Crossing the Jordan on Dry Ground — What Most People Miss

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. And good afternoon. It's good to have everybody here in the studio. And again, we want to welcome our television listeners. We want to do with you as we do with our class people, and that is encourage that you take your Bible and follow right along with these references, because what I say doesn't mean anything, but it's only as you see what the Word of God says. Now, we are approaching the end of our second year of this program, and as we did last year when we approached the end of the year, we emphasized a month of letter writing. Now, when I say, write to us, and we want to hear from you, we're not asking for money. Don't apologize and write and say, well, I can't afford, and that's not what we're looking for. We just want to hear if you're enjoying the program, where you're coming from, how far we're reaching. So, for the next three or four programs, I'm going to announce every time that this is Letter Writing Month. We want to hear from everyone out there in the television audience. Secondly, we've got to take a moment and remind you that our first twelve programs are now available in booklet form. And again, you can have it without any cost. Just simply write to us or call us, and we'll be more than happy to send you a copy or as many as you feel you can use. We have several now that are using them in a study situation with classes. So, if you need more than one, just simply tell us how many you need. Also remember, of course, that all the programs from Genesis 1 all the way up to the present are available on the videotape. And again, we just ask that you write to us or call us, and my little wife over here will just be more than happy to fill your orders. All right, now then, let's get back and pick up where we left off in our last program, which for those of us in the studio, of course, was about a month ago now. But come into Joshua chapter 3, and you'll remember we closed our last program with Rahab and how her little bit of faith was sufficient and that God recognized that faith. And I don't know how many were able to catch it, but we closed the program with the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1. And right down there in the beginning of the genealogy, there's Rahab in the very family line of the Messiah. Now, you want to remember that Rahab was one of the four women listed in that genealogy, only four. And I've always said when we teach Matthew, we'll be coming to it, that those are the four women that I suppose most people would say, I don't want them in my family tree. But there they are, and I'll explain that more in detail when we get to Matthew someday. So now then, if you'll come to Joshua chapter 3, remember that Israel is coming in from the east side of the Jordan River. Now again, I think maybe I should draw my makeshift map. I think that people can really appreciate even that more than a regular professional map in order that we can just clarify a few things. Here's the Sea of Galilee, of course, and the Jordan River. And Jericho sits right off the northern tip of the Dead Sea. And so Israel has come out of the wilderness experience through Moab, and there they are on the east side of Jordan. And the river, of course, coming down from the north, and it's springtime, and so the river is in flood stage. It's probably just a mile, two, three miles wide. Because ordinarily, you know, the Jordan River isn't that big. Those of us in Oklahoma would probably call it a creek. It's just a serpentine little river, not all that wide. But at flood time, it could be a mile, two, even three miles wide. Now this is what Israel is up against. They're up against the Jordan River in the spring at flood time. And just on the other side, about five miles in from the river, will be the city of Jericho. And, of course, you all know the story of Joshua and Jericho. But now here in chapter 3, I want you to see how things are changing a little bit. Remember when they came out of Egypt, the first thing that came on the scene to lead the children of Israel was the cloud or the pillar of fire. Remember that? And throughout that whole 40 years now of their wilderness journeys there in the Sinai, that cloud and the pillar of fire has been evident. That was their leading force. But now when you get here, something else happens. It isn't the cloud that leads them into the river, but now it's the Ark of the Covenant being carried by the priests. All right, let's pick up the account then in Joshua chapter 3 that Joshua rose early in the morning, and he removed Jedom and came to Jordan. He and all the children of Israel. Now, again, I'm going to emphasize so that you don't forget, we're not talking about a few thousand. We're talking about a few million. And I don't want you to lose that concept of this great multitude of people plus all of their livestock plus a great number of hangers-on, which are called the mixed multitude in the Scripture. And verse 2, It came to pass that after three days that the officers went through the host. Now, three days keeps popping up, doesn't it? And whenever you see that three days, there's just an insinuation, of course, of the three days that Christ was in the tomb. Verse 3, They commanded the people, saying, When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you leave your place and go after it. Now, that's going to be the sign of their leadership, the Ark of the Covenant. Now, remember from our tabernacle study, that's why we had to stop there a few weeks ago, the Ark of the Covenant, you remember, was that little box overlaid with gold in which were the tables of the Ten Commandments, a sampling of the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. By the way, when I put that question over television, I thought I'd get a hundred answers, and I only got one, and it wasn't right. But anyway, the Ark of the Covenant contained these things, and then over the Ark of the Covenant, remember, was the what? The mercy seat. The place of mercy. Now, when everything was completed and they were ready to begin their tabernacle worship, the Shekinah glory, this cloud, set itself right above the Ark of the Covenant, which was in the Holy of Holies. And so it's this same piece of furniture now that is signified by the very presence of God, the very mercy of God, that is going to lead the children of Israel. All right? Come back now to verse 4. He says, Yet there shall be a space between you and it of about 2,000 cubits. That would be about 3,000 feet. That would be a little over a half a mile. They were never to get too close, remember, to the Ark of the Covenant. Come not near unto it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. And so now as they are ready to cross Jordan, verse 6, Joshua says to the priests, Take up the Ark of the Covenant, pass over before the people. And they took up the Ark and they went. And then verse 7, The Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee, that is Joshua, who has now taken Moses' place, remember, I will magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that I, as I was with Moses, I will be with thee. In other words, God is going to prove to the nation of Israel that Joshua is indeed now His man to lead them in and occupy the whole area of Canaan, which, remember, is still inhabited by the Canaanites and the various tribes, of course, that God told Abraham would be driven out so that His offspring could have the land of Canaan. And then when they come to the brink, verse 8, When you come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still. And then as they stepped in, what happened? Well, the water just suddenly piled up. And like they did at the Red Sea experience, Israel is able to cross Jordan even though it's at flood stage on dry ground. Now, I think I've emphasized before, and I constantly remind my classes that when you deal with God and Israel, the supernatural is commonplace. Never be shocked by any kind of a supernatural miraculous event when God deals with Israel. Now, of course, we're living in the age of grace. We're not living in the time when God is dealing with His covenant people, and God is still the same sovereign, all-powerful God. We know that God can still do anything that He would want to do. But in this age of grace, He has chosen not to perform the supernatural. And I think the reason for it is that He has given us His Word. And this is all we need. You and I today do not need a manifestation of the miraculous in order to believe and trust what God has said. But Israel, you see, even as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, the Jew required what? A sign. It was just part of their nature. They had to constantly see the very proof of God. And so the miraculous was commonplace. Now, just think for a moment as you go up through Israel's history. Of all the supernatural events that were just constantly happening, whether it was in war or whether it was in the scope of their religion, I'm thinking, for example, when old Elijah built that altar up on Mount Carmel. You remember that? And he was going to confront all the priests of the gods of Baal, filled the trenches with water, soaked the sacrifices with water, and then he encouraged the priests of Baal, all right, tell your gods to come down now and burn up these sacrifices. Well, they couldn't. After all, pagan gods are powerless when it comes to something like that. Now, they do have a power that, of course, comes from the other side. It's satanic power. But they didn't have the power to do what Elijah was tempting them to do. But what does Elijah call on his god to do? Same thing. And what happened? Why the fire came down, licked up the water out of the trenches, burned up the sacrifices. What was it? It was miraculous. It was the supernatural. But it happened. Never doubt that it happened. And on and on we could go. When old Samson finally stood between the main pillars of that pagan temple, it wasn't Samson that pulled it down. He was merely a little vehicle that God used. God crumbled that temple. Again, it was a supernatural, miraculous event. All right, now come back here to the text then. Supernaturally, miraculously, God just stops the waters of the River Jordan from flowing. They pile up and Israel crosses over on dry ground. Now verse 13, And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the water of Jordan shall be cut off from those that come down from above. They shall stand in a heap. In other words, the water is just going to literally pile up. And it came to pass when the people removed from their tents the Passover Jordan, so on and so forth, that as they bear, verse 15, the ark, and were coming to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear it were dipped in the brim of the water. Now here it is, the scriptural account, for the Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest. Now that'd be barley harvest, which was the first crop in the early spring, March, April. And then the waters, verse 16, which came down from above, stood and rose up. And then verse 17, I'm merely skipping through here for sake of time, the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan. That's how completely God held back the waters of the Jordan River, even at flood stage. And they walk over again, as they did out of Egypt, on dry ground until all the people were passed over. Well, now in chapter 4, he sets up the memorial of 12 stones and so forth. And we're going to skip over that, let you read that in your spare time. And now I'd like to have you come all the way to chapter 5. Chapter 5. And it came to pass, verse 1, when all the kings of the Amorites were on the side of Jordan westward. In other words, in this area now between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, Canaan, occupied by these pagan nations that heard the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel until we were passed over, their hearts melted. Now that's what you call the fear of God, isn't it? They had the proof that Israel's God was still alive and well and was still performing the miraculous. Now they'd heard about what happened 40 years earlier, remember. Rahab rehearsed that. Oh, we've heard how God dried up the Red Sea. We've heard how your God brought you out of Egypt. But you see, now they have been close enough, they probably had high witnesses of seeing that old Jordan River just suddenly dammed up by an invisible power. And so their heart melted. Now, of all times, and I say this with all sincerity, of all times for God to stop the nation of Israel in its tracks. Now remember, they've just crossed the Jordan River. They're now in enemy territory. They're only a mile or two away from the first city that they're going to have to conquer. And the first thing, God stops them and they have a tremendous national right of circumcision. Imagine. At the doorstep of the enemy, they have a national circumcision. Why? Well, they had neglected it for 40 years. Now, when I come to this, I always have to put it this way. When it comes to dealing with God, it's first things first. In other words, so far as God was concerned, it was more important that Israel fulfill her covenant relationship with Jehovah, which, of course, had been demanded from day one to Abraham was this circumcision. First things first. Even at the doorstep of a mortal enemy, the city of Jericho, God literally lays the nation of Israel in a useless position. Now, we think that's foolishness, don't we? To think that He would incapacitate the whole nation at the doorsteps of the enemy. But that's what He does. First things first. And so, they went through this whole right of circumcision in order to prepare them spiritually for the physical battles that were coming. Because after all, it was a covenant relationship that had to be consummated. Now then, as they wound up the circumcising, verse 8, and it came to pass when they had done circumcising all the people, they abode in their places, that is, whatever they were living in, tents or lean-tos or whatever, until they were whole or until they were all healed. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off of you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gildel, or a rolling, Gilgal unto this day. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. Now mark this one down. This Passover right here is forty years to the day from the Passover they celebrated that night in Egypt. Now I was teaching in one of my classes last night on prophecy. A lot of people don't have the real, true definition of prophecy. They think that anything that speaks of something in the future is prophetic. Well, maybe it is. But when you come to Old Testament Bible prophecy, always remember that not only does God foretell something, but He puts it in a time frame. And God's timing is so exact that when He says something is going to happen prophetically at such and such a time in the future, be it forty years, seventy years, five hundred years, or even a thousand years or more, you just bet the farm it's going to happen exactly as God said. Now that's true prophecy. And this is always associated only with the nation of Israel. Now, we're still here today. Koreans are sitting on the mountaintops, they tell me, waiting for the Lord to come this day. They've already sold their houses and their lands and they have said that today is the day the Lord will come. Well, they're not the first. Others have done it before them and there may be others. But this is where they're way out in left field. Prophecy mandates date setting for the most part. But see, there is no prophecy given to the church. And for that reason, the church does not know when the Lord will come for her. Because if a date could be set, then you're putting the church back under prophecy. And you can't do that. No more than you can put the church under law, you can't put the church under prophecy because the two absolutely will not mix. So always remember that. There is nothing designated date or time wise for the church. And consequently, there is no prophecy as such given to the church. That's what insulates us and isolates us from the whole Jewish program. All right, now I want to make a couple real fast scripture references here. Now Israel, as they have come through that dry ground in place of water experience, even as they did coming out of Egypt, it again is a picture, I think, of our coming through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. All this, remember, is a picture for us. Everything that we try to teach out of the Old Testament has a New Testament doctrine symbolically attached to it. Now then, before we go to the New Testament, I want to read the next verse. After they have finished circumcising, they have crossed the river Jordan, they have celebrated the Passover, and now in verse 11, and they did eat of the old corn of the land, that is the land of Canaan, on the morrow after the Passover. The old grain that had probably been stored in the granaries of the Canaanites, Israel now partakes of that instead of, now think a minute, what have they been eating for 40 years? Manna. Manna. And now the manna stops. That is part of their elementary, their beginnings, that was part of their weakness, you might say, but now that they have crossed over, they have gone through the river Jordan, they have gone through the circumcising, they have gone through the Passover, and now they eat of the old corn of Canaan. Now what's the lesson? Now we've got to go to New. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Now again, we always have to remember that in order to get into the area of where you and I live today, tonight, in this Age of Grace, there's only one section of your Bible that gives us all the instructions for it. And that, of course, is Romans through Hebrews, the writings of Paul. Now look what Paul says as he writes to the Corinthians, basically a Gentile congregation, so he can just as well be writing to you and I tonight. Beginning with chapter 5, verse 14, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but were to live unto him who died and rose again. Now what is that? Well, that's Paul's Gospel. That Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead. Now verse 16. My, I use this over and over in my classes, and I never get tired of teaching it, and I don't think folk ever get tired of hearing it. Wherefore. Wherefore. And whenever you see a wherefore or therefore, you reflect back what has just gone before it. Well, Christ died for all and rose from the dead. Wherefore. Henceforth. What does that mean? Well, from this point on, he's not going back 40 years, 100 years, he's taking from his time on. From henceforth. Know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth we know him no more. Now, remember what I just said about manna? They feasted on manna as a result of their weakness. There was nothing else they could do but just wait on God. It was the very simplistic beginnings of the nation. But now that they've had the crossing of Jordan behind them and they're now ready to occupy the land, God says, No more manna. You're going to get off the manna and you're going to have to eat of what? The grain of the land. See? Now, you see what Paul is saying? He said, Oh, I knew Christ in the flesh, and I'm sure he did, even though there's no record of the two ever meeting face to face. But Saul of Tarsus lived contemporary with Christ. I think they were basically the same age. And so he had heard and he had probably witnessed all that Jesus had done up and down the land of Israel. But see, Paul never concerns himself with Christ's earthly ministry. Paul concerns himself only with Christ after his resurrection. The power of the resurrection is all that Paul knows. And so he says, Yeah, we knew Christ in the flesh, but henceforth, since his resurrection, we know him as such no more. That has to be behind us. Now, let me show you another one. Turn to 2 Corinthians. I think it's in the same book. Chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. And drop down to verse 4. For though he was crucified through weakness. Hey, that throws a curve at us, doesn't it? What's he referring to? Well, his earthly ministry again, even though he performed a miracle and everything else. What kind, what kind of a man was he? Meek, lowly, riding on the foal or the colt of an ass. He had no place wherewith to lay his head, not even a pillow. He said foxes have dens and birds have nests, but he had none of those. So he was basically in a ministry of humiliation and as Paul says here, a time of weakness, see? And though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth. Now, what are we talking about? Resurrection. By what? The power of God. Now, do you see that? There has to be, even for us, a circumcision. Now, let's pick that one up real quickly. Keep turning to the right. And again, that old clock is going to get away from me. Just sure of the world. Colossians chapter 2. Drop down to verse 11. Colossians 2, verse 11. Now again, he's writing to us Gentiles and he says, in whom also, that is in the Godhead, of verse 9 and 10, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Now, when something is done without hands, who's performing it? God is. It's the very power of God that is performing a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. What has to be cut off at our salvation? The old Adam. That's spiritual circumcision. When the old Adam is cut off, it's superfluous. It's of no use. And a result of that, of course, is our entering into the body of Christ. We enter into no longer feasting on manna, but we're feasting on the old corn of the land. Now, I haven't got time. I wanted also to take you into Hebrews chapter 5 where Paul says, get off the baby bottle and its milk and for goodness sakes, get on to a diet of what? Meat. See, I used to tell my little Sunday school kids years ago, you come into my class, you throw away the baby bottle, we're going to start feeding you steak and vegetables. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner-supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, 30706 West Lona Valley Road, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.