by Vince Olaer | Devotionals, Morning Manna | 0 comments. This flood year is mentioned in passing in the Encyclopaedia Judaica: The Jordan discharges c. 875 million cu. Israel's National Water Carrier, completed in 1964, has delivered water from the Sea of Galilee to the Israeli coastal plain for over four decades, until prolonged drought led to abandoning this solution in favour of desalination. Though an old song says the River Jordan is “deep and wide”, the modern river is neither. 14:30); but, if we’ll stay focused on “Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Heb. A closer view of the bridge can be seen in another photo from the collection which is posted here. On the banks of the Jordan River where the Bible says Jesus was baptized, 15-foot-high reeds rustle in the wind. (3) The event took place when the river was at flood stage (v. 15). From Jesus’ time until the mid 20th century, seasonal flooding in winter and spring expanded its width to 1.5km. But so is the crossing of the Jordan River (see for example, Origen.) In the context of this chapter, Israel is about to cross into the Promised Land over a miraculously dry riverbed and this comment is included to give greater significance to the miracle. These photographs and over 550 others are available in Volume 3 of The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection and can be purchased here for $20 (with free shipping). So often God’s greatest miracles are reserved for those who are willing to step into the floodwaters, trusting Him to make a way through them. Now imagine a Jordan River in the rainy season and also at a time when all the water from its drainage basin reached this location just north of the Dead Sea. Homes along the river had been built on river sediments deposited from earlier flooding. By Seth Rodriquez. There’s nothing mentioned about the Jordan’s condition 40 years before when the 12 spies went into the land to check things out (Num. m. According to this statistic, the Jordan River discharged 50% more water that year than the yearly average. (Post by Seth M. Rodriquez) Joshua 3:15 makes the following comment in passing: “now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest” (ESV). Required fields are marked *, Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail. Your email address will not be published. After the exodus from Egypt, Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River on dry ground into the Promised Land, before taking Jericho (Joshua 3-6). 14-15). Fortunately the future of the Jordan River is looking brighter. Trust Him. After the exodus from Egypt, Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River on dry ground into the Promised Land, before taking Jericho (Joshua 3-6). Picture of the Week: Jordan River Flooding in 1935. Worth mentioning:We crossed over the Jordan River in the Month of Nisan, just before Pesach (the season of the harvest).In a natural way, the river can flood only from an extended period of continuous rains, or augmented by the snow melt- both of these ending before Nisan. 4) They crossed when the river was at flood stage. From the east, in Syria, flows the Bāniyās River. According to a 2010 report about the Jordan River (noted previously on this blog here), the Jordan River contains only 3% of the water that it did 100 years ago. This means that potentially damaging and life-threatening river floods are expected to occur at least once in the next 10 years. Learn how your comment data is processed. This was an unusually high year for the Jordan River and it “overflowed all its banks,” damaging and destroying surrounding buildings and roads. The Jordan River is mentioned some 195 times in the Bible with the majority of references occurring in the Old Testament. 10:13). We cannot serve a holy God with unholy minds after crossing the Jordan. “. Crossing the Jordan River was a key event in Israel’s history. Remember how Joshua’s men fell at Ai when Achan stole the possessions of Ai. What Does Crossing The River Jordan Mean? Or to put it in numerical form: So “overflowing all its banks” is not a phrase that is typically used when describing the Jordan River today. Ste-by-step way on how you can effectively improve it and use it in your context. Purchasers of the Photo Companion to the Bible and the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands are granted liberal usage rights for the images for personal and educational purposes. The question was “Would they believe God. For 40 years they’d wandered in the wilderness. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, as described in all four Gospels, just a few miles north of the Dead Sea and roughly six miles east of Jericho. Between the two is the Dan River, the waters of which are particularly fresh. 1 2 3. When they put their feet into the waters of the Jordan River, then the waters will stop running.’ Most floods have occurred between July and October. (5) The soft, wet river bottom became dry at Soon the river enters the Huleh region, at one time very swampy through neglect of ancient drainage systems and notorious for its malaria. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest” (vv. Freedom to develop it and produce your own teaching materials. It was during the rainy season that this story takes place and when that would happen the Jordan river would get wider and flood the area all around it. The prophets Elijah and Elisha were associated with the Jordan River on many occasions: Elijah lived for a time near the Jordan (1 Kings 17:5), Elisha told Naaman the Syrian to bathe in the Jordan to be healed of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:10), and Elisha caused a sunken ax head to float on the Jordan … 1,300,000,000 cubic meters per year in the past. The word Jordan (H3383) means "decender/go down/sink", and let us hope it is not into the depths/deep mentioned in Genesis 1:2. 1 2 3. m. and in 1935, 1,313 million cu. In 2005, 12 inches of precipitation fell in a 48-hour period over southwest Utah. 3:13; 4:23). Agriculture in Jordan contributed substantially to the economy at the time of Jordan's independence, but it subsequently suffered a decades-long steady decline. For more details, see copyright information. And, He will make a way for you when there seems to be no way. Hermon to the Dead Sea. The photograph below was taken in February, 1935. 26.7: The bridge at Scott County Road 9 and Carver County Road 11/Jonathan Carver Parkway will be closed. The date of the photograph above is around 1920. Despite its size being more of a creek than a river, only about 100 feet wide at its broadest spot, and maybe 17 feet at its deepest point, it has witnessed some important biblical events. More than 14 million people, roughly half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians, live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea under a single rule. Since the 300 years would be inclusive of the time between the crossing of the Jordan River to first year of Jephthah’s judgeship, it seems to support that the 480 years chronology of 1 Kings 6:1. 1:5). And, the Jordan River “overflowed all its banks because it was harvest-time.”. THe worst of it is time passes by and we suffer a dubble edged sword of evil. The author wrote an interesting article, but to understand Joshua 3:15, it has to be studied word for word in order to thoroughly understand what God was telling us, and it would take several pages of words for me to accomplish that task. Jordan River - Jordan River - Human imprint: Where irrigation permits, the Jordan Valley has been settled by Arab and Jewish agricultural communities. That’s why the Lord reminded him that He’d be with him “even as He was with Moses and would not fail him or forsake him” (Josh. So, I will attempt to briefly explain the words, so those whose hearts and minds have been circumcised to the Lord God will understand. The miracle was dramatic proof that God supported Joshua’s leadership, for it fulfilled Joshua’s promise that God would perform a wonder and it enabled the nation to carry out Joshua’s order to cross the river. The longest of those is the Ḥāṣbānī, which rises in Lebanon, near Ḥāṣbayyā, at an elevation of 1,800 feet (550 metres). Read the article: Sacred Jordan River. For 40 years they’d wandered in the wilderness. First, you should know that the word Joshua in Hebrew means "Jehovah frees/saves" or provides us with "salvation/freedom", just as Jesus in Greek means the exact same thing, and if you don't understand, either get a good concordance/dictionary or an interlinear version of Scripture with the words correlated to the numbers, but don't get depressed about words not defined, because that is precisely why Jesus left us a "Comforter", which is the "Holy Spirit" (John 14:26), and do as John told us in 1st John 2:27, because men die at least once (Hebrews 9:27), but the Holy Spirit lives forever (again John 14:26)and remains with us today. 12:2a), we’ll pass through/cross over to what He’s prepared for us. > The Jordan River The Jordan River stretches 251 kilometers in West Asia flowing to the Dead Sea. During the spring months, when the snows are melting from Mt. But before you rush to the Jordan with your camera during the next harvest season to snap a photo of this natural phenomena, let me save you some shekels by telling you that the flooding of the Jordan River is not something that happens today. According to that report, the river discharged 1.3 billion cubic meters of water in the 19th and early 20th centuries (but see a more conservative estimate in the quotation below from the Encyclopaedia Judaica). It’s likely Joshua and his fellow, former spy, Caleb, believed God could/would part the river; however, many of those following him were born in the wilderness and hadn’t witnessed firsthand the parting of the Red Sea. To show the contrast in the river’s levels, I have included two photos from that collection. Asked by Wiki User. Crossing the Jordan … 14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them. Joshua 3:14-16. The flooding mentioned in Joshua was not from natural causes. . .simple, childlike trust. Picture of the Week: Jordan River Flooding in 1935, Picture of the Week: Interior of Barclay’s Gate. Josh 3:14-17 It's springtime and the flax and barley are almost ready to harvest. Lost in a vast forest of papyrus, even the course of the Jordan could not be traced until, in 1869, “Rob Roy” MacGregor explored the lake’s few open stretches of water and discovered it. . 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, as described in all four Gospels, just a few miles north of the Dead Sea and roughly six miles east of Jericho. They key to victory was trust. Yet the miracle magnified Joshua not only by supporting his leadership, but also by setting him on a par with Moses. There have supposedly been times in history when the Jordan River was blocked by natural means, in consequence of an earthquake perhaps. (4) The wall of water was held in place for many hours, possibly an entire day (v. 16). If you look closely in the upper right section of the photo you can see the Allenby Bridge with its bottom edge touching the water. It is the second largest water source in the country. Freedom to develop the sermon outlines to contextualize it in your own situation. m. into the Dead Sea a year; its yearly fluctuations are great and are caused mainly by the Yarmuk: in 1933, 287 million cu. The Jordan River is mentioned some 195 times in the Bible with the majority of references occurring in the Old Testament. That’s why it’s important for us to live by faith, not sight. By Tom Smith Morning Manna Dated January 8, 2010, Your email address will not be published. Now, I hope you can see what I am attempting to get you to understand. Figure 1 shows the annual flood magnitude as the length of a radial line and flood timing as an angle. the River Jordan. The time was in the spring of the year, when the river is in its flood stage and therefore wider than its normal width of 90-100 feet and deeper than its average 3 … Jordan RiverJordan River The Jordan River is one of the most famous rivers in the world and is the principal river in Palestine. Hermon and cloudbursts are sending sudden torrents of water down the To understand the "Harvest", we must thoroughly understand the "Feasts of the Lord God", which is a marvelous study, because the harvest time will soon be upon us, and few are truly prepared, but God has His Plan, and it will come to fulfillment, regardless of what those who think they rule the earth may profess to know and do, because most humans continue to feed the flesh, but they starve the spirit to death. Find out more now! The first photo is a picture of the newly constructed Allenby Bridge with the Jordan River flowing peacefully about 30 feet below it. Now, this river serves as the eastern border of the State of Israel. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Dear Pilgrim, is the Jordan “overflowing its banks” in your life right now? Despite its size being more of a creek than a river, only about 100 feet wide at its broadest spot, and maybe 17 feet at its deepest point, it has witnessed some important biblical events. “So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Until the first decade of the 21st century, the waters of the Jordan River had been the largest water resource for Israel; lately, desalinated sea water from the Mediterranean has taken over this role. . Will you “step out of the boat” (Mt. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the flowing water stood still. 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