Context No. 2876 of 4322 · Joshua

Joshua 3:6-17: in context

6Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and cross over before the people.” They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. 7The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 8You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’” 9Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God.” 10Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you. 11Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan. 12Now therefore take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, for every tribe a man. 13It shall be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of GOD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off. The waters that come down from above shall stand in one heap.” 14When the people moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people, 15and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest), 16the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people passed over near Jericho. 17The priests who bore the ark of the LORD’s covenant stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan.

Israel is to cross the Jordan at flood stage, and the priests carrying the ark go first, straight toward the water. God tells Joshua, today I will begin to magnify you, that they may know I am with you as I was with Moses. The instruction is clear: the moment the priests' feet touch the water's edge, the river will pile up upstream.

And it does, but notice the order. The Jordan did not part while they stood safely on the bank; it parted only when the priests' feet actually stepped into the water. Faith had to move before it could see. Then the priests stood firm, holding the ark in the middle of the riverbed, bearing God's presence in the very place of danger until every last person had crossed on dry ground. God parts the water for those willing to step in at his word, not for those waiting on the shore for proof first.

Is God asking me to step in before I can see the way open, trusting that the waters part as my feet get wet?

Sources

Joshua 3:13: "When the soles of the feet of the priests... rest in the waters of the Jordan... the waters of the Jordan will be cut off."
Joshua 3:17: "The priests... stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground."
Hebrews 11:29: "By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land."