The LORD Will Do Wonders

“And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you…..And the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.”   Joshua 3:5,17

When God parted the Red Sea for the Hebrew people to cross over on dry ground as they escaped from the Egyptian army, it wasn’t the only time that God did a miracle like that.  Moses had passed away, and Joshua had become the leader of the Israelites as they journeyed to the promised land that God had provided for them.  They were just about to enter it, but the last obstacle was the Jordan River.  It was the time of harvest, the time of year when rains had heretofore caused the river to rise (3:15), thus, making it more difficult to pass over the rushing water.

During their journey, the people of Israel had not always been cooperative with Moses, murmuring and complaining with nearly being destroyed by God for their idol worship when they made a golden calf.  Moses interceded for them, and God spared them except for about 3,000 of them (Exodus 32:1-28).  Now, under Joshua’s leadership, they were ordered to sanctify themselves because the next day they would cross the Jordan and overtake the city of Jericho.  In order to sanctify, that is, cleanse themselves from their sins, they must repent, obey God, and consecrate themselves to Him as LORD.  (This was prior to the time when Christ came and made the final sacrifice in order to provide salvation for all who would repent and believe in Him.)  I think that the people were sincere in their vows to honor and obey God, but because the law could never make one righteous, it was impossible for them to remain in a state of holy consecration.  However, the task ahead was so great that the people understood that it could not be accomplished without the power of God upon their efforts.  They expected a miracle, and a miracle was what they received.

God had given Joshua specific instructions for crossing the Jordan.  The priests were to carry the Ark of the Covenant and wait at the water’s edge before proceeding.  The people had packed up their belongings and were awaiting the signal to move ahead.  The second that the feet of the priests who were bearing the Ark stepped into the water, God caused the water to the right of the priests to stop flowing and begin to rise becoming a huge wall.  The water on the left continued to flow southward until there was a path of dry ground across the width of the river.  The people who lived upstream must have wondered how, all of a sudden, the river began to rise as if someone had built a dam downstream instantaneously.  Well, Someone did, the LORD God of Israel.  The people living downstream must have wondered why the river stopped flowing.  The people of Israel passed over on dry, not muddy, ground just like the people passed over the Nile several years prior.  The priests who carried the Ark stood still in the middle of the riverbed while the people passed by it.  The Ark was their symbol of protection.  As long as God’s presence was with them, they had nothing to fear.  They all made it safely across.

Twelve men, one from each tribe, had been selected to retrieve a stone from the spot where the priests had stood, take them to the camping spot for that night, and set them up in order to create a memorial for ages to come to remind those who came after them of the miracle that God had performed for His children that day (4:1-8).  Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan River in the place where the priests had stood.  Scripture tells us that those stones are still there (4:9).  One would think that the rushing river would have washed them away, but since God can part the river, He can certainly keep a few stones in place.

We don’t hear about miracles like these in modern times, but I believe that miracles occur every day.  Folks just fail to see them for what they are–interventions by the Lord.  We have no idea how many times that the Lord has rescued us from a dangerous situation of which we had no idea it was occurring.  Also, though, there are times when we experience something that we know had to be a miracle from God.  The wise thing to do is to always be thankful to the Lord for everything good that occurs in life and to be dependent upon Him for the good and the bad times of life.