January 8, 2007 - Monday in the First Week after Epiphany
“Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.’” (Joshua 3:7)
Moses could not bring the children of Israel into the promised land. It was not given him to do this. He died in the wilderness and was buried by God. Moses successor, Joshua (Y’shua), was the chosen one who would lead the Israelites into the land promised by God to the descendants of Abraham.
They entered the land in the same way the prior generation entered freedom – on dry ground through parted water. The ark of the covenant, YHWH’s sacramental presence among His people, went before them, carried by the priests. As soon as their priestly feet touched the flooded Jordan, the water parted, and the people crossed on dry ground to take possession of the promised land. God fulfills His promises through parted water.
Moses cannot bring us to the promised land of eternal life. His commandments promise life, but we are sinners unable to keep them. For sinners, the commandments lead to death, just as Moses and his generation died in the wilderness. It takes a Joshua, a Y’shua – Jesus – to bring us out of the wilderness of our sin and death into the promised land of eternal life with God.
Standing in the Jordan River, baptized by John, Jesus is our Joshua – leading us to eternal life through the water of Baptism. His way is not the way of Moses and commandment keeping, but the way of trust in His perfect life and death for our salvation. He has brought you through death to life in the parted waters that wash away sin in the flood of His death. Baptized into Jesus’ death and life, you already stand in the promised land of eternal life, glorified in Him at the right hand of the Father. Jesus, your Joshua, has brought you through the water to a place where Moses could not bring you, to the forgiveness of your sins and life with God forever.
“Father in heaven, as at the baptism in the Jordan river you once proclaimed Jesus your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit, grant that all who are baptized in His name may faithfully keep the covenant into which they have been called, boldly confess their Savior, and with Him be heirs of life eternal, through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for the Baptism of Our Lord)
Today's Reading:
Joshua 3:1-3, 7-8, 13-17