SWITCHING SIDES

Early in my ministry, I gradually began to understand the meanings of scriptural words found in the Judeo-Christian Bible. The technique I incorporated into my preaching is known as “expositional” preaching. The Latin etymology is ex = "out" and ponere = "to put out," "to bring to light," and "to make visible." I often consider teaching as a process of unraveling a mystery. At first, the shell is hard and unfamiliar, like a concept we don’t quite understand. But with patience, we break it open, reveal the hidden meat, and offer its richness to those willing to learn. Using this mode of educating children of God has proven successful over my 48 years of ministry. This method led me to a particular “secret” sitting within scripture.

When one thinks of dramatic crossings in the Bible, the parting of the Red Sea usually takes center stage. But there’s another crossing that appears again and again in Scripture, each time marking a major turning point in God’s story of redemption. The place is called “Bethabara” (meaning “house of the ferry” or “house of the ford”), and the Bible quietly ties four epic events to this place of transition. A transition or moving from one side to another.

After 40 years of wandering, the nation of Israel finally stands on the east bank of the Jordan, ready to enter Canaan, the promised land. God tells Joshua that the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant must step into the flooded river first. The moment their feet touch the water, the Jordan stops flowing and stands in a heap all the way back to the city of Adam (Joshua 3:15-16). I have always thought that the river, which reaches back to Adam, holds a specific symbolic meaning.

This is the very first time God’s people crossed the Jordan on dry land into the land He promised to Abraham. The location? Tradition and most scholars place it at “Bethabara,” the same ford later identified in John’s Gospel.

Centuries later, Elijah knows his time on earth is coming to an end. He and Elisha travel from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and finally to the Jordan River. At the same spot where Israel once crossed, Elijah takes his cloak, strikes the water, and the river parts again. The two prophets walk across on dry ground. On the far side, a chariot of fire appears, and Elijah is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha picks up the fallen cloak, returns to the river, strikes the water, and asks, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” The waters part a second time. The same crossing that marked Israel’s entrance into the land now marks the transition from one prophetic era to the next.

Fast-forward about 850 years. John the Baptist is baptizing “in Bethabara beyond Jordan” (John 1:28). The Greek text actually reads “Bethabara” in many ancient manuscripts. This is the same historic river ford. It is here that Jesus comes to be baptized. As He comes up out of the water, the heavens open, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father’s voice declares, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The same place where Israel entered its earthly inheritance now becomes the spot where Jesus is publicly unveiled as the Son of God, and the heavens confirm it to John.

After His resurrection, Jesus leads His disciples “out as far as Bethany” (Luke 24:50) and is taken up into heaven while blessing them (Acts 1:9-12). Most of us think of “Bethany” as the village near Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, but Luke and Acts both specify a location near Jericho and the Jordan.

Early church fathers (Origen, Eusebius, Jerome) and the majority of Eastern Christian tradition identify this ascension spot as “Bethabara beyond Jordan.” This location is once again the Bethabara region. Jesus ascends from the exact place where Israel entered the Promised Land, where Elijah was taken up in the whirlwind, and where He Himself was revealed as the Lamb of God.

The symmetry is breathtaking and amazing. Bethabara is not merely a random river crossing. It is the biblical “doorway” between the old era and the new, between promise and fulfillment, between earth and heaven.

Every major crossing at Bethabara signals that God is doing something decisive in the history of the human species. Mankind was transitioning from one era to another. “These things happened in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.” (John 1:28). We will soon see “…this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11), and we who look for Him shall make our final transition.