John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: May 18

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: May 18

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The Passage

Joshua 3

During great part of the year the waters of the Jordan are so low that the river is fordable in many places. But in spring and early summer, or “in all the time of harvest,” the river is in flood. It then “overflows all its banks,” and is a strong and rapid stream. It had probably been supposed by the Israelites, and expected by their enemies, that the host would ford the river when the stream was low. The operation might, we believe, have been practicable, though certainly not very convenient to a large and encumbered host; and might have held out to the Canaanites the hope of meeting them at disadvantage on the other side. Nevertheless we see that the taking a course which necessitated the passage of the Jordan, the same consequences were not involved as when they took a step which left them no other way of progress or escape but the passage by miracle through the depths of the Red Sea. The step was not at all inexplicable or even strange in this instance. They might either wait till the river fell, or as the whole country along the eastern bank of the stream was by this time in their possession, they might march northward, and either cross the lessened stream at the spot, where, being in the common and ancient caravan track, there was probably a bridge as now; or by a still further progress pass towards the source, where the river, there a brook, offers no obstacle even at the time of flood. All the indications must have seemed to the Canaanites in favor of the former alternative, for the Israelites evinced no sign of moving northward, and besides it would not have been in reason that they should undertake a long and toilsome march to attain an object which might in a few weeks be realized where they remained. If we ourselves inquire the reason why the course of proceeding northward to a point of the river always practicable was not taken—the answer is, that it was intended in the Divine wisdom that their entrance into the promised land should be effected in such a manner as essentially to promote the object in view. It was also designed that the southern part of the country should be first subdued. The same reasons, beyond these, which prevented them from being allowed to enter the land by the southern frontier, were still more cogent against their entrance on the north.

The Canaanites thus, no doubt, felt secure by the intervention of the full stream of the Jordan, from any immediate incursion of the Israelites. There was thus a solemn pause. The doomed nations on the one side—and the commissioned exterminators on the other—could look upon each other separated, impassably for the present, by no greater distance than that of a wide street.

But one morning a strange movement was observed in the Hebrew camp. The tents are struck—the tabernacle taken down and packed up for removal—the standards advance—and the tribes dispose themselves in their usual marching order. This must have been altogether unintelligible to the people on the other side. Do they after all mean to take the northern route? May they not, after all, have been ordered to go round the Dead Sea, and enter the land on the south? Perhaps their heart fails them—perhaps they have heard of some mighty host coming down from the north, and they are retiring once more into the desert, which has been so long their home? Who knows but that they may have got some news from Egypt, which encourages them to think that they have the chance of a better home in that country than Canaan offers? Any cause, any possibility might have been imagined by those who witnessed the movement, except the truth. But the truth soon appeared. “The ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth,” borne by the priests, is seen moving down in solemn state towards the river, followed at becoming distance by the vanguard of the Hebrew host. What will they do? Is it some great lustration of the host, some solemn baptism, about to be performed upon the river’s brink? No. The priests, bearing their holy burden, march on, without perceptible shrinking of the flesh, without start or pause—into the river. But, lo! no sooner did the first foot touch the stream, than the waters parted—they stopped in full career—and a way was opened for the Lord’s people to pass through. The ark went on, and rested in the mid-channel, and there stood between the heaped-up waters and the people, who, strong in faith, passed on below without halt or fear.

From the description, it would seem that the waters below where the priests’ feet touched the stream, ran off to the Dead Sea, while those above stood still—waited—until the Israelites passed over. When all were safe on the other side, the priests also, with the ark, went up out of the channel, and the moment that they came out from it, the imprisoned waters, like a strong steed relieved from the restraint of a master-hand, bounded forward in their course, and rushed in a mighty torrent to the sea.

This seems to us even a more signal miracle than the passage of the Red Sea; and it appears as if expressly framed not only to effect its own objects, but to relieve the other from all naturalistic interpretations. In the course of the Red Sea passage, we hear travellers and scholars talk learnedly about east winds, and tides, and shallows, so that, whether intending or not, the fact, as a demonstration of Divine power, is explained away or attenuated. But nothing of this is possible in the case of the passage of the Jordan. The fact must be taken as it stands. It was a miracle or it was nothing. There has not been, and there cannot be, any explanation of it on natural grounds. And if, therefore, men are obliged to admit this—unless they would deny the authority of the narrative altogether—it becomes scarcely worth their while to tamper with the Red Sea miracle.

But what was the use of this miracle? As it seems that the Hebrews could have entered the land without crossing the Jordan at all; and as a little earlier, a little later, or someway higher up, they could even have crossed the Jordan without a miracle—what need was there for this gratuitous display of that Divine power, which is said to be never vainly or idly exerted? We have not far to seek for an answer. In Jos_5:1 the reason for the miracle is shown in the result which is produced. “And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward; and all the kings of the Canaanites which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until they were passed over, that their heart melted; neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.” To produce this impression was, beyond question, the primary object of the miracle. We call ourselves, in some measure, judge of the importance of this impression being made upon the minds of the people with whom the Israelites were about to commence a terrible warfare; but any military man will be able to tell us, with great intensity of conviction, that for the purposes of the war, such an impression upon the mind of any enemy, however produced, is equal in value to a succession of victories; for it is seldom until an enemy has been repeatedly beaten, that he can be brought into that state of enfeebling discouragement which this verse describes.