passed them ran down towards the Dead Sea, and left the channel dry for the space of several miles e. The priests then proceeded with the ark into the midst of the channel, and abode there whilst the whole nation of Israel, with their cattle and baggage, passed over : nor did they leave their position, till they were expressly ordered to do so by God himself: and then, as soon as ever their feet touched the opposite bank, the waters resumed their course, and flowed in their accustomed channel. What a proof was here, that the passage was opened not by any natural means, but by the immediate agency of God himself! The people " hasted over," for, where so much was to be done in one day, there was no time to be lost ; but we do not appre- hend that their haste proceeded from any unbelieving fear of the impending flood ; it rather indicated a fearless confidence in the divine protection, and an assurance that the enemies whom they were invading should not be permitted to prevail against them.]
Such was the mercy vouchsafed unto them. Let us now proceed more particularly to notice,
II. The means used to perpetuate the remembrance of it—
For this end two monuments were erected ; one, of twelve stones, in Jordan, on the very spot where the priests who bore the ark had stood, which was probably visible at low water ; and the other in Gil- gal, where they immediately afterwards encamped.
In our text two reasons are assigned for the erec- tion of them ; they were to serve, both to Israel and to the world at large,
1 . As evidences of God's power —
[What could not God effect, who by a simple act of voli- tion wrought such a miracle as this ? The miracle could not be denied, because the stones which commemorated it were taken out of the midst of the river by persons selected for the purpose out of all the tribes. Who then, we may ask,
Who can ever oppose him with success ?
It should seem that the Canaanites, if they had acted accord- ing to the rules of war, should have opposed the Israelites in their passage : but the destruction of Pharaoh at the Red Sea had spread such a panic through the land, that they did not dare to avail themselves of any supposed advantage, lest they
e From the city Adam to the part opposite Jericho was eighteen or twenty miles, Josh. iii. 16.