In the morning, God said to Joshua, “Today, I will
exalt you in the eyes of the people – so they’ll
know I’m with you just like I was with Moses.”
Joshua told the priests, “Take the Ark of God,
and go to the Jordan River.” So the priests
carried the Ark of God to the river, which was
at flood stage. When they came to the water’s
edge, they kept going until the water covered
their feet.
Suddenly the river stopped! A wall of water
formed ten miles upstream. The rest of it flowed
down to the sea. Seeing this, the priests walked
to the middle of the riverbed and stood on dry
ground. Then the people started moving across
the river.
Joshua then said to the twelve men Israel
had selected, “Each of you pick up a large stone
from where the priests are standing. Put it on
your shoulders and take it to the other side of the
river.” Joshua then took another twelve stones
and built a monument in the middle of the river,
next to where the priests were standing.
The people looked at Joshua, and he was
exalted in their eyes. They knew God was with
him just like he had been with Moses.
When they had all crossed the river, Joshua
said to the priests, “Come up from the middle of
the riverbed.” As soon as the priests were on the
banks of the river, the waters crashed down the
riverbed and returned to its flooded condition, as
it had been before.
Joshua took the people to a place called
Gilgal, where they set up camp. Then he had
them build a memorial with the twelve stones.
He said, “In the future, children will see this
monument and ask, ‘why are these stones here?’
Their parents will tell them about this day, when
God stopped the Jordan River so his people
could cross over on dry ground. All the nations
of the earth will know that the hand of God, the
Lord of all the earth, is powerful.”
The people of Canaan heard how God
stopped the Jordan River so the people of Israel
could cross over on dry ground. Terror spread
throughout the cities of the land.
Joshua told all the men of Israel they had
to be circumcised. This hadn’t been done for
the entire 40 years the people had been in the
wilderness.
Soon after this, the people celebrated
Passover. The very next day, the manna stopped
appearing and it never came back. From that
day on, people were to eat the food from the
land of Canaan.
© God Child