Joshua 3: Step Into the Water to Enter the Promise

Introduction

"I want to lose my footing in God." This is how the preacher opens this message from the "Living in the River" series. In previous weeks, the church looked at Ezekiel's river, where you eventually can no longer touch the bottom, and then at the streams God makes burst forth in the desert. This time, the focus is on Joshua and the crossing of the Jordan.

Israel went from slavery in Egypt to forty years of survival in the desert. On the banks of the Jordan, God moves them from a people of survivors to a people who settle into the promise. It is no longer only about leaving something behind, but about entering what God has prepared.

The message of Joshua 3 comes down to one picture: for the water to stop, the priests' feet had to touch the water. Consecrate yourself, keep your eyes on God's presence, then take the step: the breakthrough comes after obedience.

Outline of the message

1. The comfort of the familiar and the leap into the unknown

• The preacher starts with a question to ask your neighbor: what is the boldest thing you have ever done? The congregation answers: getting married, skydiving, changing careers. All of these decisions take courage.
• We love the familiar: the same restaurant, the same dish on the menu, the same chair at church every week. The familiar gives us the illusion of controlling what surrounds us.
• Yet the most defining moments of our lives are often those where we launch out and let go of control.
• As a teenager, on a trip to Switzerland with his family, he went tandem paragliding. His instructor handed him the controls for a while, until he pointed out the cliff that was very close. He quickly gave the controls back.
• In paragliding, you do not manipulate the rising air currents: you let them carry you. "Life in God's Spirit is often like that." You have to launch into the unknown to move toward God's plans.

2. Joshua 3: "you have not passed this way before"

• Chapters 3 and 4 of Joshua tell the story of this monumental moment of transition. The preacher encourages you to read them in full: "It takes five minutes. Don't tell me you don't have time, when we spend hours watching TV series."
• Joshua leaves Shittim with all Israel and goes to the Jordan (Joshua 3:1). The people must follow the ark of the covenant, carried by the priests, "for you have not passed this way before" (Joshua 3:4).
• Israel had seen God's power against Egypt, then met him at the foot of the mountain. But through disobedience and lack of faith, the people went around in circles for forty years.
• "Because we refuse to take God at his word, we go around in circles and repeat the same mistakes."
• To enter a new season, you need a new posture.

3. Inspiration, investigation, instruction, then action

• Inspiration. Joshua 1 is the "fridge magnet" chapter: be strong and courageous, meditate on the law day and night (Joshua 1:8-9). But the chapter begins with "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise" (Joshua 1:2). Succeeding Moses was anything but easy.
• Every transition means something must end so that something new can begin. The God who was with Moses will be with Joshua. The same God who was with John Wesley, Evan Roberts and the men and women of the revival lives in you today: "Their time is over. Now, arise."
• Investigation. Joshua sends spies into the land. He remembers the first time: twelve men had seen a magnificent land, but ten saw only the giants and felt "as grasshoppers" (Numbers 13:33). How you see the obstacles changes how you see yourself.
• Two men, Caleb and Joshua, had their eyes fixed on a God bigger than the giants. "History does not remember the names of those who say it is impossible. It remembers the names of those who rise up and say: our God is able."
• Instruction. Joshua 3 gives the steps: hearts surrendered to God, eyes fixed on his presence.
• But inspiration, investigation and instruction are not enough. At this crossroads of their destiny, they have to put their feet in the water.

4. Consecrate yourself: be set apart for God again

• "Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you" (Joshua 3:5). The Hebrew word means to be set apart for a specific task. The word "holy" comes from the same root, as do the sabbath set apart, the sanctuary, and Israel set apart to show the world the one true God.
• The preacher hears a call to holiness for this season: "Will you give yourself to me again and return to your first love?" (Revelation 2:4)
• Jesus is not only our Savior, he is our Lord. We were bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:20) and our life no longer belongs to us. "If it breaks his heart, I don't want it in my life. Why entertain myself with what nailed him to the cross?"
• God loves us as we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way. He loved Israel too much to leave them with a slave mentality.
• To repent is to return: to return to the original purpose, to come home. In the Jewish tradition, the month of Elul is a time of returning to God, when it is said that the king leaves his palace to meet his people in the fields. It is linked to the words of the Song of Solomon: "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (Song of Solomon 6:3).
• Then comes the Feast of Trumpets, where the shofar sounds like a call to battle and a wake-up call: "Shake off your apathy, it is time to rise." You cannot keep pressing the snooze button forever. Then the Day of Atonement reminds us that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
• "I am tired of going around the same mountain. I want to enter your promises." Once the people are ready on the inside, God acts on the outside.

5. The Jordan, the place of letting go

• In Scripture, rivers represent thresholds, passages from death to life. The name of the Jordan evokes the idea of going down: the river descends from Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea. From the same family of words come the ideas of humbling oneself and being brought low.
• God leads us to recognize that without him, it is impossible. Many baptism testimonies say so: "I had no other choice but to surrender."
• You hear people say that faith is just a crutch. "At least ours holds up." All around us, people lean on alcohol, drugs, sex, entertainment, money or power, and those crutches give way.
• At the Jordan, Israel lets go of the desert mentality, its past and the comfort of the familiar.
• The river is a place of transitions: Israel enters the promise there, Elisha succeeds Elijah (2 Kings 2) and, much later, Jesus is baptized there. This time, the heavens open, and the Father says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17).
• In the Bible, the waters often symbolize chaos. Right from the beginning, God brings order out of chaos.

6. God never does the same thing the same way twice

• Joshua probably hoped to relive the Red Sea: Moses raises his staff, the waters part and people cross on dry ground (Exodus 14). God answers: "No, Joshua. This time, you are going to get your feet wet."
• God does not change, but his methods do. "You are not a baby anymore. I no longer want to feed you with a teaspoon. I don't want babies, I want partners to build my kingdom."
• The Jordan overflows all its banks at harvest time (Joshua 3:15). Why not wait two months, when the water would be lower? You could sit on the riverbank and wait quietly.
• God chooses this exact moment: "I don't want you to trust in your own abilities. I want you to trust in me alone."

7. The breakthrough comes after obedience

• As soon as the feet of the priests carrying the ark touch the water, the waters coming down from above stop and rise up in a heap, very far away, near the city of Adam (Joshua 3:15-16).
• When God's presence goes before us, he opens a way where there is none. The impossible becomes possible, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. The stumbling block becomes the stepping stone to destiny.
• We often say: "Lord, bless me first, then I will be generous." Or: "Show your power in our meetings, then we will go and proclaim the Gospel." God answers: "Go, obey, and my signs and wonders will accompany you." God always responds to obedience, and he confirms his word with the miracles that accompany it (Mark 16:20).
• The ark of the covenant, made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, is for the preacher a picture of humanity covered with divinity. Jesus entered into our chaos, our barriers and our death.
• The preacher plays on English words: Jesus put a cross on everything we face so that we can cross over. He took our sin, our shame, every lie, every burden, every addiction, so that we no longer go around in circles in the desert.

8. The river is not the end, it is the beginning

• Moses' anointing was to bring Israel out of slavery. Joshua's anointing, whose Hebrew name is close to that of Jesus, is to bring them into fullness.
• "I don't want to live my Christian life on the edge, on the threshold. I want to enter into the fullness of everything Jesus has won for me."
• The final call is addressed to three kinds of people: those who need to consecrate themselves to God again, those who have never surrendered their life to Jesus as Lord and Savior, and those who have grown cold and need to return to their first love.
• It is not by our own strength: it is the Spirit of holiness who makes us holy. God calls his Church to holiness so that she reflects his glory.
• "Be courageous. Step into the water. Get your feet wet."

Key takeaways

• The familiar gives the illusion of control, but God often leads his children down a road they have "not passed before".
• Inspiration, investigation and instruction are useful, but they are not enough: you have to take the step.
• To consecrate yourself is to set yourself apart for God and acknowledge him as Lord, not only as Savior.
• The Jordan is a place of humility and letting go: God leads us to recognize that without him, it is impossible.
• The breakthrough comes after obedience. Jesus put a cross on what stood in our way so that we can cross over.

Personal application

1. Where in your life do you feel you are going around in circles around the same mountain?
2. In what area are you clinging to the familiar to stay in control?
3. What is God setting apart in your life right now, and what is he asking you to give up because it breaks his heart?
4. Are you waiting for God to act before you obey? What step of obedience can you take this week, before you see the water open?
5. How can you keep your eyes fixed on God's presence rather than on the height of the waters?

Verses cited

• Joshua 3
• Joshua 1:2-9
• Numbers 13:30-33
• 1 Corinthians 6:20
• Revelation 2:4
• Song of Solomon 6:3
• 2 Kings 2
• Matthew 3:16-17
• Exodus 14
• Mark 16:20

Frequently asked questions

Why did the priests have to step into the Jordan before the water stopped?

The river was overflowing, in the middle of harvest. The preacher stresses that God chose this moment so that his people would not count on their own strength but on him alone. The breakthrough comes after obedience, not before: it was when the priests' feet touched the water that the Jordan stopped.

What does "Sanctify yourselves" mean in Joshua 3:5?

The Hebrew word refers to the idea of being set apart for a specific task. It is the same root as the word "holy", as the sabbath set apart or as the sanctuary. To sanctify yourself is to consecrate yourself entirely to God, to acknowledge him not only as Savior but as Lord, and to return to him.

Why is the Jordan a place of transition in the Bible?

Rivers mark thresholds in Scripture. At the Jordan, Israel enters the promised land, Elisha succeeds Elijah and, much later, Jesus is baptized there when the heavens open. The name of the river evokes the idea of going down: God leads his people there to recognize that they cannot succeed without him.