Crossing a Wide River

Narrator: Chris Genthree
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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 26:51-6251These were the numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty. 52And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 53Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. 54To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance: to every one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him. 55Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. 56According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided between many and few. 57And these are they that were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family of the Merarites. 58These are the families of the Levites: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korathites. And Kohath begat Amram. 59And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister. 60And unto Aaron was born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 61And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the Lord. 62And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel. (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. 25:10-2310And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. 11And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. 12And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. 13And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. 14And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them. 15The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it. 16And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. 17And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. 18And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. 19And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. 20And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. 21And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. 22And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. 23Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. (Exodus 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.
ML 02/27/1938