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.