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Good morning everyone. Good morning. Go ahead and open your Bibles while I get hooked up here to Joshua chapter 3. Joshua chapter 3. Joshua 3, starting in verse 9, we're going to go through a couple of chapters here, and we're not going to skip around, but we are going to skip some verses in between, and maybe we'll touch on a few of those as we go along. Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. Joshua said hereby you shall know that the Living God is among you and that he will without fail drive from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over you before you into the Jordan. Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man, and it shall come 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 from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon a heap. And it came to pass, when the people were moved from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as they bear that ark were coming to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam, that is, beside Zaretan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off, and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priest that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan. And all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. Let's go to chapter 4 and verse 4. Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had prepared of the children of Israel out of every tribe of man. And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then you shall answer them, that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over Jordan. The waters were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did so, as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them into the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve 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 to this day." Let's jump down to verse 18-24. 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, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned into their place, and flowed over all his banks as they did before. And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And these twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up from before us until we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you might fear the Lord your God forever." And that'll conclude our reading this morning. I'm gonna get up. I've got a little help this morning, so we'll be talking about this a little. We looked last time at Joshua chapter 3, actually part of this, and as I was looking at my notes, I realized we didn't even get to what was the most mentioned part in these two chapters. The Ark of the Covenant is mentioned over 20 times in these two chapters. Now, we all, I think, are aware that when you go to the Old Testament, God loves to show pictures of His Son, the Lord Jesus. And we see that with the sacrifices, we see that with the feasts, we see that with just many different things that He shows, and they are all pictures of His Son. And when we come to the tabernacle, I think many of us have been under teaching where they taught the tabernacle, even its coverings, all the way down to the nails that held them together, all different pictures and aspects of Christ and His work. And so when we come to Joshua, we should not be surprised when some of these things are lifted before us. Now we will keep in mind, because we're going to look at a little bit of detail on the Ark of the Covenant, not as much as some. We could spend, I've heard guys do three messages on the Ark of the Covenant and didn't complete it. And it was very, very well done, very interesting, very profitable, I feel like. We're not going to do that kind of study, but I would like to just remind us a little bit about it. Let's remember the context, because I think when we look at these people, the children of Israel, we don't want to forget the context of where we are historically for Israel. Everyone knows the story of the Passover. The Ten Commandments comes on at Easter every year, and most people have seen it, and they understand that Israel came out of bondage and went off into the wilderness. And we're in the wilderness for 40 years. But then, now we come to this time, and we're given the date. Did anybody notice what that date was? Because we're not gonna probably get into that much. Anybody notice what was significant about that date? Anybody wanna say it? I see some none. Yep. It's the day that they chose the land for the Passover. It's the day that they crossed the Jordan. This is significant, and maybe we'll look at that next time. That's mentioned in the last several verses of chapter 4. So it's right at the birthday, if you want to, the anniversary of their 40 years of leaving bondage, that they're now coming into the Promised Land, as the Lord promised them. Remember, the generation before had failed in so many ways, and we're going to have to look at those, because this box here, we know of as the Ark of the Covenant, has some reminders of those things, and they needed to be reminded. We need to be reminded. But this was a new generation, and they had been weaned, if you want to call it that, from some of the things that the previous generation had. They had learned. to eat manna, hadn't they? In fact, we don't hear of them complaining about the manna. This is like food. They were happy with it. They were happy to eat what the Lord provided for them. They had come to a place where they were ready to go into the promised land. Now as we're going through Joshua, of course what I want to do is Joshua is not just going into the promised land and the houses are empty. They have to take it, don't they? They have to fight. And so these pictures that we see in Joshua, surely we can learn from them. We can take those and with the New Testament as our guide, we can see how we're to win in warfare. But isn't it interesting that we spend the first four chapters building up, five chapters if we want to get into the next chapter, before they even go into battle. God still has to do some preparation for them. So we want to be aware of what that preparation is and if it's something that we need to be doing. Some of the things we looked at last time is God does not expect blind faith with no evidence. I don't know if you remember that. He gives us plenty of evidence. And when you grab hold of that evidence, He'll give you more evidence. But He's never a God that says just believe and doesn't give any evidence that He works or that He exists. And we looked into that a little bit. We saw that the Lord sometimes leads us to places that would not be our choosing. In fact, that's part of the Christian life, is that we're going to be led into places that are not our choosing. Even sometimes if we know the outcome, which is going to be good, we'd say, Lord, isn't there a different way, an easier way? But He says, no, this is the way I need for you to go. We looked at other events that took place at Jordan because they are significant. We looked at Elijah and Elisha at Jordan as Elijah was about to be taken to heaven. We saw John the baptizer and the Lord Jesus Himself at Jordan. And then we looked at some of the preparations as we're looking at this morning. Now, as I mentioned, the Holy Spirit, as He dictated this portion of Scripture, spends a lot of time talking about this box, the Ark of the Covenant. And so many of you are aware of what it is, and maybe there's some of you that only know about it from movies, or maybe a movie. And although they give you a little bit of truth, it really isn't the whole truth, is it? In the Ark, there were three items. And I'm not going to ask anybody to name them necessarily, but by way of nod, how many people know what the three items were? Okay. I'm getting smiles, but not nods. Okay. Okay. Thanks, Ross. They had the manna. They had a pot of manna in them, didn't they? Now, as I mention these things, why would God choose these things to put in there? because there's a reason for them. They had the rod. In fact, I've got the little thing to look at, so let's do it. Here's your pot of manna. And then they had the rod that budded. Aaron's rod that budded. And then what were the last two things? It was one thing, really, but it was two tablets. Tablets of the Ten Commandments, right? And there's something significant about this. When I was down in, well, I won't even say where, I was at a Christian thing one time, and they were talking about the Ark of the Covenant, and they said that it had the broken tablets in it. And that's not the case at all. That would ruin a picture that we're about to look at. Right? So it's the unbroken tablets, because there were broken tablets, right? Remember Moses came down the first time with the Law, And the ink hadn't dried, as they say. They were already checking off the ones they could break. And so, he smashed them in his anger. And he had to go back up, and God gave them back, and every word was the same on them. Right? The law didn't change. The standard didn't change, because God's standard does not change, despite if we're able to keep it or not. Whether we like it or not, it stays the same. So we have these three things. in the Ark. And as I'm thinking of these people, because now let's imagine what's going on here. They've come to this river and surely there's a little bit of just gawking, if nothing else. This is something no people have ever seen. Very few people have ever seen in history. The waters divide physics and separate it. as the feet of these priests stepped into the water and walked out into the middle. Now how long do you suppose it would take for two million people to walk by? Not in a row with everything handy, but with wagons and livestock and children running off in different directions. How long do you think that would take? It'd take a while. So these priests had to stand there this entire time. Now, this box, if you pick it up, was surprisingly heavy. And it's quite a bit smaller. So you can imagine just physically what that must have been like to have to stand there all day. I think of like, you see these guards at the Queen's Palace and how they have to stand there for so long. That takes a little bit of discipline. I couldn't do it. I know some of the young people I've seen would fail miserably. They couldn't stand still that long at all. They were able to stand and hold this ark up as all the people passed by. And as they passed by, you know, the verse that comes to my mind, although it's not necessarily appropriate, but it still comes to mind, is it nothing to you, all you that pass by. Because as they walked by this ark, surely they knew what was in it. They were taught well. But they wouldn't be able to see it. They didn't see it like we see it because it had coverings over it, right? These things were covered before they were lifted up and carried, but it was there, and they were aware of what the box was like. It had been described to them, and they were told what was in it. So perhaps they were... Surely some of the faithful of the Israelites, as they walked by, would be reminded and think of what these things meant to them, what it told them about God. So we have manna, and what does manna tell us about? They would be reminded that God had provided everything they needed. Now, in Sunday school, I've always talked about the wilderness and, you know, I thought the wilderness was woods, you know, trees. So it took me a while to figure out. Wilderness is barren landscape. It offers nothing. If it is, it's a few sprouts of dry cactus-like grass. It's not worth anything. And if you can get a couple drops of water, it doesn't taste very good and not very fulfilling. Nothing. take care of you there. So they were reminded that God provided for them every way, every step of the way. And of course, I'm going to look at all three of these and we're going to go back and see how this applies to us as well. And we looked last time. You remember the people, they didn't care for God's food in the original generation, right? Because they complained because they didn't get the foods of Egypt. And we looked at the foods of Egypt a little and the foods that are mentioned in Canaan. But in between, they had to have the manna. That's all they had. Then we have the budding rod. They would be reminded of probably the peak of the rebellion of that previous generation. It reached its peak, its zenith under Korra because there were a lot of rules on how you had to carry the tabernacle. And Korra's job actually was to carry the ark, carry the furniture. but they couldn't carry it until someone else went in and covered it first. They weren't allowed to look at it or touch it. Now, I don't know his exact motives, but I can't help but wonder if he just felt like, well, who do they think they are that they get to go in there and look at all this pretty stuff, and then they have, I'm down here, so I can't look at it. They've gotta cover it first. You know, I can just see human nature working that way. Doesn't say that necessarily, but we do get the gist of it. He does pretty much tell Moses and Aaron, who do you think you guys are that we're so much less than you? And so they rebelled against God's God's order, and that's something they had to understand before they could proceed into Canaan, isn't it? We have to understand God's order. Order was something I had a hard time grasping when I was younger. It's not that I didn't understand it mentally, I just didn't like it. And maybe some of you are like that. We don't like authority. We don't like having someone we have to answer to, because who says they're better than me? Perhaps I'm smarter than that person, and yet they're my boss. Well, God's order doesn't put things in order according to the same way we do. And they had a problem with it. So we know the story. God said, I'll tell you what we're going to do. Moses, you have them take a rod from each tribe. We're going to put it in the tabernacle. And the next morning they brought out one. All the rest were just rods. One came out and it not only budded, it brought forth leaves and blossoms and almonds. It was in its pure mature state. Right? Not touching the ground. So we could say, really, essentially, it was alive. We could say, so what a perfect picture of, would you agree it's a picture of resurrection? So we see this is important when we get to the New Testament because it is foundational for the priesthood that we are a part of and that Christ is the head of. It is based on resurrection power. There has to be a resurrection before the priesthood could be established. And it was done here. It was confirmed with this budding rod. And then we have the law. When I think of the law, I think of God's unbending standard. It's why it's written on stone. It wasn't written on paper that's floppy. It's a picture in and of itself. It does not bend. In fact, what does it do? It breaks the people who try and live under it. The law was to be kept on pain of death. And when you read it, it's amazing how many different things has the punishment death. And to our modern ears, we hear them and think, wow, that seems pretty extreme to have death for disobeying your parents. That seems pretty extreme to have death for adultery. And we could go on. But God said, and he said, this is my standard. This is what I think of those sins. They require death. And that's because of his character, right? His character cannot accept less. He only can accept perfection. Now, I'm looking out at all of you, and a lot of you are pretty good looking, and seem pretty nice, but you're not perfect. I'm not a one of you, and me either. So if we're going to go by God's standard, we're in trouble. Fortunately, I think most, if not all, of us here understand that He has provided a remedy for that. But that's what the law was to teach. And you know, I always go back to the Garden of Eden. Why did God not provide a Savior right then? Why could Seth have not been the Savior? It would have fixed it right then. We got to skip several thousand years of human history and everything would have gone right into perfection. Well, I believe it's because we had to be taught how bad sin was. And so God said, OK, I'm going to let this play out and I'm going to let, you know, a lot of bad things are going to happen because that's what happens when I give sinful people choice. And you're going to see things that are going to make some people say, where was God in this? And God's going to say, I told you not to do this in the first place. I'm letting you have what you asked for. So, but then he gives the law because people, they would do bad things, but they still didn't realize because they didn't have a standard to compare it by. They could, you know, rationalize and say it wasn't that bad. So he said, okay, here it is. Here's my standard. And of course, when Israel went in under that, it was almost, you gotta wonder if they really thought this through, don't you? Moses says, I'm gonna give you all of God's commandments here. And they said, before they even thought it through, they said, everything he says, we will do. Wow, I want to read the fine print before I agree to that. How about you? Right? And that's the problem. That again shows human nature. Just, sure, it's not that hard. Give us what you got. We'll do it. Things will be fine. So that's what the law brought before them when they thought of these unbroken tablets in the ark. Maybe these things came to mind. But we would be really bad if we didn't think of the mercy seat, wouldn't we? This is what this is called. Because without the mercy seat, we'd be in trouble. In Exodus 25-22, where it talks about the making of the ark and the mercy seat, it says, And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of testimony. This is the place where God was going to meet with them. This was essentially His throne on earth. Once He came into relationship with Israel, this was His throne on earth. That's why it's called a seat. And it's actually not a literal translation. A translation pretty much just means covering. But I feel like the translators really... This is one case I really feel like they got a good hold of the intent, if not the exact literal translation. Don't you like mercy seat a lot better than covering? I sure do, because it points us to God's mercy, because without His mercy, these right here, the law are going to break us. So the question is, is how could they logically be allowed to live? Well, it comes down to this. What was it on the mercy seat that really... In fact, I was really glad we sang these two songs this morning, because that's really what it comes down to. Everybody remember the topics of the songs? The power and the blood? The other one is about blood as well. The blood that had to be placed on the mercy seat. See, according to the law, God made a provision, and the provision was, well, there was two givings of the law, if you want to get into that. Moses came down the first time, they broke it. The second time he comes in, there's been a lot more things added to help us as far as the sacrifices and that sort of thing. God knew we couldn't keep it. So he said, I'm going to make a provision for you, and it's going to take an innocent victim, a clean victim, one that is perfect in my eyes, at least in picture, and he's going to have to die in your place. Now, I remember as a child, this made sense to me. I'd get spankings from that man right there that's joining us today. And Matt can remember him, too. We would gladly let someone take our place, wouldn't we? And I would have understood. I've been very thankful to that person. Right? As a child, that's why I do believe children can get saved at a young age. I think they understand the idea of substitution. They understand they've done wrong. I talk to Abigail and Gwen sometimes when we're not in the heat of the moment and when we've had time to reflect, and they'll agree, yes, they were wrong. They shouldn't have done that. And they agree that, yes, whatever the punishment was was probably right. You don't have to be a genius to understand these concepts. They're simple. And so these people would have understood that too. They had to have a substitution, and that substitution had to die, because that was what the law demanded. That's what God's standard demanded, was death. So He set forth the creatures that would be used for this, and once a year, only once a year, would the blood be applied to this top here. Now, pardon me. Now we would... Remember that there was one time that they removed that blood. If you go to 2 Samuel chapter 6, and you don't have to go there, there's a story there, I will read it, 1 Samuel chapter 6 verse 19, And he smote the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked unto the ark of the Lord. He even smote of the people fifty thousand, and threescore, and ten men. Do we know why they did that? See in the movie I was talking about, right, they take the cover off at the end too. Isn't that, we're just curious, we gotta know what's in there. I just wanna see it for myself. I think that's what these, I just gotta look in, just gotta take a peek and see what's in there. And they were slain. Have we put together the math here in your head why that happened? What was this here for? Yeah, it was a covering. It was a mercy seat, it was protection. When God looked down at the blood, He was able to look on the people in grace. When He looked down on the unbroken tablets of the law, He had to judge. We don't want to remove the mercy seat. And we're going to get into what that means if you haven't already gotten there. That's what these people did. They removed the mercy seat. They got to deal with judgment. This shouldn't be a surprise because when you come to Romans, it says, because the law worketh wrath. Second Corinthians 3, we read, it is a ministration of death. So that's why I'm always, I'm a little hesitant to put the Ten Commandments in my front yard. I've said before, I think a court's a really good place for them though. I think when someone's walking into the stand before a judge, seeing God's standard is a, I think that's a pretty good thing. Not that I get to make those rules, but that's just my thoughts on it. how thankful we are that we have the mercy seat. Now, we know with these pictures I've already mentioned up front, this ark, this box, is a picture of Christ, because it had within its heart the law. Didn't it know what Christ had within His heart? We read in the Psalms, I hid your law within my heart, and I think it's a Messianic psalm. It's the unbroken law, by the way. Because that's what I was saying. It can't be the broken tablets in here because then it couldn't be a picture of Christ, could it? He had the unbroken law. There was only one man that actually lived up to the standards that God set. Never. Not a small one. He didn't do anything wrong. And not only that, because see, that's the problem with when we make these rules. And Paul could have told you this. He says, you know, I was pretty good at keeping the law. But see, the law gets you up to maybe zero. Maybe we could agree on that. I'm not even sure I'd go that far. But let's just pretend that if you kept every part of the law, that gets you back up to zero. That doesn't get you a bonus. You don't have policemen pulling you over on the street and giving you money because you were doing the speed limit, do you? No, you're following the law. You don't get rewarded for keeping the law. So you could never get blessing from keeping the law. The only way you could get blessing is through God's grace. And that grace comes through Christ. It's a picture of Christ, the unbroken. He is the bread, isn't He? The bread from heaven that we looked in that chapter this morning in John chapter 6. And He is our sustenance, right? We eat our meals, but spiritually, if you're not eating the bread of life, if you're not reading the Word regularly, you'd have a hard time convincing me you're spiritually nourishing yourself. right? How can you be? So I always pretend, you know, if I could have glasses that you could put on and you could just see, it would strip away all the temporal stuff, things that are temporary, and you could just see the eternal. What would I see when I look out on this audience? Would I see a bunch of healthy, people that have been in the Word and exercising and taking care of themselves, just like we do with our physical bodies, or when I look out and see a bunch of scrawny people that are barely able to get up and go, that's what I think it is when we're supposed to have our spiritual sustenance from the Bread of Life. And Christ is the Word, so it's a combination of feeding upon Christ and feeding upon the Word. The Law. Now, I've heard just recently, within the last two weeks, and I've heard it many times, you hear it on TV or whatever you maybe come across, it's not uncommon to hear people mocking the Word of God. It's pretty prevalent. But one of the topics I've heard, and this is one I've heard in the last two weeks, was I heard some guys talking about how, isn't it interesting that Christianity ignores the Old Testament? Right? Because they see the grace in the New Testament, but they don't understand, how come you're not outstoning people for being rebellious? You know? And they're doing it in a mocking way. And see, we understand, don't we? There's no contradiction. Did you know you're saved by the law? Okay, I see some no's. And you're right in a sense, but think about it. You are saved by the law, you just weren't saved by your keeping of it. You're saved by Christ's keeping of it. He kept the law, all the way to offering the offering that was needed for you. So, yes, you're right, you're not saved by your keeping of the law, but you are saved by Christ's keeping of the law. And that's the answer to their question that they have, that the Old Testament contradicts the New, because we're told in the New Testament, and this is one of my favorite verses, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. to everyone that believeth. And I always like to think about this. I break it down because there's modifiers. It's not just Christ is the end of the law, stop. No, the law still has a purpose to this day. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. In other words, we no longer have to try and keep a set of rules for righteousness. And Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to a certain set of people, to everyone that believes. So the law is still a very valuable thing. That's why I think a court is a great place for one. A non-believer, an unbeliever going into court, seeing the law, hopefully it will convict him with the Spirit of God and lay this down on him. You've broken God's law. That's a good purpose for it. But we don't go into God's presence by keeping the law. We read in Hebrews, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the law of God. Do we read that? No. having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." The mercy seat, right? Amen. And that's what we come to next. Christ is the mercy seat. Twice in the New Testament, we see the word. In Hebrews 9.5, which I won't read, it is translated, mercy seat. In Romans 3.25, we read, "...whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation." Talking about the Lord, Jesus. Whom God hath set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood. And that word propitiation is the exact same word that's translated mercy seat in Hebrew. So we could read it that way. Whom God hath set forth a mercy seat through faith in His blood. to declare His righteousness for the remissions of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare His righteousness is added to it, you understand. Because wouldn't the enemy have a wonderful time if God figured out a way to let us in and somehow He did not maintain His righteousness? It would allow the enemy to go in and take over. So what a wonderful thing that God figured out a way to bring righteousness together with mercy. Not something we would have come up with. In fact, that's another great verse we read there in the Psalms, that mercy and truth have met, righteousness and peace have kissed. Isn't it a wonderful thing? He's brought the two together. We wouldn't have figured out how to do it, but what a beautiful thing. That's why he used that metaphor of kissing. So to you who claim your own righteousness, and I don't, hopefully there's no one like that here today, but you know, I've been interested to find how many people listen to the messages here, just in case you did not know that. I come across several that listen to the messages that we're recording. So especially for you brothers that speak, it's a good thing to remember that. But so for anybody who would be listening, who thinks I'm not that bad, In fact, I do pretty good. As Ross likes to say, I sometimes mow over into the other guy's yard, right? I'm so good I even help him out mowing his yard. Maybe you even go wash his car for him. I'd be surprised if you did that. Maybe you do. No. No? But some people say, well, I do other things. give money to the poor. So when you talk to them, they don't want to talk about God. They certainly don't want to talk about blood and sacrifice. They're like, you know, God, here's what I hear sometimes. God and I, we've got an understanding, you know, and that's between Him and me, so just step back. And I've heard that many times. I have nothing to worry about. God and I, we've talked and we're okay. Well, they may have been done the talking, but they haven't been done the listening is the problem, right? Because God does not make that deal with anyone. What they're essentially doing, and what you're essentially doing if you do that, is removing the mercy seat. And what happened to those people that looked in, they looked in, they decided they didn't need the mercy seat, they were all destroyed. And I would suggest that anybody who does that under today's dispensation will have it much worse than they did. So having looked at the ark, I do want to look at those who are carrying it. Now as the Israelites are passing by, and they look at the ark, and they notice something else, and that's, who was holding it up? They didn't just choose whoever was the strongest in the camp, which might seem like a pretty practical way to go about it. They had to be priests, right? Or at least in these chapters, it especially brings forth to us that the priests are the ones holding this ark up. And how did the priesthood come back? That goes right back to what I was talking about with the rod here. The priesthood was confirmed, verified, established, if you want to call it that. Not quite, but it was certainly confirmed by the rod that budded. It was resurrection that set them forth. God said, this is my seal of approval. It's the same for us. We've been chosen by resurrection, haven't we? Now, as we get into the next chapter, which we won't have time today at all to get into, they're stepping off into resurrection ground. That's what we're looking at as we approach Jericho and the Promised Land. And it doesn't mean, after I die, this is what's going to happen at all. This is a state of the believer here on earth that we can live in now as we step into this realm where battle takes place. And it's not battle with swords, it's battle of the mind. And hopefully we'll get to look at that in future sessions on this. So we have these guys, the priests, holding it. Isn't it a wonderful thing? That's what priests are for, isn't it? Aren't we to lift up, not the Ark, but Christ. That is our job. Do you remember what happened? The other Ark story that always comes to mind is Uzzah, isn't it? In 2 Samuel chapter 6, the Ark had been taken by the Philistines so many years before, and the Philistines didn't have much success with it, it started turning their gods over and that scared them. So they put it on a cart, a new cart we're told, and tied up some cattle to it and sent it on its way and it came back and then it sat there for a while. Well David decides to bring it back to Jerusalem and in doing so, they take it out of this house and two of the sons from that house, Ezra and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, they put it on a new cart, we read. Now, are you picking up the new cart thing? Where did they get that idea? The only place I find a new cart is twice, is there, and is when the Philistines did it. So they thought, well, Philistines did it, and they got it to us successfully, maybe we'll do the same. That thing's awful heavy anyway, so let's put it on this new cart, and they're going along, and what happens? It stumbles, so Uzzah reaches forth to touch it, and he dies. Lifting up Christ is priestly work. It's certainly not to be done by cattle. Right? That was what they were being taught then, but it also teaches us that we're to have a respect for His holiness, His righteousness, and His demands. It's a privilege and a responsibility. We read that it was a burden is what it's called actually in Numbers. Sometimes maybe it is a burden. But it was certainly a privilege. They didn't see it that way. Korah didn't. Now I'll just mention quickly, I'm going to have to kind of jump over it, because in that line of thought, if we went back to Joshua 3, verse 3, it talks about, in verse 4, it talks about that they had to have 2,000 cubits between themselves and the ark. That's nearly a half mile. Couldn't come any closer than that. I would just suggest to you that there are some practical reasons. I can see if you have two or three million people, if it's right in amongst the people, they couldn't see the ark. And I think the ark, especially in these two chapters, is to be displayed and seen. Christ lifted up. I do find it interesting that if you know anything about Jewish law, which I don't much, but I just came across this, is they use that as the establishment of their Sabbath day's journey. 2,000 cubits. And of course, one brother I was listening to as I was studying this pointed out, he says, they did like they so often do with God's rules. They flipped it over, didn't they? Because in Joshua, you can get this close to it. But by the time you come to the Pharisees, it's like, how far can we go away from it? They flipped it over completely. It bothered me a little, though, because I want to see what does the New Testament teach us about this, because God does want us to be close, doesn't He? I think He's trying to teach us reverence, right? Reverence. Love, closeness, not familiarity. You know, that's why we don't talk about Jesus all the time. We talk about the Lord, or Christ. We use the title of respect and reverence for Him. One of my favorite verses is in Hebrews when He talks about He's not ashamed to call us brethren. Wow, that's humbling and that's awesome, but I'm not going to reciprocate. I appreciate that He has condescended to do that, but He will always just be Lord Christ, or at least as far as I know He will be. So we've got to beware of becoming too familiar with holy things. God wants us close. The New Testament does teach us that. Even in the Psalms, it says, it's good for me to draw near to God. In Hebrews, again, it says, let us draw near with a true heart of full assurance of faith. And then even in 1 John, verse 1, where John talks about handling the word of life. These are wonderful things. But there's always this aspect of reverence, isn't there? So, we'll go to verse 14 of chapter 3. It came to pass when the people were moved from their tents to Passover Jordan, and the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant went before the people. They would come to Jordan, and down in verse 16, the waters came down from above and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam. I just find it interesting here, from the city Adam. It takes us right back to Adam, right? Where does sin, because this is what this is a picture of. It's a picture of Christ stepping in and taking care of sin for us. And how far did He take care of it? all the way back to Adam. Right? It's efficient enough, sufficient enough to take care of all sin of all time. So in passing, I just wanted to mention that. In chapter 4, Israel is on the other shore now, and they're looking back. And the instructions that Joshua gives at this point don't take place until after they've crossed over. So I'll leave you to think on that. But what does he tell them to do? I want to take 12 fit men. I want to go in there and pick up a stone out of the bed of the river." Now think about this. Again, as these people are seeing this miracle, I can only imagine that they were lined up and down just staring. I would have been just mesmerized by the water, wondering how this worked. Maybe they didn't think that way back then. Maybe it was a true reverence for God and His work, which is probably a much better way of approaching it, but as they're looking, these men would go in and they would have noticed, wouldn't they, that each man was chosen from their tribe. It's kind of like when you watch the Olympics, right? Perhaps you pay attention to which ones are from your country of origin. and have you root for them that way. But you understand that's a representative for you. And I think these people were smart enough to figure that out before it was even explained to them. A guy got up, he was picked out of their tribe, and he went down and he picked up a rock. And we're not talking about a pebble. I assume it was a fairly hefty rock because they're told to carry it on their shoulder. And then they carry it back to Gilgal. And they're gonna set up a pillar almost, if you want to call it that, a pile of rocks there. And there's something else that happens in verse 9. After they take these stones out, we read that Joshua sets up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan. I'm going to kind of skip to the chase. What is this picture to us? The waters of Jordan, you've heard the songs, they're a picture of death. But it's not death like going in the grave, it's death as in separation. I remember teaching Sunday school several years ago, and one of the girls asked the question, and I just always appreciated it when they asked questions that they thought through, rather than just for any other reason. And her question was, we were talking about Adam and Eve, and the day that you shall eat of this, thou shalt surely die. So her question is, why didn't they die that day? Did God not give them the whole truth? She said, no. You've got to define your terms. How do you define death? We tend to define it by going into the grave, and that is an actual definition. But if you go in your dictionary, you'll notice words have more than one definition sometimes. And death is separation. And in that sense, they died that day. They were separated from God. The first words, I believe, of God in the New Testament are words of seeking, or in the Old Testament. The first words in the Bible after the fall were words of Him seeking out man. So these rocks set into this place of death, and then the ones taken out of the place of death, those were representatives of them as well, right? Are you following me? They took the ones out of the riverbed. Each one had a representative to take them, and they took them and set them up in a camp. Maybe they thought about that, and they thought, I think those rocks were never seen before by human eyes, very likely, covered by water. The waters pulled back as the ark stood in the middle. These rocks taken out and set it up as a pillar, something to remember, a remembrance off in their camp. But then they also took another one and set them back down in there to be covered up forever. It's a picture of our new life, but it's also a picture of our death. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. That's what we have there. There's my old self, buried. My new self, ready for resurrection, ready for battle, in the context of what we're looking at. And there's just one other thing, there's several things I'd like to say, but I just want to, as we close, maybe think about this. I like the fact that they set up this pillar for remembrance. During a men's Bible study, this came up in my mind a couple weeks ago. There's several times in the Bible that God has His people set up things for remembrance. And several times He says, so that when your children ask you, you will be able to tell them this. And I think about, we do similar things, did you know that? You ever watch the kids when we're passing out the plate and the cup? Because I often pass it out and I see them and they, I mean, coloring or whatever they're doing so nicely and quietly so often, but when that cup and that plate goes around, they stop, they're watching. What is going on? And they, I might have asked them, what's that about? That's the idea here. We're building something, we're doing something in such a way that it makes people want to know why we do it. Right? We're building altars, so to speak. And that's a wonderful thing. We need to be not only building the altars, we need to be, and I know he doesn't use the word altar here, I'm using a larger context here. He also describes the Passover that way. So that when your children see this meal and how you eat it, you will be pointed back to this and you can explain it to them. He knows we need pictures, doesn't he? That's why he gave us this box. It's not Christ. We're told in Jeremiah chapter 3 that there's a day coming when you're not going to even think about the ark. Because Jerusalem will be my throne. But right now I'm going to use it as a picture to point people to me because I know you're visual and you need things. And that's the same with our remembrance meeting, that's the same with baptism, two ordinances we've been given. But hopefully our lives also are lived in such a way that people look, and not just our children, hopefully our children, but others will say, hey, what meaning are these things? So let's go ahead and close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for this time to just look through some of your word this morning. We ask your blessing on it. We ask that you would, by your spirit, help those things which each of us need would stay in our minds, in our hearts and grow there and help us to grow, to mature by them. We thank you for the opportunity to come so often and remember your Son and think of that work that He's done. We are always amazed to see Him pictured throughout the Old Testament. It just reminds us how much you love Him and how much He is preeminent in all things. There's not a page you can turn to without seeing the Lord Jesus on them. So we just give you thanks for that this morning. We ask also that you would just help us to grow practically through these things, that they're not just interesting information. So we just give you thanks for your faithfulness. We thank you for your blessings and your mercies. I ask that you'd be with us as we go our separate ways now. And we ask all these blessings in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Joshua Part 4
설교 아이디( ID) | 7291819382510 |
기간 | 48:13 |
날짜 | |
카테고리 | 일요일 예배 |
성경 본문 | 여호수아 3:9 |
언어 | 영어 |