Scripture focus: Joshua 4
Disclaimer: Please forgive any typographical, grammatical, and/or content errors in the following notes. They are not meant to be an exact transcription, but rather a helpful guide for those who appreciate the written word along with the spoken word. If you have any questions on what was taught, feel free to reach out on our ‘Contact Us’ page.
There are many examples of memorials: Mount Rushmore, Washington Monument, 4th of July, Memorial Day. The thing that makes an object or day a memorial is its ability to point us to a person or point in time. There’s something innate in our nature that is drawn to memorials. People set up large vacations to see memorials and even on a smaller scale we can have figurines/models to remember.
The first thing that the Lord commands his people to do in the Promised Land is to establish a memorial. ‘Stones’ are mentioned multiple times here within the same context so as students of the Word we should pause and press into that asking the Spirit to reveal the purpose. We will do that, but first, the purpose of the memorial was threefold:
- For the world to know…
24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
People throughout time have been endeavoring to build better and more beautiful memorials. The Egyptians naturally come to mind so there is quite a difference that the Lord in his great might and glory asks people to stack stones. Chapter 4 would look quite different if written by us. Tens of thousands of men ready for war just crossed to their Promised Land on dry ground, witnessed the waters standing in a heap, knew their enemies just saw what their God can do and are melting in fear and the enemy city of demon worshiping, child sacrificing enemies is only a 2-3 hours march from the river bed. Any human general would have gone straight to the attack to catch the enemy by surprise and capitalize on strength and worry about pausing to build a memorial later – perhaps with all the spoils of war.
My thoughts are not your thoughts verse but God chase what is foolish in the world verse the lord works in his own timing and he is never in a hurry. When people look at the pyramids we think what an icon of collective human achievement it is. When we look at stones plucked from a dry river bed there is no physical feature in them that will steal the glory from the Lord.
Deut 9:5 says, “Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
This display at the Jordan was to show the might of the Lord has not lessened and that he who promised the land to Israel is faithful through the generations to deliver on his promises. While still looking at this from the perspective of the world, it shows the Canaanite people it’s not the Hebrews that they are going up against for battle. They’re going against the Lord of all the earth. They’re not fighting flesh and blood, they’re fighting the creator of the universe.
Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”
This time after crossing and the time after the battle – roughly a week – this time from the Lord is an act of mercy. God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). In many ways the book of Joshua parallels the book of Revelation. In that final book of the bible we learn of a series of mighty works of the Lord, of him releasing his judgment on the wicked. That puts his full might on display so that anyone who would ever come to believe in the name of the Lord and to follow him would have no excuse not to at that point as an act of mercy. But even still we read that some people would choose to not submit their lives to the Lord.
Revelation 6:15-17 says, “Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Rather than submitting they chose death. So these stones are to stop people in their tracks to remind them of the Lord’s might, but it’s also to showcase the Lord’s mercy and remind them who they’re really fighting against. Imagine how confident you would be if you were a Hebrew as well as the sense of identity! How could you convey to the next generation who didn’t witness it for themselves this deep sense of identity? This leads up to the next point:
- So the children would ask…
And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over,”
In a child’s natural curiosity they’re going to ask lots of questions and it’s our job as parents to be ready with an answer.
Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.”
Our answers as parents and elders help children to shape and mold the world around them and how they see it – their sense of identity. As a church we call this discipleship. It’s our goal – to teach the next generation of believers to pass on the gospel and reflect Christ to the world. Simply put, this memorial was a tool for parents to raise the generations with a sense of identity. By the Lord’s design, he had one representative from each tribe to select a stone. The Lord’s commissioning of this memorial and his instruction that its meaning should be passed down from generation to generation gives us pause to think about how much more of a blow to the pride and ego this would have been to the Pharisees. When John the Baptist was baptizing in the very river that the Lord stopped generations before he said in Matthew 3:9, “And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. And in Luke 19:40 when the Pharisees tell Jesus to silence the crowds, Jesus says, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
A few examples of one generation telling the next can be seen when we see the Lord rescuing his people in Exodus:
Exodus10:1-2 which says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, 2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Exodus 12:26-27 says, “And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.”
Exodus 13:8, 14-15 says, “You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lorddid for me when I came out of Egypt.’ … And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
It is still the chief duty of the parents to tell their children the works of the Lord and who he is.
Deuteronomy 32:7 says, “Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.”
Psalm 44:1 says, “O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:”
Which brings us to our last function of this memorial:
- So that they would never forget what the Lord has done in and through their lives…
24 […] that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Many will tell you that fear of the Lord is reverential awe and while that is not untrue, it certainly isn’t the whole picture. The meaning of the fear of the Lord entirely depends on where you stand before him. Anyone who’s not a follower of Christ who has come once and is coming again to bring judgment into this world – they really should be scared – hell will be a devastating reality for a lot of people. But that’s not what the Lord desires. The Lord desires that all would be saved and that none would perish (2 Peter 3:9).
Fear of the Lord for those who are currently following the Lord is very well illustrated in Joshua 4:10 which says, “For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste.”
It’s a pretty natural response, don’t you think? Their minds must have been flooded with the fact that they had no control of the situation whatsoever and their steps probably had a bit of space between them! When God desired them to show faith and obedience they desired to go back to slavery. No one needs to tell the Lord the heart of man – he knows how fickle we can be. So in his wisdom the Lord designated them to set up a memorial so that they would never take their eyes off of him.
Gilgal in Hebrew means “a circle of rocks.” This would serve as a temporary homebase while they’re going in and conquering the land, but it would not be where they settle. Everytime they came back home from victory they’d pass the circle of rocks. When they came back home with a loss they’d pass the circle of rocks.
In Joshua 4:19 it even mentions what season of the year it was – “The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.” There is nothing insignificant in the Word of God. They entered the Jordan 5 days before the Passover feast. The Passover was the feast that commemorates when the Lord had first taken them out of Egypt and we can only imagine what is going through the heads of the Israelites who were 19 and younger during those days who could have been alive to witness the first Passover and this one in the Promised Land.
These memorials that the Lord has us set up adds a depth to our relationship with him. Colossians 2:7 says, “
Although it helps if you’re able to connect something tangible to these memorials it doesn’t have to be – it just needs to be something that will always be able to point you to the Lord every time you see it or think about it. This will make an easy way to tell your children the significance behind it all while showing the world the power of the Lord in your life. These memorials could be a conversation you had with someone that changed the trajectory of your life. It could be the moment the Lord allowed you to hit rock bottom realizing the vanity of everything and how meaningless a life is without Christ. Maybe it’s the date of the overturned decision of Roe vs. Wade and showing you the power of prayer and God’s faithfulness. Maybe you’ve gotten a clean bill of health after some period of uncertainty in your life. Maybe it was a seed group you were a part of or maybe it was your first house. Keep in mind that the memorial doesn’t matter that much – the Lord used stones.
The Lord is sovereign and he can do whatever he pleases and we know that our growth in him comes from him. Without being intentional and setting these memorials and thinking about them you are severely capping your growth.
Remember the three functions of a memorial again: 1) For the world to know 2) So the children would ask 3) So that they would never forget what the Lord has done in and through their lives.
Testimony of Molly Savaglio, Mark wife’s…
Molly was born on August 22, 1997, the youngest of 5 kids, and she needed to be resuscitated right out of the womb. When she was brought to life, her mom named her ‘Molly Grace’ which means Grace from Bitterness. 18 months later her mom noticed that she was walking funny and she was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease and cancer combination. They were living 30 minutes away from the world’s foremost doctor and researcher of this disease, but the treatments weren’t working. In faith her mom drove to Toronto to a Benny Hinn healing conference. At one point during that conference Hinn asked all those who wanted to receive healing to raise their hands up to the Lord and receive it. Molly’s mom gives testimony that as she was sleeping, her hands shot up and her leg became so hot that she couldn’t even hold her anymore. Molly’s cancer went into remission and there’s no sign of it coming back. God is awesome! He is just as capable of taking cancer out of a little girl’s leg at a Benny Hinn healing meeting, regardless of his theology, as he is to split the Red Sea or having the waters of the Jordan stand up in a heap. Can you imagine what a story like this would do for you as a kid? Molly had no memory of the event, but hearing the story over and over, she cannot remember a time when she didn’t look at God as her heavenly Father. There was never a point in time that she didn’t love Jesus. With our first child on the way, this is a memorial that will be passed on. God earnestly desires to have a relationship with them for all time.
In the context of the book of Joshua, this is the first of seven memorials that he will set up. This event was a distinct event. Joshua who is old at this point faithfully witnessed and executed the events that brought them to this point. Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” These stones could have served as a boundary marker that said never again will we go back. We’ll not turn again to a spirit of fear but to the Lord. Our boundary marker of a Holy Spirit filled life is not the stones of Joshua, it’s the blood that has been shed for us by Yeshua – Jesus – it’s the marker of the New Covenant.
Communion