'For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until
every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto
the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the
people hasted and passed over. 11. And it came to pass, when all the
people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over,
and the priests, in the presence of the people. 12. And the children of
Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed
over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them: 13.
About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto
battle, to the plains of Jericho. 14. On that day the Lord magnified
Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared
Moses, all the days of his life. 15. And the Lord spake unto Joshua,
saying, 16. Command the priests that bare the ark of the testimony,
that they come up out of Jordan. 17. Joshua therefore commanded the
priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. 18. And it came to pass,
when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were
come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet
were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned
unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.
19. And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first
month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. 80. And
those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in
Gilgal. 21. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your
children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean
these stones? 22. Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel
came over this Jordan on dry land. 23. For the Lord your God dried up
the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the
Lord your God did to the Red sea, which He dried up from before us,
until we were gone over: 24. That all the people of the earth might
know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the
Lord your God for ever.'--JOSHUA iv. 10-24.
This chapter is divided into two sections. The first (from verses 1 to
14) has as its main subject the bringing up of the twelve memorial
stones from the bed of Jordan; the second (verse 15 to the end) gives
the conclusion of the whole incident. The plan of arrangement, already
pointed out in a former chapter, is very plain in this. Each section
has God's commands to Joshua, Joshua's to the people, and the execution
of these. To each is appended a summary, which anticipates the more
detailed particulars that follow. Our text begins in the middle of the
first section, but we must glance at the preceding verses. These tell
how, when the people were all across, Joshua, who had apparently
remained on the eastern bank with the twelve representatives of the
tribes, received God's command to tell these the purpose for which they
had been chosen, and to set them to execute it. This additional
instruction is the explanation of the apparent discrepancy between
Joshua iii. 12 and iv. 2. Verses 4-8 tell Joshua's communication of the
instructions to the men; verse 8 narrates the execution of them by each
man's wrenching up from the river's bed a great stone, with which he
toiled through the muddy ooze to the western shore, and thence over the
hot plain to Gilgal, where the host camped; verse 9 tells that twelve
other stones were set up where the priests had stood, and were visible
at some time after date, when it was written; but when that was, or
whether the verse is part of the original or a later note, we cannot
say. At any rate, there were two memorials, one on the bank, one in the
stream--'a grand jury of great stones,' as Thomas Fuller calls them.
There is no difficulty in supposing that the monument in the river was
firm enough to resist its current, and high enough to be visible either
above the surface or beneath the ordinarily shallow water.
I. The first picture here brought before us is that of the motionless
ark in the midst of what had been Jordan. There is an obvious intention
to contrast the stillness of the priests, bearing it on their
shoulders, and standing rooted in that strange place all these long
hours, with the hurry around. 'The priests stood ... and the people
hasted.' However broad the front and swift the march, the crossing must
have taken many hours. The haste was not from fear, but eagerness. It
was 'an industrious speed and mannerly quickness, as not willing to
make God wait upon them, in continuing a miracle longer than necessity
did require.' When all were over, then came the twelve and Joshua, who
would spend some time in gathering the stones and rearing the memorial
in the river-bed. Through all the stir the ark was still. Over all the
march it watched. So long as one Israelite was in the channel it
remained, a silent presence, to ensure his safety. It let their rate of
speed determine the length of its standing there. It waited for the
slowest foot and the weariest laggard. God makes His 'very present
help' of the same length as our necessities, and lets us beat the time
to which He conforms. Not till the last loiterer has struggled to the
farther shore does He cease by His presence to keep His people safe on
the strange road which by His presence He has opened for them.
The silent presence of the ark is enough to dam up the stream. There is
vehement action around, but the cause of it all is in absolute repose.
God moves all things, Himself unmoved. He 'worketh hitherto,' and no
intensity of energy breaks the depth of His perfect rest. His activity
implies no effort, and is followed by no exhaustion. The ark is still,
while it holds back a swollen river for hours. The centre of the
swiftest revolution is a point of rest.
The form of the miracle was a condescension to weak faith, to which
help was ministered by giving sense something to grasp. It was easier
to believe that the torrent would not rush down on them when they could
look at the priests standing there motionless, with the visible symbol
of God's presence on their shoulders. The ark was no more the cause of
the miracle than were its carriers; but, just as Jesus helped one blind
man by laying moistened earth on his eyes, and another by sending him
to Siloam to wash, so God did here. Children learn best when they have
something to look at. Sight is sometimes the servant of faith.
We need not dwell on the summary, beginning with verse 11, which
anticipates the subject of the next section, and adds that the fighting
men of the tribes who had already received their inheritance on the
east bank of Jordan, loyally kept their promise, and marched with their
brethren to the campaign.
II. Verses 15-18 finish the story with the return of the waters to
their bed. The triple division appears again. First God commands
Joshua, who then transmits the command to the people, who, in turn,
then obey. And thus at each stage the divine causality, Joshua's
delegated but absolute authority, and the people's prompt obedience,
are signalised; and the whole incident, in all its parts, is set forth
as on the one hand a conspicuous instance of God's interposition, and,
on the other, of Israel's willing service.
We can fancy how the people who had reached the western shore lined the
bank, gazing on the group in the channel, who still stood waiting God's
command to relieve them at their post. The word comes at last, and is
immediately obeyed. May we not learn the lesson to stand fixed and
patient wherever God sets us, as long as He does not call us thence?
God's priests should be like the legionary on guard in Pompeii, who
stuck to his post while the ashes were falling thick, and was smothered
by them, rather than leave his charge without his commander's orders.
One graphic word pictures the priests lifting, or, as it might be
translated, 'plucking,' the soles of their feet from the slimy bottom
into which they had settled down by reason of long standing still. They
reach the bank, marching as steadily with their sacred burden as might
be over so rough and slippery a road. The first to enter were the last
to leave the river's bed. God's ark 'goes before us,' and 'is our
rearward.' He besets us behind and before, and all dangerous service is
safe if begun and ended in Him. The one point made prominent is the
instantaneous rush back of the impatient torrent as soon as the curb
was taken off. Like some horse rejoicing to be free, the tawny flood
pours down, and soon everything looks 'as aforetime,' except for the
new rock, piled by human hands, round which the waters chafed. The
dullest would understand what had wrought the miracle when they saw the
immediate consequence of the ark's leaving its place. Cause and effect
seldom come thus close together in God's dealings; but sometimes He
lets us see them as near each other as the lightning and the thunder,
that we may learn to trace them in faith, when centuries part them. How
the people would gaze as the hurrying stream covered up their path, and
would look across to the further shore, almost doubting if they had
really stood there that morning I They were indeed 'Hebrews'--men from
the other side-now, and would set themselves to the dangerous task
before them with courage. 'Well begun is half done'; and God would not
divide the river for them to thrust them into a tiger's den, where they
would be torn to pieces. Retreat was impossible now. A new page in
their history was turned. The desert was as unreachable as Egypt, The
passage of the Jordan rounded off the epoch which the passage of the
Bed Sea introduced, and began a new era.
That parallelism of the two crossings is suggested by the notice of
date in verse 19. 'The tenth day of the first month' was just forty
years to a day since the first Paschal lamb had been chosen, and four
days short of the Passover, which was solemnised at Gilgal (Joshua v.
10) where they encamped that night. It was a short march from the point
of crossing, and a still shorter from Jericho. It would have been easy
to fall upon the invaders as they straggled across the river, but no
attempt was made to dispute the passage, though, no doubt, many a keen
pair of eyes watched it from the neighbouring hills. In the beginning
of the next chapter we are told why there was this singular supineness.
'Their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more,' or, in
more modern language, panic laid hold of the enemy, and they could not
pluck up courage to oppose the advance of Israel. If we add this result
to those mentioned in chapter in., we find sufficient motive for the
miracle to take it out of the class of purposeless, legendary wonders.
Given the importance of Israel as the depositaries of revelation, there
is nothing unreasonable in a miracle which so powerfully contributed to
their conquest of Canaan, and we have yet to learn that there is
anything unreasonable in the belief that they were the depositaries of
revelation. The fundamental postulate of the Old Testament is a
supernatural revelation, and that opens the door for any miracle
needful for its accomplishment. It is folly to seek to conciliate by
minimising the miraculous element. However much may be thrown out to
the wolves, they will not cease to pursue and show their teeth. We
should be very slow to pronounce on what is worthy of God; but any man
who believes in a divine revelation, given to the world through Israel,
may well believe in such a miracle as this at such a moment of their
history.
III. The memorial stones (verses 20-24). Gilgal, the first encampment,
lay defenceless in the open plain, and the first thing to be done would
be to throw up some earthwork round the camp. It seems to have been the
resting-place of the ark and probably of the non-combatants, during the
conquest, and to have derived thence a sacredness which long clung to
it, and finally led, singularly enough, to its becoming a centre of
idolatrous worship. The rude circle of unhewn stones without
inscription was, no doubt, exactly like the many prehistoric monuments
found all over the world, which forgotten races have raised to keep in
everlasting remembrance forgotten fights and heroes. It was a
comparatively small thing; for each stone was but a load for one man,
and it would seem mean enough by the side of Stonehenge or Carnac, just
as Israel's history is on a small scale, as compared with the
world-embracing empires of old. Size is not greatness; and Joshua's
little circle told a more wonderful story than its taller kindred, or
Egyptian obelisks or colossi.
These grey stones preached at once the duty of remembering, and the
danger of forgetting, the past mercies of God. When they were reared,
they would seem needless; but the deepest impressions get filled up by
degrees, as the river of time deposits its sands on them. We do not
forget pain so quickly as joy, and most men have a longer and keener
remembrance of their injurers than of their benefactors, human or
divine. The stones were set up because Israel remembered, but also lest
Israel should forget. We often think of the Jews as monsters of
ingratitude; but we should more truly learn the lesson of their
history, if we regarded them as fair, average men, and asked ourselves
whether our recollection of God's goodness to us is much more vivid
than theirs. Unless we make distinct and frequent efforts to recall, we
shall certainly forget 'all His benefits.' The cultivation of thankful
remembrance is a very large part of practical religion; and it is not
by accident that the Psalmist puts it in the middle, between hope and
obedience, when he says 'that they might set their hope in God, and not
forget the works of God, but keep His commandments' (Psalm lxxviii.7).
The memorial stones further proclaimed the duty of parental instruction
in God's mercies. They speak of a time when tradition was the vehicle
of history; when books were rare, and monuments were relied upon to
awaken curiosity which a father's words would satisfy. Notwithstanding
all differences in means of obtaining knowledge, the old law remains in
full force, that the parent is the natural and most powerful instructor
in the ways of God. The Jewish father was not to send his child to some
Levite or other to get his question answered, but was to answer it
himself. I am afraid that a good many English parents, who call
themselves Christians, are too apt to say, 'Ask your Sunday-school
teacher,' when such questions are put to them. The decay of parental
religious teaching is working enormous mischief in Christian
households; and the happiest results would follow if Joshua's homely
advice were attended to, '_Ye_ shall let your children know.'
The same principle which led to the erection of this simple monument
reaches its highest and sacredest instance in the institution of the
Lord's Supper, in which Jesus, with wonderful lowliness, condescends to
avail Himself of material symbols in order to secure a firmer place in
treacherous memories. He might well have expected that such stupendous
love could never be forgotten; but He 'knoweth our frame,' and trusts
some share in keeping His death vividly in the hearts of His people to
the humble ministry of bread and wine, Strange that we should need to
be reminded of the death which it is life to remember! Blessed that,
needing it, we have the need so tenderly met, and that He does not
disdain to accept loving memories which slumber till stirred by such
poor reminders of His unspeakable love!