Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro
How often do we think about God’s promises?
Do we even know what God has promised to us a Christians?
In the book of Joshua, we see God, fulfilling a promise He made to the people of Israel.
To give them the land.
God has brought the Israelites out of slavery, out of the wilderness, and they now stand on the opposite bank of the promised land.
This promise was on the hearts and minds of the people.
How much though, did the day to day drudgery of living in the wilderness cause them set aside that promise, or perhaps even forget?
In Joshua 3 God is calling His people to move.
The time to prepare is over.
It is now time to move by faith into the promise that He has made to them.
To move through some significant obstacles as well.
Not alone, but by His leading a guidance.
Preparing to move by faith.
3:1-6
The people set out.
We begin chapter three with the people making a change of venue.
The people set out from Shittim and come to edge of the Jordan river.
A short 6-7 mile journey east.
We could guess that the people were likely wondering, how exactly are we going to cross this raging river?
It seems almost impossible to get enough people across in any sort or quick fashion.
How many boats would you need for an estimated million people to cross.
To put it in perspective, when the twin towers were attacked on 9/11/2001 the Island of Manhattan was closed down.
In a matter of 9 hours, 500,00 people were evacuated by boat from the island.
Now, these boats had farther to go, but they were all powered by motors and carried a significant number of people at a time.
The Jordan river was no small obstacle.
As a prominent feature in ancient Israel, the Jordan River is mentioned nearly 200 times in the bible.
Its fast flowing waters created a natural barrier between Canaan and the lands to the east.
Beginning at the foot of Mount Hermon, the Jordan travels about twenty-five miles before emptying into the Sea of Galilee.
It continues to flow from the southern end of the Sea and winds its way to the Dead Sea, about sixty-five miles away.
The famous river is surprisingly narrow only fifty to seventy-five feet wide in most places under normal flow.
The Jordan's name was derived from words meaning "to descend" or "go down."
The river drops significantly in elevation Mount Hermon stands 9,000 feet above sea level while the Dead Sea sits 1,400 feet below making it one of the fastest flowing rivers of its size.
Many ancient cultures thought rivers were sacred, but the Israelites saw the Jordan as a barrier: something to be crossed before moving forward in their calling.
It was an obstacle to overcome before moving forward in their calling.
This last barrier before entering the promised land was a significant one.
The river we see in this chapter was at its flood stage.
The Israelites stepped out in faith, trusting in God despite fear of the fast-flowing floodwaters.
The Israelites had reached a monumental moment: they could either trust in God's power and step into the dangerous river, or they could disobey God's commands to enter the Promised Land because of their fear.
God's people made their decision: They broke camp and prepared to cross.
Have you ever stood at the edge of a river at its peak flood stage?
Missoula - bitteroot - mclay bridge
The priests were to carry the ark of the covenant, a symbol of God's presence, to lead the way to the river.
If you visit Israel today, this once mighty river looks much different.
Before the 1960s, the Jordan looked much like it did at the time of Christ.
Its annual flow hovered around 1.3 billion cubic meters.
That is about half of the flow of the Columbia river, which is 2.4 billion
Theodore Varaklas, a tour guide based in Jerusalem comments in a Christianity Today article that
“It used to be a powerful river,” said “It was dangerous to cross.”
Today, the Jordan’s waters have been reduced to 20 to 30 million cubic meters—a mere trickle of their former flow.
The river is now so narrow that in some places you can hop from one bank to the other.
Back to our text -
The officers go through the camp though and relay the message to the people.
This is the call to move, by faith.
To move towards the promise that God had made.
To follow the Lord.
Following the Lord
The people are not called to move blindly.
They are told to follow the ark.
The ark was a symbol of God’s presence amongst His people.
The people had to trust that the priests were following God and doing all that He commanded.
They had to believe in the leaders that were appointed.
There was still danger at involved.
God is a loving, holy, just, and gracious God.
The people were to keep a distance of 1000 yards between themselves and the ark.
There are a few reasons for this, we know people have already been killed for touching the ark when they should not have.
Another is clear from the text, you don’t know where you are going, you haven’t been this way before
but God does.
In our walks a Christians, God calls us to take different paths does He not?
We are called to be in the world, but not of the world.
What that looks like for each individual person is different.
Which is why we must rely upon Him for guidance.
Some commentators also believe that this distance was so that the people could see the mighty work of God as he stopped the flow of the river.
No matter what, the purpose is clear, God will lead us where He wants us to go.
The question for us comes then are we willing to wait and watch for Him to move?
Our circumstances all too often overwhelm us, do we ever take the time to step back and look?
To step back and look at God’s work in our lives.
God calls His children to move by faith into His promises, but He doesn’t ask us to go blindly either.
We can move by the faith we have in Him.
As we will see later as well we can move by His word.
Another question we might ask is why do the Israelites break camp and move such a short distance to banks of the Jordan?
For many months, the people of Israel have been encamped at Shittim.
From there they have conquered the Ammonite kings Og and Sihon on the east side of the Jordan (where the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and part of Manasseh have settled).
At Shittim, they have heard Moses recite the Law to them (contained in Deuteronomy, which means "second law").
But now it is time to go.
They move only the six or seven miles from Shittim to a new encampment right on the banks of the Jordan River.
Here they stay for three days.
Why doesn’t God not just do it all at once?
In Shittim, they had settled in.
They had been there for months, perhaps years, and were getting accustomed to sedentary camp life.
To take possession of the Promised Land, they need to regain their pilgrim stance once more.
They need to be ready to move!
Joshua had already addressed this with the tribes that had recieved land on that side of the river.
These tribes had their allotment and were settling into the cities that had been taken.
When we're too comfortable with things in our lives -- or perhaps have accepted the compromises for too long -- it is difficult to make the changes necessary to re-align ourselves with God's will.
We need change and the uncertainty that goes with it to become re-dependent upon God.
And that is certainly what the people needed at this point.
That can be what we need at times as well.
What about our church?
What about the Drummond Community Church?
As a church, are we settled in?
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