Crossing the Jordan
3
📚And Joshua rose early in the morning. And he and all the children of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and stayed there before they crossed over. 3:1 This chapter records a very important event in the history of Israel. After repeated promises by God to give them the land, after a few centuries in Egypt, and 40 years of wandering in the desert, at last they enter the promised land.⚜
2 📚And this occurred after three days: the officers went through the camp, 3 📚and commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark 📖 of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests 📖 the Levites 📖 carrying it, then you must set out from your place, and go after it. 4 📚Yet there must be a distance of about two thousand cubits 📖 between you and it. Do not go near it. This is so that you may know the way you should go; for you have not come this way before this”.
5 📚And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves 📖, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you”. 6 📚And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Pick up the ark of the covenant, and cross over before the people”. And they picked up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
7 📚And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you great in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you just as I was with Moses.
3:7 It was very important for the people to recognize that Joshua was God’s appointed leader. Otherwise they would not have followed him and disaster would have resulted. So God exalted him by openly demonstrating that He was with him. This demonstration was the miracle which follows.⚜
8 📚And you shall command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you must stand still in the Jordan.’ ”
3:8 The river Jordan was the border of the promised land, the boundary between the old life and the new. Crossing it is a symbol of entering into our possessions in Christ.⚜
9 📚And Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and listen to the words of the LORD your God”. 10 📚And Joshua said, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.
3:10 In the following miracle (vs 16,17), similar to the one performed at the Red Sea (Ex 14:21-22), God revealed His presence with His people.⚜
11 📚See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth 📖 is crossing over before you into the Jordan. 12 📚Therefore now take twelve men for yourselves out of the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe.
3:12 The twelve represented the whole nation. They had a work to do – Josh 4:2-9.⚜
13 📚And it will come about, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of the whole earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off from the waters that come down from upstream, and they will stand up in a heap”.
14 📚And so it happened. When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, and the priests carried the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 📚as those carrying the ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all of its banks throughout the time of harvest) 📖, 16 📚the water which came down from upstream stood and rose up in a heap 📖, a great distance away at the town of Adam, that is near Zaretan. And the water that came down toward the Sea of the Plain 📖, the Salt Sea, failed and was cut off. And the people crossed over directly opposite Jericho. 17 📚And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, and all the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan.