Joshua 4:21-24
[Joshua] said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”
I remember moving from one town to another, just before I entered third grade. It seems small now, but looking back, I know I was worried about going to a new school and finding new friends. As it turned out, Danny moved in next door right about the same time we moved in. Danny was my age, in my grade, and in my class at school. God provided.
I did well in high school, but I tended to procrastinate. I even put off picking a college, or thinking about paying for college until my senior year. But one day I called a few schools, sort of picked at random out of a college magazine. One of them offered me a scholarship. And again, God provided.
After college graduation, married and with an infant child, we wanted to move back to Michigan to be near our family. But we needed a job. Which, again, God provided.
As we finished our first year of ministry, we began a transition to full time campus ministry, which required us to raise support as missionaries. It was one of the hardest—and one of the best—things we’ve ever done. It took our full attention for months, and nearly all of our savings, since we received only a small stipend while we were fundraising. But just as the money was about to run out, we got a call from our main office that another gift had come in, and we were at full support. We got our first paycheck that Friday. God provided.
Time and again, God has provided safety and blessing. And, even when things looked uncertain—or downright scary—He led us through those times on dry ground, into the place he has promised for us.
I don’t know what comes to your mind when you hear my story and think about your own pile of stones. I don’t know what times you think of where you didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, but afterwards, when you looked back, it was clear that God had done something amazing among you.
For the Israelites, this pile of 12 stones served as a reminder—looking back—of what God had done, and as a sign—looking forward—of what he had yet to do for them.
Some history.
The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for generations, but under Moses’ leadership, and with a few plagues at the powerful hand of God, they escaped Egypt.
As they escaped, God’s mighty hand parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could pass, and then drowned the pursuing Egyptian armies.
God led the people right to the Promised Land, but in spite of God’s past provision, the people doubted that they could drive out the inhabitants. “Compared to them,” they said, “we seemed like grasshoppers.”
So God sent them back into the desert wilderness, where he did not abandon them, but continued to lead and provide.
He led them with a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud.
He fed them with manna and quail.
By his powerful hand, He provided water from the rocks, and everything they needed to survive another forty years in the dessert.
And then they came back to this place—back to this river which separated them, with all their hundreds of thousands of people, and millions of livestock, and their forty thousand soldiers—all that separated them from the Promised Land was the Jordan River, which just happened to be at flood stage.
So, again, they sent a few people across the river into the land to scope things out. But these guys weren’t dumb. They had heard the stories about the previous spies—the ones who went in forty years before and were afraid—and they weren’t going to make that mistake again.
They came back and gave their report to Joshua, in chapter 2, verse 24, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”
And it was true.
The Israelites outnumbered them in population, military power and supplies. But the one thing the Israelites had that made all the difference: they had confidence that God was going to provide.
This is how you will know which way to go.
Joshua 3:1-4
Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. 2 After three days the officers went throughout the camp, 3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. 4 Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
Now the Ark of the Covenant is a prominent player in this story. Otherwise referred to as the Ark of the Testimony, it contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments and other relics—all reminders of how God’s powerful hand had provided for the Israelites in the desert.
It was to literally go ahead of them to lead the way to a place they had never been before. Joshua could have sent the scouts out first, had someone carry a flag, or sent any portion of his 40,000 armed soldiers ahead to lead the way.
But he didn’t. What went ahead was the reminder of God’s covenant with them and his faithfulness thus far.
The covenant goes all the way back to Genesis 15:18-1 “ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.’”
God had said to Abraham, who as of yet didn’t have any descendants, not only am I going to give you many descendants, but I am also going to give them a land to live in. I will lead them there, I will provide for them on the way, and I will give the land to them.
But standing there by the Jordan River half a century later, none of these people had ever seen this land. They knew God had promised there was a land, but that was it.
Have you stood in that place before? Not on the bank of the Jordan River, but along the bank of some other uncertain place? Where you knew that God had a plan and that He had promised to provide, but you didn’t know where to go.
We may not have a physical box full of relics, but we do have a testimony of God’s faithfulness. When we can look back and see how he provided in the past, it can give us confidence to step forward again when we stand in a place we’ve never been before.
In my next few posts, I’ll continue this study of Joshua 3 and 4, with This is how you will know that the living God is among you, This is how you will cross, and This is how you will remember.