We shall see presently, after other features have been considered, that

the presence of the priests throughout this crossing of Jordan, is related to

a work that was 'finished' (Josh. 4:10), but several important items must be

considered before this is reached.  So far as the work of the Lord is

concerned, identical words are used of both crossings.  At the Red Sea 'The

floods stood upright as an heap' (Exod. 15:8), and of the waters of Jordan it

was said 'they shall stand upon an heap' (Josh. 3:13).

If Israel had been a holy nation while suffering under the Egyptians,

the one crossing of the Red Sea would have been all-sufficient.  But, though

redeemed from the bondage of Egypt, Israel were by no means delivered from

the bondage of Self, their status was changed, but not their nature, they

were most certainly not made 'partakers of His Holiness' when they emerged on

the other side of the Red Sea.  The intervention of the priests, the Ark, the

Covenant and the twelve stones, and the reference to Adam and the Dead Sea

speak aloud of the intervening forty years' chastisement, discipline and

teaching before the Jordan was crossed.  One of the suggestive differences

between the crossing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan, is expressed by the

addition of one word, that could easily be unnoticed.  The Hebrew word abar

'to pass over' is used of both the crossing of the Red Sea, and of the

Jordan, but, an additional word is used of the Jordan crossing, namely the

word 'clean':

'Until all the people were passed Clean over' (Josh. 3:17).

The word translated 'clean' has no reference to 'washing' or

'defilement'.  It is an English use of the word 'clean', and means

'completely', 'entirely' as in Isaiah 24:19 'The earth is clean dissolved' or

in Psalm 77:8 'Is His mercy clean gone for ever?'  The word used for the

crossing of the Jordan 'clean passed over', is the Hebrew tamam, which is one

of many derivatives of tam, which means 'to finish', 'to perfect', 'to

complete'.  Now Israel at the crossing of the Red Sea were only at the

beginning of their Redemption, and very far from being 'perfect'.  It is in

the epistle to the Hebrews, the epistle of Priest and Tabernacle, Altar and

Ark, that the redeemed are exhorted to 'go on unto perfection', and where the

'forty years' forms a basis for much salutary teaching in Hebrews 3 and 4.

The temptation of the wilderness was intended to have a 'perfecting work'

(Jas. 1:2-4,12).  Israel 'passed through' the Red Sea, they 'perfectly passed

over' the Jordan; they, in type had left 'the word of the beginning of

Christ' and had gone on 'unto perfection' (Heb. 6:1).  This impinges upon the

teaching of the New Testament both in Philippians 3, in Hebrews, in 1

Corinthians 9 and 10, and in other places concerning the added 'prize' or

'crown' that will be awarded to the overcomer, of which company Caleb is a

type.  Caleb endured throughout the forty years, the only one beside Joshua

of twenty years or upward that came out of Egypt.  At the entry into the land

he came to Joshua and claimed the fulfilment of the promise made by the Lord

at Kadesh-barnea, because he had wholly followed the Lord (Josh. 14:6-15).

The fact that this addition to his inheritance is intimately connected with

the Anakim (Josh. 14:15), is also of typical importance, for these Canaanites

were of the seed of the wicked one and were overcome by Caleb's faith.  We

too have foes that are not 'flesh and blood' (Eph. 6:12).  At this point it

may be well to refer to the two Psalms 90 and 91.  Psalm 90 opens the fourth

book of the Psalms, the 'Numbers' section, and is a Psalm of Moses.  The

people have been 'turned to destruction' and 'consumed' by the Lord's anger.

The days of their years were limited.  A man aged 20 who came out of Egypt

could not live longer than 60 years, and a rough average is given here as 70