Joshua 3

Early in the morning, Joshua arose, in order to lead the conquest generation across the Jordan into the promised land. Early in the morning on the first day of the week, Jesus rose from the tomb. Early in the morning you rise up from your bed to test the word that has been spoken to you, “Jesus Christ heals you.”

This is now the third time in Joshua that a period of three days has come up. It was three days before they set out from a place of bad memories in Moab to cross the Jordan. The spies were instructed by Rahab to hide for three days before they returned to Joshua and the camp of Israel. Joshua and Israel camped at the edge of the Jordan for three days of waiting before the crossing took place.

This would not be worthy of mention if it were not for 1 Corinthians 15:4, where Paul wrote that Jesus, “was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” In accordance with which Scriptures? One place that Christ mentions in connection with His resurrection is Jonah. Jonah spent three days in the belly of a great fish. Is this another place worthy of our meditation? They waited three days at the very edge of the promise.

The crossing of the Jordan was a monumental occasion for Israel. Our promised land is not the Israel of old, but the land of resurrection. Our Joshua arose after three days in the belly of death. He leads us into the land of life. Your trial with the world of death will not be forever. Your test of temptation must soon give way to healing. Early in the morning, we remember that Jesus, the Lord of life, rose from the dead. He heals you.

When the people saw the ark of the covenant being carried by the priests, with God's mercy seat on top of it, the people needed to set out and follow. Christ is the place of God for us. He leads us by His cross and resurrection. We see Him, get up from our paralysis, make our bed, and serve.

It was appropriate to the time of the Law, that the people needed to keep their distance from the ark. But we have now been embraced by the One who tented among us as the visible manifestation of the invisible Lord, and we have bold access to God through Him. Through Jesus, we run to God, crying out, “Abba, Father,” and we are not consumed.

We do consecrate ourselves, not with merely an outward ceremonial cleansing, but with the inward testimony of a clear conscience before God, and with the beauty of holiness befitting the Lord's saints. Tomorrow has come. Jesus, who heals us, is with us and in us. Through Him, we have become the priests of God. He will do wonders among us.

Where Jesus, our Mediator and the Son of God, leads the church, the waters of death must give way to resurrection. He is the Lord of all the earth, and the Mediator of a New Covenant.

We are in Him. He will not lead us into temptation. He will deliver us from evil. Sin, death, and hell must flee from us. In Him, all the Lord's beloved people have already passed over the Jordan into the land of resurrection. We can get up and serve now.