The recent earthquake and tsunamis that struck so many countries in the Indian Ocean are taxing the whole world’s relief efforts. In human life lost, it will go down as one of the worst natural disasters in human history. It does have important prophetic significance that we need to understand, which is highlighted in Joshua 3:3-4,14-17:
However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before."
So it came about when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest),
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; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho.
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.
In Scripture, the Jordan River often represents death, which is why both Jesus and John the Baptist were baptized there. The Jordan River also empties into the Dead Sea. There was a reason why the Lord commanded the Ark of the Covenant to be carried across the Jordan “about” 2,000 cubits ahead of the rest of the people. The Ark represents Jesus and the cubits represent years. This was a prophetic statement that the Lord would pass through death to His Promised Land “about” 2,000 years before the rest of His people.
The Lord said that “...the harvest is the end of the age...” (Matthew 13:39), and we read in Joshua 3:15 that “...the Jordan River overflows all its banks all of the days of harvest.…” This speaks of how death will be overflowing all of its banks all of the days of the harvest, which is the end of the age. Because of this, we can expect natural and human disasters to increase during the coming times.
As all of the Lord Jesus’ own prophecies concerning these times make very clear, we are coming to the greatest times of trouble the world has ever known. However, the good news is, if we have built our lives on the kingdom which cannot be shaken, we will not only survive what is coming, but we will prevail and prosper. This is actually the time when the church is going to cross over and begin to possess its Promised Land.
At the same time, we must understand that at the very time that such great troubles are going to be coming upon the world that “the Jordan River overflows all of its banks.” Christians who are walking in the ways of the Lord are going to prosper more than they ever have before. The present world systems may be shaking, but if we are abiding in the Lord we are on a Rock that simply cannot be shaken. However, our prosperity is not so that we can live luxuriously, but so that we can help the desperate.
In Joshua 3:16,we are told that the waters of the Jordan “…which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam.” This could have been translated that the waters of the Jordan “were rolled back all the way to Adam.”It was no accident that this little town was named “Adam,” just as there are no accidents anywhere in Scripture. When God’s people begin to pass through this baptism in the Jordan, entering into a life which truly takes up the cross every day, dying to ourselves so we can be alive to Him, we will begin possessing the promises of God that we are called to inherit. Death will then be rolled back all the way to Adam! All of the death that was the consequence of the Fall will be turned back.
There is much to be said about this, but for this week we must understand that death will be overflowing “all of its banks” during the time of the harvest. We must prepare ourselves for increasingly great natural and manmade disasters, as we get closer to the end of this age. We will need to learn to cope with death all around us and keep on functioning. Just as no general is likely to be successful if he is overly concerned about casualties, we too will have to learn to cope with death all around us, not being overly given to grieving or mourning the dead, in order to save the living from an even greater, eternal disaster.
The prophecies of these times are fearful for those who are not abiding in the Prince of Peace. Even so, we are entering the times that even the prophets of old desired to see. We must understand that problems are coming, and to avoid looking for them because they make us uncomfortable or fearful is to live in deception. Those who have built their lives on the kingdom have nothing to fear. Those who have not will have much to fear, and it is better for them to fear than to go on in their delusions and be in the terrible jeopardy those delusions keep them in. Therefore, we want to see these things for what they are, and be prepared not to just survive, but to save many others.
Israel’s inheritance was the land, and they dispossessed the people who were on it. Our inheritance, which is also the Lord’s, is the people. Even though the Jordan will be overflowing its banks, and death will be all around us, the power of His indestructible life will be flowing through us to reap the greatest harvest that the world has ever known. We must not sleep or be distracted while the treasure of the earth is ripe for reaping.