Joshua 1:12-15 | Episode #1213

June 10, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Joshua 1:12-15

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father, and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes, where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus that God would open his word to you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today. Word of God, please speak to the hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen. We are in Joshua, chapter one, and we're dealing with a. Well, it's. It's a. It's an aspect of the story that gives. Gives a lot of people, you know, when they're trying to put the pictures together. And by the way, I mean, that's. That's really how you. You're supposed to view the Old Testament. In fact, you know, Pastor Paul says that. That the Old Testament, say a school master, it's a teacher, it is a illustrative story of the plan of God. And so the full plan of God is found in Jesus Christ. And so that's pretty. I mean, that. I mean, I don't really have to say a whole lot about that. Everybody gets that the Old Testament is a story. And. Well, it's a lot of stories. But every story and every event, all the things that go on are pictures. They're actual true stories that give us insights into the spiritual truths that are embodied in Jesus Christ. I guess that's the best way to say it. And so when you're thinking about the Old Testament, when we're studying through the Old Testament, the reason we study through and look at the Old Testament events is as we look through these Old Testament events, as we look through what's going on in the scriptures in the Old Testament, we see that God is revealing his son in what's going on. And when we were going through the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, the books of Moses, when we were going through those books, they were clear pictures of Jesus. And you See all that going on. And so when we get to this section, what you have here is you have two and a half tribes who, when they defeat some of the kingdoms, some of the kings on the other side of the Jordan. And when I say the other side of the Jordan, the best way for you to think about it is it is the east side of the Jordan river, which now we actually call Jordan or Transjordan. That's the area that we're talking about on up into an area that is Syrian territory today. And then to the south, it's Jordan along the border of Israel on the other side of the Jordan river, which would be the east bank of the Jordan River. The west bank of the Jordan river is an area that, well, the Palestinians controlled until the Six Day War in which Israel defeated, defeated the Palestinians and now have military control of that area. And the Jordan river is a very important picture for New Testament believers. And the crossing of the Jordan river is a very important picture for New Testament believers. However, God's promise to the children of Israel was to give them a land mass that's way bigger than everything just west of the Jordan river, which is, you know, an area that's not much bigger. Well, it's not as, not as big as New Jersey. It's, it's an area that's not super big. But God gave them all the way to the great river Euphrates and up north all the way to basically Turkey through Lebanon and all those areas. God gave God. When, when you see what God gave Israel, as far as what he claims, what they could claim is their ancestral land. Now they can't claim it because they took it. Because they did not take it. They did not possess it. And remember, God told Joshua, I'll give you everywhere you place your foot, but they didn't possess the land. So, you know, in a historical and a biblical look at it, you know, many, many would say that's not their land. But I would say all the promises of God are yes and amen. The gift of God is irrevocable. And so if God gave it to them, it's still theirs. Okay? And by the way, this basically theirs now as far as airspace is during this cleaning of house with the Persians. So understanding that you would think that, okay, well, these two and a half tribes that are standing on this side of the river, if the crossing of the Jordan river means what I think it means, and it means a, it is a different crossing, which gives us a different understanding of what it is to go into the Promised Land. It's not just an extension of the wilderness experience, which is the salvific experience. And entering into the promised land is a salvific experience. It's a different experience though. In the wilderness, you're by yourself. In the wilderness, you're not battling the giants. And in the wilderness, God is sustaining you with manna and water from the rock. You're not taking anything by faith. God is providing everything for you to include protection. Okay, now when we enter the promised land, now we're actually walking in the Spirit filled life where the Holy Spirit's leading us. And we're actually doing acts of faith to build the kingdom of God. Now in the Pentecostal world, they call that the second baptism. And we can argue about all those theological ideas. I'm not really concerned with that when I'm teaching through the Bible. I don't want you to get caught up in, well, this church or that church teaches this or they believe that. There's definitely a difference between wilderness living and promised land living. And there's a clear difference, not only in Joshua, but there's a clear difference in the New Testament. You have certain people who have repented and been converted, but they do not chase after God. They do not have his revelation. They do not walk by faith. And when they don't do those things, they're not walking in the fullness of what we call the Spirit filled life. And if you're not doing that, if you're not doing that, then you have not experienced, you have not experienced the anointing and the power of God. You just haven't. And what is required in order to do that? Well, what's required is kind of spelled out in the picture of crossing the Jordan. That's why we're getting to crossing over the Jordan river, because the picture gives us an understanding of what is required to cross over the Jordan and what is required to live the Spirit filled Christian life. And so if you're not, if you don't understand that, then you get a good picture of it in Joshua. And there's two and a half tribes of Israel that if they just remained on the other side of the Jordan, they, they would not go through this picture. But they do. Why? Because Moses tells them, I'm gonna give you this land on the other side of the Jordan, which I personally believe is promised land too. Okay? But they need to cross over the Jordan because all of the men need to cross over the Jordan to give the biblical picture of all God's desire for all the People who are gonna walk by faith with him to cross over the Jordan. And by the way, where they cross over the Jordan is where Jesus was baptized, where the Holy Spirit came down on him and said, this is my beloved Son, whom I'm well pleased. It is a picture of an anointing that comes from God. Like I said, some people call it a baptism. And by the way, I believe that there's a third because Jesus says, another baptism I have to undergo. And that was the. The crucifixion. And by the way, after the crucifixion, Jesus has the full power that he had on the throne. Yet now he not only has the full power when he was. Before he left the Father, before he left the right hand of the Father, he has all the power that he ever used to have, but now he has the power over sin and death. And so Jesus now has all things. He has all power. All authority has been given to him. Everything is his. Why? Because he, first of all, was God, and then second of all, he paid for sin of the world. So now he has power and authority over not only all of God, but all of. Not God too. All of sin and death and darkness. And so the crossing over the Jordan river is a picture of Jesus's baptism in the Jordan River. Now being born again, which is celebrated by crossing over the Red Sea. Being born again is a picture of Jesus actually being born because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb. And then he was born. Okay, so we have Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus is in our presence. He's born, conceived by the Holy spirit as a 100% man, 100% God. The God, man. When we're born again is when the Holy Spirit comes and conceives in us a new human spirit. And when that happens, we. We. That's the picture of Jesus being conceived of the Holy Spirit. Now we are conceived of the Holy Spirit. Then you have a picture of Jesus walking and doing the things that he's supposed to be doing, growing, learning. The Bible says he grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God, man. That's in Luke. And so we're supposed to grow in our relationship with God. And we go through that picture of the. Going through the water. Just like the womb is the water for Jesus. Crossing the Red Sea is a picture for us. And now we're out there in the wilderness and we're learning and growing and becoming more like God. And then Jesus goes to the Jordan river to be baptized, to fulfill all righteousness, which righteousness is by faith. What he's saying is, I'm showing you that I'm walking that walk of faith. I'm fulfilling the walk of faith that's supposed to happen for all believers. And so he goes to the Jordan, okay, and he's baptized by John the Baptist. Well, the children of Israel, they go to the Jordan to cross over by faith. And they don't leave a bunch of them behind. All of them cross. All the men of fighting age cross over the Jordan River. And that's what verse 12 is telling us that they're going to do that. It says, and the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke, saying, remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, the Lord your God is giving you rest and giving you this land. What land? The land on the other side of the Jordan river, where they're at, okay, the eastern side of the Jordan river, what we call Transjordan today. Your wives and your little one and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren, armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them until the Lord has given your brethren rest as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God has given them. Then you shall return to the land of your possessions and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise. So the whole picture is that. Is that all of all of the tribes are to cross over the Jordan. And when we get to the fullness of that picture, which is a beautiful picture of a believer who has decided to walk in faith with God and walk through and begin to use their spiritual gifts and begin to use their power. And we're not just talking about a few of the spiritual gifts, we're talking about all of them. Whatever gift you have, whatever giftings you may have, walk in those giftings and take by faith the possessions that God has desired to give you since the foundation of time. And that's what it's all about. And so when we get to this picture, it is a key picture. It is the Pentecost picture. It's the picture of Jesus in the Jordan River. Why did Jesus, I mean, John. John said, you know, you don't. I don't understand why. Why are you coming to me? I don't even. I don't even deserve to untie your shoes. You. I don't need to be baptized. And you And Jesus said we must do it to fulfill all righteousness. Why? Because Jesus has given us that whole picture of life. He's born of the Holy Spirit. We're born of the Holy Spirit. He walks with God and comes to know God. We walk with God and come to know God. He goes through the water of the womb. We go through the water of the Red Sea. We go to the mountain. He's on the mountain. He is the Lord God who's in the burning bush. He's the Lord God who Moses goes to meet on the mountain. He desires for us to come and meet with him on the mountain, just like Moses met with him on the mountain. We get manna each day. We get our daily bread and we begin to know him by knowing that daily bread. He gives us the word, he gives us, he gives us the law, he gives us his revelation of himself, all of that kind of stuff that he, that we're, we're eating, then we're, we're nourished by the water. We're cleansed by the Holy Spirit continually washing with the water of the Holy Spirit. And then God's slowly preparing us to cross over to the Jordan river, which is the next step of faith is to become a powerful spirit filled believer, which is a, you can call it whatever you want to. Like I said, I don't really care what the theological, what the, what the terminology is that you use to talk about that. That's not relevant to me. What's relevant is an understanding of that, that a believer, once they mature, they must, they must take the promised land. And that is, that is a picture of going through the Jordan river, passing through the Jordan river and taking. Let go and let God do a special work of circumcising your heart and preparing you to be permanently a representative of him in the earth. So we got a lot to study. We got a lot to study. I'm looking forward to it and I'm looking forward to, to, to. To those who, who walk through this with us. To, to. To understand and to grow and to become. And that's what it's really all about. Anyway, As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus.