The Bible Book

97

See also: Covenants 44–47 ■ The Exodus 74–77 ■ The Ark and the

Tabernacle 86–87 ■ The Twelve Spies 88

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

hesitant. It is spring and the Jordan

River, swollen by the rains and the

snowmelt from Mount Hermon, is

in flood. It is easy for two spies to

make their way across the river, as

detailed in Joshua 2:23, but now an

entire nation must ford it.

For three days, they wait, and

then God gives Joshua orders for

the Israelites to cross the river. The

people follow God’s commands, and

as God promised, a miracle occurs.

Just as the Red Sea had parted for

Moses when he led the Israelites

out of Egypt, the swollen river

ceases to flow. At Adam, a place

19 miles (30km) upriver, the Jordan’s

waters “piled up in a heap” (3:16)

and the riverbed is soon dry. While

the priests stand with the Ark

of the Covenant in the middle of the

riverbed, the Israelites cross over on

dry ground. When the crossing has

been completed, Joshua orders one

man from each tribe to pick up the

large stones from the middle of the

riverbed and carry them to the far

bank. Once they have done this,

the priests carry the Ark of the

Covenant to the other side.

The parallels with Moses’s parting

of the Red Sea 40 years previously

clearly shows that Joshua has

taken up Moses’s mantle as God’s

instrument. It also shows the

Amorite and Canaanite kings

the power of the Israelites’ God.

Keeping the covenant

Even though the Israelites are in

enemy territory, and therefore in

peril, the first thing Joshua does

once they have set up camp at

Gilgal, 1 mile (1.5km) east of

Jericho, is to use the stones

collected from the Jordan River to

commemorate their miraculous

crossing and remind the Israelites

that God keeps His promises when

they keep His law. Joshua then

follows God’s command to “make

flint knives” (5:2) and circumcises

all the men who have not fulfilled

this everlasting sign of God’s

covenant with Abraham during

the 40 years in the wilderness.

Joshua knows that a promise may

be deferred by God, as it was after

the Exodus (see pp. 84–85), if the

Israelites disobey God’s Law. ■

The significance

of the camp at Gilgal

Located “on the eastern

border of Jericho” (Joshua

4:19), Gilgal is the name the

Israelites give to the camp

they set up after crossing

the Jordan River. It remains

an important base for them

during their conquest of

Canaan: they set out from

and return to Gilgal after

a number of key victories,

including the fall of Jericho,

the destruction of the royal

city of Ai, and the defeat of

the Amorites at Gibeon.

In Gilgal, God orders the

circumcision of all men born

since the Exodus, after which

He says to Joshua,“Today I

have rolled away the reproach

of Egypt from you” (5:9). After

this, it is the site of the first

Passover celebration in the

Promised Land.

The Tabernacle stays in

Gilgal until the conclusion of

Joshua’s conquest of Canaan,

at which point the Israelites

move west to Shiloh (18:1) and

“the tent of meeting” is set up

there. Later in the Bible, Saul

is crowned king at a place

called Gilgal (1 Samuel 11:15).

This is widely believed to be

the same location as the

Israelites’ camp, although

agreement is not unanimous

among biblical scholars.

For the Lord your God

is bringing you into

a good land ... a land

with wheat and barley,

vines and fig trees ... where

you will lack nothing.

Deuteronomy 8:7–9

That day, the Lord

exalted Joshua in the sight

of all Israel, and they

revered him all the days

of his life just as they

had revered Moses.

Joshua 4:14

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