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Joshua 3 Bible study: The waters stood
Israel crossed the Jordan in flood (3:15). The waters stopped only when the priests' feet dipped into the edge, and they heaped up "a great way off, at Adam" (3:16). "Heap" is the Hebrew word of the song at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:8). And the people kept back from the ark "that you may know the way" (3:4).
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“Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.””
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“Israel crossed the Jordan at harvest time, when the Jordan overflows all its banks.”
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What's really going on
The ark goes first
The WEB says "ark" ten times in this chapter, and the people are told to watch it and follow it. The officers tell the people, "When you see the ark of the LORD your God’s covenant, and the Levitical priests bearing it, then leave your place and follow it" (3:3). Joshua tells the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and cross over before the people" (3:6), and they do: "They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people" (3:6). Carrying it was the Levites' work: "the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the LORD’s covenant" (Deuteronomy 10:8). In the wilderness, too, "The ark of the LORD’s covenant went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them" (Numbers 10:33). Here it goes first into the river, and it stays there while everyone else crosses: "The priests who bore the ark of the LORD’s covenant stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan" (3:17). The next chapter adds that only then "the LORD’s ark crossed over with the priests" (4:11).
Where it leads to Jesus
Believe the works
Joshua 3:10leads toJohn 10:37-38
At the Jordan Joshua says, "By this you shall know that the living God is among you" (3:10), and the LORD tells him, "Today I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you" (3:7). Jesus said, "If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father" (John 10:37-38). Jesus doesn't cite Joshua 3, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear in both the same way of knowing: at the river, what the LORD does shows that the living God is among Israel and with Joshua; in John, the works show that the Father is in Jesus. Others read John 10:37-38 within its own setting, Jesus' answer to those about to stone him for blasphemy (John 10:31-33), and don't look back to Joshua 3.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Joshua 3
That was a taste
The rest of Joshua 3 is waiting in Favor
- A river in flood
- "Among you"
- Like the sea, and not like it
- The Lord of all the earth
- The Jordan again
- 9 questions as you read
- 10 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Joshua 3 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
נֵדnedsay NAYD
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "heap of waters". Strong's: "a mound, i.e. wave heap". "The waters that come down from above shall stand in one heap" (3:13), and "the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap a great way off" (3:16). The word comes six times in the Hebrew Bible, and five are of waters: these two, the song at the sea, "The floods stood upright as a heap" (Exodus 15:8), and two psalms, "He made the waters stand as a heap" (Psalm 78:13) and "He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap" (Psalm 33:7). The sixth is in Isaiah 17:11. Exodus and the psalms say "as a heap"; here it is "one heap".
For your group
Joshua 3 Bible study questions
- 1"You have not passed this way before" (3:4). Where in your life are you on a way you haven't been before, and what helps you see where to go?
- 2"Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you" (3:5). What would getting ready for God to act look like for you this week?
- 3The priests "stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan" until "all the nation had passed completely over" (3:17). Who has stayed in place for you until you were through something, and for whom could you do that?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Joshua 3 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home