"Faith: Step Into the Water"
Josh. 3:13-16
13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD--the Lord of all the earth--set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap." 14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea ) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
Intro:
This is a tremendous story of faith and victory. It is truly a fantastic tale. It’s miraculous. It happened just the way the Lord said it would. The very moment the priests got their feet wet the water stopped and began to pile up on the one side and it trickled down on the other side. Israel crossed over Jordan on dry ground.
My question is, "Why?" Why did God choose to wait until the priests stepped into the water before He stopped the Jordan’s flow? I mean, why didn’t He perform the miracle first, and then have them walk across on dry ground? Why did they have to get their feet wet before He performed the miracle?
I have just one answer, and that’s faith. The Lord could have had them build a bridge, or a fleet of boats to cross the flooding Jordan river. But God wanted Israel to know that He would continue leading Joshua just as He had Moses. So He parted the waters for the second generation of wanderers as He had for their parents to engender the same confidence in His provision and in His selection of Joshua as their leader. He wanted to build their faith.
I believe that’s why He wanted to lead them across on dry ground. But what about having the priests dip their toes in the muddy waters? The same reason - faith. He could have had the ground dry when they approached the Jordan. But they were entering a land that held many battlefields. Ahead of them lie numerous perils and temptations. There would be times when they would need to hear God’s commands and follow them without hesitation. They needed something to build their faith.
They had to take Him at His word and believe that when the soles of their feet made contact with the waters of Jordan something miraculous would happen.
This is one of the principles of living by faith. The Lord does the miraculous. God provides. But not always up-front. Many times He expects us to take a leap of faith before anything miraculous takes place. When God calls us to a task it is often one that we are ill-equipped to tackle. We aren’t prepared for the things He asks us to do. Who can ford the Jordan at flood-stage? Who can make raging waters cease to flow? Only God. But if we will step out on faith then He will see us through.
If you will look back to the generation before Joshua’s crossing the Jordan you’ll see the same principle at work when Moses led their forefathers across the Red Sea on dry land. God could have had an open alley through the sea ready and waiting for them when they arrived on the beach. But He chose to wait until they went as far as they could go, look over their shoulders to see the Egyptian army breathing down on them and then make them wait all night on the beach until the waters had parted and the floor of the sea was dry.
Faith is the explanation. Paul explains it like this, "... hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." (Rom. 8:24-25) When pay-day rolls around you are going to pick up your check. (Not because you need it but because you don’t want to leave it cluttering up the office. ) When you’re standing there with your paycheck in hand you aren’t going to look over at the person beside you and say, "I hope I get paid today." (Or if you do you’ll give away your secret. Then they’ll know you’re nuts! ) You don’t need faith for something you already have. You need faith for something you hope to get.
And one of the things you will discover in walking by faith is that, very often the miracle happens at the last possible moment. I often think of Pappa’s reply to Corrie ten Boom when as a child she told him she was afraid she might not have the faith if she was asked to be a martyr for Christ. He reminded her of her train trips to grandmamma’s house. And he asked her, "when you go when do I give you the ticket?" She thought for a moment and said, "just before I board the train." And he explained that was the way it was with God. He often supplies our needs just as we need them instead of well in advance.
In their wilderness wanderings He waited until they feared dying of thirst before He made water flow from a rock. They had tasted the waters of Marah and found them to be bitter before He pointed out a tree. When Moses threw the tree in, the waters were sweetened and their thirst was quenched. (Some think the tree had curative powers that as it steeped like a tea bag in water it healed the waters. All I can say is they have more faith in the tree than I do. God made the waters palatable and safe to drink. But He had them use an object to do it.) Again, why not sweeten the waters and have it ready when they arrived? It wouldn’t do anything for their faith.
A soft life-on-a-silver-platter kind of life never builds faith. Faith grows in adversity. Seeing God’s intervention in impossible situations strengthens faith.
Did God have to put Gideon through all the paces to defeat the Midianites? No. Gideon needed God to put him through all the paces for his sake. He could have stricken them down without using Gideon at all. But He wanted Gideon to have a part in His plan. Step by step, stage by stage Gideon was to learn faith through the things he experienced in God’s school of faith. An angel at the threshing floor. A fleece on the ground. Sending the fearful home. Culling those who drank a certain way. These were the steps Gideon had to take in his walk of faith. But by those steps he wound up in the Hebrews’ Heroes Hall of Fame.
In the second verse of Andre’ Crouch’s song Through It All, he writes, "If I’d never had a problem I’d never know what faith in God can do."
There is something else we need to notice about each and every case I’ve mentioned above. There was something the Lord had each of them do before He performed a miracle. Moses lifted his rod. He threw a tree in the pool. The priests stepped into the Jordan. Gideon ran a charge. And the Lord did the rest. Do what you can do and let God do the rest. Step out in faith and get your feet wet.
Why did God have the prophet put flour in the pot when the stew was poisoned? (2 Ki. 4) There’s nothing curative about flour. If you aren’t sure about that, go out and pick some poison mushrooms, roll them in flour and cook them and eat them. In about 3-4 days you’ll have terrible gut-cramps and by the time they figure out what’s wrong with you there will be no remedy and you’ll be dead! Why did Jesus spit in the dust and make mud with the spittle to put in the blind man’s eye? (Jn. 9, cp. Mk. 8:23) Not because there was anything healing about putting mud in a man’s eye. But the Lord used those things to give them something tangible to raise their faith.
You have to believe that something miraculous happens in that moment when the soles of your feet make contact with the surface of the water.
Close:
Maybe there’s something in your walk that the Lord is dealing with you about stepping out in faith. Whatever the challenge is, take the step. For it’s only then that you’re walking in faith. It is only when your feet touch the surface that He’ll perform the miracle.
I fully believe they could have went to the bank of the Jordan and stood there all day long twiddling their thumbs waiting for God to part the water and nothing would have happened. He wanted them to believe He would do what He said He would do - and act on it.
Do what you can do and let God do the rest.
If there are some issues of faith the Lord is dealing with you about, bring them to the altar and pray. ...
