Today we read about the parting of the Jordan River. Ok, so it’s a little less dramatic than the Red Sea, but no less important. Other than Joshua and Caleb, everyone else in Israel was either a child or not born yet at the Exodus. God uses this event to reinforce the memories or stories these children have of His authority and sovereignty. The crossing of the Jordan officially marks a new chapter as the Israelites shift from wandering and waiting to getting down to the business of taking (or letting God take) the promised land. The manna stops and it’s time for the Israelites to act like adults, but that doesn’t mean they are on their own.
In Deuteronomy 1:30, Moses reminds them of the promise God made to their fathers after spying out the land, “The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes”. To do this God turns on His secret weapon: the Ark of the Covenant. The Israelites are supposed to follow the Ark into the promised land, but now no closer than 2000 cubits. That is a half mile, and this is a new restriction on the Ark. The Jordan stops flowing when the priests carrying the Ark step into the water. The thing that’s really interesting to me, though, is how the Ark works in battle. We know they were supposed to carry the Ark in front of them into battle. We just saw them do this in Jericho. God promises in Deuteronomy 7:20 to “send the hornet” among the tribes to be dispossessed of the land. We read that the battles with the Amorites (Og and Sihon) that the Amorite’s were entirely destroyed without a single Jewish casualty. The same in Jericho and in most of the battles to come. I urge you to watch for casualty counts on both sides as the conquest of the promised land begins. I think you will recognize that it is God and His hornet (the Ark?) that are doing the fighting.
The battle of Ai is an exception and turns into a disaster because despite being told not to, Achan tries to sneak a little booty from Jericho (see God’s simple rules numbers 8, 9, and 10). God nips this disobedience in the bud and gives the Israelites a defeat with 36 dead (a relatively small 1.2% casualty rate). That number of combat dead is so devastating that it is immediately understood to be from God. Compare this to the current death rate in the US today of about 0.8% per year and if that is applied to the Israelites’ population of over 1.5 million would mean they would have over 32 ‘natural’ deaths a day. My point is that any Jewish combat death was frightening because despite the swords, spears, and javelins, God was doing the fighting.
Thanks for reading along with me. I hope you are enjoying the adventure.