Memorial Stones

Turn with me in your Bible to Joshua chapter 4. Joshua chapter 4. Tonight, we find ourselves looking and learning once again about what it means to have victory in our lives. The book of Joshua is a book of victories. It's a book about a man chosen by God to lead the nation of Israel into the promised land to help them understand what it meant to live a victorious life. Let me read to you chapter 4, then we'll discuss it together.

Now it came about when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe. And comm them, saying, Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging place. where you will lodge to night. So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe.

And Joshua said to them, Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God, into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder. according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, What do these stones mean to you? then you will say to them, Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, went across the Jordan, The waters of the Jordan were cut off, so these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.

And thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded. and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the LORD spoke to Joshua, according to the number of tribes, the sons of Israel. And they carried them over with them to the lodging place, and put them down there. Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant were standing. And they are there to this day. For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was completed 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. And it came about when all the people had finished crossing that the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed before the people. And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them. About 40,000 equipped for war crossed for battle before the Lord to the desert plains of Jericho. On that day, the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, so that they revered him just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life.

Now the LORD said to Joshua, Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan. So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, Come up from the Jordan. And it came about when the priest who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord Had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before. The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal, on the eastern edge of Jericho.

And those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. He said to the sons of Israel, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What are these stones? then you shall inform your children, saying, Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us. Until we had crossed, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God.

Forever. The memorial stones. Let me talk to you first of all about the int for these stones. It was simply a memorial to remind the people of Israel what God had done for them when they crossed the Jordan. They needed to always remember.

They could not ever forget. It says in verse number 7, So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel. Forever. You can never afford to forget the wonder-working power of God. And God says to Joshua, This is what I want you to do.

When everybody gets across, I want you to send 12 men back down to where those priests are in the middle of the Jordan. Carry back twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel. And you bring them back. And you set up a memorial so that those fathers will teach their children. And their children will teach their children exactly what happened on this day when they crossed the Jordan. Whenever I think about Israel and I think about them as a people, I'm always reminded about how often they forgot what God had done.

I'm reminded of Psalm 106 where it says these words, because it kind of reminds me of me. It says in verse number four, rem me, O Lord, in thy favor, toward thy people. Visit me with. Thy salvation. The psalmist says, Lord, I want you to remember me. And then it says in verse 6, We have sinned like our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have behaved wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand thy wonders. They did not remember.

Lord, we want you to remember us. Although we are prone to forget you, Lord, don't forget us. They did not remember.

thine abundant kindnesses, but rebelled by the sea at the Red Sea. Nevertheless he saved them for the sake of his name, that he might make his power known. Thus he rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up, and he led them through the deeps as Through the wilderness, so he saved them from the hand of the one who hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their adversaries, not one of them was left. Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. Verse 13. They quickly forgot his works.

They did not wait for his counsel. but craved intensely in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. So he gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease among them, when they became envious of Moses in the camp. and of Aaron the holy one of the Lord. The earth opened, and swallowed up Dath, and engulfed the company of Abir and a fire blazed up in their company the flame consumed the wicked they made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped molten images. Thus they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.

They forgot God, their Savior. I guess if you had to sum up the life of Israel, you could say they were a nation who forgot their God. Even though God told them, you've got to remember.

Even though God told him, you got to set up the memorial. Even though God said you should teach these to your children from generation to generation so they never forget, you need to remember the int. Was that they would never forget. Now I know that we can't go around setting up all kinds of memorials in our homes, in our backyards. But maybe you can take a notebook and begin to jot down the things that God has done. And call it your memorial book. Where you write down and they are all the wonder-working powers of God in your life so you can go back and review them and after a year or two go back and see all that God has done.

So important, isn't it? But not only the intention, but notice the location. Two of them. One at Gilgal and one in the Jordan. Gilgal became the headquarters for Israel when they were conquering Canaan. As we go through Joshua, we'll see in Joshua chapter 9, Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter 14 that Gilgal was the mainstay, the headquarters for the nation of Israel. So when those armies would leave the camp that day, they would pass by that memorial set up. For them to observe as he went out to fight the battles that they would face that day.

And when they would come home at night or come back after a few weeks, they would come back and pass by that memorial again because it would be the constant reminder that their God was. A God of victory. It would be a constant reminder to them that God would always supply, that God would take care of every need that they had, that God was supernatural in all of his work, and it would be a constant reminder, a constant encouragement. To the people of God as they would set forth to conquer the land that God had promised to them.

And Gilgal became significant in the history of Israel. It was there where Saul, Israel's first king, was crowned king in 1 Samuel 11.

It was where Samuel announced to Saul that the kingdom would not stay in Saul's family because of Saul's disobedience in 1 Samuel 15. It's also the place where Samuel slew the king of the Amalekites, Agag, in 1 Samuel 15, 32 and 33. It's there in Gilgal in 2 Samuel 19 that David was welcomed back after Absalom's rebellion was subdued. It was there in Gilgal in 2 Kings 2 and 2 Kings 4 where a school of prophets Were set up during the days of Elijah and the days of Elisha. God wanted his people to remember.

And when they would remember, they would have an obligation. When Joshua says in verse number 24, he says, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever. They had an obligation. To make sure other people understood what God had done. They had an obligation to tell them about the power of God, the glory of God, the work of God, the person of God. Joshua never wanted them to forget that it's not good enough just to remember what God has done.

You've got to help other people know what God has done. And you've got to tell them. So they will come to grips with the fact that your God is the one true God, is the holy God of Israel. Yet, unfortunately, throughout Israel's history, Gilgal became a place. spiritual adultery and harlotry when you read the book of Hosea and when you read the book of Amos. you begin to realize that Israel was condemned for worship in a false way false gods at Gilgal. When you read that, you begin to understand how quickly the truth begins to be hidden.

And people so easily begin to move off of that which is true to that which is false. Here was a place at Gilgal, a place sent up to train and to teach others about God, and it became a place of apostasy. Happens a lot in churches. The truth of God is no longer manifested and preached and held to a high standard. And all of a sudden, apostasy begins to creep into the church. And what was once a great church, or even once which was a great Christian university in our country. They begin to falter and go by the wayside because people, the people of God, don't stand strong on the truth of God.

But in Joshua 4, Gilgal was a place where the memorial stones were set up. But it also says that Joshua went down to where the priests were, holding the Ark of the Coven. And he set up a memorial in the middle of the Jordan. Now why would he do that? Why would Joshua go down and begin to set up a memorial there? Because it was going to be covered with water. Who's going to see it? Well, let me help you understand this.

The Jordan wouldn't always overflow its bank all year round, would it? No. When it wasn't harvest time, the waters would come back and they would begin to diminish in size. And as the water would flow over those stones, that memorial stone, that memorial that Joshua put in the middle of Jordan, there'd be that ripple effect over the water. That would constantly be seen as a reminder of what God did where the priest stood in the middle of the Jordan River. You can imagine what Joshua must have been thinking as he was down there putting the stones and putting the memorial together, recognizing the fact that God at this place had manifested his great, might power.

And it was a reminder to Joshua and to Israel, listen, we were there, but now we're here, and we're never going back. It was a reminder that Israel had crossed the Red Sea. They had wandered for 40 years. And now they had crossed the Jordan and they were at that place. Where God had promised them. And they were never going to go back the other way again. It's sort of like you when you get baptized. You go down into the water. You come back up out of the water. Why? Because you're buried in the likeness of his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection.

To walk in newness of life. When you are baptized, it's your testimony that says, You know what? I'm never going back again. I'm never going to go that way again. Why? Because I have crucified the flesh. I have died to self. And I'm living for my God. And Joshua believed in his God. So we move from the intention to the location to number three, the exhort.

It 's given twice. Verse 6, let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, What do these stones mean to you? Then you will say to them, Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these storms should become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever. Verse 21, when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What are these stones? Then you shall inform your children, saying, Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.

For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us, until we had crossed. Twice, Joshua repeats, You ought to tell your sons, you ought to tell your children. When they ask, what do these stones mean? Then you tell them exactly what they mean. Now think about that. Think about that. Joshua commanded the parents, commanded the fathers. To teach their children about God. I love what Alexander McLaren says.

He says the Jewish father was not to send his child to some Levite or. Other to get his question answered, but was to answer it himself. I am afraid that a good many English parents who call themselves Christians are too apt to say, ask your Sunday school teacher. when such questions are put to them. The decay of parental religious teaching is working enormous mischief in Christian households, and the happiest results would follow If Joshua's homely advice were attended to, you shall let your children know.

I begin to ask myself, why is it we don't teach our children about God? Why is it we don't sit our children down and say, Let me tell you about what God has done.

Why is it we don't do that? Why is it we depend upon the church to teach our children? The Christian school to teach our children? Why is it we, as parents, don't heed the advice of the scriptures and bring our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and teach them the truth of Almighty God? And listen to what Moses says in Deuteronomy 6. He says, And the words which I commanded you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your sons, and you shall talk of them when you sit in the At your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Man, you can't, you've got to teach your children. It's your job to do that. You got to make sure they understand it. You've got to teach it, number one, compellingly.

Why? Because these words are written on your heart. These are your words. These are words for you. These are words that you must understand. If you don't believe them, you're not going to communicate them. We teach our children, we teach them compellingly. Not only that, we teach them constantly. It says, And you shall teach them diligently. Hebrew word shan, which means to sharpen. When you teach them diligently, you are sharpening them. So you teach them constantly. Why? Because you have to constantly keep the blade sharp.

Because the more it's used, The more dull it becomes. So you must teach them constantly. You must teach them compellingly. You must teach them creatively when you lie down, when you rise up, when you sit. Looking for every avenue, every opportunity when you go to the beach, when you go to the park, when you're on your way to church, when you're on your way to work, when you're on your way to School, when you're ready to put them in bed at night, when you're sitting around the dinner table, teach them creatively.

At every opportunity, there's a new way to teach your children. Nick's you teach them conspicuously. Conspicuously, it says, Shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Go to Israel today, you see the Orthodox Jew. He's got these phylacteries that he hangs either around his head and they hang right in front of him or around his wrists. Because he literally takes to heart what God says in Deuteronomy 6: that I'm going wrap these things around my head and put them before my eyes so that my whole thought life, my whole eyesight, is focused on God.

Put them on my hands so that everything I work on, everything I do, is focused on God. And when an Orthodox Jew walks up and down the street, He's very conspicuous as he carries those phylacter on his body. Let me tell you something.

How do you teach your kids conspicuously? Very simply, this: what you do, you do it under the authority of the Word of God. Whatever you think on, you think on the things that are pure and true and holy and lovely. Whatever you see, you see with a spiritual eye, not a physical eye. And that will be a conspicuous form of teaching to your children because you will be such a different individual in their eyes, unlike any one. Else they have ever seen. And that's what we, as parents, should be, right?

We should be completely different than everybody else in the world. And then you teach them completely. Verse 24. So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always and for our Survival as it is today. This is for your survival. This is how you're going to make it in society. I'd love to be able to stand here today and say, you what? Israel did just that. But they didn't. They didn't. That leads me to point number four. The inattention to the memorials.

That's in Judges chapter 2. Verse number 8. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 1. They buried him in the territory of his inheritance. in Tim Eres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Ga. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which he had done for Israel. Now, how did that happen? How did there ar? Another gener that did not know. How could they not know?

Who didn't tell them? Parents didn't tell them. They didn't tell. Verse 11: Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down. Down to them. Thus they provoked the Lord to anger. So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the As. And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel.

He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them. That they could no longer stand before their enemies. Why would they even risk it? Moses told them: we get into the land. And you live in these places and drink their water and eat their food. And make sure you don't worship their gods. Make sure you teach your children. So they will know who I am. When Joshua died, and that generation after him, who knew the Lord, died, there arose another generation.

That did not know the Lord. That is so heartbreaking. And I wonder about your children. What do they know? I wonder how we are teaching our children today to know the Lord, to not forget the wonder-working power of God. How well are we doing at that? What is the application for us for these memorials? Why do we teach our children about what God has done? Because it's that which encourages us to live for Him today. It's that which educates them about how to live tomorrow. And it's about evidencing to the world the fact that God reigns supreme.

We need to somehow be able to sit our children down and explain to them exactly who God is and what He has done. I love the verse in the book of Isaiah, 26 chapter, 8th, verse. It says this. Indeed, while following the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have waited for thee eagerly. Thy name, listen, even thy memory is the desire of our souls. Thy name, even the memory is the desire of our souls. The prophet said, Our desire is never to forget our God, so we can tell the next generation. About our God.

So they in turn can tell the next generation about our God. What do we learn about the memorial stones of Joshua chapter 4 and victory in life? Let me tell you something.

If you don't tell your children, Who God is and what He's done. They won't tell their children. And then they won't tell their children. And the chain of victory will cease to exist in your family. You can never afford to forget.