First Things First: First Steps, First Call, First Priority, First Love, First Fruits
Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.
Joshua 3:1 New International Version
After three days the officers went throughout the camp giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it.” Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”
Joshua 3:2-5 (NIV)
How do you cross over faithfully into new territory? Let the Lord Go Before You!
“Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”
Joshua 3:4
“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”
Joshua 3:5
How do you cross over faithfully into new territory? Consecrate your life to God
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground
Joshua 3:14-17 (NIV)
Remember that seasons change, but God doesn’t.
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
Joshua 4:4-7
Choose your stones carefully.