The third chapter of the Book of Joshua quite clearly shows that it once belonged to the composition biblical scholars usually call the Hexateuch, concluding the account of the Exodus and of the people's receiving the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. Here there is a clear parallel with the crossing of the Red, more precisely the Reed, Sea, described in the Book of Exodus, and Joshua is shown here as the continuer of Moses' work, before whom God parts the waters of the Jordan just as He once parted the waters of the Reed Sea before Moses.

Some biblical scholars consider the text of the third chapter ritual, supposing that it is connected with some ancient sanctuary, perhaps the very one built in memory of the crossing of the Jordan and the beginning of the conquest of the land. Later it lost its significance as a religious center, and its sacred stones came to be perceived only as an old monument recalling glorious times long past. It is obvious that a ritual procession of the kind described in this chapter, with the solemn carrying of the Tabernacle and the Ark across the river, was possible only after the conquest: such a procession could hardly have been safe in full view of the enemy.

In this case, however, that is not important. The sacred writer is creating not simply history, but sacred history. By beginning the history of the conquest with a description of an ancient rite and including a ritual text in his account, the author wants to say that before us are not simply nomads invading someone else's territory in order to conquer it. Before us is the people of God, going into the land promised to them by God. Of course, God is not an advocate of war; in this sense there are no "holy" wars. But God must make a path for His people, if necessary even through war. War is not God's work, but a path through war and beyond it to the goal can be, if there is no other path.

Once again the Lord leads His people. Forty years later the exodus from Egypt continues, and many events of the exodus are repeated. It is as if the intervening years had not passed, and the people, after crossing the miraculously parted waters, found themselves after Egypt immediately beyond the Jordan on the shore of the promised land.

But these decades did not pass in vain; they were not a meaningless waste of time. In the wilderness the Law was proclaimed through Moses, and in the wilderness the people made a covenant with the Most High. During these years yesterday's slaves became a people led by the Lord. And now the visible sign of the Most High's presence is no longer in the pillar of fire, but in the ark of the covenant, carried by priests called to service precisely during the years of wandering in the wilderness.