March 6, 2025
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Reading along with us in Joshua and Timothy? Here’s today’s reading:
Joshua 3 (NIV)
Crossing the Jordan
1 Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.……Continue Reading
A literal and amazing “step” of faith! Joshua needed to trust God to stop the water so the priests and ultimately all the people could walk across the Jordan River and he did. Not only did the waters stop the ground was dry. One would expect even if the water stopped that the ground would still be muddy and wet, however, it specifically says dry ground. Just imagine seeing this and knowing beyond a doubt that God is with you!
Joshua 2 & 3
”And the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.“
Joshua 3:7 NKJV
God endorses….verifies…..anoints….Joshua as the leader He has chosen to follow Moses.
Curious, the people stayed back two thousand furlongs behind the ark.
3000 feet.
5280 feet one mile.
Not sure how to process these details in my walk with Christ.
As Kelly said, immediate recession of water, walked on dry ground. God can prepare our way, safe and secure, in the midst of adverse environments, physical and spiritual.
God tells Joshua that the people will look to him as they did Moses. God will have Israel pass over the Jordan on dry ground. This time the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant will go over first and as soon as they touch the river it will become dry ground. They were to stay there until all the people have passed over the Jordan. A few miracles happened here. It is noted that the river Jordan was highest at this time of year, God made the river Jordan stand up in a heap and also stopped other water ways from flowing. It was not muddy as Kelly has said but it was dry. Then the Lord commanded Joshua to have the twelve chosen men to carry over twelve large rocks across the Jordan. After the Ark of the Covenant was carried to the other side the Lord let Jordan and the other waters return. This went into the next chapter. The stones were pilled up as a reminder to other generations of what the Lord had done. I understand that they are still there today by the Jordan River. May the Lord bless us all.
God supports leaders in various ways and here tells Joshua that He will grant him favor in the minds of the people and will also be with him like He was with Moses. How comforting and assuring this must have been for Joshua after seeing all God did for and through Moses. And crossing the Jordan isn’t the same as crossing the Red Sea, but I am sure it connected this generation to the great work God had done for the past generation. It was to assure them that He was the same powerful God (as He is for us today too) as He was for the past generation and that He would be with them to grant them victory over the peoples in the promised land. We can be comforted as well that God is with us and will guide us along the path He has for us. And I think they were encouraged to keep a distance between themselves and the ark to reenforce the holiness of the ark and how inappropriate it would be for any of them to touch it besides the priests who carried it. And we can all use a reminder of the holiness of God and how distinct He is compared to anything in this world. And God wanted them to remember this important beginning of the work He would do through them in the promised land, kicking it off with this miracle of crossing the Jordan.
Joshua 3
Joshua 3