Joshua 4:1-24 - Remember, Don't Forget
The Power of Remembrance
Well, good evening, church. I hope you’re having a good Thursday. I actually found myself reflecting a little bit about y’all this week, believe it or not. I’m creeping up on twenty years in Fresno; I moved here in 2004. I just started thinking about the depth of relationships that occur after twenty years. I’m really grateful for the number of you that I know in this room personally. Some of you know more about me than you probably care to know! Some of you, maybe we just rub shoulders together, but I’m grateful for the history of this church and what God has done through you, for me, and for our community.
If I have not had the privilege to meet you, my name is Mike Sladen. I’m one of the teaching pastors here on staff, and I get the great privilege of picking up where we left off last week. We’re going to be in Joshua chapter four.
We’ve been learning for these last several weeks the story of a faithful God. I thought Brad did a marvelous job last week. If you missed his message, you really need to go back and listen to it. I don’t say that just because he gives me a raise for complimenting him—he does—but I also say it because he was tremendous. He talked about how the Old Testament saints had the Spirit move over them and through them, and how we might get to heaven one day and think how awesome it would be to talk to Moses or Joshua about parting the Red Sea. But Brad made a great point: they’re going to look at us and say, “But wait a second. The very Spirit of the living God lives in you.”
Based on what we saw last week in chapter three, we are now on the other side of the Jordan River. We watched God do what He had not done in forty years. He parted the Red Sea back then, and now, forty years later—almost to the day—God parts the Jordan River. He allows the Israelites to cross on dry land. It is an amazing story.
Now, we find ourselves no longer on the east side of the Jordan. We no longer have a natural border of protection from the enemies in the land. That border is gone. For the next two chapters, what you’re going to see from God makes zero logistical sense, which is typical of God, right? He loves to stack the deck against Himself. He loves to do things that don’t make sense to cause the people to trust. This week, we see Him call His people to stop and remember—to not forget the miraculous hand of God.
There is something powerful about remembering. I remember the first time I went to Israel. We lead tours there as a church, and we see the biblical sites, but we also walk through the modern story of Israel. We go to a place called Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. If you’ve been there, you know it is a gut-wrenching experience. It’s one of those places you’re glad you went, and you’re equally glad you’re leaving.
I remember standing in a breezeway among beautiful olive trees called the “Righteous Among the Nations.” Each tree represents an individual who selflessly aided victims during the Holocaust. Our guide, Ronan, was telling us stories about Oskar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom. Then he said something almost casually: “You know, Americans all know this story. But there are tours I lead with people groups from across the world who have never heard of the Holocaust.”
They hear the name Oskar Schindler and ask, “Who?” They know about World War II, but they don’t know that six million people were slaughtered. The primary reason that happens is because people failed to tell the story. Maybe it’s because of a black mark in their history and they don’t want to tell it, so they don’t put it in the textbooks. Consequently, they are raising a generation that has forgotten the past.
Joshua chapter four is a call to remembrance. It is a call to never forget the miraculous deeds of God. We do this in our own world with 9/11 memorials or Pearl Harbor memorials, so that generations who weren’t alive then will still remember. As we pick up the text, the idea of “remember, don’t forget”—a major theme from Deuteronomy—is front and center.
Twelve Stones from the River
Let’s watch as the Israelites stand on the other side of the Jordan, defenseless and only a couple of miles away from their enemy. Here is what God calls them to do.
Joshua 4:1-3 (NASB)
Now 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 command 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 tonight.‘’
The entire nation has crossed—anywhere from 1.5 to 3 million people. They are safely across, but the priests are still standing in the middle of the river. They were the first in, and they are the last out. God tells Joshua to have twelve men go back into the river and pick up twelve stones—one for each tribe—and carry them to the place where they will camp tonight.
This idea of stones would have been very familiar to the Israelites. Their High Priest wore a breastplate with twelve stones on it, representing each tribe. When he went in to make atonement for sin, you knew you were physically represented. Now, these leaders take stones from the middle of the river and bring them to their lodging place. Verse 19 tells us exactly where that was.
Joshua 4:19 (NASB)
Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.
They are at Gilgal, on the eastern edge of Jericho. They are probably two miles away from the city. They are completely exposed and vulnerable. Instead of giving battle instructions or telling them to dig in, God says, “We’re going to stop and remember. Everybody go grab a rock.”
Joshua 4:4-5 (NASB)
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.
Joshua does exactly as God commands. These stones had to be big enough to require being carried on the shoulder, but not so huge they couldn’t walk to Gilgal. They were meant to be a significant, visible marker.
Joshua 4:8 (NASB)
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 the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there.
The leaders obey. They take the stones and put them down at the camp. These stones are going to be set up in a simple rock pile, but they serve a massive purpose.
The Completion of the Crossing
As the narrative continues, we see the final movements of the crossing.
Joshua 4:10-11 (NASB)
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 when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed before the people.
The priests stand firm until everything is finished. But I want you to notice verses 12 and 13, because they highlight the three tribes that kept their promise.
Joshua 4:12-13 (NASB)
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.
Remember Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh? They had asked for land on the East Side of the Jordan. Moses initially worried they were deserters, but they promised to cross over and fight alongside their brothers until the land was won. Here they are—40,000 equipped for war—keeping their word.
Joshua 4:14 (NASB)
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.
Leadership transitions are hard. Taking the baton from Moses is a daunting task, yet God sets Joshua up for success. He affirms Joshua’s leadership just as He had promised back in chapter three.
Joshua 3:7 (NASB)
Now the LORD said to Joshua, ’This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.
God is with the leader, and He is with the people. Finally, the priests are called out of the riverbed.
Joshua 4:15-18 (NASB)
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.’ It came about when the priests 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.
Can you imagine that moment? You see the waters part, you watch millions cross, you see the twelve men grab their stones, and then, the moment the priests’ feet hit the dry ground on the western bank, the river rushes back together. It’s a stunning picture of God’s authority.
Why the Rocks?
The million-dollar question is: why this? Why now? Why a pile of rocks? God explains the meaning in detail.
Joshua 4:6-7 (NASB)
’Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall 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 stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.’
God highlights two things here. First, this is a “sign.” A sign isn’t there for its own sake; it points to a greater reality. When you see a stop sign, you don’t just admire the red octagon; you realize there is danger if you don’t stop. In the Old Testament, signs pointed to God’s power and His promises. The rainbow was a sign. The Passover was a sign. These stones were a sign pointing to the spiritual reality of God’s intervention.
Second, signs serve as reminders to help us not forget.
Joshua 4:21-24 (NASB)
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.’
There was a time coming when the miracle of the Jordan would be in the rearview mirror. Life would move on. These stones were for the generations to come, so that they would not forget the faithfulness of God. When the kids walk by and ask, “Hey Dad, what’s that?” it triggers the story.
Notice that the onus is put on the fathers. Now, that doesn’t mean moms can’t tell the story, but God is calling the men to take up the mantle of spiritual leadership in the home—to be the ones fanning the flame of faith. This is the heart of the Shema in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NASB)
’Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! ’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ’These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ’You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ’You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
God says the spiritual temperature of the land is determined by the family. We are to talk about His faithfulness when we sit, walk, lie down, and rise up. Why? Because we have a propensity to forget. In Deuteronomy 8, God warned them about what happens when life gets easy.
Deuteronomy 8:7-14 (NASB)
’For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ’When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. ’Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived [in them], and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
It’s a tendency we all have. When we have full stomachs, good houses, and full bank accounts, we stop relying on God. We forget the One who brought us out of the land of slavery. This rock pile wasn’t just about the past; it was about letting past faithfulness influence how they moved into the future.
Three Applications for Today
As we wrap up, I want to give us three thoughts on what we do with this.
1. God does things in our lives so we will intentionally exalt Him. He does the unthinkable and the unimaginable so that we will give Him the credit. We could all tell stories of how God intervened or healed or saved us. He does that so we will point others to Him.
2. It is our responsibility to stop and remember. One of our foundational practices here at The Well is celebrating the work of God. Parents, what are you celebrating in your home? I remember a buddy of mine did a manhood ceremony for his son when he turned thirteen. He brought in a group of men to talk to his son about rejecting passivity, accepting responsibility, and leading courageously. I bet if you asked that kid today, he’d remember exactly where he was when those men marked that moment. My wife, Michelle, did the same with our girls when they turned thirteen, taking them on special trips to mark their transition into womanhood. Whether you are a parent or single, we have to mark the moments where God shows up. It is never convenient to do this—there is always the “tyranny of the urgent”—but we must pause.
3. One generation’s faithfulness sets up the next generation for success. It’s not a guarantee, but when we are faithful, our kids get to stand on the shoulders of giants. I have a box in my garage labeled “Michelle’s Journals.” There are dozens of them going back to when we were dating. When our kids struggle, she can pull those out and say, “I’ve been there. Here is how God answered my prayer. Here is how I was devastated but God was present.” Those journals are the “rock piles” of her life. We do this as individuals, as families, and as a church through baptism and communion.
The Second Rock Pile
Finally, I want to point out one verse we skipped: verse nine. There wasn’t just one rock pile. There were two.
Joshua 4:9 (NASB)
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.
Why put a rock pile in the middle of the river where the water would just cover it up? The word “Jordan” comes from a word meaning “judgment.” Think about the picture here: one set of stones was taken out of the waters of judgment and placed on the shore. Another set of stones was taken from the shore and placed into the waters of judgment.
It’s a picture of substitution. The stones representing the people were removed from judgment, but it wasn’t free. Something else took their place. If the Old Testament is a series of pictures of our Messiah, this is a beautiful one. It points to Jesus Christ, the one who took the waters of judgment upon Himself so that we wouldn’t have to. He is our sinless substitute.
If you’ve never met this Savior, we would love to talk to you. He laid His life down so that we may know God. Let’s pray.
Father, we are a forgetful people. We thank You for the reminder to stop and remember. As we go through life, would You cause us to slow down and pause? Help us to give You glory and be faithful to tell the next generation of Your great deeds. May You be honored in the way we remind those who come after us of Your mighty promises. In Jesus’ name, Amen.