Chapter 5: The Crossing

Between Israel and Canaan stood the Jordan River, and it was flood season. The river had swollen past its banks, wide and fast and impossible to cross.

God told Joshua what to do. The priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest that represented God's presence among His people, would walk ahead of the nation. When they reached the river, they would not wait for the water to part. They would step in first.

The priests lifted the Ark and walked toward the river. The water roared ahead of them. And they kept walking. The moment their feet touched the edge of the flood, the river stopped.

The water upstream rose in a heap near a town called Adam, miles to the north. The riverbed went dry. Forty thousand armed men from the eastern tribes alone crossed first, followed by the rest of the nation with their families and livestock. The same God who split the Red Sea for their parents held back the Jordan for them.

The priests carrying the Ark stood in the center of the riverbed until every last person had crossed. Then Joshua chose twelve men, one from each tribe, and had them carry twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan to the other side. He stacked them as a memorial on the bank at Gilgal.

JOSHUA“In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”— Joshua 4:21-22

The moment the priests carrying the Ark stepped out of the riverbed and onto dry land, the Jordan rushed back to flood stage.