Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan.
The crossing is over, and God tells Joshua to call the priests and the ark up out of the riverbed. The command looks purely practical, yet the moment those priests reach dry land the river closes again — so what is God showing us here?
The ark went into the river first and stayed there while every Israelite crossed. Only now is it called up. The people watched every stage of that movement. One writer walks through what they saw:
They saw the ark move towards the river. They saw the waters go back as the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the brink. As they passed over, they watched the ark in the middle of the Jordan. And they saw the ark come out of the Jordan after they had crossed. What a rich thing for us to consider Christ passing through this world and on into death. Then we see Him in the region of death. We consider Him in death, sustaining everything for God's glory and our blessing, and showing His mighty triumph over all the power of death. And we gaze on Him coming up as the victorious One, so that all His people might be with Him on the risen side of death.
Here God calls it the ark of the testimony. One writer notes that this is the last time the ark carries that name.
It is worth noting that the ark, after it had crossed over the Jordan, is never spoken of as "the ark of the testimony." In Joshua 3:13 it is called "the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth." In this last description, do we not see Christ as the One in whom all the rights of God are secured and maintained?
The verse names who must come up: the priests who carry the ark. One writer sees why that choice matters.
The power and presence of the Living God, symbolised by the ark, held back the waters, which would have been death to the army... How this speaks to us of the Lord Jesus, who Himself has passed through death, and has now annulled it, for all His own (2 Timothy 1:10). Death is no impassable barrier to the heavenly saints going in to their everlasting dwelling. We believe it was to picture this that the priests, not the Levites, carried the ark that day.
The ark went down into the river; now it comes up. One writer sets Israel's coming up beside what believers have in Christ:
And as Israel came up out of the Jordan, and into Canaan, by the ark, so believers now are made alive together with Christ; they have life together with Him, who went into death for them and who has come up out of death.
Another writer reads the same two movements through Colossians and Ephesians:
Read Joshua 3 and 4 in the light of Colossians 2 and 3. The ark of the covenant went before the people of Israel into the Jordan, and then came out of it. This was a picture of the death and resurrection of Christ. That death and resurrection has power to bring the believer now, as one who has died with Him, into "the heavenlies," where we have our conflict with the powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:10-20). ... Before this, the ark had never pictured resurrection. From now on the people would join it inseparably with that mighty power of God working for their complete deliverance from the sorrows and toils of the wilderness, and bringing them into final rest in the heavenly inheritance.
Obeying this command had an immediate effect.
At the Lord's command Joshua told the priests carrying the ark to come up out of the Jordan (vv. 15-17). As soon as they stood on ground the overflowing waters had not touched, the river returned to the same flood level as before (v. 18). So no one would be able to follow Israel on dry ground.
The returning flood carries a further lesson:
The sentence has been carried out, the old man condemned, the judgment is past, death is conquered — but death remains. The river once blocked the way in. The ark removed that obstacle and opened the path for us. Now that we are across, that same river separates us not only from Egypt and the desert of Sinai, but from ourselves.
- Command. The order starts with the Lord, passes through Joshua, and reaches the priests. The crossing ends as it began — by God's word.
- Carried. Priests, not Levites, carried the ark that day. They picture the One who passed through death and annulled it for all His own.
- Last. The ark held the river open until every Israelite was over. Only then did it come up — the Victor rising, so His people stand with Him on the risen side of death.
- Up. Down into Jordan and up out of it form one truth: died with Christ, raised with Christ, brought into the heavenly places.
- Closed. The moment the priests' feet touched dry ground, the flood returned. No one can walk that road back.
And Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan.
The whole nation now stands on Canaan's soil, and only the ark and the priests carrying it are still in the riverbed. Joshua's order to them ends the miracle: why does the ark come out last, and why does the river close only after it does?
The wording matters. One writer notes that Scripture never says Israel came up out of the Red Sea. Here it says exactly that, and both the silence and the statement have a reason:
At the Red Sea they saw sins, death, and judgment all behind them. The sins were their part; the death was Satan's, who wields its power (Hebrews 2); the judgment was God's part; and all of it is past forever. But note, it is never stated that they came up out of the Red Sea. Historically, of course, we know it was so. But recording it would have spoiled the picture, just as it would in Romans 6 to say that we were risen with Christ. It is fully stated afterwards that the people came up out of the Jordan. There it was needed to say so, but not before. By coming up out of the Jordan they were cut off from the world, just as the death of Christ has done for us.
The Jordan adds the other half: coming up on the far side, into the land.
The people had watched the ark at every stage of the crossing:
They saw the ark move towards the river. They saw the waters recede as the feet of the priests bearing the ark touched the brink. As they passed over, they watched the ark in the middle of the Jordan. And they saw the ark come out of the Jordan after they had crossed... What a rich subject for us to consider Christ passing through this world, onward into death. Then to see Him in the region of death. To think of Him in death, sustaining all for God's glory and our blessing. To see His mighty triumph over all death's power, and to gaze on Him coming up the victorious One, so that all His people might be with Him on the risen side of death.
Verse 17 calls the men in the river priests. That was not the usual arrangement:
God's method was only for the Levites of the family of Kohath to carry the ark by means of the poles (Ex. 25:13-14; Num. 3:27-32), though Joshua 4:16-17 calls them "priests".
Another writer treats the exception as deliberate, and reads meaning into it:
How this speaks to us of the Lord Jesus, who Himself has passed through death, and has now abolished it for all His own (2 Tim. 1:10). Death cannot block the heavenly saints from going in to their everlasting dwelling. It was to picture this, we believe, that the priests, not the Levites, carried the Ark that day.
The command did not begin with Joshua, and what follows it is timed to the moment:
At the Lord's command Joshua told the priests bearing the ark to come up out of Jordan (vv. 15-17). As soon as they reached ground not affected by the overflowing waters, the waters returned to the same flood level as before (v. 18). So no one would be able to follow Israel on dry ground. Only true believers can know what it means to have died with Christ and to be raised with Christ.
Once the ark is out, the Jordan is full again. That full river now serves the people on the far side:
The sentence is carried out. The old man is condemned. The judgment is passed. Death is conquered — but death remains. The ark removed that obstacle and opened the pathway for us. What was once an obstacle to entrance now separates us, once we are across, not only from Egypt and the desert of Sinai, but from ourselves. If it were otherwise, we could have no lasting enjoyment in the land of Canaan.
- Command. The order did not start with Joshua. The Lord spoke, and Joshua passed it on to the priests standing in the riverbed.
- Carrier. The ark went in first and came out last. In that final step commentators see Christ coming up as the victorious One, with all His people on the risen side of death.
- Bearers. The men here are priests, not the Levites who usually carried the ark. Some writers see the change as deliberate, picturing the One who has passed through death for His own.
- Crossing completed. Scripture says Israel came up out of the Jordan, language it never uses of the Red Sea. Rescue from judgment is one truth. Rising into the promised place is the other.
- River restored. The moment their feet touched dry land, the flood returned. No one could follow them back. What once barred the way in now stands between them and all they left behind.