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Entering the Promised Land
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begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know
that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.”
Crossing Jordan
The priests were to go before the people and bear the ark con-
taining the law of God. And as their feet were dipped in the brim of
Jordan, the waters were cut off from above, and the priests passed on,
bearing the ark, which was a symbol of the Divine Presence; and the
Hebrew host followed. When the priests were halfway over Jordan,
they were commanded to stand in the bed of the river until all the
host of Israel had passed over. Here the then existing generation of
the Israelites were convinced that the waters of Jordan were subject
to the same power that their fathers had seen displayed at the Red
Sea forty years before. Many of these had passed through the Red
Sea when they were children. Now they pass over Jordan, men of
war, fully equipped for battle.
After all the host of Israel had passed over Jordan, Joshua com-
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manded the priests to come up out of the river. As soon as the priests,
bearing the ark of the covenant, came up out of the river, and stood
on dry land, Jordan rolled on as before and overflowed all his banks.
This wonderful miracle performed for the Israelites greatly increased
their faith. That this wonderful miracle might never be forgotten,
the Lord directed Joshua to command that men of note, one of each
tribe, take up stones from the bed of the river, the place where the
priests’ feet stood while the Hebrew host was passing over, and bear
them upon their shoulders, and erect a monument in Gilgal, to keep
in remembrance the fact that Israel passed over Jordan on dry land.
After the priests had come up from Jordan, God removed His mighty
hand, and the waters rushed like a mighty cataract down their own
channel.
When all the kings of the Amorites and the kings of the Canaan-
ites heard that the Lord had stayed the waters of Jordan before the
children of Israel, their hearts melted with fear. The Israelites had
slain two of the kings of Moab, and their miraculous passage over
the swollen and impetuous Jordan filled them with the greatest terror.
Joshua then circumcised all the people which had been born in the
wilderness. After this ceremony they kept the passover in the plains