- 41-
CHAPTER 6 : Miraculous Parting of the Jordan, and the Passage of the
Children of Israel - Gilgal and its meaning - The First Passover on the soil
of Palestine.
(JOSHUA 3-5:12)
THE morrow after the return of the spies, the camp at Shittim was broken up, and the
host of Israel moved forward. It consisted of all those tribes who were to have their
possessions west of the Jordan, along with forty thousand chosen warriors from
Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh.^67 A short march brought them to the
brink of Jordan. Strictly speaking, the Jordan has a threefold bank; the largest at the
water's edge, which, in spring, is frequently inundated, owing to the melting of snow on
Hermon; a middle bank, which is covered with rich vegetation, and an upper bank,
which overhangs the river. The people now halted for three days, first to await the
Divine direction as to the passage of the river, and then to prepare for receiving in a
proper spirit the manifestation of Divine power about to be manifested in the
miraculous parting of Jordan. For, as one has remarked, the expression used by Joshua,
"the living God is among you" (Joshua 3:10), does not merely imply the presence of
God among Israel, but, as the event proved, the operations by which He shows Himself
both living and true.
All that was to be done by Israel was Divinely indicated to Joshua, and all was done
exactly as it had been^68 directed. First, proclamation was made throughout Israel to
"sanctify" themselves, and that not only outwardly by symbolic rites, but also inwardly
by turning unto the Lord, in expectant faith of "the wonders" about to be enacted. These
were intimated to them beforehand (Joshua 3:5, 13).
Thus passed three days. It was "the tenth day of the first month" (Joshua 4:19), the
anniversary of the day on which forty years before Israel had set apart their Paschal
lambs (Exodus 12:3), that the miraculous passage of the Jordan was accomplished, and
Israel stood on the very soil of the promised land. Before the evening of that
anniversary had closed in, the memorial stones were set up in Gilgal. All between those
two anniversaries seemed only as a grand historical parenthesis. But the kingdom of
God has no blanks or interruptions in its history; there is a grand unity in its course, for
Jehovah reigneth. With feelings stirred by such remembrances, and the expectancy of
the great miracle to come, did Israel now move forward. First went the Ark, borne by
the priests, and, at a reverent distance of 2000 cubits, followed the host. For, it was the
Ark of the Covenant which was to make a way for Israel through the waters of Jordan,
and they were to keep it in sight, so as to mark the miraculous road, as it was gradually
opened to them. It is to this that the Divine words refer (Joshua 3:4): "that ye may
know," or rather come to know, recognize, understand, "the way by which ye must go:
for ye have not passed this way heretofore." With the exception of Caleb and Joshua,
(^)