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.