Joshua 3:7 - Meaning and Application

We can notice here how God honors Joshua. By this great work he is about to do, God means to show Israel that he is their ruler. Joshua, in turn, honors God and works to make Israel know that God is their God. Those who honor God, he will honor, and those whom he has raised up should do all they can in their place to honor him.

I. God speaks to Joshua to give him honor, in verses 7 and 8. First, it was a great honor that God spoke to him as he had spoken to Moses, from the mercy seat, before the priests removed it with the ark. This would reassure Joshua and make him great among the people, because God was pleased to speak with him so closely and personally. Second, God meant to make him respected in the sight of all Israel. He had already told Joshua that he would be with him (Joshua 1:5), and that was comfort enough for Joshua, but now all Israel would see it too, and that would lift Joshua up in their eyes. Those are truly great whom God is with, and whom he uses and approves in his service.

God made Joshua great because he wanted the people to think highly of him. God’s faithful leaders should be honored as public blessings, and the more clearly we see God with them, the more we should respect them. By dividing the Red Sea, Israel became convinced that God was with Moses in bringing them out of Egypt, which is why Paul says they were baptized into Moses in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2), and on that occasion they believed him (Exodus 14:31). Now, by dividing the Jordan, they would be convinced that God was with Joshua in bringing them into Canaan. God had already honored Joshua in several ways, but now he began to honor him as Moses’ successor in leading the nation.

Some have noticed that God began to honor Joshua at the banks of the Jordan, and that our Lord Jesus, the Mediator, was also first publicly honored at that same place. John was baptizing at Bethabara, which means “house of passage,” and there, when Jesus was baptized, the voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son.”

Third, God gave Joshua authority to command even the priests, though they were his immediate attendants (Joshua 3:8). “You shall command the priests” means, “You shall make known to them what God has ordered in this matter, and see that they obey it, standing still at the edge of the Jordan while the waters part.” In that way it would be clear that it was the presence of the Lord, the mighty God of Jacob, that drove Jordan back (Psalm 114:5, Psalm 114:7). God could have divided the river without the priests, but they could not have done anything without him.

The priests were to set a good example for the people. They were to show them how to do all they could in God’s service and trust him for help in time of need. Joshua, then, spoke to the people, and in doing so he honored God.

II. Joshua speaks to the people and calls attention to God’s word. He asks them to listen closely (Joshua 3:9). “Come here to me,” he says, as many as can hear, “and before you see God’s work, hear the words of the Lord your God, so that you can compare the two and each will explain the other.” He had already told them to make themselves holy, and so he now calls them to hear God’s word, since that is the usual means by which God makes people holy (John 17:17).

He then tells them plainly how they will cross the Jordan, by the stopping of its waters (Joshua 3:13). “The waters of Jordan shall be cut off.” God could have frozen the surface of the river in a sudden miracle, so they could have crossed on ice, but that could sometimes happen by natural cold even in that land (Job 38:30). Such a thing would not have shown enough honor to Israel’s God, nor would it have struck fear into Israel’s enemies. So it must happen in a way with no example except the dividing of the Red Sea.

That miracle is repeated here to show that God has the same power to finish the salvation of his people that he had to begin it. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. It also shows that the word of the Lord, as the Chaldee version says in Joshua 3:7, the eternal Word himself, was with Joshua just as truly as he had been with Moses. By dividing the waters and making dry land appear where water had covered it, God also reminded them of what Moses had taught by revelation about creation (Genesis 1:6, Genesis 1:9). What they now saw would strengthen what they had read, and they would know that the God they worshiped was the same God who made the world.

The same power was working for them.

The people had already been told to follow the ark, and now they are told that it will go before them into the Jordan (Joshua 3:11). The ark of the covenant had to guide them. In Moses’ day, the cloud guided them, but now, in Joshua’s day, the ark does. Both were visible signs of God’s presence and rule, but under Moses, God’s grace was, as it were, wrapped in a cloud and veiled. In Christ, our Joshua, it is revealed in the ark of the covenant without a veil.

It is called the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth. “He who is your God” (Joshua 3:9), the one in covenant with you, is the Lord of all the earth. He has full right and power to command, direct, use, and dispose of all nations and all creatures. Since he is Lord of all the earth, he does not need you, and you cannot add anything to him. So it is both your honor and your joy to have him in covenant with you. If he is yours, then all creatures are at your service, and when he wills, they will be used for you.

When we praise and worship God as Israel’s God, and ours through Christ, we must remember that he is Lord of the whole earth. We should then honor him and trust him accordingly. Some think there is a special accent in the original that gives the phrase added force, something like, “Look, the ark of the covenant, even the ark of the Lord, even the covenant of the Lord of all the earth.”

They are also told that the ark will go before them into the Jordan. God would not lead them anywhere without going before them and with them. They could safely enter even the Jordan if the ark of the covenant led the way. If we make God’s commands our rule, his promises our support, and his providence our guide, we need not fear the greatest troubles we meet in duty. The promise is sure to all the seed: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isaiah 43:2).

From what God was now about to do for them, Joshua draws assurance for what God would do afterward. He mentions this first because his heart was so fixed on it, and because it gave him such deep satisfaction.

“By this,” Joshua said, “you will know that the living God is among you” (Joshua 3:10). The living God means the true God, the God who has power, not one of the dead gods worshiped by the nations around them. He is among them, though they cannot see him or make any image of him. He is there to give them his law, protect their good, and receive their worship. He is also present with them in this great task ahead, and for that reason he will surely drive out the Canaanites before them.

So the crossing of the Jordan was meant to give Israel two clear lessons. First, it was a sure sign that God was with them. They could not honestly doubt that God was among them unless their unbelief was as stubborn as their fathers’ had been, when they saw the Red Sea divided and still asked, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7). Second, it was a sure promise that Canaan would be conquered. If the living God is among them, then he will drive out the Canaanites. He will do it certainly and completely. What could stand in his way before whom rivers are split and dried up?

The breaking through of the river’s defense was a clear sign that all the enemy’s strength would fall. How could the Canaanites stand firm when Jordan itself was pushed back? If they would not face this river crossing, but trembled before the mighty God of Jacob (Psalm 114:7), what resistance could they offer after this? Joshua’s assurance was so strong that it could give courage to one Israelite to chase a thousand enemies, and two to put ten thousand to flight. It also matched the song of Moses, spoken forty years earlier, which had already foretold the dividing of Jordan and its effect on driving out the Canaanites (Exodus 15:15-17). There, the people of Canaan are pictured as melting away and becoming still as stone until God’s people pass through, and then God brings them in and plants them in the land.

We should learn from this that when God shows his power for his people, we ought to use those works to strengthen our faith and our hope for the future. As the saying is, God’s work is perfect. If Jordan’s flood cannot keep Israel out, then Canaan’s strength cannot force them out.

Joshua then tells them to prepare twelve men, one from each tribe, who could be ready for whatever orders he would later give them (Joshua 3:12). It does not seem that these men were to stay with the priests and walk beside them while they carried the ark, so that they could immediately witness the wonders done through it, as some think. Rather, they were to be nearby and ready for the service they would later be called to perform (Joshua 4:4).