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Joshua and Jesus at the Jordan

The Baptism of Jesus

The Book of Joshua

Joshua 3:1-7, Mark 1:1-11

January 8, 2006

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

You know how that old song goes:

"Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, And the walls__________________________________"

See, you all know the Book of Joshua, the one we're going to zero in on today as we work our way through the books of the Bible.  But for most of my life I could never figure out what it meant to say that Joshua FIT the battle at Jericho.  Only recently did I figure out that this was a slave song where the negro dialect said "fit" to mean "fought".  So, Joshua FOUGHT the battle at Jericho.  And that is really what this whole sixth book of the Bible is all about.

Joshua was the leader who took over after Moses had just died at the end of the book of Deuteronomy.  After making them wander in the wilderness for forty years, God was now ready to lead His people back home, back into Canaan, the land He had promised them would be their own.  But to do this they first had to cross over the Jordan River and defeat the tribes that were already there.  Their first target would be the city of Jericho.  The book of Joshua is basically about the thirty-one cities that Joshua and his forces utterly annihilated in the campaign to retake Canaan which they had abandoned four hundred and fifty years earlier in their flight to Egypt to avoid the famine in Canaan.  Even through they had left Canaan, God wanted them back in Canaan because HE had chose THEM to possess Canaan for His own strategy.  Today we call Canaan, Palestine, the Holy Lands.

The battles that began with Joshua are the ones that are still continuing today in the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, which Pat Robertson seems to be trying to help along with his sensitive and grace filled pronouncement the other day that God struck down Ariel Sharon with a stroke as punishment for giving the Gaza strip back to the Palestinians.  I'm not sure that anyone can immediately know which thunderbolt is God's punishment for which human for which action.  In the U.S. alone, every year one person out of 453 gets a stroke:  does that mean that the other 452 were without sin?  I thought Christmas was all about God sending something else to deal with our sin.

 So what in the Bible could possibly justify Pat Robertson thinking like this?  It comes from the Book of Joshua.  Throughout the book of Joshua and the next book of Judges, God at that time did in fact make it abundantly crystal clear at that point in the story that He expected only the Israelites to retake and possess Canaan as part of HIS long term plan.  And He severely punished even Israeli's who wanted to back off.  According to Joshua,  God's strategy back then did require Joshua to carry out absolute and total jihad.  I do not want to go into details because of little ears here - the details are all in the book of Joshua.  Suffice it to say that Joshua's jihad made 9-11 pale in significance.  Muslims are not the only ones who have a holy book that once called for this sort of thing.

The question is whether God still intends for His strategy of 3,500 years ago to be His strategy today.  Since His arrival as Jesus 1500 years after that strategy, is there anything in Jesus' ways which would lead us to think that God would still intend His Joshua strategy to be applied today?  In next Sunday's Adult Education we're going to deal with some of the difficult Old Testament material by tackling one of the most absolutely bizarre stories.

But there ARE a number of very clear connections from Joshua to Jesus and we need go no further than the first thing God said to Joshua in the second verse of that book:  "Moses My servant is dead.  Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them - to the Israelites" (Josh 1:2).  Get ready to cross the Jordan THAT was the first big thing that happened at the Jordan.

This morning we celebrate the next big thing that happened at the Jordan at almost the identical same spot.  That is where the Son of God himself was baptized, when Jesus submitted to be baptized by His cousin, John the Baptist.  Many had been baptized there, but this time,"...a voice came from heaven:  "You are My Son, whom I love;  with you I am well pleased," (Mark 1:11).

 This day we celebrate HIS baptism by baptizing the very youngest one among us who cannot yet do one single thing for himself other than receive the gift of life from God.  In theses waters of Baptism God will begin to exalt a little soul by the name of Raymond Allen Weis.  I use that word "exalt" because that is the word which God used at the Jordan.

When Joshua was standing at the Jordan, the LORD said to him, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel."  And then God told Joshua WHY He was going to exalt him, why He was going to lift him up - not for JOSHUA'S sake, but so that, "...[everyone else] may know that I am with you as I was with Moses."  - not so people would look at Joshua but that people would worship God.

Likewise, once little Raymond this morning passes through the waters of Baptism, he will be given a candle with theses words:  "Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works..."  Since Jesus replaced Joshua at the Jordan, we who cross it with Him are to win peoples' hearts, not hurt them.  We are to let our lights so shine before others that they see our GOOD works. Why?  Not so that everybody will love Raymond (that part comes naturally), but so that people will see Raymond's good works, "and glorify {his} Father who is in heaven,""  'Hmmm...if he's a Christian, maybe I should think about it.'

At one time in God's plan the Jordan was about Joshua and jihad.  Since the arrival of the Messiah, the Jordan has been about Jesus and justice and mercy and brace.  In these very difficult days, more than ever, we need to cross the Jordan...with Jesus.

Amen.  May it be so.