Joshua 3:4-164Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. 5And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the Lord will do wonders among you. 6And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. 7And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. 8And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. 9And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God. 10And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. 12Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 13And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap. 14And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; 15And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) 16That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. (Joshua 3:4‑16)
When the Lord Jesus reveals Himself to Israel as the One whom they crucified, and they see the nail prints in His blessed hands and feet, then they will repent and mourn for their sin. (Zechariah 12:10-14, 13:6.) Then He will say, as Joseph said when he made himself known to his brethren, “Come near to me, I pray you!” (Genesis 45:44And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. (Genesis 45:4)), told they will come near and be blessed. There will no longer be the distance between the people and the Ark, for the veil will to taken away, 2 Cor. 3:1616Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. (2 Corinthians 3:16), and they will see Christ as their true Messiah— the true “Ark of the Covenant.”
Joshua told the people, “Ye have not passed this way heretofore,” for they were to see the wonders the Lord would work for His people. What a day it is for a sinner when he sees the wonderful work God has wrought for his salvation, and what a day it is for the believer when he learns that he is dead and risen with Christ. This the crossing of the Jordan typifies. The people were then told to sanctify themselves because of what the Lord was about to do. To sanctify means to set apart, and so if we are to really see and lay hold of the truth of being dead and risen with Christ we will have to set ourselves apart from the world.
The Lord then said to Joshua, “This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel.” Joshua here typifies the Lord, lending His people in the power of the Spirit into our heavenly portion, and so as we see the exceeding riches of His grace which has brought us into a place of assiation with Himself as His bride, surely we delight to magnify and exalt Him. Surely He alone is worthy!
Joshua told the priests who were carrying the ark upon their shoulders that when they came to the bank of Jordan, and put their feet into the water, they were then to stand still. He then called the people together and told them to pick out twelve men, one out of each tribe. He told them what was going to take place as soon as the feet of the priests, who were carrying the ark, stepped in to the waters of Jordan. Even though the river was very high at that time of year, overflowing all its banks, God said the waters would be cut off very far from the city Adam, and stand in a heap there, while waters that came in toward the Dead Sea would fail. If you look this up on the map, you will see that these places were so far away in both direction front where the people were to cross near Jericho, that they could not even see the waters of Jordan at all, while going over. This was surely a wonderful miracle, as well as a remarkable contrast to what had happened when they crossed the Red Sea forty years before. At the Red Sea the waters were a wall to them on either side, while here they could not see them at all. The Red Sea is a figure of Christ’s death for us, and when we learn this, with the sense of our sins (which are like the waters towering above us on either side), it is a solemn thing. Then when we see that we are delivered from our position of condemnation altogether, we rejoice and sing like the children of Israel did on the farther side of the Red Sea. The Jordan, however, brings in a further truth—we died with Christ.
ML 01/11/1953