The God Who Goes Before Text: Joshua 3:5-6
Introduction: Getting Ready for the Miraculous
We live in an age that has domesticated God. For modern evangelicals, God is safe, manageable, and largely irrelevant to the public square. He is a therapeutic assistant for our personal anxieties, but He is certainly not the kind of God who throws rivers into a heap so that His people can walk through on dry land. We want a God who will do wonders in our hearts, but we flinch at the thought of a God who does wonders in history, wonders in the dirt and the water, wonders that make pagan nations tremble.
The book of Joshua is a bracing corrective to this kind of timid faith. It is the record of God taking possession of what is rightfully His. And the centerpiece of this initial stage of the conquest is the crossing of the Jordan. This is not just a logistical problem for a large group of people; it is a profound theological statement. The Red Sea crossing was the act of salvation that brought Israel out of bondage. This Jordan crossing is the act of commissioning that brings Israel into their inheritance. One was a flight from, the other is an invasion of. And both are bookends to their wilderness sojourn.
But God does not perform His mighty acts in a vacuum. He requires His people to prepare. He commands them to be set apart. The relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility is not a contradiction to be solved but a reality to be lived. God is about to do something utterly miraculous, something that is entirely His work. And in preparation for this mighty act of God, the people are given a command: "Set yourselves apart." This is the constant rhythm of the Christian life. God works, so we work. God is holy, so we must be holy. God is about to invade, so we must be consecrated for the battle.
In our text today, we see this glorious pattern. A command for holiness is followed by the mobilization of God's presence. Consecration precedes invasion. This is not just a history lesson about the ancient Israelites. This is a paradigm for the Church in every age. If we want to see God do wonders among us, then we must first hear and obey the call to set ourselves apart for Him.
The Text
Then Joshua said to the people, “Set yourselves apart as holy, for tomorrow Yahweh will do wondrous deeds among you.” And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Carry the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.
(Joshua 3:5-6 LSB)
Consecration for the Coming Wonders (v. 5)
We begin with Joshua's command to the people:
"Then Joshua said to the people, 'Set yourselves apart as holy, for tomorrow Yahweh will do wondrous deeds among you.'" (Joshua 3:5)
The command is to "set yourselves apart as holy," or to consecrate yourselves. This is not a call to some vague, internal feeling of piety. In the immediate context, this would have involved ceremonial washings, abstaining from marital relations, and ensuring they were ritually clean according to the law of Moses (cf. Exodus 19:10-15). This was an external, physical preparation. But we must not imagine it was merely external. The physical acts were designed to teach a profound spiritual reality: the God who is about to act is a holy God, and He will not be approached casually.
This is a principle that runs through all of Scripture. Before God reveals Himself in power on Sinai, the people must consecrate themselves. Before Samuel anoints David as king, he tells Jesse and his sons, "Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice" (1 Sam. 16:5). Holiness is the necessary prerequisite for fellowship with the holy God and for witnessing His mighty acts. You cannot be a spectator to God's wonders; you must be a participant, and participation requires preparation.
The reason for this consecration is given plainly: "for tomorrow Yahweh will do wondrous deeds among you." Notice the logic. It is not "consecrate yourselves, and then God will be obligated to do wonders." That would be pagan magic. Rather, it is "God is about to act in grace and power, therefore, prepare yourselves to receive it." God's action is the foundation. Our action is the response. His initiative is sovereign; our responsibility is real. The wonders are His to perform, but the consecration is theirs to undertake.
This blows up the false dichotomy between faith and works, or between grace and effort. It is precisely because God is about to do a mighty work of grace that the people must engage in the strenuous work of sanctification. This is the Pauline pattern: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13). God is not waiting for you to get your act together so He can bless you. He has declared His intention to bless you, and therefore you must get your act together. The promise of wonders tomorrow fuels the pursuit of holiness today.
And what are these wonders? The Hebrew word is extraordinary, implying things that are miraculous and beyond human explanation. God is about to suspend the laws of nature. The Jordan is at flood stage (v. 15), a raging, impassable torrent. And God is going to stop it up like a man turning off a spigot. This is a frontal assault on the pagan gods of the Canaanites. Baal was the god of storms and rivers. By damming the Jordan, Yahweh is demonstrating His absolute authority over every corner of the cosmos that the pagans had assigned to their impotent deities. He is showing that He is the Lord of the flood. This is a reenactment of the Red Sea crossing, designed to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy (Josh. 2:10) and to instill covenant confidence in the hearts of His people.
The Presence that Leads the Way (v. 6)
Having commanded the people to prepare themselves, Joshua now gives the operational order to the priests.
"And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, 'Carry the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people.' So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people." (Joshua 3:6 LSB)
The central object in this whole affair is the Ark of the Covenant. This was the footstool of God's throne, the visible sign of His invisible presence. Inside were the tablets of the Law, Aaron's rod that budded, and a pot of manna. It represented God's law, God's priesthood, and God's provision. It was the heart of their worship and the guarantee of the covenant. Where the Ark went, God went.
And here, the Ark is commanded to go first. The priests, the representatives of the people before God, are to carry His presence on their shoulders and walk into the raging river before the waters part. This is a staggering act of faith. The priests do not wait for the miracle to happen and then walk through. They must step into the water, carrying the presence of God, and trust that God will honor His word. The presence of God does not follow His people into safety; it leads them into danger, and by leading them, it creates the safety.
This is a glorious picture of Christ, our great high priest and the true Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was a wooden box overlaid with gold, a picture of the humanity and deity of Christ. It contained the Law, and Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. It was the place of atonement, the mercy seat, and Christ is our propitiation. And just as the Ark went first into the waters of the Jordan, a place of certain death, so Christ went first into the waters of judgment and death for us. He is the forerunner, the pioneer of our salvation (Heb. 6:20). He did not point the way; He is the way.
Jesus went ahead of us into the death of the cross, and by His resurrection, He has parted the waters of death itself, creating a path for all who follow Him to pass through from the wilderness of this life into the promised land of the new creation. The priests carrying the Ark were a type, a foreshadowing, of the greater reality. They carried the symbol of God's presence; we are united to the substance, Jesus Christ Himself.
The response is simple and immediate: "So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people." There is no debate, no committee meeting, no risk assessment. There is simple, rugged obedience. This is the nature of true faith. It hears the command of God and it acts, trusting that God will be faithful to His promise. The priests stepped, and God acted. This is how God's people have always advanced: by obediently stepping out in faith, following the presence of God into impossible situations.
Conclusion: Consecrated for Conquest
So what does this mean for us? We are not standing on the banks of a literal Jordan river. But we are a people called to conquest. The Great Commission is our Canaan. We are called to disciple the nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that Christ has commanded. And make no mistake, the cultural river before us is at flood stage. It is a raging torrent of secularism, perversion, and hostility to the crown rights of Jesus Christ.
The temptation is to despair, to think the task is impossible. But the God of Joshua is our God. And His pattern for victory has not changed. First, we must hear the call to consecrate ourselves. The church in the West is weak because it is worldly. We have flirted with the idols of the age, we have compromised on the clear teaching of Scripture, and we have become comfortable and complacent. If we want to see God do wonders, we must repent. We must set ourselves apart as holy. This means rooting out secret sin, conforming our families and our churches to the Word of God, and refusing to bow the knee to the Baals of our day.
Second, we must fix our eyes on the one who goes before us. Our confidence is not in our strategies or our numbers, but in the living presence of Jesus Christ, our forerunner. He has already entered the flood. He has already conquered death. He has already secured the victory. The command to the priests to carry the Ark is our command to bear the name of Christ into the world. We are to be the ministers of His presence. When we preach the gospel, when we administer the sacraments, when we live out our faith in the public square, we are carrying the Ark. We are stepping into the water.
The world thinks this is foolishness. They see the raging river and they see us, a small band of priests with a strange message. But they do not see the power of the God who goes before us. Let us therefore consecrate ourselves, shaking off the filth of the world. And let us take up our cross and follow our King. He has promised to do wonders, and He never fails. He will part the waters. He will bring us into our inheritance. And He will get all the glory.