Revering the Word
Joshua 4 May the stones of your life speak to God's faithfulness.
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in Joshua chapter 4 and they are now going through the river and it's quite ceremonial and something that God wants them to remember forever. Imagine a river literally drying up in the middle of the stream for them to cross them and their children and God's wanting them to remember how his hand has moved in their lives. You know this was interesting to meditate for me this morning on what we're reading and I know we haven't even gotten into it yet but I want you to think about this. What are the memorial stones in your life? What are the things that God has done in your past? How he's blessed you? How he's helped you? How he's allowed you to come to know him? How did that happen? How did God orchestrate in your life? What are the things that he's done? That was the hand of God. He helped me through that storm. He blessed me in this way. What are your memorial stones? Can you remember and can you reflect on how God has provided and blessed you in your life? He wanted Israel to remember here what he did for them and I think it's good and right for us to remember what the Lord has done for us. You know I've been on this planet for 53 years. There's been a lot of things that I look back on and I say God I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for how your hand provided and how you moved and how you sustained and I'm grateful to have God in my life, amen. Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan the Lord spoke to Joshua saying take for yourselves 12 men from the people one man from each tribe and command them saying take up for yourselves 12 stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan from the place where the priests feed our standing firm and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight. I want you to picture this. The priests were in the middle of the river and when they put their shoes in the middle or feet in the middle of the river the water stopped and they stayed there. God was doing it but God was using his priests and even the Ark of the Covenant as a symbol of how God was drying up the waters so that they could walk through. Now all the nation everyone had walked through the priests were still in the water not actually not in the water but in where the water would be and they're standing on dry ground and they're they're marveling at this but after they get through to the other side and the priests are still there in the in the middle of the river God tells Joshua to tell one man from each tribe to go back in and where the stones are or where the priests are and there's stones in the river to grab those stones from the bottom of the river because you'd never even know those stones were there because they're buried in water and in those stones that were buried in water are now they're going to get and bring to where they're going to lodge tonight and they're going to set it up as a memorial so that they can remember this is how our children and everyone can remember what God did that he dried up this river so that we could go through. So Joshua called the 12 men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel one man from each tribe and Joshua said to them cross again see they have to go back to the Ark of the Lord your God in the middle of the Jordan and each of you take up a stone on the shoulder according to the number of tribes of Israel let this be a sign among you so that when your children ask later saying what do these stones mean to you then you shall say to them because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord when it crossed the Jordan the waters of the Jordan were cut off so these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever what an amazing thing to remember all that God has done God did this you guys this is a miracle oh that stones could speak you know imagine these stones and there's going to be another set of stones we'll see in a moment but imagine these stones that were set up now they ended up camping I believe at Gil Gaul tonight and they carried them there about a mile away because he said to take them where you're going to lodge so they set up those stones now where are those stones today isn't that interesting to think about I don't know that in Gil Gaul there's still the 12 stones there today you know I doubt it but I wonder where they are imagine if those stones could just like shine forth and show us where they are maybe ones in the side of a barn and the other ones in the side of a old house or something some are probably underneath the dirt but those stones are there those stones exist the stones that were in that river and God dried it up oh that those stones could speak this is this is not just some story in the Bible God dried up a river so they could go through on dry ground hallelujah thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan just as the Lord spoke to Joshua according to the number of tribes of the sons of Israel and they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there now Joshua did his own thing here this is kind of interesting then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing and they are there to this day so Joshua before the priest left and before the waters came back he took stones in the river bed itself and set up stones in the river and you know I just think he is feeling a sense of commemoration and just this special thing that God had did he they wanted to remember it and you know even back to those stones somewhere in the river Jordan you know there are stones and it might have moved a little bit obviously since then but there are stones in that river that Joshua touched that he set up to remind himself and just to commemorate what God had did for the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua and the people hurried and crossed and when all the people had finished crossing the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed before the people the sons of Ruben the sons of Gabb the half tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel they're fulfilling their obligation these are the ones that got land on the other side of the river but they're coming over to fight with Israel just as Moses had spoken them about 40,000 equipped for war crossed for battle before the Lord to the desert plains of Jericho yeah the priests just stayed they stayed in there quite a while to let everyone get through verse 14 on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all of Israel so that they revered him just as they revered Moses all the days of his life so the fact that God did this under Joshua's leadership gave people very high respect for Joshua so that he would better be able to lead them and we'll see that Israel does much better when Moses and then ultimately now when Joshua is in the lead but after Joshua moves on the waywardness of God's people really returns and I know they struggled even under Moses's leadership as well but they did much better than they would have and they do well under Joshua too because they they have a trust and a reverence for his him and his leadership now the Lord said to Joshua command the priests who carry the arc of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan so Joshua commanded the priests saying come up from the Jordan it came about when the priests who carried the arc of the covenant of the Lord had come up from the middle of the Jordan and the souls of the priests feet were lifted to the dry ground that the waters of Jordan returned to their place and went over all its banks as before what an incredible memory that would be now the people came up from the Jordan on the 10th of the first month and camped in Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho it's really interesting that it was on the 10th the first month and that's actually when they would get the Passover lamb and prepare it for Passover with happened on the 14th of the month and it's just interesting to me this is also the day that Jesus walked into town and they hailed him king of the Jews on the 10th of the month and then Jesus on the 14th on Passover you know died for our sins on what became known as good Friday but on the 10th of the month is the day that they crossed the Jordan and I just find that remarkable I actually don't see a note of that in my study Bible I don't see anyone talking about it here and you know in my preparation for this I'm sure somebody has but it's very interesting that God many times seems to do significant things on special days and and he did here too those 12 stones which they had taken up from the Jordan Joshua set up at Gilgal that's where they camped and they were to take them where they lodged it was a little bit a mile away he said to the sons of Israel when your children ask their fathers in time to come saying what are these stones then you shall inform your children saying Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground for the Lord your God dried up the waters of 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 and what a marvelous and wonderful and good and right thing it is to fear the Lord your God forever to have a high and lofty view of who God is to know that he is mighty to know that he has done wondrous deeds throughout his life and to not want to dishonor him to to fear him as a good father that I don't want to disobey and to honor him and it's one of the greatest things you can have in life is a fear a respect a reverence of the Lord your God and God is wanting them to set up this memorial to pass along to their children that they may fear him because it helps us to stay in the right and to do what honors God and to stay away from what dishonors God and by the way there's destruction for sin in dishonoring the Lord so having a proper fear of the Lord keeps us from the consequences of our own sin and it keeps us in the right and in the blessing of God and he wanted them to set up this memorial this and remember all that he's done and I would encourage you just to spend a few minutes to think about what God has done for you and may you never forget how God has provided for you how he has come to reveal himself to you how you've become a child of God how you've become born again and even the circumstances and events of your life where you look back and you see the hand of God and how he's blessed you may you remember them because it's good and right to remember all that the Lord has done oh that those stones could speak and may our lives and even the memories of what God has done may they speak to our children hallelujah and God bless you all.