Why, that it is safe to go where the Ark goes.
That chest is the sign of God’s presence. There is the blood on the mercy-seat, and there are the angels of gold looking at that spot of blood. All the time the ark stood still in the bed of the river, the people could pass in safety. There are many Jordans for some of us to pass, but we need not to fear if God is there. There is the Jordan of Poverty. It is a deep stream, and the water runs fast: yes, but if the ark goes first, thou shalt not be overcome. Does Providence call on thee to go down in the world? Never fear! the Ark is there. “I will never leave thee.” We are thinking now of a friend of ours, not sainted, but saintly, who has seen great reverses of fortune, yet her life has been a psalm. She reminds me of a robin, for, like him, her song has been sweeter than ever in the dark days. You may have to cross the river of Persecution, but the Ark is there. When the three brave men preferred the furnace to idolatry, they found the Son of Man in the flames waiting for them, and so shall you.
And when it comes to the Jordan of Death, we shall know the Ark has gone on before. Some of you lame ones will step it out bravely when you see the Ark. Don’t you remember, that good old “Ready to Halt” left his crutches
on the bank? It was because he could see the Ark in the bed of the river.
Do not these stones teach that
God honours faith?
Brave Levites! Who can help admiring them, to carry that Ark right into the stream; for the waters were not divided till their feet dipped in the water (ver. 15.) God had not promised aught else. This is what is needed—what Jabez Bunting was wont to call “Obstinate faith,” that the promise sees and “looks to that alone.” You can fancy how the people would watch these holy men march on, and some of the by-standers would be saying, “You would not catch me running the risk. Why, man, the ark will be carried away?” Not so, “the priests stood firm on dry ground.”
We must not overlook the fact that Faith on our part helps God to carry out His plans. “Come up to the help of the Lord.” The Ark had staves for the shoulders. Even the Ark did not move of itself, it was carried. When God is the architect, men are the masons and labourers. Faith assists God. It can stop the mouth of lions and quench the violence of fire. It yet honours God, and God honours it. O for this faith that will go on, leaving God to fulfil His promise when He sees fit! Fellow-Levites, let us shoulder our load, and do not let us look as if we were carrying God’s coffin. It is the Ark of the living God. Sing as you march towards the flood.
These stones we can see, remind us of other stones we cannot see (verse 9.) “And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there unto this day.” Will these stones ever be found?
More unlikely things have happened. Any way, they serve us as a lesson. There are things unseen as real as things we look on every day.