“And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.”
My Notes
What Does Joshua 3:6 Mean?
"And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people." The Jordan crossing begins with the ARK going FIRST: Joshua commands the priests to TAKE UP the ark and PASS OVER before the people. The ark — God's presence — PRECEDES the nation into the river. The people don't enter the water first. The PRESENCE enters first. The divine goes ahead. The human follows.
The phrase "take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people" (se'u et aron habberit ve'ivru liphnei ha'am — carry the ark of the covenant and cross before the people) makes the ARK the ADVANCE-PARTY: the ark crosses BEFORE the people. The 'before' (liphnei — before the face of) means the ark LEADS. The people SEE the ark going ahead of them into the water. The visual is the faith: the presence of God entering the obstacle BEFORE you do.
The "they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people" (vayyis'u et aron habberit vayyelechu liphnei ha'am — they carried the ark of the covenant and went before the people) confirms IMMEDIATE OBEDIENCE: Joshua commanded. The priests OBEYED. The carrying happened. The going-before happened. The obedience is INSTANT and COMPLETE. No hesitation. No committee-discussion. No risk-assessment. The command produced the carrying. The carrying produced the leading. The leading produced the crossing.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What divine presence is going before you into the obstacle you face?
- 2.What does the ark entering the water FIRST teach about God meeting the obstacle before you do?
- 3.How does immediate obedience (no gap between command and compliance) model the priests' response?
- 4.What does the presence-leading being constant (cloud in wilderness, ark at Jordan) teach about divine consistency?
Devotional
Take up the ark. Cross BEFORE the people. The Jordan crossing begins with GOD'S PRESENCE going first: the ark enters the water BEFORE the nation does. The divine precedes the human. The presence leads the people. The obstacle is met by God's presence BEFORE it's met by God's people.
The 'take up the ark and pass over before' makes the ARK the leader: the ark goes FIRST. The people follow. The priests CARRY the presence into the obstacle AHEAD of the community. The seeing of the ark entering the water IS the faith that enables the people to follow. The visual leadership of the ark is the visual demonstration of God going ahead.
The 'they took up and went before' is IMMEDIATE obedience: no delay between the command and the compliance. Joshua said TAKE UP. They TOOK UP. Joshua said GO BEFORE. They WENT BEFORE. The obedience is as swift as the command. The carrying follows the commanding without gap. The going-before follows the taking-up without pause.
The ARK going first into the JORDAN echoes the CLOUD going first through the WILDERNESS: in the wilderness, the cloud LED (Exodus 13:21). At the Jordan, the ark LEADS. The PRESENCE-LEADING is the constant: whether cloud or ark, the divine presence goes AHEAD. The form of the leading changes (cloud → ark). The principle of the leading doesn't (God goes first).
What 'ark' — what divine presence — is going before YOU into the obstacle you're facing?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And Joshua spoke unto the priests,.... On the morrow, that is, on the tenth day of the month, the day on which they went…
They took up - i. e. on the day following. The course of events is anticipated.
Spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark - It is remarkable that the priests, not the Levites, whose ordinary…
Rahab, in mentioning to the spies the drying up of the Red Sea (Jos 2:10), the report of which terrified the Canaanites…
Cross References
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