Jos. 3: Crossing Jordan

Joshua 3:16 "The water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho."

Well, it's finally time to go. Israel is going into the promised land. Joshua gives the orders, and the people listen, because God gave Joshua the same gravitas that He gave to Moses with the people. Joshua prepared his people to move out in three days. "Watch the ark, but don't go near it," was the command. In fact, people had to stay 1000 yards away...which is a little over half a mile.

OK, so the three days go by, and Joshua goes to the river, and as he stands there, he tells everyone to watch, because this is gonna be sweet, and that God will drive out the HACPHAJ. What is the HACPHAJ you may ask? It's my mnemonic device used to remember the Usual Suspects that God stands against in regard to Israel. Hivites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hittites And Jebusites. It would be HACPHAG (Girgashites) in some translations, so lets go with this.

Anyway, and this is amazing...as soon as the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the Jordan River, the water flowing downstream cut off and "stood up in a heep." Can you imagine what that would have looked like? Can you imagine seeing that take place. And I love how the Bible sort of predicts what skeptics would say..."Minor miracle, it was the narrowest part of the river..." No, it was at flood stage. I wish I could have seen this. I'm sure the parting of the Red Sea was amazing too. This dividing of the waters at the Jordan River is just as amazing. Yet, I think we look on it as, eh...not as cool as the Red Sea.

And the whole nation crossed on dry ground. Including the 2.5 tribes who were staying on the east side of the Jordan.