Scripture Daily

Context No. 264 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 3:1-5: in context

1Joshua got up early in the morning; and they moved from Shittim and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel. They camped there before they crossed over. 2After three days, the officers went through the middle of the camp; 3and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the LORD your God’s covenant, and the Levitical priests bearing it, then leave your place and follow it. 4Yet there shall be a space between you and it of about two thousand cubits by measure—don’t come closer to it—that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before.” 5Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

Israel is camped on the bank of the Jordan, about to cross into the land after forty years of waiting. This passage is the pause right before, the instructions given while the whole nation stands at the water's edge looking at ground none of them has ever walked.

The orders are specific and a little strange. When you see the ark of the covenant carried by the priests, they are told, set out from your places and follow it, but keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and it. Do not come closer. And the reason given for the gap is tender rather than cold: keep back that far so that you may see it, and know the way you are to go, because you have not passed this way before. The distance is not a barrier but a sightline. The presence of God goes first, out ahead where everyone can watch it, precisely because the people do not know the route and were never expected to. Then Joshua tells them, sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.

The whole shape of it is a lesson in how to enter unfamiliar ground. Let the presence go first and keep your eyes fixed on it, rather than rushing ahead to scout the way yourself, and accept plainly that you have not been here before. The not-knowing is assumed, not shameful. Where am I trying to lead myself across ground I have never crossed, instead of hanging back far enough to actually see where God is going?

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