Last week, when we looked at chapter 3 and the crossing itself, we saw that the most important element in that crossing is the emphasis found there upon the Ark of the Covenant. The ark symbolized the presence of God. It has not been mentioned in Joshua until now, but suddenly in these chapters connected with the crossing of the Jordan, it is mentioned many times. The ark symbolized the presence of God, and as the people crossed the river, they did so with the ark going before them. In other words, God went before them. There wasn’t any use crossing that river, trying to bring about the conquest of the land, unless God went first and delivered the land into their hands.
That has an immediate and obvious parallel to our own lives. Sometimes like the people 38 years before this, we refuse to follow God’s lead. God says, “This is what you’re to do,” and we say, “Well, I don’t want to.” Then in response God says, “Alright, then we’re not going to go in that direction.” Rebellion against God then leads to disaster. The only proper procedure is that of following God as He leads.
The people were taught this. I pointed out as we looked at Joshua 3 that it was not merely a case of God going before the people, but the presence of the ark was also intended to teach that it is the same God who goes before them. It is the same God who brought them out of Egypt, the same God who had called Abraham out of Ur, the same God who had created the world and everything we know. The very fact that the miracle of the crossing of the Jordan was similar in so many respects to the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea at the time of the exodus is meant to teach that. This is the same God—in his power, in his holiness, in his justice, and in his mercy.
In conjunction with their crossing, God told the people through Joshua that they were to set up a memorial. Here’s the way Joshua speaks of it, as he says in verses 4 and following to those representing the tribes: “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean,’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
