They had a forty-year old memory of what happens in situations like this: Moses holds up a walking stick and the waters split like a Cecil B DeMille movie.
But Moses is dead. And Cecil won’t be born for another few thousand years.
The people of Israel are stuck.
“Don’t worry,” says God to Joshua and gives specific directions. There’s going to be a parting of the waters again, but it’s going to look a little different this time. This time it’s not going to split before they go. This time it’s going to split as they go.
The Ark represented God’s presence. The priests picked the Ark up using the poles running through rings on the sides, and put it on their shoulders. They walked past the crowd. They walked down to the edge of the river. They started to step into the water. Upstream, the river stopped flowing.
For the first two ark-bearers, this was a huge step of faith. There was a crowd behind. They might get wet. They might get embarassed. They might get pushed in. But for the first two guys, obedience meant walking toward the water, and stepping in the water, believing that they wouldn’t be walking under the water.
Me?
I wait for the water to split before moving. And maybe you do too. And waiting to be led is okay as we are still learning how to follow. But if you are learning how to lead, you are going to have to take that step of faith. And even a follower has to follow the Ark, God’s presence.
Steps God-directed, Joshua-repeated, but taken by you. And me.
300 words a day 
Rich Dixon
Okay, so the first two guys are afraid. Either that or they’re idiots. So leadership requires courage, the willingness to confront fear and do what’s right. I get that.
But why did they do it? Were they afraid to say NO? Did they fear ridicule, loss of their honored position, or God’s wrath? Did they secretly believe they’d be swept away by the water, but at least their families would get the life insurance?
Did they doubt, but go forward anyway?
Or did they absolutely trust that God would do as He promised? And if so, then did they really not experience actual fear?
I get WHAT they did. It matters what was going on in their hearts when they did it. Doesn’t it?
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Jon Swanson
I don’t know. when it comes to this kind of obedience, does it matter what’s in their heads and hearts?
Or does it matter that they did what God said?
{Of course, they had spent forty years watching what happens when people follow what God said to do and what happens when people don’t. They had seen with their own eyes. And so it’s possible that they assumed that God is consistent.]
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