“The Book of Joshua – Part 4: Israel Crosses the Jordan Jos 4:1-24”
The Book of Joshua – Part 4, Jos 4:1-24 Israel Crosses the Jordan
[Study Aired March 11, 2023]
Concluding the last study, the Priests who represent the Elect of God were the first to touch the word of God with their feet in the Jordan River of His word. It was a momentous event in Israel and, ultimately, for the world.
Today, the spiritual Priests of God already had their feet in the spiritual Jordan upon Christ’s death. They, as the Lord’s Elect, have been routing their land of their enemies for two thousand years.
The entire nation of Israel, including the mixed multitude representing everyone’s eventual salvation in their own order, entered the physical Promised Land. Following everyone’s safe exit from the Jordan, the heaped-up water turbulently cascaded the dead works of Israel’s slothfulness from Egypt to Shittim into the Sea of Salt, through the land where their forebearers, Sodom and Gomorrah, were consumed in a physical lake of fire.
Jos 4:1 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
Jos 4:2 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
Jos 4:3 And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.
Jos 4:4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:
Jos 4:5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the Ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
Jos 4:6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
Jos 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.
Jos 4:8 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.
Jos 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the Ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.
Jos 4:10 For the priests which bare the Ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.
Jos 4:11 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the Ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.
Jos 4:12 And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them:
Jos 4:13 About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.
Jos 4:14 On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.
Jos 4:15 And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
Jos 4:16 Command the priests that bear the Ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.
Jos 4:17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.
Jos 4:18 And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the Ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.
Jos 4:19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.
Jos 4:20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.
Jos 4:21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?
Jos 4:22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
Jos 4:23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:
Jos 4:24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.
Jos 4:1 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
Notice that the spirit deemed it necessary to state that Israel “cleaned passed over the Jordan” since it effectively means that the entire world of humanity will ultimately be saved (1Co 15:32). All of Israel, including the mixed multitude, went into the Promised Land, just as the entire world will go into the purifying nature of the Lake of Fire.
Jos 4:2 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
Jos 4:3 And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.
The twelve tribes of Israel represent the foundations (12 = foundation, which is Christ) of our Lord’s first wife, whose foundations are unwittingly being set up to be rejected for her coming God-given whoredoms. At a much later date, she is the field into which the coming harvest of first fruits will be dragged to go before the main harvest of souls, the entirety of Israel and humanity numbered as the sand of the sea. The Lord lays the foundation for His anointed rejected wife and His anointed elected wife. The latter lively stones of the foundation are spiritually cut out of Christ’s body by His hands, just as Eve was physically taken out of Adam’s body (Gen 2:23, 1Co 11:8-9).
1Co 3:9 For of God we are fellow-workers, a field of God, and you are a building of God.
1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man be careful how he builds on it.
1Co 3:11 For any other foundation can no one lay than the one being laid, who is Jesus Christ.1Co 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The Body of Christ is the priests bearing Christ, our Babylonian brothers and sisters having collected 12 stones from around our feet, representing the eternal foundation of Christ, and Him the chief cornerstone. The spirit of God eventually dwells in every seed of man conceived, represented by all twelve stones and testifying that all will be made alive in Christ.
There appears to be an unaccounted loss of time from when the stones are elected from around the feet of the Priest and taken to where Israel lodged and their unaccounted-for being returned to be erected in the “midst” of the Jordan. The stones are evidently left unstructured where the Israelites lodged for an unspecified time. All this time, the spring water from the Jordan must have been heaping up into a mighty dam, perhaps kilometres wide, since in verse 9, “Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.”
Jos 4:4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:
Jos 4:5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the Ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
Jos 4:6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
The twelve physical tribes of the nation of Israel shouldered in the figurative heat of the day the “natural that [would eventually] point to the spiritual”, symbolised by the memorial of the twelve stones. The people of Israel were to be the model and sign to the rest of the world as an example of how to submit to the Lord physically, that by His design, graphically show the world the consequences of how futile it is to build one’s Temple within without the Lord’s spirit. Of course, the spiritual meaning of the stones also represents that salvation is the burden of the remnant spiritual Jews, carried upon their shoulders by the power and might of Christ.
Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse [King David to Christ], which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek [eventually the entire world]: and his rest shall be glorious.
Isa 11:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isa 11:13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. [Because the spiritual Jews will rule]
Isa 11:14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
Isa 11:15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
The entire world’s religious systems shall be smitten, as was the Jordan, to make way for the Bride of Christ to rule with Him in the one-thousand year reign with the rod of iron, and then peacefully forever.
Isa 11:16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Christ’s Christs are the final Temple of God dragged from every nation and built upon Him, the heavenly Jerusalem above. How? Before Christ, the physical nation of Israel was depicted as Jews since the Priesthood was from the physical tribe of Judah and Levi, which we know could never bring salvation. Nonetheless, the entire twelve tribes were Christ’s first wife and were holy for that age, even though the memory of Korah’s rebellion and, later, Uzzah would be a painful reminder that only the Priests could ‘touch’ the Ark.
Joh 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well:
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [living spiritually] is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent my angel [His Bride, the Body of Christ] to testify these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
From those examples, we see that the twelve stones are the foundational memorial of physical Israel’s glory, pointing to the yet unseen spiritual glory of the immovable memorial, Christ.
Jos 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.
Maybe for several hundred years, Israel’s children enquired about the physical twelve stones erected amid the Jordan. While they were taken out of the Jordan, they apparently were returned and constructed amid the Jordan. That action breaks all the laws of physics since when the massive pile of water resumes thunderously on its way to the Salt Sea (Dead Sea), the erected memorial, but for a miracle, would have been washed hundreds of metres, if not kilometres, downstream and destroyed.
The river Jordan represents the world of humanity, particularly Babylonian Christianity, with its false doctrines and whoredoms, whose waters have no strength against Israel’s God. That mighty flood of falsehoods could never sweep away the puny twelve stones piled amid the Jordan as it rushed down past the infamous cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Neither could it “cut off” the word of God before the resurrection or destroy the living water of the word of God in the latter days even while held unrighteously in blindness by the same woman from Mount Sinai.
Jos 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.
The meaning of “for ever” is a foundational doctrine in the Body of Christ, knowing that ‘forever’ either means age-lasting or literally eternally lasting. The maturing Christ will know that these physical stones have not lasted “forever”, yet they signify Christ as lasting eternally.
Rev 12:14 And to the woman [Babylonian Christianity] were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The new nation of Israel in the flesh was the precursor memorial that points to the spiritual holy remnant, Christ’s wife, with everything in scripture being done for her and through her in Christ. Together, they are the “memorial” “forever” that eventually brings the world to salvation.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The Bride of Christ is the twelve stones that remain a memorial to this day, and forever. For the moment, the Dragon continuously makes war as a flood until the First Resurrection when Christ and his Christs cut off the flood of lies.
Jos 4:8 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.
Israel passed over the Jordan and laid the stones down where they camped; yet, scripture doesn’t account for the apparent returning of the stones to the midst of the Jordan where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark stood. Therefore, the water was held back for an unspecified time, making quite a “heap” of dammed water. No spring flood of lies can wash away the word of God.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
Jos 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.(KJV)
Jos 4:10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across, (BSB)
The theme that the physical precedes the spiritual is a massive spiritual truth, and its presence continues to etch our spiritual minds with the above three verses.
The feet of the Bride of Christ have touched the mountain of the Lord, and Him the Ark and the Covenant with Him as they are being saved “unto this day”.
“Everything” is being finished as the Lord commanded us as we are passing over our Jordan heaped up to our right. The Elect of God bears Christ through the one-thousand years until all Gog and Magog hurry across through the consuming fire into the Lake of Fire.
Jos 4:11 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.
Jos 4:12 And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them:
Jos 4:13 About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto battle, to the plains of Jericho.
As seen, the corresponding ‘passing over’ from the one thousand years and the death of all flesh is with the Priests in the presence of the people into the Lake of Fire.
The tribe of Reuben, who is the eldest son of Jacob by Leah, and Gad, the seventh son of Jacob by Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, and Manasseh is the eldest son of Joseph. Reuben and Gad represent the entirety of Israel in becoming the rejected wife from Mt Sinai, while Manasseh, even though full of harlotry, represents the Elect of God, who eventually comes out of Egypt, Sodom, and Assyria, representing collective Babylon.
The Lord, depicted as Moses, addressed His little Church to be ready for war, whereby the sword would never depart our flesh for the whole (number 4) of our time before the First Resurrection. Remember that Jericho means “moon”, and the plains of Jericho will represent the lies of the ‘moon’, the Great Whore of Babylonian Christianity, whom we learn to rightly divide by the sword of truth.
Jos 4:14 On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.
Jos 4:15 And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
Jos 4:16 Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.
Jos 4:17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.
Jos 4:18 And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.
Unlike Israel’s physical fearing of Joshua and Moses, the Bride of Christ’s fear has matured and has become a delighted fear where they diligently look for the children of lies within all the days of their lives.
It ends with them being the first to “come up out of the Jordan” to receive no more death at the First Resurrection. They have born the Ark in Christ amid tribulations as the world is returned to the deep darkness, depicted as the waters of the Jordan returning to their place, as it did at the Red Sea and Noah’s time, and now the one thousand years.
First, the physical comes before the spiritual, as Israel only begins their wars in the “tenth day of the first month”.
Jos 4:19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.
The tenth day of the first month represents Passover, and evidently, again, Israel passed over the Jordan.
Exo 12:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
Exo 12:2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Exo 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
Just as Jericho means “moon”, the month of Abib, or Nisan (H2320 – the new moon; to make anew; rebuild), is the beginning of the new moon that, ironically for us, remains the old moon of the Woman in the wilderness. As we know, the Lord’s Church and His anointed rejected church know He is their Passover, yet, we distinguish that only one holds the truth in righteousness.
Eph 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Eph 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Eph 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Eph 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Jos 4:20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.
Jos 4:21 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?
Jos 4:22 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
As we know, Israel was in the process of coming out of a physical “deep” to dry land in light of the Law, only to unwittingly remain in utter darkness until Christ. Even then, the Moon still reigned in her half-light of truth.
Jos 4:23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:
Jos 4:24 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.
Our sisters and brothers in Babylon will soon become increasingly peeved about His Elect, as did Joseph’s brothers, for his God-given preeminence, since the Elect cheerfully “fear the Lord forever”. However, until the end of the one thousand years, they, like Solomon looking questioningly at the enigma of the Shulamite, will see those who rule over them, yet not entirely “know what mean these stones” until the Resurrection to Judgment, where the rest of humanity will have a forced wait ‘forever’ into that resurrection for His graciousness.
Isa 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
Isa 30:19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
Isa 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
Isa 30:21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
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