Title: Watershed in New History
Contents
Bible text: Joshua 4:19-5:3
watershed in new history
Do you know how to warm your body in cold weather? You can drink hot broth. Some would say yes, but no. Just say hi. Instead of just ‘nodding’ your head, if you bend your back 45 degrees and do it about ten times, your body will become warm. It is also great for back exercise. As you say hello, you exercise the muscles of your stomach and back, so this is a great deal.
The boiling temperature of water is 100 degrees. Water does not boil even when it reaches 99 degrees. 100 degrees is a watershed. Steam locomotives need 212 degrees to move. Even if the gauge points to 211 degrees, the locomotive does not move. 212 degrees is the watershed for steam locomotives. The last one degree difference is that big.
There are hurdles that countries and individuals must overcome. The hump is the most important step in the process of becoming a job. What is the watershed in the new history?
Cross the Jordan River
The watershed of the new history is to cross the Jordan River.
Is this one side or the other side of the Jordan River, Egypt or Canaan? It doesn't matter if you cross the Jordan River. It's not far from here and there. It is a short distance with a river in the middle. Even if you come to the river, if you don't cross the river, you can't even see the land of Canaan and eat it. The place where Lazarus was held in Abraham's arms and where the rich man groaned is divided into hell and heaven by the river Hana. A single sheet of shoji paper separates the outside and the inside of the door.
The Israelites lived in Egypt for 400 years. They escaped from Egypt to pay off their years of living as slaves. They crossed the Red Sea. 40 years of living in the wilderness have passed. Now they see the land of Canaan before their eyes. The problem is crossing the Jordan River. God appointed a leader named Moses to rescue the people who were groaning in despair and pain. Moses became the leader of the Exodus, and his mission ended with a view of the land of Canaan from Mount Nebo.
The leader who will lead them to the land of Canaan is Joshua. The people crossed the Jordan under the leadership of Joshua. “When all the people had finished crossing the Jordan” (verse 1), all the people crossing the Jordan is a watershed in the new history.
In the 40 years of the wilderness, we have been cowardly resenting and complaining against the leader until now, but that is the past. They have now crossed the Jordan River.
How did you cross the Jordan River? I prepared it first. The food was prepared, and the heart was prepared. They believed and followed the leader, and encouraged each other with the belief that God was with them. Among the twelve tribes, the brave Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribes of Manasseh were set up as the vanguard.
The priests carried the ark of the covenant and set foot in the Jordan River. And the people followed after the priest. God spoke to Joshua. He commanded the priests, “When you come to the waters of the Jordan, enter the Jordan.” (Joshua 3:8) What should not be overlooked here is that God did not say to stop the Jordan and cross it, but to enter the overflowing river. the fact that it did. They believed in God and threw their feet into the river.
“As the people left their tents to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant and went before the people, and the hills always overflowed in the time of the Jordan harvest. All Israel passed over on dry land until the water stopped flowing and all the people had crossed the Jordan” (Joshua 3:14-17).
God made the Jordan River dry land. The priests put their feet into the river, and when the water stopped, the priests went into the middle of the river. The priests stood there until the people had finished their crossing. How exciting and cool is that scene? It is a scene of excitement and emotion. The priests had to carry the light ark of the covenant and stay until the people's crossing was over. The Ark of the Covenant contains stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them. They crossed the Jordan by holding on to the Word of God.
The Jordan River is a watershed. What river should you cross? What is the turning point? The Israelites crossed the Jordan and came to Gilgal. Gilgal is across the Jordan River. Gilgal is the land of Canaan.
Perform circumcision
The watershed for the new man is to perform circumcision. The Israelites crossed the Jordan and built a monument at Gilgal. And then God's first command is Joshua 5:2-3. “At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make a sword out of flint and circumcise the children of Israel again.” So Joshua made a sword out of flint and circumcised it on the Mount of Circumcision.
The first circumcision was what God commanded Abraham. “Be circumcised, every male among you, for this is my covenant that I will keep between me and your descendants. Cut off your foreskins” (Genesis 17:10-11).
Circumcision is a sign of relationship with God's people. It is a sign of the grace that God has chosen and made his own. It is circumcision to connect with God, just as you have to peel the skin to connect an electric cord. Circumcision is a command from God, and in order to obey that command, you had to endure the pain of stabbing the epidermis with a flint knife.
Circumcision is a spiritual decision that cuts off the nature of sin. It is an operation to break with sin and connect with God. What does “Circumcise your heart” mean? It is to become a person whose center is united with God. The New Testament says, “He is not a Jew who is outwardly, and he is not circumcised in the flesh... but circumcision must be in the heart” (Romans 3:28).
An uncircumcised heart does not understand Jehovah's love, justice, and justice. They are uncircumcised and cannot escape God's punishment (Jeremiah 9:24-25). Uncircumcised ears cannot hear. “To whom shall I speak, and to whom shall I rebuke them to hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they do not hear” (Jeremiah 6:10)
Muhammad Ali had his bike stolen and went to the police station to report it. It was there that a boxing-loving police officer saw Ali and suggested that he try boxing. He lost his bike and gained boxing. That encounter marked Ali's fate as a heavyweight champion. When you connect with God, you can receive the power of the Almighty. Please use the circumcision of your heart as a watershed that changes your destiny.
“Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have brought the shame of Egypt away from you.” So he called the name of that place Gilgil to this day” (verse 9). We also need Gilgal's grace. Gilgal's circumcision is a watershed in the new history.
Keep the Passover
“And the children of Israel camped at Gilgal, and on the fourteenth day of the month they kept the Passover in the evening in the plains of Jericho.
The children of Israel encamped at Gilgal. To set up a camp means to set up a camp. Jin has a close relationship with the holiness of God. You must be clean in order to enter Jinan. Crossing the Jordan River, the circumcised men encamped. They mean the true church of the saints (Revelation 20:9).
The watershed in the new history is to keep the Passover. On the evening of the 14th day of the month, the Passover was kept in Jericho. Passover means “pass over” or “just passed” in English.
The origin of the Passover is as follows.
When Moses tried to bring Israel out of Egypt, the king of Egypt did not allow it. Even when the nine plagues, such as the plague of blood, the plague of frogs, and this plague, they do not give in. After the death of the last and tenth eldest son, Pharaoh surrendered. At night the angel of death killed both the first son and the first beast. But the house of the children of Israel who had slaughtered a sheep and sprinkled its blood passed by. The Passover is when the curse of death passed after seeing the blood of the sheep.
Keeping the Passover at a critical point before the war is to remind you that you have survived so far not because of your own strength, but because of God's help. It is to remind us that we escaped from Egypt by the power of God, crossed the Red Sea with God's help, and crossed the Jordan to Gilgal with God's help. It is the spirit of the Passover to remember that life was saved because of the blood of the sheep. We worship always remembering that we were saved through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
When the Passover is celebrated, a lamb is slaughtered and blood is applied to the doorposts. He told them to make unleavened bread, that is, unleavened bread, and eat it. It is to remind us of the night we ate unleavened bread on the night of the Exodus. Unleavened bread is a symbol of a pure and sinless life. And eat bitter herbs. Bitter herbs remind us of our painful life in Egypt. Keeping the Passover is a celebration of giving thanks for being freed from Egyptian bondage.
You are training to be grateful in any situation. A person who lives with a grateful heart is a vessel from which he can obtain everything. They had plenty to eat, but they gave thanks for the abundance of the land of Canaan by chewing tasteless bread. There is a saying, “If you easily forget the time of trouble, you will enter into more trouble than that.” You can avoid tribulation just by remembering the tribulation of the past. In fact, gratitude is greater than any resolution. Gratitude for what you have endured and endured so far, rather than the determination to do something in the future, will be the force that invades the future.
A watershed is a mountain range or ridge that divides. It's a turning point from one side to the other. A turning point in which a nature or policy changes is called a watershed. A watershed is an essential hump or divider pass to achieve. For example: “Gap-Ogyeongjang has become a watershed in Korea’s transition from a feudal society to a modern society”
Gilgal is a period. It is the end of unbelief. It's the end of an unfortunate day. Gilgal is the starting point of a new history. It is not the beginning of living in poverty, but the beginning of living in abundance. It is a watershed that begins a new history of creation while enjoying freedom and liberation, not a life of submission.
The Israelites started anew in Gilgal. Up until now, I lived on the free manna, but from now on, I have to live by labor. You have to farm to get food. You have to step on a watershed and make a turning point. Cross the Jordan! Do circumcision! Keep the Passover! This is a watershed in the making of a new history.