DAY TWENTY-FOUR: 

Crossing the Jordan 

Joshua 3:1-4:24 

Sometimes I feel like the narrator on the old Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. "When we last saw our intrepid heroes..." It's a privilege to serve as narrator in our journey through these exciting Bible stories!

Yesterday we saw the Lord commission Joshua to lead the people after Moses' death. God told him to take the people into the land and conquer it. Three times He told Joshua to be strong and courageous. He would need all the strength and courage that the Lord can give him for this mission! The Lord reassured him again in 3:7, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you." Just as God exalted Moses with the parting of the Red Seas, He will now exalt Joshua through the parting of the Jordan River.

When I saw the Jordan River during my time in the Holy Land, it wasn't very impressive. It looked to be about as wide and deep as the Mahoning River in our area. But this was after years of drawing it down for irrigation. In Joshua's day it was bigger. And in addition, they were standing before the river at the time of harvesting the spring grains. All the snow melt from Mt. Hermon and the other mountains in that region flow down into the Jordan River and at that time it would grow to a mile wide, full of churning muddy water. The Lord told Joshua to send the priests, carrying the Ark of the Covenant, to the front of the people, and to walk into the river. As soon as their feet touched the Jordan it suddenly peeled back clear to Adam, a city about eighteen miles north of their position! Earthquakes have been known to cause landslides that dam up the Jordan. However He did it, the Lord made a wide path for Israel to cross into the Promised Land! Joshua told them to give the Ark a wide birth, coming no closer to it than 2,000 cubits (about half a mile). It would take at least half a day for 2 million people and their flocks to cross. Here's a map that illustrates the scope of what God did:

After they crossed Joshua sent twelve men, one from each tribe, to pick up stones from the river and stack them at Gilgal to serve as a monument to what God had done for them that day. Years later, when children saw and asked, the parents used that teachable moment to tell them, "Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea,which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever."

Rahab, the prostitute who hid the two spies, told them that everyone in Jericho was scared to death of the Israelites. They had heard of how the Lord had parted the Red Sea, and how they had crushed Og and Sihon, the mighty kings east of the Jordan. (Joshua 2:9-11). The rulers and commanders thought that the flooding Jordan would keep the Israelites away for a while, and that when they did cross they would be vulnerable to attack. But now they watched the Jordan dry up and that great nation crossed in a day! Israel was now camped at Gilgal, just six miles away! But they were determined not to go down without a fight! It would take a long time for the Israelites to breach their high, thick walls. Or so they thought.... Stay tuned!

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, "For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea..." When we think of baptism we think of the sacrament we celebrate according to the Lord's command. We were baptized into Jesus Christ. Baptism is a symbol of our identification with Him. He has claimed us, and we are His. In a similar way the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan identified the people with Moses and Joshua. God established them as His appointed leaders.

I've been thinking and praying a lot lately about Christian leadership. I need to be a leader like Moses and Joshua. These men led from their knees through their time with the Lord at the Tent of Meeting. It's a difficult time for the church and as with the Israelites there's a lot of anxiety about the future. Pray for me and for our Elders and Deacons! Pray that we will have the courage and boldness to lead you in a godly way.

Here's a song I found that retells today's passage: