As the nation waited by the Jordan River, the people must have wondered what Joshua planned to do. He certainly wouldn’t ask them to swim the river or ford it, because the river was at flood stage (3:15). They couldn’t construct enough boats or rafts to transport more than a million people over the water to the other side. Besides, that approach would make them perfect targets for their enemies. What would their new leader do?
Like Moses before him, Joshua received his orders from the Lord, and he obeyed them by faith. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10: nkjv). It has been well said that faith is not believing in spite of evidence but obeying in spite of consequence. When you read Hebrews 11, the great “faith chapter” of Scripture, you discover that the people mentioned there all did something because they believed God. Their faith wasn’t a passive feeling; it was an active force. Because Abraham believed God, he left Ur and headed for Canaan. Because Moses believed God, he defied the gods of Egypt and led the Jews to freedom. Because Gideon believed God, he led a small band of Jews to defeat the huge Midianite army. Living faith always leads to action. “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2: nkjv).
In this paragraph, you find five different messages, all of them based on the Word of God, which is the “word of faith” (Rom. 10:8). The people obeyed these messages by faith, and God took them over the river.
The officers’ message to the people (vv. 1–4). Joshua was an early riser (6:12; 7:16; 8:10), who spent the first hours of the day in communion with God (1:8). In this, he was like Moses (Ex. 24:4; 34:4), David (Ps. 57:8; see 119:147), Hezekiah (2 Chron. 29:20), and our Lord Jesus Christ (Mark 1:35; see Isa. 50:4). It’s impossible to live by faith and ignore the Word of God and prayer (Acts 6:4), for faith is nurtured by worship and the Word. The people God uses and blesses know how to discipline their bodies so that they can give themselves to the Lord in the early morning hours.
Joshua ordered the camp to move ten miles from the Acacia Grove (Shittim) to the Jordan, and no doubt the people in Jericho watched this march with great apprehension. It probably took Israel a day to make this journey; they rested another day; and on the third day, the officers gave them their orders: The people were to cross the river, following the ark of the covenant.
The ark is mentioned sixteen times in chapters 3 and 4. It’s called “the ark of the covenant” ten times, “the ark of the Lord” three times, and simply “the ark” three times. It was the “throne of God,” the place where His glory rested in the tabernacle (Ex. 25:10–22) and God sat “enthroned between the cherubim” (Ps. 80: niv). The law of God was kept in the ark, a reminder of God’s covenant with Israel, and the blood of the sacrifices was sprinkled on the mercy seat on the annual day of Atonement (Lev. 16:14–15).
The ark going before the people was an encouragement to their faith, for it meant that their God was going before them and opening up the way. God had promised Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex. 33: nkjv). When the nation had marched through the wilderness, the ark had gone before them (Num. 10:33), and Moses would say, “Rise up, O Lord! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you” (v. 35 niv). On that occasion, the presence of the ark was a guarantee of the presence of the Lord.
Each of the tribes had an assigned place in the camp and an assigned order in the march when they broke up camp (Josh. 2). When the leaders of the tribes saw the priests bearing the ark and moving toward the river, they were to prepare their people to follow. Since the people had not traveled this way before, they needed God to guide them. But they were not to get too close to the ark, for this was a holy piece of furniture from the tabernacle, and it was not to be treated carelessly. God is our companion as we go through life, but we dare not treat Him like a “buddy.”
Joshua’s message to the people (v. 5). This was both an order and a promise, and the fulfillment of the promise depended on their obedience to the order. Some of God’s promises are unconditional, and all we have to do is believe them; while other promises require that we meet certain conditions. In meeting these conditions, we’re not earning God’s blessing; we’re making sure our hearts are ready for God’s blessing.
If the experience of Israel at Mount Sinai was the pattern (Ex. 19:9–15), “sanctify yourselves” meant that everybody bathed and changed their clothes and that the married couples devoted themselves wholly to the Lord (1 Cor. 7:1–6). In the Near East, however, water was a luxury that wasn’t used too often for personal hygiene. In our modern world we’re accustomed to comfortable bathing facilities, but these were unknown to most of the people in Bible times.
In the Bible the imagery of washing one’s body and changing clothes symbolized making a new beginning with the Lord. Since sin is pictured as defilement (Ps. 51:2, 7), God has to cleanse us before we can truly follow Him. When Jacob made a new beginning with the Lord and returned to Bethel, he and his family washed themselves and changed their garments (Gen. 35:1–3). After King David confessed his sin, he bathed, changed clothes, and worshipped the Lord (2 Sam. 12:20). The imagery is carried over into the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 6:14—7:1; Ephesians 4:26–27, and Colossians 3:8–14.
The promise was that the Lord would do wonders among them. As He opened the Red Sea to deliver Israel from Egypt, so also He would open the Jordan River and take them into the Promised Land. But that would be just the beginning of miracles, for the Lord would go with them into the land, defeat their enemies, and enable the tribes to claim their inheritance. “Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders” (Ps. 77:13–14 nkjv). “How great are His signs, And how mighty His wonders!” (Dan. 4: nkjv).
Joshua’s message to the priests (v. 6). The priests had the responsibility of bearing the ark of the covenant and going before the people as they marched. It was the priests who had to get their feet wet before God would open the waters. The priests would also have to stand in the middle of the riverbed until all the people had passed over. When the priests arrived on the other side, the waters would return to their original condition. It took faith and courage for these priests to do their job, but they trusted God and relied on the faithfulness of His Word.
The message of the Lord to Joshua (vv. 7–8). When Moses led the nation through the Red Sea, this miracle magnified Moses before the people, and they recognized that he was indeed the servant of the Lord (Ex. 14:31). God would do the same thing for Joshua at the Jordan, and in so doing, He would remind the people that He was with Joshua just as He had been with Moses (Josh. 4:14; see 1:5, 9). Both Moses and Joshua had received their authority from the Lord before these miracles occurred, but the miracles gave them stature before the people. It takes both authority and stature to exercise effective leadership.
Joshua’s message to the people (vv. 9–13). Having instructed the priests bearing the ark, Joshua then shared the words of the Lord with the people. He didn’t magnify himself; He magnified the Lord and His gracious blessings to the nation. True spiritual leadership focuses the eyes of God’s people on the Lord and His greatness. Much of what Joshua said in this brief speech was recalled from Moses’ last speech to Joshua (Deut. 31:1–8), as well as the Lord’s words to Joshua when he took Moses’ place (Josh. 1:1–9). Joshua didn’t give the people a “religious pep talk.” He simply reminded them of the promises of God—the Word of faith—and encouraged them to trust and obey.
But Joshua’s God was more than just the God of Israel. He was “the living God” (3:10) and “the Lord of all the earth” (vv. 11, 13). Because He is “the living God,” He can defeat the dead idols of the heathen nations that then inhabited the land (Ps. 115). Because He is “the Lord of all the earth,” He can go where He pleases and do what He wishes with every land and nation. “You shall be a special treasure to Me above all people,” God had told them at Sinai, “for all the earth is Mine” (Ex. 19: nkjv). “The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth” (Ps. 97:5).
Joshua explained to the people that God would open the river as soon as the priests bearing the ark put their feet into the waters of the Jordan. He also ordered each tribe to appoint a man to perform a special task that was explained later (Josh. 4:2–8). God was going before His people, and He would open the way!
As you review these five messages, you can see that the Lord gave them all the information they needed to accomplish what He wanted them to do. You find conditions that the people had to fulfill, orders they had to obey, and promises they had to believe. God always gives His “Word of faith” to His people whenever He asks them to follow Him into new areas of conflict and conquest. God’s commandments are still His enablements, and God’s promises do not fail. The counsel of King Jehoshaphat centuries later is still applicable today: “Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper” (2 Chron. 20: nkjv). “There has not failed one word of all His good promise” (1 Kings 8: nkjv).