The Jordan River #6

The Jordan River is Israel’s principal waterway, flowing south from the region of Mount Hermon through the Sea of Galilee and down the Jordan Rift Valley to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth’s surface. It marks the eastern boundary of the Promised Land in much of the Old Testament and becomes the setting for several of Scripture’s most memorable miracles, most of them turning on the theme of crossing over from one state to another.

Crossing and Conquest

Under Joshua’s leadership, Israel crosses the Jordan into Canaan at flood stage. As the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant step into the water, the river piles up far upstream, “and the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan” (Joshua 3:17). The crossing deliberately echoes the earlier crossing of the Red Sea at the Exodus, and twelve stones taken from the riverbed are set up as a memorial so that future generations will ask what they mean (Joshua 4:1-7, 4:20-24), marking Israel’s formal entry into the land God had promised.

Prophets and Naaman

The river also frames the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. Elijah strikes the water with his rolled-up mantle so that he and Elisha cross on dry ground, and after Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind, Elisha strikes the river the same way and crosses back alone, a sign to the watching sons of the prophets that Elijah’s spirit now rests on him (2 Kings 2:6-14). Later, the Syrian commander Naaman comes to Elisha seeking a cure for his leprosy, and is told simply, “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean” (2 Kings 5:10). Naaman is insulted at first, comparing the Jordan unfavorably to the rivers of Damascus, but his servants persuade him to try it, and he is healed — a story that becomes a lesson in humbling oneself to accept God’s simple instructions (2 Kings 5:9-14).

Today

The Jordan reaches its fullest significance in the New Testament, where John the Baptist preaches repentance and baptizes crowds along its banks, and Jesus himself comes to be baptized there. As he emerges from the water, the Spirit descends on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven declares, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Flowing today through the border region between Israel, the West Bank, and the Kingdom of Jordan, the river is much reduced in volume from ancient times by modern irrigation and damming, but it remains a major site of Christian pilgrimage and baptism, particularly at Qasr al-Yahud near Jericho, traditionally associated with both Joshua’s crossing and Jesus’ baptism, and at Yardenit near the southern end of the Sea of Galilee.