Joshua 3
Crossing the Jordan
1 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards [a] between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”
After three days of preparation, after the spies had come back from Jericho, Joshua gave his orders for crossing the Jordan. As we’ll see later, in verse 15, the Jordan was at flood stage, and the people, having camped near a river overflowing its banks for three days, must have been wondering how in the world they were going to get across. The river had fords (Joshua 2:7), places near the city where the water was shallow enough to cross. That was where the spies had gone across. But two spies traveling light fording the river and moving a whole nation of millions of people across with all their possessions were two completely different things.
Joshua instructed them to follow the ark of the covenant, but to stay 1000 yards away! That 10 football fields! How could they even see it that far away? The ark was covered with the purest gold (Exodus 25:10-22), which would have glinted in the sun, making it a beacon. The people were told to stay far away from the ark to respect its holiness, since the presence of the Lord was with it, and only the priests could get near it. But staying far away also gave everyone a clear view of the ark. By following the ark, they were following the presence of the Lord into the Promised Land.
Joshua’s exhortation in verse 5, “consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you”, is one of my favorite quotes in the Bible. We love to see God do amazing things among us, but in order for those things to happen, first we must consecrate ourselves. If we are truly consecrated to God, he then can do truly amazing things among us.
6 Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.
7 And the LORD said to Joshua, “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. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’ “
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD -the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
I wonder if this part happened in exactly this sequence, or if God speaking to Joshua in verses 7-8 is a “flashback”, and God had said this to Joshua previously. It seems like in order for Joshua to say what he said in verse 5, he must have gotten some word from the Lord before that. Or maybe he knew God would do something incredible, but didn’t know what. If the sequence of events happened in the order listed here, this was a real act of faith. Joshua had not yet mentioned how they were going to cross the river until after God spoke to him in verses 7-8. He simply told the priests to take up the ark, and told the people to follow it. At that point, God told him what he would do. Joshua never questioned God about how they would get across, he just prepared as God told him to, and waited for God to tell him what to do. That’s a picture of faith, obedience, and waiting on God that we can all look up to.
God knew that some in Israel would have trouble accepting Joshua’s authority, so he provided a Moses-like miracle to show everyone he was with Joshua like he was with Moses. God could have provided a bridge or some other way to cross the Jordan, but he parted the waters, just like he did with Moses, because he knew the resonance this would have for Israel. He told Joshua to tell the priests to go and stand in the river, but didn’t say what would happen. We don’t know if Joshua even knew what God would do at that point. God could have stopped the river first, but instead he made the priests step into the water first. That’s the very definition of a step of faith. Isn’t that how God works? He doesn’t show us the dry riverbed first. How much faith does it take to cross a dry riverbed? He wants us to step into the flooding river first and trust him to do the rest.
While the Bible does not relate the words of God to Joshua about stopping the river, we know God did tell him what he would do at some point, because Joshua told the people to “listen to the words of the Lord” in verse 9. Only after the priests had gone ahead to step into the waters of the Jordan did Joshua tell the people how they would cross the river. In this one event, Joshua learned to trust God more, and the people learned to trust Joshua.
14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea [b] ) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 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 passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
Some have suggested that some natural event, like an earthquake, stopped the Jordan river that day. There is geological evidence of an earthquake around this time at the location the Bible describes. But even if it was a natural event, God was behind it. God often uses people and nature to accomplish his purposes. One question I’ve always had about the crossing of the Red Sea and this crossing is the term “dry ground”. What’s at the bottom of a river is mud and muck, not dry ground. And the Jordan is a muddy river. It would take days for the ground to dry up completely. Either God supernaturally dried up the ground, which the Bible does not mention, or there’s some natural explanation. They were probably crossing at the fords, which would be more solid ground to start with. Maybe it was rocky there, or had a gravel bed. That would make it a suitable place for a ford. You wouldn’t have a ford of a river in a place where a horse would get stuck in the mud. Once the water stopped flowing, it would drain from the gravel quickly, making a good place to walk across. Plus it must have taken many hours, if not days, for the whole nation to cross. A few hours in the sun would have dried up whatever mud there was.
Another thing that amazes me about this account is that the men who held the ark stood there and held it for as long as it took for approximately two million people to cross. I don’t know how many priests typically carried the ark. (If anyone knows, please comment) It must have been at least 2, maybe 4, maybe more. The ark was heavy (gold with stone tablets inside!) and even multiple men sharing the load would get extremely tired holding it for that long. But God enabled them to do it. Can you imagine how they felt, standing there holding the presence of God Almighty in their hands, watching their people finally cross over into the Promised Land, hour after hour? The God who has the power to stop the Jordan River also has the power to give us the strength do do what seems beyond us. For the Levites of today, those who stand in front of the people of God, lifting him up for them to see, God provides the strength to do what he asks, and our reward is seeing people cross over into the Promised Land.