Remember the Cross(ing)Joshua 41/29/17

Please open with me to Joshua chapter 4 in your Bibles. As you’re turning there, consider the importance of your memory. You depend on it every day whether you know it; it fails you every day whether you know it or not, if you’re anything like me. Even this week, as I went to print out this very outline for this very sermon, as I walked from that classroom back there to the office, when I got to the office door, I didn’t hear the printer running, and so I immediately assumed that I had forgotten to press “Print.” I went back to my classroom back there, and by the time I had gotten back, it did indeed start printing, because I did, in fact, hit “Print.” I did the same thing later in the same day, where I forgot whether I hit the “Print” button or not, and it’s those kinds of things that make me wonder how it is that I remember anything that I need to remember on a day to day basis. And if you’re anything like me, you might find that your mind is just busy—overloaded, overwhelmed. You’ve got things going on in every area of your life that you are thinking about all the time, whether you intend to or not. They just are there, and they dominate.

The Bible has a lot to say about remembering. I counted over 100 times in the Bible where God’s people are called to remember something that God has done in particular, or the other side warned about forgetting, about the danger of not remembering what God has done. And as we come to Joshua chapter 4, that’s very much what the focus of this chapter is, on God’s people remembering and purposing to remember this event, the crossing of the Jordan River, which, if you remember from last week if you were here, we already did that, more or less. Joshua chapter 3 ends with a notice that everybody got over to the other side essentially, and yet we’ve got one more chapter where we’re still, or back, in the middle of the Jordan River. But the focus of this chapter is very much on setting up a memorial, a memorial that is supposed to be used throughout Israel’s generations to remember this event, what God did for them at the Jordan River.

So, let’s dive into the story. I’m not going to walk through it completely verse by verse; I’m going to pull out a couple of pieces and put them in at the end. The story is told about how this memorial pillar is going to get built, and then at two different places in the story, Joshua kind of pauses to talk about the significance and what they’re supposed to do with it, and I want to talk about those last. What is this pillar for? What are these stones for? And so we’re going to pull those two pieces out last and talk about them. But let’s begin. Verses 1-6 tell us about twelve men and twelve stones. So, look at Joshua chapter 4 verses 1-6: When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, Yahweh said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. We’ll stop right there for now.

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So, Joshua’s already picked out these twelve men from each of the twelve tribes. We heard about that back in chapter 3, verse seven, I think it is. Chapter 3 verse 12. Chapter 3 verse 12 already told us about that, but it didn’t tell us why he did it. And so Joshua, it seems, either already was aware that he was going to need representatives from each of the twelve tribes to do something, and so he’s already picked up twelve men. And so, when chapter 4 begins, everybody is already on the other side of the Jordan River; all the people are over, but we’ve kind of rewinded the tape a little bit, so that the priests who are holding the ark of the covenant, the symbol of the presence of God, are still standing in the Jordan Riverbed. So, they’re standing out there in the midst, the pathway that is the Jordan, and all of Israel is on the other side; they’ve already passed over, and so then God speaks to Joshua and tells him to take these twelve men and send them back into the riverbed to pick up twelve stones. Now, look again at verse 3 and the way the command is given; there’s a particular purpose given here for what they’re doing: “Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly.” So, it’s right where the priests are standing; they’re holding the ark of the covenant in the middle, and they’re in the riverbed, and there are presumably all of these stones all around that have just settled there over time at the bottom of the river. The raging of the Jordan River that Pastor Barry described for us last week has embedded these stones in the ground, and over time washed them and smoothened them out, it seems, and they’re there. And so, to commemorate this very spot where the priests held God’s presence in the midst of the river, they’re supposed to pick up twelve stones.

And then, look at the end of verse 3: “Bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.” Now, what you can’t see in English there is that the Hebrew word that’s used is the same word that we’ve seen already in Joshua for God giving the people rest in the land.1 God is going to cause the people of Israel to rest in the land of Canaan, and now he’s instructing these twelve men to take twelve stones and cause them to rest in the land of Canaan, “in the place where you lodge tonight.” We don’t find out the name of this place until the end of the story; Gilgal will be this location, this lodging place for the night. They’re going to set them down to rest, and I hope it’s apparent to you that these twelve stones are intended to represent the whole people of Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel, so that what God did really and truly and literally for the people, these twelve men are to do symbolically for these twelve stones. They’re to “give them rest” in the land.2

And so they will. Joshua sends the men, the twelve men that he’s picked, in verse 5, back into the riverbed, where the priests are standing holding the ark in the midst of the Jordan, and notice the way that the command is given to them. You start to visualize what’s going on here. Verse 5: “Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of Yahweh your God.’” So, go right up to where they’re standing holding the ark, “and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder.” Note that detail. What that tells us is that these are not little pebbles; these are not small stones that they can carry in their hands; these are huge boulder-like stones that they have to get down and pick up and hoist up onto their shoulders. Each man carries one stone up on his shoulder, hoisted up to be transported across the riverbed and over to their lodging place, where they’ll be set down

1 See Josh. 1:13 and 15, and, later in the book, 21:44; 22:4; 23:1.2 Cf. David M. Howard, Jr., Joshua (The New American Commentary 5; Nashville: Broadman & Holman,

1998), pg. 134, who writes, “Surprisingly, the word the NIV renders as ‘put them down’ is literally ‘cause them to rest.’ The word choice—‘rest’ rather than the more common ‘set’ or ‘place’—may be intentional, tying even the memorial stones into the theme of ‘rest’ in the book.”

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and dealt with later. So, these are big, big stones that were to be chosen here, that are at the bottom, normally sitting at the bottom of the rushing river.

But the purpose is given at the beginning of verse 6; these stones are to be “a sign among you,” a sign that’s to tell you, to remind you of something. These stones won’t have any words on them; there won’t be any written placard or anything to explain it. We’ll see later that it’s the family’s job, the father’s job to explain the significance, to tell the story for generations to come.3

Skip down to verse 8, and we can see the rest of the story. We’ve seen the instructions, and then verses 8-10 give us the obedience and tell us that they actually did it. Verse 8: And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as Yahweh told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. That’s that same word, “they caused them to rest there.”

Now, when we come to verse 9, we hit a bit of a wrinkle that everybody kind of wrestles with and looks at. You can see the problem if you’re reading the ESV, or you’re listening to me read the ESV, but many other versions tell the story in verse 9 and make it sound like at least that Joshua has gone back into the riverbed and picked up twelve more stones, a second set of twelve stones. Listen to the way the ESV puts it: And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day. Now, this has puzzled students of Scripture forever and ever and ever and ever, and probably will continue to be a difficult text. Truly, verse 9 is really difficult to translate into English period. It’s just hard. It’s got some weird syntax to it. And so many students of Scripture do, in fact, conclude that’s exactly what Joshua did; he went back into the riverbed, he found twelve more stones, and he set them up right there in the middle of the Jordan River to remain. Now, if you think about it, this is one of the things that caused me to question whether that’s really what’s going on: when would people be able to see this thing? If it’s in the middle of the Jordan, once God sends the waters rushing back over it, presumably the waters are going to cover it; it’s not going to be visible to anybody. Perhaps, in the rest of the year—because we’ve already been told at least once, and we’ll see it again, that the river’s at flood stage; it’s overflowing its banks—so maybe the rest of the year, when it’s lower down, then they’ll be able to see the memorial in the middle of the Jordan kind of peeking up over the water level. Perhaps. Or maybe it’s just something for God, a memorial for God, because he’ll be able to see it; that’s what some students of Scripture have suggested.4 The other way of viewing, and the way I personally think is slightly more likely, is that we’re focusing in on the stones themselves. It’s the same stones that we’ve been talking about; it’s just worded strangely. What you see in English, and what makes the difficulty, is you put Joshua first there in verse 9: “And

3 Cf. Robert L. Hubbard, Jr., “‘What Do These Stones Mean?’: Biblical Theology and a Motif in Joshua,” Bulletin for Biblical Research 11:1 (2001): pg. 12, who writes, “But, though tangibly attesting unusual past events, the silent stones bore merely mute testimony. They bore no inscription to report their history or to explain their meaning. Only the community, through an adult’s answer, removed their ambiguity. Only communal remembrance conveyed their meaning (probably the very wording that we read here) from one generation to the next.”

4 See Rhett P. Dodson, Every Promise of Your Word: The Gospel According to Joshua (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016), pgs. 80-82, who explains them as analogous to the two tablets of the covenant, one tablet for God and one tablet for the people, so here, one memorial for God (in the Jordan River) and one memorial for the people (at Gilgal).

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Joshua set up twelve stones.” But in Hebrew it starts, “And as for the twelve stones…,” which, if you’re just reading along, makes you think we’re talking about the same twelve stones. And so, it seems that the NIV has smoothened it out and made it to where there’s no difficulty at all; it says something like, “And Joshua set up the twelve stones which were or which had been in the midst of the Jordan,”5 and I think that’s probably what’s going on.6 So, for some reason the narrator has wanted to fast-forward7 the tape now to the end of the story, to say Joshua in fact, once they get to their lodging place in Gilgal, Joshua’s the one who piles up the twelve stones, piles them high into a memorial pillar. He’s going to set them up and he reminds us that these were the very stones that were right there where the priests were standing bearing the ark of the covenant.8 And so, I think that’s what’s going on; we focus on the stones in verse 9, and then we get this little reminder: “they are there to this day.” So, whenever the book of Joshua was written, after the end of his lifetime, it seems, perhaps shortly after, they’re still standing there. And that’s actually an important point to see, and we’ll come back to it in just a minute.

Verse 10 then focuses back on the priests. So, we talk about the stones in verse 9 and their destiny, and then we talk about the priests in verse 10: For9 the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that Yahweh commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste. So, the priests are standing there until everything’s done, until the stones are selected and taken out of the river, and when they’re ready to go on to their lodging place, which isn’t very far, it seems from the banks of the Jordan, the priests will then come out of the riverbed, and we’ll see that in just a moment.

So, twelve men have selected twelve stones, and we’re going to find out what they do with them in just a bit, but we’ve got to see what happens when they get to the other side of the river. Verses 11-14: And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of Yahweh and the priests passed over before the people. Let’s stop there for just a second. Notice the way he says it. “The ark of Yahweh and the priests passed over.” It’s as though the ark of Yahweh is independent; we know that the priests are carrying the ark, but the way the narrator tells the story is to remind us that they’re not really in control of the ark. Don’t get that misconception; the priests are carrying the ark, but it’s really the ark that’s leading the procession. It’s really the ark that is taking them where they want to go. The presence of God is the one driving the ship, and

5 The NIV reads, “Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan…”6 For a clear and simple discussion, see the full discussion of James Montgomery Boice, Joshua (Grand

Rapids, MI: Baker, 2005), pg. 39.7 This term came to mind from reading Gregory T. K. Wong, “Joshua,” in The Baker Illustrated Bible

Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012), pg. 185, who writes, “Although 4:9 could be understood as the setting up of a second memorial of twelve stones in the middle of the river, it is more likely a ‘fast-forward’ report of the twelve stones taken from the river to set up as a memorial at the Israelite camp. This anticipates the more detailed account to be given in 4:20-24.”

8 Cf. Richard S. Hess, Joshua (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 6; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1996), pg. 120, who identifies four features that lead to this conclusion which are compelling to me; he writes, “However, the best solution is to recognize the following features: (1) the style of repetition and review already begun in verse 8 and continued in verse 10; (2) the similarity in language to the erection of the first set of stones referred to in verses 8 and 20; (3) the use of grammatical repetition to focus on a key feature; and (4) the unique and unlikely feature (in Hebrew grammar) of introducing a completely new topic in midstream with only a single reference to it. Thus a translation relating these stones to the first set is preferred: Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan.”

9 Hebrew, “And.”

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so it is that the ark of Yahweh, and the priests too, get out of the riverbed and go over to the other side of the river.

And then verses 12-13 remind us of the two and a half tribes, the two and a half tribes you’ve already seen back in chapter 1, the two and a half tribes that we might remember Moses gave them territory on the other side of the Jordan. But, if you remember, he instructed them that their men, their soldiers had to cross over the Jordan to assist the rest of the people of Israel to take the land of Canaan. And so we get a note here about the fact that they do go. So, verse 12: The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the people of Israel, as Moses had told them. Now, if we stopped there, we would be like, “Oh great! Yes! They’re doing what God told them to do! This is the faithfulness of the people on display!” But then we get a note in verse 13, and we have to ask ourselves, “Why does he even tell us this? Why does it matter?” And I think I have an answer. Verse 13 tells us, About 40,000 ready for war passed over before Yahweh for battle, to the plains of Jericho. Now, initially, you might not think anything about that number, that they’ve quantified it. Why does it matter? Who cares? Well, I think the narrator’s actually putting a little shadow over these two and a half tribes. We might’ve cheered in verse 12, “Yay! They’re being faithful!” But when we come to verse 13 we find out “40,000 ready for war passed over,” we realize there’s actually a problem. And, in fact, every time the two and a half tribes are mentioned in the book of Joshua, there’s something wrong with them! There’s a problem with them. And we raised the question a couple weeks ago whether there was something wrong with them in the place that they wanted to stay on the other side of the Jordan. You don’t have to turn there; you can look later if you’re curious, but Numbers chapter 26 gives us a census. I know that’s a really exciting part of your Bible to read, but it’s got some important information there. Numbers chapter 26 tells us the number of people in each of the tribes, the number of soldiers, the number of men for war from each of the tribes of the new generation. So, we’re talking about these guys. And if you like the numbers for these tribes, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, and then you divide Manasseh in half, the total is something like 110,580 soldiers.10 What that tells us—you see Moses told them, “All of you have to go across; all of your armed men have to go across to help Israel—110,580.”11 They only send 40,000. They’re not, at least totally being faithful to the Lord. Some of them are, but the two and a half tribes—there’s something wrong with them. Not even half, just barely over a third of the number of soldiers that Moses commanded to go actually go.12 It’s almost like the spies all over again that Moses sent; the majority of them, vast majority of them didn’t care what Moses said. They decided what was right in their own eyes. And so it seems that we have a problem with these two and a half tribes, and I think the narrator’s given us that number for that very fact. Really, we should be reading it, “Only about 40,000 ready for war passed over before Yahweh for battle to the plains of Jericho.”

10 See Num. 26:7, 18, 34.11 See Num. 32:16-27.12 Cf. Donald K. Campbell, “Joshua,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary (edited by John F. Walvoord

and Roy B. Zuck; Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1985), pg. 336, who writes, “The population of males in those tribes 20 years of age or older totaled 136,930 (Num. 26:7, 18, 34). The 40,000 soldiers (Josh. 4:13) were 29 percent of that adult male population—less than one of every three adult males.” Campbell’s calculation is incorrect, however, because he has forgotten to divide the number of soldiers counted in the census for Manasseh in half. Therefore, the actual percentage is about 36%.

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Nevertheless, the focus is not on them; the focus is really on Joshua and the people crossing over, and so verse 14 concludes on the high note, On that day Yahweh exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life. And we saw this back in chapter 3 verse 7, God had promised that very thing to Joshua, and here it is being fulfilled. Think about it. If you remember from last week and the descriptions of how terrified they could’ve been standing on the banks of the Jordan River, thinking, “How are we ever going to get across this river?” Lingering there for three days, watching the rush of the river, not only are they wondering, “Is God going to get us across this river?” but they’ve also got to wonder, “Is Joshua going to get us across this river?” because he’s the leader appointed; he’s the one appointed to get us across this river. He couldn’t have done anything if God hadn’t parted the waters of the Jordan, but, nevertheless, when they get to the other side, it makes sense that they’d say, “Okay! God got us over and Joshua got us over!” And so now they look to him as their leader; he’s confirmed in their eyes, and they can see that he is going to lead them into the Promised Land.

Well, verse 15-19 give us the final picture, as the priests come up out of the riverbed and go to the other side, and this really does give us a picture that, now that they’re in, there really is no turning back. Verses 15-19: And Yahweh said to Joshua, “Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up13 out of the Jordan.” So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned14 to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before. 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. Now, what we’re going to see in just a minute, is that Joshua connects the crossing of the Jordan River with crossing of the Red Sea. And so, what I think we’re intended to see here is that, as soon as the last foot of the last priest steps up out of the riverbed and onto the bank, the Jordan River, which you remember was piled high up at a place called Adam, like a few miles up the way, upstream so to speak, is suddenly going to come crashing back down and overflowing its banks as it had been before. Well, at that moment, I think there’s a visual that’s given to them; the way is shut; you can’t go back. Now, obviously they could cross the Jordan River again, and they will at times; they can get in a boat and they can cross the Jordan River, but think about the imagery here: suddenly, they’ve crossed over this final border into the land of Canaan, into the Promised Land, into their inheritance, and now the river has come crashing back down; the door is closed. In many ways, you can see the Red Sea as kind of a set of doors opening up to get them out of Egypt, and now we’ve got a set of doors or gates at the Jordan River that God has had to open up so that they can go in, but now those doors are closed.15 There is no going back, no going back out of the

13 The repetition of the verb “come/came up” in these verses is significant and probably is meant to recall the exodus events. Cf. Robert L. Hubbard, Jr., Joshua (The NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), pg. 160, who writes, “Thus, ʿalah probably intends to evoke memories of the Exodus (Ex. 12:38; 13:18; Judg. 11:13, 16; Isa. 11:16; Hos. 2:17). It says, ‘Israel came up out of the Jordan, just as they came up out Egypt.’”

14 The “waters returning” also probably hearkens back to the exodus story. See Hubbard, Joshua, pg. 160, who writes, “‘Waters returned’ probably marks another allusion to the Exodus, the return of waters over the dry path through the Red Sea (see the same phrase in Ex. 14:26, 28; 15:19; cf. Gen. 8:3). If so, linguistically the author twice signals his view that the entrance into Canaan is on par with, if not the climax of, the exodus from Egypt.”

15 Cf. John A. Beck, “Why Do Joshua’s Readers Keep Crossing the River? The Narrative-Geographical Shaping of Joshua 3-4,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48:4 (Dec. 2005): pg. 699, who writes, “Just

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Promised Land, and certainly no going back to Egypt. God had to remind them of that many times in the prophets, if you remember. But so it is, that they came out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and as Pastor Barry mentioned last week, that is the day which 40 years before they were picking out their first Passover lambs in Egypt. Not this generation, but their parents. But you’ve got to wonder: some of those were the children, some of those were the firstborn sons in Egypt that didn’t die because their parents took the blood of a lamb and dabbed it over the doorposts, and now in the Promised Land they’re getting to select their own lambs, because we’ll find out in chapter 5 they’re going to celebrate the Passover. Four days after this, they’re going to celebrate the Passover. Well, that means that on this day one of their first orders of business in the land is picking out a Passover lamb, a lamb that they would have to slaughter for their families. We’re not told about that detail here in the story, but we can assume that’s what they did.

Now, let’s talk about this memorial, these twelve stones. What do they mean? They picked them out; we presume they’ve brought them to Gilgal with them. Let’s go back to verses 6-7 and we’ll see what Joshua told them to do, and then we’ll come to verses 20-24 and we’ll see how he elaborates on that, and we’ll get the whole picture of what’s the point of all of this. What’s the memorial? How are they supposed to remember the crossing of the Jordan River? Verse 6, the second half: When your children ask in time to come, “What do those 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 Yahweh. 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. So, get the picture there: these twelve stones are going to be set up as a pillar, and the assumption is, the implied command is that families will come visit this place, Gilgal. They’ll come visit; they’ll come take a look at this memorial, and the children, out of natural curiosity it seems, will walk up; they’ll see that these twelve stones are stacked up, like not naturally, like this is not the way they’re supposed to be; “Some man did this; I see there are twelve of them; what do they mean? Why did we come here?” And you can envision the family taking a little trek out to Gilgal, and the children saying, “Why are we here?” Pointing to those stones, or the child looking and saying, “What are those stones about? Why are they important to you?”16 Interestingly enough, as you read through the book of Joshua, one thing that I had forgotten I suppose, Gilgal becomes kind of their base of operations. I think I’d always envisioned and imagined the conquest, you know: Joshua and his soldiers go into Jericho and they take that city, and then they kind of settle there, and then they move onto the next one, and then they settle there, and then they move on all the way up north through the land. But the text actually tells a different story; it mentions repeatedly that they go back to Gilgal, back to Gilgal, back to Gilgal.17 That’s like their home base, they’re camping there repeatedly, and so they’re camping around this memorial repeatedly as they go through the land. So, you can imagine as they go up against a new fortified city, or they’re

as the Lord opened the door to deliver the Israelites from Egypt by removing the water of the Red Sea from the path of Israel, so the Lord opens the door to the Promised Land by making the Jordan River a non-boundary.”

16 Cf. Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua: No Falling Words (Focus on the Bible Commentary; Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2000), pg. 39, who writes, “We can almost see it now. Fifteen years post-Jordan time an Israelite father and his six-year-old son are strolling through Gilgal National Park. The lad spots an imposing pile of stones. He counts twelve, and exclaims, ‘Hey, Daddy, what are those stones for?’ The son’s curiosity now becomes the occasion for communicating to him the news of Israel’s astounding God and how he unleashed his power for his people.”

17 See Josh. 9:6; 10:6-9, 15; 43; 14:6.

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attacked by incoming invaders from the north, they’re going back to their camp at Gilgal and they’re being reminded of what God did for them at the Jordan River, and that bolsters them to face the enemy that they keep on having to go against.18

But they keep on coming back to Gilgal, and the assumption here is that even in later generations, they’re going to continue coming back to this memorial at Gilgal to be reminded of what God did for them, how he dried up the waters of the Jordan. Notice how in verse 7 it gives credit to the ark of the covenant. “The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. When it passed over the Jordan the waters of the Jordan were cut off.” The ark kind of serves as like a “divine Crossing Guard,”19 saying, “You go there.” Or, better, when God’s presence steps into the riverbed, the waters just run away in terror. That’s kind of the image that came out in Psalm 114, if you remember looking at that at the end of our message last week. Psalm 114 connected the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan, and it described this terror that was the impact of how God comes in; God’s presence causes this fear, not only among the people but even amongst the waters! And so the water flees as God’s presence enters into the riverbed. So that’s what they’re supposed to tell their children. They’re supposed to tell their children, “This is what happened here for us.”

Skip down to verse 20, and we’ll see how Joshua kind of elaborates on this and expands the story just a bit. Verse 20: And those twelve stones, which 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 times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of Yahweh is mighty, that you may fear Yahweh your God forever.” So, here the emphasis is the same; the waters of the Jordan get dried up, but Joshua preaches a little bit here, explains a little bit to them here. What they’re supposed to tell their children is simply the story, the event: “Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground,” and, back to verse 7, “the ark of the covenant stepped in and the waters fled, so that the people could cross over.” That’s just telling the story to the children. But then Joshua adds a statement to explain to them, his listeners, why they need to be doing this: “Because Yahweh your God did; he dried up the waters of the Jordan.” But notice what he says: “He dried up the waters of the Jordan…for you…for you…until you passed over.” So, to the audience he’s talking to, God did that for you, but then he connects it back to the event at the Red Sea, to the exodus from Egypt: “just as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us…for us…until we passed over.”

Now, when I first read that, I thought, “Oh, he’s making a distinction there.” So, “us” means Joshua and Caleb and any of those who might have been there and survived; he’s making a distinction there. But then I realized, I don’t think he’s doing that; he’s actually kind of taking them back to the past and he’s saying, “for all of us.” This crossing of the Jordan is for you, but the crossing of the Red Sea, even though most of you won’t there, you weren’t alive for it, it was

18 Cf. Boice, Joshua, pg. 40, who writes, “By returning to Gilgal on a regular basis, as they did, since Gilgal was their base of operations, they would see the stones and be reminded of the power and faithfulness of the great God who was with them, leading them in their conquest.”

19 Phrase borrowed from Hubbard, Joshua, pg. 162.

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all of us.20 “Until we passed over”—that’s the way memory works in the Bible. It’s kind of strange, but many times people are called to remember something that God did even though they weren’t alive for it, even though they didn’t witness it, even though they didn’t experience it. God tells people in later generations, “Remember what I did for you at the Red Sea.” “But we weren’t there! How did you do it for us?” But that’s the reality of it all; God’s events, God’s work of salvation in the past, it’s brought forward into your very lives, so that it changes you, so that it grips you, so that it impacts you and affects you. Only God can do something like that; only God can cause you to remember something that you weren’t actually around for.21

But the truth of the matter is we’re to see this as our history, too. We’re to remember it because we’ve been told about it; it’s been revealed to us; it’s been explained to us. That’s what you and I need to see today, is that this story, we need to remember the book of Joshua is our book. We are a part of these generations that are future that are supposed to remember this event. Joshua is your history. You’re a descendent of Abraham now if you’re a Christian, and so this book is your history. It’s your personal family history. So, you need to remember the crossing of the Jordan River, because in some sense it was done even for you. Perhaps in a way the crossing of the Jordan River is intended to show us how God is bringing us into our inheritance. It’s what he did for them, for Israel, but it’s also what he does for us.

But the purpose here that Joshua gives, the twofold purpose is something that we need to marinate in for just a few minutes. Verse 24 gives the purpose of why God did this, and ultimately what remembering it will do for us. And the purpose is twofold; verse 24 begins: so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of Yahweh is mighty. God’s mighty hand has been mentioned many times already in the story of the Old Testament, and it’s usually referring to the events of the exodus.22 God’s mighty hand was what showed Pharaoh that Yahweh is the only God.23 God’s mighty hand is what brought judgment to the Egyptians and their gods. So, for all the peoples of the earth to know that Yahweh’s hand is mighty could be really bad news, and I suppose to hear that Yahweh’s hand is mighty, whether it’s good news or bad news for you depends on who you are and how you respond. Yahweh’s hand being mighty in drying up the Red Sea is what Rahab heard.24 She heard that Yahweh’s hand was mighty, and what did she do? She begged for mercy because, you see, she recognized that, if Yahweh’s hand is mighty to judge—and it is; and that’s what we see in the exodus story, that Yahweh’s hand is mighty to judge sinners—but Yahweh’s hand is also mighty to save sinners. And it all depends on your response. Rahab said, “I want mercy; I recognize who he is and I want mercy.” But most of the other peoples in this book are going to hear that Yahweh’s hand is mighty, and they’re going to say, “I don’t want any of that! I want to fight it! I want to overcome it! I want to see if I can beat it!” They reject it; they become even more hostile than they were originally it seems.

20 Cf. Hubbard, “‘What Do These Stones Mean?’” pg. 9, who writes, “Further, besides connecting locales, the comparison also connects generations: Yahweh dried up the Jordan ‘for you until you crossed over,’ as he did the Red Sea ‘for us until we crossed over’ (italics mine). The writer apparently reads both crossings as key turning points in a single history. He thereby portrays both generations—the Exodus group and the Jordan group—as one people of God. In effect, the comparison also tells younger Israel, ‘This is your Exodus.’”

21 Cf. Peter Toon, “Remember, Remembrance,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), who argues that fundamental to the meaning of the Hebrew root that refers to remembering is “making present the past, so that it can be effective in the present.”

22 See Exod. 3:19; 6:1; 13:9; 32:11; Deut. 3:24; 4:34; 5:15; 6:21; 7:8, 19; 9:26; 11:2; 26:8.23 See especially Exod. 3:19; 6:1.24 See Josh. 2:10-11.

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So, they didn’t see the announcement and the news and the depiction of Yahweh’s hand as mighty as good news; they saw it as really bad news, and they said, “I want to get away from it, or I want to beat it down.” Rahab responded differently.

The same picture is given to us; we’re faced with an announcement of God’s power. God’s power, when you’re a sinner, it can be really terrifying; it should be really terrifying! God’s power is against sinners. But God’s power is also for sinners, and he welcomes those who call out for mercy and ask for him to save them. So, knowing that the hand of Yahweh is mighty—all the peoples of the earth—that’s an invitation, an invitation to reject, an invitation to receive, and it goes out to the ends of the earth when people hear that he dried up the Jordan River for these people; it shows his power, shows his might.25

But then there’s a second purpose given that’s directed at Israel, and really it’s just the same thing: that you may fear Yahweh your God forever. Well, if you know that Yahweh’s hand is mighty, it should cause fear, but not the kind of fear that drives you away; and that’s the difference here. This is a fear that draws you close, paradoxically. It’s the kind of fear that says, “I don’t want to upset you; I don’t want to disappoint you; I don’t want to displease you. I want you to be pleased with me; I want to honor you because you’re so awesome, fear-full.” And so, the point is the same, but that Israel would cling to Yahweh forever in the face of this. So that’s the picture that’s given to us. The message of these stones has to do with God’s power in drying up the Jordan River and drying the Red Sea as well, to save his people and to bring judgment against his enemies. The crossing of the Red Sea involved God judging the Egyptians and saving Israel; the crossing of the Jordan River involves God saving Israel and judging the Canaanites. But, like Rahab, they could’ve embraced him, but so many of them, the majority of them, it seems, remain hostile against him.

Well, as we come to the end of the story, the end of this chapter, let’s consider some biblical reverberations. This story sounds out through the Scripture in a couple of different ways. One of them is kind of strange still to me, but I think it’s relevant. I used to write blogs back when I was in college and ironically had more time; I gave that up long ago for personal reasons, but I once wrote a blog, and I was embarrassed to find that it’s still on the internet, and so I’ll give you the web address in the sermon manuscript, and you can read it if you want to, but it’s called “The Gospel according to ‘These Stones.’”26 I was reading through Matthew’s Gospel, and I noticed something in the story of John the Baptist that was different. This was several years ago, and I’ve reflected on this more, and I still think it’s probably relevant. Matthew 3:9. You remember the story of John the Baptist? He’s out calling Jewish people to be baptized, where? In the Jordan River. And he sees a group of Pharisees and scribes approaching, and he calls out to them and chastises them, and this is what he says: 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. Now, I’ve always heard that taught, and I always read it and assumed that John

25 Cf. Hubbard, “‘What Do These Stones Mean?’” pg. 10, who writes, “Is its purpose here to unleash panic among the nations as the first salvo of Yahweh’s war (cf. 5:1) or to seek their surrender to Yahweh’s supremacy, like Rahab’s surrender (chap. 2)? Suppose other Canaanites were to respond as Rahab did. Suppose they also recognized ‘the mighty hand of the LORD’ and submitted to him. Would not Yahweh offer them similar salvation? In my view, coming on the heels of Rahab’s affirmation of Yahweh’s sovereignty and her bargain with Israel (2:9-14), the attention to the nations in 4:24 hints at just such a possibility.”

26 https://moroskerux.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/the-gospel-according-to-these-stones/

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noticed some rocks on the ground and he pointed over to them, and he said, “You know, God’s powerful enough that he can take rocks and turn them into people, turn them into believers, turn them into children of Abraham.” But, I was never really satisfied with that explanation; I didn’t really understand how does that fit with their presumption. Frankly, it seems like a silly argument to me, but I chalked it up to my lack of understanding at the time. But then, when I was writing this blog, I noticed the phrase “these stones,” and then I remembered the story of Joshua 3-4, and I wondered, “Is that memorial pillar still standing in Jesus’ day?”27 And I don’t have an answer for that.28 So, if it wasn’t, this is not true. So, you can ignore it. But I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody knows for sure. But, if it was, what if John was actually pointing to that pillar, piled high29 off in the distance at the place called Gilgal? He’s pointing to that, and he’s saying, “You guys think that you’re okay because Abraham’s blood runs through your veins, because you’re Jews. You think you’re okay. You don’t think you need to repent. But you’re wrong. Let me tell you why. Here’s what makes a child of Abraham: these stones.” And what he means is the message of that pillar, the message of that pillar that tells the story of how God brought Israel into their inheritance. That’s what makes children of Abraham. That’s how Rahab can become a child of Abraham. And that’s how any Jewish person becomes a child of Abraham truly. They have to believe the message that those stones preach, the good news that God is mighty to save. He proved it at the Red Sea and at the Jordan River. And they failed to see that. They thought their good deeds kept them in line; they thought their bloodline going back to Abraham kept them in line, but I wonder if John was making a point about this memorial pillar.

27 Very few students of Scripture that I read made this connection. One modern fellow mentions the possibility: E. John Hamlin, Inheriting the Land: A Commentary on the Book of Joshua (International Theological Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983), pg. 27, where he writes, “It was perhaps these memorial stones on the bank of the Jordan that inspired the words of John the Baptist that ‘God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.’” He cites an older article that argues for the connection in light of a potentially provocative metaphor that could have been used by John in Hebrew or Aramaic; see Oscar J. F. Seitz, “‘What Do These Stones Mean?’” Journal of Biblical Literature 60 (1960): pgs. 252-253. His argument includes these comments: “Moreover, these twelve stones had previously been taken up out of the river, to commemorate the day when ‘the people came up out of the Jordan.’ Consequently these stones, like the twelve tribes which they symbolized, could be regarded as once having been immersed in its waters, thus undergoing a type of…’baptism,’ before entering into the inheritance promised to their father Abraham….Against such a reconstruction of the geographical setting in the light of its scriptural associations, the moral exhortation of John the Baptist takes on fresh pointedness, since he is quoted as speaking of ‘these stones,’ as if like Joshua he were indicating some quite specific and perhaps well-known objects lying close at hand….To raise up children from stones is undoubtedly a bit of Hebrew wordplay, as several commentators have recognized. But why so definitely ‘from these stones,’ if not precisely because they were alleged to be the twelve stones traditionally regarded as a ‘sign’ or a ‘memorial’ to the children of Israel when they forded the Jordan in flood season?” The only other person I know of who has made this connection, at least in print, is Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (originally published ca. 1725; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), pg. 1620, who writes, “He was now baptizing in Jordan at Bethabara (Jn. 1:28), the house of passage, where the children of Israel passed over; and there were the twelve stones, one for each tribe, which Joshua set up for a memorial, Jos. 4:20. It is not unlikely that he pointed to those stones, which God could raise to be, more than in representation, the twelve tribes of Israel.”

28 There is a map that goes back to at least the 6th century AD that locates the twelve stones at Gilgal near the Jordan River as a site remembered by early Christians, but we cannot be certain whether Joshua’s actual stone memorial was still standing in those days. Read all about it here: http://servus.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/index.html

29 The text does not describe how Joshua arranged the twelve stones, but the verb “set up” implies the construction of a vertical pillar of some kind. See Daniel I. Block, “‘What Do These Stones Mean?’ The Riddle of Deuteronomy 27,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 56:1 (2013): pg. 25.

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Another biblical reverberation is just the pattern that we see here. When we connect the Red Sea crossing and the Jordan River crossing, we’re reminded that when God saves his people, he saves them out of slavery and into something else. He saves them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Really, the exodus is incomplete until we cross the Jordan River.30 And that’s a pattern that fits with the New Testament as well and our salvation. We could go to several texts, but 1 Peter 2:9 is relevant. Peter’s writing to a bunch of Christians, churches, that are probably largely Gentile, and he attaches to them a series of phrases that in the Old Testament were for the nation of Israel. He calls us: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. God doesn’t just save us out of the bad stuff; God doesn’t just save us from our sin; God doesn’t just save us from his own wrath. He does and that’s glorious, but he also saves us into and for good things to come, an inheritance, living in the light even now. So, God’s salvation is always by this pattern: out of Egypt, into the Promised Land.

Another thing that comes to mind as we study this chapter and reflect on it is the necessity of remembering. I wanted you to think a little bit about that at the beginning of the message, how it’s important for us to remember particularly what God’s done for us. And I was reflecting on 1 Corinthians 15, which we’ll talk about a little bit more next week. Paul, writing to these Christians, this church in Corinth, says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. So, Paul sees it necessary to remind Christians. And 1 Corinthians is not the only place of that, and really all of the New Testament are for this purpose. They are to remind Christians of what God has done for them in Christ, remind Christians of the gospel, and not just by narrating the events, although they do that, but by taking that message, that event that happened 2,000 years ago, and kind of applying it to the different situations and circumstances of life. That’s what the New Testament is largely. And so, it’s important for us to remember the gospel; all believers need to. And, I suppose the corollary to that is the reality that we forget. We forget that God has so richly provided for us in Christ, that God has forgiven all of our sins, that God has promised us an inheritance that should blow our minds every day. All of that is true because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we forget. We wake up every morning thinking about other things, wondering about how we’re going to get along in life, and not thinking about what’s most important, what’s of first importance, as Paul said there in 1 Corinthians 15.

The other way that we need to think about remembering is realizing that Jesus has given us a memorial as well. We have the table laid this morning to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and this is the memorial that’s been given to us. We don’t have a pile of stones that we go to; going to Gilgal now and seeing if there’s a pile of twelve stones out there is not as significant as this meal, symbolic snack, whatever you want to call it.31 1 Corinthians 11, we read these verses and we

30 Cf. Peter J. Leithart, A House for My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2000), pg. 108, who writes, “Israel left Egypt by passing through the Red Sea, and here they enter the land by passing through the Jordan. In a sense, these are different parts of the same ‘crossing.’ The Exodus from Egypt is not really finished until Israel enters the land.”

31 Cf. David Jackman, Joshua: People of God’s Purpose (Preach the Word series; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), pg. 56, who writes, “We all need to be reminded constantly of the most basic realities of our Christian experience, the foundations on which everything else depends, which explains the provision of the twelve stones at

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think about them when we take the Lord’s Supper together, and that’s good. I’m going to read to you the end of the passage, verse 26: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. So, we’re given this meal, this symbolic snack, this thing that we do together periodically here in this place, and what we’re actually doing is proclaiming Jesus’ death by putting a cracker in our mouth, by drinking juice. It’s a strange way to proclaim a message. Really, you can’t just do that and let it be done; you can’t proclaim the gospel without words; you can’t proclaim the Lord’s death without words. Anybody sitting here taking a cracker and juice in their mouth, they’re going to look at it, and they’re not necessarily going to see that’s about Jesus, unless you tell them that it is. And that’s why we have the rest of this given to us.

Gilgal and, for us, the institution of the Lord’s Supper.”

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