The Promised Land Part 2

NOTE: the following is my manuscript and will be different than the sermon recording.

Do you have some artifact that reminds you of a significant moment in your life? 

I have a few medals and certificates. Last year’s half-marathon, a flag football championship trophy, my college degrees, a few certificates for various accomplishments.

Who earned these? I did. I earned them. I worked for them. They are my accomplishments.

Perhaps you have similar items. A piece of paper to show you accomplished something. Trophies or medals. 

What about things God has done? Do you have any certificates, medals, or trophies to commemorate God’s accomplishments in your life? Anything that reminds you of his faithfulness, his provision, his promises fulfilled? Some event that is only explained if you attribute it to God?

I have a diamond willow walking staff. It is something given to all the Bachelor Degree grads at Prairie College. While the piece of paper is proof that I did the work to complete the degree, the staff is a reminder that the degree is relatively worthless unless God gives it life. When God called Moses from the burning bush, he asked, what is that you have in your hand? Moses said, a staff. And God gave it life, turning it into a snake. That staff was used to show the power of God to the Egyptians, to part the Red Sea, and to bring water from a rock. 

It wasn’t the staff that had power. When Moses tried the same trick of striking a rock to bring forth water a second time, God rebuked him because God’s instruction was to speak to the rock. He made it about a formula, thinking the staff was the source of power. 

So, this staff reminds me that it is not an education that will make me useful to God. It is only his presence and power that gives life, and he will use whatever is in our hands if we surrender it to him.

When the Israelites took possession of the Promised Land, whose accomplishment was that? What about everything that led up to that? Go all the way back to Joseph. God showed him favour and made him a ruler in Egypt so that through him the nation of Israel would survive a devastating famine. 

And when Egypt became fearful of the Israelites and enslaved them for four hundred years, how were they liberated? Did Moses do it? No, God did it. He delivered them, brought them to Mount Sinai, and then provided all they needed so they would survive the journey to Canaan. 

What did Israel do? Nothing that could credit them for their own survival. And in this second message of the sermon series taking us through Joshua and Judges, we will see that only God can get the credit for their next step in the journey. 

There is much that could be said about Joshua chapters two to four. We will focus on the first nine verses of chapter four. 

“When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, and command them, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.’ ” Then Joshua summoned the twelve men whom he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe. Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial forever.” The Israelites did as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua, carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there. (Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood, and they are there to this day.)” 

Throughout this series, we are thinking about the question, “What sort of people can possess the Promised Land?” In today’s message, the answer is, “The sort of people who remember what the Lord has done.” The word remember is not merely the ability to recall information. It implies the transformative power of what is being remembered. 

The purpose of the stone memorial

Joshua told the Israelites that the stone memorial will be a way for them to keep the story of the Jordan river crossing forever etched in the collective memory of God’s people. 

He said, “When your children ask what the stones mean to you [plural], you will tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.”

If you struggle with remembering things, it can be helpful to have something that will trigger your memory. You’ve probably heard of people tying a piece of string around a finger. The string has no significance of its own. It only exists so that you will think to yourself, or someone else may ask you, “Why is the string there?” Then, you can go back in your memory and recall what you didn’t want to forget.

The stone memorial isn’t a magical or holy object. It is there to trigger a memory. And the memory it is meant to trigger is that the waters of the Jordan were cut off. 

This memory is significant because it says something about the sort of God the Israelites are trusting as they enter the Land. Remembering who God is will give courage to this nation who is chosen to be the source of humanity’s salvation, to bear the fruit of a new humanity. 

This can only be done if they trust God. And the memory of the waters being cut off shows them why they can trust God. Let’s look at the significance of this memory.

The significance of the waters being cut off

It is said twice, “the waters of the Jordan were cut off.” This is what they are to remember. It’s a very specific part of all that happened surrounding the events between arriving at Canaan’s border and their possession of the land. 

And of course, if a family was visiting the memorial stones together, and a child asked about the meaning of the stones, more would be said than simply, “the waters of the Jordan were cut off.” Depending on how much time they had and the attention span of the children, the story tellers might start at Abraham, or Joseph, or the Red Sea crossing. 

They might tell of how God rescued their ancestors from slavery, from being wiped out by the elements of the wilderness, or that he forgave them when they rebelled. 

But, there is a reason that this specific moment, when the waters of the Jordan were cut off, was chosen as moment of significance. It has to do with the idea that Yahweh controls water. Remember the most important question to ask when seeking to understand Scripture. What does this say about God?

If you are familiar with stories in the Bible, think for a moment about the relationship between God and water. What are some events in the Bible that come to mind?

What is it about water? To ancient people, large bodies of water such as lakes and oceans represented chaos. To have control over water was to be supernaturally powerful, so for them it was an attribute of the gods.

God’s command over the water 

So we come back to the question a child might ask: “What do those stones mean to you?”

The answer is found all throughout Scripture. The God who cut off the waters of the Jordan is the same God who, in the beginning, hovered over the face of the waters. Water in the opening verses of Genesis is not a force that threatens God; it is a substance he organizes and arranges according to his will. He separates the waters above from the waters below. He gathers them and calls the dry land to appear. From the very beginning, the waters go where God tells them to go.

That same God parted the Red Sea so His people could walk through on dry ground. That same God halted the Jordan at flood stage so a new generation could enter the land. These were never displays of power for their own sake. They are to show the people a lesson in trust. 

Whether God divides the waters to make a way for his people, or he unleashes the the waters as an act of judgment. Whether he withholds the rain or sends it, God is never at the mercy of the elements. The waters are his servants. And what is true of literal water is true of what water represents. 

When Israel’s children asked what the stones meant, this was the heart of the answer: there is nothing outside the control of our God.

And this same authority belongs to Jesus. When the disciples were certain they would drown, he spoke to the wind and the waves, and there was a great calm. Only God commands the sea like that. When Jesus walked across the water to his terrified followers, he was revealing his identity. He was the one in the beginning who moved the waters as he pleased. 

The one who cut off the waters of the Jordan is the one who calmed the storm. 

And where does the story end? In John’s vision of the new heaven and the new earth, he writes this: 

“I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.” (Revelation 21:1–6)

For most of Scripture the sea has stood for chaos, for everything restless and untamed. And in the end it is simply gone. Not because God finally won a struggle against it, but because in the renewed creation there is no chaos left to hold back. 

This does not mean there will literally be no water. In fact, the water in the new creation is the spring of the water of life. 

So the question comes back around to us. What sort of people can possess the Promised Land? 

The sort of people who remember what the Lord has done.