Joshua 3,5-11.17 1125
1. Sonntag nach Epipanias 15
Jonathan, David’s friend ✠ 1009 bc
12. Januar 2025
1. ℣ I saw Yahweh seated upon a throne:
℟ High and lifted up (Isaiah 6,1a vul).
vidi Dominum sedentem solium excelsum et elevatum.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Heavenly King! Enable us to follow Thy Holy Word, as those from the East followed the leading of a star. Give us grace at all times and in all places to confess Thy Holy Name. Amen. (Löhe 127.128).
2. »Then Joshua said to the people: „Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.“ And Joshua said to the priests: „Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.“ So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. Yahweh said to Joshua: „Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant: ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan’“ And Joshua said to the people of Israel: „Come here and listen to the words of Yahweh your God.“ And Joshua said: „Here is how you shall know that the Living God is among you and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan.“ Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.«
3. In the theology of the old testament, the ark of the covenant was the footstool for Yahweh. where the ark was, there was Yahweh; it was a visible reminder of His presence among His people. When Solomon built the temple, the ark was placed in the Holy of holies and that was where Yahweh’s mercery and forgiveness were demonstrated (Leviticus 16,14-16).
4. God employs physical means to assure us of His presence and forgiveness. The human heart is fallen; we are full of unbelief, fear and spiritual impurity. When a sinner is confronted by the Holy God, the response is most often one of fear, dread and a desire to hide from Him. Even in our fallen state, we know in our heart that the unholy cannot abide with the holy.
5. When we are in rebellion against God, we attempt to forge our own path apart from His will. The Bible tells story after story of how walking a path different from God’s leads to heartache, despair and ultimately disastrous results. The generation of Joshua’s parents experienced this all too well during their 40 years of wandering in the Sinai.
6. But in Joshua 3, the children have grown to adults. God is about to lead them into the Promised Land of Canaan. The ark shows the way, and they follow into the land of milk and honey.
7. Jesus is the antitype of the ark. The temple served a dual, complimentary purpose as the dwelling of God and where He gives forgiveness to His people. The ark was central in this for it was the mercy seat where the blood from the goat was poured upon once a year on Yom Kippur (the day of atonement). Paul makes the typological connection between the ark and Jesus: »God put forward Christ Jesus as a mercy seat (ἱλαστήριον) by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His Divine forbearance He had passed over former sins« (Romans 3,25). cf. כַּפֹּ֖רֶת ἱλαστήριος mercy seat; propitiation (Leviticus 16,15). Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons states: „The ark of the covenant was the symbol of Christ, who for our sakes came down to earth from above.“
8. „Here justice is how God says things are, His righteousness. [Jesus] is the fulfiller of it so righteousness may be ours too. Where our sins are is where He is. Where His righteousness is, is where we are. His righteousness is as surely ours as our sins are surely His. Christ joins us in our sin, bears it and fulfills all righteousness to make righteousness ours. We are righteous with His righteousness, and in that God has His delight. The delight and pleasure of God are in His beloved Son, and that is where we are too. What is ours is His; what is His is ours. So God delights in us too“ (Nagel 44).
9. Christ is God in our midst and the propitiation for our sin. Christ leads us to eternal life. Where He goes, we follow. »My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.« (John 10,27-28). Sheep follow their Shepherd, and our Shepherd leads us to the means of grace where He gives us the forgiveness He purchased. Baptism, Absolution and Supper are 3 Sacraments where this forgiveness is given to us, upon us, into us. They connect us to Christ, and Him to us, now and always.
10. As glorious was Christ’s presence with His people of old with the ark of the covenant, more so is Christ’s presence with us because He has taken on our flesh and blood. He has together-ed Himself to us (Nagel 45) in a way that no man or angel can separate.
11. This is the Lord Christ Jesus, who
The very truth of God doth show.
With teachings bright as morning light,
He draws our hearts to Him aright.
(Du höchstes Licht, ewiger Schein elkg 389,2 2021 Johannes Zwick before 1542)
This is most certainly true.
12. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst sit lowly in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions, give unto Thy servants that humility of heart and willingness to learn without which no man can find wisdom; to the glory of Thy holy name. Amen. (1st Sunday after Epiphany, 1st Vespers Collect. The Daily Office.)
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith. Copyright © 1902 Frank Carroll Longaker.
Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.
The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.
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