Already and Not Yet

Scripture: Joshua 3

Sermon: Already and Not Yet

Topics: Baal, idols, Jordan River, names of God

Preached: June 19, 2011

Rev. Mike Abma

3Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites, and they came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing over. ²At the end of three days the officers went through the camp ³and commanded the people, ‘When 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. Follow it, ⁴so that you may know the way you should go, for you have not passed this way before. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits; do not come any nearer to it.’ ⁵Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’ ⁶To the priests Joshua said, ‘Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass on in front of the people.’ So they took up the ark of the covenant and went in front of the people.

7 The Lord said to Joshua, ‘This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses. ⁸You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, “When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.” ’ ⁹Joshua then said to the Israelites, ‘Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God.’ ¹⁰Joshua said, ‘By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites: ¹¹the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan. ¹²So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. ¹³When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap.’

14 When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people. ¹⁵Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water, ¹⁶the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing towards the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea,^* were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

Joshua 3 and 4 are about Israel crossing the Jordan river.

Read both chapters, and you realize it is not a straightforward telling of the story.

Various items are repeated.

For example, the word “Jordan” occurs 28 times.

The verb for “crossing” occurs 21 times.

And the ark of the covenant is mentioned 15 times.

There are also a few lingering chronology questions and geography questions.

How long did the crossing take — 3 days, or 3 days plus several more days?

Did the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stand on the edge of the river or in the middle of the river?

When the Jordan River turned to dry ground, did the water stand still or was it cut off?

Scholars will say that things are so jumbled because the story has been knit together from a number of different sources.

But there seems to be a deeper reason to it than that.

The crossing of the Jordan gets more attention than any other event in the book of Joshua — more attention than any battle, even the battle for Jericho.

Clearly the writers of Joshua want us to linger for a while on the shore of the Jordan River so that we see that something more than simply crossing a river is going on here.

So that is what we are going to do – linger, and look rather closely at this text.

THE RIVER AND ITS ALLEGED GOD

First, let’s look over the river.

Verse 15 says the river was overflowing because it was harvest-time.

For this region the grain harvest would be sometime in April-May (our spring).

The river is deep and wide — swollen by springtime floods.

What we see is a river at its highest and most powerful.

The chapter begins with Israel camped at the edge of the river for 3 days.

The Canaanites on the other side of the river would have known they were there.

Every military general knows that one of the most risky maneuvers for an army is to cross a river. Crossing a river leaves you exposed and vulnerable. If the Canaanites were at all concerned about Israel crossing at this time, they would have stationed troops on the west bank. They must have assumed that the river was offering them enough protection.

But it wasn’t only the river that they assumed was offering them protection. For these Canaanites, the River Jordan was the domain of Baal.

Baal was the storm-god.

Baal was the god responsible for rain, for floods, for fertility.

Baal was the god the Canaanites looked to for prosperity.

Baal was also the god the Canaanites looked to for protection.

In the Epics of Baal that historians have translated,

Baal is the god who battles death – drought (Mot)

Baal also battles chaos – like the chaos of a raging river.

Who controls the raging river – Baal does.

That is why, in these Epics of Baal, he is called “Lord of the earth.”

Baal is the one the Canaanites turned to

for prosperity

for protection

for peace

GOD INVADES

Now here is Israel, on the shores of the Jordan, ready to invade Canaan.

And who begins the invasion?

Who goes first?

The ark of the covenant goes first.

That is something we are continually reminded of.

The ark of the covenant is mentioned 10 times in chapter 3 alone.

The ark of the covenant leads,

and the people of Israel follow at a safe distance.

Verse 4 notes the Israelites had to stay about 1 km away from the ark (2/3 of a mile).

God may be good, but he is not safe – to quote C.S. Lewis.

Of course, the ark of the covenant represents the presence of Yahweh,

the presence of God.

God is literally leading the charge into Canaan.

And in entering the Jordan River,

the God of Israel is invading the domain of Baal,

He is going head to head with the Baal gods of the Canaanites.

That raises another unique point about this chapter:

the names used for God.

In verse 10, Joshua says,

“by this you shall know that among you is the living God.”

The living God — el ha’.

Why this name?

Well, it was to contrast the dead idols of the Canaanites.

There is another unique name for God in this chapter, only used 4 other times in the Old Testament. In verse 11 we read:

The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you;

And in verse 13, we read

When the soles of the feet of the priest who bear the ark of the Lord,

the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan,

the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off.

Lord of all the earth – Adonai kal ha ‘ aeretz.

Again, the name is a challenge to Baal.

Baal is not the Lord of the earth.

Yahweh is Lord of the earth!

Then the power of Yahweh is dramatically displayed.

Here we have this raging river, at flood levels, and God cuts it off.

God makes it stand still.

God pushes it back and allows his people to walk across on dry ground.

If the crossing of the Red Sea years ago was a dramatic escape,

this miracle is a dramatic invasion.

God is on the loose. Baal look out!

And so begins Israel’s invasion of Canaan.

By the end of Joshua,

Israel controls everything from the headwaters of the Jordan river,

near Mount Hermon in the north,

to the Negev wilderness south of the Dead Sea in the south.

If you read Joshua 11 – 13, you discover that the northernmost Canaanite town Israel captures is called Baal-gad (11:17; 12:7; 13:5)

Baal-gad was located north of the Sea of Galilee,

at the source or the headwaters of the Jordan river valley.

It was called Baal-gad because it was a Baal shrine.

In the Canaanite culture,

the whole Jordan River watershed,

from Baal-gad in the north, to the Negev in the south

was Baal’s terrain,

Baal’s domain.

But here, in Joshua 3, we have the beginning of Baal’s end.

Before one Israelite soldier has unsheathed his sword,

before one shout is made,

before one charge is launched,

God has proclaimed who is in charge.

Baal is done.

Yahweh is the Living God, Lord of all the earth.

ALREADY and NOT YET

In a way, Joshua 3 reminds me of the D-day invasion on the beaches of Normandy during World War II.

On D-Day, the troops landed on the French shoreline.

A position on the mainland had been secured.

The war was not yet over, but victory was assured.

The Allies had already won,

even though battles would still need to be fought.

And so it is here.

The war may not be over, but victory for Israel is assured.

Israel had already won, but battles still needed to be fought.

When Israel conquered Canaan,

Baal was defeated — but not eliminated

By the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua is issuing a challenge:

“Choose this day whom you will serve:

The living Lord or the Baals of the Canaanites?”

By the beginning of the book of Judges,

Baal worship had again wormed its way into people’s lives.

We live with our own sense of the already and the not yet.

We know that by his death and resurrection,

Jesus has already defeated death.

He has already disarmed the powers of darkness (Col. 2:15)

He is already seated at the right hand of the Father,

and all things have already been placed under the soles of his feet (Eph.1:19-20) .

But our struggles are not yet over.

Idols still linger in our lives.

I think most of us will admit we’re not perfect.

We will admit that we still sin.

But I think we are more reluctant to admit that

the underlying cause of our sin is idolatry.

Even that word “idol” is something we hardly ever use,

or even know how to use.

When we think of idols, we tend to think of little odd looking statues,

instead of thinking of the things in life

that still promise

peace,

prosperity

and protection.

The truth is,

we also live in the already and not yet.

Christ has already won the war, his kingdom has come.

And yet, we still fight our daily battles with temptations, with idols.

So where should we look for our idols?

How can we do a little diagnostic to gauge whether

we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength?

Like an anti-virus check of our computer,

here is a way to do an anti-idolatry check of our hearts.

Here are 3 parts of our life to scan: time, money and emotions.

First, do a diagnostic on our time.

One theologian once wrote that religion refers to what we do with our solitude.

In other words, what do we find ourselves daydreaming about?

What are these dreams promising?

And do these dreams find their way into our days – the decisions we make, the choices we choose, the priorities we set?

Second, do a diagnostic on our money.

So many of our priorities in life are reflected in the budget of our life.

How do we make money? Do we earn our money in ethical ways?

How do we spend it?

How generous are we with it?

These are not simply economic questions – these are religious questions.

Lastly, do a diagnostic on our emotions.

What makes you angry — what is there that you need to protect?

What makes you afraid – what are you afraid of losing?

And what makes you disappointed — what is so close to your heart, that if it were removed, your heart would ache?

Our emotions are keys to what lies closest to our hearts.

Our emotions are entangled with what we treasure.

Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.

CONCLUSION

And so we struggle.

We struggle with the idols of our life.

But we struggle on the far shore.

We struggle as those who have already been given the victory

We struggle as God’s people:

people who have passed through the water.

The water we have passed through is not the Jordan river

but the waters of baptism.

In baptism, we have followed Christ in his death.

We have followed Christ in his resurrection.

In baptism, we know we belong to Christ.

In him is the victory.

In him alone

is peace,

and prosperity

and protection.

Through him alone are we more than conquerors in all things. Amen