Setting Up the Cross
2005
36 x 36 in
oil on canvas
Biblical Themes, Easter
WALL TEXT
This painting is based on God’s instructions to Joshua as he led the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land:
“Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” (Joshua 3:12-13)
Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day. (Joshua 4:9)
"For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what He had done to the Red Sea when He dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful, and so that you might always fear the Lord your God." (Joshua 4:23-24)
As with Abram’s sacrifice in Genesis 15, this is one of the most visually compelling passages in the Bible, yet I have rarely seen it painted—I’m not sure why. The pair of hands suspended above are those of Christ, who, after the Exodus and the Jordan crossing, would offer safe passage to the Jews.