Old Testament - Joshua 3 & 4 - May 24, 2022

 5/24/2022 – Joshua 3 & 4

The Israelites are now at the border of Canaan, at the banks of the Jordon River. The officers come through the camp telling them, no, they are COMANDING them, that when they see the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant, they are to all follow at a distance, for they are going into Canaan! (v 3) One thing this is also telling them is that following the covenants they have made will take them where they want to be. But before they begin their journey, they are told in v 5 to “sanctify yourselves” before starting on that journey. Footnote 5a describes ‘sanctifying  yourselves’ as to “make yourselves clean, holy, by ritual washings and proper behavior.”

In verse 7 the Lord tells Joshua that “This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.” And then the Lord goes on to prompt Joshua, their new leader, in what he should do to direct this huge contingent of people, and at the same time teach them. 

Joshua is told to bring the people to the very edge of the Jordon River, where he tells them: “Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” (v 9) He continues on with his instruction: “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittities, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.” He has giving them His promise, now they have to have the strength and confidence to follow through confronting all of these peoples.

The ark of the covenant goes first, and the Israelites are to follow the ark. They cannot not swim, they are to cross the waters on foot. And then as the feet of the priests who are carrying touched the waters of the Jordon River, which at the time was overflowing all of its banks, “the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap,…and the priests ”and all Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over the Jordon.”  (v 16-17)

Elder David Bednar: “Recall how the Israelites came to the river Jordan and were promised the waters would part, and they would be able to cross over on dry ground. Interestingly, the waters did not part as the children of Israel stood on the banks of the river waiting for something to happen; rather, the soles of their feet were wet before the water parted. The faith of the Israelites was manifested in the fact that they walked into the water before  it parted. They walked into the river Jordan with a future-facing assurance of things hoped for” (“Seek Learning by Faith,” Ensign, Sept. 2007, 63). 

Moving forward in faith invites God to perform miracles on our behalf.

Joshua 4

Once the entire company was over the river, the Israel took 12 large stones from the river (one stone from each tribe). They build a monument to commemorate and remind all people of the miracle that allowed them to enter the land the Lord had promised to them.

Elder Marlin Jensen: “Remembering enables us to see God’s hand in our past, just as prophecy and faith assure us of God’s hand in our future”

V’s 23-24 sums it up: “For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is. Mighty; that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever.”

All this came about not because of their own strength—or even Moses’s or Joshua’s –but because “the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9). When we have our own rivers to cross and walls to bring down, wonderful things can happen in our lives, because it is “the Lord [who] will do wonders among [us]” (Joshua 3:5)  Or more simply: Go forward in faith and courage before the Lord!

Elder Marlin K. Jensen, seventy: “Remembering enables us to see God’s hand in our past, just as prophecy and faith assure us of God’s hand in our future.