Joshua is an unexpectedly profound book, and today’s chapters are a great example. But some of its stories can seem odd: how do we feed on them, how do we fit them with our own lives? Today we’re feeding on chapters 3 and 4; in two chapters’ time the first big joyous victory is coming. So how is God preparing His people for that?
The first barrier they had to face was getting across the Jordan. And 3:15 tells us that the time when God chose to say `Now cross the Jordan` was exactly when it was in full flood (a mile wide, Dale Ralph Davis says). Is God choosing to take them through an impossible problem so as to permanently build their faith (3:10)? (Might He ever do that with us?)
So: they go forward, and when the priests carrying the Ark step into the water, it rolls back; and all the Israelites cross over on dry ground. What’s all this about?
Well, first it’s reenacting the Red Sea for a generation that didn’t see it (4:23). They hadn’t seen any of the exodus miracles; they were desert kids; the prophecies their fathers had told them about hadn’t yet been fulfilled, and now Moses who did seem to know how to work miracles had died too. But as we saw last week, Joshua 2 was a rerun of Passover; when God’s judgment came on the evils of Egypt, there was salvation only for those in a `safe house` that had the blood of the lamb at its entrance (Ex 12); and now again salvation comes only to those (Jos 2:18) in a `safe house` marked by a scarlet cord, which the early church saw as an emblem of the blood of Christ… So all this is making sure that this generation knew the God of Exodus was still with them today: `that they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses… This is how you will know that the living God is among you!` (3:7-10).
So then they’re in Canaan, and headed for battle, and victory. How is God most concerned to prepare them? God’s first priority having worked this miracle is: For victory, make sure you remember (the theme of most of ch4; 4:1-9, 19-23) – keep your mind soaked with God’s past acts! We saw this priority about remembering over and over again when we were feeding on Exodus: its importance in 10:1-2, in Passover, and in 3:15, and the disastrous consequences of not remembering in 1:8 and the golden calf incident. Why? Because hard times come, in our jobs, in our families, and we so much need to hold on to the sense (cf Josh 1:5!) that God is still with us. (Look at Psalm 78:3-7!)
But why does it have to be just memory? If Jesus came in every generation it would be so much easier. He could, and He doesn’t. Why? Because it seems there’s something incredibly valuable about faith. The just live by faith, says the new testament three times; this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith, says 1 John. It’s faith that overcomes all the fiery darts of the evil one, says Ephesians – faith is the basis for victory! But this new testament faith goes with not seeing: `living by faith` means we don’t `live by sight` (2 Cor 5:7; and look at John 20:29: `Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ ) It seems faith grows – and we want and need that!- precisely when we don’t see. (Is this why, in this very section of Joshua, the amazing, visible daily miracle of manna stops forever (5:12)? – victory in this land where the promises come true comes as they live by faith and not by sight?)
But then: how are they – or we – to retain that vital sense of His real presence (3:7,10)? The crucial step for victory here seems to be cultivating an imagination soaked with thankful memories of what God has done and how He acts, both in Scripture and in our own lives (rather than soaked with the media!)… what He’s done, what therefore He’s doing now, even if invisibly… `meditating on them day and night’ (1:8)! So God’s first priority there in Gilgal is that they build a memorial of twelve stones from the Jordan riverbed, a memorial of how their twelve tribes crossed Jordan. (And to this memorial in Gilgal they will keep coming back; Josh 10:15,43, 1 Sam 11:14.) So how can I cultivate such a repeated, thankful memory in the coming weeks? By creating a list of things to thank God for, and praying periodically through it??
But is there more in all this for us? For that we need to ask, what’s our parallel (equivalent) of the promised land, and crossing Jordan? Clearly the promised land isn’t paralleling the afterlife, because there’s fighting there (nor therefore is Jordan the equivalent of death, even if some great hymns take it that way); it’s not what we usually call heaven, but rather what Ephesians calls the `heavenly places` where we’re seated with Christ right now (Eph 2:6, Col 3:1-3), yet where there will still be one battle after another (Eph 6:12). This land of the promises is where we are right now (Eph 1:3), even though sometimes for our good we’re not able to see it that way; it’s that aspect of our spiritual life when we experience living in our spiritual possessions, as distinct from exile and wilderness. (Lord, please help me grasp this!)
But then it’s crucial that we remember how we got there!
And so here in Joshua the fall of Jericho (for example) doesn’t seem as important for Israel to remember; but God is specially concerned that His people remember above all how, and why, they – we too – passed safely through the waters of judgment, and could start living in the promised land. Like we said, Israel passing safely through the waters at their most dangerous is a rerun of the Red Sea (4:23); and as Paul says (1 Cor 10:2), the Red Sea is a picture of baptism, where we who have been saved by faith in the blood of the Lamb (like Passover, like Rahab’s scarlet cord) go publicly through the water that speaks of death and God’s judgment; publicly identifying with Christ’s saving death (Rom 6:3), and coming out the other side. We pass safely through the water, because Jesus has gone there first!
It’s worth remembering that in Exodus the Ark of the Covenant seems to be a symbol of Jesus; and here in Joshua the Ark goes alone ahead into the destructive flood waters (3:4), and as a result they are rolled back all the way to Adam (yes, it does actually say that, look at 3:15-16!); and God’s people cross over safely. It’s because Jesus went alone into the waters of judgment they were indeed rolled back as far as Adam, and we cross over safely and head for victory… So what’s the lesson? Victory comes as we remember how that huge deliverance happened, as we `remember`, ever more deeply, the cross? Is Joshua 3 helping us prepare for victory by giving us a remarkable imaginative picture, helping us hold onto how – how only – we get into the promised land where victory happens? How then can I grow in keeping the cross at the heart of my consciousness?
But one thing more. A great new testament chapter about baptism and about victory is Romans 6, about how `sin shall not be your master!` (6:14). And the first thing we’re pointed to there is to get hold, deeply, of the issues of baptism, what it means to be `baptised into His death` (v3): that we are `united with Him in His death`(v5). Victory, that we will `no longer be slaves to sin`, is rooted in the fact that we are now, seriously, `crucified with Christ`: `Our old self was crucified with Him, so that we should no longer be slaves to sin’ (v6). And there are very few commands in Romans 6, because real victory comes not from what we do but from what Christ has done; but in v11 there is one, and it’s again, remember!: `Count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus!` In other words: make that death the central imaginative reality by which you live, that your old life is drowned, buried, with Jesus, and that therefore you’re going to live, not just according to a religious personality or a set of Christian opinions, but by total commitment to that totally different new life that must logically follow from any true `new birth`…
So then: what is Joshua teaching us about this victory? It gives us a profound imaginative picture to help us grasp what Romans gives us as ideas: victory comes from identifying deeply with Jesus’ death, and remembering that we should be at the bottom of the river of judgment; but Jesus went there alone, and so the waters of God’s judgment rolled back, and we’ve gone through on dry ground. For victory we need to remember this above all, meditating on it, making it our central reality.
That’s why God’s central celebrations, communion and baptism, both embody the cross; that’s why we come back to it regularly in the awesome moment of communion, to grasp it ever more deeply. It’s the vision of the cross, of Jesus passing through the waters alone for us, and then of our having drowned our old nature because we are `crucified with Christ` (Gal 2:20), that brings us to victory, that will change our lives. Lord, please dig these profound things far more deeply into my mind and heart…!
