The Typical Meaning of the Jordan River
by Roel Velema of the Netherlands


In the Old Testament, beginning with Genesis chapter one, God has set forth numerous word pictures to teach about the person and work of Christ- past, present, and future.

A foundational type is laid down in the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt and their subsequent journey to the promised land of their inheritance. This type is nearly inexhaustible in its teaching concerning both Israel and Christians. This type covers the whole journey from Egypt to Canaan, as it also describes the future redemption of the nation of Israel. But the type is also applicable to the Christian. The events in Egypt describe the aspects surrounding our eternal salvation, through the death and shed blood of an innocent other. The Red Sea points to baptism all in view of a promised heavenly land.

However, there is one significant event in this important type - namely, the typical meaning of the Jordan - which is rarely accorded proper emphasis, though it is of great importance. Christians would greatly profit if they were as familiar with the typical meaning of the Jordan as they are with the typical meaning of the Red Sea.

The Jordan as a type shows that the promised land could not be entered without crossing the Jordan:

"For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it," (cf. Deuteronomy 11:31).

"When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security," (cf. Deuteronomy 12:10).

"So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land that the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime" (cf. Deuteronomy 27:2).

The means of entering the Promised Land was by crossing the Jordan. Just as the Israelites couldn't leave Egypt, except by passing through the Red Sea, Scripture does not provide a way to enter the Promised Land apart from crossing the Jordan. And what is true in the "type," must also be true in the "antitype." The Christian cannot enter the kingdom of the heavens without crossing the "Jordan" in its true, correct typical meaning. And it is this typical meaning that we shall deal with in this study.

First-mention of the "Jordan"

"Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere - this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah - like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other" (cf. Genesis 13:10, 11).

Genesis 13:10, 11 provides a first-mention of the "Jordan" from the east. The text associates the Jordan and its valley with fruitfulness. A distinction is also made between the east side, the west side, and their separation. This distinction had to do with Lot - the man of flesh - and Abraham - the spiritual man. For one to enter the Promised Land he was to cross the Jordan to the west side. But the Ruebenites, who lost their rights of the firstborn, had to stay, along with the Gadites on the east side of the river.

The first-mention of the "Jordan" immediately shows its typical meaning. It has to do with matters of flesh and spirit. For the Christian, the matters of the flesh and spirit have to do with what the New Testament calls the "salvation of the soul" (cf. Matthew 16:25; John 12:25; James 1:21).

All of God's dealings with Christians (allowing us to realize the salvation of our souls) will, typically, begin to occur only after passing through the Red Sea, on the east side of Jordan. And only a continuing, on-going process having to do with the saving of the soul in one's life, will allow us to cross the Jordan from the east to the west side of the river.

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