And they shall cut off the waters
from above. And it came to pass when the
people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, the priest
bearing the ark and the covenant before the people. And as they
that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of
the priests that bear the ark were dipped into the brim of
the water. For Jordan overflowed all the banks all the time of
harvest." This was not a time when the river was just a trickle.
It was its full bore. And you see, Christ, you see,
he stood in the breach. He stood and took the full wrath
of God against sin. There was no mitigation of that.
that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up
upon an heap very far from the city Adam. It's the only time
we read in the Bible of a city called Adam. And it seems, I just wonder whether
there's some, that river began you see with Adam, didn't it?
That river of sin, it began with Adam and it flowed down, as it
were, the sin that flowed through the human race since Adam. But
it is besides Zartan and those that came down towards the sea
of the plain, even the Sotsi failed and were cut off. And
the people passed over right against Jericho, right in against
the next city that they were going to seek to conquer. This
river, in full flood, was totally dry. You see, this is an outworking of the promise
that Moses gave to Joshua. And the Lord, he it is that doth
go before thee. What a one to go before us. That
river, and if he's, you see, we read in Romans, if he spared
not his son, How shall he not freely give us all things? If
he stopped the river of the wrath of God against sin for his people,
if he sent his beloved son into this world, then how shall he
not freely give us all things? You see, this is an argument
that Paul uses, but here And the Lord, here it is, that doth
go before thee. He will not fail thee, neither
forsake thee, fear thou not, neither be dismayed. What a one
it was to have with them. And the priests that bear the
ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the
midst of Jordan, and all the people of Israel passed over
on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over
Jordan. So here we have the ark standing
in the middle, stopping that stream and all the people passing
over on dry land. How Christ, you see, we're buried
with him in baptism and having union with him, you see, we have
a safety. There is a dry land. And then
they were commanded, we didn't read this, but they were commanded
to take these 12 stones from where the priests had stood.
These 12 people, one from each tribe were to take that the stones
in verse 3 it says of chapter 4 and command you and say take
you hence out of the midst of Jordan out of the place where
the priests feet stood from 12 stones and you shall carry them
over with you and leave them in your lodging place where you
lodged this night. And Joshua called the 12 men
which were prepared, we read about that in chapter three,
and the children of Israel, of the children of Israel out of
every tribe a man. And Joshua said unto them, Pass
over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan,
take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according
unto the number of the tribe of the children of Israel, that
this may be a sign among you. See, so often in the Bible we
have a deliverance war and then there was a remembrance of it.
It was when they came out of Egypt. With the Passover they
were to remember that. Here they pass through this River
Jordan and there was to be a remembrance. There was going to be a telling
it to the generation following. that this may be a sign among
you that whenever your children ask their fathers in time to
come, what mean you by these stones? Then you shall answer
that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the
covenant of the Lord, which is when it passed over Jordan, the
waters of Jordan were cut off, terminated. You see, and how
the wrath of God was cut off by the work of Christ for his
church. And therefore they were free, they were safe to get to
glory, safe to get into the promised land. And in verse 8 it says,
in verse 8 verse chapter 4, And the children of Israel did so
as Joshua commanded, and took up the twelve stones out of the
midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according
to the number of the tribes, the children of Israel. and carried them over with them
into the place where they lodged. And Joshua set up 12 stones in
the midst of Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests
which bear the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there unto
this day. Then in verse 10, for the priests which bear the ark
stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished,
that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people according
to all that Moses commanded Joshua. It's quite a fullness here. I
think there's something Rich here, for the priests which bear
the ark stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished. Surely is there not an echo there
to the cross, where Jesus declared at the end of his hours of darkness,
it is finished. The whole of the Church of God,
as it were, had pictured down through the ages all of Adam's
race that were in Christ Jesus, those who were in the second
Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ would get saved to glory. And everything
was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people
of Israel according to all that Moses commanded Joshua. See,
Moses comes in here. Is there perhaps something, an
echo of Moses representing the law? You see that the law, how,
that when Christ had completed and said it is finished, the
law, Moses' law that was given at Mount Sinai was complete.
The ceremonial law was, was satisfied. Finished. No more sacrifices. The one sacrifice had taken place
and the people hasted and passed over. The same was said on the
Passover night. They ate it with haste. They
didn't saunter across the river. There was a haste. They were
to pass over this Jordan. This was business. This was a
work that needed to be done to get these people safe into the
promised land. And we read then On the, in verse
14, on that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel. So God said he would magnify
Joshua, and Joshua was magnified as a servant of the Lord, representing
that one who would be the Lord Jesus Christ, that saviour, who
would be the leader of his people into the promised land. On that day the Lord magnified
Joshua in the sight of Israel, and they feared him as they feared
Moses all the days of his life. then we read in verse 16 of chapter
4, command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony that
they come up out of Jordan. You see the whole thing is There's
the details here which you'd say is more than necessary just
if it was a case of passing over a river. Command the priests
that bear the Ark of the Testament that they come up out of Jordan. They had finished their work
and now they were to come up. Joshua therefore commanded the
priests saying, come me up out of Jordan. It came to pass when
the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant would come out.
And of course we think of that as there was a command, you see,
given that the Lord should be risen that third day from the
dead. That he should come out of that
death, as it were. He should come up out of it.
And he should rise again. And it came to pass when the
priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord were
come up out of the midst of Jordan, the souls of the priests were
lifted up out of the dry land, sorry, lifted up unto the dry
land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place and
flowed over all his banks as they did before time. It wasn't
that the river had suddenly finished. It wasn't that the wrath of God,
as it were, had been satisfied for all. No, just for those people,
just for that remnant, according to the election of grace, pictured
as the church of God, of every kindred, nation, tribe and tongue. They were safe across. And then
the torrent, as it were, continued. And then that would go on. And so we see here that the Lord
went before Israel in their difficulties, in their troubles, and the Lord,
he it is that doth go before thee. He will be with thee. And you see, God was with Joshua
and helped him. As they went across the Jordan,
that was the first natural hurdle. The next one they came to, of
course, was Jericho. And who would have thought that
Jericho's walls and all the thickness of their walls and the strength
of their walls would be overcome without any gunshot or anything? They would just fall down. The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through grace. Those walls came down, but not
with battering them naturally. They fell down of their own accord.
all in fulfilment of this promise and the Lord. He it is that doth
go before them. What did they have to do? They
had to go round, you see, Jericho blowing with those horns, and
we think of the proclamation of the gospel, and how it is
just pulling down of the strongholds of Satan, and to the building
up of his kingdom. And of course, there was that
remnant according to the election of grace, Rahab, her household,
with that house with the scarlet robe, rope that came out of the window. And so all they that were in
that house were saved. All the other people were killed. But you see Rahab by faith, she
received the spies and she was blessed. And how you see, without
faith it is impossible to please God. Well may we be amongst those
who walk by faith as we come at the beginning of a new year.
with many things before us, each one different, no doubt. Many
obstacles, many difficulties, many things that seem insurmountable. Maybe you come and the Lord,
as it were, leaves you for three days to sit there and look at
this swollen river, look at the impossibilities, look at how
are you ever going to get over this river. And then he says, now I'm going
to command. I'm going to send my up before
that. And that swollen river's gonna be dry land, dry land. And it's a picture, of course,
of how Christ, he brings his people safe to glory through
every, this was a earnest, this was an example that as he did
this, he would do everything with the children of Israel to
bring them into the promised land. You see, God is a faithful
God. We serve a faithful God and we
need to put our trust in him. You see Joshua was able to say
in Joshua 23 verse 14, when Joshua came to his end, he had conquered
so much of the land. He then divided the land so that
each of the tribes had their portion so that they could inherit
the good land that the Lord God had given them. But in Joshua
23 verse 14, Joshua says, And behold, this day I am going the
way of all the earth. He now is going to die. And ye
know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing
hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake
concerning you." What a promise, what a fulfillment of the promise
that Moses gave to Joshua in Deuteronomy 31 verse 8. All the problems that lay before
Joshua, the impossibilities, but Moses gave him that promise
from God by faith and Joshua proved that promise true. And
you see, we have a cloud of witnesses in the Bible, but we are to be
those witnesses that God is a faithful God, and the God that promises
is the God that delivers. And the Lord, he it is that doth
go before thee. He will be with thee. Yes, it
didn't mean that Joshua didn't have some dark times and some
difficult times, and some times when he had some consternation
as Ai started to defeat them. He didn't know what to do. The
Lord told him there was an acorn in the camp, very solemn. The
time of Jericho, you see, there was... At the overthrow of Jericho,
you get these two stark opposites. You get Achan, who was one of
the children of Israel, who was filled with unbelief, really,
in a sense. He didn't want to listen. He
coveted that. And he perished. And there's
Rahab, one of the enemy side, as it were, naturally. And she
had faith in the God of Israel. And she believed the God of Israel.
And she was blessed. a stark contrast between those
that fear God and those that fear him not. Even though Achan
was naturally on the right side and Rahab was naturally on the
wrong side, God is able to save unto the uttermost all that come
unto God by him. And the Lord, he it is that doth
go before thee. He will be with thee, he will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee, fear thou not, neither
be dismayed. And Joshua was going to come
across some hard times, but the Lord was with him. And you see,
then we read in the end of Joshua 24, in verse 29, it says, It
came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun,
the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. And they
buried him in the border of his inheritance, in Timnath-serah,
which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of
Gash. And Israel served the Lord all
the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived
Joshua, which had known all the works of the Lord, which he had
done for Israel. God is faithful. May we then,
at the beginning of this year, as we see, as it were, some difficulties
in our paths and things that seem to overflow us, may we be
reminded, and the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee. And that ark going before Israel
had an effect. It wasn't just a case of some
mascot on the front that didn't do anything. It was the ark of
the covenant of the Lord, your God, and it had an effect. And
God, you see, as he goes before people, his people has an effect. You see, we read that beautiful
prophecy of Isaiah. Speaking of course of the coming
of the Savior, but it's true of the Lord's people in as well. Isaiah 40 verse 3, the voice
of him that cryeth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Speaking of the
coming of the John the Baptist, who was going to make a highway
for his God, for the Lord Jesus to preach the gospel. He was
going to prepare the people, repent, for the kingdom of God
is at hand. Every valley shall be exhorted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low. It has an effect,
you see. And the crooked shall be made
straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord
shall be revealed. It was, wasn't it? The glory...
Joshua was magnified. And how that is a picture, you
see, if it was just Joshua as a mere man, that would be a problem.
He would start to glory in himself. But you see, when I, if I be
lifted up, will draw all men unto me. We have a one who went
before his people, who went to the very depths of Jordan to
stop that torrent of sin and of the wrath of God against his
people. And he is that lamb. that now
is in glory with that throng of 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands
of thousands singing unto him that worthy is the Lamb. This is the one. Joshua, we read,
began to be magnified and he was magnified. But he is pointing
to one who is far greater than Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who has given a name which is above every name. that at the
name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. Well, and the Lord, here
it is, that does go before thee, he will be with thee, he will
not fail thee, neither forsake thee, fear not, neither be dismayed,
amen.