Joshua 3 Preparing the People

Dr. Terry shares updates on personal health, prayers for others, Mother's Day, and the Book of Joshua. He touches on the importance of spring to the Jewish people, the significance of Passover, and the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Mount Sinai and onwards to Kadesh Barnea. The failure to trust God's plan at Kadesh Barnea led to 38 years of wandering in the wilderness, with the chapter marking the end of this period and Moses' viewing of the promised land from Mount Pisgah. Good morning. Good morning. Good to see you all this morning. I'm hoping on the 19th of this month, I say goodbye to this friend right here (an ankle boot). I'm hoping to get it off and go to a ankle splint for a while that I can put real shoes on and put my pants all the way down. Barbara tried to get these pants down this morning. I said, you have to slice my cuff if you want to get these pants down. So I feel like I'm wearing knickers. Y'all ever wear knickers? Well, I feel like I'm wearing knickers. So anyway, thank you for praying for us. Thank you for praying for our Piper. She appears to be doing well and we're grateful. God be praised. And so pray for all of our friends. Pray for Nellie. I talked to J.W. the other night at the hospital and he was doing fine. He said Nellie was doing fine. She's in rehab. So you all continue to pray for the others. Pray for Connie, please, as they go on vacation. She got a report this last week and she's going to have some other work done. So you all pray for her as well. OK. Happy Mother's Day to all of y'all. M is for the million things she gave us. O is only that she's growing old. T is for the tears she's shed to save us. H is for her heart that's pure as gold. E is for her eyes with love light shining. R is right and right she'll always be. Put them all together. They spell mother, the one who means so much to me. Who wrote that? You're going to be surprised. I was. John Lennon of the Beatles wrote that song. He wrote it for his mother. And John Lennon wrote the song that we affectionately sing. M is for the million things she gave us. Remember? And it's a great song. So happy Mother's Day to all of you all. But we have another responsibility today. So happy Mother's Day. And here we go. Interestingly, now what's getting ready to happen to the children of Israel is in the next. I'm going to do the next two chapters and 12 verses because that will get us to the place where I can give it to Brother Jimmy two weeks from today. And he can immediately head for Jericho and fight the battle of Jericho. And so I'm going to take it all the way through 3, 4 into 5, 12, and I'll get it all the way to 5, 12, because 5, 13 starts the battle of Jericho. Quite frankly, when they were trying to do the chapter and verse division, which wasn't done until around the 10th, 11th century A.D., they broke it in places oftentimes when they probably shouldn't have had a chapter break there. Actually, the chapter break should have been after chapter 12, after verse 12 in chapter 5. Chapter 6 should have begun with verse 13, because chapter 6, 13 goes right into chapter 7, which is the battle of Jericho. And so it's kind of the introduction in 13 following to the to the theophany that Joshua met at the wall of Jericho, later on identified as the Son of God, the Prince of the King of God. And so it sort of just all runs together, but there should have been a chapter break there, but there wasn't. And so we kind of have to break it ourselves. So today we're going to be looking at five things going into chapter 5, 12. Now, let me help you understand what has happened. Oh, by the way, there is a map at the back of your lesson. And the map is the is the travels of the children of Israel all over all over the Sinai Peninsula, eventually working their way up to Kadesh Barnea and then for 38 years around the wilderness. And Brother Jimmy has told you that he has traveled through that wilderness and so have we. And we've driven down from Israel all the way down to Cairo on bus two or three times. And going down through that through that wilderness, it is really wilderness. I mean, it is nothing but sand and dirt and wind and a bunch of little scraggly trees. Some of that Shechem wood or that wood that's like iron. And anyway, it is pretty barren. It's terrible to be out there. Now, what you got to understand is it is springtime and spring is always very much interesting to the Jewish people because spring begins in the first month of the religious year of the Jewish people. And the first month of the religious year of the Jewish people is the month of Nisan. And on the 10th day of the month of Nisan, I shared with you four or five weeks ago, is the day that the children of Israel put away the lamb for the Passover. So Nisan, Nisan, spring is very, very important to the Israelite people. Now, it just so happens that this is the beginning of the first month of the religious calendar, the month of Nisan or Nisan, whichever way you want to call it. The Japanese call it Nisan, the Jews call it Nisan. And it is the first month and on the 10th day they take out the lamb and on the 14th day they cook the lamb and on the 15th day they eat the lamb and on the 15th day they call it the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Remember? You got it all? Now, you got to remember all that because, you see, the first Passover happened in Egypt. The first Passover happened in Egypt. And after they got out of the nation of Egypt, they got out of sin, got out of the clutches of Pharaoh, and they went to Mount Sinai. And on your map, by the way, on the map you'll see three or four different locations for Sinai. I'm not going to tell you where it is. I don't have a clue. I just know it's somewhere on that peninsula. So you see there's a Sinai at the bottom, there's a Sinai in the middle. There's even a Sinai over there on Saudi Arabia, on the other side. So, you know, there's several Mount Sinai. But anyway, it's on that peninsula, that little area there called the Sinai activity. So, the children of Israel came out of Egypt and they went to Mount Sinai. And they stayed there for a year. And the second Passover happened at Mount Sinai. As they were getting all of the necessary information for the building of the tabernacle and the building of all the implements that go into the tabernacle and the establishment of the Levitical priests. All of this was happening at Mount Sinai. And they were there for a couple of years. And so they celebrated the first Passover in Egypt. They celebrated the second Passover at Mount Sinai. And as they finished, it was moving towards spring. And God told them, as Brother Jimmy told us a week ago, you go now to Kadesh Barnea and go, keep walking, don't stop. Now, ladies and gentlemen, God told the children of Israel when they left Sinai with all of the necessary implements, with the tabernacle and with God's presence in the Ark of the Covenant. He said, when you start walking toward Cana, keep walking, don't stop. And they kept walking until they got to Kadesh Barnea. And when they got to Kadesh Barnea, they stopped. It was a disobedience of God. God told them not to stop. He said, keep walking. You see, what God had intended for them to do was to keep walking right on into Cana and just keep on conquering all these people. And they were to have the third Passover in Cana in that third year. But it didn't happen that way. Brother Jimmy told you what happened. They decided that, well, maybe they had a little better, they could get a little better information than God had. So they chose twelve spies. And they sent the spies in. God never told them to send spies. God told them to keep walking. And if they kept walking, it would have been great. But they didn't, you know, it's humankind. We always think we know better than God, right? We always think we know better than God. So they didn't keep walking. They came back in twelve and ten of them said, can't do it. Wall cities, giants, man, it's terrible. We'll never get in there. But it really is like God said, it does flow with milk and honey. It is very productive, but we can't get in there. And two of them, Joshua and Caleb said, yes, we can. Because God said, just keep walking. And they said, no, we're not going to keep walking. God said, OK, because you're not going to keep walking. I'm going to punish you. And from that day, they had no more Passover's for 38 years. They had no Passover. You see, God had always intended for the third Passover to be where? In Canaan. And when they abrogated the will of God at Kadesh, Bornea, and they said, we're not going. They big. We're afraid of them. I don't think God and, you know, it's kind of interesting. God had already brought water out of a rock. God had taken the water and made them sleep. God gave them manna from heaven and crayon at night. I mean, goodness, God was doing everything for them. Even their clothes weren't ruining. And they said, you know, we can't trust that guy. So we better trust our own recognizance. And when the reconnaissance God came back, they said, we can't take them. God said, OK, if you're going to disobey me, then you get to wander around in this place for 38 years. Now, this particular chapter is the ending of 38 years of wandering. The 38th year of the wandering, they finally made their way down to the eastern side of the George River in an area near Edom and Ammon. And in the last chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, you have the death of Moses. On your map, you will see out there near where the George River is. You'll see a mountain called the Mount of Pisgah. By the way, we have a wonderful hymn that has the words Pisgah in it. Did you know that? And it comes from this passage in the book of Deuteronomy. I'm going to quote it for you. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. May we thy consolation bear. And from Mount Pisgah's lofty heights, I view the land and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize. And shout while coasting through the air, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer. See, Moses got to see the land from Pisgah. But Moses never got to go into the land. God said, because you struck the rock when I told you to speak to it, you're not going to go in. I'm going to show it to you. And I'm going to put you on Mount Pisgah, and I'm going to show you the land. But you're not going in, Moses. Now, the children of Israel are going in, but they're going in with Joshua. So this is all happening right now. They are right at, just at the bottom near Ammon, near the Jordan River. And from this point on, five major things are getting ready to happen. In the next two and a half chapters. Five things are getting ready to happen. Number one, they're going to be introduced to the supreme power of the Ark of the Covenant. Now, they knew when the Ark of the Covenant was in the tabernacle, in the daytime, there was smoke coming up out of the Holy of Holies, which indicated that the presence of God was there. And at nighttime, there was light. So they understood that the Ark of the Covenant was very closely related to Jehovah. And they knew that he was in the Ark of the Covenant. You remember, the Ark of the Covenant had three things in it. It had the pot of manna, it had the tablets of stone, and it had the rod that budded, which proved that Aaron and Moses were the true leaders. Those were the only things in the Ark of the Covenant. And the rest of the angels on top of the seat, the mercy seat. And it would glow in the nighttime, and it would smoke in the daytime, and always the presence of God was there. And Joshua's now getting ready. So the first thing he's going to do, he's going to introduce them to the majestic, superlative, wonderful, miraculous power of eternal God. And he's going to show them what eternal God can do. And he's going to use the Ark of the Covenant. That's the first thing he's going to do. Second thing he's going to do, he's going to cross a river, which at springtime, and it is Nisan, early March to mid-April, right now, it's raining in Israel. They're getting the rain because they're going to have a summer harvest. And the snows are melting up at Mount Hermon, and the snows that are melting at Mount Hermon are making their way in rivers of water down into the Sea of Galilee. And the Sea of Galilee is burping out all of these snow waters from Hermon, and the rains are just falling on the hillsides of Israel, and what is now Jordan, filling up the Jordan River. And the river is just getting fuller and fuller and fuller and more full from levee to levee, beyond levee. In fact, where the children of Israel are going to cross the Jordan River, most of the time you can walk across in waist-deep water. And it's generally about maybe 50 yards across. But when the Jordan is swollen in the springtime, with all of these waters and cascades, and all of this water coming down from Mount Hermon and from the rains, it is generally one and a half football fields across. Nearly 150 yards, whereas normally it's about less than 45 yards across. And so the river's running, and the cascades are coming down, and it's swollen, and it's dangerous, most dangerous river in the world to try to cross in the spring. And the first thing, they've got to cross that thing. And when they get across it, then they have to set up camp. And when they get across it and set up camp, guess what? It's the 14th day of Nisan. You see, folks, they're going to cross the river on the 10th day of Nisan. Now, I'm trying to help you understand. The Bible is so persnipity about itself that it's not going to make a mistake. You remember that the children of Israel were supposed to put the lamb aside for the removal of them out of Egypt on the 10th day of Nisan, remember? And do you remember that Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday on the 10th day of Nisan? And you remember that preparation is always on the 14th day of Nisan? And that the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is on the 14th when the sun goes down? You see, the Jewish people develop sunrise to sundown to sundown at their time. The Jewish people never go on a 12-hour clock. Today, Monday, is going to begin for the Jewish people when the sun goes down. And when the sun goes down today, they're already in Monday. We're not going to get to Monday till midnight. But they're going to get to Monday when the sun goes down. So Jewish people reckon time from sundown to sundown. So when the sun went down on the 14th after they had prepared the Passover meal, when the sun went down on the 15th, it said, and at even time, and even time means, folks, the sun's gone. And at even time, you're going to eat this meal. You see what's happening here? Now, these people are going to get ready to do that, but they're going to cross the river. You see, it's kind of interesting. Every time the 10th shows up, something is happening that's going to deliver somebody. Got it? On the 10th day of Nisan, they got a lamb that's going to deliver them out of Egypt. On the 10th day of Nisan, Jesus comes into the city of Jerusalem and it's called actually Palm Sunday. He's going to deliver us. And now it's the 10th day of Nisan, and guess what they're going to do? God's going to deliver them. He's going to cross the Jordan. Hello? That's the way God works, folks. He works in his own timetable, okay? And he's not going to work outside his timetable. God's time is always what? Perfect. Okay. So, the second thing they do, they're going to cross this Jordan. The fourth thing they got to do as soon as they get over there to Gilgal, they're going to establish camp, and it's the 14th day of Nisan. What's tonight? Unleavened bread. What's tonight? Feast of Passover. What are they going to have to do as soon as they get across the river? They got four days to get it ready. They're going to cross on the 10th. They got four days to get it ready. And they're going to get it ready as soon as they get across the river. They're going to have Passover. Oh, the third Passover. Not the 43rd Passover. You see, God said, since you abrogated me at Kadesh Barnea, and the second Passover was at Sinai, you're not going to get another one. Because the next one is going to happen in the land of promise. And had you kept walking, and had you trusted me, and you just kept going, I would have taken everybody in front of you and just annihilated them, and you would have had the third Passover in the land of promise. But because you abrogated me, and you disobeyed me, you're going to get to walk around for 38 years. Now, the scripture says that everybody, when that curse was given by God at Kadesh Barnea, that everyone who was over the age of 21 would die before they went into the promised land. Which meant that, when they went into the promised land, they had a bunch of young adults. They were in their 40s, because they wandered for 38 years. If they were born after Kadesh Barnea, if they were 21 after Kadesh Barnea, and you add 40 to it, that makes these people coming into the land of Israel about 60 years of age. They're pretty good young, they're pretty good young and senior, and there are a bunch of other young people that have been born. So you've got a pretty good, hefty group of people coming into the land of promise. They're going to cross over, they're going to celebrate Passover. And as soon as they get through celebrating Passover, on the night they celebrate it, God is going to cut off the manna, and cut off the quail. And now they get to eat of the verdant production of God's land of promise. It's all there. God has houses there for them. God has fields there for them. God has vineyards there for them. God has everything there for them. All they have to do is go in and what? Take it. Okay? That's what God said you had to do. I'm going to wipe it out in front of you. Okay, so then the last thing they're going to have to do, these people got a problem. All these kids who were born after Kadesh Barnea, in the wilderness, all the young males who were born were never circumcised. I encourage you to go and read the travels of the children of Israel over the 38 years and tell me any time they did any circumcisions. They didn't do any. Now, Joshua, across the Jordan, over here in the land of promise at Gilgal, he's got a whole horde of young men who need to be circumcised because you cannot be a child of the faith. You cannot be a bar mitzvah, a man of the covenant, bar mitzvah. You cannot be a man of the covenant unless you've been circumcised. And all of these young adults who've been wandering in the wilderness, now becoming 50 and 60 years of age, none of them have been circumcised. And before they can start the conquest of Canaan, these men have to be certified spiritually. Because circumcision was the sign of God's presence in the life of the male. It's going to be a pretty hefty circumcision. And we'll talk about that next week. So these five things are getting ready to happen. All right, so kind of put them in the back of your mind. First thing is, he's going to magnify the Ark of the Covenant. The second thing is, he's going to let them look at a swollen Jordan and they're scared to death. Because that thing, they said sometime that the flood of the Jordan River could run four to ten miles an hour. And coming down out from Mount Hermon, as it passed the Sea of Galilee, there were rapids, hundreds of rapids. And those things just kept wrapping down. And the walls would cave in on the side. It was a horrible thing. It was outside its banks, almost 150 yards. It was a vicious river. And they stood there on the eastern side and they looked at it. And Joshua said, now we're going to cross this thing. They said, yeah, you bet we are. They said, yeah, you bet we are. You got a bunch of pontoons. We're going to build a pontoon bridge. Dan, we're going to go build some pontoons. Dan builds pontoons in the Navy. We're going to build us a pontoon bridge across this thing going like that. You've got to be kidding. Okay, so Joshua says, oh look. So, in verse 10 of chapter 4, chapter 3, Joshua says, now look. Verse 8, and you shall command the priest to bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, when you've come to the edge of the water of Jordan, you shall stand in Jordan. Now, the Ark of the Covenant is on the shoulders of four Levitical priests. They are all 33 years of age. All of the Levitical priests that bore the Ark of the Covenant were always 33 years of age. And after they passed the 34th year, somebody took their place. The Ark of the Covenant was never borne by any Israelite man who was less or more than 33 years of age. Kind of interesting. How old was Jesus? We think somewhere around 33 years of age. And so, the Ark, that which would be the presence of God, was borne on the shoulders of Israeli men 33 years of age. And the Ark of the Covenant was the presence of God. Now, kind of interesting where it was placed. It's all here. You can read it. I'm just kind of going through it. And Joshua is saying to them, and God says, Joshua, today I'm getting ready to magnify you. I'm getting ready to show these people who I am and who you really are. And God's getting ready to magnify Joshua. In fact, in verse 7 it says, and the Lord said to Joshua, this day I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that you may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And so he said, I'm going to prove to the children of Israel that I'm the same one that came with Moses. And I'm going to do it now. We're going to do it here at the River Jordan, okay? We're going to do our first thing at the River Jordan. And he said, bring the priest. Now, he told the children of Israel, he said, now you all stay back a Sabbath day's journey from the Ark. Don't get close to it. Do you remember one day somebody touched the chariot that the Ark was carried on when they were bringing it back from Philistia? And do you remember what happened to the person that touched it? He was immediately killed. Joshua says, don't get near the thing. These men who are carrying it have been sanctified. They're fine. Don't get near it. Because that is the presence of God. And you don't want to present yourself in the presence of God unholy. And the Ark of the Covenant now becomes that thing, which is that he said, now about a Sabbath day's journey. You know how far a Sabbath day's journey is? Between a half mile and three quarters of a mile. And when an Israelite could walk a Sabbath day's journey of the Sabbath, he could go a little more than a half, three quarters of a mile. And that's all he could go. So these people, children of Israel, all of the camp had to stand back about a Sabbath day's journey from the Ark. And Joshua says to them, now, look, here's what's going to happen. When we get ready to go in, I want you to know I am taking you into enemy territory today. And look at verse nine and following. So Joshua said to the children of Israel, come here and hear the words of the Lord, your God. And Joshua said, by this you shall know that the living God is among you. By what? By the separation of the water. How did you get across the water out of Egypt? On dry ground. Oh, how you get across? How you get across this swollen Jordan River? On dry ground. And Joshua was saying, by this you will know that the living God is among you and that he will not fail. Drive out from before you. And now Joshua was getting ready to tell him, tell the children of Israel who their enemies are going to be. Their enemies are going to be. Oh, by the way, when Abraham came to Cana, the first time from up in Iran, he came from Ur of Chaldees up to Iran, where he stayed with his father until his father died. And then he came down into Cana. The first time he came down, there were basically two cultures in the land of Canaan. And those two cultures in the land of Canaan were probably the Amorites and the Canaanites. And these Amorites and Canaanites that were already there when Abraham came in were Semitic. They were of Shem of the three sons of Noah. They were Shemites. We take that word Shem and put Shemites with it. And we talk about the Shemitic people. And now we drop the Y. We put an I. We talk about the Semitic people. And now what are we seeing with all these little parades that they're carrying the Palestinian flags again? They are anti-what? Semitic. You see, it's probably the cultures of the Canaanites and the Amorites were Shemitic. They were probably from Shem. That's why Abraham could come in there. And he was pretty well welcomed. Now, Abraham then takes the children of Israel down to Egypt under the leadership of Jacob, now called not Jacob anymore, but now called Israel. And it's no longer the sons of Jacob, the twelve sons of Jacob, thinking that one of them is dead, Joseph. We know he's not. We know he's in Egypt. But now the sons of Jacob, the twelve of the sons of Jacob, they're now called the sons of Israel, the children of Israel, because his name was changed from the trickster Jacob to Israel, the commander of the king. And now Israel has his children in Egypt. They're there for 400 years, folks. The children of Israel stayed in Egypt in Goshen for 400 years. And finally, towards the end of the 400th year, there came a Pharaoh, and the scripture says, and the new Pharaoh did not know Joseph. And the new Pharaoh put the children of Israel into slavery. And God said, nope, I'm going to get you out. And the way I'm going to get you out, we're going to do it rather nicely. On the tenth day, you're going to get a lamb of Nithon, and you're going to wait for it and you're going to wait four days. And on the 14th day, you're going to kill that lamb and wipe the blood on the vehicles. And that night, when the sun goes down, it becomes the 15th and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You will go inside your house under the blood. You can eat it, and I will pass over you. Got it? Now, see what Joshua's doing here? He's counting the enemies. There are seven enemies. There are seven enemies, the Amorites and the Canaanites. And then he says down here, you will drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Gergesites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. And he names seven of them. You're going to drive them out. And God is going to go before you, and he's going to drive all of them out. Now, some of these were related to others. For instance, the Jebusites were in control of Jerusalem. And during the entire southern and northern conquest that we're going to be talking about in the next few chapters, the hill of Jerusalem is never taken. The Jebusites were fierce fighting men, and they lived in the walled city of Jerusalem, Jebus. That's where they got their names, the Jebusites. And that's what the name eventually became, Jerusalem. But the Jebusites lived in Jebus. They lived in the hill of Jebus, Jebus is the walled city. Even the children of Israel couldn't conquer it. Nobody could conquer it. Finally, David in the 10th century conquered it. And who did he send in to conquer it? Hello? Who of his commanders did he send in to conquer it? Joab. Joab is commander in chief. I have a book in my library that I enjoy reading. It's fiction. It's fiction. But I enjoy reading it. It's entitled, The Uncrowned Monarch, Joab. You see, David was the crowned king. But you read the life of David, Joab ran the show. Joab was the one, he told his soldiers, he said, whoever goes over the wall of Jebus and helps me to conquer the city of the Jebusites, I will make him my commander in chief. Joab was not an Israelite. Go read the story. And Joab went over the wall with his commanders. And Joab conquered the city of Jebus. And David made Joab his commander in chief. Okay. Now, Joshua was saying to these people, don't be afraid of these people. We know the seven of them are out there. But we also know that the Lord is going to conquer them. And so he says in verse 11, behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to cross over Jordan before you. Oh, yeah, right. Look at Jordan. They're going to cross over. Right. Well, he says, and it shall come to pass. Now, Joshua was telling them what's getting ready to happen. He says, he says in verse 13, and it shall come to pass that just as soon as the feet of the priest who bear the ark of the Lord and the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off and the water shall come down from upstream and they shall stand in a heap. And the bed will be dusty, crusty, dry, not muddy. Ladies and gentlemen, that much water is running over a bed of a river. And if all of a sudden it stops, what's the bed of that river going to be? It could be pretty muddy, right? Not this one. But when God heaps up the water all the way up back up at Adam. Way up about 30 miles north of where that is on your map. When God puts the heaps up there about 30 miles north and he keeps the water up and all of a sudden it all stops and there's nothing running down to the salt sea. And in this kind of time, the ground is dusty, crusty, dry. Just like the Red Sea. When Moses said, dry. And he said, when they shall rest the water of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off and the waters that become down from upstream and they shall stand in a heap. And so it was when the people set out, when they came to cross over the Jordan, when the priest bearing the ark of the covenant before the people and those who bore the ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water for the Jordan overflows its banks during the whole of this time of harvest. Football field and a half across Jordan. That the waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose up in a heap all the way up to Adam, 30 miles away. God stopped them. And all of the riverbed dry. And the priest standing there in that river. So the waters that went down into the sea of the Araby, which is a sea of salt failed and the water cut off and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Now, as Brother Jimmy said, probably had about a million, half, maybe 2 million people with all their possessions, with all their children, with all of their cattle, their herds, their sheep, all of them were there. Camels, donkeys, all kinds of animals. Here's this horde of people and they're in a 30 mile zone. And all of that 30 miles is just as dry as a chip. It used to be the soil in Jordan. Now, it is a dry riverbed all the way down to the salt sea. All the way from what was called the bathing place of the pilgrims. Now, let me explain what I'm talking about. As you go up Jordan, the banks come almost down to the river. But when you come to this place, that's called the bathing place of the pilgrims, where pilgrims coming to go to Jerusalem in order to worship, coming for any of the feast fasts or festivals and coming down the Jordan River from up north from Galilee, they would come to this place because up from there, the hills on the Jordan River were sometimes 15, 10, 15, 20 feet high. And the hills were so high you could not get down to the Jordan River. Now, those are the hills up on the other side of that dam. Oh, I have it in your paper. There were three times when those hills up north of the dam crushed into the Sea of Galilee. One time, it shut the river down for 16 hours. Another time, it shut it down for 22 hours or 21, 22 hours. But the bed didn't get dry. It stayed muddy. So could it be that 16 is God up here with these hills just up at that dam near Mount Zerubbath? Could it be that God's right there? Could he have crushed all of those hills down into the Jordan River if he wanted to? And stopped the water at that dam where it had been stopped on three different occasions? Could God do it again? Can he make it dry? Can it be dusty? Crusty? Not muddy? And all the way from that dam all the way to the Sea of Salt? It's dry. And these hills up there, but now this place where they're crossing was a place that the hills stopped. And you could actually walk from the side of the levees into the river Jordan. And it was called the Place of Pilgrim Bathing. And pilgrims coming down from the north, coming down from Galilee, coming to the city of Jerusalem because they had to go through Jericho to go up the Jericho Road up to the city of Jerusalem. Coming down to go to Jericho to go up the Jericho Road, they would go down and they would bathe and cleanse themselves before they went up to the big city. You had to get a bath before you could come to town. Now any of you grew up on the farm where you had to get a bath before you go to town on Saturday night? Everybody bathed on Saturday because we're going to town on Saturday. You've got to be clean and smell nice. So these pilgrims coming down got to this place called the Place of the Pilgrim Bathing. That's where they crossed. Flat. Dry. Dusty. And the priest was standing there. The four Israelites, 33 years of age, with the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders, standing in the midst of Jordan. And the children of Israel get ready to go across. And verse 17 says, Then the priest who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground. That's interesting, isn't it? God doesn't mince any words. The priest stood firm on dry ground. In the midst of the Jordan. And all of Israel crossed over on dry ground. Which meant that everything from Adam, 30 miles north, all the way to the Salt Sea, 25 miles south, all of the River Jordan, 60 miles, drier than a chip. Where all of the people can just very comfortably, where there are no banks, there are no hills, you just walk through the river, walk across, and go to the little thing, city called Gilgal. Where Joshua said, we're going to go, and we're going to meet, and we're going to join, and we're going to camp at Gilgal. Now that's where we stop today. Because when we come together next Sunday, a couple of other things have to happen. The Jewish people are very, very wonderfully memorial people. They like to do a lot of things that will later on become a memorial. And the next thing that they're going to do before they start talking about Passover is, Joshua is going to talk about taking some stones on the eastern side of Jordan, and putting them in the middle of Jordan, and then later on, when everybody has crossed over, Joshua is going to tell the people to go back into Jordan, and get 12 new stones out of Jordan, and put them over here by Gilgal, and pile them up, and they will become a memorial. And the 12 stones will be piled up there, and Joshua says to the people of Israel, in the years to come, when you bring your children down here to Gilgal, and you show them, and here are all these stones piled up, your children are going to say to you, Mommy, Daddy, what mean these stones? See the memorial? And you're going to say, Sweetheart, it was right here where your great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents, and all your descendants crossed over the Jordan River on dusty, crusty, dry ground, right here. And it will be a memorial unto you, in the years to come. We'll talk about those 12 stones. And then Joshua says, We also have a problem. We've got to have a Passover. You see, we're coming over on the 10th. We've got four days to get ready. We've got to pile some stones first, and then we've got to get some sheep ready. We've got to get ready for the Passover. We've got to have a lamb. We've got to have some unleavened bread. We've got to take the yeast out of everything. Quit making the big loaves of bread and start making flat crackers. We've got to get the yeast out. We've got to get the sin out. Get the leaven out. And we've got to get this all ready, because we're going to have a Passover, and it's coming. It's going to be on the 14th, remember? 14th day, we're going to cook all this stuff. And at nighttime, when the sun goes down, and it becomes Friday, we're going to sit down, and we're going to eat Passover. And then Joshua says, And after we eat Passover, I'm going to get my flat knife out. And for the next several days, we've got to circumcise every male who has come across in the wilderness wandering, and we've got to make every one of them a bar mitzvah, a son of the covenant. Kind of interesting, isn't it? And the funny thing is, as Brother Jimmy gets ready to attack Jericho, Joshua has to wait for all these guys to get well. I mean, you can't attack an enemy, and you have everybody circumcised. You're not going to be able to do that right now. So Joshua's got a way for everybody to get well. And when Joshua gets everybody well, then he says, Okay, let's go look at Jericho. And that's where Brother Jimmy will take over in two weeks. And Joshua goes to the wall, he meets a person at the wall. I'll let Brother Jimmy tell you who he is. Okay, next week, we get together. We're going to talk about these stones, and we're going to talk about what they really mean, and how is there, or do you have anything in your house which is memorialized about you? Barbara and I, on our 50th wedding anniversary, took a psalm and had it printed. And on our 50th wedding anniversary, we had all of our children on a ship in the Caribbean. And we had dinner that night on July the 5th. We had dinner with all of our kids on the ship. And we gave them a copy of this memorial psalm. If you come to our house and come to our bedroom, it sits in our bedroom against the lamp. And here's what it says in essence. And may all who come behind us find us faithful. May the fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the light we live inspire them to obey. Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful. That is our memorial sheet. It's in our house, very much a part of our home. You see, everybody's got to have some kind of memorial. And next week, Joshua's going to build a big stone memorial. And then, they're going to Passover. And when Passover happens, Nana stops. And then, circumcision. It's going to be a good Sunday, right? So, God bless you, and have a wonderful week. And again, M is for the million things she gave us. O, only that she's growing old. T for the tears she said to save us. H is for her heart that's pure as gold. E is for our eyes with love like shining. R is right, and right she'll always be. Put them all together, they spell the one who means so much to me. Remember her in heaven. Remember her if she's here on earth. God bless you. May we be as faithful as the children of Israel were faithful. Heavenly Father, thank you for this lesson of Joshua. Thank you for helping us to understand how miraculous a God you are. Help us to understand that you don't let all your secrets out one at a time. That you show us a river we can't cross. Tell us to head for it and cross it, and by the time we get there, you've taken care of it. Thank you, Father, for all the miracles you do in our lives, and all the healing, and the care, and the provision, and the possessions you give us. Thank you, Father, for loving us in Jesus Christ and giving us eternal life through him. Thank you, Father, for saving us. Thank you for all you do. May we remember you and memorialize the kingdom of God, of which you are the eternal King, and Christ our beloved Savior, and the Holy Spirit, he who infills us all. And may we live through this week the moral lives for the kingdom of God, magnified by Jesus Christ, saved by his redemptive blood, and filled with his Holy Spirit. May we all love you and adore you, and may we do it in the name of him who said, come unto me, and I will show you great and mighty things which you know not, even Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen. See you next week.