The Living God Among Us - Joshua 3:1-17

Sermon Series: Great Leader, Exceptional Follower

There are a couple of guys who were at NC State while I was a student there who have a web-site where they post a lot of silly videos and songs.  Their names are Rhett and Link and they are always up to something crazy.  A few years ago they decided to head out to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards where they were hoping to somehow get in and grab some interviews on the red carpet.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any credentials which meant their likelihood of getting into Staples Arena and getting any kind of interview was non-existent.  With all of the celebrities who would be at the arena that afternoon and evening there were multiple check points that individuals would have to go through and all kinds of security personnel who would stand in their way.  Two young guys from Lillington, NC stood no chance on their own of getting into the Grammys and making it to the red carpet.  They needed someone with them who could help them.  And that’s when someone familiar caught their eye.  It was a little guy who had been on TV just a few weeks before trying out for American Idol.  The poor little guy was a terrible singer, but one of the national TV magazine shows had hired him to be a special reporter from the Grammys.  As he went walking by Rhett and Link they noticed that he had a filming crew with him and that he had the needed credentials to get past the security.  So Rhett and Link jumped in behind the crew hoping they might pass through unquestioned as if they were part of this little guy’s crew.  And surprisingly their plan worked.  They walked through multiple check points and right past multiple security guards without being questioned, all the way to the red carpet where they set up their little camera and began interviewing the celebrities who were walking past.  As always their interviews were funny, but the most amazing part of the video itself was watching these guys walking through one check point after another and one security guard after another without ever being questioned – and all because some little guy who was a terrible singer had had his 30 seconds of fame on American Idol.  Because this little guy was present with them, incredible opportunities opened up for them that they will probably remember for the rest of their lives.

It’s not hard to come up with examples in our lives of our insufficiencies and places where we are limited on our own.  Don’t believe me?  Then you try driving out to LA for the Grammys this year and try making it to the red carpet.  Or try showing up at the Super Bowl and try to get onto the field at some point.  Maybe you could head to Washington DC for the day and try spending the afternoon in the Oval Office of the White House.  These are some extreme examples, I know.  But the point is clear – you and I are limited in and of ourselves.  Now think about what Rhett and Link were able to do with someone who had had only 30 seconds of fame with them in their presence.  That’s pretty amazing.  But I would argue that even more extraordinary things can happen when we have the living God present with us and dwelling among us.  So what are some of the realities of having the living God dwelling among us?  I’m going to suggest that in this passage, the third chapter of Joshua, we will see three great realities of having the living God among us.

Chapter 3 of Joshua begins, “Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim.  And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.  At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people . . .”  In chapter 1 God had commissioned Joshua to shepherd His people and had told him that he would be the one to cause the Israelites to acquire their inheritance – the land.  Later in that chapter, we saw Joshua commanding the officers of the people and the 2.5 tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh to make preparations because they would be leaving in a matter of days to go and take possession of that promised inheritance.  Now in chapter 3 we find Joshua and the people setting out from the place where they have been encamped for some time, going to the Jordan and lodging there until they received further instructions.  Here’s what the officers commanded the people, “As soon as 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 and follow it.  Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length.  Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”  The officers begin by saying to the people that they will see “the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God.”  The Ark of the Covenant was Israel’s most holy possession.  It had significance because of what it carried.  Inside the Ark of the Covenant were the two stone tablets upon which the 10 commandments had been written while Moses was on Mount Sinai, the rod of Aaron, and some of the manna that God had supplied to the people while they were in the wilderness.  These items were supposed to remind the people of how both God’s presence and power had been with them throughout their journey.  But the Ark of the Covenant was most significant because of what it represented.  The presence of God would be enthroned upon the lid of the Ark of the Covenant whenever it was dwelling within the Holy of Holies.  In other words, the very presence of God resided with man on earth upon the lid of the Ark of the Covenant.  The Ark of the Covenant and the presence of God went hand-in-hand.  So the presence of the Ark of the Covenant had become synonymous with the presence of God.

The Ark of the Covenant becomes an important focal point in chapter 3 (being mentioned 10 times).  And in verses 1 through 6 we see the author’s focus on both the Ark of the Covenant and the Israelites’ relation to it.  The officers tell the people that when they see it being carried by the priests that they are to get up and they are to follow it.  But they are NOT to follow it too closely.  They are to keep a distance between the Ark of the Covenant and themselves of approximately 2,000 cubits (or 1,000 yards).  The Israelites were to keep a healthy distance from the Ark of the Covenant for two reasons.  The first reason was because a healthy distance between the Ark of the Covenant and the sinful people helped emphasize the sacredness of the Ark and the awesomeness of God’s glory.  While the presence of God among His people was certainly a good thing, having the presence of God among them was not something the Israelites were to take lightly.  They were to both revere and fear the presence of God while also taking great delight in the fact that He was present with them.  The second reason the Israelites were to keep a healthy distance between the Ark of the Covenant and themselves was because the Ark of the Covenant would direct the people so that they would know where they were to go – in both a physical and a spiritual sense.  This generation of Israelites had never been into the promise land, so the people would need physical direction.  By allowing the Ark of the Covenant to go before them and lead them they would know where God was leading them and how to get there.  But all throughout the OT we can find that the idea of knowing the way to go/walk has a figurative meaning – not meaning which literal road or path to take, but rather what the right way of living was.  So by following the presence of God represented by the Ark of the Covenant, not only would the Israelites know where they were to go physically, but they would also have a sense of direction in regards to how they were to live and glorify Him. 

In verse 5, after the officers of the people had given their commands, we also find Joshua giving a few commands.  Joshua begins with a command to the Israelites.  “Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’”  Part of Joshua’s responsibility as the God-appointed shepherd over God’s people was to lead a sinful people to follow God and to carry out all of His plans.  From verse 5 it doesn’t appear that Joshua felt like the Israelites would be prepared to do this unless they had sanctified themselves and set themselves apart from the sin, which according to Hebrews 12:1, so easily entangles us.  Nor does it seem that Joshua expected God to do ‘wonders’ (the closest OT word for our word ‘miracle’ today) among the people if they weren’t first sanctified and set-apart for Him.  After giving that command and anticipating that the people would do as he had commanded them, verse 6 then tells us, “Joshua said to the priests, ‘Take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people.’  So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people.”  It was time for the presence of the living God to help lead the Israelites in His ways.

For the Israelites God’s presence was real, it was with them, and it was represented in the Ark of the Covenant.  And because God’s presence was with His people (because the living God was among them) God could help lead them in His ways.  Today this reality is still true for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The Bible tells us that God is present with each believing individual in the form of the Holy Spirit - that God the Holy Spirit actually dwells inside of each one of us.  And because each and every person who has trusted n Jesus as Lord and Savior has God present with him or her, God can help lead those individuals in His ways.  Did you hear that?  Because God is present within those who have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior, God, Himself, can lead us in His ways!  And if that is true then that has some serious implications.  First, if God is present with you and me, and can help lead you and me in His ways, then we ought to be exceptional in our following!  We don’t need to put our own plans before Him and ask Him to conform to us.  We need to be allowing God to lead us, and then we need to be following Him.  We need to be exceptionally following Him in a physical sense, going where He leads us to go, and we need to be exceptionally following Him in a spiritual sense, living in the way that God calls each of us to live.  The second implication may be the more serious of the two however.  Second, if God is present with you and me, and can help lead you and me in His ways, then we need to be consecrated and sanctified in our following.  One of the things that I think many of us are guilty of, including myself, is forgetting to revere and fear God, and as a result taking His presence too lightly.  God is still holy!  God is still awesome!  And those character traits demand that we come before Him with reverence and fear.  Those character traits also suggest a need for us, who have the presence of an awesome and holy God in our own lives, to set ourselves apart for Him, and to strive in our own character to become more like Him.  God is perfectly capable of leading us!  God is perfectly capable of helping us to know where He is calling us and how He would have us to live!  And God is perfectly capable of doing this among us in miraculous ways!  But we shouldn’t have any expectation for Him to do this if we haven’t set ourselves apart for Him.  We shouldn’t expect a holy, awesome, and righteous God to lead us who are living for ourselves, chasing our own desires, and who have no longing to bear witness of the One who is present among us.  God is able to lead us.  He longs to lead us.  And He is able to do extraordinary things among us.  But we have to consecrate ourselves – we have to set ourselves apart for God and His glory and we have to be striving on our end to be sanctified and to be like Christ.  When we set ourselves apart for God, revere Him, and strive to become like Him, then He will lead us.

In verses 7 and 8 we hear God speaking for the first time since His commission to Joshua in 1:1-9.  Verses 7 and 8 say, “The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.  And as for you, command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’’”  God tells Joshua that He will begin to exalt him in the sight of all the Israelites.  Notice that God is the One actively working to accomplish this.  God doesn’t tell Joshua to work to exalt himself – it is God’s initiative and it is God’s work.  Having read this it sounds as if Joshua will ultimately be the one whose name becomes great in what is about to transpire.  But Joshua seemed to have a better perspective of what God was up to and what God was going to do.  Joshua doesn’t gather together the craftsmen and give them the command to start mass producing Joshua bobble-head dolls.  He doesn’t call together the artists and commission them to start the Joshua museum.  Joshua seemed to understand that while God had promised to exalt him, it was for a very specific purpose.  God was going to exalt him, not for Joshua’s sake, but so that the Israelites would recognize and know that God was the One who was with him.  Joshua seemed to understand that when all that was going to transpire had taken place God would be the One whose name was really made great.  Listen to what verses 9, 10, and 13 say.  “And Joshua said to the people of Israel, ‘Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.’  And Joshua said, ‘Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that He will without fail drive out from before you  . . . And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.’”  In verses 9 and following nothing that Joshua says has anything to do with him.  He calls the people to himself and tells them that this is how they will know without a doubt that God is among them.  But not just any old god – the living God!  Joshua begins to tell the Israelites that God is getting ready to do something so extraordinary and miraculous that two things will be certain.  The first is that the people will know that their God is the One living God.  In the land which the Israelites were about to enter there were several different people groups and many different gods that were worshipped among them.  But those gods were not real gods.  They were gods crafted by the minds of the people – idols that had no real power or existence.  And the miracle which God was about to do was going to set Himself apart from these other false gods and serve as evidence that Israel’s God was indeed the one true, living God.  The second thing this extraordinary and miraculous sign would make certain is that the one living God was without a doubt present with the Israelites and was there to cause them to drive out the pagan nations. 

What would this extraordinary and miraculous sign be?  We’ll briefly make note of it here since the author of the text does – but we’ll cover it in greater detail in verses 14 through 17.  Joshua told the Israelites that when the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant entered the Jordan River that God would cause the waters of the Jordan River to stop flowing and to stand still, piling up in one heap.  As I just noted, verses 14-17 will go into more detail regarding this miracle, but the emphasis in verses 7-13 seems to be more on the realization that the living God, who by His presence among the Israelite nation, was making His name great.

Have you ever considered the fact that God wants to make His name great in your life and in the life of our church?  Is that an expectation that you have?  Do you expect God to make His name great in your life and in the life of your church?  Unfortunately, I think that most of us probably aren’t living with this expectation.  We love God!  We delight in God!  And many of us really do treasure God!  But the reality is that that is where it ends for most of us.  God becomes for us simply an object that we really love and treasure, but which has no bigger purpose than our own delight.  We love and delight in God because of what He has done for us.  He has lavished His love on us.  He has granted us forgiveness.  He has cleansed us from sin.  He has set us free from our enemy.  And we end up loving and cuddling with God like He’s some cute puppy for us to simply delight in.  God’s desire is to be more than just the object of our delight.  He wants His name to be great in all the world.  He is the living God of all the universe and He is dwelling with us so that He might make His name great in every corner of that universe. 

Are you living in such a way that God can make His name great in your life?  Are you asking God to make His name great in your own life?  In your family?  In our church?  If not, perhaps we have a picture of who God is and what He is wanting to do that is much too small.  Praise God for the great things that He has done in our lives and in the life of our church.  But let us not be content with simply delighting in God and not doing what we can to help Him make His name great in our spheres of influence.

The author of our text finally reveals God’s miracle that he has been slowly building up to.  Verses 14-17 therefore serve as the climax of chapter 3 (and of chapter 4 as well).  “So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the Ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the Ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off.  And the people passed over opposite Jericho.  Now the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.”  Now pay particular attention to the fact that the point of these verses doesn’t seem to be so much that the people were able to cross over the Jordan River, but more about the manner in which they were able to cross.  Because the living God was present with and among the Israelites He was able to perform an extraordinary miracle.  It was a miracle that clearly demonstrated that the living and mighty God was among them and ready to help them take possession of the inheritance which He had already given them.  In this incredible miracle it was as if God’s powerful and invisible hand came down and formed a dam in a river which was so full of water it was already overflowing it’s banks.  All of the water below the dam would continue to flow away, while all the water above the dam would just continue to pile up and stand in a heap.  We all know that invisible dams don’t just fall out of the sky and by chance land right in the middle of a flooded Jordan River.  So there would be no way to mistake this miracle as a coincidence or believe that it was accomplished by the working of some human means.  The water of a river was literally standing still in one place and piling up in an unexplained heap – this could be nothing short of an extraordinary miracle performed by a mighty, living God.

The text tells us that the water piled up at the city of Adam, a city some 15-20 miles north of where the Israelites were crossing over.  The text also tells us that the priests stood firmly on dry ground and that all of Israel was able to pass over on dry ground.  So make sure you’re picturing the extraordinary thing that God does to allow the Israelites to enter into the promise land.  Before them was a 90 to 100 foot wide river running as far as they could see in both directions.  The water was running stronger and deeper than it would typically run because it was the time of the year in which the Jordan River floods.  There is no sign that conditions are changing but the priests are taking the Ark and walking right towards the water.  Then as the feet of the priests who are at the front of the Ark hit the water something amazing happens.  The water before them continues to run, but there is no longer any water running from upstream – not even a trickle.  The water runs away until all that remains is dry ground – ground dry where just moments before there had been a flooding river.  The priests walked right into the middle of this river bed and stood firmly there with the ark while 1000 yards on either side of them the nation of Israel is crossing over this dry river bed into their promised inheritance.  Several miles upstream the flooded Jordan River is piling up in a great heap.  But the weight of the water piling up never became too great for the mighty hand of God.  The push of the flooding river wasn’t strong enough to push the God of creation out of the way.  The presence of the living God among the people and interceding on their behalf held the waters off until every Israelite had passed over and had entered into the land which was their promised inheritance. 

In this particular incident God chose to make His name great by performing an incredible miracle.  Now let me be clear – this is just one of many, many, many stories from the past that the Bible records for us.  And there are several other stories that recount for us incredible miracles of God by which He made His name great.  But God only sometimes chooses to make His name great through extraordinary miracles.  Far more often God works to make His name great through other means – means like using you and me to bear faithful witness of who He is by consistently loving others and sharing with them the good news of salvation through Jesus.  But let me also make it clear that you and I have THE LIVING GOD among us.  He dwells in the hearts and lives of those who have trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior.  And because the living God is dwelling among us, He is able to and longs to make His name great among us.  Most of the time that He’ll chose to do that in little consistent ways.  But because the living God is dwelling in us it’s also possible that He might choose to do the extraordinary through us.

I know that what I’m about to say is much easier said then done.  I know that there are times in our lives when the weight and difficulty of our circumstances make it seem as if there is no hope.  But let me make it very clear this week – because the living God is among us, He can do extraordinary miracles among us.  There is never a reason to lose hope.  There is never a season in which we are to despair.  The living God is a mighty and powerful God who is cable of doing the unexplainable and the extraordinary in any circumstance – including those that seem most difficult.  Maybe God will rise up and do something miraculous in and through us.  He is certainly able.  Or maybe He’ll choose to make His name great simply through our small acts of daily obedience.  Whichever way He chooses, we need to make sure we are living with a purpose of helping make our God’s name great wherever we are.

Allow me to paint one more picture this week using some of the imagery we’ve seen in our text.  When God created the universe, the crowning masterpiece of His creation was man and woman.  The Bible tells us that man and woman were His masterpiece because they were they only thing created in God’s very image.  And the Bible tells us that we were created for the purpose of worshipping God by loving Him and relating to Him.  At creation man’s greatest possession was God, Himself.  But the Bible also tells us that sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s decision to try to become like God by eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – the only tree God had commanded them not to eat from.  After that happened, sin spread through all of creation like a virus so that there was nothing that was unaffected and untouched by sin.  The Bible says that since that day, every individual who has ever lived has at some point chosen to sin, and that the result of that sin is that every individual has been separated from their greatest possession and inheritance - God, Himself; and that God will one day punish sinful individuals by pouring out His wrath on them.  We find ourselves in a position very much like the Israelites – the inheritance we were created to take possession of is cut off by a river of God’s wrath that we cannot cross over.  No bridge we can create will get us over it and we cannot wade through it because it runs too deep and too strong.  But in an incredible act of mercy God, Himself, came to earth and took on flesh in the person of Jesus.  Jesus, the living God, came and dwelled in our midst.   And just like the presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant went straight into the waters of the Jordan, Jesus went straight towards the wrath of God.  Though He never sinned and was not deserving of God’s wrath, He went towards God wrath so that He might make a way for God’s people to once again take possession of their inheritance - God.  When Jesus entered into the flow of God’s wrath all of God’s wrath for all of humanity was heaped up and piled up.  But unlike the waters of the Jordan which after being heaped up did not begin to flow again until the people and the Ark had passed through, the wrath of God for the sins of humanity after being piled up and heaped up had to be poured out on someone.  God, because He is a just God, couldn’t just hold off the consequences for sin and act as if nothing had happened.  So the presence of God, in Jesus went down into the river bed of God’s wrath and the wrath that was being heaped up and piled up was let loose onto Jesus.  Jesus stood in the midst of God’s wrath for all of humanity and took the punishment that you and I and every other person deserved.  Because the wrath was poured out on Jesus a way was made for each of us to take possession of our inheritance.  We have a way now – dry ground to walk across if you will – because Jesus bore the wrath that we deserved and made a way for us to take possession once again of our God.

The great news is that today you can take possession of the greatest treasure there is!  You can take possession of that which was lost for me and you back at the Garden of Eden.  You can once again take possession of a relationship with God the Father.  But the only way you can do this is by faith, believing that Jesus has made a way for you.  You have to believe that Jesus endured the wrath of God that you deserved by dying on the cross in your place.  You have to make a decision to turn away from the sinful ways and decisions that you make each and every day.  And you have to surrender control of your life to Jesus and allow Him to be your Lord and Savior.  You can do that right now and you can have the assurance today that your sins will be forgiven and paid for and that there will never again be anything that keeps you separated from God.  All you have to do is talk to God through prayer and ask Him to do that for you.

Small Group Questions for Discussion

1. In Joshua 3:1-4 we see the instructions of the officers to the people to follow after the Ark of the Covenant.  Part of their instructions included the command to the people to keep a distance of 2000 cubits (approx. 1000 yards) between them and the Ark.  If the Ark of the Covenant represented the very precence of God among the Israelites, and we know that God's presence dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, what should our following look like today?

2. In Joshua 3:5 Joshua commanded the people to sanctify themselves because the Lord was going to do wonders among them.  If we believe today that God is able to do wonders among us do we need to sanctify ourselves?  Why or why not?  Hebrews. 12:1 points us back to nearly 20 specific examples of faith in ch. 11.  How can we apply Hebrews. 12:1 to our lives today?  If we are looking to Christ to empower our faith and to make us more holy, what are some differences others who don't know Christ as Savior and Lord should see in us?

3. In Joshua 3:6-13 we see God carrying out His plan - He exalted Joshua who followed God's plan exeptionally well, which in turn lead the people to glorify God with their obedience.  Are we glorifying God with our obedience to God through what we know Jesus has commanded us to do and what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do?  How are we doing this as a church?

4. In Joshua 3:14-17 we see a great picture of the power of God who created all the universe and every thing in it.  If we as believers truly believe that God can do this how should this impact how we follow him daily?