A Land Flowing With Milk and Honey 6
Joshua 3:14-17
14 So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), 16 the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
Brothers and sisters, after Moses, the man of God, died, God had Moses’ successor, Joshua, become the leader of the Israelites. Guided by Joshua, the second generation began their march towards Canaan in earnest. As the two spies spied on the City of Jericho, which was like a gateway to Canaan, they found that its inhabitants were fearing Israel whom God was with.
With high morale, they marched towards Jericho. But on their way to Jericho, they were blocked by Jordan River, which was overflowing and had strong currents. Yet, the people did not relent or become dismayed by this. The second generation had been well trained with the trials of faith well, so they ably overcame all obstacles with spiritual faith by which they relied on the almighty God. The same goes for you. If you successfully pass your trials and develop spiritual faith, you can overcome temptations much more easily than you did as a novice believer.
Unlike before, you can also have your heart’s wish fulfilled quickly by faith. You receive answers quickly. Like this, you can spiritually grow and improve through trials. As you change yourself through trials, you gain faith by which you can believe from your heart. And, as you’re able to display God-pleasing deeds according to that faith, then, you can be said to have true faith. Hopefully, this message will lead you to indeed possess bold faith of crossing the Jordan and destroying Jericho. Also, I ask that you’ll learn what kind of deeds of faith you have to demonstrate for God’s work and actually put them into action (as His competent worker!)
Brothers and sisters, for the Israelites to enter Canaan, they first needed to conquer the City of Jericho. To do so, they had to cross the Jordan lying ahead of them. Today, Jordan River has narrowed significantly, so it’s only 30 meters wide.
But, back in Joshua’s time, the river was quite wide. There is a saying that time changes everything. Moreover, the Israelites crossed the Jordan River about 3,500 years ago. So, the scale of river at his time shouldn’t be compared to that of today’s Jordan. At the time, with many steep slopes, Jordan had quite strong currents. The Bible says, “for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest.”
(Joshua 3:15)
By the time they crossed the Jordan, it was the season when people harvested wheat and barley. It was also the rainy season. The snow on the mountains melted and flowed down into the river, raising the water level to the highest point of the year. Even a knee-deep stream along a valley, when it suddenly gets flooded, it can sweep away people or livestock.
Moreover, while the water overflowed and had a strong current, it was never easy for those millions of people to cross it, carrying heavy loads. Then, God presented a very simple solution. It was not to make ships or bridges. Had they had to make ships or bridges, can you imagine how many of them were needed to transport all the elderly, little children, women, and all their loads to the other side? Even if they had managed to do that, the soldiers of Jericho would’ve never stood still.
But, that wasn’t God’s way, but it was to have the priests to carry the Ark of the LORD and walk into the Jordan River. If they did so, God said that the waters of the Jordan would be cut off and that the waters would stand in one heap.
According to our common sense, how could we make a river with a strong current stop flowing just by stepping on it? Suppose the first generation was told to step into it. There was no way they did that obediently. They must’ve grumbled saying, Do you want us to be swept by the overflowing river and die?
Even their chiefs would’ve complained and instigated the people saying, “Moses led us out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and then here. But, he’s trying to kill us in Jordan River. He’s telling us to step into the river with the heavy ark and our loads. It’s like telling us to be drowned.” The people would’ve been instigated and complained and grumbled together.
But the people who were following Joshua never uttered a word of complaint or doubt. Because God even split the big, Red Sea, they believed that making that overflowing river stop shouldn’t be a problem at all. According God’s word delivered by Joshua, the priests obeyed immediately and stepped into the flowing water carrying the ark of the LORD.
And, as soon as the feet of the priests were dipped in the water, things happened exactly as God promised. The water from upstream stopped flowing and piled up in a heap a great distance away, while the water on the other side all flowed down to the Salt Sea, finally revealing the bottom of the river. While the priests were standing in the middle of the Jordan, the water was completely cut off. Meanwhile, the Israelites quickly crossed the river.
As soon as the priests walked out of the river, the water piled up started flowing, so the water level returned to its previous level. As the Israelites witnessed God’s word delivered by Joshua fulfilled and His amazing power manifested, they put their trust in Joshua all the more firmly. The Bible says, “On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him (namely, Joshua), just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life.”
Joshua 4:14
Actually, the splitting of the vast Red Sea which happened about 40 years earlier was much more marvelous than this. Despite having watched such an astonishing, the first generation distrusted and resented God to the end. But, the second generation trusted God and obeyed as He told them. God hoped that not just the Israelites who witnessed the stopping of the flow of the Jordan River, but his offspring would remember His work forever and remain steadfast in fearing God. So, God commanded something.
He ordered them to take 12 stones out of the middle of the Jordan where the priests were standing and set them up. It was to commemorate the stopping of the flow of the Jordan River. Joshua had them set up the 12 stones at Gilgal. God intended for the Israelites to remember what He, the almighty One, did for them whenever they saw the twelve stones and fear and obey Him forever.
Through His astounding power of making the river stop flowing, God once again demonstrated to the world world, His being with Israel. The Bible says, “Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.” As said, the Canaanites trembled in fear.
But, the morale among Israelites was boosted, and they felt like they could take over Jericho at once. Yet, instead of ordering them to attack Jericho, God commanded them to do something. It was to circumcise themselves. With man’s thoughts, before they were about to have a big battle, they should’ve been ordered to check their weapons or brace themselves. But, why did God command circumcision?
It was to confirm once again His covenant with Abrahama, to instruct them on the ways to overcome spiritual battles by faith and to notify them that seeing God’s work requires circumcision of their heart, namely, sanctification. This isn’t just a message for Israel, but it carries the secrets to receiving blessings in our families, workplaces, and businesses, and giving glory to God. So, please pay attention.
In Genesis 17 is a scene where God spoke to Abraham, the father of faith and promised to give his offspring the land of Canaan. In doing so, God instructed the Israelites to make sure to do something for the fulfillment of His covenant. It was circumcision. He said, “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.”
(Genesis 17:10)
From then on, all male babies of Israel were circumcised in eight days after birth, and the circumcision served as the sign that they were the people of God keeping His commandments. But since the Exodus, they hadn’t been able to circumcise themselves wandering in the wilderness. The last time they circumcised themselves was when they were about to leave Egypt, which means all people born after that, namely, all males under 40 years of age hadn’t been circumcised.
Before the battle for the conquest of Canaan began in earnest, God had all males circumcised to once again confirm His covenant. But, that was never an easy task. Circumcision involves pain, so they wouldn’t be able to move around freely for a few days.
In the Book of Genesis, Jacob’s sons took advantage of this to avenge their sister. They said like, “We get circumcised according to God’s law, so if you’re also circumcised, we’ll give you our sister.” After they had all males of Shechem circumcised, when they were in pain, they attacked and killed all of them. Even though the males of Shechem were much greater in number than Jacob’s sons, because they couldn’t move, they were so helpless, unable to fight back at all.
So, if the Israelites got circumcised, they would have difficulty moving. The entire congregation would be in serious danger if they got attacked, right? Moreover, having crossed the Jordan already, the Israelites were already within the Gentiles’ boundaries. The citizens of Jericho who were close by were standing guard against Israel day and night. If they had involved man’s thoughts, they would’ve naturally disobeyed and complained.
But, having faith, the Israelites obeyed without an excuse. As they were protected by God until their wounds completely healed, the enemies couldn’t even come near them. There are times God commands something difficult or impossible to obey with mans’ thoughts. To show us great works or give us great blessings, He demands from us spiritual, true faith.
Those who have spiritual faith obey without involving realistic or fleshly thoughts, thereby enjoying great blessings prepared for them. But, if they fall short of such faith and make negative confessions involving fleshly thoughts, they can’t be blessed but suffer trials.
God tells us how useless our fleshly thoughts, concerns, and worries are. To make us realize that nothing is impossible with him, God commands something impossible with man’s thoughts. As we obey, He resolves it with His power, helping us have greater faith and blessing us. Manmin has also gone through such experiences many times.
Holding overseas crusades, we faced threats of terror attacks. Some country even threatened to inflict a fine or imprisonment if we proclaimed about a different God from theirs. Many times, God commanded what seemed totally impossible or very difficult. If we had said, “It’s impossible” with fleshly thoughts and disobeyed, we would’ve neither experienced God’s miracle nor brought down His power.
But, every time, Senior Pastor boldly marched only with faith, saying “Amen,” and God so wonderfully showed us a great reversal. Thus, in the face of any kind of trouble, we should only rely on and obey God, making it into a blessing and an opportunity to grow our faith.
Then, why did God command circumcision in such a critical situation where they were having a battle? He could’ve commanded it before they reached Jericho or crossed the Jordan. It was to notify us as well as Israel of how to win victory in a spiritual battle. The Bible says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
(Ephesians 6:12)
From a physical perspective, the conquest of Canaan must’ve been seen as battles between different peoples. But actually, they were spiritual battles between good spirits helping God’s people and evil spirits trying to dishonor God. The battles in the spiritual realm determined the outcome of the physical battles.
This was the case when David defeated the big, Philistine warrior, Goliath. The Bible says, “and that all this assembly may know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the LORD’S and He will give you into our hands.” This little boy David was no match with Goliath in terms of height and strength. Suppose they fought with physical strength and techniques. Even if were ten Davids, twenty, or dozens of Davids, they couldn’t beat a single Goliath.
(1 Samuel 17:47)
Goliath was a mighty man with a spear and a sword. He was fully armed with a shield, a helmet, and armor. Only a small portion of his body, like nose and eyes, was exposed. With man’s thoughts, how could a strike from this little boy hurt such a heavily armed man? But, as a man proper before God, David won the spiritual battle. As God was on David’s side, he was able to knock down the big man, Goliath, with a single stone.
A stone thrown by David whom God was with flew and sunk right into Goliath’s vital point, so no matter how big he was, he couldn’t help but fall down. With our God, such a work happened. Also, in Moses’ time, Israel battled with the Amalekites. The Bible says of this, “When Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.”
Exodus 17:11
When Moses prayed with his hand up, Israel won, and when he got tired and lowered his hand, the situation reversed and Amalek won. Realizing this, Aaron and Hur took a stone and had him sit on it and held his hand up on both sides. So, until Joshua defeated Amalek and gained victory with the people, Moses’ arm wasn’t lowered. Eventually, the battle resulted in Israel’s victory.
The secret of their victory was Moses’ prayer. When Moses prayed, heavenly angels and hosts got strengthened to fight, but when Moses didn’t, they lost strength. Other than these two incidents, in many parts of the Bible, we find records saying that the outcome of a physical battle is determined not by flesh and blood but by the spiritual battle.
We should know that even though we don’t physically fight as soldiers, all affairs in our everyday life are related to the battles in the spiritual realm. A common example is, there are people who severely persecute believers in their family or workplace. From a physical perspective, they themselves are the ones who persecute. But spiritually, evil spirits incite them to trouble the believers.
When the persecuted ones please God and get empowered by God. With help from heavenly angels and hosts, they cause the evil spirits to lose strength. As a result, persecutors relent. We’ve experienced this many times through overseas crusades.
Before Senior Pastor visited a country where we would have a crusade, many times, the enemy devil severely interfered. But once he got off the plane and stepped onto the land, the interfering forces significantly weakened. After a day or two, they became (began to be) silent. As we (he) overcame the fierce spiritual battle with faith and prayer, the evil spirits lost their strength. As the camp of the enemy devil destroyed, we (he) won victory and glorified God. All of us are the witnesses.
In the face of bleak and difficult reality, as we also act by faith to the end, we can break the camp of the enemy devil no matter how strong it is, gain victory, and only give glory to God. Thus, if only we beat the enemy devil and bring down God’s work, no matter what the physical reality is like, it is reversed immediately and we can be answered according to our prayer.
The battle against Jericho facing Joshua and the people was also a spiritual battle in which God intervened. We can confirm this from the fact that the captain of the host of God appeared before Joshua as he was by the City of Jericho. For them to be strong and bold and win the spiritual battle, the purity of heart was essentially required.
This was why God commanded circumcision to Israel that had crossed the Jordan. Physically, circumcision is merely cutting off a piece of skin, but spiritually, it signifies removing of the foreskins of one’s heart. The Bible says, “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,”
(Jeremiah 4:4)
Here, to remove the foreskins of your heart is to circumcise your heart. Namely, it is to rid sins and evil of your heart and purify yourself by keeping commandments. Back in the Old Testament time, the Holy Spirit hadn’t come yet, so it was difficult to circumcise one’s heart by man’s strength. For this reason, God accepted physical circumcision as circumcision of heart. But in fact, God wanted them was to really circumcise their heart.
Before they crossed the Jordan, Joshua commanded them, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” When the captain of the host of God appeared near Jericho, he said, “Remove your sandals from your feet.” These are the words commanding sanctification. Before God fulfilled His covenant in earnest, He commanded circumcision, once again requiring them to sanctify themselves.
The Bible says, “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.” As said, sanctification closely relates to our receiving various blessings both in spirit and in flesh. Under God’s permission, anything can happen instantly. But before that, it is important that we first circumcise our heart and gain confidence by keeping the commandments. (so that God can work)
1 John 3:21-22
For us to indeed enter Canaan and to beautifully fulfill our missions regarding the Grand Sanctuary and the world evangelization, we need to finish adorning ourselves as His brides quickly as Israel circumcised themselves. After their circumcision, there were great tensions between Israel and Jericho like calm before the storm. As the Bible says, “Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in,” Jericho put itself on the highest alert. It looked like they left no room for Israel’s attack.
But, God had already dispatched his heavenly host and its captain, and He promised Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.” In the next session, we’ll discuss how the LORD strong and mighty, how the God of Israel mighty in battle enabled them to destroy the impregnable City of Jericho.
Brothers and sisters, God said, “Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it?” Has there been any other god doing such works? Who else split a sea in an instant and stopped the flow of an overflowing river? Who else was able to open the door to heaven, send daily bread down on dry land, and make water spring from a rock just by a hit on it?
It’s only possible with the almighty God as the Bible says, “To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.” As the Israelites developed spiritual faith witnessing such works, they went into the midst of the overflowing Jordan River without fear and they ably conquered the Land of Canaan possessed by six gentile peoples who were great and tall. These biblical works are never fabricated myths or legends.
They were never made up out of imagination. They are undeniable facts with no fiction at all. As Senior Pastor read the Bible after meeting God, he believed all the biblical works as they are. To manifest such amazing works to the world, demonstrate God, and to make people believe the Bible is true, he piled up numerous hours of fasting and prayer. He overcame all the hindrance and trials with tears, faith, and love. Whenever he did so, his power became increasingly great.
Even while he manifested power great enough to astonish the world, he was always thirst for greater power, more amazing works, saying that it was not enough to awaken numerous souls around the world. Why has he longed for greater power? Because it’s very difficult for people to possess true faith without experiencing power. Convincing people that the words are true and helping them have spiritual faith of living accordingly essentially requires power that confirms the words and God’s works that no one can deny.
Farmers don’t work roughly way but they have a detailed plan so that they can harvest as many grains as possible. Likewise, in cultivating man, God works in a precise way according to His detailed plan. Senior Pastor’s longing for greater power and fill up the justice are all under God’s plan. They are under God’s providence of wrapping up the human cultivation in the end time when sins are rampant.
Years ago, when Senior Pastor conducted a crusade in the US, some pastors confessed that even though he’d believed in and taught the Bible, he’d considered biblical works as myths. But as he saw the works of power manifested at the crusade, he was impressed, “Indeed, the Bible is true. Its records are all true!” and repented. Even after Moses’ Joshua’s times, for thousands of years, God has manifested works of power impossible by man through people who are proper according to His will. Even today, as we witness works of God unfolding before our eyes, we can be convinced that all the works recorded in the Bible are true.
Particularly, we’ve marched on, watching numerous signs and wonders performed by Senior Pastor. Engraving such amazing works on our heart, we have to possess a sincere and perfect, spiritual faith. I ask that you can boldly act in faith just as the priests marched ahead and fearlessly stepped onto overflowing river carrying the Ark of the LORD, no matter how strong its current was. I pray in our Lord’s name that through your faith and deeds, God’s plan and His providence of the end time will be fulfilled perfectly and His glory will illuminate the whole world.