Key Text: When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land (Joshua 4:21-22).
About forty thousand trained fighting men from the tribes of Reben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manassheh made up a fighting force of about 110,580 ready to live up their pledge to God to defend the land and their brethren “until all Israel could dwell safely in the land” v14. Apparently only forty thousand of these soldiers crossed over the Jordan in order to allow the strong guard to remain behind and defend those tribes on the east of the river. The final step in the crossing of the Jordan was to remove the priests who were bearing the ark of the covenant from the bed of the river. When the priests stepped into the water and the waters rolled back in a heap, they were left standing in the muddy bed of the river. On all sides of them, the bed had been beaten to hard clay by the pounding of millions of feet as the Israelites crossed the Jordan. All the time the priests, bearing the ark of the covenant, were standing in one spot. So Joshua commended the priests saying, “Come ye up out of Jordan” v 15. Joshua describes the soles of the priests being “lifted up unto the dry land.” Immediately, the mighty Jordan thundered back into its natural course and even overflowed its banks to the same extent it had prior to this miraculous crossing.
We recall that the people had to go through Jericho to get to the Jordan River. “And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal (circle), in the east border of Jericho” v19 in keeping with the first Passover in the Promised Land. Twelve stones were picked up from the riverbed. And, when the crossing had been completed, the twelve-stone monument was erected for the children to remember forever the miraculous crossing of the Jordan and “the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever” v24. Scripture suggests that the stones were placed in a circular fashion to mark the place where “the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark” v7. At last, the promise made to Abraham was fulfilled and his descendants are in Canaan. The text says that after their crossing, Israel ate some of the produce of the land and the manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land. From now on the people of Israel would have to walk by faith in the unseen, where before they had had visible evidence of God’s presence. AMEN!
Leave a Reply