Commentary - Joshua 3:5-6

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent passage, the children of Israel are standing on the precipice of a foundational miracle, the crossing of the Jordan River at flood stage. This event is not merely a logistical challenge overcome by divine power; it is a profound act of covenant renewal and a formal inauguration of their warfare for the Promised Land. Joshua, as the new leader, mediates God's instructions, which reveal a critical, unchangeable principle: God's mighty acts are preceded by His people's deliberate consecration. The command to sanctify themselves is not a meritorious work to earn the miracle, but rather a necessary preparation to receive it and to rightly understand it. The subsequent command for the priests to carry the Ark of the Covenant ahead of the people establishes the central reality of the entire enterprise: God Himself, in His covenant presence, is the one who will lead them, fight for them, and give them the land. The people follow the presence; the presence does not follow the people. This passage sets the stage for the conquest of Canaan by establishing the proper relationship between divine initiative and human responsibility, between God's mighty power and the required holiness of His people.

The entire scene is a rich picture of the gospel. The people are to enter their inheritance, but they cannot do it on their own. A barrier, a flooded river of death, stands in the way. God will part the waters, but He requires His people to first set themselves apart, to be holy. This is a picture of our salvation. We are called to enter the promised rest, but the barrier of sin and death is impassable. Christ, our great high priest and the embodiment of the Ark's presence, goes before us into death and parts the waters. Our role is to consecrate ourselves, to repent and believe, not to earn our passage but to be made fit to follow where He has led.

Outline

Context In Joshua

These verses occur immediately after the spies have returned from Jericho with a favorable report from Rahab, confirming that the fear of Yahweh has fallen upon the inhabitants of the land (Josh 2:24). The people have moved from Shittim and are now encamped at the very edge of the Jordan River (Josh 3:1). Three days have passed, a period of waiting and anticipation. The officers have already instructed the people on the protocol for the crossing: when they see the Ark, they are to follow it, keeping a respectful distance (Josh 3:3-4). This sets the immediate context for Joshua's commands in our passage. Verses 5 and 6 are the final instructions before the miracle itself begins in verse 7. This is the hinge moment between the generation of wilderness wandering and the generation of conquest. The Red Sea crossing was for their fathers; this Jordan crossing is for them. It is their defining moment, and God is ensuring they approach it with the right spiritual posture.

Key Issues

Preparation for Wonders

God does not do His mighty works in a vacuum. He is a covenant-keeping God, and His relationship with His people is central to everything He does in history. When He is about to act in a particularly dramatic fashion, He frequently calls His people to prepare themselves. This is not because God needs their help, but because they need to be rightly oriented to what He is about to do. An unconsecrated people in the presence of a mighty and holy God is a dangerous combination. Think of the thunder and lightning at Sinai. God was about to give His law, and the people had to wash their clothes and abstain from marital relations (Ex. 19:10-15). They had to be set apart.

This principle runs through Scripture. Before God pours out His Spirit, He calls for repentance. Before revival, there is a season of prayer and heart-searching. The demand for consecration here in Joshua is not legalism. It is spiritual common sense. God is about to perform wonders, and the people need to be spiritually ready to see them, to receive them, and to give Him the glory for them. A people mired in mundane sinfulness would either miss the significance of the miracle or, worse, take credit for it themselves. Holiness is the necessary prerequisite for seeing God at work. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). This applies not just to the beatific vision, but to seeing His hand in history as well.

Verse by Verse Commentary

5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Set yourselves apart as holy, for tomorrow Yahweh will do wondrous deeds among you.”

Joshua's command is direct and twofold. First, the duty: "Set yourselves apart as holy." The Hebrew word here is qadash, the root for holiness. It means to be set apart from the common and dedicated to the sacred. This would have involved both ceremonial and moral dimensions. They were to wash themselves, abstain from anything that would make them unclean, and turn their hearts and minds toward God in a focused way. This is not about achieving sinless perfection overnight. It is about a deliberate, corporate act of dedication. It is hitting the pause button on all the normal routines of life in order to orient the entire community toward God. This is the human responsibility side of the equation. God does not demand this as a condition for earning His favor, but as the proper posture for receiving His mighty deliverance. You don't get clean to earn a bath; you get clean because you are about to meet the King.

The second part is the reason: "for tomorrow Yahweh will do wondrous deeds among you." The duty is directly linked to the deliverance. The coming wonders are the motivation for the present consecration. God is about to rip the fabric of the ordinary. He is going to do things that are beyond human explanation, things that will be told for generations. The people are being invited to be participants in, and not just spectators of, this great work. Their sanctification is their RSVP to God's invitation. Notice the certainty here. Joshua does not say, "Perhaps the Lord will do something." He says, "Yahweh will do wondrous deeds." This is a prophetic announcement. The miracle is as good as done, and the only remaining variable is whether the people will be ready to receive it rightly.

6 And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Carry the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

After addressing the people as a whole, Joshua gives a specific command to the spiritual leadership, the priests. Their task is to "Carry the ark of the covenant." The Ark was the central object in Israel's worship. It was a gold-covered box containing the tablets of the law, a pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. Most importantly, the lid, the Mercy Seat, was the place where God's presence was understood to dwell in a special way. It was, in effect, the portable throne of God. To carry the Ark was to carry the manifest presence of Yahweh. This was not just a religious symbol; it was the embodiment of their covenant relationship with God. God was present with them.

And the command is for them to take this Ark and "cross over ahead of the people." This is the divine initiative in action. God does not wait for the people to test the waters. He does not say, "You go first, and I will follow." No, God leads. His presence, borne by the priests, will be the first to enter the raging river. This is a staggering picture of God's leadership and His commitment to His covenant promises. He is not pushing them from behind; He is leading them from the front. The response of the priests is one of simple obedience: "So they carried the ark...and went ahead of the people." There is no debate, no hesitation. They obey, and in their obedience, the whole plan of God moves forward. Their action is the linchpin that connects the people's consecration to God's impending miracle.

Application

This passage is a bucket of cold water for much of modern evangelicalism. We want God to do wondrous deeds among us. We pray for revival, for cultural transformation, for miracles. But do we hear the prerequisite command? "Set yourselves apart as holy." We cannot expect God to show up in power when we are content to live in casual worldliness. Consecration is not an optional extra for the spiritually elite; it is the basic requirement for any Christian who wants to see God move. This means a deliberate war against our own sin. It means setting aside time for focused prayer. It means cleaning up our media consumption, our business practices, and the way we speak to our families. It means treating the Lord's Day as a holy convocation, a time to be set apart, not just another weekend day with a religious meeting attached. We want the wonders without the washing, but God does not operate that way.

Furthermore, we must remember who goes first. It is the presence of God that leads the way. The Ark of the Covenant finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. He is Immanuel, God with us. He is the one who has gone ahead of us, through the floodwaters of death and judgment. He did not just part the waters; He absorbed them. He is our priest, and He is our Ark. Our task is to fix our eyes on Him and follow where He leads. We do not chart our own course. We do not trust in our own strategies or programs. We look to Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith. When the church is consecrated and its leaders are faithfully pointing to the presence of Christ who goes before us, then, and only then, can we expect to see the Lord do wondrous deeds among us once more.