And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,
God has just charged Joshua personally. Joshua says nothing about his own fears. He turns straight to the ordering of the camp and starts the nation moving. The order runs down a chain: Joshua, the officers, every family. And his first command is not weapons but food.
The charge God gave to one man does not stay with one man. Joshua hands it on, and the same authority travels with it.
When Christ by the Spirit stirs the souls of His people, He does so through His appointed leaders. Joshua passed on to the officers what God had urged on him. So the authority of God's command reached every one in the ranks of the Lord's army. God, by His Spirit, worked through leaders when He established Christianity on earth. He did the same at the Reformation, when in His grace He revived the great truth of justification by faith. He did it again in the days of Whitefield and Wesley, when He kindled a burning love for souls in His saints' hearts. First the truth of the word grips the overseers of His people, and then, through them, it grips the people. In the scene before us, the word of God ran through the chosen channels. It ran on until the whole camp was alive with the energy it had first produced in Joshua's soul.
The rank is not a title handed out once. A man keeps it only while the truth he passes on still shapes him.
When the truth produces a clear energy in a Christian soldier's life and ways, he becomes, in greater or less degree, an "officer" in the Lord's army. As the Spirit works in him unhindered, he is a captain of a hundred or of a thousand, and the power of Christ within him influences other Christians in the ways of the Lord. Remember: only as the word of God keeps influencing the believer can he rightly influence others in the things of the Lord. True godly influence comes from the Christian being in communion with Christ. Many a man who was once an "officer" in the "host" has let his soul fall out of dependence on Christ and become a false leader of God's people. The wider the influence for good once was, the wider the influence for evil becomes.
Telling hungry people to eat sounds unnecessary. Applied to the soul, it turns out to be the most necessary order of all.
Next come the leader's own words to the people. His first word is that they should prepare food for themselves, for within three days they are to cross the river. You might think such an instruction was needless. But the people of God undergo far too many willing fasts from spiritual food. Such fasts never strengthen them; they only weaken them.
Joshua had believed this promise for years. When the moment came he neither hung back nor rushed ahead.
Joshua, years before, had believed that God could and would bring them in. He is now living out the faith he had so long enjoyed, and he is not lazy in it. There is neither slowness nor reckless haste in entering on what God had called him to. "Prepare your provisions," he says. They were to take the road ahead calmly and ready, but with a whole heart, and we may add, in holiness. "Consecrate yourselves," says Joshua, "for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you."
A pause has value. Excitement about new truth is not the same thing as strength to act on it.
The Christian soldier who hears his Lord's words needs to be ready. We have to learn that human energy cannot cross rivers of death. It cannot break down the walls of this world's strongholds. And if we are stirred to follow the Lord, it must be in His own way. Impulse is not faith. Going forward on knowledge picked up by human means is not being led by the Spirit. God would not have His people act in the excitement of new knowledge. It would often be far better to wait, as it were, three days, instead of pushing on in the rush of new truth. That wait gives time to digest the truth, so that by the power of God's Spirit it becomes fully part of the new man.
Commentators differ on the "three days." Some read them as pure design; F. W. Grant allows that Joshua may simply not have foreseen the delay caused by the spies, adding that "gleams of resurrection break out through all these scenes, for it is by resurrection power alone that we can cross the river of death into our inheritance."
- Word. God's charge to Joshua did not stop with Joshua. It ran through the officers until the whole camp was alive with it.
- Officer. Anyone in whom the truth produces real energy becomes an officer in the Lord's army. He stays one only while he stays in communion with Christ.
- Food. The first command before the crossing is to eat. God's people take far too many willing fasts from spiritual food, and such fasts only weaken them.
- Pace. Neither slowness nor reckless haste. Israel was to take the road calmly, ready, with a whole heart, and in holiness.
- Passage. Impulse is not faith. The three days give time to digest truth, and only resurrection power carries us across the river into our inheritance.
Go through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, Prepare yourselves victuals, for in three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, that ye may enter in to take possession of the land which Jehovah your God giveth you to possess it.
reason: passive, long opening sentences
Joshua does not keep God's charge to himself. He hands it to the officers, and through them the whole camp moves. One writer sees here the pattern God follows with His people.
When Christ by the Spirit stirs the souls of His people, He does so through His appointed leaders. Joshua passed the result of God's charge on to the officers. So the authority of God's command reached each one in the ranks of the Lord's army... First the truth of the word grips the overseers of His people, and then, through them, it grips the people.
The order to prepare food sounds too obvious to need saying. One writer says it is needed because God's people so often go without.
The first word is to prepare food for themselves, for within three days they are to cross the river. One might think such an instruction was hardly needed. But the people of God go through far too many willing fasts from spiritual food. Such fasts never strengthen them; they weaken them.
Joshua sets a three-day interval — not immediate departure, not an open-ended wait. His own faith sets the pace.
Joshua, years before, had believed that God could and would bring them in... But he is now living out the faith he had held so long, and he is not idle in it. He announces to the officers, "Within three days you are to pass over this Jordan." There is neither delay nor reckless haste in setting out on what God had called him to. "Prepare your provisions," he says. They were to take the path ahead calmly and in readiness, but with the whole heart, and we may add, in holiness.
The pause is not wasted time. It is the difference between hearing a truth and making it your own.
The Christian soldier who hears his Lord's words must be ready. We have to learn that human energy cannot cross rivers of death or break down the walls of this world's strongholds. And if we are stirred to follow the Lord, it must be in His own way. Impulse is not faith... God would not have His people act in the excitement of newly-gained knowledge. Instead of pushing on in the rush of freshly-learned truth, it would often be better to pause three days, as it were, and digest it.
Crossing the Jordan meant more than a river. One writer reads the whole scene in the light of resurrection.
Gleams of resurrection break out through all these scenes, for it is by resurrection power alone that we can cross the river of death into our inheritance.
Most of Israel has nothing holding it back. One writer draws a sharp contrast with the two and a half tribes who settled short of the river.
They were unencumbered, in travelling order, and had only to know the hour of departure. Like Noah, they were ready for the voyage that would land them in another world. They needed only to get into the vessel. But the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh were not so free. Joshua feels towards them as towards a heavy piece of luggage in this hour of packing up.
God calls the land a gift, yet Israel must still go in and take it.
Their inheritance was a pure gift of the grace of God... God gave them the title to it. But for the people it was a question not only of possession, but of entering into possession. So it is with us spiritually. We have all these things, but we cannot enter into them except by having passed through death with Christ, and entering by the power of His Spirit where He is. We lay hold of each one of our blessings, and prove their heavenly reality, as we occupy ourselves with these things and enter into them ourselves, with diligence. In a word, the Christian must take them as his own by faith to enjoy them. Otherwise he would be like a poor king, ill and living abroad, who had never travelled in his own kingdom.
- Word moves. God stirs the leader. The leader stirs the officers. They stir the camp, and the same command reaches the last person in the ranks.
- Word feeds. "Prepare your provisions" is not just filler. God's people grow weak through willing fasts from spiritual food.
- Word paces. Three days: no dragging, no rushing. Impulse is not faith. And the three days point to resurrection, the only power that crosses the river of death.
- Word travels light. Those free of baggage need only the hour of departure; those tied to the wrong side of the river slow everyone down.
- Word gives, then sends. The land is already a gift — and still a country you must walk into, or you are a king who never saw his own kingdom.