[0:00] As you're settling into your seats, if you join me, please, in Joshua chapter 3. As you're getting there, recall that we have been and we will be taking some strides to the Old Testament up until Advent season this year.
[0:17] We've been doing this now for quite a few months, really working at helping you see the larger narrative, what's happening throughout the entirety of the scripture with this particular focus on the Old Testament, right?
[0:31] We see in Genesis chapter 1, God creates the world and then he rests. Things are good and they are completed, right?
[0:41] And intends to reign in this place with his people. We see very quickly, beginning of Genesis chapter 3, a disruption of that rest.
[0:55] And so the rest of the story is bringing us back to that place. How is it that God then reestablishes, restores all things and brings his people back into relationship with him forever, right?
[1:10] It's a big, grand narrative. And it's really easy to get lost in the details. And so we've been hoping as we just kind of jump through the Old Testament narrative to bring you back to that redemptive story.
[1:22] What is it that God is accomplishing? And we're looking at some of these very major events in this storyline. Now, we have attempted to do it in 14 weeks.
[1:34] I used up one of them last week with something else, so we're trying to do it in 13 weeks. So we've skipped some significant things, like we talked about the creation story, Genesis chapter 1 and 2, the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3, but then we skipped all the way to Genesis chapter 12 to talk about the calling of Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant.
[1:53] So we skipped over the flood as an example. We went on to talk about the call of Moses to deliver Israel from bondage to Egypt in Exodus chapter 3, the Mosaic covenant of Exodus chapter 19, so the giving of the law as an extension of the Abrahamic covenant.
[2:13] And we talked about the rebellion of the Israelites in Numbers chapter 14. So to give us some immediate context for this morning, I want to read to you from Numbers chapter 14, where the people have sent into the land spies.
[2:31] There's 12 of them. They have come back and given the report that the people of the land are too great. They cannot be conquered. Ten of them say this, two do not, and God punishes this generation who believes those who say that God won't fulfill his promise because of the might of the people of the land.
[2:51] So beginning in Numbers chapter 14, verse 26 and following, and the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me?
[3:02] I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, as I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you.
[3:13] Your dead body shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number listed in the census from 20 years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.
[3:33] But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead body shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness 40 years and shall suffer for your faithlessness until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.
[3:54] So there's this punishment placed on Israel, right? That they'll stay in the land for 40 years. And at the end of that, when that generation passed, the little ones, the ones that will grow up then in this wilderness, will be the ones that will go in to the promised land.
[4:12] It's during this time that most scholars believe that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, often called the Pentateuch, right? He's telling, retelling, and telling to this generation that they would know what they need to know to enter into this land, right?
[4:29] It's believed that Joshua completes the book of Deuteronomy, records Moses' death, and then writes this book about these people going into this land.
[4:40] So there's two spared from this judgment. They're the two spies that said, no, let's go and take the land because God has promised. And they're Caleb and Joshua.
[4:51] So this 40 years has passed, and we see at the beginning of the book of Joshua, the first three verses records, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead.
[5:07] Now, therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, and you and all this people into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.
[5:22] And we see in chapter 2 that spies go in once again. There's a wonderful story there I would encourage you to read. And they come back and say, the people are afraid of us.
[5:34] And this bolsters the confidence of the Israelites to go into the land. So let's read our text. This will be all of Joshua chapter 3. Before we read, let me remind you, beloved, that this is God's word to us.
[5:46] It was written for his glory and our good. And we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and to obey its commands. Beginning in verse 1, chapter 3. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Shittim.
[6:01] And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days, the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.
[6:21] Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. This is about a half a mile. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.
[6:38] And Joshua said to the people, Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people. So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
[6:51] The Lord said to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.
[7:09] And Joshua said to the people of Israel, Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
[7:30] Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.
[7:55] So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water, now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest.
[8:12] The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, or Adam probably, in our English. The city that is beside Zerathon and those flowing down from the sea of the Arabah, the salt sea, were completely cut off, and the people passed over opposite Jericho.
[8:33] Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stirred firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.
[8:46] Right? So there's a lot going on in this chapter, right? A significant episode in the life of Israel, right? Speaking to the faithfulness of Israel in this moment, to the promises of God.
[9:02] So we have an opportunity this morning to observe the faith of the Israelites and to have our faith increased. So we'll look at the text in the following three points.
[9:12] I promise I won't satisfy every answer you may have about this text because we just don't have time this morning. But we'll structure it this way. Number one, the order of faith. Number two, the obedience of faith.
[9:27] And number three, the object of faith. Order, obedience, object. And I am always so proud of myself when I alliterate. Three points. So for a moment, let me gloat.
[9:38] I did it. Three points. Order, obedience, object. Number one, the order of faith. We will not spend much time on this first point, but I believe that it is important to see that God makes promises and his people believe those promises in that order.
[9:57] If you go and do a search for sermons on Joshua chapter three, you're going to see lots of sermons with the prominent point being obedience. And it's there.
[10:07] It is in the text, right? We must note that yes, in fact, the Israelites obeyed. That is important for us today. We must also obey. But I don't think we see that as the main point.
[10:21] We don't want to miss what's happening as God is redeeming a people. We will lose sight of the entire narrative if we don't recognize that the Israelites were not deserving people.
[10:35] We are not deserving people. God chose them despite their faithfulness, right? This people that came from Abraham, We find out that Abraham was an idolater.
[10:49] Abraham had done nothing to deserve God's favor, and yet God made a covenant with him. He promised to bless him with a land, right? With seed, a great people, right?
[11:01] That would be a blessing to all nations. And he did this before Abraham had done anything. He had only been an idolater up until that point.
[11:11] So he chose a people for his glory. He's chosen us despite our faithlessness. If we are in Christ this morning, not a single one of us did anything to merit God's favor for us.
[11:27] If you don't believe this, you need to be humbled by your sin, right? We do not deserve God's grace and his mercy. He does this very act, the saving of a people, right?
[11:39] So that he can put on display his mercy and his grace. That he would have a people who say, right, if it were not but for the mercy and grace of God, I would be utterly destitute.
[11:52] I would be cut off from him. I would not choose to follow God in Christ, but because he saved me, I follow him willfully.
[12:04] So you want to note in our text, right? Joshua is saying to them, he's reminding them of what God has promised he would do. He's saying to them, you are God's people.
[12:18] Remember these promises that we've been waiting for 40 years. Your parents have been telling you, you will not go into the land or we will not go into the land, but you will, right? This is what he's reminding them of.
[12:30] Verse five, he says, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you. The Lord will work. He will act to bring you into the land.
[12:43] And then verse 10 and verse 11, here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites, right?
[13:01] Will they be agents in that driving out? Yes. God will use them to drive out these people, to bring judgment upon these peoples.
[13:13] But it's very clear here, Joshua says, that it will be the Lord's doing. And then the guarantee of this, he says in verse 11, is the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan, right?
[13:28] God is about to put on display his power so that you will believe that he will act as you are faithful to him. So we have to get this order correct, right?
[13:41] We must be very, very careful about this. Many of us who are in Christ can err in this way, right? Thinking now that we're in Christ, somehow we continue to earn his favor by our works.
[13:55] May it never be, right? We work because we're saved, not the other way around. Some of you may think that if I just do enough, there's enough of a Christendom injected into you in your upbringing.
[14:08] If I just look just so, so, right? If I have the faith of my parents, then I will be accepted by God. We must be accepted by God in Christ.
[14:19] It's an important order to get correct. So I want to show you that order. They're riding the coattails, right, of this order of faith that began with Abraham.
[14:31] So I want you to turn back quickly to Genesis chapter 15. You can mark us here. We will be back in Joshua chapter 3. We're most certainly not done with it, but kind of in a rushed way, I'm going to read quite a bit of Genesis chapter 15.
[14:49] Connecting you to the bigger narrative, right? So after these things, verse 1 of chapter 15, after these things, right? Much time has passed since the original covenant was given to Abraham.
[15:00] Roughly 25 years. He's fought a war to rescue Lot, right? Lots of stuff has gone on. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram.
[15:11] I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.
[15:24] It would seem that Abram has appointed an heir. If I should die, this Eleazar of Damascus will be my heir. Verse 3, And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.
[15:41] And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, this man shall not be your heir, for your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Now, I think there is an element of faltering faith.
[15:56] We're going to read in a little bit that Paul magnifies the faith of Abraham. And I think he's right to do so, but I think we're seeing this transition happen here in the text right now.
[16:08] He seems to have some faltering faith. He says to God, what will you give me? I don't have a son. I've made this guy Eleazar a son. He's trying to accomplish kingdom through his servant rather than through a son because he's 100 years old at this point.
[16:23] 99 years old. He has no son. So God, in his loving kindness, brings him outside, verse 5, and says, Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them.
[16:36] It's a rhetorical question. He can't. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be, right? And here in verse 6, we see this really key phrase.
[16:48] And it's repeated again and again throughout the Bible, particularly the New Testament. And he, being Abram, believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.
[16:59] So he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. His belief itself was not righteousness, right? This was a righteousness from outside of himself.
[17:11] The Lord counted it to him, credited it to him, right? So he believed God and God declared him righteous. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.
[17:30] But he said, O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? He said to him, Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
[17:41] And he brought him all these, cut them in half and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
[17:52] As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Okay, now there's a lot of strange things happening here. We won't have time to talk about each and every one of them.
[18:05] But this was an old covenant keeping method, right? If you and I were to make a promise with one another, we might take an animal and we would tear it in two. And we would put it on the ground and we would pass together between that.
[18:15] And it was a way of saying, if I don't keep my end of this bargain, like let what happened to this animal happen to me. It's a very serious, somber way of making the covenant, right?
[18:26] Even as this is being recorded here in Genesis, Moses assumes everybody knows, right? He doesn't give a lot of textual explanation as to why this thing happened because in his thinking, everyone knows, understands what's happening here as the Lord does this.
[18:42] But something very significant happens in verse 12. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And the previous place that we see this deep sleep, same Hebrew phrase used, is when Adam was put to sleep and a rib was taken from his side and the woman was made.
[18:59] The point being, Adam was entirely passive in that process, right? He is asleep and so was Abram. Abram has nothing to do with this covenant that's being made.
[19:10] This is entirely a promise being made and therefore kept by God. Verse 13, Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years.
[19:26] He's talking about Egypt. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
[19:43] When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. These two things, smoke and fire, represent God on earth, his presence itself.
[19:57] So think about the burning bush, think about Mount Sinai on flame and with smoke. So these two things represent God's very presence making this covenant promise as it passes between these pieces.
[20:10] Verse 18, On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your offspring I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Giggishites, and the Jebusites.
[20:29] You notice some of those names that are familiar to Joshua chapter 3. So Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness.
[20:41] He did not act. He merely believed. Paul picks this up in Romans chapter 4. He writes, In hope, Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations.
[20:55] As he had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.
[21:09] No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. Fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.
[21:25] Right? He's quoting there from Genesis chapter 15. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone but for ours also.
[21:37] It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
[21:48] We're going to talk a bit more about the typology of Joshua chapter 3 if you'd like to turn back there. But you see God's people having been promised an inheritance that they've not yet entered.
[22:03] They've not yet entered into it and yet they're going to. Right? We're about to see that happen. We've read it already. We're going to talk a bit about it here in just a moment. Right? They're obedient from faith that God will accomplish.
[22:18] And we approach God in the very same way. Right? The promise made to us. The inheritance that is ours. The eternal rest that is promised us that is found in Christ.
[22:28] Right? This is not because we work to do it. Right? It's because God makes a promise we believe and that is counted to us credited to us as righteousness.
[22:40] Right? So the order of faith matters. It matters quite a deal. Now secondly the obedience of faith. We're actually not going to spend a whole lot of time here.
[22:52] We see that the people obey. Right? They believe in God and they believe what God said will come to pass. We are astute learners of our Bible. If you have read the book of Joshua before, we're going to see all sorts of failure to faithfulness.
[23:08] Right? Just chapters later, we already see them not obeying God's commands. But in Joshua chapter 3, right, praise God, we see an example of their obedience to what God has asked for them to do.
[23:20] Right? We do not become God's people by our works, but our works show us to be God's people. Verse 6, Joshua said to the priest, take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people.
[23:35] And simply recorded, so they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. Right? I love these instances in the scripture where we merely get the command and the obedience to the command.
[23:47] No dialogue in between, no resistance at all. They just did what they were told to do. Last part of verse 16, and the people passed over opposite Jericho.
[23:58] Right? They did the very thing that they were commanded to do. They followed the Ark at a distance. It went into the water. The water was parted and they passed over. Verse 17, now the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant Lord stirred firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan just as they were commanded to do.
[24:15] Right? They stayed there and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. Right? So they did the thing that they were commanded to do.
[24:28] They did the thing that their parents' generation had failed to do. Right? They rightly, properly feared God over the inhabitants of the land.
[24:39] Right? Their parents had done quite the opposite. The parents had feared the people of the land instead of fearing God. On your bulletin this morning I always try to put these historical quotations.
[24:52] This is William Gurnall a Puritan preacher. He said we fear men so much because we fear God so little. One fear cures another.
[25:03] When man's terror scares you turn your thoughts to the wrath of God. Right? If the previous generation had done this they would have gone on over.
[25:13] Right? The story would have been told differently. Right? They feared the armies of the land but if they had instead feared what would happen had they not obeyed they would have gone over and instead they stayed as a judgment in the wilderness for those 40 years.
[25:29] Each of them perished in that place. Here's a generation that fears God more than man and so they go over. Right? So if we have faith it's going to be evidence.
[25:43] Right? James speaks about this. This is his very point in his letter. Right? If we have faith it will have evidence. It will bear fruit. So we must be obedient but we must get the order of that faith correct.
[25:59] Finally and we're going to spend a little more time here so I'm going to speed up a little bit. The object of faith. We cannot just have faith. There's a declare I have faith.
[26:10] Right? The object of our faith matters immensely. What is it that you believe? If you say you have faith, what is it that you believe or have belief in?
[26:22] And this text helps us to see who we must place our faith in. And it does so typologically. Okay? So I'm going to talk a little bit about typology in just a moment.
[26:34] But it's important to know that the Old Testament is written in an Eastern way of thinking. most of us naturally have a very Western way of thinking.
[26:45] Our logic is extremely linear. It moves along like this. This is not the typical way that Eastern thinkers think. So they will do things like not this, not this, not this, but this.
[27:02] Leave you wondering, wait, if it's not that, if it's not that, if it's not that, then what could it be? And they help draw the conclusion in that way. The scripture does that. A way that it does that, a simple example, is the law making us right with God.
[27:17] No, not that. It helps point to our insufficiency to keep the law, so it leaves us saying, so then what? I can't keep the law, and there's a curse that accompanies with the breaking of the law, that is death, then what?
[27:33] What must we do? And the Bible answers that question. So, not this, not this, not this, but this. another way, also, like this, but not quite this.
[27:48] And we see that in some of our literature, our western literature will foreshadow things. scripture does this quite often, right? This is called typology.
[28:00] An example of that is the sacrifice on the day of atonement, right? A particular day, high priest went in, one day a year, made this sacrifice, right? It wasn't sufficient to forgive the sins of Israel.
[28:12] It was meant to show us like this, but not quite like this, right? Another example would be the Passover, the lamb, the spotless lamb that had to be killed. The Israelites painted the blood on the doorpost so that the angel of death would pass over him.
[28:26] Again, like this, right? A sacrifice had to be made, but not quite, right? There's a type, like the spotless lamb that was killed for that reason. Then there's what's called the anti-type, right?
[28:39] The fulfillment of the actual thing that it's being pointed to. So the Old Testament is full of this. Graham Cole, a contemporary scholar, defined typology, in this way.
[28:53] Typology is the idea that persons, events, and institutions can, in the plan of God, prefigure a later stage in that plan and provide the conceptuality necessary for understanding the divine intent.
[29:08] You know what that means? That if the Old Testament is in fact full of these kinds of typologies, that the New Testament is going to be so much richer to you as you read the Old Testament, as you come to understand that part of this redemptive narrative is going to become much, much more alive to you.
[29:24] Our New Testament writers quoted the Old Testament all the time. They're constantly pulling from it. They're constantly pulling it in. We shouldn't unhitch our faith from the Old Testament. In fact, our faith should be rich with the Old Testament because it helps us to understand our Christ.
[29:40] It helps us to fully realize everything that he came and accomplished and will accomplish. And we want to be careful with typology. It is possible to allegorize all of the Bible.
[29:52] We don't want to be doing this. This is not a healthy thing to do, but we can also miss so much of the richness of the text if we don't examine it closely. Jonathan Edwards encouraged a typological reading of the Old Testament.
[30:06] He said, the apostle himself teaches us that only so small a thing as the silence of scripture is in not giving an account of Melchizedek's birth nor death was typological.
[30:17] This is Hebrews chapter 7. The author of Hebrews says he had no beginning and no end simply because the scripture doesn't tell us that there was a beginning and an end to Melchizedek. Of course, he does that under inspiration, but it gives us some clues like, wait, there's some rich things happening in the Old Testament.
[30:35] Edward goes on to say, if so small things in scripture are typological, it is rational to suppose that scripture abounds with types. So with this in mind, I want to show you three types from this text that speak to the proper object of faith, but before I can do so, we need to understand the significance of the Jordan crossing.
[30:57] I think a lot of us in our minds have this very insignificant picture of the Jordan crossing. The Jordan River is not as large as the Red Sea, so our minds really ought to be hearkening back to the Exodus crossing.
[31:10] This is again that same pattern being done again. This is a new generation. They're going to cross over waters. And you'll see some people will argue this really wasn't very significant, the passing over the Jordans, smaller, more of a creek than a river, so to speak.
[31:26] But there are some places that it's very big, and there's something really specific in the text that helps us to know, no, this is actually a pretty substantial event, and that is the parenthetical in verse 15.
[31:38] Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So it's not just the Jordan River, it's the Jordan River flooded.
[31:49] It is outside of its banks. Anytime a river floods, we get big rains like this and the water comes up. I used to be a whitewater kayaker, we loved rainy weather because water came up.
[32:01] But I will tell you when water comes out of its banks, it's a whole other level of flood. Things get dangerous when that happens. We had a time when it rained and rained and rained.
[32:14] I had like a week of solid rain, and all of the big rivers that we like to go paddle were too big. I mean, dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. So me and a friend went and got on the upper Chattahoochee, which normally is like a little class two river, not a real big deal, but it was flood stage like.
[32:29] The parking lot we normally parked in was underwater, and we just were young and dumb and thought, sure, let's get on. And we weren't too far downstream from our vehicles.
[32:40] When I looked over to my right, and a tree, its roots and everything lifted up out of the water. It had been underwater, so it got caught on something. The current picked it up out of the water, 40 feet in the air.
[32:52] A tree just emerged from the water, and it came crashing back down. And I said to my friend, Kevin, I'm not sure we should be on the river right now. And Kevin in classic form said, it'll be all right.
[33:03] And it was, praise God. We survived. But this is significant, right? The Jordan is flooded, right? This is a massive amount of water that's moving downstream.
[33:15] It has overflowed all of its banks. Now, we could go, okay, so that's the extent of that, right? It's just the fact that it's flooded. God's going to move a lot of water around. Wonderful. God is doing a mighty work.
[33:27] But floods and flooding are used both in reality, right? Genesis chapter six, God judges the world with a flood, puts a bow in the sky, promises to never judge the entire world through a flood again.
[33:43] But floods are still spoken of all throughout the scripture in terms of judgment, right? Judgment and deliverance from judgment all over the text, like used metaphorically in many, many places.
[33:55] I'm going to show you a few of those. I'm going to move really quick here. Job 27 and chapter 20. Terrors overtake the wicked man like a flood. In the night, a whirlwind carries him off.
[34:09] Psalm 69, verse 1 and 2. Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I stand in deep mire where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me.
[34:22] Nahum, chapter 1 and verse 8. But with an overwhelming flood, he will make a complete end of the adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness. Right? So lots of this kind of imagery exists in the scripture.
[34:36] And I believe that Joshua means for your mind to pop off when you see this flooded waters. They're about to cross over flooded waters. What's happened so far in the narrative with flood?
[34:46] Right? We've got the Genesis 6 flood, a judgment of the world. Right? We've got the deliverance from Egypt. And then what happens after Israel crosses over on dry land? Someone's judged. Right?
[34:57] All the pursuers from Egypt, the army gets judged by the waters coming back together, flooding, covering over them. So there's this picture of deliverance through flood.
[35:10] And our biblical authors pick this theme up as well. Psalm 124, beginning in verse 1. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive when their anger was kindled against us.
[35:28] Then the flood would have swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us. Right? So David in that psalm says, if God had not been on our side, that's what would have happened to us. But because he was, we were delivered.
[35:41] Psalm 18, beginning in verse 15 and following, then the channels of the sea were seen and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
[35:54] He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
[36:05] They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because he delighted in me.
[36:16] So you see this, this is the kind of things, the imagery that should be popping off in our brain as we're reading this account. And yet, God delivers them safely through.
[36:28] Safely through. Verse 15, So picture this flood plain.
[36:48] It got pushed way back upstream. And as far as we can tell, right, from historical maps to this city. I mean, I think it's probably properly pronounced Adam, but we say Adam.
[37:01] So five miles upstream. So significantly upstream. And it's piled up in a massive heap. Not divided like the Exodus waters from Egypt, right?
[37:14] But in this case, piled up upstream and everything else is dried out down below them. Right? I think this is because God is declaring to the peoples that they're about to cross over into, here comes Israel, right?
[37:26] Could he have walled it off right there where they were? Of course he could have. But he pushes it way upstream to dry up the land. And there's all these cities in the land that have seen something miraculous is happening here, right?
[37:39] You have to imagine that they would have heard that this great group of people has now crossed into this land because those waters were dried up, right? They were completely cut off, it says at the end of verse 16, and the people passed over opposite Jericho.
[37:55] Okay, so this is what's happening in this story, right? It's really happening, but it's also meant to help us understand something greater, right? A deliverance through flood is the theme we pick back up.
[38:07] And so we see three types for Christ in the text. First, Joshua. Joshua, his name means God is salvation. In the Hebrew, it's Yeshua.
[38:19] That's what the very name of Jesus is, right? So God is salvation. So this Joshua is a type for the eventual Joshua, right? Jesus Christ himself.
[38:29] He leads the people into the promised land, right? But Joshua and the land were typological. We read in Hebrews chapter 3, beginning of verse 7 and through chapter 4.
[38:42] And I'm going to spare you the reading of it for the sake of time because I know I'm running long today. But the author of Hebrews says that Joshua did not lead the people into that final rest.
[38:53] And he helps us to understand that there is a greater final rest, a way that is open to us. And he says, chapter 4, verse 3, for we who have believed enter that rest.
[39:05] As he has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. He's talking about that generation that did not get to go into the promised land, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
[39:16] For he has somewhere spoke of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest. He goes on to say, so then there remains Sabbath rest for the people of God.
[39:32] For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. So we're supposed to see that in this text, right? The New Testament reality is meant to make this come to life for us.
[39:47] It's teaching us something about the anti-type, Jesus Christ. He's going to lead us into the inheritance that is ours in Christ. Secondly, the Levites, right?
[39:59] These were priests. These were those who went before God on behalf of the people. Again, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11, and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
[40:14] But when Christ had offered for a single time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
[40:25] For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified, right? So you have a group of Levitical priests standing in the water that becomes dry ground on behalf of the people, right?
[40:40] The people are carried safely through because these men stand in that place, right? They're meant to help us see Christ. They're the type. Jesus is the anti-type, right?
[40:51] The perfect high priest. We no longer have need for priests, right? I am not a priest, right? We do not have an altar. We do not continually make sacrifice, right? Because Jesus made a sacrifice of himself once for all.
[41:06] And then finally, the last type is the ark itself. The ark itself. The ark was the most significant object in old covenant worship.
[41:19] It's a box overlaid with gold. And when it was tabernacled or in the temple, right, it was located in the Holy of Holies, right? Here, they're on the move. So it is now moving with them.
[41:31] A golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant were placed within the ark. Hebrews 9, 4 repeats this for us.
[41:43] The mercy seat covered the box. Images of two cherubim facing one another overshadowed the mercy seat. When God came down, dwelt in the Holy of Holies, his glory rested above the mercy seat.
[41:57] This visible glory rested there between these two cherubim. Right? This was the place that the sacrifice was made. The day of atonement sacrifice was made.
[42:08] Also meant to point us to Christ. But all of this elaborate picture of God's dwelling place, the ark itself, is a picture of the person and saving work of Christ.
[42:19] Christ. You remember, if you hear the telling of the Holy of Holies, the temple curtain torn from top to bottom, that temple curtain when Jesus died that was torn, granting access to God.
[42:32] Anybody know what was on the curtains? Two cherubim, right? Standing over that. When Mary Magdalene goes and finds Jesus, he's gone. He's gone from the tomb. What's on either side of the tomb?
[42:45] Two cherubim, right? There's two angels in that place. When we see the ark in the Old Testament, we're supposed to be seeing Christ. So again, carried and held in the middle of this river so that the water is pushed back up.
[42:59] It's in a heap, five miles upstream. This judgment is being held back by something that's meant to help us understand Christ.
[43:11] So we are saved through the flood because of Jesus. So I hope this morning that you're finding yourself in a place where you can rejoice with all of this.
[43:22] You can say yes and amen to every single bit of it. If you're not, I'm going to pray for you now. So let's pray together.