Josh 3:5, Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." 
    	This morning’s reading describes that which had been in the hearts of the Chosen Nation of God long before their release from their slavery in Egypt. They had an inborn and earnest longing for the Promised Land. Especially in the distress of their captivity, they had remembered the Lord and His pledge to their fathers. They called out to Him beseeching earnestly for their deliverance. They were looking for that defined moment when they would enter into the place of their intense longing, the land of His promise. 
	That freed nation had been on the border of the Jordan. But at that time, they were not ready to cross over and inhabit. They had been afraid of the giants in the land and they did not trust that God would give them the victory. As a result, they had marched around in circles in the wilderness until that first, faithless generation had died off. 
	This time, we have the second generation which was in fact crossing the Jordan in the course of this chapter. The waiting was over! The time was at hand! This generation trusted the Lord under the leadership of Joshua to enter in and conquer the land of God’s Promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses! No more desert wandering! No more centuries and decades of yearning and longing. The time was here! The moment was now!
On the eve of entering, they were instructed, as in this morning’s passage to consecrate themselves to see what the Lord would accomplish on the morrow. This must have been a most exciting and challenging and awesome time for this people. They were to consecrate themselves because tomorrow they would see the Hand of God in full operation on their behalf. 
This would include the drying up of the Jordan for them to cross on dry land. This was in the midst of the season in which the Jordan was overflowing its banks. The Lord would show them the way into the land and would go before them into battle. 
It was time! It was now! Accordingly, it was necessary to be prepared to go only as the Lord so directed and fully in subjection to His Holiness and His Righteousness. 
This brings to mind the intense preparation and the earnest consecration that was necessary when Moses brought the first generation into the presence of the Lord as recorded in Ex 19:10-17. They needed to prepare themselves to come before the Lord. It required three days at that time, which is the foretelling of the time of the Christ’s death and resurrection. Those three days correspond to how long the Only Begotten of the Father would be in the grave until His glorious resurrection on the third day. His consecration and His righteous exaltation herald the only means of our sanctified preparation to be in the presence of the Lord God Almighty.
Ex 19:10-17, The Lord also said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, 'Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 'No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether beast or man, he shall not live.' When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain." So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. And he said to the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman." So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 
    	The nation had to go through the intense process of complete cleansing and absolute obedience in order to come to the Lord. God made it clear that they could do so only after they had prepared themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. It was necessary that they recognized that coming into the presence of the Lord was not just on a whim or in careless disregard for Who He is. His Holiness and His Righteousness needed to be absolutely at the forefront of their every interaction with Him. 
Consider the preparation that was required for the priests to be enabled to serve within the Tent of Meeting and eventually in their temple service. The High Priest had to be absolutely and painstakingly cleansed with the proper and prescribed sacrifices having been offered to come into the Holy of Holies, and that would only be allowed to happen once a year. 
	Please also remember what happened to the sons of Aaron when they offered the strange incense to the Lord as is recounted in the 10th Chapter of Leviticus. They were struck down by the Lord for their insolence and their complete lack of regard for His Holiness. 
In Lev. 10:3, Moses detailed what was at the heart of this judgment of the Lord upon those disobedient sons of Levi. It is something that we still need to keep in our hearts as we are only permitted into the direct presence of the Lord through the blood of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. This tremendous action of God’s grace and mercy and holiness is something that we dare never take for granted nor ever minimize.
	Lev 10:3, Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the Lord spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored.'" So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. 
    	This reality of our consecration unto the Lord needs to be instilled into our hearts in the most purposeful and holy manner of our consideration of the value that we put on the Lord in our lives. He is the One Who makes us holy before Him through the working of His own power and grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit within us which makes our lives more and more obedient and reverent representations of the Holiness of God in action.
Even in the Old Testament, this was ever to be the case as the people humbled themselves before The Lord God Almighty. Consider the charge that is given to all God’s people in Lev 20:7+8.
	Lev 20:7+8, 'You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 'And you shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 
It is the Lord Who sanctifies us. We are accordingly to consecrate ourselves unto Him through our obedient desire to please and to honor Him to the maximum of our truly limited human abilities. However, our placement into His presence is by His working power and His awesome grace through the ministry of His Holy Spirit, always fully in line with His Word. 
	Later, in this book of Joshua, the Lord made it evident that the people had not followed through with their complete commitment to Him. He told Joshua, after a most shocking defeat in battle, that there was a need for cleansing within the encampment. The people needed to search their hearts and souls with regard to that which was offensive to the Lord. This is detailed in Josh 7:13.
	Josh 7:13, Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the Lord, the God of Israel, has said," There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst." 
    	What is in evidence here is that we can not have a desire for both the things of this world and the presence of the Lord. We are not able to utterly know the Lord if we still crave to have that which this world puts forth as attractive and desirable. Either we want the Lord with all our heart, or we set aside that relationship in order to have the tawdry ensnarements of this age! We cannot have both as the core focus of our lives. It is always one or the other, no matter how much we may argue and try to convince ourselves that this compromise is something the Lord will honor. No, we need to honor Him and to do so with all our heart and with all our mind and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our passion.
	Continuing forward then, we see, in 1 Sam 16:4+5, that the Lord, through His prophet Samuel, called forth for the consecration of the elders of Bethlehem at the time of the anointing of the shepherd boy, David, to become king of Israel. This was an obvious foreshadowing of the Kingdom to come of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was not just a minor account of some sacrifice in a small community. It was the heralding of the truth that the people of God were to be consecrated to receive their King, our King and Savior who was to come from the lineage as well as the very town of King David.
1 Sam 16:4+5, So Samuel did what the Lord said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, "Do you come in peace?" And he said, "In peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." He also consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice. 
    	It was King David who later wrote so many of the wonderful psalms which are used to declare the wondrous nature and work of the Lord. They call forth the praise unto God that He Alone is due. They proclaim His glory in all the earth, such as in Ps 86, verses 8-10. This is an expression of a heart that is wholly consecrated unto the Lord.
	Ps 86:8-10, There is no one like Thee among the gods, O Lord; Nor are there any works like Thine. All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; And they shall glorify Thy name. For Thou art great and doest wondrous deeds; Thou alone art God. 
	As well consider another Psalm, Ps 115:1-13, which was written to give expression to the truth that there is no God worthy of praise or adoration except the Lord God, Jehovah. All the other gods are merely the works of man’s hands while man is the work of God’s hand. Therefore He Alone is worthy of our time and our consideration and our praise and our consecration and our dedication!
Ps 115:1-13, Not to us, O Lord, not to us, But to Thy name give glory Because of Thy lovingkindness, because of Thy truth. Why should the nations say, "Where, now, is their God?" But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, The small together with the great. 
	Through the Prophet Joel, as recorded in Joel 2:15-19, the Lord made known the truth that His people were to be consecrated and holy unto Him. All the ways of mankind, in seeking after the glory of this age are for naught. It is in the Lord, Alone, that we will find the victory that is promised to those who trust in Him completely. This was what the Children of Israel were to do as they were crossing the Jordan, set in their being consecrated completely before Him. 
By the time of Joel, the people had turned away from God. The prophet was calling forth for that consecration unto the Lord again from those who were looking for the salvation of God. This is what we are to do as the Children of God in Jesus Christ as we follow Him in the course that He sets before us in this realm.
	Joel 2:15-19, Blow a trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room And the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, Weep between the porch and the altar, And let them say, "Spare Thy people, O Lord, And do not make Thine inheritance a reproach, A byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, 'Where is their God?'" Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, And will have pity on His people. And the Lord will answer and say to His people, "Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine, and oil, And you will be satisfied in full with them; And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. 
    	In John 17, verses 13-23, Our Lord Jesus describes why it is that we need to consecrate ourselves unto God. It is not a matter of asking to be removed from this age, but rather that in midst of all that surrounds us, we go forth in the covering and the sanctification that only God can be for us. In Him, we face all that this world will use to assault us and never waiver as we stand firmly and resolutely founded in Christ’s Supreme Victory over all. 
Just as the Children of Israel crossed the Jordon counting on the Lord, prepared to face all the onslaughts of the Canaanites through the power of God going before them, so is it true of us today. We are prepared, through our complete commitment and consecration to God, to stand in Him. We declare to the entire world and all its powers and minions of hatred and falsehood that there is no True God except the Lord God, Jehovah. There is to be no desire in our hearts except His glory! We fundamentally and livingly proclaim that there is no true life except that which we have been freely and eternally given in Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God!
	John 17:13-23, "But now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves. "I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. "As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. 
	This is the course of all true thanksgiving unto God for the life that we have in Him. We are to be consecrated and holy before God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! So be it!
Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 71:3. Be Thou to me a rock of habitation, to which I may continually come; Thou hast given commandment to save me, For Thou art my rock and my fortress. Amen.