Joshua 4:1-7
“When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, Jehovah said to Joshua, ‘Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priest’s feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’ ‘ Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of Jehovah your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.’ ”
Luke 3:2b-9 (cf. Matt 3:5-12)
“The word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of Jehovah,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ‘
He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’ ”
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John the Baptizer is talking about the memorial stones that Joshua excavated from the Jordan River. (Neat. What’s the point?) Those stones were like a sacrament to the people of Israel–they were gravestones for the wicked and faithless generation that God disciplined and destroyed in the wilderness, a memorial to the great passover Jehovah appointed for Egypt via the Red Sea, a type of baptism into Joshua, and a parable that John now calls to mind: YOU are to make Jehovah’s path straight (remember how Jehovah made a straight path through the waters of judgment?).
But the sign of crossing the Jordan is more complex–it is the very creative power of God, breathing new life by the Holy Spirit into an inanimate creation. Jehovah is making all things new, and we see new birth in the form of a generation proceeding from the floodwaters of baptism from the Jordan, called to courage and holy warfare to enter the promised land. The Holy Spirit again hovers like a dove, but this time not over the flood waters of Genesis 1 or of Noah’s ark. No, the Spirit of God comes close to the scorched earth, but it is not yet time for God to touch man (remember Uzzah and the careening oxen of Israel, and beware disobeying Jehovah even if you think you can rationalize your sin!), but Jehovah stoops to rest on the shoulders of the priests, to write the names of the covenant breakers in the sand. Crossing the Red Sea was an act of judgment on Egypt and his “gods;” crossing the Jordan River was an act of judgment on Israel’s faithlessness to God through idolatry, grumbling, fearing the ripe-for-judgment inhabitants of Canaan more than Jehovah. Jehovah is fierce and jealous for his glory from his covenant people, for we can see that Jehovah does not show partiality– He destroyed the firstborns of unbelieving Egypt; but he destroyed the entire generation (but saved Joshua and Caleb) that grumbled before him in the wilderness. Stopping the floodwaters is also a sign of judgment, for the Jordan River is a picture of life–ever flowing, ever living. Ezekiel points to this as a picture of the conquest of Christ; that the river of life flowing from the temple can make even the Dead Sea teem with life. We are to see that Jehovah is the Lord of life when he stops the living water of the Jordan, for just as the unbelieving generation refused to come to Jehovah, the spring of living water, so Jehovah refused to pass over their sins, so they could not pass over into the promised land.
So John the Baptist’s threat to the crowds (especially the Pharisees and Sadducees, Matt 3:7) is VERY personal. They claim Abraham as their father, and John tells them to fuck off–Jehovah can (and already did!) wipe out the unfaithful descendants of Abraham. John points to the names of the 12 tribes and prophesies that God will raise up new, faithful children for Abraham in the form of the 12 apostles of Christ, who will infect the whole world with the indestructible life from the dead.
But the story doesn’t end with Joshua or John, of course. He himself points to Jesus, who baptizes the believer with the Holy Spirit and with fire that always burns, but never consumes. John prophesies also about Jesus: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:11b-12). Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to remove hearts of stone and implant hearts of flesh, who teaches us how to be human again, how to think Jehovah’s thoughts after him. His Spirit dwells in the believer, for he says “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,” and “[my Father and I] will come to him and make our home with him,” and “we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God, and they shall be my people,’ ” and “for our God is a consuming fire.” Therefore, beloved, remove the sandals from your feet and circumcise your wretched, stubborn, stony hearts, for you are standing on hallowed ground, and the Holy Spirit hovers over you.
John the Baptist’s sermon is a stern warning–only if you humble yourself and, by the grace of God, see that YOU are the valley that must be filled, the mountain and hill that must be made low, the crooked that must be straightened, and the rough place that must be made level; only then shall you see the salvation of God. Repent and believe, that you may receive the good word of Jesus like good seed on fertile soil and be fruitful and multiply. John says that every tree which doesn’t bear good fruit is cut the heck off; Jesus provides the increase: “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit,” (Matt.7:17) and “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” (John 15:5-6) Therefore, it follows that Union with Christ produces fruit in keeping with repentance, and as that fruit shall surely abide (John 15:16), surely we will not be snatched away from Jesus (John 10:28).
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, or you will be washed away by the floodwaters of the Jordan. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, of you will be forgotten, like the names Jesus wrote in the sand that are washed away by two or three tides from his floodwaters. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, or Jehovah will destroy you like the Israelites before Caleb, the Egyptians before Moses, the Canaanites before Joshua. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, or you will be chaff that Jesus shovels out of Jehovah’s house forever.
So repent and believe and cling to Jesus! Hide yourself and build yourself on the Rock that gushes with rivers of living water! The flood is coming, but “many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it,” for love’s “flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of Jehovah.” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7)
Where streams of living water flow... 