I must confess. Recently, a week ago, I had to become employed again after a season of working from home. This adjustment to noise and chaos has me sprinting to keep abreast with my accountability group, ‘Project 365’: read-the-Bible-in-a-year. I have caught up about 80%, and this blog has burned in me to write. For days. But, catching up was more critical than sharing. In the process of delayed gratification, God’s Spirit swelled in me as He prepped me to write this piece. Joshua 3 is my new favourite piece of Holy Scripture. It reveals such a powerful part of God’s Character. Almost romantic too.
As I write this, I feel the unction of The Holy Spirit, almost like a lilt in my spirit jumping with joy. I believe God is spiritually seducing us with Joshua 3 as He reveals Himself miraculously. It is echoed in Matthew 23 vs 37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
GOD WANTS TO BE OUR SHIELD, BUT THERE IS PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHED.
Joshua 3 is the second parting of water that the Israelites experience. The first is the parting of the Red Sea that frees them from oppressive slavery in pagan Egypt. The second, the parting of the Jordan River, frees them from the wilderness and sets them into the Promised Land. But Joshua 3 tells a story far greater than the spiritual significance of the typologies of baptism- dying to self (slavery) and being free in God’s Spiritual Abundance through Christ into the Promised land of God’s Eternal Holy Kingdom of Love. No, Joshua 3 irresistibly makes us fall head-over-heels in love with God our Father.
Before God performs His Miracle of parting the Jordan river, He prepares Joshua the leader. This is significant. We are taught through this that God uses leadership to guide His children. It is also a stark warning to leadership to remember that they are dealing with Almighty God who makes it very clear throughout Joshua how He destroys evil leaders without mercy. Following this, Joshua prepares the priests to go before the people of Israel and prepare the way. To quote, ‘Enduring Word’, ‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it: Joshua didn’t send his Army Corps of Engineers first. Instead, he sent the priests who carried the ark of the covenant, which was the visible representation of God’s presence with the people. Joshua knew this was a spiritual problem.’
An indicator that God is teaching a spiritual principle in Joshua 3, Joshua instructs the Israelites to sanctify themselves after camping at the Jordan for three days. Doesn’t three days sound familiar somewhere else in God’s Holy Word? Messiah King Jesus resurrecting on the third day to lead the way to eternal salvation, crossing over from death to life, cannot be ignored in this text in Joshua 3. ‘Enduring Word’ teaches us, ‘That you may know the way by which you must go shows that the ark of the covenant led the way. Israel would accomplish this impossible task as they set their eyes upon God’s presence and followed only after His presence. Sanctify yourselves: Because this would be a spiritual battle, Joshua requires that the people have a spiritual preparation. Sanctifying yourselves means they were to separate themselves from common things to focus on the LORD and see that the LORD will do wonders among you.’ John 3 vs 2-7, ‘He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. No one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” In reply, Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again’.”‘
GOD IS TEACHING US THE PRINCIPLE OF BEING REBORN BY TRUSTING HIM.
To quote: ‘Dipped in the edge of the water: We usually want the river to be dry before we even make a step, but God was truly calling Israel to step out in faith.
To face such impossible challenges in our lives, we must look to Jesus, our Joshua. He always leads us.
a. Jesus is the fulfillment of the ark; He is Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
b. Jesus has cleared the way to victory over all things: Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross] (Colossians 2:15).
c. As we keep our eyes on and follow behind our victorious Jesus, the river of impossibility will dry up.’- https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/joshua-3/
As we journey into and through the Jordan with the Israelites, we must confront some profound truths in ourselves, as they must have. Imagine it- a raging river after forty years in a wilderness desert. The people must have felt dismayed and insecure, realising that hardship wasn’t over as they had shown by continuously grumbling about wishing to return to Egyptian slavery.
Getting to a Place of Spiritual Crossing
How do we break the “wilderness cycle” and get to the place of crossing?
‘1) Matter of the Heart
All throughout Scripture, we are commanded to love the Lord our God. And we are to worship Him only, to meditate on His Word day and night.
2) Matter of the Attitude
We all have been at points in our lives that instead of trusting God, we lose faith and sight of His promises. We become angry, assuming that our suffering is for nothing. But just as God was and still is faithful to Israel today, He is faithful to us.
3)A Matter of Humility
Repentance is foundational in experiencing a turnaround in our lives.
The Jordan River appears many times within the scriptures. It often refers to a freedom that comes after a long season of adversity and waiting. Crossing the Jordan is a turning point on the way to freedom. The waters of the Jordan represent freedom from oppression, breakthrough, and deliverance.‘– https://firmisrael.org/learn/crossing-jordan-river-spiritual-significance/
BUT, THIS IS WHERE THE STORY OF GOD PARTING THE JORDAN GETS AMAZING!!!
Before I close this blog with the BIG REVEAL of our Father’s wonderful nature of provision, protection, and profound purpose, let me share one of my metaphorical “Jordan Experiences”. For most of my life, I sought affirmation through others’ opinions, my job, and my God-given giftings. Like the Israelites, I stumbled through my symbolic desert of self-doubt. I wanted appraisal so that I had a reason to love myself. This self-hatred was birthed out of much-unresolved childhood trauma. God systematically had to help me die to self by allowing me to run into my mountain repeatedly. My mountain was riddled with perceptions of self that were defined by the world, and God needed to teach that the way the world defined me was a far cry from God’s definition of me, of us. God calls us king-sons/ queen-daughters, and I needed to get to my Red Sea by surrendering my slave mentality, addictions, identity, and arguments. God has brought me to my “Jordan”, where I am experiencing spiritual, psychological, and emotional freedom. My life is reborn into craving who God says I am regardless of what the world thinks of me. I pray that as I walk where God leads, the many battles that lay before me, and you, like the Israelites, God will deliver me from my enemies. Allowing His Victory to manifest in my life as I am willing to obey God because I love Him increasingly and want to make Him happy.
Have you ever travelled physically, emotionally, spiritually, or psychologically in a wilderness? We can all relate to becoming stuck in a particular area of our lives that sends us back into self-victimising thoughts and behaviours no matter what we do or how many times we “recalculate the route.” Or we may feel unfulfilled in our relationships, health, careers, or life’s purpose and destiny. We may have given up on the idea that anything will ever improve. As a result, we have decided to continue along the same well-travelled, established neuropathy of resentment, pessimism, cynicism, and failure.
I HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS!!!
Notice three things in Joshua 3 vs 17:
- God gave dry ground, not slushy ground
- God is in the middle, holding back the water
- God is waiting until ALL have passed.
We learn about God’s Character when we come and listen that, God goes before us, God is in the middle with us, and God completes the battle behind us. As we learned, this Jordan River crossing is a typology of Jesus and the work He does in us when we accept Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
Paul tells us in Phillipians 1 vs 6, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” The “work” Paul refers to is the work of new birth in Christ, which leads to salvation.
ISN”T THAT WONDERFUL NEWS? JESUS WANTS TO WORK IN US, THROUGH US, AND FOR US!!!
#Hayibo 