Joshua 3: "Canaan’s That-A-Way—let’s Go!” Series

Introduction: Israel had endured 40 years of wandering here and there in the desert wilderness but now was just a few miles from the Promised Land. They had camped near the Jordan River at a place called Shittim, and while there the two spies had gone to Jericho and returned. One can almost feel the excitement and, maybe, other emotions as they knew the wilderness was behind them and their promised homeland was so close they could see it from a distance! Joshua gave the commands, and the people started marching west, towards Canaan, their promised home.

1 The instructions to follow before they set out

Text, Joshua 3:1-6, KJV: 1 And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. 2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; 3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. 4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. 5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you. 6 And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

The first thing Israel did was move closer to the Jordan River. They had spent at least 30 days mourning for Moses (per Deuteronomy 34:8), “in the plains of Moab” and Shittim seems to be in that area. Now they’ve moved or “came to Jordan”, or in sight of the river itself. I for one don’t know if they ever saw the Jordan during the wilderness journeys. Maybe the 12 spies did but they didn’t have much of anything good to say about the land (see Numbers 13-14).

Israel, then, “lodged” there, near the Jordan, meaning they arrived and set up camp. Joshua knew this was going to be a temporary thing, because he then commanded the people, “sanctify yourselves”. The reason was that the LORD was going to do wonders among the people. Those who had survived the wilderness journeys may have remembered a very similar thing when Israel was at Mount Sinai and they had a glimpse of the LORD Himself (Exodus 19).

And now Joshua’s first command was for Israel to move forward, closer to the river. No problem, at least nothing like a problem, is noted in the text. Then he commanded the people to sanctify themselves, and, again, no problem noted; at least not in the text. Now he’s ready to give one final command while Israel is on the east side of the Jordan.

Through the “officers”—we’re not told who they were, nor how many; all of them had a job to do—Joshua instructed Israel to leave where they were and follow or “go after it”. The officers also told them to keep a distance about “two thousand cubits” or about 1000 yards (one measure of a “cubit” was 18 inches or a half-yard). This was so the people could see the Ark of the Covenant, which was ordinarily hidden inside the Tabernacle, leading the way as the priests carried the Ark on their shoulders.

The final instructions were for the priests themselves. Joshua said to them, “Take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass over before the people”. Now, this wasn’t so easy a thing to do as we might think. Back in Numbers 3, the three sons of Levi (Gershom, Kohath, and Merari) and their descendants all had various duties as to who did what when it came time to move the Tabernacle. Numbers 4 has the prescribed commands to follow when the Tabernacle was taken down to move and it seems like this was one of those times.

Once the Ark was prepared, the priests took it up, no doubt using the poles (“staves”, KJV) of wood covered with gold as the LORD had commanded (Exodus 25:10-15). Now they began the journey towards the Jordan, leaving the camp and going before the people.

But there was something very difficult in their pathway. The next several verses describe it:

2 The instructions to follow as they began to leave

Text, Joshua 3:7-13, KJV: 7 And the LORD said unto Joshua, 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. 9 And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. 9 And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God. 10 And Joshua said, 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 Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. 12 Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.