and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.
Go forward in faith though difficulties loom and you lack the means to overcome them; depend on divine sufficiency for what you cannot manage yourselves. Joshua's early rising shows how little he loved ease and how much he loved his work, setting the example his officers needed to see.
AI summary
Commenting on Joshua 3:1-6
And they commanded the people,.... In the name of Joshua, by whom they were sent: saying, when ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it: the Targum reads, the priests and Levites; so the Septuagint: it was the business of the Levites, particularly the Kohathites, to bear the ark in journeying, but here the...
When ye see the ark . . ., and the priests the Levites bearing it--The usual position of the ark, when at rest, was in the center of the camp; and, during a march, in the middle of the procession.