Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. – Joshua 3:1

Today's Scripture Reading (March 25, 2025): Joshua 3

The historian Flavius Josephus (c.37-100 C.E.) tells the story of a town "full of palm trees." The town is about nine kilometers (six miles) from the River Jordan. More importantly, this place, which is "full of palm trees," is suggested to be where Moses delivered his final addresses to the nation of Israel. Others disagree, opting for another place, Livias, about twelve kilometers from the Jordan. But wherever it was where Moses delivered his final sermons to the nation, on this morning, they set out from that place and marched over to the River Jordan.

The time had finally arrived. It was a moment that Israel had been dreaming of for over 400 years. They were finally returning to the place God had promised to Abraham five centuries earlier. However, it was also a place of faith. As Israel looked at the Jordan, which was swollen with spring rains, the crossing must have seemed impossible.

It must have seemed once more that maybe this dream was nothing more than that, a dream. Perhaps Israel would never inhabit the land. A generation earlier, Israel had said no to the Promised Land because of the giants that lived there, and the task of taking the land seemed too difficult. Now, the river itself seemed to be standing against them. God was not going to make this easy. Getting into the land would take a significant amount of faith. 

Maybe you could swim the river if you were a strong swimmer and courageous enough to attempt the feat. 1 Chronicles tells the story of the Gadites who had done just that. 

These Gadites were army commanders; the least was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand. It was they who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight everyone living in the valleys, to the east and to the west (1 Chronicles 12:14-15).

But the people standing on the banks of the Jordan on this day were not the legendary army commanders that would later arise from their midst. The people standing at the Jordan's edge likely didn't even know how to swim. Not only that, but standing on the shore of the Jordan River was not just an army, and they weren't all adults; here, there were children of all ages, and likely even babies who had been born in the last few days and weeks. And somehow, all these people had to cross the swollen river safely. 

It was a moment of faith that was just as critical a test for Israel as the one they had failed forty years earlier. Once again, they would be asked to place their trust in the hands of their God, understanding that he could lead them where they needed to go, even when things seemed impossible. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Joshua 4