Chapter Nine - Joshua 4

Feeding Your Faith

        In the last chapter we left the nation of Israel taking a step of faith into the Jordan River, believing that God was going to show up and do something. He did, and the overflowing river that was standing between them and the Promised Land stopped flowing, allowing them to cross over on dry ground. When they got to the other side Joshua, at the behest of God, had some of his guys do something interesting. He told them to go back to the middle of the river where the men carrying the Ark of the Covenant had been positioned while the people crossed, pick up twelve rocks, and bring them back to the campsite. Then Joshua went back himself into the riverbed and erected a monument of twelve stones, leaving them in the middle of the river.

        When all the people had crossed and Joshua’s monument was built, God unstopped the river and the waters began to overflow its banks once again. A couple of days later as the people were camping in Gilgal, they took the twelve stones that the men had gathered and built another monument to remind them of God’s faithfulness. It was a place where men could bring their kids and tell them of what happened on the day they entered the land.

A Picture of Gratitude

        Stuck in the visor of my truck today (and in the visor of every vehicle I’ve had for the past 20 years) is a photo of a 1985 Saab 900 (a car for you non-Swedes) that was taken on December 27, 1988. On December 26^th I was in that car driving south on a two-lane highway just south of Owatonna, Minnesota, when I came up on an eighteen-wheeler going way too slow. Possibly the driver of that truck was being extra careful because of the snow that was coming down hard and sideways, but he was in my way and I decided to pass him.

        In hindsight, I probably should have chosen a better time to pass, seeing as how there was a van traveling north in the lane I was going to use to pass the truck… but then again, hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. I was going about sixty miles an hour and the van carrying the Bain family was traveling about fifty miles an hour when we both came to a sudden stop… the van won the battle. I rolled several times and ended upside down in a snow drift with the mangled Swedish-made car on top of me.

        I don’t remember anything between the time I pulled out to pass the truck and waking up with a fireman holding my head as about ten other firemen used the Jaws of Life to cut me out of the car. But it was quite obvious that something had happened. In and out of consciousness for the next couple hours, I was rushed first to the Owatonna hospital, then to the trauma center at St. Mary’s hospital in Rochester where some of the best doctors in the world practice their craft.

        Despite the fact that this was a difficult time for me (even more so for the Bain family), I joke today about how the only permanent injury I sustained that evening was brain death… but in reality, I literally walked out of St. Mary’s the next morning with just a few scrapes and bruises. Every time I look at that photo I am reminded of God’s faithfulness and how He saved me for a purpose. When my son asks me why I carry that old picture in my truck, I’ll be able to tell him the story of how God loves me so much that He saved me from the natural repercussions of my stupidity so that I could be used by Him to tell others of His glory.

The Importance of Remembering

        Memorials are important. Joshua, here in Joshua chapter four, erects two memorials; one in the middle of the river that no one will see, and another that many will see. Does God ask Joshua to build those two memorials because He is a prideful, arrogant God who wants people to see and be reminded of His accomplishments? Or is there another reason? 

        Well, let’s get this straight; God doesn’t need a pile of rocks or a picture of a mangled car to make Himself feel good about what He did in the past. He made the rocks and every piece of material used to build the car, so those memorials are in no way for His benefit. They are for our benefit. We are forgetful people who need to be reminded regularly of how faithful our Lord is.

        A great example of this forgetfulness is Thanksgiving Day. Every year Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday of November, a day that Americans have set aside to give thanks to God for His wonderful and bountiful provision. The next day is considered Black Friday, a day that Americans stand in line for hours, engage in literal fist fights over Tickle-Me-Elmo dolls, and spend all day looking for deals on things we think we need because we just don’t have enough. The funny part is that the same things that we think we need will, in six months, be packed away in our storage containers to make room for the birthday stuff that we can’t do without. What happened to God’s bountiful provision? We forget! 

        When we set up reminders of God’s faithfulness, it helps us as we travel on life’s journey to trust God’s provision. We’ll remember the time He came through in our finances, and it will be easier to trust Him during the next financial crunch. We’ll remember how He showed up and comforted us in our sickness or tragedy, and we’ll look for that comfort and will trust that it will come the next time we are faced with the same type of circumstance. We’ll be reminded of His faithfulness to us when we didn’t believe, and it will be easier to believe in the future.

        We need to remember these things. Write it in the margin of your Bible when the Lord speaks to you through the Word. Pay attention to the ring on your left ring finger and remember how God supplied a wonderful companion for you despite the fact that you don’t deserve her. Be careful not to turn that memorial into an idol, as is sometimes our tendency. But don’t be afraid to place in your life both private and public memorials of God’s faithfulness.

        Below is the text to Joshua chapter four:

And it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan, that the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying: "Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them, saying, 'Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight.'" Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; and Joshua said to them: "Cross over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever."

        And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the LORD had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day. So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and crossed over. Then it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over, that the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people. And the men of Reuben, the men of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them. About forty thousand prepared for war crossed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho.

        On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life. Then the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, "Command the priests who bear the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan." Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, "Come up from the Jordan." And it came to pass, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet touched the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before. Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?' then you shall let your children know, saying, 'Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land'; for the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever."