Crossing the Jordan
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Joshua, by divine direction, commanded the people to put away
their sins and free themselves from all outward impurity, “for tomor-
row,” he said, “the Lord will do wonders among you.” The “ark of the
covenant” was to lead the way, borne by the priests from its place in
the center of the camp, toward the river. “Hereby ye shall know that
the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out
from before you the Canaanites... . Behold, the ark of the covenant of
the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan.”
At the appointed time the onward movement began, the ark, borne
upon the shoulders of the priests, leading. There was a vacant space of
more than half a mile about the ark. All watched with deep interest
as the priests advanced down the bank of the Jordan. They saw the
sacred ark move steadily toward the surging stream, till the feet of the
bearers were dipped into the waters. Then suddenly the tide above
was swept back, while the current below flowed on, and the bed of the
river was laid bare.
The priests advanced to the middle of the channel and stood there
while the entire host descended and crossed to the farther side. The
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power that stayed the waters of Jordan was the same that had opened
the Red Sea to their fathers forty years before. When the people had all
passed over, the ark itself was borne to the western shore. No sooner
had “the soles of the priests’ feet ... lifted up unto the dry land” than
the imprisoned waters rushed down, a resistless flood, in the natural
channel of the stream.
While the priests bearing the ark were still in the midst of Jordan,
twelve men, one from each tribe, took up each a stone from the riverbed
where the priests were standing and carried them over to the western
side. These stones were to be set up as a monument in the first camping
place beyond the river, as Joshua said, “That all the people of the earth
might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear
the Lord your God forever.”
This miracle was an assurance to Israel of God’s continued pres-
ence and protection, an evidence that He would work for them through
Joshua as He had wrought through Moses. The Lord had declared to
Joshua before the crossing, “This day will I 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.”