Joshua chapters 3 and 4 describe how Israel crossed the Jordan River into the land of Canaan. More about the ethics of that next week. After forty years sequestered in the desert as virtual nomads, the people stand on the banks of the Jordan River.
Behind them lies a generation shaped by slavery, exodus, testing, and a testimony to God’s sustaining grace. Before them lies the land promised centuries earlier to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Between promise and fulfilment stands a flooded, tempestuous, impassable wall of water.
This story is not a metaphor for overcoming the difficulties we face in life. The chapter tells precisely how God fulfilled his promises by bringing Israel into the land he pledged to their ancestors. It demonstrates how the people honoured God’s presence among them, and chose obedience, trusting God in the face of insurmountable obstacles, entering an unknown future with courage and hope.
Hidden in plain sight in verse 5 is a command that gives the narrative its spiritual centre. Before the priests step into the Jordan, before the waters part, before Israel enters the land, Joshua stands before Israel and says, “Consecrate yourselves” (Jos 3:5).
1. Consecrate yourselves
Sometimes we imagine that it’s God’s job to make us holy – and there is some truth to that idea. But again and again, Scripture implores the people of God to actively pursue holiness. Why? Because we ought to resemble our God in holiness, acting in harmony with God’s character, learning wisdom from heaven for enable our flourishing in the world.
Joshua does not ask the people to sharpen their weapons, or consult maps of the enemy territory, or boost their resolve. He calls them to prepare their hearts. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, consecration meant setting oneself apart for God’s purposes. It involved repentance, ritual cleansing, renewed obedience, and wholehearted devotion. Israel belonged to God before they belonged in the land. Their relationship to God was the key to their progress in conquering the land of Canaan.
Whenever God prepares us for a new chapter, he prepares us inwardly. Moses encounters God in the “burning bush” before confronting Pharaoh. Isaiah is cleansed with a burning coal before he is sent by God on mission. The disciples of the risen Jesus wait in prayer before the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Renewal does not begin with planning, organising, and frenetic activity. Renewal begins with a strong commitment to personal holiness. Yes, everything should “be done decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40). But there is a prior imperative. God’s first concern is to strengthen the moral character of his people.
Before asking what God wants us to do, we need to ask who God wants us to become. Who we are becoming is far more important than where we are going. The greatest obstacle to God’s work among us is not the difficulty of the challenges before us but our divided hearts.
2. Seek the presence of God
Secondly, notice that the central focus here is not Joshua but the Ark of the Covenant, the visible sign of God’s presence among his people. Israel is instructed to watch the Ark carefully and follow wherever it leads, “for you haven’t travelled this way before” (v. 4b). Their future depends upon remaining close to the God who redeemed them from Egypt and sustained them throughout the testing time in the desert.
The same principle applies to knowing God today. We don’t have the Ark of the Covenant. We don’t have the temple, priesthood and offerings of ancient Israel. Nor are we called primarily to pursue influence, popularity, success, or institutional survival. We have Jesus. We are called to follow Jesus, to be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did. We are invited to join in the mission of God.
The best thing you and I can do is not to ask God to bless what we are doing, but to go and participate in what God is blessing.
Every generation eventually encounters unfamiliar rivers. Rapid cultural change, social division, technological transformation, personal loss, vocational transition, and uncertainty about the future all confront us with unfamiliar and challenging territory.
Our first responsibility is not to and devise smart game plans and build impressive empires, but to remain attentive to the presence of God through prayer, worship, Scripture, and mutual discernment. Only a consecrated people can faithfully follow a holy God.
3. Step into the challenge
Notice how the text records a remarkable detail. Only when their feet of the priests touch the flooded Jordan does God hold back its waters. Faith expresses itself in obedient action.
It’s tempting to seek certainty before we are willing to commit. We like to know why it’s necessary and how it’s going to turn out before making the investment and taking the first step. Yet throughout Scripture, obedience frequently comes before explanation. Abraham leaves home without knowing his destination. Isaiah says, “Here I am; send me” without knowing what the mission will involve. Peter steps from the boat before discovering that Jesus will sustain him in the sea.
It’s the same here in Joshua 3. God often reveals the next step only after we have faithfully taken the first.
This is not an invitation to pursue reckless enthusiasm. Biblical faith is thoughtful trust expressed through practical obedience to God’s will. A congregation cannot wait indefinitely for ideal circumstances to arise before engaging in mission and serving their local community. Individual Christians cannot keep on avoiding forgiveness, postponing generosity, and delaying justice until every uncertainty disappears.
Consecration prepares us to obey. A heart surrendered to God is strangely warmed to respond to God’s grace and guidance, and liberated to take risks for God, and empowered to step into the water.
4. Place your trust in God
Joshua observes that the Jordan is overflowing its banks. Humanly speaking, this was the worst possible moment to cross. But God who divided the Red Sea now parts the Jordan River, demonstrating once again that God’s covenant purposes are not limited by human weakness.
At the same time, Scripture never promises that faithful people will always experience immediate success. God’s people also endure suffering, exile, persecution, and loss. Jesus himself experiences the glory of resurrection and ascension only by embracing the humiliation and darkness of the cross.
Joshua 3 reminds us that God’s presence and guidance are worthy of our trust – whether God chooses to remove the obstacles, strengthen us to endure them, or transform us through them.
5. Enter God’s future
Crossing the Jordan marks a new beginning in Israel’s vocation as the people of God. Everything that came before was mere preparation for the real task of living as God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.
Having now entered the land, the people are called to pursue the awesome vision of embodying God’s holiness, justice, compassion, and covenant faithfulness in their day-to-day lives. That is the way of the future. God’s future is always larger than possession of territory. It is always bolder than what we can imagine in our own strength. God’s future is the formation of a people who reflect God’s character and pursue his mission in the world – righting wrongs, healing wounds, and establishing justice and peace.
How do we enter God’s future? It begins with consecration, as we offer our whole life – our whole heart, mind, will, relationships, work, aspirations, and possessions – to God in grateful response to the mercy of God and the grace God has poured into our lives by his Spirit. This inward surrender finds expression in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22f), and in practical obedience, moral integrity, compassion, generosity, peacemaking, and sacrificial service to others.
John Wesley, whose theology and spirituality is foundational to the Uniting Church, described this as “holiness of heart and life,” insisting that genuine faith always bears fruit in both personal character and social responsibility.[1]
Before God accomplishes great things through his people, he first forms them into a holy people who begin to embody his love and justice in everyday life. God calls each of us today to “consecrate ourselves,” to fix our eyes upon the presence of God, to step forward in obedient faith, trusting God to be faithful to his promises even when the waters seem impassable and the reason for taking the risk seems impenetrable.
That is what practical faith is all about. It’s not about summoning great faith, but having faith in a great God.
So let us follow the pattern carved out by Joshua and the people of Israel long ago: consecrate ourselves, seek God’s presence, step into the challenge, place our trust in God, and confidently enter whatever future God has in store for us.
Sermon 861 copyright © 2026 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 5 July 2026. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
Rev Dr Rod Benson is General Secretary of the NSW Ecumenical Council and a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia serving at North Rocks Community Church in Sydney.
Reference
[1] See, e.g., Steven W. Manskar, A Perfect Love: Understanding John Wesley’s ‘A Plain Account of Christian Perfection’ (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2004), 41; and John Wesley, Sermon 43, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” §I.9, in Sermons II, 2:160, available at https://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-43-the-scripture-way-of-salvation/
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Taking it further…
Reflection questions
- Why does the sermon argue that Joshua 3 is not primarily a metaphor for overcoming life’s personal difficulties? What does the preacher identify as the central purpose of the narrative?
- Why is the Ark of the Covenant given such prominence in the narrative? What contemporary Christian parallels does the preacher draw from Israel’s call to follow the Ark?
- What significance does the timing of the miracle have—that the priests step into the Jordan before the waters part? What does this teach about the relationship between faith and obedience?
Application questions
- The sermon suggests that “who we are becoming is more important than where we are going.” What habits or priorities in your life are shaping your character, and do they reflect the holiness and love of Jesus?
- Is there an act of obedience that you have been postponing until circumstances feel more certain or comfortable? What would it look like to take the faithful “first step” that God may be asking of you?
- John Wesley described Christian discipleship as “holiness of heart and life.” What practical action could you take this week—in areas such as compassion, generosity, justice, peacemaking, forgiveness, or service—that would express your inward consecration through outward love?
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