Today’s Passage: Joshua 3
Israel comes to the edge of the Jordan and camps, with a flooded river between them and everything they have been promised. Before dawn the word goes through the camp that when they see the ark of the covenant lifted onto the shoulders of the priests, they are to follow it, keeping a wide distance so they can watch the way into a land no one has walked before. Joshua tells them to consecrate themselves, because tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among them. Then he gives them the sign to look for: when the feet of the priests carrying the ark touch the water, the river will stop. And it does. The waters upstream pile into a heap, the priests stand firm in the middle of the riverbed, and the whole nation crosses over on dry ground.
As you read, hold this: The living God goes ahead into the unknown, and that is how they know He will bring them through.
Context The world of Joshua 3
Moses is gone, and the generation that saw the Red Sea part is gone with him. The people at the Jordan are mostly the children of those who died in the wilderness, and this is their first great step across the border. The river is not small here. In spring, when the snowmelt comes down from the north, the Jordan runs over its banks and fills the whole flood plain, and this crossing happens at exactly that season, at harvest time, when the water is deepest.
The ark of the covenant is the golden chest from the tabernacle, the place where the LORD met His people and where His presence rested above the mercy seat. To send the ark ahead was to send the LORD Himself ahead. The people are told to keep two thousand cubits back from it, close to a thousand yards, so that every eye in the camp could see it go first into the water and lead them through.
Joshua 3:1–4 (BSB)
¹ Early the next morning Joshua got up and left Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. ² After three days the officers went through the camp ³ and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, you are to set out from your positions and follow it.
⁴ But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between yourselves and the ark. Do not go near it, so that you can see the way to go, since you have never traveled this way before.”
Notice what they are told to follow. Not a map, not a scout who has been across before, but the ʾărôn, pronounced ah-ROHN. Strong's H727, chest, box, ark. The word simply means a chest or a box, the same ordinary word used elsewhere for a coffin. What made this box holy was not the acacia wood or even the gold, but the One who met His people there. When the ark moves out ahead of the camp, it is not a relic being paraded. It is the LORD Himself going first into the river, and the people are told to fix their eyes on it and follow. , the seat of the LORD’s presence. They have never traveled this way, and the whole point of the distance is so that they can see: keep back, keep your eyes on it, and let the presence of God be the thing that shows you the road. When a people have never walked a path, the mercy of the LORD is that He walks it first and lets them watch Him do it.
Joshua 3:5–8 (BSB)
⁵ Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” ⁶ And he said to the priests, “Take the ark of the covenant and go on ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of them.
⁷ Now the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you just as I was with Moses. ⁸ Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the waters, stand in the Jordan.’”
Before the wonder comes a command to get ready for it: consecrate yourselves, set yourselves apart, because tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you. The word for wonders is the word for the things only God can do, the deeds no one could arrange or fake. And the LORD tells Joshua why He is doing it this way. It is so the people will know that He is with Joshua just as He was with Moses. The same God who split the sea for the fathers will stop the river for the children, and He wants no doubt about whose hand it is.
Joshua 3:9–13 (BSB)
⁹ So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.” ¹⁰ He continued, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that He will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.
¹¹ Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go ahead of you into the Jordan. ¹² Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. ¹³ When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
Here is the heart of the day. This is how you will know that the ʾēl ḥay, pronounced ale KHAI. Strong's H2416, living, alive; the living God. Set beside ʾel, God, this word for alive, living, having breath and life becomes the great contrast of the Old Testament: the living God against the dead idols of the nations, the God who acts against the gods who cannot. To say the living God is among you is to say that the One leading them into the river is not a story or a symbol but a God who is awake, present, and about to move. He is among them, and He is alive. is among you. The gods of the nations they are about to face were carved things that could not move a stone, but the God of Israel is the living God, and He is not far off in the heavens. He is among them. Twice in these verses He is named the Lord of all the earth, which means the river ahead and the land beyond both belong to Him already. The sign He gives is precise: when the priests’ feet touch the water, the flow will be cut off and stand up in a heap. He tells them exactly what He will do before He does it, so that when it happens they will know it was no accident.
Joshua 3:14–17 (BSB)
¹⁴ So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them. ¹⁵ Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ¹⁶ the flowing water stood still. It backed up as far upstream as Adam, a city in the area of Zarethan, while the water flowing toward the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
¹⁷ The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation had crossed the Jordan.
The writer is careful to tell us that the river was at its highest, overflowing its banks in the harvest season, so that no one could imagine the people simply waded across a low stream. The water did not part until the feet of the priests actually touched it. They had to step in while it was still flooding, trusting the promise before they could see the way. And when they did, the water far upstream stood still and piled into a heap all the way back to the town of Adam, and the riverbed lay open. The priests carried the ark to the middle and stood firm on dry ground, and there they held while the whole nation walked past them into the land. The presence that went first also stayed in the deep place until the last person was safely over.
Study notes Going deeper
The living God goes ahead of His people into what they have never walked, and He does not leave the deep place until they are all through. What He was to Israel at the flooded Jordan, He remained to them long after, and the psalms would still be singing about this river.
"The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back... Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back?" Psalm 114:3, 5 (BSB)
The answer the psalm gives is the same answer this chapter gives: the living God was in the midst of His people. Learn the Word, know Him, and give thanks.