Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

¹ When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, ² “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, ³ and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

⁴ So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, ⁵ and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, ⁶ to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ⁷ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

⁸ So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. ⁹ Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been ^[a] in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

So much of the story of the Exodus and conquest of the Promised Land is like this. It’s a picture of obedience. First God tells Moses or Joshua something, then Moses and Joshua tell the people what God said, and they all obey God. The church still operates on this model. God speaks through human leadership, and as long as that human leadership is following the Word of God, we must trust that God is speaking to and through them. The test for those of us in leadership is, are we walking close enough to God that people will believe he told us something?

Each of the twelve men, one from each tribe who had been chosen before the crossing (Joshua 3:12), did as God commanded Joshua and carried one large stone from the riverbed to be used in the memorial. It’s important to remind ourselves and our children what God has done for us. It helps our faith to remember God’s faithfulness.

¹⁰ Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, ¹¹ and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. ¹² The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. ¹³ About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.

¹⁴ That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.

After the twelve tribes of Israel crossed over, the armies of the eastern tribes crossed over to fight for Israel, just as they had promised. God had just confirmed Joshua’s authority with a great miracle, and any doubts some in those tribes might have had would have been erased by what they had just witnessed. How many years did Joshua serve as Moses’ protege? At least 40. He had prepared for this day for many years, and had been faithful in many small things. Do we want God to exalt us to a position of leadership? We must be willing to serve and prepare for as long as it takes. Joshua was not a young man when he took over the leadership of Israel. It was only after a lifetime of faithful service that God exalted him in Israel’s eyes.

¹⁷ So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁸ And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

¹⁹ On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. ²⁰ And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²² tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea ^[b] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. ²⁴ He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”

I still am struck by the effect witnessing the crossing of the Jordan must have had on these priests, which I commented on in Saturday’s blog. What an amazing experience that must have been. I mentioned in that same blog that some have speculated that an earthquake somewhere upstream may have stopped the Jordan that day, and there is evidence of that. But even if that is the case, the fact that the river immediately started flowing again when the priests carried the ark onto the shore shows that this was God’s doing.

Continuing his obedience to God, Joshua set up the memorial as God commanded. Whatever chronicler wrote this down said the memorial is still there “to this day”, so this all must have been written down later. As Joshua set up the memorial to remind Israel of what God had done, God made sure at some point that all of these events were written down so that future generations, including ours, would know what God had done and have our faith strengthened.

In verse 24, Joshua says that God performed these miracles for Israel for two reasons, so that everyone would know that God is powerful, and so that they would always fear the Lord their God. If you have read my blog with any regularity, you know I have come to the conclusion that Jesus performed miracles for basically the same two reasons; to glorify God, and help people believe. When God stopped the Jordan, it helped Israel enter into the Promised Land, but that was not the main reason he did it. When Jesus healed people, it helped those people, but that was not primarily why he did it. When God performs miracles today, those miracles may be a great help to someone, but even today, the purpose of miracles is to glorify God (so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful) and to help us believe (so that you might always fear the LORD your God). When we need a miracle, we should pray for God to help us, but we should also pray that God will glorify himself through the miracle we’re asking for, and that people will believe in him because of what he does for us. That’s what miracles are for.

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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.

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