Crossing the Jordan River

The story of Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea on dry ground has long been ridiculed by skeptical scholars and experts. With the construction of the Suez Canal, the entire Red Sea and its marshlands have been completely altered, making it difficult to visualize the scene of the crossing from Exodus Chapter 14.

So how should we view Joshua leading a new generation of Israelites across the Jordan River on dry ground? The Jordan River (Hebrew: נהר הירדן) is a river in West Asia that originates in Lebanon and Syria, flows through Palestine and Jordan, and empties into the Dead Sea, with a total length of 251 kilometers. Joshua 3:15 states, “When they came to the Jordan… the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest.” However, according to research by Professor Amos Nur of Stanford University, historical records show that the banks of the Jordan River have collapsed due to earthquakes, causing large amounts of silt and sand to block the river and form a natural dam. This has happened in 1160, 1267, 1546, 1834, 1906, 1924, and 1927.

Given that this is a natural phenomenon, what is so impossible about God causing the water flowing downstream to “stop and pile up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off… And all Israel passed over on dry ground” (Joshua 3:16-17) when Joshua led the Israelites across the river? The difference from a purely natural event is that this was an act of God, done at His specific timing. The crossing on dry ground was a miracle, and the water flowing back once the priests’ feet left the riverbed after everyone had crossed was also a miracle.

Without violating the principles of Christ and the Bible, God is pleased when we learn to obey Him by submitting to the authority He has established on earth. God originally established Moses’ authority through the miracle of parting the Red Sea. Now, He also established Joshua’s authority through the miracle of crossing the Jordan River, so that “the people revered him as they had revered Moses.” And in the New Testament, God would establish the authority of another Joshua—Jesus Christ: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

*(Edited and compiled based on the Chinese Union Version Bible and Comprehensive Biblical Interpretation)