This is for you! “I will never leave [let up My care for] you nor forsake [loosen My hold on] you.”
Listen to these words: “So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua” (Jos 4:10). We looked at the ark in detail when we studied Exodus 25. In its construction, it clearly spoke of the Lord Jesus as the sacred meeting place between God and man. In its function, especially on the Great Day of Atonement, it illustrated His matchless ministry on our behalf. As it was carried through the wilderness, it suggests His constant companionship, the One who has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). Say, did you know those beautiful words are a quotation from the book of Joshua (ch 1, v 5)? But when we see the ark in the river, here we have acted out the fateful passage of the Lord Jesus into death, waiting there in the grave, and then triumphantly coming out into “the power of an endless life” (Heb 7:16). And what does our lead verse say? The ark remained “in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded.” Finished! Does that sound familiar? Along with His cry from the cross, these were His own blessed words to the Father: “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (Jn 17:4). So what happened when the priests’ feet were safely on the shore and above the flood line? “The waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before” (Jos 4:18). Death and judgment’s cold waters still bar the way of those who have no Savior, but for those who have fled for refuge to find forgiveness and safety in Christ, the river will be dry! Yes, the Captain of our salvation, the Author and Finisher, was first in and will be last out. Not one of His own will be left behind.