Divine Bookends: The Trigger of Obedience Text: Joshua 4:15-18
Introduction: The Grammar of Miracles
We modern Christians tend to think of miracles as grand, explosive, and somewhat chaotic interruptions of the natural order. We imagine God smashing the laws of physics with a sledgehammer because He has decided to do something spectacular. But this is a profoundly pagan way of thinking. God is not the author of confusion, not in the church and not in His creation. When God performs a miracle, it is not a suspension of order but rather the imposition of a higher order. It is a work of art, a symphony, conducted with absolute precision.
The crossing of the Jordan River is a case in point. This was not simply a matter of God damming up a river so His people could scurry across. This was a liturgical event, a deeply symbolic and covenantal act, choreographed down to the very footsteps of the priests. God was not just getting Israel into the Promised Land; He was teaching them, and us, how He governs the world. He was revealing the relationship between His sovereign command, our faithful obedience, and the release of His supernatural power. His power is not a wild firehose, spraying randomly across the landscape. It is channeled through the conduits of His covenant and is turned on and off by the switch of His Word.
In this short passage, we see the conclusion of the miracle. We saw how it began, with the priests' feet touching the water's edge. Now we see how it ends. And in these divine bookends, we learn a crucial lesson about the nature of our walk with God. God's power is not something we bargain for or manipulate. It is something we obey our way into. The world believes that power is for the autonomous, for those who seize control. The Bible teaches that true power, the power that parts rivers and raises the dead, is for the obedient.
The Text
Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.” So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” So it happened when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went over all its banks as before.
(Joshua 4:15-18 LSB)
The Chain of Command (v. 15-17)
The first thing we must notice is the structure of authority. God does not shout His commands from heaven to everyone indiscriminately. He establishes order.
"Then Yahweh said to Joshua, 'Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.' So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, 'Come up from the Jordan.'" (Joshua 4:15-17 LSB)
The command originates with Yahweh. It is His plan, His timing, His Word. This is the absolute presupposition of all right action. But God speaks to Joshua, His appointed leader. Authority is delegated. Joshua does not get a vote; he gets a directive. His job is not to innovate but to listen and relay. True leadership is faithful followship.
And what does Joshua do? He simply passes the command along. "So Joshua commanded the priests." He doesn't add his own spin. He doesn't form a committee to discuss the logistical ramifications of moving the priests. He doesn't take a poll to see if the priests are feeling up to it. He speaks what God has spoken. This is the essence of all faithful preaching, all faithful parenting, all faithful authority. We are conduits, not sources.
Notice also what the priests are carrying: "the ark of the testimony." This is not just a sacred box. It is the throne of God on earth, and inside it is the Law, the Ten Commandments. It is the testimony of God's holy character. The entire miracle is anchored to the Word of God. The presence and power of God are inseparable from the testimony of His righteousness. We want the power of God, but we are often allergic to the testimony of God. We want the miracles, but not the morality. But God does not work that way. His power flows where His Word is honored.
The Divine Punctuation (v. 18)
This final verse is where the central lesson is driven home with breathtaking precision. The obedience of the priests is the trigger for the conclusion of the miracle.
"So it happened when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went over all its banks as before." (Joshua 4:18 LSB)
Consider the sequence. The miracle began the moment the priests' feet touched the water (Joshua 3:15). The river stopped flowing upstream. While the entire nation crossed, these priests stood their ground in the middle of the riverbed, a living testament to the power of God holding back the chaos. They were the anchor point of Israel's salvation.
Now, the miracle ends. And when does it end? Not when the last Israelite is safely across. Not a few minutes later to be safe. It ends at the precise, split-second moment the priests' feet are fully clear of the riverbed and planted on the dry ground of the Promised Land. "The soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground." As soon as the condition of their obedience was complete, the supernatural intervention was concluded. The waters returned.
This is divine punctuation. God is putting an exclamation point on His lesson. He is demonstrating His absolute, meticulous, granular control over creation. He is not wrestling with the river. He is not straining to hold back the flood. He is conducting it. The river is as obedient to Him as Joshua and the priests are. This is a polemic against every form of paganism that sees nature as a chaotic, divine power in itself. Nature is a creature. It is a tool in the hands of the Creator, and it does exactly what it is told, when it is told.
The waters returning "as before" is also crucial. The threat was real. The Jordan was at flood stage. The moment God's supernatural restraint is lifted, the natural consequences return in full force. This shows us that our safety is not in the absence of danger, but in the presence of God. The only thing standing between Israel and a watery grave was their obedient proximity to the ark of the testimony and the priests who bore it.
Crossing Over in the Greater Joshua
This entire event is a magnificent type, a shadow of a greater reality to come. We cannot read about Joshua leading his people through the waters of judgment into the promised land without seeing our Lord Jesus, whose name is the Greek form of Joshua.
Like Israel, we were stuck in the wilderness of our sin, with an impassable river of divine judgment before us. The wages of sin is death, a flood that would surely sweep us away. We could not cross on our own. But Jesus, our great High Priest and the bearer of the fulfilled testimony of God, did not stand on the bank and shout encouragement. He walked down into the river of death Himself.
When He was baptized in the Jordan, He identified with us in our desperate state. When He went to the cross, He stood in the middle of the riverbed of God's wrath. He bore the full flood of judgment in our place, so that a way might be made for us to pass over on dry ground. He is the anchor point of our salvation. Because He stood firm under the flood, we can walk through untouched.
And our salvation has the same kind of divine punctuation. The moment we, by faith, place our trust in Christ, we are lifted up from the realm of judgment and planted on the dry ground of His righteousness. At that moment, we are declared safe, justified, and brought into the promised land of fellowship with God. The threat of the flood remains; God's wrath against sin is still a terrible reality. But for those who are in Christ, it no longer has any claim on us. We have passed over.
This passage therefore calls us to a life of radical, precise obedience. Not a legalistic, box-checking obedience, but a faith-filled trust in the Word of our Commander. Our task is to keep our eyes on our Joshua, to listen for His commands, and to place our feet exactly where He tells us to. We are to stand firm when He says stand, and to move when He says move. The results, the river, the circumstances, are all in His hands. Obedience is ours. The power belongs to God.