thoughts on crossing the Jordan

[note: the formatting is being all funky, so there are no paragraph separations. sorry about that] John Waller has a new song called "As for Me and My House" [you should look it up if you don't know it, it's super good]. Well, the bride says, "we will cross over Jordan, we will claim all he's promised." At first that was my least favorite part of the song. I didn't really think it fit in musically or lyrically. But that's because I hadn't read the story in a long time. But I was excited because I am reading about the Israelites and I knew I was getting close-ish to that point. So I decided to wait it out. I think I was in Numbers or Deuteronomy then. The Israelites were in the desert. Complaining as usual. Forgetting God's great acts, as usual. A little later, I got to the part where people are told they will not be crossing the Jordan, into the promised land, because of their disobedience. Only those who are obedient (Josua and Caleb) are able to go to the promised land. [now the song is clicking]. It's all about obedience. So, because of having all these thoughts in my mind I was really looking foward to reading when the Israelites FINALLY got to cross the river. The closer they got, the more excited I got. And today, they got there. So now I have even more thoughts-- and even more reasons to be blown away. -- The Census in Numbers 1 says that there wre 603,550 men 20 years old and up. So, if we assume that that number stays relatively the same, and also assume that the man:woman ration is 50:50, we can double that number and say that there were more than 1,200,000 adults crossing the Jordan. So, this is 1.2 MILLION people, not including those under twenty years of age, all their animals, and all their possessions. Crossing a river. This is not Jordan Creek or Jordan Stream. Jordan RIVER. More than a million people. [As just a side note: this is very similar to the Red Sea passed by these people's parents. Not the Red Pond or Red Lake... but the Red SEA. Exodus 14 says it took them the night to cross it. woah.] So, I don't know what the deal is, but I've grown up with such a puny view of this story. When I think Israelites crossing the Jordan I think God stopped some water from flowing in this little river so that some people could cross over it. HELLO!? Our crazy awesome GOD STOPPED RUSHING WATER in this RIVER so "the waters coming down from above STOOD and ROSE up in a HEAP (Josh.4:16)" and more than a MILLION Israelites crossed over "on DRY ground until ALL the nation had finished passing over the Jordan (vs. 17)!" And this is such a tiny picture of the story. a small piece of God's sovereignty that we get to see. What an awesome God we serve.