Crossing the Jordan
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At the appointed time began the onward movement, the ark, borne
upon the shoulders of the priests, leading the van. The people had
been directed to fall back, so that 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 them with
the sacred ark move steadily forward toward the angry, 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.
At the divine command the priests advanced to the middle of the
channel and stood there while the entire host descended and crossed
to the farther side. Thus was impressed upon the minds of all Israel
the fact that the 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 it reached a place of security, and “the soles of
the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land,” than the imprisoned
waters, being set free, rushed down, a resistless flood, in the natural
channel of the stream.
Coming generations were not to be without a witness to this great
miracle. While the priests bearing the ark were still in the midst of
Jordan, twelve men previously chosen, one from each tribe, took up
each a stone from the river bed where the priests were standing, and
carried it over to the western side. These stones were to be set up as
a monument in the first camping place beyond the river. The people
were bidden to repeat to their children and children’s children the story
of the deliverance that God had wrought for them, 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.”
The influence of this miracle, both upon the Hebrews and upon
their enemies, was of great importance. It was an assurance to Israel of
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God’s continued presence and protection—an evidence that He would
work for them through Joshua as He had wrought through Moses. Such
an assurance was needed to strengthen their hearts as they entered upon
the conquest of the land—the stupendous task that had staggered the
faith of their fathers forty years before. 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