On Jordan’s Story Banks

Joshua 3

The spies have returned with their report. Not only through personal observation but from the observation and witness of Rahab, the spies are able to report “Surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us” (Joshua 2:24). The time has come to move into the land promised to Abraham. The promise of God will now be confirmed with powerful manifestations of divine protection and purpose.

I. The people receive instruction about crossing the Jordan into Canaan (1–13).

A. Having moved to the banks of the Jordan, the people receive instruction from officers (3,4).

1. 1. These instructions from the officers were given by Joshua on the basis of divine revelation. The people must not take to themselves any actions not warranted by divine instruction. Remember Nadab and Abihu.
   2. The priests with the ark were to proceed 2000 cubits before the Israelites could proceed. They would be in the middle of the Jordan before the people were to move. They would know that divine instruction and covenantal faithfulness had made this way through the treacherous Jordan.

B. Joshua gives further instructions (5, 6).

1. 1. The people were to consecrate themselves through ceremonial washing. They must not assume the privileges of covenant deliverance without recognition of divine holiness. Sinners pursuing gospel privileges are characterized by a mentality of repentance from sin. We come to Christ just as we are with no merit of our own but not without mourning for sin and determination to embrace divine righteousness (2 Peter 1:3, 4).
   2. On the next day, Joshua instructed the priests to go ahead of the people, bearing the ark. They followed Joshua’s instructions and “went ahead of the people” (6).

C. The Lord spoke to Joshua (7, 8).

1. 1. The Lord assured Joshua that the same divine purpose and supernatural power as had been prominent in the words and instructions of Moses would also be with Joshua. God would fulfill His promises and bless obedience to His commands. The power was neither of Moses nor of Joshua but of God. “I have been with Moses, I will be with you” (7). So it is with every gospel minister. Nothing he does has beneficial and spiritual effect apart from divine power: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 3:7).
   2. God told Joshua to command the priests to go to the edge of the river and step in (8). At that point, they would see the power of God and His protective hand displayed. Not before they stepped, but, when they stepped, God showed His absolute control of nature and His unfailing care for His people.

D. Joshua gave final instructions before the crossing (9–13).

1. 1. Joshua called to the people. He made three emphases to them (10). One, God Himself had spoken and given these instructions. This was not a strategy on Joshua’s part but the command of God. Two, they were to know that the “Living God” was among them superintending all these events. Three, this event would give further evidence and confidence that their war to remove the seven pagan peoples from the land would succeed.
   2. God’s removal of the naturally impassable Jordan would be accomplished by the eternal redemptive purpose of God as represented in the Ark of the Covenant (11). The Ark-bearing priests would go before them into the Jordan and by that means God would make their path clear of danger and intimidation.
   3. Each tribe was to select a man to represent their tribe for later instruction from the Lord (12). We will learn the purpose of this in Joshua 4:2.
   4. Joshua gave a precise description as to how the crossing would proceed. God is identified as the “Lord of all the earth” so they will know that He does with His creation as He sees fit and uses it for the manifestation of His insuperable power. The flood waters flowing down from above would stop and rise in a heap as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests touched the water. They must proceed as ordered, not waiting for the waters to stop, but step into them while still flowing. When they step, the waters will be cut off.
   5. This same determinative power operates presently and consistently in all of nature. By His powerful Word, God called into being all that is not Himself and He sustains it by that same intrinsic operation of power (John 1:3; 6:16–21; Colossians 1:15–17; Hebrews 1:1–4; 2 Peter 3:12, 13). The people were to be reminded that the Lord who called them possesses infinite and immediate power and will fulfill His promises.

II. They pass over Jordan on dry ground (14–17).

This occurred when the Jordan was at flood stage (15).

A. Ark-bearers, priests, and people go to the Jordan and the ark-bearers step in.

This showed that the killing rage of Jordan’s flood would succumb only to the presence of the covenant in the hands of a designated priest. Jesus fulfilled the priesthood, is the embodiment of the covenant of redemption, and fulfilled the Law’s demands both in its positive requirements and just penalties.

B. Immediately the river flowing down and overflowing its banks stopped and stood up in a heap.

The people did not fear, for God, the Lord of all the earth, had stopped the waters. All passed through safely, not one left behind, with the ark held in defiance of the potent flood that would take all to their death had its covenantal promise not intervened.

C. Having entered the river some distance before the people (4, 6), the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle until all the people—young and old, adult, children and babes—had passed safely to the other bank.

Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). The effectuality of His redeeming work brings us safely to the shores of Canaan. The Redeemer protected them and does so with all for whose sake He shed His blood (Hebrews 13:8, 20–21).

III. God commanded Joshua to establish a memorial of this crossing (4:1–9).

One was set up in the place where the people gathered after crossing (3, 8) and another was placed in the middle of the Jordan where the ark-bearing priests stood (9).

A. After having arrived safely on the other side, twelve men, previously selected from each tribe, went back to the middle of the Jordan, selected twelve stones from where the ark was held, shouldered them and brought them to the lodging place (8).

There Joshua would arrange them as a memorial to the Lord’s faithfulness in carrying through His promise. Though our unfaithfulness may bring about detours and discipline along the way, God’s knowledge of all is perfect and His execution is complete. In our fickle, short-term, panic-driven spiritual perception, we need to be reminded that God is faithful. He already has promised, executed, and shown His power and holiness, and He condescends to our weakness to give us reminders and active pictures of the certainty and effectual completion of His saving work on our behalf.

B. Joshua also went to the place where the priests stood with the ark, selected twelve stones and placed them in the middle of the Jordan.

One memorial is set in the place of death and danger and another at the place of completion and safety. We might view the ordinances of remembrance in that way. The Lord’s Supper holds us in the very place where the curse of death was held by the Lord Jesus—His body broken, His blood shed. Baptism reminds and pictures for us that His Death led to the triumph of resurrection and eternal life.

C. In Deuteronomy 6 and 7, Moses had highlighted the importance of consistent reminders of the covenantal faithfulness of God and how His revelation should drive us to that same kind of faithfulness in worship of Him.

“Because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:8). As the final purpose and content of all covenantal memorials, Paul wrote, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8).

POEM

The blood of the eternal covenant
Opens to us the path to life.
To dangerous wanderings in the wilderness,
The Ark gives safety in the strife.

Now through Joshua the Lord would speak
and guide the nation to their home,
To execute God’s righteous anger,
And find a place—no more to roam.

The mighty Jordan dared their passage,
Set its waters in their path.
God, the Almighty, for covenant love,
Suspended the flood, restrained its bath.

On dry land every tribe went through
Protected by invincible grace.
The Ark, the Law, the mercy seat,
Secured and kept them safe.

Remember this. Store it tightly
Even by symbols to your soul.
The faithful God effects His will,
And by that will, He makes us whole.