Men's Group Study Guide
Introduction
In Chapter 3 we are going to see Joshua lead the people across the Jordan. If you remember from a couple of studies ago the Jordan is a type or picture of what it means to be baptized into the Holy Spirit. There are 3 ways the Holy Spirit works in our lives. 1). John 16:8-9, The Spirit convicts us of sin; this would be before you are saved. 2). John 20:21-22, this happens when you are born again and the Spirit comes into your life to start the process of sanctification. 3). Acts 1:4-5. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which equips us for ministry. Christ told his disciples do not do anything in my name until the promise from the Lord has come. Why would he do that, because like a soldier preparing for battle they needed to have all of their armor and weapons before launching out. Paul speaks of this in Eph 6:10- 20, this speaks of the armor of God, which is only accessible by being baptized in the Spirit. 2 Cor 10: 3-6, Paul speaks of how walking in the flesh we do not battle according to the flesh. But that our weapons of warfare are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And with this we see before Israel enters the land, not heaven for there were still things that needed to be done. But to go to battle, to take the land back and subdue it. They first had to cross the Jordan. To be baptized into the power of the Holy Spirit.
STUDY NOTES: verses 1-17
V. 1-2 Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; Sometimes the best thing to do is to wait on the Lord. As we will see in the next vs. There are things that we can control that we need to have ready but there are also things that are God’s and sometimes we need to wait on the Lord. Acts 2:1-4 the disciples were waiting for the promise of Christ. They were positioning themselves doing what they could to get ready. But ultimately they were still waiting on the Lord.
V. 3-5 And they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.” And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” As we have seen in the above versus there is time to wait on the Lord to wait for his opening of the door and then there is a time to go. We wait praying expectantly for the Lord to move. When we see him starting to confirm things sometimes we have a tendency to jump the gun. Vs. 4 is the key, Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. God may speak to you or I about having power on high but ultimately God would also say pursue it whole heartedly jump in but give me some space to do what I need to do first. Why? The second part of Vs. 4 Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. Learning to walk by the spirit is the most exciting thing that can happen to a Christian. The Lord leads us into war, which as a soldier we are given our moment-by-moment orders. This requires faith in the General but there is something special about our General he is not a far off planning on strategizing with his colonels but is right there with us in the battle in the thick of it encouraging, and helping us. We notice his nail pierced hands and the scars on his body from the battle he fought to purchase us. He has been down this path and knows the way for us his army of believers. Vs. 5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” Before the Lord can do a work in us we need to prepare ourselves. Jude v. 21 speaks of keeping ourselves in the Love of God. Christ’s death turns on the spout where the blessings come out. This is always on it never goes off. But in our lives sometimes we can fill up our lives with junk whatever that might be that can reduce the affect the baptism of the Holy Spirit has on us. For ex. Take a 5 Gallon bucket and if you fill that 5-gallon bucket full of junk. And then add water to that bucket the amount that bucket can hold is greatly reduced to where if you were to remove all of the junk and look and the amount of water in the bucket it would be very little in regards to the potential for that bucket. Our lives are a lot like a bucket. God turns on the spout but very little living water can get into our lives due to all the junk clogging it up. Consequently we may not see much power in our lives. Good news though. The Holy Spirit can bring to light and expose all of these areas in our life that are ripping us and decreasing our effectiveness for the Lord. The only thing that we need to do is allow him like David pleaded to search our hearts and rid us of the junk.
Vs.6 Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people.” So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. We see Joshua relying on the promises of God given him in chapter 1:8 Living and walking in the promised land of God takes faith, but it is important to note that a biblical faith again is not based on blind faith but a relational faith. We can know God and therefore know by his word that he is there with us every step of the way. And that he will continue to confirm every step of the way.
Vs.7-8 And the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.’” We see a couple things in the text here 1) we see God encouraging Joshua in this next step. The thing to keep in mind is that the lord may be encouraging you or I in the next step but sometimes we are not listening for him. What can happen in this case is that we can miss the more specific steps that the lord would have for us. You shall command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.’”
Vs. 9-13 So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God.” And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.” We need to realize that to walk in the Spirit we are putting ourselves in to the battle. But there is encouragement here also because By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. If we want to see the power of the Spirit in our lives then it’s going to require us to engage ourselves. We will need to risk looking like a fool. We need to seek the Lord’s power in our lives aggressively not passively. Remember we are getting ready for war. If we need a gun, sword, grenade etc. we would want these things aggressively in real life. But some many times we treat the real battle the spiritual battle like it’s not a reality. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap. This speaks volumes to you and I. In Vs. 16 it states that the water stood in a heap as far away as Adam. This would be ~ 19 miles away. The Jordan would have been at the height of its flood stage right now. Normal flow during biblical times the Jordan would have been ~ 100 feet wide. But during the Flood stage this river would have been a mile across and moving very fast. So to sometimes life can seem like a flood raging, moving to fast. But here is the thing, God is working 19 miles up stream timing everything out so that when you engage by faith, the raging river certain to sweep us away will turn to dry ground.
Vs. 14-15 So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), We usually want the river to be dry before we even make a step; but God was truly calling Israel to step out in faith.
Vs. 16-17 That the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. In some miraculous manner, God stopped the flow of the Jordan River. He may have used a natural occurrence (an earthquake has often been suggested), but the timing of it was at the hand of God. Think about this for a moment at the moment the priests in the front touched the water with their foot the water started to subside. 19 miles away God stopped the water at the exact moment so that when the priests 19 miles down stream would touch the water it would start lowering.
TRUTH APPLIED:
Q. 1 As we have seen in this study The Jordan is a type of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Have you been waiting on the Lord? Like Disciples have you been saved and yet find yourself ill equipped for the battle. I would ask that and pray that you would be baptized by the power of Holy Spirit. How will I know if it works? Luke 11:9-13 states that all we have to do ask. As far as if it works in your life. Acts 2:2, states that the sound of a mighty wind and it filled the whole house. Mighty rushing wind. If you remember seeing pictures of what the hurricanes did to Florida this last year you could tell where they came through. So is the life of a believer that is empowered from on high. The landscape of your life will be reshaped by a mighty rushing wind and you will be able to look back on that moment and see a change.
Q. 2 When we see God moving in our lives and confirming things in our hearts have we given him space to do what he needs to do or do start applying pressure to hurry him. Think of two instances in your life where you pressured God to make a move and a time when you waited on him to open the door in his timing what were the results?
Q. 3 Christ paid the price for our sins. Therefore opening the spout where the blessings come out. Have we allowed things in our lives to fill our bucket that in turn causes to be less then God would have us to be? In your own quiet time pray and ask the Holy spirit to bring to light the junk that is clogging up our lives and in reality ripping us off.
Q. 4 Are you and I aggressively engaging the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives or our we being passive about it. If you were going into a real physical battle would you have the same mindset you have with the spiritual battle aspect of your life?
CONCLUSION:
It is my hope and prayer that you and I would realize that the Lord would have us be aggressive in our pursuit of him. That we would learn to listen to the promises he has given us in our heart and trust in the Lord that he will accomplish them while he leads into the Spirit-filled life. As in our study we saw that the Ark of the covenant led the way. We have Christ, which is the fulfillment of what the Ark was, Immanuel, or God is with us. Christ will lead the way into the Promised Land. He equips us for success and leads us into that success all that is required by you and I is trust in what he is doing. Watch and see that the Lord will stop the water of your Jordan’s, destroy the enemies of your soul, and bring you into the land that flows with milk and honey.