Joshua 3
The people of Israel were ready to go into Canaan, but between them and that land was a wide, deep, river, and there were no bridges or boats.
The river was not always so wide, but in the warm season of the year the snow on the mountain tops in the north, where the river began, melted, and so much water came swiftly down the river, that it overflowed the banks, and no one could cross it. It was just at that time that the camp of Israel came to cross.
There has never been a report of such a large company anywhere to be moved at one time, as that big camp of Israel. No one knows just how many people there were. But from Numbers 26:51-62, we learned there were 601,730 grown men, besides those of the tribe of Levi, and there must also have been very many thousands of women and boys and girls and little ones besides there were great herds of cattle and sheep to be led or driven; and the many annuals carrying the loads with all their tents; and also, the Tabernacle.
Yet God had said they were to cross over: how could this be clone? They were to see a wonder which only God could do.
You remember about the chest, called the ark, which was very beautiful, but covered over when they marched, and was where the cloud of God rested (Ex. 25:10-23). This was to go before them. And when they saw the men carrying the ark start forward, they were to start, but not to crowd close, but leave a long space between.
The men with the ark walked into the very edge of the water, and stood still, while Joshua spoke to all the people and said, “Behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan,” and he told them the waters should be stopped.
And so they were; the water on their right stood up in a heap far from them, and the water on the left also stopped, leaving the river dry for a very wide space, and the men with the ark stood still in the middle, while all the great company went over the dry sand. Was not this a wonderful event?
Look for the River Jordan on the eastern edge of a map of Palestine. Israel crossed near where it empties into the Dead Sea opposite the place marked Jericho.
Note: Numbers 31:32,33,34 gives a part of the number of animals of Israel, so we may form an idea of the great number they had.
ML 02/27/1938