As we have covered, one of the primary characteristics between those who serve the Lord, and those who serve the devil, will be distinguished by the respect for life. Jesus came to give life, and the devil comes to destroy. As we proceed toward the harvest, the full maturity of all that has been sown in man, the good and the evil, will be witnessed by the power of life and the power of death as never before,. Even so, life is stronger than death, and life will ultimately prevail. However, until the ultimate victory, death will fill the earth as never before. Therefore, those who are growing in their love for life, and growing in the power to impart and save life, must also learn how to cope with death.

I Corinthians 10:1-11 explains that everything Israel went through in the wilderness was a blueprint for us, as verse eleven summarizes: “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Understanding this is basic to understanding biblical prophecy. One of the events that is especially timely for us now is the crossing of the Jordan River by Israel.

The church has been wandering in its wilderness for nearly two thousand years and is about to likewise cross over into its Promised Land. The prophetic events associated with Joshua’s crossing are about to parallel world events as the church begins to cross its Jordan River. In Joshua 3:3-4 we read:

These two thousand cubits represent the years that the Lord Jesus, represented by the ark of the covenant, passed through the Jordan or death, before the rest of His people. Note that it does not say this had to be “exactly” two thousand cubits, but “about” that many. Now it is just “about” two thousand years since Jesus crossed over. Some very basic things are about to start changing for the church, and for the world.

In verse 15, when telling of the priests entering into the Jordan carrying the ark we are told, “... for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest...” (Joshua 3:15) In biblical prophecy, the Jordan River often represents death because it empties into the Dead Sea. John the Baptist baptized there, and the disciples of Jesus baptized there as well. Here we see that this river “overflows all its banks all the days of the harvest” as a prophecy of the way death will be overflowing all its previous limits during the harvest that is the end of this age. It will also be this way when the church is crossing over to enter into its Promised Land, which is to walk in all of the promises that have been given to it.

We see in verse 16: “that the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan...” (Joshua 3:16). It is no accident that this city was called “Adam.” When the Lord’s people enter into their Jordan, truly laying down their lives for the Lord and His gospel, no longer living for themselves but for Him, then the river of death will be cut off, and death will be rolled back all the way to Adam, the one who released it on the earth in the first place.

In verse 17 we are told, “And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan” (Joshua 3:17). Just as Moses and Aaron had to pass away before Israel could cross into its Promised Land, there is a leadership change that must take place before the church will be able to enter into to its promises. In this I do not think it represents specific people of a specific generation, but of the type of leadership that the church has had for nearly the last two thousand years.

Moses and Aaron accomplished a great deal for the people of God. They delivered the people from their slavery in Egypt, and they got them through the wilderness right to the door of the Promised Land. These were no small accomplishments. However, it took a different kind of leadership to lead the people over the Jordan, and to possess their land.

A whole new type of leadership is about to arise that is different from the one that is passing. One of the first acts of the new priesthood was to carry the ark across the Jordan, where they “stood firm...in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on...” There will be a leadership that arises which will stand firm right in the midst of all of the death around it, which will enable all of God’s people to cross over.

That they stand firm in the middle of the Jordan also means that they will stand firm on the cross, the death to ourselves, and all that the cross implies to God’s people. It is when the priests of God take their stand on this that the waters of death will begin to be rolled back. Death is the path to live in Christ, just as Paul explained in II Corinthians 4:7-12:

Just as John the Baptist, the last of his order, was the greatest of them in many ways, the last order of leadership that will soon pass will be some of the greatest. However, there are great changes that are about to take place in the leadership of the church, and this will bring about great changes in the church itself. The first one will be that the cross will be the center again, and the coming priesthood will take their stand on it. They will lead the people through their baptism in the Jordan, a true consecration to die to themselves and live for the purposes of the Lord. They will stand on the cross until death is rolled back “all the way to Adam.”

The most basic conflict is between life and death, and those who are given the power of life will have gained it by their own death to themselves, as Paul explained in the text above. There are other basic changes coming which we will discuss in some detail in the weeks to come. As the One who has crossed over before us said: