Joshua 4:6-7 (Sign and a Memorial, John Lasken)

Joshua’s Commission, the Jordan Crossing, and the Need for a Memorial

Joshua 4 right now and it's a passage, it's a section of signs and memorials of taking account of what God has done so that you have that deeply into you as you move forward. Now Joshua, it can appear like a break in the action.

Let's review. In Joshua chapter 1, God has commissioned Joshua. He is now the leader. The nation is at camp in Shittim. The initial marching orders are going to be given. There are challenges out there.

Be strong. Take the land. Keep the law. But the initial promise was I am your Lord and I will be with you. So we move into chapter 2 and Joshua sends two spies into the land to go spy out the land. They end up in Jericho.

They end up in the home of Rahab and while they are there they learn that the people of the land are in intense fear of the coming of the nation of Israel. We move into chapter 3. We now have the passage as the people leave from the east side and cross the river Jordan and go into the promised land.

We know that the ark goes first and it's in the middle and that on dry ground as the priests hold the ark, the entire nation crosses over on dry ground. It's kind of like the Red Sea where God prepared a safe passage from here to there.

And so now they're in the promised land. This has been a long time in coming and now they're there. Well as we move ahead to chapter 5, we learn that the kings of the land have heard that God made passage for the nation of Israel and their hearts are melted.

There's no spirit left within them. We learn that the people then take the two steps of consecrating themselves for action. They get circumcised and they hold a Passover and they get their first look at Jericho.

So here we are in chapter 4. It's like a break in the narrative. I've had a lot of opportunities to be out on a river rafting with my brother and every now and then after two or three days of rafting, we take a break and we stop.

And there's reasons just to relax, think about what's going on. That's not what's going on in this chapter. There's purpose, there's need in this chapter. The nation is about to embark on the process of taking the land and a lot of things are going to go on while that's going on.

And so here they are crossing the land. Joshua 3 .17 says that they passed over. The priests bore the ark on dry ground. Israel passed over. They had finally made it. The wilderness wanderings were over.

And so now we're in chapter 4. And the significance of chapter 4 is going to be establishing a firm foundation of what God has done for you. So that as you go forward into the foray, as you go forward into the battle, you know that God is there for you.

Do you have that slide, Daniel? Can you put that up? Through every battle, through every heartbreak, through every circumstance, I believe that you are my fortress, you are my portion, you are my hiding place.

I believe you are. So in chapter 4, as they're going to be establishing this sign, this memorial, being able to know that in a battle, in a heartbreak, in a circumstance, there is a solid confidence because they look back in what God has already done for them and they can see what God has already done for them.

And because that's what God has already done for them, they can believe with confidence that God will do it wherever I go, whatever I do. And the emphasis here is that God is the one who's going to do it.

They're about to encounter blessings. Can they keep their eye on God? They're going to encounter testings and they're going to encounter failures. And through all of it, who they are, what they value, how they respond, their meaning, their reliance is going to depend on their relationship with God.

And so here in chapter 4, God is going to let them stop and set up, intentionally set up, a memorial. Now for me, other than my day of salvation, which is the most significant day of my life, the next most significant day of my life is, well, when Sandy and I got married.

She never knows when I'm going to do this to her. Think back to your wedding day. What happens? You get a new identity. And as you're going to be facing challenges, challenges are now met together, not on your own.

Okay. How you establish this relationship and how you hold on to this relationship is going to be key. How you play out in life is going to go back to your vows. What did you promise to your spouse? And to the way that you hold on to these vows and you as a couple go through, well, or maybe you don't hold on to your vows.

That's what it is. Well, for us, I think our biggest memorial that we can hold on to is the wedding ring. And you look at it, you feel it. It's a reminder of these vows. Honestly speaking, I had a second job at our wedding.

We wanted an audio recording of the ceremony so that we could play it back in future years and remember. I forgot. She asked me as we were up at the altar, did you get the tape? No. But we still have this ring.

We still have this ring. This is my memorial as I go forward in life. I'm not alone. I have a helpmate. I have a partner. So the nation has now crossed the River Jordan. God is going to help them. God is going to tell them, set up this memorial so that in the future, whatever you encounter, whatever you do, succeed, fail, you can go back to that memorial and know that God has done this for us and he'll do it in the future.

They're always going to have this. So as we go into chapter four, let's think about these memorials and we're going to apply that into ourselves and how we can stand firm on what God has done for us. Let's pray.

Lord, as we open your word, we are grateful for the lessons. We are grateful for the opportunity to study, to understand them. And as we think specifically today about anchoring ourselves, our lives, the work that you have done for us, let us be assured that you are our anchor in all things.

We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Starting in Joshua chapter four, I'm going to start at the beginning. When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, take 12 men from the people from each tribe, a man, and command them saying, take 12 stones from out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priest's feet stood firmly.

Bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight. Then Joshua called 12 men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed a man from each tribe. Joshua said to them, pass on before the ark of your Lord, of the Lord, your God into the midst of the Jordan and take up each of you a stone upon your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you?

Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel, a memorial forever.

This starts with the nation successfully crossing the river. Now that concluded at the end of chapter three, but that's where it starts. The word in the Hebrew for this passing is a common word. It's just a passing, it's just an activity.

But I want to say that for the Lord and hopefully for the nation of Israel at this time, this was not just a common occurrence. This was God specifically intervening. Something amazing has just happened.

They've crossed the river. They have stopped the wilderness wandering. They don't need that anymore. The pillar of fire, the cloud, aren't there anymore. They are now going to be following the Lord as the Lord leads Joshua.

They have now entered the promised land. And so God says, select 12 men. What's really cool here is that all the tribes are now going to be taking part in this. Select 12 men, one from each tribe. The entire nation is going to have their participation in this.

Do you remember the last time there were 12 men involved in something going on with the promised land? Let's go back to Kadesh Barnea. And the Lord told him, take 12 men, one from each tribe, go spy out the land with the intent that if the report comes back, the nation would go in and take the land.

But what happened at Kadesh Barnea? 10 of the 12 said, no, they're like giants. Where's grasshoppers? Yeah, it's a land flowing with milk and honey, but it ain't going to happen. We know the two, Joshua and Caleb, said yes.

What happened to their assurance? What happened to them being able to look back to the Red Sea? Well, let's go back just a little bit. As the nation leaves Egypt and as they're actually sent out by Pharaoh, and Pharaoh changes his mind and he sends his army back after them, where are they?

They're stuck, pinned against the Red Sea with the forces of Pharaoh coming against them. And what did God do? He delivered them. He parted the Red Sea. And so now we had 12 spies at Kadesh Barnea ready to go in.

They had no grasp of that memory of God's deliverance. And so they went into the land. What did they see? They saw the circumstance. They didn't see God. And they said, yeah, it's a land flowing with milk and honey.

This is a good thing, but they're giants. And in their eyes were nothing but grasshoppers. We can't do it. Did you see the emphasis? We can't do it. And what did Joshua and Caleb say? Yeah, we can't do it, but God can.

So we go 40 years later and now they're at the River Jordan and they're crossing over and the ark goes in and the water stops and they pass over and they successfully pass over. And Joshua says, take 12 men and each of them take a stone from where the feet were, where the priests hold the ark.

They have to go back into the river. They have to go in front of the ark. Oh, by the way, it really wasn't a good thing, a safe thing for the people to get too close to the ark at that time. There's a ton of faith going on and a ton of obedience, but they go in and dry ground and they pick up these 12 rocks, what God told them to do.

And they bring them over where God told them to take them. And they took the 12 stones. This is going to be a memorial. There are memorials in our life. There are memories in our life that are significant.

You can probably, if you're of the right age, and I say, where were you when the word came that John F. Kennedy was assassinated? Anybody who was alive and they know where they were or when the Explorer exploded, where were you?

Or 9 -11, where were you? You do, you know where you were. There's an interesting one and this happened on July 20th, 1969. Apollo 11 lands on the moon and we got to see this take place in front of us by camera from the moon.

All right. One small step for man, one giant step for mankind. I think that's pretty close to what it was. Well, do you know that today there are those who call it a conspiracy and a hoax, but you know what we got to prove it?

We got a bunch of rocks. I don't know where they are, but we got a bunch of rocks that prove that this actually happened. The nation of Israel has crossed the river Jordan and so that in time come there would be a sign and a memorial forever and in time come when the children would say, what are these rocks?

The nation could go back and say, God delivered us. God parted the waters one more time. God took us through the wilderness into the promised land. This is what God has done for us. You got to believe that if God can do that for us, God is on our side and if God is on our side, who can stand up against us?

So God told Israel, go take the rocks and the people obeyed and brought the rocks out of the river. But there's a second set of rocks. I'm going to read in verse nine. And Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark had stood.

And they are there to this day, a second set of rocks. Now the first set was prescribed by God. He told Joshua, take one from each of the tribe, 12 men go into the river, take the rocks out. There is no indication of God directing Joshua to do this.

Joshua does this on his own. He takes 12. The first set of rocks included the entire nation, 12 men, one from each tribe. The entire nation is involved. This is just Joshua. The first is going to be set up eventually as a memorial, as a sign for the nation to look at and the children would say, what mean these rocks?

The second set of rocks were put back in the river and they're going to be underwater. They're going to be underwater where really nobody's going to be there to see them. They're there. Why the second set of rocks?

Well, I don't know all of the answers to this, but I'm going to say this, that this was Joshua's initiative to take 12 rocks and to put them there. So why would he do this? Joshua has a unique role in that he is going to be leading the nation as they go into the promised land, as they do battle, as he deals with failures, eventually allotting the land to the families as it should be.

I think Joshua wanted something special that he could always go back to. And though he's not going to see the rocks, they're going to be under the water. He can always go back to that point where the Ark of the Covenant was held by the priests in the middle of the river on dry ground.

And he's going to know that he put 12 stones there and he can hold on to that during times of stress, during times of temptation, during success. He could always go back and know that God was with us.

God was with me. God established this. God put this together. Satan wants you to feel alone because then he can deal, then he can fight against it. Satan wants us to feel alone when we're in the battle.

God wants you to remember him. And so those times in your life where God has been special with you, setting up a way to remember that special time so that when you're in the midst of the battle, you can go back to that special time.

What a special way to have God with you at that point in time. Well, God does one more thing for them. In addition to 12 stones and then Joshua with 12 stones, God is going to put it together in such a way in this part of the chapter that the details are important.

Verses 10 to 18 are going to talk about those details. And just for time, I'm not going to read it, but I'll start it. For the priests bearing the Ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to tell the people.

And it's going to go on and it's going to talk about the people crossing and all that other stuff. If you are in a relationship, if you are in a relationship with God, which is an amazing thing, that relationship is most strengthened when it's based on details and specifics as opposed to generalities.

What do I mean by that? If in your prayer time, your prayers are very general and kind of out there. Okay, you're praying, but if your prayers are very specifically, Lord, I pray for my brother who does not believe.

And I pray for this September when I'm going to go get an opportunity to be with him. And I pray, Lord, that you open the door and I have an opportunity. I'm being specific. I'm being in a relationship.

Lord, I have a real problem with this certain intersection at Route 38 and Hartford Road. A lot of you know what I'm talking about. It just draws out the road rage in me. Lord, I've got to go that way today.

I want you to be there. Instead of being general, to be specific with the details. And so in this chapter, we are going to rehearse, we are going to restate all the things that happened so that when this 12 stones are set up, it's not that, well, God was there for you.

No. How was he there for you? What did he do there for you? So that when you get into the battle of the details, you have a strong, strong relationship. Okay. Details. I know it's not all teenagers, but there's a generalization that says your teenage son comes home.

How was your day? Fine. What did you do? No stuff. And the details are missing and you feel like the relationship isn't as strong as it could be. Sandy and I had the chance through the month of April to be in Scotland.

And there's a memorial. It's called the Culloden Memorial. The Jacobites. This would have been the clans in battle against the Redcoats. This would have been the English. And this was the last battlefield.

And so there's a memorial and there are piles for every clan that was involved in it that they could go back to. They're very, very steeped in who they were. Where we lived while we were there, there was this place called the Clan Macpherson Museum.

Not a big place, but you go into it and the details of who that clan was and their history and their heritage and the people and the events. You go in there, those people in the Clan Macpherson know their heritage down to the details.

Our opportunity to be in relationship with God can be general or it can be detailed. And to the extent that you're detailed allows you to have a closer relationship with your God when the times go. So what does he record?

Well, in verse 10, he talks about the priests and the ark. We already saw that, but he brings it out again. They obeyed and the river stood still. Do we have the video that you can show? I want you to put that up if you could.

I don't know if you've ever thought about this river. And if you had in your mind a very placid, slow-moving Rancocas Creek or whatever that the nation was outside of and needed to get across. And now you have the priests and they're bearing the ark.

And yeah, it's just a little pond and they're going to step, they're going to put their foot in the tip of the pond and the water is going to stop. That's what they had. That is the River Jordan in its southern reaches, that flood tide overflowing its banks.

That's what God brought them through. The details of what God did for them, it does sound amazing to me. If I think about going through a river that is easy flowing, that's amazing enough, but that's what they went through in obedience.

They stepped into that and the water stopped and they went through. And so then in verse 11, the ark remained as the people passed. Where was the ark supposed to be? The ark was always supposed to be out front.

But in this case, God said, leave the ark in the middle of the river and the people will pass by. And then in verse 12 and 13, we learned the Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh joined with. Well, we do know from earlier passages that those three tribes had asked to stay on the east side of Jordan because it was nice land.

And Moses said, okay, but when it comes time, your fighting men have to go. Settle the land. And when that's done, then you can go back with your wives and your children and your livestock. They came.

They came. And of interest, it says here, they not only came, but they led the way in obedience to God. Verse 14 says, Joshua was exalted by God as their leader. Joshua is exalted by God. After the crossing, it says that God told Joshua to bring the ark back out.

And it says after they were done, the river returned and it was no impact. Now, that video that we put up, this is something that I get amazed at. There were a lot of CFS, cubic feet per second, of water going down that river.

And it took hours for the nation to cross over. All of those cubic feet of water rushing down, there is no indication that there were floods upstream because the water stopped. There are no indications that once they were done and the water returned, that there was a surge because everything was normal.

It's just, God just made it that way. The fact that God just oversees all of nature. Think about the time that God stopped the sun in the sky. Well, we know that didn't happen. We know that what happened was the earth stopped rotating.

Now, being, being an engineer, Sandy hates it when I do all this kind of stuff. But one of the reasons why we survive on earth is because the gravity pulls us down, but centripetal force overcomes some of the gravity.

And if it wasn't for centripetal force, we would be squashed like a pancake because gravity would be too harsh. The day that the earth stood still, okay, the day that the sun stood still in the sky, the earth stopped, nobody noticed the difference.

This isn't a problem to God. The physics of our universe are not a problem to God. And so if you remember all of these details and you have these rocks, what did these rocks mean? Well, this is the day that God did.

And you can go down to the details and you can remember. This is a sign. So when you get into those trials, those successes, those failures, you know that you can rely on God. So the chapter now is going to end as the nation goes into camp.

Starting in verse 19, I'm going to read here. The people came up out of the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. Now, let me comment on that.

It was a long day getting across the river. That's a lot of time, a lot of people going from this side of the Jordan to this side of the Jordan, and then they're taking 12 stones and they're putting them down.

This has been a long day. They got another eight-mile hike. Gilgal is not right across the river. They crossed the river and they actually have to go up north of Jericho. Northeast of Jericho is where Gilgal is.

They had another eight-mile hike in front of them, but that's where God sent them. And they camped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those 12 stones, which by the way, they were not little pebbles.

We're talking about stones carried by these 12 men. They had to carry these 12 stones eight miles up to Gilgal. Seriously, Lord, can't we just set it here? No, I want you to set it there. They took out of the Jordan.

Joshua set up at Gilgal and he said to the people of Israel, when your children ask their fathers in time to come, what did these stones mean? Then you shall let the children know Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan until you passed over, as the Lord did at the Red Sea, so that all the people of the earth may know, so that all the people of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty.

And so that you, so that you may fear the Lord your God. Israel is in camp now at Gilgal. They set up the stones. This is their first look. This is their first look at the city. They're not far. They're only two miles away from the city.

And what they're faced with is Jericho. It's a fortification. Now there are two things. One, this is their first stronghold of the enemy that they're going to encounter. But two, they know from the spies who went to see Jericho, who were informed by Rahab, that the people's hearts have already melted.

At this point in time, God is going to place one more time the emphasis on Him. Go to camp. Set up the stones. Set up the memorial. Be prepared. All the details. Set them up. It is I, the Lord your God, who have done it.

Instead of having the people at camp thinking about Jericho and the task at hand and what they need to do and where they need to go and thinking about how they're going to do it, God has them focusing on Him, on His deliverance, not on the city and not on the task at hand.

I think the stones had four effects. The first is the focus is on God, His provision, not on the task. The second, it's a it's a reminder for them and for their children forever. Third, it says that all the people of the earth are going to know these stones have an impact to the nations.

And fourth, you're going to fear the Lord your God. So how does this apply to us? We're talking about the history of the nation of Israel. They've gone from the Kadesh Barnea, or they've gone from Egypt through the Red Sea to Kadesh Barnea.

That failure. 40 years in the wilderness. They've gone to Shittim. They've seen the river. They've crossed the river. And now they're in Gilgal and they're encamped. How does this even apply to me in the 21st century?

For us, God hasn't necessarily given us a pile of stones. Has He? I don't know about you, but I don't have a pile of stones in my backyard that I consider to be a memorial to what God is. Although that would be a cool idea.

We ought to try that. Put some stones down. But we do have the Holy Spirit and He brings this to us. We do have the Holy Spirit. We do have a personal relationship with God. We, like the nation of Israel, should have the memory of what God has done for us in detail.

So that as we move forward into Jericho and beyond, we're equipped. I got five recommendations of how you can do this. One, be specific in your prayer. When you pray, be specific. Recall the blessings that God has done for you specifically.

Confess to Him specifically. Let your prayers be frequent and specific. Second, teach these things to your children. A great way to learn something is to be prepared to teach it. Because when you teach it, you're reminding yourself of the specific details and you're passing these blessings on to generations to come.

Third, share the blessings that God has given to you to our fellow believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ. A great way to encourage you is to speak about it and to give audibly, to give credit to what God has done and to share it with somebody else.

And then fourth, give it as a testimony to the world. The world often recoils against the presence of a Bible, but how can they argue when you say, this is what God has done for me. This is what God has done for me.

Those 12 stones were going to be a testimony to the nations. Let your testimony be a testimony. And then finally, be encouraged when you hear somebody else talk about what God has done for them. Engage with somebody who is trying to share, hey, God did this for me over the weekend and engage, engage in that discussion and draw it out and be excited together.

We need to choose to keep God and his blessings in the forefront of our mind. The Lord has given us two ordinances to remember. The Lord's we'll do that next Sunday and baptism. I want to encourage you if you have not been baptized as a believer at this point in time to think about it, to think about the power of going into the water and being placed under the water and coming out as a testimony to who you are and to be able to give your testimony of faith.

What an amazing opportunity that we have. We're thinking about having our next baptism in September. I'd encourage you if you're not there yet, talk to somebody, talk to Jeff, talk to one of the elders, talk to myself or to Ben.

This is an amazing opportunity to take that proclamation, set it up as a memorial. I was going to say if the world attacks, but it's when the world attacks because it does. Satan is relentless. Some of the things you need to watch out for, one is complacency.

He is going to put you on the sidelines of inactivity. Discouragement when things don't happen and you feel let down, the thoughts of discouragement. And on the other side, the sense of self-sufficiency.

I do it. I'm good enough. I'm good. I'm warning you. Watch out. The world is going to attack. Have these memories of God being involved in your life where you've seen his hand in action. Take them and let them move you forward into what's going to go on.

I want you to remember the words that are written in 1 John 4, 4. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Hold on to that and hold on to him. Let's pray. Dear Lord, there are challenges that confront us in daily life, but there are blessings that are so far greater that you have done for us in our lives.

Just the miracle of salvation to the blessings of fellowship, to the ability to be in your word, to the ability to be in relationship with you. Let us desire that relationship and let us desire to let our knowledge of that relationship prepare us to be a memorial.

What you have done, you will do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.