What was the significance of the Jordan crossing?

The crossing of the Jordan certainly reminds us of the passage of the Red Sea. But the emphasis in the case of the Red Sea was Israel's deliverance out of Egypt; while the crossing of Jordan emphasizes Israel's entrance into the land of promise. This is the positive side of Israel's blessing and reminds us of God's words concerning the saints of God today, "blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ"(Eph.1:3). Thus, the death and resurrection of Christ not only separates us from a hostile world, but it invests us with wealth beyond all imagination in a place of pure joy and eternal glory. Canaan is of course only a faint picture of this.

The children of the Israelites then were to be instructed as to the meaning of the stones, just as children of believers should be instructed as to the death and resurrection of Christ being the basis of all blessing for His people. We today have a memorial of this great work of God in the Lord's supper, for believers are told, "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Lk.22:19). Our children too should be taught diligently as to the significance of this memorial.

The difference (we shall dwell on that more at length when we study the Book of Joshua) between the Red Sea and Jordan is, that the Red Sea was the efficacy of redemption through the death and resurrection of Christ Himself, and we are viewed, withal, in Him; Jordan was the application of it to the soul, as having died with Him in order to the enjoyment of the promises. The passage of the Red Sea was followed by songs of joy; that of Jordan, by conflict and the realisation of the promises.

On the one hand the passage of the Red Sea is our being dead with Christ and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord as a question of righteousness. We are thus justified from sin, and effectually delivered from Satan's power. There is no longer a question of dread as to the judgment of God. On the other hand the crossing of the Jordan means our introduction according to the fulness of Christ's title, even now, into heavenly places. On this basis the Spirit would familiarize us with heavenly things.

The River Jordan divided the people from the promised land. To be in the land Jordan had to be crossed. Jordan, overflowing all its banks at that time (verse 15), rolled its dark waters between them and their God-given possession. Only the power of God could bring them through those dark waters. It was a miracle which took place, when a way was opened and "the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap... and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt-sea, failed and were cut off" (verse 16). Unbelief has always branded this miracle as a legend. The destructive criticism has done the same. This is the second time the Lord made a way for His people through the waters. He made first a way for them through the Red Sea, by which Israel was separated from Egypt and from their enemies. The passage of Jordan separated them from the wilderness and brought them into the land.

Both, the Red Sea and Jordan, are types of the death of Christ in its blessed results for His people. The Red Sea experience typifies the fact that the believer, through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, is dead to sin and dead to the law. The passage through Jordan is the type of the fact, that the death and resurrection of Christ brings us into the heavenly places; we are seated together in Christ in heavenly places.

It is most desirable that the reader should, with all simplicity and clearness, seize the true spiritual import of the river Jordan. It typifies the death of Christ in one of its grand aspects, just as the Red Sea typifies it in another. When the children of Israel stood on the wilderness side of the Red Sea, they sang the song of redemption. They were a delivered people — delivered from Egypt and the power of Pharaoh. They saw all their enemies dead on the sea shore. They could even anticipate, in glowing accents, their triumphal entrance into the promised land. "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed; thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them: all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them: by the greatness of thine arm they shall be still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever."

But then there is a most sensible difference, at the Jordan there is no such thing as a rod. It is another symbol altogether. The ark of the covenant of Jehovah, borne by the priests, goes right down into the Jordan; and from the moment the priests' feet approach the water, the waters fail on one side and rise up in a heap on the other; and so, while the ark remains in the bed of the river, the children of Israel pass clean over.

And when all is done, we find another remarkable point; that is to say, we have a memorial. It is not Egyptians destroyed. There is no question of judgment. The point is neither the justification of the people of God on the one hand, nor the judgment of enemies on the other. This is the great question of the Red Sea. At the Jordan God was bringing forth His people into His own land. Accordingly it sets forth One, a divine Person, who goes down into the waters of death and there alone stayed the proud waters till thus the people are brought through.

The river of Palestine is first referred to when Lot chose the plain of Jordan, because it was well watered, as the garden of the Lord. Gen. 13:10. The first great event at the river was when the waters from above were driven back, and those below failed and were cut off, and Israel marched over on dry land. They had previously passed through the Red Sea, but the details of the two passages are quite different. At the Red Sea Moses lifted up his rod and the waters divided; but at the Jordan it was when the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the water that it divided. The ark also remained in the river until all had passed over. Twelve stones were taken out of the river to form a cairn on the land, and twelve stones were placed in the bed of the river to be covered by the water. The waters were piled up at Adam, some twenty miles from where the Israelites crossed; but at the Red Sea the water was as a wall on each side. Joshua 3:8-17; Joshua 4:1-24. (The waters being piled up 'at Adam' [Joshua 3:16] is according to the Hebrew text [see also R.V. and Mr. Darby's Trans.]; the reading 'from Adam' is according to the Keri.)

All this was typical: the passage of the Red Sea typified Christ dying for the believer (by which the believer escapes death and judgement); the passage of the Jordan typified the believer dying with Christ, and being raised with Him (the path of death becomes the path of life), according to Col. 2:20; Col.3:1. The waters of the river overflowing its banks at that time typified that the full power of death was met, and overcome by the death and resurrection of Christ. The Jordan itself has often been taken as a type of death having to be passed in order to enter heaven; but it is rather a figure of the entrance, while on earth, through death with Christ to the heavenly position of the Christian, where he has to stand for the Lord in conflict with spiritual powers of wickedness (cf. Eph. 6:10-18), as Israel had to fight the Canaanites, and so make good the Lord's possession through them of the promised land.

But, we must return to our theme; and, in doing so, we would ask the reader if he really understands the true spiritual import of the river Jordan? What does it really mean? We have said that it typifies the death of Christ. But in what aspect? — For that precious death has many and various aspects. We believe the Jordan sets forth the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, not so much in its application to that from which we are delivered, as to that into which we are introduced. The Red Sea delivered Israel from Egypt and the power of Pharaoh. Jordan brought them into the land of Canaan.

Their entry into the land seemed very promising, and they would have become possessed of it all if disobedience had not stopped the tide of blessing flowing in upon them. God, in His grace, showed what they might count upon if they would be obedient. The passage of the Jordan recalled to mind that the same God who led them through the waters to escape from Egypt was now leading them where the river had rolled into the promised land.

When the children of Israel came to the river Jordan the waters of death stood between them and the land of promise with no natural means of removing the raging flood, or of crossing over it. Only by divine intervention was it possible for them to reach the other side, and enter the land flowing with milk and honey. Chapters 3 and 4 of the Book of Joshua tell us how God intervened to take them dry shod to the other side. Whenever the priests who carried God’s holy ark touched the water of Jordan, the “waters which came from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam…and those that came down toward the sea of the plain…failed, and were cut off” (Joshua 3:16). That which depicted the holiness and the power of God, His holy ark, was the means of Israel’s entry into the land.