Safely over the Jordan

Bet­ween the desert and the Pro­mi­sed Land, the Jor­dan River floods towards the Dead Sea. The peo­p­le of Isra­el are to cross this river under the lea­der­ship of Joshua – but how? When the priests car­ry the Ark of the Coven­ant into this raging river at God’s com­mand, the­re is a dry crossing – a pic­tu­re of the redemp­ti­ve work of Jesus Christ.

When someone has gone «over the Jor­dan», this popu­lar­ly means that they have died.

For the peo­p­le of Isra­el, the Jor­dan River was the divi­ding line bet­ween 40 years of desert and the pro­mi­sed land, whe­re milk and honey flowed. Most Israe­li­tes had never expe­ri­en­ced any­thing other than desert.

We see three con­di­ti­ons among the peo­p­le of Israel:

• Ens­laved in Egypt – libe­ra­ti­on on dry land through the sea by
• Desert life as actu­al libe­ra­ted peo­p­le – becau­se they did not trust God they ended up in the desert
• Life in the Pro­mi­sed Land – the peo­p­le go to the place of their true cal­ling and discipleship

The­se three con­di­ti­ons also app­ly to us humans today:

• Do we live ens­laved, sepa­ra­ted from God’s freedom?
• Do we live in the land of scar­ci­ty, libe­ra­ted but still in the desert, becau­se we trust God too little?
• Do we live in the place of pro­mi­se, of strugg­le but also of vic­to­ry, of strength (honey), of growth (milk) and of joy and fruitful­ness (grapes/wine) – whe­re God wants to glo­ri­fy hims­elf in the fol­lo­wing of his own?

The sto­ry we want to take a clo­ser look at today is also rele­vant to us in its imagery. Isra­el is given the task of crossing the Jor­dan and ente­ring the Pro­mi­sed Land. 

What does the Jordan River stand for?

The Jor­dan River starts in the Her­mon Moun­ta­ins at around 2800 met­res abo­ve sea level and flows into the Dead Sea, 430 met­res below sea level. The Jor­dan is an image of the natu­ral man, wit­hout God. His life beg­ins with God (given by him) and ine­vi­ta­b­ly ends, fol­lo­wing gra­vi­ty, in death.

Our histo­ry shows that this appa­rent ine­vi­ta­bi­li­ty can be inter­rupt­ed by God’s intervention.

How this hap­pen­ed to the peo­p­le of Isra­el is high­ly signi­fi­cant for us.

«So the peo­p­le set out to cross the Jor­dan, and the priests car­ry­ing the ark of the coven­ant went ahead. It was har­ve­st time and the river had over­flowed its banks. But when the priests car­ry­ing the ark came to the Jor­dan and step­ped off the bank into the water, the river began to dam upstream at the town cal­led Adam, oppo­si­te Zare­tan. The water stop­ped like a dam. Below the dam, it con­tin­ued to flow into the Dead Sea until the river­bed was final­ly dry. The peo­p­le now crossed the river near Jeri­cho. Mean­while, the priests car­ry­ing the ark of the coven­ant of the LORD stood in the midd­le of the river­bed on dry ground, and the peo­p­le pas­sed them by until they had all crossed the Jor­dan» (Joshua 3:14–17, NLB).

Point 1: The people must cross the Jordan, but it floods!

The Jor­dan is not only an image of life, but also an image of what stands bet­ween life in the desert and life in the Pro­mi­sed Land: This old life, my sel­fi­sh, sin­ful nature.

This is not just a small river bob­bing through my life, but this river is floo­ded. You can­not natu­ral­ly over­co­me a floo­ded river, you can­not over­co­me your old natu­re, and you would be denied the path to succession.

Point 2: Priests from each tribe must go ahead and carry the Ark of the Covenant into this flooded river

The peo­p­le have recei­ved the fol­lo­wing instruction:

«When you see the ark of the coven­ant of the LORD your God car­ri­ed by the Levi­ti­cal priests, then you fol­low. That way you will know whe­re to go, sin­ce you have never tra­vel­led this way befo­re. Keep about 2000 cubits away from the ark. Do not come any clo­ser» (Joshua 3:3–4, NLB).

Priests from each tri­be have the task of car­ry­ing the Ark of the Coven­ant into the floo­ded river. The most pre­cious thing they knew. The ark of the coven­ant is an image of Jesus: wood on the insi­de (image of man) and gold on the out­side (image of God). The priests are a pic­tu­re of us. It is the task of all of us to bring Jesus into the lives of unsa­ved peo­p­le. The peo­p­le should fol­low Jesus after he has step­ped into the river of our guilt and crea­ted a tran­si­ti­on. «Actual­ly, we don’t know whe­re to go – Jesus shows us the way». The peo­p­le of Isra­el are cal­led to fol­low Jesus.

The priests and the Ark of the Coven­ant had to enter the river 2000 cubits (approx. 1 km) befo­re the peo­p­le. Around 2000 years ago, Jesus went to his death befo­re us and ope­ned the way to God and his recon­ci­lia­ti­on. Just as he did here in the Jordan.

Point 3: With just 1 step, the water recedes and clears the way

The priests only have to take one step and the water rece­des. When Jesus is brought by us into the situa­tions and chal­lenges into which mis­be­ha­viour and guilt can enter our lives, he crea­tes space for for­gi­ve­ness and recon­ci­lia­ti­on. The priests» or our part is only to take this first step and bring Jesus into people’s lives.

Point 4: The water above the inlet is dammed up at Adam

Adam was a small vil­la­ge about 30–40 kilo­me­t­res upstream of the ent­ry point of the priests. The water is dam­med the­re. This is a pic­tu­re of ori­gi­nal sin, this sepa­ra­ti­on from God that we have inhe­ri­ted from Adam and Eve. This sepa­ra­ti­on is cancelled.

Point 5: The water below the entrance flows into the Dead Sea

The water below the ent­ry point is an image of our per­so­nal offence, our own guilt. It flows into the Dead Sea and loses its power over us. The path beco­mes dry. Christ has bor­ne the jud­ge­ment for us. He went into the river for us, into death, and thus drai­ned it for us. The old has pas­sed away, the path to the new is open.

Point 6: The priests with the ark stand in the river until all have passed

Until all the peo­p­le have crossed the river dry (approx. 2–3 mil­li­on peo­p­le), the priests remain stan­ding in the river with the Ark of the Coven­ant. Christ wants all peo­p­le to be saved. The priests/we have the task of ensu­ring that the gos­pel and redemp­ti­ve work of Christ can help all peo­p­le who want to accept it.

Point 7: After crossing, 12 stones are set up for each tribe as a memory

«The­se stones are to ser­ve as a memo­ri­al. Later your child­ren will ask, «What do the­se stones mean to you?» You can then ans­wer them, «They remind us that the Jor­dan River par­ted when the Ark of the Coven­ant of the Lord pas­sed through it» » (Joshua 4:6–7, NLB).

We also cele­bra­te this memo­ri­al today. Through his death, Jesus has pro­vi­ded us with an unhar­med pas­sa­ge through jud­ge­ment. Jesus has cle­ared the way to God.

Even as fol­lo­wers who have long sin­ce deci­ded to walk with God, we should always remem­ber this key event. Wit­hout Christ, the path to the cal­ling and to the pro­mi­sed land, to fel­low­ship with God, would not be possible.

Possible questions for the small group 

Bible text: Joshua 3, 14–17

1. What is the dif­fe­rence for the peo­p­le of Isra­el in the slavery of Egypt, life in the desert and the pro­mi­sed land with enemies and milk and honey?
2. Whe­re in your life does the old Jor­dan – some­ti­mes floo­ding your life – reap­pear with its «dead works»?
3.  How can the task of the priests, who had to car­ry the Ark of the Coven­ant (image of Jesus) into this Jor­dan, be trans­fer­red to our time (if we are the priests)?
4. What does it mean to you that you can walk dry through the Jor­dan into the Pro­mi­sed Land – into unclou­ded fel­low­ship with God?