The God Who Gets His Feet Wet Text: Joshua 3:7-13
Introduction: The Crisis of Succession
Every generation faces a crisis of succession. When a great leader passes from the scene, a vacuum is created, and with it comes anxiety and uncertainty. Moses, the lawgiver, the man who spoke with God face to face, is dead. For forty years, he was Israel. His leadership was validated by staggering, world-altering miracles. He was the one who stretched out his staff and saw the Red Sea part. Now he is gone, and Joshua is in charge. And all of Israel, standing on the banks of a flooding Jordan River, is asking the same question: Is God with this new man? Can we trust him?
Our modern world has its own methods for handling succession. We have elections, corporate ladders, political maneuvering, and the endless pursuit of popular approval. A leader's authority is thought to come from the people, from a consensus, or from his own personal charisma. But God's economy is entirely different. God does not poll the congregation to select His leaders. He appoints them. And He does not leave His people to guess; He validates His chosen servant with clear, unmistakable signs. Authority does not flow up from the people; it flows down from God.
The scene before us is one of high drama. Israel is poised to invade the promised land, but between them and their inheritance is the Jordan River at flood stage. This is not a gentle stream; it is a raging, impassable torrent. This is a physical barrier, but more importantly, it is a spiritual test. Will the people follow Joshua into the water? This is not merely a military operation; it is a liturgical act of faith. What God is about to do at the Jordan is not just a solution to a logistical problem. It is a sermon in river water. It is a public inauguration of Joshua, a declaration of war on the Canaanites, and a profound picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Text
Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. Moreover, you shall command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’ ” Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Come near, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.” And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan. So now, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. And it will be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap.”
(Joshua 3:7-13 LSB)
Divine Promotion (v. 7)
God begins by addressing His new commander directly.
"Then Yahweh said to Joshua, 'This day I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.'" (Joshua 3:7 LSB)
Notice who the active agent is. "I will begin to magnify you." Joshua does not magnify himself. He doesn't form a committee or launch a public relations campaign to shore up his credentials. This is a direct rebuke to the spirit of our age, which is obsessed with self-promotion, platform-building, and manufacturing an image. True, God-given authority is not seized; it is received. God is the one who raises up and puts down. Joshua's job is not to make himself look big, but to obey God. God's job is to take care of Joshua's reputation before the people.
And the purpose of this magnification is not to feed Joshua's ego. It is entirely for the sake of the people: "that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you." This is about covenantal continuity. The people's trust must be transferred from the dead leader to the living one, because their very lives depend on following his commands in the battles to come. God is establishing the chain of command. He is telling Israel, "The same presence and power that was with Moses is now with this man. Listen to him." The work of God does not die with the servants of God.
The Audacity of Obedience (v. 8)
Next, God gives Joshua a very specific, and frankly, terrifying command to relay to the priests.
"Moreover, you shall command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'" (Joshua 3:8 LSB)
The priests are to lead the procession, carrying the Ark, the visible throne of the invisible God. And what are they to do? They are to walk straight into a flooding river and stop. They are to get their feet wet. The miracle does not happen while they are standing safely on the bank. God does not part the waters to make their obedience easy and risk-free. The parting of the waters is conditioned on their stepping into the flood. The power of God is released at the point of obedient faith.
This is a foundational principle for the entire Christian life. We want God to remove the obstacles before we step out. We want a sign, a guarantee, a risk-free path. God commands us to walk, and promises to build the path under our feet as we go. Faith is not believing that the river will part. Faith is stepping into the river because God said to. The priests had to be willing to be swept away, trusting that the God who gave the command would honor their obedience. This is the logic of faith, and it is madness to the world.
A Sign for the Living God (v. 9-10)
Joshua now turns to the people and becomes God's herald.
"Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, 'Come near, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.' And Joshua said, 'By this you shall know that the living God is among you...'" (Joshua 3:9-10 LSB)
Joshua points away from himself and to the Word of God. His authority is derived. He is a messenger. And he tells them the purpose of the coming miracle. This is not raw spectacle. It has a point. The point is to teach them something about the God they serve. He is "the living God." He is not an idol of stone or wood. He is not a distant, abstract philosophical principle. He is alive, present, and powerfully active in their midst.
And the presence of this living God has immediate, practical, and violent consequences. "He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite." The miracle at the Jordan is a preview of coming attractions. It is a down payment on the conquest. The God who can defeat a river at flood stage can certainly defeat a collection of pagan city-states. The power that stops the water is the same power that will drive out the inhabitants of the land. This sign is meant to kill their fear and fuel their faith for the holy war they are about to undertake.
The Lord of All the Earth (v. 11-13)
The focus now shifts to the Ark and the mechanics of the miracle.
"Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan... And it will be that when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off..." (Joshua 3:11, 13 LSB)
Israel is not following Joshua into the water. Joshua is not following a pillar of cloud. Everyone is following the Ark. God Himself, enthroned above the mercy seat, is leading the invasion. He is the tip of the spear. He is not sending them into battle; He is leading them into it.
And notice the title used for God, twice: "the Lord of all the earth." This is a profound theological declaration. Yahweh is not just the God of Israel. He is not a local deity whose jurisdiction ends at the border. He is the sovereign Creator and owner of the entire planet. The Jordan River belongs to Him. The land of Canaan belongs to Him. The Canaanites themselves belong to Him. He is not stealing their land; He is reclaiming what is His and giving it to whom He pleases. This is the basis of the conquest. God, the Lord of all the earth, has served an eviction notice on the Canaanites for their centuries of rebellion and depravity, and He is using Israel as His bailiff.
The trigger for the miracle is reiterated: "when the soles of the feet of the priests... rest in the waters." The divine power meets human obedience at the water's edge. And the result is a supernatural demolition of the laws of physics. "The waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap." This language deliberately echoes the description of the Red Sea crossing in Exodus 15. God is bookending their journey. He brought them out of Egypt with a miracle of parted water, and He is bringing them into the land with a miracle of parted water. The God who begins the work is the God who will complete it. He is the Alpha and the Omega of their salvation.
Our Joshua and Our Jordan
This historical event is shot through with gospel light. It is a living parable of our salvation. The name Joshua is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus. Jesus is our Joshua, the captain of our salvation, who leads us into our promised inheritance.
The Jordan River, in Scripture, is often a symbol of death. It was the final barrier between the wilderness and the land of rest. We too have an impassable river of death standing between us and our inheritance, the New Creation. And we cannot cross it on our own.
But our Joshua has gone before us. The Ark of the Covenant represented the very presence of God. Jesus Christ is the presence of God in the flesh. He is our great High Priest, and He did not just dip His toes in the waters of death. At the cross, He was plunged into the flood of God's wrath against our sin. He went down into the deepest part of the river.
And because He, the Lord of all the earth, went into death, the waters were "cut off." He conquered death. He walked out of the tomb on the other side, creating a dry and safe path for all who follow Him. When we come to Christ in faith and are baptized, we are identifying with Him. We are symbolically getting our feet wet, acknowledging that He crossed the river of death for us. He has taken the full force of the flood so that we might pass over into the promised land of eternal life.
The living God is among us, in the person of His Son. And because He has defeated our greatest enemy, death, we can be confident that He will "assuredly dispossess" all our lesser enemies before us. Our task is the same as that of the priests: to hear His word and to step out in audacious obedience, trusting that the Captain who goes before us has already secured the victory.