“…as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the —the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” Joshua 3:13-17
Maybe you have heard the story. Joshua and the Israelites need to get across the Jordan to get to The Promise Land. You may think this was not a big deal, I mean after all they had crossed the Red Sea right? Well, that was a generation gone, and this was a new generation. A new river, and a new challenge.
The priests were told that when they stepped into the river, the rushing flood waters, with the ark on their shoulders that the water would dry up and they would all cross on dry land. First observation: The miracle required action on their part. Secondly, and what I found the most interesting: The scripture said “It piled up in a heap a great distance away…”. The moment the priests stepped into the Jordan in obedience to God’s word, the waters began drying up, 26 miles away. However, they did not see the waters dry up until they allowed 26 miles of rushing flood waters to pass by. Why did God do it that way? Why didn’t he do it like with Moses? Maybe to push the Priests to continue to believe in spite of what their eyes saw.
It is a new year, and we have the opportunity to walk a new way, a new path, and move forward with the visions God has put in us. I realized what these Priests must have been thinking, wondering how long it would take for their miracle, wondering if they missed God and afraid if they stood there too long they might get swept away by those flood waters. Yet they stood; as Paul said “…Having done all to stand; stand.” (Ephesians 6:23) What they might not have realized in the moment they stood with those waters coming by is that they already had their miracle. It had already happened. It was coming to them as fast as those waters could rush by them. And Your miracle has already come to you. When your miracle comes to you, you may look back and see where the miracle began; a month, two months, a year ago God set you up to receive the miracle coming to you today, tomorrow, or next week.
What you thought was a desert, was dry land to pass through, but the waters will return once you are safely on the other side, and the Harvest will be great!