Mar 7 2010 Joshua 1:10-4

Joshua ordered the people to get ready to move into the promised land. He reminded the Reubenites, the Gadites and the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh that they promised to fight for the land across the Jordan. They were obedient and agreed to do as they had vowed to do.

Joshua sent two spies to look over Jericho. So they went to Jericho and entered the house of Rahab, a prostitute. Somehow the king of Jericho found out about them being at Rahab's and he sent a message to her to bring the two spies out of her house. But because she believed that the army of the two spies would prevail over them, she hid them on the roof, and then lied about their whereabouts. She talked to the two men and told them about her belief in their success and they promised her that as long as a red cord hung from her window, she and all who were inside her house would be safe. (Once again we see a red marker on the outside of a house to keep the inhabitants safe from harm.) The two spies went back to report everything to Joshua, including how everyone was melting in fear because of them.

So early in the morning the Israelites went to the Jordan and camped there for three days. The officers went throughout the camp instructing the soldiers to begin their advance when they saw the ark of the covenant pass by. Joshua told them that the ark would enter the Jordan first and they would follow. The Levite priests who carried the ark set foot in the Jordan and it stopped as if there was an invisible dam preventing its flow. It is described as a "heap". So all Israel passed through on dry ground.

After everyone had crossed the Jordan river bed, God told Joshua to have one man from each tribe bring a stone from the river bed to the place where they camped for the night. So after they did this Joshua told them that these stones would serve as a memorial to the people of Israel forever. After all the people were across, the priests carrying the ark came out of the river and the water flowed in the river once again. This impressed the Israelites and they revered Joshua as they had Moses. He told them that the stones were to remind them that God dried up the Jordan just as he dried up the Red Sea, so that everyone on earth would know that he is God.

I like it that God recreated the miracle of the people crossing a body of water on dry ground for this new generation of Israelites, so that they could witness God's awesome power for themselves.

Tomorrow read Joshua 5-8:23