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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
The priests were to go before the people and bear the ark containing
the law of God. And as their feet were dipped in the brim of Jordan,
and waters were cut off from above, and the priests passed on, bearing
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the ark, which was a symbol of the Divine presence, and the Hebrew
host followed. When the priests were half way 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 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 commanded 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 to 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 Canaanites
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 of Jericho.
“And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the
reproach of Egypt from off you.”
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Heathen nations had reproached the Lord, and his people, be-
cause the Hebrews had not possessed the land of Canaan, which they
expected to inherit soon after leaving Egypt. Their enemies had tri-
umphed, because they had so long wandered in the wilderness, and