A Greater Miracle
“Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.” Joshua 4:16 NASB
Come up – God is pretty great, right? How great? Well, greater than we can even imagine. So great, in fact, that He does things we think are beyond doing. We call them “miracles” because they violate our sense of cause and effect, like “piling up” the waters of the river Jordan so that the people could pass into Canaan. Sometimes, however, we are so anxious to extol God’s greatness that we find extra miracles in the text. Joshua 4:16 is one of those cases.
You’ll remember that Joshua 4:11 says, “and when all the people had finished crossing, then the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed in front of the people.” Since the ark and the priests were in the middle of the riverbed when the people passed, they would have to step out of the river in order to cross in front of the people. The text is unremarkable since the ark normally took its place at the front of the people. It simply says what it means. The priests carrying the ark left the dry riverbed. However, five verses later Joshua commands them to come up from the river. Wait a minute! They are obviously already out of the riverbed. Why give this command?
Ah, an opportunity for an even greater miracle presents itself. The Gemara explains this command in the following way. Verse 11 really means that the priests and the ark returned to the East side of the Jordan. They left the riverbed, alright, but they were on the wrong side when the waters began to flow again. So, Joshua commands them to come over to the West side and take the position at the head of the Israelite column. But how can they do that if the river water is flowing? Obvious. The verb translated “come up” (in Hebrew: ʿālâ) really means “ascend,” that is, fly! God made the ark fly, carrying the priests with it. They crossed the flowing waters by flying over them, passing in front of all the people until they landed at the head of the column. Amazing! What a miracle! An even greater miracle than simply crossing on dry land. Isn’t God incredible!?
Of course, there’s a far less spectacular explanation. Hebrew narrative often is not chronological. Verse 16 is just in the wrong place if we wanted a step-by-step report. Verse 16 happens at the same time as verse 11. It’s just written as if it were later (but, of course, Hebrew authors and Hebrew readers wouldn’t have thought anything much about this). The problem isn’t the verb. It’s the paradigm. If I want to find evidence of God’s over-the-top miraculous activities, I will find it. Why? Because I’m looking for it. I’m predisposed to read the text as miracle manure where special, extraordinary things can grow. The paradigm tells me it will be there if I look hard enough, and, lo and behold, there it is, hiding in the verb ʿālâ. I can go away feeling so much better because I’ve had the leading of the “Spirit” to find such an amazing thing.
Sometimes I wonder just how far we can wander from the plain sense of the text before we become miracle mystics.
Topical Index: come up, ʿālâ, fly, Jordan, paradigm, Joshua 4:11, Joshua 4:16
