“When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall inform your children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever” (Josh. 4:21-24).
God commanded Joshua to command twelve men, one from each tribe, to take twelve stones and place them in the middle of the Jordan River, and twelve stones placed at Gilgal to memorialize the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River by the people of the Hebrews. Your God is the God of signs and wonders as well as memorials to His signs and wonders (Ex. 12:26f.; Dt. 6:20-25; I Sam. 7:12). God nurtures the art of remembering Him because forgetful minds assure thankless hearts and lives.
God knew that one day the descendants of these original exodusers would ask their fathers for the meaning of the stone monuments. God wanted the very stones to shout of His glory. The twelve stones in the Jordan and the twelve stones in the Promised Land preached the gospel of promise and hope. They bore witness to the past and future, the living and dead, the Church militant and the Church triumphant, and to whom men had been in contrast to whom He wants them to become.
God purposed these twenty-four stones to assist their observers in rehearsing the miracle of worshipping a holy omnipotent God. God wants you to nurture memories of Him. He designed you so that your memories will form the culture of your family and society.
Every society has its monuments. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris memorials the heroism of the French soldiers on various fields of battle. The challenge is that most monuments glorify man rather than God. What monuments can you identify bearing witness to the triumphs of God?
Those without memories are without histories and shall drift from their moorings. The person without family stories is a phantom and his society vanishes. God says, “So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” These stones served as their Washington Monument – a national memorial to the faithfulness of their God and the obedience of a people who had nowhere else to turn.
Oftentimes memorials have words upon them that newcomers or disbelievers would prefer are absent – “In God We Trust.” The Lord’s Day is a memorial to the relationship between God and His Church that those within and outside the Church continually attempt to reduce to nothing (Eze. 20:12).
God intended for these grey stones to preach the miracles of a holy God. He wanted them to provoke a national catechism between the generations that would be recited from generation to generation. These were to become stones of remembrance whereby every parent took upon himself the responsibility of telling his children the story of the Lord’s deliverances.
These Jordan-Gilgal memorials would serve as stones of stumbling and rocks of offense to those disobedient to the word of God because they would be rejected by destroyers of the new holy society that was supposed to be built in the Promised Land (I Pe. 2:8). Nonetheless, for those believers and builders of a godly culture, these stones would be choice, precious and costly cornerstones (Isa. 28:16).
Even as the priests stood upon the stones in the Jordan, the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled away the stone that sealed the tomb of Christ and sat upon it (Mt. 28:2). The guards who saw him shook for fear and became like dead men (Mt. 28:4). Are you fearful of God’s holy stones or do they bring you joy? Do you participate in Communion at your church so that the bread and the cup are memorials proclaiming the Lord’s death until He returns? (I Cor. 11:26).
Joshua closes this gospel bearing his name with a warning to the people of God, saying, “Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, lest you deny your God” (Josh. 24:27).
Do the sacred insignia of your holy omnipotent God testify in your favor or are they your most severe critics? What are your memorials? What are the signs for your children to look upon? Can you give evidence to the memorials of your involvement in transformed lives, transformed families, transformed churches and transformed marketplaces?
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