Joshua 3:9

_AND JOSHUA SAID UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, COME HITHER, AND HEAR THE WORDS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD._ Come hither and hear the words of the Lord. It seems that the Israelites had no intimation how they were to cross the river until shortly before the event. The premonitory address of Joshua, taken in connection with the miraculous result exactly as he had described it, would tend to increase and confirm their faith in the God of their fathers, as not a dull, senseless, inanimate thing, like the idols of the nations, but a Being of life, power, and activity, to defend them and work for them....

7-13 The waters of Jordan shall be cut off. This must be done in such a way as never was done, but in the dividing of the Red sea. That miracle is here repeated; God has the same power to finish the salvation of his people, as to begin it; the WORD of the Lord was as truly with Joshua as with Moses. God's appearances for his people ought to encourage faith and hope. God's work is perfect, he will keep his people. Jordan's flood cannot keep out Israel, Canaan's force cannot turn them out again....

EXPOSITION THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN— JOSHUA 3:7 THIS DAY WILL I BEGIN TO MAGNIFY THEE. "_Neque enim ante mysterium baptismi exal-tatur Jesus, sed exaltatio ejus, et exaltatio in conspectu pepuli, inde sunlit exordium_" (Orig; Hem. 4 on Joshua. Cf. Matthew 3:17; Luke 3:22). JOSHUA 3:8 AND THOU SHALT COMMAND THE PRIESTS. We have not here the whole command. That is to be found in Joshua 3:

AND JOSHUA SAID UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, COME HITHER,.... Very probably to the door of the tabernacle: AND HEAR THE WORDS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD; which he was about to deliver to them as from him, and in his name....

3. THE PASSAGE OF JORDAN CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The Ark of Jehovah going before (Joshua 3:1)_ 2. Jehovah's words to Joshua (Joshua 3:7) 3. Joshua's words to the people (Joshua 3:9) 4. The passage accomplished (Joshua 3:14) The River Jordan divided the people from the promised land. To be in the land Jordan had to be crossed. Jordan, overflowing all its banks at that time (verse 15), rolled its dark waters between them and their God-given possession. Only the power of God could bring them through those dark waters. It was a miracle which took place, when a way was opened and “the waters which came down from above stood

JOSHUA 3:1 TO JOSHUA 5:1. THE CROSSING OF JORDAN. Here we begin to meet with more serious difficulties. The old tradition was that after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan, they commemorated the event by the erection of twelve stones. But this simple narrative existed in two recensions, which differed as to the destination of these memorial stones. According to one account, they were to be placed in the midst of the river; according to the other, they were to be set up on the W. side of the Jordan in the place where the army encamped for the night. Deuteronomic additions have been made to these narratives, _i.e._ additions of a religious colouring as in Joshua 3:7, And Yahweh said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in t

_And Joshua said_ Joshua 3:9-13 contain the substance of an address to a solemn assembly of the people, in which a fuller explanation is given of what has been stated generally in Joshua 3:7-8....

_VER._ 9, 10. _AND JOSHUA SAID TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,_ &C.— After giving God's orders to the priests, Joshua communicated them to the Israelites at the door of the tabernacle, making them sensible of their felicity in a dependance upon a Deity who was the _living God,_ in opposition to the idols of the heathen, who were as impotent as lifeless; whereas the LORD, the Sovereign of heaven and earth, did whatever pleased him. He insists on this great God's being _among them;_ that is, that he protected them in a singular manner, and that the miracles which he was about to perform in their sight, to facilitate their passage over the Jordan, would be a sure warrant for the accomplishment of the promises he had given them, of subduing to their arms the seven nations which inhabited the land of Canaan....

_Joshua's Instructions to the People Joshua 3:9-13_ 9And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God. 10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. 12 Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand

THE PASSAGE OF JORDAN This is the initial miracle of Joshua's leadership. Its moral effect upon the Israelite host is suggested in Joshua 3:7 and Joshua 4:14 that wrought upon the Canaanites in Joshua 5:1 (which properly belongs to this section of the book)....