The Crossing of the Jordan
Chapter 4
“And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, “Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, “And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night...
“And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.”
Here we have two sets of stones of memorial—those taken from the dry bed of the river and set up in Gilgal in the land, and those set up in the midst of the Jordan, in the very spot where the feet of the priests that bore the ark stood firm.
We can look at these stones in two ways. They point to the Lord Jesus Himself at the moment when the waves of judgment were flowing over His holy soul in death, and they point to Him as the risen One, Who was dead and is now “alive for evermore.” They also tell of our being now one in life with Him Who was dead and now lives forever; thus we are both risen with Christ and dead with Him.
These stones taken out of the river speak of resurrection; those left in the river ever remind us of death. And it is well for us to note the order here. For as soon as we are redeemed and are introduced into this life in resurrection, then our thoughts turn back to the cross to that precious death of our Saviour, the path by which we came into this new sphere of peace and heavenly blessing.
It is as those that are redeemed that we keep the memorial of His death. Death in which we once would have perished, had we tried to cross it alone, is now through grace the constant food of our souls; only it is the Lord’s death—not ours.
As we think of that ark, standing firm in the midst of the deepest part of the river— "(for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest)" until all Israel were passed clean over, how precious to contemplate our blessed Saviour in death upon the cross for us, bearing all our sins in that dark hour!
When deep to deep still calling
The waters reach Thy soul;
And death and wrath appalling
Their waves did o’er Thee roll.
It was Joshua, we read, who set up those twelve stones in the midst of Jordan. And oh, that we might be in such a state of soul that our blessed Lord can lead us back to stand, as it were, on Jordan’s brink and gaze with bowed, humbled hearts into the depths of death’s dark raging flood, to see the spot where His precious feet stood fast, until all His own were safely over. How sweet to sing then,
Oh, there Thy love grace unbounded
And perfect love we see;
With joy and sorrow mingling
We would remember Thee.
The Lord values our remembrance of His love more than we shall ever know.
ML-04/24/1977