Study Focus:Joshua 3, Num. 14:44, Luke 18:18–27, Joshua 4, John 14:26, Heb. 4:8–11.
With the return of the spies, Israel is ready to enter the Promised Land. There is still an insurmountable barrier, at least from a human perspective: the Jordan River during the flood season. However, nothing can stop the living God of Israel. Again, He is about to show His sovereignty as the Lord of all the earth (and waters). Since Israel left Egypt, the issue has never been God’s power to work wonders; it has been His people’s preparedness, which once more will be tested as they are called to sanctify themselves. Like their ancestors walking toward the shores of the Red Sea, the Israelites pack up and leave the camp one last time, before finally entering Canaan.
More than four hundred years after the initial promise to Abraham, they walk again toward the edge of the impossible. From their crossing of the Red Sea to the crossing of the Jordan River, God has summoned His people to face the impossible to prove that with Him nothing is impossible. The ark of the covenant goes in front of them to show that the passage on dry land is not a coincidence or a human-engineered plan but an act of God. The crossing of the Jordan River marks history as a singular day. The passage also is marked geographically with the two groups of 12 stones. The question is whether this event will mark the memory of future generations or not. Unfortunately, as time passes, the spiritual significance of these stones would be forgotten. This tragic forgetfulness led Israel not only to idolatry but also back to Egypt.
Part II: Commentary
Watery Theology
Several parallels exist between the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River. Among them are the use of three significant Hebrew terms: (1) the Hebrew verb plʾ (“wonder”), to designate both of the miraculous crossings (Exod. 15:11, Josh. 3:5); (2) the word ned, to refer to the piling up of the water as a “heap” (Exod. 15:8, Josh. 3:16); and (3) the rare word harabah, which means “dry land” (Exod. 14:21, Josh. 3:17). Additionally, God Himself traces a parallel between Moses and Joshua in Joshua 3:7, explicitly connecting the two episodes. The psalmist sees the two events as only one (for example, Ps. 114:1, 3, 5).
But what is the theological meaning of the Jordan crossing? This week, the author already has guided us through the typological meaning of the event in light of Jesus and the church. Thus, we can explore here the theological meaning of the crossing to its original audience.
Today, if you visit the Jordan River, it’s hard to imagine the challenge its crossing presented to Israel millennia ago. First, irrigation for agricultural purposes and human consumption, along the riverbed’s 223 miles (360 kilometers), has considerably diminished its size and flow rate. Second, the celebration of the Passover, right after the crossing, indicates that the Jordan River crossing took place in springtime, when the river could be up to a mile wide in some areas, a result of the melting snow in the highlands. This data means that crossing this large body of water with strong currents or even debris was not a lesser miracle than crossing the Red Sea.
In the minds of ancient Near Eastern people, such as the Canaanites, the sea had mythological nuances. It was the place their deities came from when the forces of chaos were subdued by more powerful gods.
According to the Canaanite myth, Baal, who was the patron god of land, became the supreme god of the storm when he defeated Yam (the word for “sea” in Hebrew), the god of the sea. Thus, “in ancient polytheistic thinking, nations won battles on the earth because their patron gods won battles in the cosmos. If Yahweh, God of Israel, could defeat and bend so easily to His purposes the power of the river-god in full flood, what would He do to Baal? What, then, would Yahweh’s people do to Canaan?”—Joseph Coleson, “Joshua,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2012), p. 56. With this historical background in mind, the crossing of the Jordan expresses a threefold theological dimension that is not readily apparent to modern readers.
First, God’s status as “the Lord of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11, 13) highlights an essential difference between the Canaanite deities and Yahweh. His dominion is not restricted to any territory. All the earth belongs to Him and is under His jurisdiction. He is the true Owner and Lord of the world, and, in this sense, Baal, which also means “owner” or “lord,” is an impostor. God’s power over the water serves as proof of His supremacy.
Second, God is victorious. Both in Babylonian and Canaanite mythologies, Marduk and Baal become chief gods as they crush powerful, watery forces. Both in poetic and prophetic passages, Yahweh is praised for conquering cosmic enemies, described as a sea dragon or a serpent, also called Rahab or Leviathan (compare with Job 41:1, Ps. 74:13, Isa. 30:7). As Yahweh overcomes the watery forces of chaos, His victory is supreme. However, the crucial difference between Yahweh and these gods is that He is a living God (Josh. 3:10), acting in real time. Yahweh is not a god of mythology; He is the God of history.
Finally, Yahweh is a holy God. The ark of the covenant appears at least twenty times in Joshua 3 and 4, highlighting its significance in the story as a physical representation of the One who goes literally before them (Josh. 3:11). The glory of Yahweh, which rested on the ark inside the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary, was a visible manifestation of the Divine presence. However, such a token of His presence was visible only to the high priest once a year, and only under restricted ritualistic conditions. During the crossing of the Jordan, the ark would go about six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) ahead of the people, remaining in their sight only during the actual crossing in the middle of the riverbed. Unlike the idols of Canaan, which were created in the image of their human “makers,” God was forming a new nation in His likeness, as expressed in the commandment: “ ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ ” (1 Pet. 1:16, NKJV; see also Lev. 19:2).
These three theological aspects—God’s dominion, victory, and holiness—should have been in the Israelites’ minds as they entered the idolatrous land of Canaan. The memory of this spectacular day should have served as an antidote against idolatry, an antidote that, unfortunately, Israel did not take.
The Memory Problem
The concept of memory in the Bible is dynamic because it encompasses more than just the cognitive process of recalling information. This concept is shown when, on several occasions, God “remembers” His people (for example, Exod. 2:24). When God remembers, He acts favorably toward His people. Therefore, God’s call to His people to remember is also a call for them to take action.
Memory should be enacted in time and space through various means, such as passing down tradition from parents to children, building monuments like that of Joshua 4, and, most important, through ritual and celebration during the great festivals in the religious calendar. It is meaningful that these festivals had a threefold character. First, they commemorated God’s acts in the present life of Israel, as they passed the seasons of sowing and harvest. Second, these festivals commemorated God’s acts in the past, particularly those related to the Exodus and the conquest. And finally, they also pointed typologically to God’s acts in the future in the eschatological era, inaugurated by Jesus. Thus, the biblical dynamic of memory not only embraces the past but also enables us to live in the present with gratitude and to look toward the future with hope.
Unfortunately, Israel did not heed the divine counsel to remember. The book of Judges starts with a somber note about the spiritual amnesia of the generation after Joshua’s death: they “did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Judg. 2:10, NKJV). Later, the narrator explicitly states: “Thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side” (Judg. 8:34, NKJV).
The result was apostasy in the form of idolatry, which persisted throughout the history of Israel from Solomon to Zedekiah, the last Judean king before the captivity. Idolatry is the natural outcome of spiritual forgetfulness. This outcome is pointedly evident in the story of Gomer, who, as a representation of Israel, forgot that it had been God, not Baal, who had given “ ‘her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold—which they prepared for Baal’ ” (Hos. 2:8, NKJV). In this sense, idolatry is ingratitude, based on a catastrophic spiritual amnesia. Israel’s radical forgetfulness led to an almost complete loss of its identity before the Babylonian exile, except for a remnant. Many who remained in the land during the exile chose to return to Egypt. The history of the kings of Israel and Judah ends with the Exodus in reverse—with all the people left alive in Jerusalem having returned to Egypt (Jer. 43:7). This exile is the appalling result of spiritual forgetfulness.
Part III: Life Application
Evangelistic Opportunities
In the original context of the Old Testament, the miracles of the Red Sea and the Jordan River emphasize God’s divine power to overcome the forces of evil and His superiority over all other deities. These public displays aimed to be not only demonstrations of divine strength per se but also evangelistic opportunities, so that other nations could know the truth about the God of Israel.
How can you use every experience with God in your life as an opportunity to show others the true nature of the God you worship?
Remembering the Past
One of the most pleasant moments we have as a family is the moment we sit down to look through old photos. These pictures are frozen moments in time, filled with emotions. In a way, remembering is like reliving those memories.
Consider your life as a large photo album and try to identify the moments in which you can see God’s powerful presence in your own life.
In one sermon entitled “When God Remembers,” Hans K. LaRondelle said that remembering “the past means to renew our hope for the future.” In the same vein, speaking about how God was conducting the Seventh-day Adventist movement, Ellen G. White memorably says: “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us.”—Life Sketches, p. 196.
Share with your class how the memory of God’s past acts in your life has encouraged you in difficult times.
Notes
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Key Text: Joshua 4:23, 24
Study Focus: Joshua 3, Num. 14:44, Luke 18:18–27, Joshua 4, John 14:26, Heb. 4:8–11.
With the return of the spies, Israel is ready to enter the Promised Land. There is still an insurmountable barrier, at least from a human perspective: the Jordan River during the flood season. However, nothing can stop the living God of Israel. Again, He is about to show His sovereignty as the Lord of all the earth (and waters). Since Israel left Egypt, the issue has never been God’s power to work wonders; it has been His people’s preparedness, which once more will be tested as they are called to sanctify themselves. Like their ancestors walking toward the shores of the Red Sea, the Israelites pack up and leave the camp one last time, before finally entering Canaan.
More than four hundred years after the initial promise to Abraham, they walk again toward the edge of the impossible. From their crossing of the Red Sea to the crossing of the Jordan River, God has summoned His people to face the impossible to prove that with Him nothing is impossible. The ark of the covenant goes in front of them to show that the passage on dry land is not a coincidence or a human-engineered plan but an act of God. The crossing of the Jordan River marks history as a singular day. The passage also is marked geographically with the two groups of 12 stones. The question is whether this event will mark the memory of future generations or not. Unfortunately, as time passes, the spiritual significance of these stones would be forgotten. This tragic forgetfulness led Israel not only to idolatry but also back to Egypt.
Part II: Commentary
Watery Theology
Several parallels exist between the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River. Among them are the use of three significant Hebrew terms: (1) the Hebrew verb plʾ (“wonder”), to designate both of the miraculous crossings (Exod. 15:11, Josh. 3:5); (2) the word ned, to refer to the piling up of the water as a “heap” (Exod. 15:8, Josh. 3:16); and (3) the rare word harabah, which means “dry land” (Exod. 14:21, Josh. 3:17). Additionally, God Himself traces a parallel between Moses and Joshua in Joshua 3:7, explicitly connecting the two episodes. The psalmist sees the two events as only one (for example, Ps. 114:1, 3, 5).
But what is the theological meaning of the Jordan crossing? This week, the author already has guided us through the typological meaning of the event in light of Jesus and the church. Thus, we can explore here the theological meaning of the crossing to its original audience.
Today, if you visit the Jordan River, it’s hard to imagine the challenge its crossing presented to Israel millennia ago. First, irrigation for agricultural purposes and human consumption, along the riverbed’s 223 miles (360 kilometers), has considerably diminished its size and flow rate. Second, the celebration of the Passover, right after the crossing, indicates that the Jordan River crossing took place in springtime, when the river could be up to a mile wide in some areas, a result of the melting snow in the highlands. This data means that crossing this large body of water with strong currents or even debris was not a lesser miracle than crossing the Red Sea.
In the minds of ancient Near Eastern people, such as the Canaanites, the sea had mythological nuances. It was the place their deities came from when the forces of chaos were subdued by more powerful gods.
According to the Canaanite myth, Baal, who was the patron god of land, became the supreme god of the storm when he defeated Yam (the word for “sea” in Hebrew), the god of the sea. Thus, “in ancient polytheistic thinking, nations won battles on the earth because their patron gods won battles in the cosmos. If Yahweh, God of Israel, could defeat and bend so easily to His purposes the power of the river-god in full flood, what would He do to Baal? What, then, would Yahweh’s people do to Canaan?”—Joseph Coleson, “Joshua,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2012), p. 56. With this historical background in mind, the crossing of the Jordan expresses a threefold theological dimension that is not readily apparent to modern readers.
First, God’s status as “the Lord of all the earth” (Josh. 3:11, 13) highlights an essential difference between the Canaanite deities and Yahweh. His dominion is not restricted to any territory. All the earth belongs to Him and is under His jurisdiction. He is the true Owner and Lord of the world, and, in this sense, Baal, which also means “owner” or “lord,” is an impostor. God’s power over the water serves as proof of His supremacy.
Second, God is victorious. Both in Babylonian and Canaanite mythologies, Marduk and Baal become chief gods as they crush powerful, watery forces. Both in poetic and prophetic passages, Yahweh is praised for conquering cosmic enemies, described as a sea dragon or a serpent, also called Rahab or Leviathan (compare with Job 41:1, Ps. 74:13, Isa. 30:7). As Yahweh overcomes the watery forces of chaos, His victory is supreme. However, the crucial difference between Yahweh and these gods is that He is a living God (Josh. 3:10), acting in real time. Yahweh is not a god of mythology; He is the God of history.
Finally, Yahweh is a holy God. The ark of the covenant appears at least twenty times in Joshua 3 and 4, highlighting its significance in the story as a physical representation of the One who goes literally before them (Josh. 3:11). The glory of Yahweh, which rested on the ark inside the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary, was a visible manifestation of the Divine presence. However, such a token of His presence was visible only to the high priest once a year, and only under restricted ritualistic conditions. During the crossing of the Jordan, the ark would go about six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) ahead of the people, remaining in their sight only during the actual crossing in the middle of the riverbed. Unlike the idols of Canaan, which were created in the image of their human “makers,” God was forming a new nation in His likeness, as expressed in the commandment: “ ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ ” (1 Pet. 1:16, NKJV; see also Lev. 19:2).
These three theological aspects—God’s dominion, victory, and holiness—should have been in the Israelites’ minds as they entered the idolatrous land of Canaan. The memory of this spectacular day should have served as an antidote against idolatry, an antidote that, unfortunately, Israel did not take.
The Memory Problem
The concept of memory in the Bible is dynamic because it encompasses more than just the cognitive process of recalling information. This concept is shown when, on several occasions, God “remembers” His people (for example, Exod. 2:24). When God remembers, He acts favorably toward His people. Therefore, God’s call to His people to remember is also a call for them to take action.
Memory should be enacted in time and space through various means, such as passing down tradition from parents to children, building monuments like that of Joshua 4, and, most important, through ritual and celebration during the great festivals in the religious calendar. It is meaningful that these festivals had a threefold character. First, they commemorated God’s acts in the present life of Israel, as they passed the seasons of sowing and harvest. Second, these festivals commemorated God’s acts in the past, particularly those related to the Exodus and the conquest. And finally, they also pointed typologically to God’s acts in the future in the eschatological era, inaugurated by Jesus. Thus, the biblical dynamic of memory not only embraces the past but also enables us to live in the present with gratitude and to look toward the future with hope.
Unfortunately, Israel did not heed the divine counsel to remember. The book of Judges starts with a somber note about the spiritual amnesia of the generation after Joshua’s death: they “did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Judg. 2:10, NKJV). Later, the narrator explicitly states: “Thus the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side” (Judg. 8:34, NKJV).
The result was apostasy in the form of idolatry, which persisted throughout the history of Israel from Solomon to Zedekiah, the last Judean king before the captivity. Idolatry is the natural outcome of spiritual forgetfulness. This outcome is pointedly evident in the story of Gomer, who, as a representation of Israel, forgot that it had been God, not Baal, who had given “ ‘her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold—which they prepared for Baal’ ” (Hos. 2:8, NKJV). In this sense, idolatry is ingratitude, based on a catastrophic spiritual amnesia. Israel’s radical forgetfulness led to an almost complete loss of its identity before the Babylonian exile, except for a remnant. Many who remained in the land during the exile chose to return to Egypt. The history of the kings of Israel and Judah ends with the Exodus in reverse—with all the people left alive in Jerusalem having returned to Egypt (Jer. 43:7). This exile is the appalling result of spiritual forgetfulness.
Part III: Life Application
Evangelistic Opportunities
In the original context of the Old Testament, the miracles of the Red Sea and the Jordan River emphasize God’s divine power to overcome the forces of evil and His superiority over all other deities. These public displays aimed to be not only demonstrations of divine strength per se but also evangelistic opportunities, so that other nations could know the truth about the God of Israel.
How can you use every experience with God in your life as an opportunity to show others the true nature of the God you worship?
Remembering the Past
One of the most pleasant moments we have as a family is the moment we sit down to look through old photos. These pictures are frozen moments in time, filled with emotions. In a way, remembering is like reliving those memories.
Consider your life as a large photo album and try to identify the moments in which you can see God’s powerful presence in your own life.
In one sermon entitled “When God Remembers,” Hans K. LaRondelle said that remembering “the past means to renew our hope for the future.” In the same vein, speaking about how God was conducting the Seventh-day Adventist movement, Ellen G. White memorably says: “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us.”—Life Sketches, p. 196.
Share with your class how the memory of God’s past acts in your life has encouraged you in difficult times.
Notes