And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
The camp at Shittim breaks up at dawn, and Israel walks to the edge of the Jordan — the last barrier before the promised land. They do not cross that day; they lodge on the bank, and the pause itself is part of the lesson.
The first thing the book records about Joshua is the hour he got up. That detail sets the tone for everything the next four chapters teach.
The teaching from the third chapter to the sixth holds a remarkable group of lessons. Such divine instruction demands one thing first of all from those who hear it: diligence of soul. Joshua, in his energy, rose early in the morning; we need an alert soul, or we will miss our lessons in grace and glory. Christians cannot see divine truths while they sleep. "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Eph. 5:14).
The name Shittim carries both a memory of worship and a memory of failure.
They left Shittim, the last stage of their wilderness journey. Shittim, the place of flowering acacias — the trees whose wood made the boards of the tabernacle and the ark of God. Shittim, with its memories of the wilderness, and its dark memories of their sin with Moab.
They arrive, and then they stop. Commentators read the delay as training — a guard against mistaking fresh excitement for faith.
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 up to follow the Lord, it must be in His own way. Impulse is not faith. We can pick up knowledge of God's truth by our own effort. Going forward in that strength alone is not the Spirit leading us. God would not have His people act in the excitement of newly gained knowledge. It would often be far better to stop, instead of pushing on with the impulse of new truth. Better to wait, as it were, three days, and digest it. Then, by the power of God's Spirit, it becomes part of the new man through and through.
The night on the bank is also time to look hard at the water.
Let us, too, "lodge" for a season on the banks of our river of Jordan. Its waters are both broad and deep, and they flow swiftly. Who shall bridge them? What ferry shall cross them? Divine power, and divine power alone, can lead us into the glowing Canaan on the other side of our river. Our possessions are in Christ, in heaven; and heaven can only be reached by man through the death of Christ. Death, in itself, is destruction to man: the swift river would sweep him away for ever.
Many people read the river as a picture of their own dying. Commentators here point to a different death.
The Jordan is not a picture of the death of the believer. In Joshua, it pictures the death of Christ. That death sets us apart for this blessed heavenly possession and brings us into it, as Israel came into Canaan by crossing the Jordan.
That changes the timing as well. The crossing is not something waiting at the end of life.
People often think the crossing of the Jordan means passing the boundary from earth into heaven when we die. On that view, we enter the heavenly Canaan through death. I do not doubt that it means passing over the boundary of death and entering Canaan. But this does not happen when we leave this world. It happens while we are still in the body. It is what God has given us in the resurrection of Christ, and in His present taking possession of the heavenly places for us. One thing makes this plain to everyone. When we get to heaven, we will not have to fight Canaanites, or anything like them.
No ark went into the Red Sea. At the Jordan the ark goes in first, and that difference decides what the crossing means.
The Jordan is death, and again it is Christ going down into it. But this is not God's rod striking the sea, where salvation came by that judgment, and no ark was there. In the Jordan, in this passage of death, the ark goes first, or man could not pass. It is not protection, salvation and rescue from their condition in Egypt, their coming out free. It is their going into the place of promise. It is the same death of Christ, but going down before His sheep, so that, since He had taken away its power completely, they should pass over on dry ground.
- Rise — Joshua is up before the sun; sleeping souls miss the lessons that follow.
- Leave — they break camp at Shittim, leaving behind its wilderness memories and its sin with Moab.
- Wait — they lodge at the bank instead of plunging in; impulse is not faith, so digest new truth before acting on it.
- Look — the river is not the believer's dying but Christ's death, the only way into the possessions held for us in Him.
- Follow — the ark goes in first; Christ went down into death ahead of His people and took away its power.
And it came to pass at the end of three days, that the officers went through the camp;
Israel had reached the edge of the Jordan and camped there. Two questions rise from this short verse: why did God hold the people still for three days at a flooded river, and what was the message the officers then carried?
The wait was not empty time. One writer links these three days back to Israel's escape from Egypt, and to the cross and the empty grave.
The three days seem to carry the mind back to Israel's departure from Egypt. As far as we can tell, they spent three days from the night they left the land of slavery to the completion of their salvation at the Red Sea. "Three days" speak to us of the familiar span of time between the cross and the empty grave of the Lord Jesus Christ… But the wilderness had come in between, with its forty long and unexpected years of testing. Now those years were over. Once again Canaan, as their possession, was the one thought of the camp, and God ordained the three days' pause for them.
The river in front of them was worth studying before they crossed it.
Let us also "lodge" for a season at the banks of our river Jordan. Its waters are both broad and deep, and they flow swiftly. Who can bridge them? What ferry can cross them? Divine power, and divine power alone, can lead us into the glowing Canaan on the other side of our river. Our possessions are in Christ, in heaven, and man can only reach heaven through the death of Christ. Death, in itself, is destruction to man: the swift river would sweep him away for ever.
The river was more than water in the way. It stood for what Israel could never get past on their own.
The condition of Israel was an absolute obstacle to their entering Canaan. When they come to the end of their experiences in the flesh, they find the Jordan. It is an overflowing flood, a barrier to their onward progress. The Red Sea hindered their escape from Egypt. The Jordan prevents their entrance into Canaan, and to try to cross it would destroy them. Here we have a fresh type of death. It is the end of man in the flesh, and, at the same time, the end of Satan's power.
The officers carried one instruction through the camp. They did not point to a route. They pointed to the ark.
The officers went through the camp with the command: Observe the ark, leave a space between it and you, for Israel is going a way never before walked. Every genuine officer among God's people — every servant God has properly commissioned to lead — has only one message for those he addresses: "Look at Christ, keep your eye on Christ. With reverent steps give Him the pre-eminence. Follow where He leads." Where the path may go is not the question; where Christ leads is the consideration. Obeying His voice frees us from the thousand questions and difficulties that block progress in the things of God.
Something had changed since the Red Sea. The sign Israel had to follow was not the same one.
At the Red Sea, God made the path by the rod of His power; there Israel had the pillar of glory behind them, and the way split open through the sea before them. At Jordan, the rod gave place to the ark. The ark, in a special way, represents Christ Himself: its acacia wood stands for His humanity, its gold for His deity, and its contents (the law) for His righteousness as a man. All testify to Him personally. The sign for their movement, their only sign, was the guiding ark.
A measured space of two thousand cubits stood between the people and the ark. That gap did two things at once.
Across the Jordan was a new way for Israel, and the way through death is a new way for the people of God. Only with Christ before us can we take that way for His glory… The two thousand cubits allowed each one to have an uninterrupted view of the ark, and God desires that no one should block our view of Christ. The measured distance also tells us that Christ stands alone in the eye of God in all His deep perfections, and that His people should see Him this way.
- Wait. God ordained the three days at the river's edge. They were not wasted, and the same span sits between the cross and the empty grave.
- Look. The officers carried one message to the whole camp: watch the ark. Every true servant of God since has carried the same one: look at Christ.
- Follow. Israel could not make a way through the water. They could only move when the ark moved, and follow where it led.
- Cross. The Jordan stood for death: the end of man in the flesh and the end of Satan's power. Only divine power could take that obstacle away.
- New. Israel had never walked this way before. The way through death is new for God's people too, so the eye must stay on Christ.
and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then remove from your place, and go after it;
Israel camps at the edge of a flooded river. There is no bridge and no ford. The order that goes through the camp is not a marching plan but a sign to watch for: the ark, carried by the priests. Where the ark goes, the people go — and not one step before.
The ark was the chest that stood for God's presence with Israel. The command fixes its place in the march.
Notice especially the command given by the officers of the host. "As soon as you see the ark of the covenant … being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it." The ark must go first. They did not dare move one inch along that mysterious way until the symbol of the divine presence had gone before.
Israel had been led before, but by something else:
Israel had the pillar of fire to lead them out of Egypt; they had the ark to lead them into Canaan. In either case they only had to follow God's guidance. They could not make a way for themselves through the waters. Efforts at making their own path keep many from walking in the one God has made. But as we look to Christ, the path of blessing appears before our feet.
The officers gave the order and the priests carried the load. The order pointed past both of them.
Every eye was directed to the ark. In the same way God directs every eye of ours to Christ, the true ark of the covenant. He is the One in whom God's testimony is found. He answered in perfection every claim God made on man, and He brought glory and pleasure to God in every step He took. God's people were not told to follow the officers, or to keep their eye on the priests the Levites, but to "go after" the ark.
Normally the ark travelled in the middle of the tribes. Here its place changes.
Normally the ark was in the middle of the tribes as they journeyed. This time it went before them, as in Numbers 10:33. But it would stay in the middle of the Jordan until all the people had passed clean over. When the priests carrying the ark came to "the brink of the waters of the Jordan," they were to stand still in the Jordan. This day would show Israel that the living God was among them. It was the assurance that He would drive out all their enemies from the land He had promised them.
The priests carry it as those who stand for the whole nation. The ark's crossing becomes the people's crossing.
The ark goes before the people. It not only shows them the way they should go, since they had not passed this way before, but it joins them to itself in the passage. The priests, the representatives of the people, were to take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before Israel. … As soon as their feet rested in the waters of the Jordan, the waters were cut off and stopped flowing. A power was there that was victorious over the power of death, and that joined Israel to the victory.
The way through the river was a way no one had ever taken.
It was an unknown, untrodden way. No mortal could walk it and come off unharmed. Death and destruction are linked together… Who can stand before the king of terrors? Who can face that grim and terrible enemy? Who can meet the swelling waters of the Jordan? Poor Peter thought he could, but he was badly mistaken. He said to Jesus, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward."
Israel had already walked through parted waters once. This crossing is arranged differently.
It is plain that in this case there are some notable points that differ from the passing of the Red Sea. There was no such solemn ceremony there as here. The ark of the LORD had no place in that scene, nor any assertion of His right to all the earth — the Lord of all the earth. There was no such order there: the priests entering in with the ark first, and then the waters failing so the people could pass over. In the main substance the same general truth appears. God's power acts in grace, and His people enter into death and come out of it in victory.
- Ark first. No one moved a step until the sign of God's presence had gone ahead — the order of the crossing was the order of faith.
- Ark seen. The command was to watch, then move. Every eye went to the ark, not to the officers or the priests.
- Ark shared. Priests carried it as representatives. What the ark passed through, the people passed through with it.
- Ark ahead. The road ran through waters no one could face alone — the lesson Peter had to learn.
- Ark alone. The Red Sea crossing had no ark and no claim on all the earth; here the ark leads the way in as Lord of all the earth.
yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Ye shall not come near it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go; for ye have not passed this way heretofore.
Israel camps beside a river in full flood. The march order is strange: the ark of the covenant goes first, and the people must stay two thousand cubits behind it. Why the gap? And why is that gap what lets them know the way?
The verse gives the reason: the route was new. Commentators read the Jordan as death, and the ark as Christ going into it first.
There could be no passing the Jordan unless the Ark went first into it, because death is the judgment for sin. It is that in Christ, and then it is salvation to us. But the Ark goes first and does the whole thing. That is, Christ dries up the whole way across, and that makes Jordan an entrance into Canaan instead of shutting the people out of it. It is a blessed thing to see that we have passed the Jordan. Our place in Christ is beyond everything — beyond sin, beyond death, beyond the devil's power, beyond judgment, and in a way, beyond the world of which Satan is the prince.
The distance was not a formality. Older translations call it "a space," and one writer sees that same space between Peter and his Lord.
"Yet there shall be a space between you and it." How needful! How absolutely essential! There truly was a space between Peter and his Lord. Jesus had to go before. He had to meet death in its most terrible form. He had to tread that rough path in complete solitude — for who could go with Him? "Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward." He would not let His poor weak servant walk that path until He Himself had gone first and changed its whole character.
Three chapters later, at Jericho, the space is gone and the people march close around the ark. One writer explains the change.
There was no longer any need to keep the measured space of two thousand cubits, as in Joshua 3:4. Other truths were now being shown. Christ was alone in His death, and in resurrection He is "the firstfruits." Only when the Holy Spirit makes the value of Christ's death and resurrection good in the soul do we enjoy closeness of intimacy with that blessed One who went alone into death for us.
The gap was for knowing the way. Crowding the ark would have blocked the view of everyone behind. That has a plain application to anyone who leads God's people.
They were to observe the ark and follow it, yet they were not to come near it. The Christian must always give the Lord Jesus Christ His full place. In all things He must have the pre-eminence (Colossians 1:18). He is the way, and He has made it. He is the leader, and He leads. If we are looking at one another, we are not looking to Jesus. If the Israelites had not left a space between themselves and the ark, the front ranks would have stopped those behind from seeing it.
Watching the ark was not enough. The people had to leave where they were and follow.
Seeing Christ passing through the very same circumstances first, we must move out of our place of natural ease and follow after Him… You cannot pass through Jordan without going into it. You cannot fly over it. It must be passed through on foot — but then Christ passed through before us. We do not learn to pass through Jordan while we are in it; we learn it beforehand.
The gap is not coldness. The ark they may not touch is the ark that carries them over.
The ark goes before the people. It not only makes them know the way they should go, for they had not passed this way before. It also joins them to itself in the crossing… The ark kept its pre-eminence: "There shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure." But as the eyes of the people were fixed on it, they saw at the same time the priests who carried it. A power was there which was victorious over the power of death, and which joined Israel to the victory.
Believers stand where Israel stood — the way is settled in fact, and untried in experience.
"You have not passed this way before" is true in the experience of many of God's people as they enter the heavenly places. We say in experience, because in fact all saints of God are now seated in the heavenly places in Christ. Yet, if he is following God, the believer will often find himself, in practice, walking an unknown path — a simple but solemn reality, which tests faith.
- Unknown — no one in Israel had walked this road, and only the ark could open it.
- Alone — the two thousand cubits guard the truth that Christ went into death by Himself; not even Peter could close that space.
- Sight — the gap lets everyone see the ark; those who lead must point to Christ, not block the view.
- Follow — when the ark moved, the people moved; you cross the river on foot, you cannot fly over it.
- Together — the ark keeps its distance, yet it carries the whole nation across. At Jericho the space is gone: separation ends in nearness.
And Joshua said to the people, Hallow yourselves; for to-morrow Jehovah will do wonders in your midst.
Israel camps on the bank of the Jordan, one day away from the promised land. The order that comes is not about weapons or tactics but about the people themselves. Why does God tie the day of His power to their holiness the night before, and what were the "wonders" He was about to work?
(The ESV says "Consecrate yourselves." Older translations, used by the writers below, say "Sanctify yourselves.")
The command has two sides: a turning away and a turning toward. Both matter because God Himself was about to act.
Joshua then commanded the people to sanctify themselves, because the Lord was about to do wonders among them (v. 5). Sanctification means separation from what does not honor God, and separation to God, for He was about to work in great power among them. We too should be prepared in heart and conduct to receive God's blessing, set apart for His glory.
One writer asks how a person actually obeys such a command. His answer: the work is inward, and the power is not ours.
Reverence and holiness were the conditions for seeing the wonders the Lord was about to work for them. A believer cannot take up any truth of God carelessly without risking his own spiritual life. Without this holy fear of the Lord our God, our spirits will never truly enter into His work for us. We cannot walk by faith in the way the Lord Jesus has opened unless our steps are reverent. So how do we sanctify ourselves? No outward sanctification, and no outward separation from any form of evil, will do it. What is needed is real work in the heart, in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. "The flesh is no help at all." The Spirit of God is the Sanctifier.
The word "tomorrow" is not decoration. One commentator turns it into a rule about timing, then applies it to an ordinary test case.
We are called to sanctify ourselves beforehand, not at the moment of action. Why are we so often unable to judge evil and to act for God? Because we have not sanctified ourselves in advance. Why are our hearts so often cold at the worship meetings, and our lips silent in praise? Because we have not obeyed the word: "Sanctify yourselves ready for tomorrow."
The promised wonders were the crossing itself. Israel would not enter Canaan by any ordinary route. The name of the God who brought them in had to shape the way they came.
Israel must not enter in any common, ordinary way. The power of Jehovah had led them out of Egypt through the divided waters of the Red Sea, and in the same way they must enter the good land and cross the Jordan on dry ground. The power of Jehovah their God was their victory banner as they crossed. He is the Lord of all the earth, and He must bring His people into their possessions in a way that fits this Name... Israel must be known as His people, and the nations must also see the witness of His eternal power and divine nature.
The word "wonders" reaches further than that one day. One writer finds a second layer in the crossing.
Jehovah worked "wonders" for Israel at the Jordan, both in what He actually did and in the hidden meaning of what He did. So this picture holds great things of God's mind for us to find.
That hidden meaning turns on who went into the river first. The ark — the chest that carried God's covenant — went down into death ahead of the people.
Jordan is death, and again it is Christ going down into it. But here it is not God's rod striking the sea, so that salvation came by that judgment, and no ark was there. In Jordan, in this passage through death, the ark goes first, or no one could pass. This is not defence and salvation and rescue from their condition in Egypt, their coming out free; it is their going into the place of promise. It is the same death of Christ, but now He goes down ahead of His sheep, so that, since He had taken away its power completely, they could cross on dry ground.
- Two directions. To consecrate yourself is to move away from what dishonours God, and toward God Himself. One act, two directions.
- Inward, not outward. No ceremony or outward distance from evil can produce it. The Spirit who lives in the believer is the Sanctifier.
- The day before. The command is for "tomorrow." We get ready in advance. Cold hearts and silent lips at the moment of action trace back to a neglected yesterday.
- A fitting entrance. The Lord of all the earth would not bring His people in by an ordinary road. The watching nations had to see it too.
- The ark first. The wonder was not only the dry riverbed. It was who went down into it first, taking away death's power so the people could walk through.
And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and go over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jehovah said to Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee.
God speaks to Joshua at the edge of the Jordan, and He promises not victory but public honour. Why would a leader need that, and what will prove to Israel that Moses' God is now with Joshua?
The command about the ark comes first. Then God tells Joshua what the crossing is for, and when the honour begins:
The time had now come for another amazing miracle of God on behalf of Israel. Joshua told the priests to take up the ark and begin the crossing of the River Jordan (v. 6). At the same time the Lord told Joshua that He would now begin to magnify him in the sight of Israel. This was so that they might realize that as God was with Moses, so He was now with Joshua (v. 7).
This honour was not sudden favour. It answered a faith Joshua had held when almost nobody shared it:
Almost single-handed he had stood firm forty years before for God's purpose and power, surrounded by the opposition and unbelief of the people. Now he was to be magnified before all Israel, and the Lord's presence with him proved to be as real as it was with Moses. It was a glorious passage in his history, matching the strong and elevated character of his faith.
What God promises is new, and He measures it by Moses:
The Lord promised Joshua a place of glory in the sight of all Israel, such as he had never had before. It was to be like the place of Moses, when he was the leader God appointed over His people.
God keeps the promise at the river itself, and what happens there settles Joshua's standing for good:
The Lord magnified Joshua by the passage of the Jordan, and by that means gained for him the leadership in Israel's eyes. "On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life."
(Older translations of Joshua 4:14 read "the LORD magnified Joshua… and they feared him.")
Commentators read the exalted leader and the ark in the riverbed together as one picture:
Joshua stands before us as a picture of the risen Christ, leading His people, in the power of the Holy Spirit, into their heavenly inheritance. The priests carrying the ark into the middle of the Jordan stand for Christ going down into death for us, and completely destroying its power.
Commentators differ on when that exaltation is displayed. One reads it as true now. Joshua "represents Christ not as coming in person later on, but acting in spirit now, and so giving us to receive and to realize our heavenly blessedness" (William Kelly). Another looks forward:
Joshua was magnified before the eyes of all Israel, even as Christ will be magnified when He comes again.
The last step is ours. Israel accepted Joshua at the emptied river; believers know Christ where He now is:
Let us magnify Him as He is, the ascended Son of Man in glory. He is not fully magnified in the soul until He is known as the Joshua, the risen and ascended Lord. The Lord promised to magnify Joshua before Israel crossed the Jordan, and by the emptied river Israel accepted him as their God-honoured leader. Christians know Christ as their Joshua because He has overcome death and has entered heaven.
- Promise — God speaks before the water moves. The crossing is for Joshua's honour: a glory "such as he had never had before," equal to that of Moses.
- Presence — God is not proving Joshua's ability. He is proving His own company: as He was with Moses, so He would be with Joshua.
- Proof — The dry riverbed did it. That one crossing "gained for him the leadership in Israel's eyes" for the rest of his life.
- Picture — Joshua pictures the risen Christ leading His people into their inheritance. Commentators differ on the timing: His honour known now by the Spirit, or seen when He comes again.
- Practice — Our part is to magnify Him. Christ is "not fully magnified in the soul until He is known as the Joshua, the risen and ascended Lord."
And thou shalt command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, stand still in the Jordan.
Israel stands at a flooded river with no bridge. God's answer is an order that passes from Him to Joshua, and from Joshua to the priests carrying the ark: walk to the water's edge, then stand still.
The verse is one link in a chain of orders. One writer traces the steps:
Joshua told the priests to take up the ark and begin the crossing of the River Jordan (v. 6). At the same time the Lord told Joshua that He would now begin to magnify him in the sight of Israel. They would then realize that as God was with Moses, so He was now with Joshua (v. 7). Joshua is told next to instruct the priests to carry the ark and stand in the water at the edge of Jordan (v. 8).
What the ark does at Joshua's word shows the nation who is with him. Commentators also read Joshua himself as a picture:
Joshua stands before us as a picture of the risen Christ. He leads His people into their heavenly inheritance, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The priests carrying the ark into the middle of Jordan picture Christ going down into death for us, and destroying its power completely.
The order of the procession carries the meaning:
Jordan is death, and again it is Christ's going down into it... In Jordan, in this passage of death, the ark goes first, or man could not pass. This is not defence and salvation and deliverance from their condition in Egypt, their coming out free. It is their going into the place of promise. It is the same death of Christ, but going down before His sheep. He has taken away its power completely, so that they should pass over on dry ground.
At the Red Sea Moses lifted a rod and the sea divided. Here no one lifts anything. The water retreats before what the priests carry:
It was not the rod of God's power used by Moses that drove back Jordan's waters, as had happened at the Red Sea. It was the presence of the ark of God. What a wonderful mystery lies in this! The Son of God was crucified in weakness. Yet He had power to overcome the power of death when He entered into death. It was the power He showed in life, the power of holiness, that drove back the dark waters of death.
"Stand still" is not a pause before the real work. It is the work:
The priests who carried the ark stayed in the middle of Jordan as a guarantee that there was no danger to the people. They stayed until all this was finished and all the people had passed over. Then they too crossed over with the ark.
Writers are careful about what this stationary ark does and does not picture:
The ark going through the Jordan is neither suffering for sin nor intercession for a rebellious people. It is Christ in power. But it is a power that came to Him in a special way: He Himself went under death's power when He made His soul an offering for sin... The ark in the Jordan is no part of atonement. It is the presence of the power of Christ, which alone can withstand the power of death. It is our only defence against it.
The priests came to the water's edge when the river was at its fullest:
The difficulties were greatest at this very time. Jordan was especially full. So it was rather harder, if anything, to have crossed then. How then was it that God met the difficulty?... When the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the water, the waters shrank back. In the middle the priests stayed until the people crossed. So faith was alive and at work.
The standing ark also settles where the eyes of a believer belong:
The priests were to "stand still in the Jordan."... "The priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan ... until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan." So the power of Christ is there until everyone has gone over. If our souls are taken up with going through Jordan, we will never be able to venture into it. But if we see Christ there, and follow Him with no thought of Jordan but only of Him, we will pass right through, and find no Jordan at all.
- Command — the word travels from God to Joshua to the priests. When the ark moves at Joshua's word, Israel learns that God is with him as He was with Moses.
- First — the ark enters the water before anyone else, because no one could cross until it had gone in ahead.
- Power — no rod is raised here; the river gives way to a Person, and to the power in Him that overcame death when He went into it.
- Still — the order to stand still is the promise: the ark stays put in the riverbed until the last Israelite is across.
- Look — the river was at its fullest, yet whoever watches Christ in the water instead of the water itself passes right through and finds no Jordan at all.
And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of Jehovah your God.
Joshua stops the whole nation on the near bank of a flooded river. Before anyone takes a step, he tells them to gather and listen. What they are about to hear is not a battle plan but a promise about who is with them — and the crossing itself will prove it.
Israel could go no further on their own. One writer pictures them at the water's edge.
The green fields and rich hills of the "land flowing with milk and honey" were now in sight, but they could not enter. The overflowing Jordan rolled in front of them. It threatened death to anyone who tried to cross in his own strength. The point was so clear that we are not told anyone even suggested trying. So we see Joshua and all the hosts of Israel standing on the wilderness side of Jordan's overflowing banks. They knew their own helplessness, and they had no hope as far as their own resources went.
So the only thing left to them was a word from God and a sign to watch.
The Lord was about to magnify Joshua by the passage of the Jordan, and so bring Israel into Canaan. They had their ears open to Joshua's commands, and their eyes fixed on the movement of the ark.
What Joshua tells them to hear is a claim about God's presence. It comes with a sign they will see.
"Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God," Joshua said to Israel. The "living" God was among them. He would without fail drive out the nations who held the good land flowing with milk and honey. The sign was this — that when the feet of those carrying the ark of His covenant touched the river, its waters would flee away.
The ark carried in front of them was not a lucky object but a picture of God Himself being there.
The ark was the symbol of the presence of the living God, and before Him the overflowing floods of Jordan would be rolled back. This was to assure Israel that the living God who was among them would drive back the forces of the nations living in the land of Canaan.
In the same speech the ark carries a title: the ark of the Lord of all the earth. That title reaches to the territory ahead.
The ark was declared to be His who is "the Lord of all the earth" (v. 11). In this way the LORD showed His people His supreme power, His lordship and authority. He did it in the very place where the pagan nations, who worshipped demons, had settled. After the Lord rose from the dead, He said to His disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matt. 28:18). This supremacy should hold the heart. His might and His place in glory decide the heavenly position of His saints.
Joshua spoke this word when the river was at its worst, not its calmest.
The priests carrying the ark stepped into the edge of the water, and the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the harvest season. That is, the difficulties were greatest at this very time. The Jordan was especially full. So crossing then was, if anything, a little harder.
Commentators read the ark going down into the river as a picture of Christ going into death. On that reading, the sign Joshua announced settles far more than one river crossing.
The passing of the ark into the Jordan proved two things. The living God was present among His people, and He would most surely drive out all their enemies before them. The death of Christ is the basis and the guarantee of everything to faith. Grant us only this: Christ has gone down into death for us. Then we argue with all confidence that this one great fact secures everything. God is with us, and God is for us. The difficulty of unbelief is, "How shall He?" The difficulty of faith is, "How shall He not?"
That guarantee still left them work to do — hearing did not replace walking.
True, as we know, they had to take possession: they had to plant their feet on the inheritance. But the power that could hold back death's dark waters could also drive out every enemy.
The work still ahead of them also corrects a common idea about this river.
To understand what Israel's crossing of the Jordan teaches, we must get rid of the common idea that it pictures the Christian's experience of dying. That Israel's crossing cannot mean this is clear, because when they crossed the river they began to fight. But when we fall asleep in Jesus, all our fighting is over.
- Stop. Israel stood at a flooded river with no hope in their own resources. The first order was not to march but to gather and listen.
- Hear. The words announced a Person, not a method: the living God was among them.
- See. The word came with a sign: the ark entering the water. Their ears and eyes worked together.
- Trust. The ark belonged to the Lord of all the earth. His authority already covered the land their enemies still held.
- Go. The sign guaranteed the outcome. But they still had to plant their feet on the inheritance. Hearing led to walking.
And Joshua said, Hereby shall ye know that the living God is in your midst, and [that] he will without fail dispossess from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
Israel camps at a flooded Jordan with no bridge and no boats. Joshua tells them what the day's miracle will prove: who is with them, and what will become of the seven nations already living in the land.
The title Joshua uses was not decoration. It set Israel's God apart from everything the surrounding nations worshipped.
The Living God. He directed attention to the living God. That speaks of one, and only one, divine Being. There are not two living Gods. Their fathers had understood what this title meant. It defined their God, the Lord Jehovah, as completely different from the idols of the nations. Those had no life... But the Lord, the God of Israel, as Jeremiah writes, "is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation."
That presence had a visible centre. It was the ark, the chest carried at the head of the march.
The ark was the symbol of the presence of the living God, and before Him the overflowing floods of Jordan would roll back. This assured Israel that the living God among them would drive back the forces of the nations living in Canaan.
Joshua links a single event to a whole future. Commentators carry the same logic into the gospel. The greater gift settles every smaller one.
The ark's passage into Jordan proved two things. First, the living God was present among His people. Second, He would without fail drive out all their enemies from before them. The death of Christ is the basis and the guarantee of everything to faith... "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" The difficulty of unbelief is, "How shall He?" The difficulty of faith is, "How shall He not?"
The list of peoples is not filler. Commentators read these nations as a picture of the unseen enemies a believer faces.
The Canaanites were the future enemies of the chosen people, and they were already in the land. They were Satan's instrument to shut Israel out, if that were possible, or at least to expose and corrupt those whom God had called. According to Ephesians 6 they picture our own foes: the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. Our conflict is with them.
Each name carries a meaning, and each meaning marks out a different danger.
The names here, as everywhere, are no doubt significant. They suggest those powers of evil that take the ground first and would keep us from enjoying our God-given inheritance in Christ. The Hittite, "child of terror" — how spiritual dread makes cowards of us all! The Girgashites, "dwellers in clay." We are prone to settle down in the dust of earth instead of rising to our heavenly portion. The Amorite, "the talker," rather than the doer of the Word. The Canaanite, "the trafficker," is the talker's companion. He turns the very truth of God into merchandise. The Perizzite, "the countryman," perhaps suggests great power, nobility, false pride. The Hivite, "the villager," suggests the opposite, a false humility. The Jebusite, "the treader down," never rests until he has put every divine thing under his feet. All of these must be cast out, and we must refuse any alliance with them.
The ark that goes ahead into the water carries a title. That title claims the ground the enemy holds.
The ark was declared to be His who is "the Lord of all the earth" (v. 11). In this way the Lord showed His people His supreme power, His lordship and authority. He showed it in the very place where the nations who worshipped demons had settled. After the Lord had risen from the dead, He said to His disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."
The promise does not rest on how well Israel fights. It rests on what Christ has already done to the enemy's power.
Having met the whole power of the enemy, Christ has annulled it. He had met it at the Red Sea, at the beginning; but now it is its whole power in the overflowing banks... Christ has annulled Satan's power in full. So our part now is to "resist the devil, and he will flee from you" — not, "and you shall overcome him." Satan has no power against us, if we are walking in the power of Christ.
- Living — the title sets Israel's God apart from lifeless idols. He is the one true and living God, and He was among them.
- Among — the ark carried ahead was the visible symbol of that presence, going first into the water.
- Proof — one sign settled two things. God was with them, and He would drive the nations out.
- Reach — the ark belongs to the Lord of all the earth, so His authority covers the very land the enemy occupies.
- Result — the greater gift settles the smaller ones. Christ has annulled the enemy's power, so our part is to resist, not to conquer.
Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going over before you into the Jordan.
The verse names a title for God — Lord of all the earth — and a movement: the ark going ahead of the people into a flooded river. One settles whose land Canaan is; the other settles how anyone gets in.
The name Joshua repeats here reaches far past Canaan.
"Lord of all the earth" is the title Joshua repeats, the title God had taken here. God planted Israel in Canaan as a testimony to this great truth. Later He will establish in power, according to His own purposes, what He had put into Israel's hands for them to keep as their responsibility.
The phrase is rare in the Old Testament.
This title of God is made up of six words. It sets out His wide dominion. It occurs only three times in the Old Testament: twice in Joshua 3:11 and 13, and again in Zechariah 6:5. The Ark pictures Christ in resurrection. Here the priests carry it over the river Jordan, and so prepare the way for Israel to cross and take possession of Canaan.
Israel took the land for God, not for itself.
They were called to take possession of the promised land for God, as a kind of pledge that the whole earth belonged to Him, even though Satan had seized control of it. When they entered they crossed the Jordan as the people of "the Lord of all the earth."
Israel's later history did not end that claim, because the claim never rested on them.
"The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the Earth" — the intention was that God would take possession of the earth through Israel. Israel failed. But the One whom the Ark speaks of will not fail. He will yet establish God's rights as the Lord of all the earth.
The ark was not a lucky object carried for morale. It stood for a Person who was present.
The ark was the symbol of the presence of the living God. Before Him the overflowing floods of Jordan would roll back. This assured Israel that the living God among them would drive back the forces of the nations living in Canaan.
At the Red Sea no ark went first. Here the order is different.
The Jordan is death, and here again it is Christ going down into it. But it is not God's rod striking the sea, so that salvation came by that judgment, and no ark was there. In Jordan, in this passing through death, the ark goes first, or man could not pass. This is not defence, salvation and deliverance from their condition in Egypt — their coming out free. It is their going into the place of promise. It is the same death of Christ, but now He goes down before His sheep. He has taken away all its power, so they pass over dry-shod.
The ark in the riverbed shows something different from the sin offering.
The ark going through the Jordan is neither suffering for sin nor intercession for a rebellious people. It is Christ in power. But this power is the special result of His own going under death's power, when He made His soul an offering for sin. He won victory in the only way possible — by the death of the Victor... The ark in the Jordan is no part of atonement. It is the presence of the power of Christ. That power alone can withstand the power of death, and it is our only defence against it.
Many read the Jordan as an image of a believer's dying day. One writer rejects it.
To understand what Israel's crossing of the Jordan teaches, we must try to put aside a common idea. Many take it as a picture of the Christian's experience at the moment of death... Israel crossing the Jordan cannot mean this. When they crossed the river they began to fight. But when we "sleep in Jesus," all our fighting is over.
The ark moved first so the people could follow.
The ark takes first place on the journey of death, to lead God's people into it... Christ passed through the very same circumstances first, so we must move from our place of comfortable ease and follow after Him... You cannot cross Jordan without going into it; you cannot fly over it. It must be crossed on foot — but Christ went through it before us.
- Claim. The title "Lord of all the earth" appears here for a reason. God takes possession of Canaan as a pledge that the whole earth is His.
- Pledge. Israel held that claim on His behalf and failed; the One pictured by the ark will make it good.
- Presence. The ark marked the living God among them. The presence that opened the river would also drive out the nations.
- Precedence. The ark goes first because no one could pass otherwise. Christ went down into death ahead of His people, so they cross dry-shod.
- Pursuit. Since He went first, the call is to leave our ease and follow. Writers warn against treating the Jordan as a picture of dying: Israel crossed the river to start fighting.
And now take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe.
The river is in flood and nothing has happened yet when God tells Joshua to pick twelve men, one from each tribe. The command sits between two promises — the ark goes first, the waters will be cut off — so why men, why twelve, and why now?
The command begins with "now therefore." It points back to the title just given to God, and to the ark the priests are about to carry. One writer shows how rare that title is, and what the ark pictures.
This title of God is made up of six words, and it sets out His wide dominion. It occurs only three times in the Old Testament: twice in Joshua 3:11 and 13, and again in Zechariah 6:5. The first of these passages brings before us the striking scene of the priests carrying the ark (a picture of Christ in resurrection) over the river Jordan. This prepared the way for the Israelites to pass over and take possession of the land of Canaan. How cheering for them that the Lord of All the Earth should give them a possession where they could live.
God appoints the twelve while the river is still running. They have nothing to do yet. He is getting them ready for what He has already planned on the far side.
Before Israel crossed the Jordan, the Lord had told Joshua to select "twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man" (Joshua 3:12). They were chosen ready for an action they would carry out after they had crossed its empty bed. God purposed that Israel should make a definite witness to His wonders. He commanded that all the people, through their representatives, should be ready for the action He had planned.
One man from each tribe puts the whole nation in the picture. One writer explains what the number twelve itself stands for.
The twelve stones, for the twelve tribes, represented the tribes of God as a whole. This number is the symbol of perfection in human agency, and it is linked here, as elsewhere, with Christ.
Two and a half tribes had settled on the near side of the river. God still called for twelve stones, and one writer draws out what that says.
The stones, twelve in number, spoke of the whole of Israel. True, two and a half tribes had settled on the opposite side of the river, and only nine and a half had entered Canaan proper. Yet twelve stones were still taken from the place where, on behalf of all, the ark had rested. God did not order nine and a half stones in Canaan and two and a half on the wilderness side of the river, to match the land Israel had so far taken. He commanded the number that spoke of the whole nation. His will was for a testimony to be given to His purposes for all His people Israel.
Being represented did not let the rest of the nation stand back. Each of the twelve would carry his own stone from the place where the miracle happened.
The whole assembly was to seize this great fact and act on it — "from each tribe a man" — "every man of you a stone on his shoulder" — a stone taken from the very spot where the priests' feet stood firm. This was to bring every one of them into living personal contact with the great mysterious fact that the waters of Jordan were cut off.
The stones these men would carry point beyond Israel. One writer reads the crossing as a picture of Christ's death, and of who shares in what it opened.
These stones represent the identification of God's people with Christ. The stones in the bed of Jordan were a reminder not only that the Lord stopped the stream, but that all Israel passed over. In the same way, the stones set up in Gilgal were a reminder that all Israel had entered into their inheritance. So the death of our Lord Jesus has stopped the river of death and judgment. It has provided a way for His people to pass over into their eternal inheritance… And this is true not for some special class of believers, but for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
- God first. The ark of the Lord of all the earth goes into the river ahead of them. God names the twelve because He has already committed Himself to act.
- Chosen early. God picks them before the water moves. They are made ready for a witness He had planned for the other side.
- Each tribe. One man from each tribe makes the whole nation present. The number stands for perfection where people act for God.
- All twelve. God would not cut the count down to match the land Israel had so far claimed. The full number spoke of His purpose for the whole people.
- Each man. Each man would carry his own stone from the exact spot, so the crossing belonged to all of them. In the same way, commentators say, Christ's work belongs to every believer and not to a special class.
And it shall come to pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan, the waters flowing down from above, shall be cut off, and shall stand up in a heap.
Joshua tells the people what will happen before it happens: the moment the priests' feet touch the water, the river will stop. The verse turns on a title given to God twice in this chapter — "the Lord of all the earth" — and on a flooded river standing between Israel and the land promised to them.
The name given to the ark here makes a claim over the whole world. God states it at the very moment He brings one nation into one small country.
Although it is only with respect to Canaan, God takes possession as "Lord of all the earth." It is His title for the millennium.
Israel's entry was a down payment on something far larger.
They were called to take possession of the promised land for God, as a pledge that the whole earth belonged to Him, even though Satan had seized power over it. When they entered, they crossed the Jordan as the people of "the Lord of all the earth" (Joshua 3:11-13).
Everything in the verse is future tense. Joshua gives the people the outcome in advance.
Joshua assures them in advance what will happen. As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the ark rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters will be cut off. They will stop flowing and stand in a heap upstream from them (v. 13). […] So neither Joshua nor the people were taken by surprise when this astounding miracle took place. […] It must have been a tremendous heap of water far upstream, especially since the river was at flood stage at that time (vv. 15-16).
The river answers to a presence. The point of contact is the sole of a foot.
As soon as the feet of the priests who carry the Ark touch the edge of the water, it draws back. "What is wrong with you, O Jordan, that you are driven back?" The presence of God was felt. In calm, undistracted majesty, in the awareness of nothing less than divine strength and right, this crossing is now made. Only yesterday the hills had been a hiding place for the spies. Now the water itself will stand up in a heap to serve the camp.
The ark leads. Commentators read the Jordan as death itself.
Jordan is death, and it still pictures Christ going down into it. But this is not God's rod striking the sea, where salvation came by that judgment, and no ark was there. In Jordan, in this passage of death, the ark goes first, or no one could pass. This is not defence, salvation and rescue out of their condition in Egypt, their coming out free. It is their going into the place of promise.
Commentators read the heaped-up water as a picture of judgment taken by Another.
Jordan pictures the river of death, since it runs into the Dead Sea. The heaping up of the waters speaks of the death of the Lord Jesus. He bore the overflowing judgment of God for us at Calvary, taking all that judgment into His own bosom so that we might have none at all to bear.
The ark went ahead of Israel, but it did not go without them.
It was indeed the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth (v. 13) that was to go on before them across Jordan, but not without them. […] As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests rested in the waters of Jordan, the waters were cut off and stopped flowing. A power was there that won the victory over the power of death, and that joined Israel to that victory.
God's purpose ran through Israel, and Israel failed. The title did not fail with them.
The first time we find the words "the Lord of all the earth" seems to be when the Ark crossed the Jordan. "The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the Earth" — the intention being that God would take possession of the earth through Israel. Israel failed, but the One the Ark speaks of will not fail, and He will yet establish God's rights as the Lord of all the earth.
- Title. At the river God takes the name "the Lord of all the earth." He claims one country as a pledge of the whole world, and writers tie the name to His coming reign.
- Word. Joshua announces the miracle before it happens, so no one is taken by surprise when the river stops.
- Touch. The river gives way at the soles of the priests' feet. No rod strikes this water; the presence of the ark is enough, and the river stands in a heap to serve the camp.
- Ark. The ark enters death's river first, "or no one could pass," and the piled-up waters picture judgment taken into Another's bosom so His people bear none.
- Us. The ark went before them, but never without them. The power that beat death brought the whole nation into the victory, and the One pictured by the ark will yet make God's claim good.
And it came to pass when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan, that the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were before the people;
Israel's years in the wilderness end in one move: the people fold their tents and head for a flooded river. The ark goes in front, and commentators read it as a picture of Christ leading the way.
The move described here is not another stage of the journey. It closes the wilderness chapter of their history for good.
To enter into Canaan Israel must cross the Jordan, and they were simply to follow the ark... Of course I need not say, the ark is Christ. It is Christ who has gone into death. He passed through the judgment of God, ended man's history, and overcame the power of death. In verse 14 they struck their tents in the wilderness for the last time. They had the pilgrim character about them to that moment.
They set out when the river was at its most impassable. The obstacle was not shrinking to meet their faith; it was at full height.
The difficulties were greatest at this very time. The Jordan was unusually full. So crossing then was harder, if anything. How then did God meet the difficulty?... When the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the water, it shrank back. They stood in the middle of the Jordan until the people had crossed. Faith was in lively exercise.
Writers read the Jordan as more than geography. It marks where human strength runs out.
The condition of Israel was an absolute obstacle to their entering Canaan. When they come to the end of their experiences in the flesh, they find the Jordan — an overflowing flood that bars their way forward. The Red Sea hindered their escape from Egypt. The Jordan prevents their entrance into Canaan, and to try to cross it would be their destruction. Here we have a fresh type of death. It is the end of man in the flesh, and, at the same time, the end of Satan's power.
The order of the procession is the whole point. Nothing could follow until the ark had gone in first.
There could be no passing the Jordan unless the Ark went into it first. Death is the judgment for sin. It is that in Christ, and then it is salvation to us. But the Ark goes first and does the whole thing: Christ dries up the whole way across. That makes the Jordan an entrance into Canaan, instead of shutting the people out of it. It is a blessed thing to see that we have passed the Jordan. Our place in Christ is beyond all — beyond sin, beyond death, beyond the devil's power, beyond judgment.
A set distance separated the ark from the people. Commentators take that gap as part of the picture.
The distance between the ark and the people was to be two thousand cubits. It shows that our Lord had to do this work alone. Peter declared that he would go with Him into death. But the Lord told him, "You cannot follow Me now, but you will follow afterward." No one was with Him when He made the way. Yet He takes all His people through death into resurrection life and glory.
Two things were in view as Israel came down toward the water: a wide, swollen river and the ark. Only one of them held their eyes.
Faith always enters into, and acts upon, the divine word. Told to set out, Israel left their tents. Men of war, women and children — one and all fixed their eyes upon the ark... There was no other way into Canaan for the weak or the strong, except such as the ark should make... As the army came down from the higher ground toward the river, the waters stretched away to their right and their left. But every eye was fixed on the ark, not on the broad waters running across its path. We look at Christ whom the ark pictures, not on death, difficulties, or impossibilities.
Commentators press the picture further. What the crossing did for Israel, the cross of Christ does for the believer.
All that we were in the flesh has found its end in the cross of Christ... My eyes are fixed on the ark — on Christ. In Him I see the end of myself as a child of Adam. But in Him there is also a victorious power, now made mine. It brings me, in resurrection life in Him and beyond death, into the full enjoyment of all that this life has: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
- Tents down. Verse 14 ends the pilgrim stage. Israel folds the wilderness away and follows the ark toward the land.
- Ark first. No one crossed until the ark had entered the water. Christ went into death ahead of His people and turned the barrier into a doorway.
- Alone. The two thousand cubits of empty space say that no one but Him could do the work — yet He brings all His people through.
- Eyes fixed. Faith acts on the word and watches the ark, not the flood. The river was at its fullest at the very moment God acted.
- Beyond. The end is a settled place in Christ — beyond sin, beyond death, beyond judgment — with resurrection life enjoyed now.
and when they that bore the ark were come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (and the Jordan is full over all its banks throughout the days of harvest),
Israel reached the Jordan at the worst moment of the year. The river was at its fullest, with no bridge, no boat, and no way across. The verse does not say how they solved that. It marks where the water first gave way: at the priests' feet.
The picture is not of a flood spilling over the countryside. One writer says the old English wording overstates the Hebrew. Travellers who have seen the river report the same.
The passage in Joshua 3:15, which says that "Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest," is a mistranslation. The Hebrew word mala, translated "overflows" in our authorised version, has no such meaning. It means fills, and that is how the verse should read — "Jordan fills all its banks." That is, the river runs brim-full during that season of the year, which matches what travellers see there today.
Translations still differ here. The ESV keeps "overflows"; others read that the Jordan is full over all its banks. Either way, the note sits right where the priests step into the water, and one writer draws the point from its timing.
The difficulties were greatest at this very time. The Jordan was unusually full. So it was harder, if anything, to cross then.
God could have brought them over in the dry months. He chose the river at its height. One writer sees why: the enemy is beaten at his strongest, not at his weakest.
Jesus met death for us in its most terrible form. The river Jordan parted when it looked most frightening — "the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest." In the same way our Jesus faced our last great enemy. He defeated him in his most terrifying form. In the very centre of death's dark and dreary land He left the lasting record of His glorious victory.
One writer notes the victory was real but not yet final. The ark held the water back, and the river still stood there.
The power of death was annulled there, though not yet fully destroyed. The great wall of water remained. It was ready to rush forward in its fury and power as soon as the ark stopped holding it back.
The river did not part while Israel watched from the bank. It parted when men walked into it. That order is the lesson of the verse. One writer applies it to the obstacles that keep people from following Christ.
It was harvest-time, the season of the year's richest good. Israel saw their place of blessing, but the rushing Jordan shut them out. The river was swift, wide, and deep. What then were they to do? Obey the word of the living God. Go forward, and leave God to deal with the difficulty. Each of us has our own difficulties on the path to full blessing of the soul. Someone said to us not many years ago, "I cannot be truly devoted to Christ until my aged relative dies, because if I were, it would break her heart." A man said to us in tears, "If I were decided for Christ, my friends would give me no rest." Arise, go forward, believe God, and leave the difficulty with Him.
The priests were not rescued from the water first. They stood in the riverbed while everyone else walked past them.
The waters were there as in the day of Noah, ready to overflow their banks, as at the time of barley harvest. But the priests were in the midst of them, and the ark — the presence of God. And there they stood, the ministers of God and the presence of God, until all the people had crossed the river. Jesus was in the boat, and He must sink if the disciples did. The safety of the ark was the safety of the camp. As it was, so were they.
The detail that dates the crossing also explains what they ate on the other side.
For the Passover kept at Gilgal, we read of unleavened cakes made from the grain of the land. This was something brand new in Israel's history. Until they were in Canaan they could not eat its harvest. They had entered the land at "the time of harvest" (Joshua 3:15), and the Lord gave them Canaan's food as their portion.
- Full — the note about the river is deliberate. The water stood at its highest, so the crossing was hardest at the moment God appointed.
- Faced — writers read the flood as death at full strength. Christ met it and turned it back; He did not avoid it.
- Feet — nothing changed until the priests' feet touched the brim; the way opened as they moved, not before.
- Firm — the ark stayed in the riverbed until the last person was over; the safety of the ark was the safety of the whole camp.
- Fed — they crossed at harvest and ate the grain of the land. The season that had barred them now fed them.
the waters which flowed down from above stood [and] rose up in a heap, very far, by Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan; and those that flowed down towards the sea of the plain, the salt sea, were completely cut off. And the people went over opposite to Jericho.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel went over on dry ground, until all the nation had completely gone over the Jordan.
The verse ends the crossing story with two pictures: the priests standing still in the riverbed with the ark, and the whole nation walking past them into the land. Why was that ground dry, and why did the ark stay until the last person was over?
The crossing did not happen at an easy time of year. The Jordan overflows its banks all through harvest. The obstacle was at its worst on the day God removed it.
The priests' feet were dipped in the edge of the water, and the Jordan overflows all its banks all through harvest. That is, the difficulties were greatest at this very time. The Jordan was fuller than usual. So if anything, it was harder to cross then.
The text says twice that the ground was dry: under the priests, and under the people.
The mighty waters stood in a heap above. In the middle of the river, the priests holding the ark stood firm on dry ground until all the people had crossed. It was a dry way; not a drop of the dark, muddy waters was left. It shows the truth: the power of death (pictured by the waters of the Jordan) is completely gone. Nothing is left of it. The work is done for all His people. Not one is left behind; the weakest and the smallest pass over.
Nothing held the waters back but the ark standing in the riverbed. Writers are careful about what that pictures, and what it does not.
The ark going through the Jordan is not suffering for sin. It is not intercession for a rebellious people. It is Christ in power. That power is the special result of His own going under death's power, when He made His soul an offering for sin. He won the victory where it could be won in no other way than by the death of the Victor... The ark in the Jordan is no part of atonement. It is the presence of the power of Christ. That power alone can withstand the power of death, and it is our only defence against it. Past mercies did not keep the flood from destroying Israel, and the promises alone did not either. The ark resting in the middle kept it back, while the people passed before it.
Israel walked across on the same dry bed where the ark stood. No one crossed on better ground than anyone else.
The Jordan's bed was dry for all Israel. The power that stopped the waters was effective for the least as well as for the chief of the army... Great and small, all the people went over in the strength of the ark. What a blessed thought for us! It is not by our strength, nor by our degree of faith, but of God, through whom in Christ we enter the heavenly places.
The ark stayed in place until the last person was over. One writer turns that into a question of what we look at.
The priests stood firm in the middle of the Jordan until all the people had crossed. So the power of Christ is there until every one has gone over. If our minds are taken up with going through the Jordan, we shall never be able to venture into it. But if we see Christ there, and follow Him without thinking about the Jordan, only about Him, we shall pass right through and find no Jordan at all.
Many people take the Jordan as a picture of a believer's own dying. Writers here reject that reading and set the two crossings side by side.
The crossing of the Red Sea pictured Christ dying for the believer. By this the believer escapes death and judgement. The crossing of the Jordan pictured the believer dying with Christ, and being raised with Him... People have often taken the Jordan itself as a picture of death, which we must pass through to enter heaven. It is a figure of something else. While still on earth, the Christian enters through death with Christ into his heavenly position. There he has to stand for the Lord in conflict with spiritual powers of wickedness.
One writer explains where the mistake comes from.
The mistake has most likely come from missing two things. The gospel brings us a present salvation. And the Scriptures speak of every believer as one who has everlasting life and has passed from death to life. Not seeing this, some think of death as ahead of them instead of behind them. Israel's crossing cannot picture dying, because when they crossed the river they began to fight. When we fall asleep in Jesus, all our fighting is over.
- Flood. God timed the crossing for harvest, when the river was at its fullest. The obstacle was greatest on the day He removed it.
- Firm. The ark alone held the waters back. It pictures Christ's power over death, won by His own death — not the atonement itself.
- Dry. Not a drop remained. The dry bed shows how fully the power of death is gone.
- All. The same ground carried the least and the greatest. The ark stayed until the last person was across, so the weakest is as safe as the strongest.
- Over. The crossing does not picture a believer's future dying. It pictures present death and resurrection with Christ — a place we enter on this side of the grave, and then hold in conflict.