Faith at the Water s Edge Joshua 3:1-17

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1 Faith at the Water s Edge Joshua 3:1-17 Rev. Jeff Chapman ~ May 31, 2009 ~ Pentecost/Baptism Sunday ~ Faith Presbyterian Church Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place. Follow it, so that you may know the way you should go, for you have not passed this way before. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits; do not come any nearer to it. Then Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you. To the priests Joshua said, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass on in front of the people. So they took up the ark of the covenant and went in front of the people. The LORD said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses. You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. Joshua then said to the Israelites, Draw near and hear the words of the LORD your God. Joshua said, By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites: the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan. So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap. When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing towards the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan. (Joshua 3:1-17, NRSV) A friend I haven t heard from in some time ed me this week. He wrote to tell me how he is really struggling in his faith these days. You see, earlier this year his father got sick and died. Lots of people prayed for his recovery. Lots of people had faith he would make it through. But in the end he died. And my friend is telling me now that now he is finding it very hard to trust God these days. He s finding it hard to pray. He s finding it hard to feel close to God. Anybody here know what that s like? I think all of us walk around, at least some of the time, with this struggle. Hasn t God promised to fix this world? So why doesn t God bring peace? Why did this person have to die? Why won t this relationship heal? Why can t I change and become the person I know I was meant to be? When is earth going to start looking more like heaven? Didn t God promise that his kingdom was coming? Isn t the Bible, in fact, full of promises of healing, and peace, and restoration, and eternal life?

2 2 It is, in fact, full of such promises. And some of those promises go all the way back to the beginning. Way back in Genesis, for instance, there is a story about how God came one day to meet with a man named Abraham. 1 And God, on that day, made some promises to Abraham. 2 God promised Abraham his descendants would become a great nation of people. God promised to bless them richly and, through them, bless all peoples of the earth. In Genesis 15, God goes further and promises Abraham that he will, one day, give his people a home. 3 A home in a land flowing with milk and honey. A land that is good, and spacious, and full of abundance. 4 A Promised Land where everything, finally, will be put back the way it s supposed to be. Well, if you know the story, Abraham has a son Isaac. Isaac, then, has a son Jacob. Jacob then has his name changed to Israel 5 and has, himself, twelve sons. Eventually the families of these twelve sons, who came to be known as the Israelites, relocated in Egypt where, in a matter of time, they ended up as slaves. In fact, four centuries they were slaves! 400 years of wretched poverty, toiling seven days a week making bricks for ruthless dictators. No milk. No honey. No freedom. No Promised Land. And no end in sight. And the Bible tells us that these people, these people who had been guaranteed this Promised Land, cried out to God. 6 How long, God? How long do we have to wait? How long until you do what you said you would do? How long until you keep your promises? 7 Anybody here ever felt like that? Anybody here every cried to God, How long! How long do I have to live with this ache of grief? How long must I battle this sin? How long do I have to fight this pain? How long, Lord? How long! Some of you have been asking God those questions for years. Try 400 years. For 400 years, the Israelites cried out to God, How long? And then finally, one day, God answered. Through a man named Moses, God came to deliver his people and take them home. Many of you know the story. God overpowered the mighty Egyptians. God parted the Red Sea and led the Israelites through on dry land, out from slavery and into freedom. In the wilderness, God provided a pillar of cloud to lead his people by day and a pillar of fire to lead them by night. To sustain them, God provided manna from heaven, quail from the skies, water from a rock, and commandments from a mountain. Eventually, God led them through the desert to the edge of the Jordan River, just a stones throw from the very land God had promised Abraham all those years ago. 8 Finally, the Promised Land was so close they could just about taste the milk and the honey. But the Israelites were afraid. They were afraid to cross that river. Why? They were afraid of the enemies that lived on the other side. In spite of all that they had just seen God do, they did not believe God was powerful enough to take care of them now. They didn t trust God. And they refused to cross. And tragically God was forced to send them back into the wilderness. For another 40 years they wandered in the desert. You know, sometimes we have to wait because God isn t ready to show up. But sometimes we wait because we aren t ready to trust. 1 His name at the time was actually Abram. It wasn t changed to Abraham, which means Father of many, until later. See Genesis 17:5. 2 See Genesis 12: See Genesis 15: See God s description to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:8. 5 See this great story of Jacob becoming Israel in Genesis 32: Israel literally means struggles with God. 6 See Exodus 3:7. 7 Read through the Old Testament, particularly the Psalms, and over and over you will hear people crying out to God this same plea, How long? Psalm 6 is a great example. In verse three the psalmist cries out, My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? For other examples see Psalm 13:1-2, Psalm 35:17, Psalm 62:3. U2 often closes it s concerts with their rendition of Psalm 40, a Psalm that exclaims this desire for God to come and rescue. The chorus of U2 s version repeats the question over and over, How long? See it live at 8 Read about this amazing first visit to the Jordan in Numbers 14.

3 3 At the end of that time, however, God eventually did lead them back to that very same spot at the edge of the Jordan River. Same spot, but different people. Now it was the children and the grandchildren of the group that first stood on that riverbank. And now they had a different leader. Joshua, instead of Moses, was in charge. Different people. Different leader. Same question, How long, Lord? How long? Well, in the 3 rd chapter of Joshua they get their answers. Let s look again at what happened: Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim. They set out with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan River. 9 They camped there three days before crossing. Now the river, we re later told, was at flood stage. And in those days, there was no bridge or ferry to get them across. And these people didn t bring canoes with them. These were desert people. Which, by the way, meant that none of them even knew how to swim. There was no way across that river. And even if they got across, they knew what was on the other side. The Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Perizites the land was already occupied by powerful and brutal enemies. Even if they made it to the other side, there weren t going to be any welcome home parties. All this time, all those years of slavery and wandering, and now they stood right across this river from the Promised Land and there was no way to cross. And no way to survive even if they could cross. Of course, these people had heard the all the stories from their parents and grandparents of God s miracles in Egypt, how God parted the Red Sea and struck down the mighty Egyptians. But that was a long time ago. Maybe those were just stories. They d certainly never seen God do any thing like that before. Anybody here know what that s like? You want to believe that God is a God who does miraculous things, who overcomes impossible odds to keep his promises. You want to believe, but as far as you know, you ve never seen any miracles. You ve heard the stories. But they all happened so long ago. Sometimes it s hard to trust in miracles that happened so long ago. That s where the Israelites are, stuck on the riverbank in desperate need of a miracle. And to make matters worse, in the ancient Near East there was a common way that people would figure out if the gods were or were not on the side of somebody. The person in question would simply be thrown into a river. If he drowned, then it was assumed that the gods were against him. But if he somehow survived, well then the gods were for him. 10 Seems to me all that determined was whether or not the guy could swim! But what do I know? That s the way they did things back then. And the Israelites would have been very familiar with this practice. 11 And so on top of everything else, as they stood on that riverbank they likely would have wondered if God was for them or against them? Could God be trusted or not? In the end, would God rescue them, or would God abandon them? Anybody here ever face those questions? Well, the morning of the third day all those questions got answered. 12 The night before, Joshua had told the people to get themselves ready for something amazing. 13. Then, in the morning Joshua instructed the priests to take up the ark of the Covenant. The ark was, as many of you know, an this incredibly sacred box which represented, for the Israelites, the very presence of God in their midst. When the ark was with them, God was with them. When the ark went before them, God went before them. 9 This would have been about a 10 mile journey which, in those days, would have taken the whole day. 10 NIV text note on Joshua 3: There is even some evidence that they practiced trial by water ordeal themselves at certain points. See Numbers 5: Any other instances you can think of when God did something remarkable, something against all odds, on the third day? 13 Likely, this preparation, or consecration, would have involved washing their garments and their bodies, and refraining from sexual intercourse. See Exodus 19:10,14-15.

4 Well, that morning Joshua tells the priests to pick up the Ark and carry it right into the river. And then he tells the people to follow the ark right into the river. No boat. No bridge. No life preservers. No swimming lessons. Right into the river. Now, I suspect most of us know what it s like to stand at the water s edge afraid to take the plunge. A toddler stands for the first time at the edge of a pool afraid of what will happen if she jumps out towards mom s outstretched hands. A kid stands at the top of a high dive for the first time, afraid of how much it will hurt when his body slaps the water. A grown man I know well often stands hesitantly at the edges of very cold pools as his four children, who apparently don t mind swimming in ice-cold conditions, mercilessly mock his courage and manhood. Most of us know what it s like to stand, hesitant, at the water s edge. What must it have been like for those people to stand at the edge of that swollen river, powerful enemies waiting on the other side, the favor and faithfulness of God hanging in the balance? How long do you think they waited there at the water s edge? They must have hesitated. Because Joshua, we re told, gives them a little riverbank pep talk. Beginning in verse 9: Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God, By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites [all the Ites]: the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap. Listen carefully. God, through Joshua, brings this message. I am your God. I am alive. And I am the Lord of all the earth. And I am about to go before you and overpower everything that stands in the way of you coming to receive all that I long ago promised you would receive. If you trust me, if you follow me, if you step out in faith, the raging waters of this river, and the brutal enemies that await you on the other side, will not stand a chance. God brings this message through his servant Joshua, a man whose name in Hebrew literally means The Lord Saves. That s what Joshua means, The Lord Saves. As a child, Joshua was named for what God was going to eventually do through him. Through Joshua, God would overpower all that stood in the way of God s people. Through Joshua God would save his people so that they could receive all that had been promised them. By the way, Joshua, in the Greek, is a different name. Same meaning - The Lord Saves - different name. Anybody here know what the name Joshua is in the Greek? Jesus. Joshua is the same name as Jesus. And if you haven t started already, now is the time to start connecting the dots. This isn t just a story about some ancient people on a riverbank 3000 years ago. This is our story too. Pay attention. This is our story. In spite of the doubts and fears that must have raged in their hearts and minds, the Israelites put their faith in God and followed him that day right into the river. And God, it should not surprise us, delivered. We read on in verse 15: When those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam [20 miles upstream] Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel was crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan. I would have loved to have watched that happen? All that water piled up in a heap. Those priests, knee-deep in mud, holding the ark up above their heads in the middle of that river. The faces of the people, particularly the faces of the children, as they climbed up on the bank of the other side. Man, what a scene. And though I don t have time to read them, you need to know that the next verses tell us that when every last Israelite had crossed safely, God, through Joshua, instructed them to do one more thing that day. Before the waters came crashing back down, the Israelites were told to send twelve men back into the middle of the river and carry out twelve stones. And 4

5 those stones were then made into a memorial right there on the Promised Land side of the river, a memorial that future generations would see. 5 You see, these people had waited generations, suffered through centuries of slavery, endured decades of wandering, forever wondered how long it would take for God to put things right. And now God did not want them to forget. When God makes a promise, God is always faithful in keeping it. And so when the children of the Israelites, in the years to come, would ask their parents about this strange pile of rocks down by the riverbank, their parents would tell them about what their faithful God had done. And in the telling, the parents themselves would be reminded that God is a powerful God who always keeps his promises, and who is always worthy of worship. And you know, the Israelites and their children were going to need those reminders. Because even though they had finally made it to the Promised Land, the milk and honey weren t flowing all that freely yet. If you know the rest of the story, you know that in the coming years those people had to fight for every inch of that land. Yes, God was always with them. God was always going before them. But it was a constant, and often difficult, battle against a powerful enemy. So they needed that memorial. They needed that pile of rocks to remind them that God does overcome. God does, in time, fulfill all his promises. God will, one day, lead his people to a place, a home, a Promised Land, where everything, every last thing, is put right again. We need reminders like that, don t we? We need memorials to remind us that God will, in his time, keep his promises. Death will end. Pain will cease. Grief will be healed. Joy will come. Peace is on the way. For those who trust, there is a land, a Promised Land, where everything, finally, will be as it is supposed to be. Of all this, we constantly need to be reminded. This piece of furniture is our baptismal font. Most of you are probably used to seeing it back in the rear of the sanctuary. You walk by it every time you come in here Sunday mornings. I watch as some of you dip your fingers in the water as you pass by. We bring it up front here on mornings, like this morning, when we baptize people. People ask me about this thing all the time. Sometimes children ask. They wonder about this strange wooden box with the bowl of water on top. And I don t blame them. It s not something you see everyday. It looks a bit like a really fancy birdbath! Well, when children ask us what this is, we need to tell them. When our children ask about this water, we should stand with them here and tell them this water reminds us every Sunday that we follow a God who is famous for saving his people through the water. I mean, our God once saved his family on a big boat through a great flood. Our God once parted a whole sea, and then a heaped up a whole river, to lead his people to freedom. Our God once even walked on water out in the middle of a lake to save his people from a mighty storm. We need to tell our kids these stories. And who knows, as we do, as we remember together what our God has done, maybe we will find faith as well, here at the water s edge. When our children ask about this water, we should stand with them here and tell them that this water reminds us that our God loved us so much that, at one point, he sent his only Son to live as one of us on this earth. And we should tell them how this Son of God named Jesus, The Lord Saves, loved us so much that he died on a cross for us and rose again three days later. And let s tell our kids that when Jesus did that, it was almost as if he stepped out before us into this overwhelming river of sin and death that was about to drown us. And Jesus took that river of sin and death and, on the morning of the third day,

6 6 he piled it up in a heap 20 miles upstream. And then he invited everyone who trusts him to follow him safely through to the other side into the Promised Land, into the place where everything in the world finally gets put back together the way it s supposed to be. Who knows, as we tell our children these things, as we remember together what our God has done, maybe we will find faith as well, here at the water s edge. As our children grow older, there will come a day when, inevitably, they will ask us, Where, exactly, is this Promised Land? I mean, they re smart kids. They re going to figure out that life is too often hard, and messy, and painful. And like my friend who ed me this past week, our kids will eventually have within them this growing sense that things are not all as they are supposed to be. As children, they just believe. But as they grow older in this world, questions will come. And doubts. Even fears. When that happens, let s stand with them here and remind them that, in spite of how it may seem sometimes, this water reminds us that we do, in fact, already live in the Promised Land. Let s remind them that in Christ, sin, and death, and guilt, and shame, have no power over us now, today, or ever again. Of course, let s acknowledge there is still a lot of mess in this world. And yes, there s still a lot of mess in our lives. Yes, life is still hard. Yes, pain still hurts. Yes, grief still aches. Yes, sin still trips us up. Yes, doubt and fear still chase us down. Yes, there is still a battle being waged against enemies here in the Promised Land. Yes, sometimes we cry out to God, How long?! But it s just a matter of time. And it s must a matter of faith. Our God is with us. Our God goes before us. Our God never makes a promise he doesn t keep. Our God is faithful. Always has been. Always will be. Who knows, as we tell these things to our children, as we remember together what our God has done, maybe we will find faith as well, here at the water s edge. Amen.

7 7 The Next Step A resource for Life Groups and/or personal application ~ Can you think of a time when you stood at the edge of some body of water and it took a great deal of courage or faith for you to take that first step? ~ Read again the account in Joshua 3. If you have time, also read Joshua 4. What really stands out to you from this story? Is this your story? Our story? If so, what is one way you can see yourself/us in this story? ~ Is there something in life that is making you cry out to God, How long?! If so, what do you need to sustain your faith in the meantime? What reminder do you need from God these days? ~ If you participated in Baptism Sunday this past Sunday, what was that experience like for you? Did God meet you there at the water s edge? ~ From our perspective as Christians, where is the Promised Land? Are we in it now? Is it in heaven when we die? When do we cross over? Does it come all at once? ~ Transformation Question All through history the people of God have faced great opposition in this world which continually challenges and assaults our faith. What is one way you are now being called to step out in trust and faith and follow God into the midst of a river of seemingly overwhelming odds? ~ Close your reflection time by reading again Psalm 33: Then use these words to guide your time of prayer today. ~ Bonus Life Group Scripture: Read I Timothy 6: What do Paul s words of encouragement offer to you today in your faith? Further Scripture Readings for the Week: Monday: Genesis 12:1-9, 15:1-21 God s promises to his people through Abram Tuesday: Exodus 3 God s promises renewed to his people through Moses Wednesday: Numbers The first time at the riverbank Thursday: Psalm 6 The people s cry of How long! Friday: Joshua 3-4 The second time at the riverbank Saturday: Psalm 33:12-22/I Timothy 6:11-16 Amazing words of faith and hope