Thoughts on Joshua 3

Today’s reading: Joshua 3, Luke 16

I have never really thought before about just how important of a miracle the crossing of the Jordan must have been for Israel.

Generally, I have thought about this miracle in Joshua 3 as either validating Joshua as a prophet or as a practical need for Israel. In terms of validating Joshua, this is a very obvious repeat of the parting of the Red Sea by Moses. So this significant miracle would signal to Israel that Joshua is now God’s man in the same way that Moses has been up to this point. In fact, we see this same miracle used to exhibit the passing of the baton from Elijah to Elisha later on as Elijah parts the Jordan River on his way to the wilderness to be caught up into heaven, and then Elisha parts it on his return from the wilderness as a demonstration that the power of Elijah has passed to him.

Aside from exhibiting Joshua as His prophet, I have also seen this as a practical provision from God for His people to enable them to get into the land with as little difficulty as possibly. Just the logistics of ferrying so many people, their livestock, their goods, etc. across the river would have been an absolute nightmare and taken forever, so God provides for them to be able to simply walk into the land.

But there is another aspect of this that I haven’t really considered before but that may very well have held a lot more weight than the others for Israel.

It is really no secret that Israel and Yahweh have not always been on the best of terms. In fact, multiple times God says He is going to wipe Israel out and start over, building a new nation from Moses, and it is only the intercession of Moses that stops this from happening. God and Moses were close, but God and Israel? Not so much… So with Moses having died, what does that mean for God and Israel?

It’s easy, knowing the story, and knowing what we know about God, to say that there is no need for concern at all on that score, but would that have really been their perspective? They, as a people, have multiple times provoked this deity to the point where He is going to kill them all, and the only thing that stopped Him from doing it before isn’t there anymore. I’m betting there was more than a little fear and concern from the people. Will God still lead us without Moses, or is He going to abandon us now? If God does stay with us, are we risking getting wiped out now without Moses as an intercesor for us? If God leaves us, what do we do? Should we try to go take the land on our own? Do we go try to get some other kingdom to take us in? Etc.

There would have been a lot of unknowns for the people, and potentially some uncertainty even as to whether they would prefer Yahweh to stay with them or abandon them since Moses wasn’t there anymore to intercede for them if it was ever necessary again. And it is in that place of uncertainty that this miracle happens. This miracle would have shown Israel that God did not abandon them with the passing of Moses,  and also that He is still going to go before them into the land, given that He is the one opening the way for them to get there. On top of that, by validating Joshua as God’s prophet in the same way Moses was, this tells the people they still have an advocate and intercesor before Yahweh. Basically, by this one miracle, God would have wiped away, as much as possible, the concerns and fears Israel would have had about their relationship to Him with the death of Moses. 

And while this obviously doesn’t happen every time there is a change of leadership in Israel, I think this is the one time it would have been by far the most important. Israel, as a nation, didn’t meet Yahweh except through Moses. It was Moses that came from the wilderness into Egypt telling them he was there in Yahweh’s name, and it was through Moses that Yahweh has led them up to this point. God told them, through Moses, that they were His people and He was going to be with them, but so far, literally every interaction they have had with Yahweh, as a nation, has been mediated through Moses. So this is the first time that God’s loyalty to Israel rather than His loyalty to Moses is being put on display. By the time Joshua dies, Israel will have seen God continue to provide for them and they will be settled, and relatively secure, in the land God promised to them, and so His dedication to them will be more established and their situation will be much less precarious.

So while I think the validation of Joshua as God’s prophet and the meeting of a very practical need of Israel’s are important parts of this miracle, I think there was also like a significant portion of God assuaging the fears and concerns of His people through the crossing of the Jordan.