Miraculous Parting of the Jordan, and the Passage of the Children of Israel - Gilgal and its meaning - The

First Passover on the soil of Palestine.

(JOSHUA 3-5:12)

THE morrow after the return of the spies, the camp at Shittim was broken up, and the host of Israel moved

forward. It consisted of all those tribes who were to have their possessions west of the Jordan, along with

forty thousand chosen warriors from Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh.67 A short march brought

them to the brink of Jordan. Strictly speaking, the Jordan has a threefold bank; the largest at the water's

edge, which, in spring, is frequently inundated, owing to the melting of snow on Hermon; a middle bank,

which is covered with rich vegetation, and an upper bank, which overhangs the river. The people now

halted for three days, first to await the Divine direction as to the passage of the river, and then to prepare for

receiving in a proper spirit the manifestation of Divine power about to be manifested in the miraculous

parting of Jordan. For, as one has remarked, the expression used by Joshua, "the living God is among you"

(Joshua 3:10), does not merely imply the presence of God among Israel, but, as the event proved, the

operations by which He shows Himself both living and true.

All that was to be done by Israel was Divinely indicated to Joshua, and all was done exactly as it had been68

directed. First, proclamation was made throughout Israel to "sanctify" themselves, and that not only

outwardly by symbolic rites, but also inwardly by t urning unto the Lord, in expectant faith of "the wonders"

about to be enacted. These were intimated to them beforehand (Joshua 3:5, 13).

Thus passed three days. It was "the tenth day of the first month" (Joshua 4:19), the anniversary of the day

on which forty years before Israel had set apart their Paschal lambs (Exodus 12:3), that the miraculous

passage of the Jordan was accomplished, and Israel stood on the very soil of the promised land. Before the

evening of that anniversary had closed in, the memoria l stones were set up in Gilgal. All between those two

anniversaries seemed only as a grand historical parenthesis. But the kingdom of God has no blanks or

interruptions in its history; there is a grand unity in its course, for Jehovah reigneth. With feelings stirred by

such remembrances, and the expectancy of the great miracle to come, did Israel now move forward. First

went the Ark, borne by the priests, and, at a reverent distance of 2000 cubits, followed the host. For, it was

the Ark of the Covenant whic h was to make a way for Israel through the waters of Jordan, and they were to

keep it in sight, so as to mark the miraculous road, as it was gradually opened to them. It is to this that the

Divine words refer (Joshua 3:4): "that ye may know," or rather come to know, recognize, understand, "the

way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore." With the exception of Caleb and

Joshua, none, at least of the laity,69 had been grown up at the time, and seen it, when the Lord parted the

waters of the Red Sea at the Exodus. Then it had been the uplifted wonder-working rod of Moses by which

the waters were parted. But now it was the Ark at whose advance they were stayed. And the difference of

the means was quite in accordance with that of the circumstances. For now the Ark of the Covenant was the

ordinary symbol of the Divine Presence among Israel; and God commonly employs the ordinary means of

grace for the accomplishment of His marvelous purposes of mercy.

It was early spring, in that tropical district the time of early harvest (Joshua 3:15), and the Jordan had

overflown its lowest banks. As at a distance of about half a mile the Israelites looked down, they saw that,

when the feet of those who bore the Ark touched the waters, they were arrested."  70 Far up "beyond where

they stood, at the city of Adam that is beside Zarethan,"  71 did the Divine Hand draw up the waters of

Jordan, while the waters below that point were speedily drained into the Dead Sea. In the middle of the river-

bed the priests with the Ark72 halted till the whole people had passed over dryshod. Then twelve men, who

had previously been detailed for the purpose,73 took up twelve large stones from where the priests had

stood in the river-bed, to erect them a solemn memorial to all times of that wondrous event.