Joshua: The Crossing

Joshua 3-5:12

Joshua wakes up early the morning of the crossing and leads Israel from Shittim to the Jordan. They camp there and Joshua tells his officers to give orders to the people. They are to wait for the ark of the covenant, carried by the Levite priests, to move. Only then are they to follow behind it. They are told to keep a distance between themselves and the ark and that the ark will lead them into Canaan.

God will lead them into the Promised Land.

After three days, Joshua commands the priests to take up the ark and begin marching toward the river. Again, the Lord tells Joshua that He is with him, just as He was with Moses and gives him another command.

"You shall, moreover, command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'"

He has the priests do just that and they obey. He announces to the whole of Israel that they will see evidence that God is with them and that He will lead them to conquer all the tribes in Canaan.

"By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite."

The priests step foot in the Jordan and the water begins to recede where they stand and rise up in a heap up river near a city called Adam. The Israelites cross the Jordon on dry land, just as they had the Red Sea forty years earlier. 40,000 troops from Reuben, Gad and Manasseh cross over in full battle array and march into the plains of Jericho.

Per God's command, Joshua takes one man from each of the twelve tribes to fetch twelve stones from the river bed, near the priest's feet. They take these stones to the new Israelite encampment and set them down as a memorial of their crossing. Joshua also takes twelve stones from the river bed and piles them near where the priests stand with the ark as a second memorial.

After the whole of Israel has crossed, the priests are commanded to cross as well. As soon as they set foot on the far side of the river, the waters of the Jordan fall back again and flow as before.

The Israelites camp at a place called Gilgal. Here, Joshua sets up the memorial of the twelve stones and tells the people that it will be a reminder for their children that God allowed His people to cross the Jordan on dry land.

The crossing does not go unnoticed by the people of Canaan. The Kings of the Amorites hear of the Israelites crossing on dry land and they lose any hope that they may have had against Israel.

Now forty years before, after the exodus from Egypt, Moses commanded the men of Israel to be circumcised as a covenant before God. But during their time in the wilderness, many sons were born that were not circumcised. So Joshua commands all the men of Israel to be circumcised to renew the covenant for a new generation.

They stay in Gilgal to heal and celebrate Passover there. The day after Passover, they begin to enjoy the fruits of the land that had been promised to them hundreds of years before. They eat unleavened bread and grain from the new land. The manna that God had supplied for Israel to eat no longer comes after this day, as they can now be sustained by their promised fruits.

But the land has not been taken yet. Joshua begins to look toward Jericho.