Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.Joshua 1: 2, 7The Jordan River is not impressive. Like most tourists who envision a river of Mississippi proportions, I was disappointed when I saw it for the first time. From where I’m looking at it now, near a popular baptismal spot, an average swimmer could paddle across the sluggish green water and back again without much trouble. I’m guessing that the river was much wider and more imposing in biblical times, before modern Israelis began tapping into it for drinking water and irrigation.But the Jordan River doesn’t need to be impressive in order to fulfill its role as a dividing line, a place of demarcation between old and new. Just as crossing the Red Sea represented freedom from the past for Israel and a way out of slavery in Egypt, crossing the Jordan meant the end of their desert wanderings and the beginning of their new life in the Promised Land.
