Crossing the Jordan Note Cards
by Rosemarie Adcock
Crossing the Jordan by Rosemarie Adcock is a depiction of God’s people crossing the Jordan river into the promised land after having wandered through a wilderness for forty long years. This crossing of a body of water differs from the Crossing of the Red Sea in many ways. During the Red Sea crossing, it was recorded that there was a wall of water to the right and left of the people, depicted with a wall of fish in my Crossing the Red Sea painting. During this Jordan crossing, the water was stopped a long distance away from where the people crossed. In Red Sea, the people left as slaves, with images of their shackles on the ground. In Crossing the Jordan, we do not see terrified slaves, but instead, equipped warriors, singers and musicians carrying the Word of God, into their promised new land. Pages from the book scatter in the sky, depicting God's word being distributed throughout the new lands.
The Jordan River flows at the bottom of a deep valley between two, sometimes three ledges, and the water is ordinarily less than 100 feet wide. The banks are overgrown with trees, and in the spring, the water overflows these banks. Occasionally the rising water can fill the ravine to the brim, making the waters extremely treacherous to cross, as it was at this time. The spies who had crossed into the land alone, strong young men, could swim across, but this would have been impossible for the entire nation. And unlike when all the people crossed the Red Sea, the waters were not already parted. This time the priests carried the ark of the covenant which contained the 10 commandment tablets, and passed before the rest of the people. The dangerous waters began to part only as the priests’ feet touched the waters. What courage! The entire nation of people crossed over on dry land and arrived just outside the great walled city of Jericho, where God miraculously caused the walls to fall down flat.