"So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), the eaters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing toward the Sea of Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan."
Joshua 3:14-17
I love reading familiar Scripture and seeing something for the first time, or more accurately gaining greater insight from God. I love the book of Joshua. I read it many, many times. As a history lover this book fits that desire to know what happen, but I also love it because it reveals so much about entering in to what God has for a personal Promised Land.
Joshua 3:14-17 is the end of the chapter in which the Israelites are about to take their first, collective steps into the land promised to their father and mothers. A land promised to their forefather Abraham. The people gather up all they had, which couldn't have been too much since they needed to be able to pack it up and carry it with them as they wondered in the Wilderness. Side note - they couldn't bring in too much baggage. That just struck me. They were to follow the priests into the Jordan River and make their way across.
The priests were to enter the river, carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and as their feet dipped in the brink of the water the water coming toward them stopped. Not near them, but far away. I wonder if it was too far for them to see the wall of water. Reason would tell me that it would have dried up for a ways downstream considering nothing was flowing into it. I guess that would make it possible for such a large group of people to pass through.
I wonder this because it is one of the differences I notice about the Israelites' parents and grandparents in their crossing of the Red Sea. In Exodus 14 it states that the water was divided and that there was a wall of water on both the right and the left. Is it because seas and rivers differ in the way they flow? Rivers flow one way, but seas have tides that move in and out. Could that be why the Red Sea has walls on either side, and presumably within sight of the Israelites, and the Jordan is risen up in one very high heap far away?
Another difference is Moses held a staff over the waters of the Red Sea and God divided the waters. In Joshua, we find that the priests have to entered the water before God divided it. There had to be at least four priests carrying the ark, one for each corner. However, it may have been too heavy for just four men, so maybe there were six or even more. Why even wonder about how many priests there were? Well, it doesn't say when the first priest dipped in it says when the priests dipped in the brink the waters stopped. So did they all have to be in before it dried up? Or was it just as the first two entered that it dried up?
The crossing of the two bodies of water have a lot of similarities but when looked at closely, I notice many differences. In one they were being pursued. In another they are entering in as the conquers. In one God shows them right before their eyes the walls of water and in the other, presumably, they don't see the heap of water at all. In both the land is dry. But did one take more faith than the other?
Back to those priests and their feet. They had to entered into the water of a overflowing river. God didn't divide it ahead of time. They had to step in. If it was all the priests who had to enter, imagine the faith the ones farthest in had to have to believe that once the last were in it would stop flowing. Or if it was just the first two, were the first two chosen because they exercised the most faith beforehand and that is why they were first? Either way these men had to be scared to enter an overflowing, probably fast moving, river and have a least mustard seed size faith that God would dry it up for them. The Israelites crossing the Red Sea were gripped by fear of the enemy behind them and no one had to touch water for their rescue to take place. This Joshua group of Israelites had an enemy waiting for them, and in order to press into the promise they had to get their feet wet, at least a handful of them did.
In my own life, I look to God to provide Red Sea types of crossings. I want to stand there, maybe reach an arm out, and watch the walls of the sea in my life on either side as I move through the way He has created. But that miracle way was for when being pursued. If I want to enter into the promises of God I can't just stand there. I have to take my little mustard seed size faith and step into the waters. The end result is still the same. God still dries up the impossible way so that I can get across. Next comes either the hurried steps of one being pursued or the hesitant steps of being hopeful as entering into a promise but also knowing there is an enemy and battles to fight up ahead.
As scary as both are, once across the Red Sea the enemy was destroyed as the walls caved in and water flooded over them. They experienced immediate relief (not that the rest of their journey was easy because we know it wasn't.) Once across the Jordan River the waters start to flow and you have only a few choices: let fear drive you to re-enter the flooding waters and drown; let fear keep you stuck in that spot; or although afraid take the next step into the promise, and the next step, and the next, and the next. You get the point.
I want to be like the priests who stepped in the raging water, came out on dry land with dry feet, and kept moving forward into the promise and a deeper relationship with God.
