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.

Joshua: Preparation and Intel

Joshua 1-2

After the death of Moses, the Lord speaks to to Moses' servant, Joshua. He announces that it is time for Israel to cross the Jordon River and take the land that God has given to them. He tells Joshua to "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." The Lord instructs him to continue to keep the law of Moses and promised Joshua that He would be with him, just as He was with Moses before him.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

So Joshua goes back to the Israelites and tells them to get ready to cross the Jordan in three days. He instructs three tribes, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to dress for battle and cross before everyone else and to fight until the lands of Canaan are taken and they can settle down themselves. They pledge their allegiance to Joshua saying, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go."

Across the river lies the city of Jericho: their first target. Joshua sends out two spies to scout out the land ahead of them and Jericho itself. When they get to the city, they meet a prostitute named Rahab and stay in her house. When the king of Jericho hears that there are Hebrews in his city, he sends men to Rahab's house to apprehend them. When they ask for the spies, she lies to protect them, saying that they left through the city gate before it was shut. The men quickly go to pursue the spies down the road leading out of the city toward the fords of the Jordan.

After the coast is clear, Rahab goes up to her roof where she had hidden the two men and tells them what she knows. She tells them that she knows that God has given the land to the Israelites and that many others know this as well. The people of Jericho and the rest of Canaan are terrified of Israel. All their lives, they have heard of how God dried up the Red Sea for them and how the two kings of the Amorites from beyond the Jordon were completely destroyed by the Hebrews.

"When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath."

She acknowledges the God of the Israelites and asks the two spies to remember her kindness and spare her and her family when they attack her city. The men agree and tell her that they will remember her and spare her household. Her house is within the city's wall and they instruct her to hang a scarlet cord out her window so the troops know which house to protect. And they warn her that if she says anything about her encounter with the spies they will be free of their oath and that if anyone leaves her house during the battle, they will not be saved. She agrees and lowers a rope out her window for the spies to climb down before hanging a red cord for them to see.

The two spies hide for a few days in order to slip past the men that are still pursuing them before heading back across the Jordon. They get back to the camp and report to Joshua everything they have found out.

"Surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us."

Joshua: Prologue

We begin at Joshua. At this point in time, the Israelites are camped on the east side of the Jordan River waiting for their cue to cross over.

Hundreds of years before, a man named Abraham lived in these lands. God met with Abraham and made a covenant with him. He promised that Abraham and his wife, in their old age, would have a son, and that his decedents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. God promised a land called Canaan to Abraham and his decedents, and promised to be with them and bless them along their way.

Despite their lack of faith, Abraham and his wife, Sarah had a son. They named him Isaac. Isaac became a man and found a wife and they had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob took Esau's birthright and stole his blessing by deceiving his ailing father. Jacob then ran from his brother and found a wife (or two) in another land and had twelve sons. On his way back home to face his brother, Esau, Jacob wrestled God and was renamed Israel.

Jacob's son Joseph was sold into slavery and ended up in Egypt, where he rose to the become its ruler under Pharaoh. Desperate for food in the midst of a severe famine, Joseph's family eventually moved to Egypt and Jacob was reunited with his long lost son. The family settled into an area of Egypt named Goshen. Over time, the families of the sons of Jacob had families of their own. Eventually, they became known as the twelve tribes of Israel. The Hebrews. The Israelites.

They became so numerous that the Egyptians became frightened that they might take over. So the Pharaoh at that time enslaved them. For four hundred years the Hebrews were slaves to the Egyptians, forced to work under harsh conditions and treated poorly. Until one day God sent an escaped Hebrew named Moses back to Egypt to speak on God's behalf. Through Moses, God sent signs and terrifying plagues to the Egyptians until the Pharaoh, overcome with grief of loosing this firstborn son, set the Hebrews free.

Thus began the Exodus. The Israelites marched out of Egypt and started to make their way back to Canaan, the land of their fathers. The promised land. But Pharaoh's mind changed, and he set an army out after them. God provided an escape route by parting the sea for the Israelites and they passed on dry land into Sinai. The Egyptian army was not so fortunate, for when they made their pursuit across the parted sea, God closed it over them, destroying the army completely.

God led the Israelites through the desert appearing as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. There, he established the Ten Commandments and the law. He instructed the Israelites to construct the Ark of the Covenant, where God's Spirit dwelt with His people, and the Tabernacle, the temple prototype where the Ark was kept and offerings were made in atonement for sin. There, God established the Levites as the tribe of priests. And there the Israelites raised up and army that won many victories against formidable opponents, establishing a reputation that struck fear into the hearts of their enemies.

But they were human. And as all humans do, they complained. They griped and they yelled at God on several occasions. And because of their impatience and disobedience, God made it known that the generation the came out of Egypt would not live to see the promised land.

For forty years, they wandered in the desert, waiting for the word of the Lord to come. Year after year, they looked out over the Jordan River, yearning for their promised home. And one by one, the older generation died. Until finally Moses died after naming Joshua as his successor.

And so, at this point in time, the Israelites are camped on the east side of the Jordan River waiting for their cue to cross over.


And the Lord speaks...