The lesson this week covers a large portion of the book of Joshua—five chapters. The curriculum understandably focuses on the story of Rahab, who was saved from the destruction of Jericho because of her faith in the Lord. But between the beginning and ending of her story is another that also should be told.
Chapters 3 and 4 tell of when Joshua led the people of God to cross the Jordan River. The passage is very repetitive, with the Hebrew verb for “cross” occurring 20 times and clearly showing the chapter’s emphasis—the crossing of the Jordan River. Through this dramatic event, the nation would be taught several important lessons from the Lord.
For example, they learned to let the Lord lead the way. In verse 3, the officers prepare the people for the crossing by telling them to wait until they see the ark of the covenant of the Lord being carried by the priests. Only then were they to leave. They were to follow the ark, a symbol of God’s presence.
Not only were they to follow the ark, they were told to keep a distance of 2,000 cubits—about half a mile—between themselves and the ark. The explanation for the distance given was, “in order that you may know the way you shall go” (v. 4).
On a physical level it makes sense that a crowd of thousands would best be able to follow something the size of the ark from a distance. But the distance between the people and the ark of the covenant also tells us something of the Lord of the covenant.
We are certainly called to follow the Lord. And as we follow him, he does give us wonderful promises of his presence, protection, provision and many other benefits. Yet even as God treats us with such grace and invites us to follow him, we must remember he is holy. People were struck dead for touching the ark. When the Lord showed up on Mount Sinai, the people could not even touch the mountain.
We are called to follow the Lord, but we must not lose sight that we are not God’s copilots. Jesus is not our “homeboy,” even if you have a t-shirt that says so. He is good and loving and merciful and, yes, he calls us friends. But he also is holy. And when we follow his lead, we should recognize that in his omniscience and wisdom, he is far ahead of us.
I also find it fascinating that the Lord chose to perform this miracle and to do it in the way he did. The Hebrew people, a large body of water (according to verse 15 the banks were flooded because of the spring rains and the melting snow), a wall of water (v. 16) and the ability to cross on dry land (v. 17)—sound familiar? Of course it does.
In fact, God makes the parallel with the crossing of the Red Sea explicit in 4:23: “For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over.”
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God already had done it once. Why did he need to do it again? This was a new generation, as chapter 5 makes clear. They had heard about the exodus, but they had not experienced it. God was mercifully giving them assurance he was for them the same God as he was for their fathers.
A second lesson we learn from this passage is that every generation needs to experience God for itself. We cannot rely upon the stories of faith from our parents and grandparents. We should praise God for a heritage of faith if we have one, but we cannot assume God’s mercy to those before us will spill over into our own lives. The God of our fathers wants to be our God personally, as well.
That God works in each of our lives personally means we are accountable to respond to him personally, as well. Just as we can’t rely upon God’s grace in our parents’ lives to be sufficient grace for our lives, so we can’t rely upon our parents’ faith in God to be sufficient faith for us.
In chapter 5, Joshua leads the people to be circumcised and to celebrate the Passover. They were in the Promised Land, and their victory already had been promised by God. But before seizing the land, the Israelites first observed two acts of obedience to the Lord. In 5:4-7, we are told this new generation had not been circumcised because they had been born since the Exodus. Now they’d experienced their own “exodus” in a way, by their miraculous Jericho crossing. Now they were to respond by entering into the covenant with the God who’d made a covenant with them.
Circumcision was the sign of entry into the covenant and signified a covenant relationship with the Lord. Passover celebrated the redemption from bondage, which was provided by the Lord for them because of that covenant relationship. Today, we have baptism and the Lord’s Supper as signs of the New Covenant we experience in Christ.
When one is baptized, she is identifying herself with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and saying to the world she is a new creature, born again into his covenant family. When one takes the Lord’s Supper, he is identifying the broken body and blood of Jesus as his spiritual nourishment and the price paid for his redemption.
Joshua put forward circumcision and Passover as an important moment for the nation before they took possession of the Land. As we anticipate the our final victory, when Christ comes again or calls us home, we should keep the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper before us, as well, as constant reminders of whose we are and how he bought us.
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