Joshua 3:1

The book has been building toward this moment. God charged Joshua to lead the people over the Jordan in Joshua 1, and in Joshua 2 the two spies came back from Jericho with word that the Canaanites were afraid, and with Rahab’s confession of faith. With that report in hand, Joshua moves. Ahead lie the crossing itself in the rest of Joshua 3 and the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6.

Joshua’s own name fits the work in front of him. Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ means “the LORD saved” or “the LORD is salvation”, and the man who bears it is the one God chose to bring his people into the land. Verse 1 says that he “rose early in the morning”. The verb shâkam means to rise early, and by extension to keep at something, and here it shows a leader who sets the day’s work going at first light. The whole nation goes with him, “he and all the children of Israel”, so the move to the river is the act of one people under one leader.

Shittim, also called Abel-Shittim, lay in the plains of Moab east of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. It was Israel’s last camp before the crossing, and it was the place where the people had fallen into idolatry and immorality in the worship of Baal-Peor (Numbers 25:1–9). The generation that rebelled at Kadesh had died in the wilderness (Numbers 14), and now their children leave the scene of that later sin behind them as well. They are going to the land God promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:7), Isaac and Jacob, and the move shows God keeping his word across the generations, after all of Israel’s failures.

The word for days, yôwm, means a day or a span of time, and here it counts three days of waiting at the river. Joshua had already told the people to prepare provisions for the crossing (Joshua 1:11), and these days give the camp time to get ready in body and in heart. In Scripture a span of three days often comes before a great act of God. At Sinai the people were to be ready against the third day, when the LORD would come down (Exodus 19:10–11), Jesus gave the sign of Jonah and his three days (Matthew 12:40), and he rose on the third day (Luke 24:46).

Then “the officers went through the host”. An officer, shôṭêr, is an official, a superintendent or magistrate, and the word is often used of a scribe. These men were administrators, distinct from the army’s commanders and from the priests. Israel had known such officers in Egypt (Exodus 5:6), and Moses had set officers over the tribes (Deuteronomy 1:15), probably from among the tribal elders. Their task was to carry Joshua’s orders to every family, keep order, and see that the people were ready to move, and the orders they carried are the words of verses 3 and 4.

The “host” is the machăneh, the camp, the place where people live in tents for a time, and by extension the company or army camped there. Here it is the whole nation, men, women and children, with their flocks and goods. When Israel left Egypt, the whole people went out as “the hosts of the LORD” (Exodus 12:41), and at the Jordan they move out in the same way, as one ordered company under the LORD’s command. The God who was about to hold back a river also sent his officers from tent to tent, so his mighty works and his people’s careful readiness belong together. Jesus asks the same readiness of his servants as they wait for their master (Luke 12:35–36), and Peter tells believers to make their minds ready as they hope for Christ (1 Peter 1:13).

The officers’ command is simple: “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.” The “they” who give it are the officers of verse 2, speaking for Joshua.

The ark, ʼârôwn, was a chest, the gold-covered wooden chest that God told Moses to make (Exodus 25:10–22). It held the tablets of the Law, and with them Aaron’s rod and a pot of manna. The word for covenant, bᵉrîyth, means a covenant, alliance, treaty or league, and the ark bore that name because it held the tablets of the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai. Above all it was the sign of God’s presence among his people, the place Israel knew as his throne. When the ark went first, the LORD himself was going before them.

This had happened before. In the wilderness the ark of the covenant went before Israel on the march (Numbers 10:33), and the LORD led them by a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night (Exodus 13:21–22). At the Jordan the ark takes up that work of leading.

The space let the whole people see the ark and know the way, and it kept them reverent before God’s holy presence. Verse 4 gives the first reason itself: “that ye may know the way by which ye must go”. A cubit was about 18 to 21 inches, so two thousand cubits came to roughly 3,000 feet, a little over half a mile or about a kilometre. With so wide a gap, a multitude reckoned at more than two million people could see the ark ahead of them as it moved, and the whole nation could follow one sign in good order. The words “by measure” show that the distance was set out with care.

The word for the space, râchôwq, means far off or remote, and the command “come not near unto it” guards that distance. God had set bounds around Mount Sinai in the same way, and the people were to keep back from the mountain (Exodus 19:12–13). The Law teaches throughout that the holy God is to be approached with awe (Leviticus 10:3). So the ark goes ahead to lead the people, and it goes alone, because the God it stands for is holy.

“Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” The verb qâdash means to be clean or to make clean, in the ceremonial or the moral sense, and so to consecrate, hallow, set apart and make holy. The form here is reflexive, “sanctify yourselves”, so the people are to set themselves apart by their own act. Before the LORD came down at Sinai the people washed their clothes and abstained from marital relations (Exodus 19:10–15), and sanctifying themselves at the Jordan meant the same kind of outward cleansing, joined to hearts turned toward God and made ready for a holy encounter. It answers the Law’s call to holiness (Leviticus 11:44–45). Their sanctifying readies them to meet a holy God and to see his work, and the wonders that follow are his gift from first to last.

“To morrow” makes the promise near and certain. “The LORD” is Yᵉhôvâh, God’s covenant name, the self-existent and eternal one, so the one who will act is the God who bound himself to Israel, and the credit for what is coming belongs to him. The word behind “wonders”, pâlâʼ, means to separate or distinguish, and so to be great, hard or wonderful, and it is used of things too hard and too high for people. The form here, niphla’ot, means marvellous deeds, works only God can do, which show his hand in the life of his people. The wonder in view is the stopping of the Jordan so that the whole nation crosses on dry ground (Joshua 3:7–17), a work as great as the parting of the Red Sea. “Among you” means that God will act in the middle of his people, within the camp itself.

Joshua now speaks to the priests: “Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people.” The verb nâsâʼ means to lift, bear or carry, the same verb behind “bearing it” in verse 3. The priests take up a holy charge and carry it at the head of the nation, and they do exactly what they are told: “And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.”

The ark goes first so that all Israel sees that the LORD leads, and that the entry into the land is his work. Young David said the same to Goliath, “the battle is the LORD’s” (1 Samuel 17:47). At the Red Sea the LORD gave Moses his command before the waters divided (Exodus 14:15–16), and here too the command comes first and the wonder follows. The priests carry the ark down to the river, and the waters stop when their feet touch them (Joshua 3:14–17). They step out before any sign that the river will part, trusting the word they have been given.

Their obedience also confirms Joshua before all Israel. God had promised to be with him as he had been with Moses (Joshua 1:5–9), and in the next verse the LORD says that he will exalt Joshua in the eyes of all Israel (Joshua 3:7). Moses had already charged Joshua with the promise of God’s presence (Deuteronomy 31:7–8) and told the people to be strong and courageous (Deuteronomy 31:6). Joshua leads by passing on what God commands, and God confirms him by what he does. Through Isaiah the LORD promises to be with his people when they pass through the waters (Isaiah 43:2), and at the Jordan Israel sees that promise acted out.

Joshua’s name in Greek is the name Jesus, and Jesus is the greater Joshua, who leads his people into their true inheritance. Hebrews speaks of a rest that remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4:8–10), and Peter speaks of an inheritance kept in heaven for us that can never decay or fade (1 Peter 1:4). It ends in the new heaven and new earth, where God dwells with his people (Revelation 21:1–4). In Christ we have every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), and we are sealed with the Holy Spirit as the pledge of that inheritance (Ephesians 1:13–14).

The ark was the sign of God dwelling among his people, and in Jesus God came to dwell with us in person, as “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). “The Word was God” (John 1:1), and “the Word was made flesh” (John 1:14). What the ark held, the Law, the manna and Aaron’s rod, spoke of God’s provision and authority, and these come to their fulness in Christ, the living Word and the bread of life (John 6:35). As our High Priest he offered himself and so opened the way into God’s presence (Hebrews 9:11–12). The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and through his death he broke the power of death (Hebrews 2:14–15), so he has crossed the last barrier for us.

The ark led Israel through water that no one could cross, and Jesus goes before his people as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We follow him as Israel followed the ark, looking to “Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). The space before the ark has a gospel answer too. Israel kept two thousand cubits back from the sign of God’s presence, and because of Christ’s offering we may draw near to God with full assurance (Hebrews 10:19–22) and “come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16). Israel left Shittim and its sin behind, and in the same way anyone who is in Christ is “a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

These verses show the LORD keeping the promise he made to Abraham, and doing it with care for every family in the camp. He puts his presence at the front of the line, far enough ahead for all to see. He is holy, so his people keep their distance and make themselves clean. He tells them a day ahead what he will do, so their waiting is full of expectation. And he leads them on a road that was new to every one of them. The same God goes before us in Christ, and the way that is unknown to us is known to him.