Just one verse this morning, Joshua 3:5, where God’s people were commanded: “And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

And of course, we now know that among those “wonders” was the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River, by a whole nation, into the Promised Land. The last verse in Joshua 3 reports: “And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of (the river) Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over ON DRY GROUND, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.” I believe it!

The noun used for “wonders” (things like that “crossing”) is “pala” in Hebrew, meaning something like “marvelous, extraordinary, surpassing!” It can even mean “hard,” five times in the Bible anyway.

Yes, our God is THAT great!

But back to my thought (our verse) today … “Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

God will do something great, in fact it’s plural, “wonders.” (Sounds like a Promise, doesn’t it? From our faithful, never-failing God!)

But … nonetheless … the people still were required a bit of effort!

“Sanctify yourselves!”

The verb here is “qadash,” meaning “dedicate, purify, prepare,” and is grammatically a “Hithpael imperative!” That’s the Hebrew “reflexive” form, something the Jews had to do for themselves! The “imperative” qualification means a “command” has been given, a “mandate” from the Lord.

Once more now, but this time applying it to our lives here and now. “Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

God is still a wonder-working Heavenly Father!

He just might do “wonders” in our future days, according to his Grace and Mercy and Faithfulness! (Jeremiah writes of the Lord’s Mercy … “His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:23)

God can do it!

Question is … will we sanctify ourselves?

Will I live a “clean life” … thus expediting God’s Wonders?

Will I “dedicate” myself to Jesus … in order to better enjoy those “Wonders?”

Will I “separate myself” from some (however small) iniquity or sin … to better appreciate God’s Wonders? Maybe even to discern them!

“And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

Maybe we as Preachers should ask our people again and again to so “Sanctify themselves!”

How?

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1st John 1:9

James is a “rough” Preacher, but still tells the truth. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” Then he adds, still speaking to Christians:  “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” James 4:8, one single verse.

Jesus was aware of this Bible Principle. He stayed clean so His people would be able to stay clean! Here’s our Lord praying to His Father: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”

Wow!

I feel like I should give an “invitation” after all that!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

 

Joshua 3:1-3 reads, in part: “And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass AFTER THREE DAYS, that the officers went through the host; and they commanded the people, saying …”

The “chronology” of the Book of Joshua is intriguing! Puzzling to some scholars, in fact.

Remember Joshua 1:10-11 please. “Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for WITHIN THREE DAYS ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.”

(The three days involved with the spies, all of Joshua chapter 2, could have been enveloped into the “three days” of chapter 1, verse 11 … just shown above.)

Still, it looks like (to me anyway) that we have two three-day periods of time! The first three days, getting the people ready (supplies, “victuals,” food, etc.) to enter Canaan. Then the second three days subsequently transpired, after which Israel’s leaders (“officers”) informed the population of precise marching instructions as they entered the Land!

A total of six days, mind you.

Then … on the seventh day … the crossing of the Jordan River, miraculously so! “And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for TOMORROW the LORD will do wonders among you.” Joshua 3:5

Get this now, a “pattern” may be forming.

Six days … then a miracle! “And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.” Joshua 3:15-17, yes a clear suspension of the laws of nature! A supernatural event!

Wow!

Then, sequentially, the book of Joshua tells us the story of the “Fall of Jericho!”

But what preceded the Fall of Jericho?

Six days, a literal six-day block of time!

“And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.” Joshua 6:3 … six days of marching around the “doomed” city.

Then after that six day period … another miracle!

The Walls of Jericho … came tumbling down!!!

Get it?

See the pattern?

Six days … then crossing the Jordan, involving an obvious Act of God! (Actually two “three-day” units of time, totaling six days!)

Then immediately … six more days … followed by a seventh … when Jericho imploded, its walls!

What poetic symmetry!

Sounds like an Editor, a Master Writer, is composing this marvelous history of Israel, this Book of Joshua. Indeed, there is! And He is God the Holy Spirit!

The Bible is beautiful, even numerically!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

The very first verse of Joshua chapter 3 reads: “And Joshua rose early in the morning … and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.”

Joshua’s rising “early in the morning” latently suggests his leadership abilities. Eagerness, thoroughness, as well. The man is a “pacesetter.” (Also a picture of Jesus, however faintly, in this “early morning” practice. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he (Jesus) went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Mark 1:35) In the above verses both Joshua and Jesus were at their “work” very early!

But the more I study Joshua, the more I see a host of similarities between the way the Book (of Joshua) presents him as a proto-type of Royalty! Nearly, as a “King!”

God never (in His Heart) wanted Israel to have a line of Kings, a dynasty. He longed rather for the Nation to be a “Theocracy,” one led (ruled) by their Lord (the God of Abraham).

(And Oh, how Israel PAID for the Kings she had … for the most part anyway. Disobedience, or at least doing “less” than God’s Will, is always costly!)

Joshua cast in the mold of a King?

(I am only implying that the Holy Spirit, the Real Author of all God’s inspired Word, is quite the Editor as well! God certainly COULD have provided Israel amazing leadership, using men like Joshua, without every having to declare or institute a worldly Monarchy!)

Joshua as King, an intriguing thought.

Watch this.

A “command” from God for all Israel’s Kings … “And it shall be, when he (the King of Israel) sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.” Deuteronomy 17:18-19, an emphasis on the Law, the Word of God!

Compare now Joshua commissioning: “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua 1:7-8, see the parallels?

THE BOOK!

READ IT “all the days of thy life,” to the Kings.

READ IT “day and night,” to Joshua!

This fact too …

In Deuteronomy 17:20 we read this clause: “that he (the King) turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left.” Faithfulness required, steadiness of purpose, complete obedience!

Now look at Joshua 1:7 again: “Joshua, turn not from it to the right hand or to the left.” Obey God’s Law incessantly!

In both Texts (the royal one in Deuteronomy and the Joshua one here) a promise is made to the obedient follower of God. The king … “to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.” Wow! Then to Joshua the man of God: “that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.” Wow again!

Folks, I am finding dozens (not exaggerating) of these “points” where Joshua looks kingly, a royal leader of Israel. Under God’s Command, Authority!

In fact, I may go further with this thought later in the Joshua series. Anything that helps set the context for a portion of Scripture can prove extremely beneficial.

The Lord willing, another Lesson tomorrow morning …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Today … one more lesson about Rahab, at least exclusively about her. (I may fairly soon write an article for the Website about the chronology of the Book of Joshua, a conundrum at times. If so, Joshua chapter 2 will of necessity be discussed, the Rahab event, its “timing.”)

Now … read Rahab’s statement to the spies: “⁹And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. ¹¹ And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. ¹² Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: ¹³ And that YE WILL SAVE ALIVE my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.” Joshua 2:9-13

First … she clearly believed that God was going to “destroy” all the Canaanites, her ancestry! (Including her and her family!) She was fully aware of the seriousness of the Judgment of God, its 100% inevitability!

In this Rahab is the first person in the Book of Joshua to specifically mention this “dedicated to destruction” idea that God had so carefully taught Moses! Deuteronomy 20:17 gives an example: “Thou shalt UTTERLY DESTROY them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.”

So she (Rahab) first mentions God’s Holy Wrath!

Then secondly, she is also keenly aware of God’s (amazing) Grace!

“Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD … that ye will also SHOW KINDNESS (hesed) unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: and that ye WILL SAVE ALIVE my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and DELIVER OUR LIVES FROM DEATH.”

The “kindness” for which Rahab begs is none other than the “Grace, Mercy” of God! “Hesed” or “chesed” (merely a pronunciation difference) is one of the great words of the Bible! It’s the well-known “lovingkindness” of the Old Testament!

Rahab knew that … though God’s Judgment was real … so was His Grace!

And that trust in God (faith) triggers that marvelous Grace that overcomes God’s Judgment! (Ultimately through the Blood of Jesus shed on Calvary, which propitiated God’s Wrath against sin. When applied to the human heart, that is.)

Psalm 30:5 beautifully says: “For His (God’s) anger endureth but a moment; but in his favour is life (some lexicons say this favour is ‘lifelong’).” More than a “moment,” anyway!

Praise the Lord!

Rahab, the little theologian!

Rahab, the teacher!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Rahab asked for Grace! And was given that Grace! In fact, “and a whole lot more!” Sounds just like our great God, doesn’t it?

It looks to me like the Harlot Rahab, in Joshua chapter 2, is actually the “model” character to follow, even more than the two spies dispatched to “go view the land.”

Instead of a brave recon mission … the two spies … in reality find themselves “hiding” in a woman’s house! Humiliating, to a Jew of that day!

And she, Rahab, though the quintessential “foolish woman” of the Old Testament (an adulteress or harlot, a common prostitute) … is nearly portrayed as a “wise woman” in our chapter’s context!

For example, Rahab was brave. Risking her life to spare the two spies, committing what would have been called “treason” against Jericho (her homeland). Yes treason, a capital crime! (She hid them on her roof until the danger abated.)

She was “creative” in her thinking! What a story she concocted … “And the Rahab took the two men (spies), and hid them, and said thus (to the soldiers of Jericho, the King’s search party), ‘There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: and it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.’ But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.” Joshua 2:4-6, yes it was all a lie! But she would soon learn better. And she furthered the cause of Israel in the process. To the Glory of God!

She also had a healthy “fear of the Lord” building in her heart! “And she said unto the men (spies), I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” Joshua 2:9-11, the beginning of “faith,” saving faith! (“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” Psalm 111:10)

Watch too her compassion for her whole family! “Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.” Joshua 2:12-13, altruism, selfless love!

Maybe these facts (along with several others) help explain why Rahab appears in Scripture so often!

In the New Testament; Matthew and Hebrews and James!

One writer I studied likens her (in many ways) to the “virtuous woman” of Proverbs 31. I am talking about the “saved, changed-by-God’s-Grace” Rahab now!

Wow!

That’s Grace, all right … AMAZING GRACE!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

The “red” scarlet cord later in the story is no doubt a symbol of the Blood of Jesus! No doubt in my mind, this foreigner of a cursed race became a follower (sincerely) of the God of Abraham! We shall meet her in Heaven some day, too!