The Jordan River stood as a barrier before Israel entering the Promised Land. It was an obstacle between promise and fulfilment. Reading Joshua 3 and Joshua 4, one relives the crossing of the river twenty-one times. Beck wants to consider the significance of this repeated crossing of the Jordan. He first surveys previous scholarship on this matter before he makes use of a narrative-geographical approach to analyze these chapters. He concludes that the repetitive reference to the crossing functions as a way to shape the reader's view of Joshua and the Lord.