Joshua 3:14-17 | Episode #1230

July 3, 2026

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

Joshua 3:14-17

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 3, verses 14, well through the end of the chapter. And we are, we are talking about. Well, we're talking about them crossing over. The crossing is, Is being described at the end of this chapter. And there's some key critical things that we need to look at again, talk about again, as we're, as we're, as we're dealing with this passage. First of all, this is not the same as Red Sea. The Red Sea, the children of Israel didn't do anything. In fact, in fact, Moses just told them to stand back and behold the hand of the Lord, of the power of the Lord. You can place that idea of the hand of the Lord being the power of the Lord. That's what the picture represents. And so God is the one who delivered them out of Egypt. God is the one who. Who delivered them through the blood of the lamb. God is the one who took them out into the wilderness. God is the one who split the Red Sea so that they might cross over. God is the one who destroyed the enemy. He destroyed the Egyptian army in the midst of the Red Sea. And so when they crossed over the Red Sea, which is a picture of baptism, when they crossed over the Red Sea, they. They were delivered completely by God. Which is picture of God's justification or his making us right or his regeneration of us bringing us out of death and sin into his presence, which would be on the mountain there in the wilderness. That's what the picture represents. Now, crossing the Jordan river is a whole different story. Now, the same power which split the Red Sea is the same power which is going to cause the Jordan river to go dry and to heap up behind the people of Israel as they cross over. And so it's the same power of God. It's the same will of God. Now, you gotta know that, too. It's the same will of God. God has willed this to be. God desires to take them into the promised land. But there's something different. And what's different is the priest, which, by the way, we represent the priesthood. The priests themselves. Themselves. Well, they. They are. The priests are stepping into the water. And in fact, they are placing their feet in the water as they carry the presence of God on their shoulders. So God is upon them. They step into the water, and as they step in the water, the water begins to heat back or be dammed up behind them so that it doesn't flow anymore. So what's different is now the people, God's people embodied in the priest and embodied in the 12 that are chosen from each tribe. It's a beautiful picture of not only the priesthood, but it's a picture of all of God's people, because each tribe is represented by a man who's crossing over, who's placing his feet in the water. Each one of them is placing their feet in the water. And so in verse 14, it says. So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant. Before the people notice, they set out. The priest is out in front, and those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priest who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water. This is going to be talked about subsequently in scripture. It's going to be discussed. This idea, this understanding is gonna be talked about a few times later on in scripture because it is a different work. The Red Sea is very Dyn dynamic, powerful work. I mean, to split a whole sea is amazing. But this work is amazing also in that God has given them the opportunity to join him. So we move from the complete work of God, which is done in justification, or it's done when God is regenerating us. We move from that work, which we do nothing for, to this work, which is the culmination of the process of turning toward God, beginning to hear his voice, beginning to know His Word, beginning to know his will. And now they are stepping out and they are walking. You know, it's not by accident. There's a focus on the feet of the priest. They are walking out the will of God. Now, when you walk out the will of God. You are joining God in His work. Now. You're not doing the work. You don't have the power. You are operating in who God is, and he is using you. You are a vessel used by him to do his will. And that's the way it's always been since in the garden, God created man to be a vessel of his will. Why? Not because he needed human beings to do his will, not because he needed us in any way. It's for the purpose of revealing that aspect of his charact and his character is the ability to take that which is broken or that which is weak. And boy, aren't we both, that which is broken and that which is weak. And being able to make us whole, no longer broken and to make us powerful even in our innate weakness, even in our fragility, we're fragile as far as our flesh, our flesh is so weak. So God's able to take even the weak things, the broken things, far lesser than the angels, far, far lesser as far as our knowledge, far lesser as far as the strength of our bodies, our flesh, our abilities, far lesser than the angels. And yet being able to hold and operate in the full power of God. And so this whole picture is us operating in the power of God by walking in his will. And that's that. That until you begin to walk in his will, in his direct, revealed will for you, until you start walking in that will, you're just not going to have a whole lot of. You're just not going to have a whole lot of, well, goodness, power, joy, peace. You can't. Because you were made for this purpose. You were made to put your feet in the water. You were made to cross over. And so it says that for the Jordan overflows its banks during the whole time of the harvest. So we know that this is not just a situation where they're crossing this nice little beautiful stream. We know that this river is moving fast. We know that that is great danger for those historically, over millennia past, I know we built big, beautiful bridges and we got wonderful boats now that can cross over big bodies of water. But historically, millennia past, up until. Up until, you know, the, the less than 200 years ago, crossing any body of water, even though we, we were circumnavigating the globe with ships, was a dangerous venture. I mean, you know, many, many ships. I mean, you know, as many as half the ships in history, as far as these big giant sailing ships, you know, eventually succumbed to the water for some reason or the other. And so we Know that crossing giant bodies of water, and especially people traveling, migrating to a different location, going somewhere else, crossing over a river is a dangerous, dangerous venture. It's something that is, you know, fraught with peril. And many, many people never, ever left very far from where they lived because they did not want to cross rivers. Crossing rivers is. Well, it's not something that is desirous because many died. Many, many died. And the reason many armies became great armies is because they figured out how to cross a river, not lose, you know, 10, 15, 20% of their troops. And that became a necessity for a military is to be able to cross a river and not lose all your soldiers. And so it says that the river overflowed at this time. So they're crossing when it's the most dangerous. It says the water which came down from the upstream stood still, notice, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, which is a few miles upstream. What basically happened? Well, just like the Red Sea and that God made a wall of water. He heaped the water up, which means it didn't just flow out and flood the whole land around them. It mean it just flood it. It's almost as if it was behind a dam. It was dammed up. It was heaped up. And the Bible is very specific about that. God's telling us it didn't. It didn't go dry, meaning God quit making it flow, period. There was no water, didn't. He didn't remove the water. And by the way, the picture of the water is a picture of the Holy Spirit, the cleansing of the Holy Spirit. He didn't remove the water and he didn't make it flood. He heaped it up. He. He did something supernatural with it. And you, you need to see this. This is, this is God acting in his role as the supernatural caretaker of his people. That's what's going on here. God is being a supernatural caretaker of his people. He is heaping that water up. So we're acting in faith. We're actually engaging in the will of God. And God's supernatural power is at work out there beyond them. It's going on at a place they cannot see it's going on. What is happening to this water? Well, it's being heaped up. It's being heaped up by God. Why has it been heaped up by God? Well, first of all, it's his will. Second of all, he's got the power to do it. But third of all, his people are doing what he told them to do. They're Acting in faith. And when God's people act in faith, it necessitates a movement of God. And that's probably the most critical thing. And you go, well, what do you mean it necessitates? Well, because God's character is to act in power in favor of his children when they act in faith. That's his character in nature. That's something he can't get past. He does not. He doesn't stop and wonder about it. He does it. And so when you're dealing with God and, and, and you hear his voice and you act in faith, it's not, it's not that God has to buy some rule. He has to by his own will and nature. It's one of those things where he just got to do it. He. He's got to do it because that's who he is. And, and that's such, that's such a cool understanding of God that when I act in faith according to his revealed will to me, he has to move. Not because he's going to be breaking a rule by not moving. He's got to move because it's part of his who he is. It's his. It's his nature to move. And so when we, when we, when we chase after God and we do his will, God moves as just a natural, is just a natural outflow of who he is. And he heaped the water up and it says, so the waters that went down to into the sea of Arabah, the salt sea, that's the Dead Sea we call it today, failed and were cut off. And the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priest who bore the Ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on the ground in the midst of the Jordan, meaning they stood right in the middle of the Jordan. The priest stayed there. As the people crossed by the presence of God, so the presence of God went out before them, carried by human beings upon their shoulders, upon them, the power of God upon them. And then they cross over, and they cross over in the midst of God's will and the midst of God's presence. And they see the Ark of the Covenant. They're on dry ground in the midst of the river. And it says, and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. And so we have the picture. We have the picture of God's deliverance out of Egypt. And now we have the picture of God's divine presence upon us in power at the Jordan River. I want both of them, don't you? I want I want. I have His. I have his justification. Justification? His. His work of redemption that he does for me. That he's done for me. And I'm sealed with bringing me out of Egypt. But now also I desire to have his presence and his power by walking in his divine will, by faith. And there's power in that, and there's life in that. And that hope that we get from that doesn't ever go away. And that presence is powerful when it's upon us. 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 name.