“…NOW, therefore arise, go over Jordan, you, and all this people…” Joshua 1:2
Dear Ones:
The Jordan River in the history of Israel is a picture. For Moses, it would be an impassable river, for the time had come for him to go and be with the Lord. For Joshua, and most of the people of Israel, which remained from living forty years in the wilderness, it would be a point of demarcation, a point of no return. It would signify the leaving of one manner of living, to engage wholeheartedly to live another. What is so essential to understand is that in Israel’s dealings with the Jordan, God was in it! He brought them to its edge. He made a path through it. He provided so that ALL the people passed over it. He did it in such a manner as to teach the people of its significance, and most importantly, of His presence with them. He laid the basis for their faith to possess the land of promise.
When Israel was brought miraculously through the Red Sea, she was delivered from the tyranny of Pharoah’s reign and control. Although she had left Egypt, “Egypt” remained in her heart. It would take forty years of wandering in the wilderness, for her to be brought to the place in her heart where she COULD enter the promised land. What characterized her heart attitude at that time was expressed in what she declared to Joshua: “…All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.” (Josh. 1:16) Their commitment was decisive, wholehearted and entire, to believe and obey God. Egypt had been left behind, forsaken, and rejected. Now Jordan would be crossed, and this, to enter into the land of promise, and most important, TO POSSESS IT.
The first great test for Israel, with regard to possessing the land, was the very real and resistant object of the city of Jericho. The city stood in defiance of God, the people of God, and the promises of God. How would they overcome this first “mountain” of unbelief, and defiance? Just before the confrontation with Jericho, God revealed Himself to Joshua. A man with a drawn sword appeared to Joshua, and declared that he was the “Captain of the host of the Lord,” and that he had come for that moment. (Josh. 5:13-15) If Jericho was to be defeated, then there must be the intervention of God. Hudson Taylor once wrote: “God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.” And so, as the Lord Jesus so eloquently declared: “I AM the WAY.” HE is that means by which His work is done, and the victorious life is lived, on the other side of Jordan. It is a land of promise and of victory, but also, one where Christ is ALL in all.
Dear Father, give us to see the spiritual issues at hand. You call us out of Egypt, to be delivered from the tyranny of Satan. You bring us out of the wilderness, when “self” relinqueches its fight for survival, and dominance. And then You bring us through the Jordan, where Egypt and self are left definitely behind, their power broken. It is on Jordan’s other side that you give us an abundant, and victorious life to live, wholly unto You. Give us to live by Your faith Lord Jesus, and strengthen us by Your Spirit to believe and obey the Father in such a manner, that all of Your purposes will be realized in and through our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad