Joshua 3:17 “The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.”

Joshua was God’s chosen leader of the Israelites after Moses had died. Moses had led them out of Egypt and across the Red Sea into new territory. The relationship Moses had with God was exceptional. Joshua was called upon to move the Israelites forward not to duplicate Moses’ life. But Joshua did have to take them across the Jordan. For both of these men the fundamental thing was for them to listen to God’s voice and tell the people what to do. Implicit in this was that as leaders they believed God would do what he revealed to them first. Listen to Joshua’s words: “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.” (Joshua 3: 9 – 11).

The challenge I had some years ago when I read about the crossing of the Red Sea in the Book of Exodus and the crossing of the Jordan in the Book of Joshua was the stated fact that the people crossed over on “dry ground”  (Exodus 14:22 and Joshua 3:17).  It created a crisis for me because it is necessary to believe that God is the Almighty who can do above and beyond what our minds can conceive. This is the kind of faith in God which helps believers to live victoriously. So yes, I do believe the ground was dry as the Word says because the Holy Spirit was gracious in breathing the following to me:

            “What the Lord God does is well done. He has no teacher nor needs one. He is eternal. Everything that is was made by him so he has full control. He shakes the earth and rearranges its elements as he pleases. The crossing of the Jordan was an immense miracle to inspire his children to trust his awesomeness. He is the Almighty God and none can stop his hand. It is only in mercy that he spares mankind to allow time for man to repent and turn to him.”