“…the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.” (Jos 3:16)
Today we have read about the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden. The serpent deceived Eve and Adam chose willfully to go along with her deceit. As a result of their disobedience they were driven out from Paradise and their fellowship with God. Man has been lost ever since and in need of salvation.
In Joshua chapter 3 Joshua is leading the people to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Joshua is the same name in Hebrew as Yeshua and it means “God’s salvation”.
When the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant into the river, the waters stopped flowing from a place called Adam and the people could cross over on dry ground. The crossing into the Promised Land is a picture of our salvation and future destiny in the Kingdom of God. The people crossed the Jordan River after three days, se Jos 3:2. Three days or the third day is in the Scriptures always a picture of the resurrection from the dead. Paul wrote:
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (1 Co 15:50-52)
We have to die to our old sinful nature that we have inherited from Adam and confess Yeshua as our Lord in order to enter into the Promised Land. The Jordan River is a symbol of dying to our old sinful nature from Adam in order to receive the new resurrection life of Messiah.
Some 1500 years or so after Joshua, John the Baptist came preaching repentance from sin, baptizing the people in the Jordan River.
“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Mt 3:1-2,5-6)
Now the kingdom of heaven was near and it was appropriate for the people to be immersed in the Jordan River repenting from their sin. When Yeshua was baptized “the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Mt 3:16-17)
When we are baptized through faith into the Messiah the heavens will open up for us as well and the Spirit of God will descend on us. We are born from above to become children of God in order to inherit the Kingdom.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Jn 1:12-13)
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 Jn 3:1)
John came in the spirit and power of Elijah to preach repentance. Today the Spirit of Elijah is once again preparing the way of the Lord, making ready a people prepared for the Lord and the Day when He will judge the world in righteousness. John said:
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. … I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Mt 3:7-8,11-12)
“The wicked … are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Ps 1:4-6)
Let us repent of all sin, and walk in the way of righteousness in obedience to His Word so that we can stand in the judgment and the wrath that will come on the wicked. Messiah “will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
