Joshua 3: 16-17
The waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap a great distance away at Adam (15 miles upstream)...completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. The Priests (not the Kohathites who usually carried it) who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground, until all the Nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
So the Lord caused the River to stand up like He had done with the Red Sea. The Priests carried the Ark, and the people had to be at least 3,000 feet away from it at all times (see verse 4), so they crossed up- and down-stream 1,000 yards from the Ark. They always had to be protected from the dire effects of God having rested on it, on the Mercy Seat between the Cherubim.
4 :18
...The waters of the Jordan returned, and went over its banks as before.
Just like the Red Sea had collapsed suddenly on the Egyptians, drowning them with no chance to escape; now the Jordan River also is suddenly released to flow normally again. Just like God stopped it with His hand, then took His hand away again. No natural explanation fits, it was obviously God.
4: 14
On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him, just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life.
God made sure that the people would listen to this new leader, so they wouldn't be scattered like sheep without a shepherd. (We are like sheep, aren't we!)
4: 24
That all the peoples of the Earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever.
God wants all the peoples of the Earth to know Him, and love Him, and live by His ways! He always did.
When God first made Man upon the Earth, they all knew Who He was, and when they turned away from Him they incorporated a lot of what they knew about Him into their own religions and sacred writings. That's why there are some similarities between them and God's Word. But only God's Word is trustworthy and can be depended on to tell us Truth without any error.
Our Creator and Maker is a God of Truth, and He wants us to know the Truth, because only His Truth can set us free from the chains and addictions of this life (John 8:32).
I know, because He set me free from my relationship addiction five decades ago, and that addiction has never returned, regardless of the varying circumstances in my life all those years. God is faithful to me, and I want to be faithful to Him, too.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
