May 4, 2024: Haftorah - Joshua 3-5 (Part 2)
This week's Haftorah reading is from Joshua 3-5 (Part 2). Join Dr. Jeffery Myers as he picks up where he left off last week speaking on sanctification, now this week, focusing on the Ark, which symbolized ELOHIM'S Presence, and how the Ark represented the new method of guidance the Israelites were to follow! No longer were they to look to a particular sign, but to live and be guided by the Word of ADONAI!
Follow along in the AUDIO PODCAST, by clicking on the play button below, and reading along with the notes, as you listen to today's Haftorah Portion:
Lion of Judah Speaks: Haftorah – Joshua 3-5 (Part 2):
As we have come to a close for Pesach and are now headed toward Shavuot let me continue with the narrative from Joshua 3-5 from last week’s haftorah. I left you last week quoting Joshua 3:5-6, “And Joshua said unto the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Adonai will do wonders among you. And Joshua spoke unto the priests, saying, take up the Ark of the Covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the Ark of the Covenant, and went before the people.” The Ark is mentioned 15 times in Joshua 3 and 4. The Ark symbolized Elohim’s presence with His people. Adonai demanded that the people treat the Ark with the same respect as they treated Him. It symbolized His holy presence with them, and that He was personally leading them. The closer we live to Elohim the greater will be our respect and reverence for Him.
Joshua reassured the people that Adonai would be the first to cross the Jordan and the people would follow. He will do wonders and demonstrate His ability to provide for them and demonstrate that they do not go in their own strength, but in His strength. They were NOT to run ahead of the Ark but to stay behind it. They were to keep their eyes on the Ark ahead of them. The Ark would lead them and point them in the right direction.
Doesn’t Adonai want to lead us? We want to run out ahead of Him or just as bad, drag our feet and forever make up excuses for not following. Are we walking hand in hand with Him? Where is Elohim at work in our lives? Where is He leading? Do you expect Adonai to work a miracle? Life throws us curve balls; the future is always unknown and uncertain. Only Elohim knows the future! The Israelites possessed the Ark before but had not followed the Ark but the cloud, and now it is gone. They had a new pathway to tread, with a different method of guidance. They once waited for the moving of the cloud but now they have to wait for the moving of the Ark and the priests. The cloud was the provision for the wilderness. Elohim was changing the method with them. They were to live not by a particular sign, but by the Word of Adonai.
At what level are we prepared to meet Yah? He desires people who are committed to Him. Are we willing to consecrate ourselves and follow Him into the unknown adventure of intimate fellowship?
Yeshua HaMashiach is the true Ark of Yah. He is Yah with us. He is Immanuel – Yah with us. Yeshua is the reality of Elohim with His people. Let Yeshua guide you! Yeshua said, “If you love Me, you will obey Me” …we don’t have any problem obeying Him if we love Him!
The physical act of self-sanctification is the standard Levitical purification ritual as explained in the Torah: the people are to wash (immerse) themselves in water, and they are to wash (immerse) their garments in water. And, of course, it must be LIVING WATER (running spring or a river) that is used.
The people are now prepared; the spiritually sanctified are now physically sanctified, and it’s time to get their feet wet. Joshua 3:6 tells us that the very moment the priests’ feet touched the water the Jordan dried up to allow the people to cross. The priests came to the edge of the water and stood still in the Jordan. The Jordan did not dry up before the priests stepped into the water. If they had waited for the water to dry up before stepping into it, they would have been waiting all day. They had to step out by faith and put their feet into the Jordan. Elohim waited on them for 40 years in their unbelief before they were willing to cross-over with Him.
They had to get their feet wet. They had to get out into the water. How many times do we come to new experiences with Elohim and He patiently waits for us to step out by faith? And waits, and waits and waits. He waits for us to get our feet wet. We have no way of knowing how Elohim will provide or lead or deliver us and when we step out by faith, He does it! When we trust Him, He does it! Elohim gives us exactly what we need when we need it. His timing is always perfect. When we obey Him, we experience Him!
Picture in your mind’s eye the scene before the people. Two or three million people are at the river bank looking on with wonder at what Adonai is doing before their eyes. How would you like to have been the high priest in the lead carrying the front end of the Ark on its poles? Are you ready to step in by faith and trust Adonai at the river’s edge? Are you ready to get your feet wet?
Joshua 4:1 tells us, “The entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, Adonai spoke to Joshua.” What a testimony seen by an estimated 3 million Israelites. Once everyone had passed over, stones were to be gathered from where the priests stood with the Ark and brought to the riverbank. It is here, 12 men, one from each tribe, were to take a rock and deliver it to be set up as a monument. This was a momentous event; another definable moment in the process of Elohim’s redemptive plan for mankind could be checked off the list.
They entered the Promised Land on the 10th day of the 1st month of the year. It is significant because in only 4 more days they would celebrate the 1st Passover in their new home. The 10th day of the month is when the lambs for the slaughter are to be chosen, and thereby consecrated as Elohim’s sacred property.
The wilderness journey, those 40 years of testing and growing, is now officially ended and Elohim’s people have learned many valuable lessons along the way; but perhaps none will be more important in the years of battles that lay ahead of them realizing that Elohim does not help them automatically. Adonai ONLY helps His people when they are obedient to His commands, and this is a principle they will test over and over again.
These last two haftorah portions might trouble some people because in today’s congregations they believe Adonai is OBLIGATED to help those who call on His name. If we pray to receive Yeshua, our work is done. Once we have Yeshua in our hearts the need for obedience to the Father has ended. No need to sacrificially follow Yeshua, or pray for guidance but all that lies ahead for us is peace and comfort and wealth. We have no need to study His Word to learn how to live a redeemed life, simply being redeemed is sufficient. We know none of that is true!
There were times when the glory of Elohim was so visible and present and pulsating with such power within His people, that Israel merely showing up struck fear into the hearts of all who oppose Him, but those times have been few and far between. The reason is simple: Elohim’s people down through the ages have chosen NOT to be obedient to the Word of Adonai or faithful to their redemptive King. It’s time to return to obedience and faithfulness to our Yah and His Word.
When the Israelites crossed the Jordan, they were cut off from their old life. They began a new life from that day on with a new identification. The old lifestyle and wilderness wandering was ended. Israel as a nation had a new identity, new law and a new life in the land. There was no need to go back across the river. The old lifestyle was buried under the water of the Jordan. That old life was dead! They came up out of the Jordan to start a new life in a new land!
This was our Passover season, a time of renewal, new life, new lifestyle. A time of remembrance but also a time to move forward. He has redeemed us, rescued us so let us now live for Him in obedience as we prepare ourselves as His Bride waiting for the Bridegroom to come. Be ready…Get your feet wet…we are about to cross-over!
Shabbat Shalom Mishpocha,
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Shalom and enjoy your Sabbath with the King! He is great and greatly to be praised! What a glorious time as we lift Yeshua up and He will draw all men unto Himself! Surrender your life to the Master and walk in all His ways! See you at the altar!
Shalom Aleichem