A Call to Remember

Strong and Courageous

I’ll remind you that we are in a series from the book of Joshua that we’ve titled Strong and Courageous. When Moses died, God told Joshua to step up and lead His people. And God told in

Joshua 1:9 ESV

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Josh 1:9

Just be strong and courageous. Let’s be honest for just a minute, shall we? There are many things in this world that are frightening. It seems as if there could be riots or wars any moment in many areas. The economy seems to be balanced on the head of a pin. There are those who want to silence the message of Jesus Christ at all costs. But here’s thing, as frightening as this world can be, we need to remember God’s call to Joshua. The call to be strong and courageous as Joshua obediently led the nation of Israel to conquer the Promised Land. So far in this series, we have seen A Call to Obedience, A Call to Faith, and A Call to Action. Last week, in the Call to Action, we saw God do a mighty miracle to clear the way for the nation to enter and begin to conquer the land. In the lesser known parting of the water, God opened up a 19-mile gap in the Jordan River when it was at flood stage so the nation of Israel could pass through on dry ground. Now, let me tell you a little shared fact about preaching. There are times when we have to limit how much of a story we preach because time simply will not allow us to unfold the full story. And this is one of those times. You see, Joshua chapters 3 and 4 are really just one long narrative. Chapter 3 focuses on the nation getting ready and crossing the Jordan. Chapter 4 describes the way the nation memorialized what God had done in chapter 3. Or, to put it more succinctly, Chapter 4 is a Call to Remember the Call to Action in chapter 3. Just like last week, instead of reading the whole passage and then picking it apart, I’m going to read a bit and comment a bit and I’ll bring it all together at the end. So, to get started on this Call to Remember, let’s read

Josh 4:

Joshua 4:1–3 ESV

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord 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.’ ”

A Call to Remember - Commanded

The first thing you need to notice is that in the middle of a miracle, while the Jordan was still piled up in a heap by Adam, God commands Joshua to tell others to get the memorial stones. God is in the middle of doing this tremendous miracle and commands Joshua to have the people prepare to build a memorial about the event. This is not years later. This is during the miracle. God commands the nation to remember. Let’s read on

Joshua 4:4–7 ESV

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 the Lord 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. 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 the Lord. 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.”

Josh 4:4

A Call to Remember - Explained

When Joshua passes on God’s command to the people, he tells them why it is important to set up these memorial stones. You see, it is not enough to just see a pile of stones and think something special happened here. Let me give you an example. I went to high school in a town just a few miles down the road from Gettysburg, PA. There were Civil War memorials set up all over the place in Gettysburg. It was almost mind-numbing reading them all. But the Gettysburg Battlefield Museum had a presentation where they explained the way that blood battle was fought. They showed on a map the way the Union and Confederate troops lined up in battle. And they showed how the Union broke through the Confederate line and won the battle. After watching that presentation, we went back out and looked at all those memorials, but now they had meaning. Now I knew which side this memorial represented. Now I knew how many men had died on that day. Now I knew so much more about it, the memorials had more meaning. This is what Joshua tells the people. He tells them to set up a memorial so they can tell the whole story of what God did here. Not just a snippet, but the whole story. How God stopped the waters of the Jordan. How the people passed over on dry ground. Tell it to your kids. Tell it to everyone who asks about the stones piled together. May the memorial remind you to tell the story. Let’s read on

Josh 4:8-

Joshua 4:8–9 ESV

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 the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. 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.

A Call to Remember - Obeyed

It wasn’t the memorial itself that the people thought was important. Because God told to take one set of 12 and set it up on shore. The people went beyond that and put one pile in the middle of the Jordan River where the priests had stood. They not only wanted to remember WHAT God had done, they wanted to remember exactly WHERE He did it! You may ask why I think that is so important. Well, let me put it in a way that will make sense to many of you. Last week, I talked about the 2011 floods. And I know, it’s a bad memory, I need to let it go. But I heard about a church that owned property that was very hilly not suitable to build on until it had been graded. The Army Corps of Engineers decided the dirt and sand in those hills on that church’s property would be good for rebuilding the dikes that had been compromised by the flood. And that church got their land graded so the dikes could be rebuilt. Now, some of you are snickering because you know the whole story. It sounds like a neat story doesn’t it? And if it happened to some church somewhere it would be sweet and a nice smile. Most of you know, but let me spell it out anyway. That church was Heartland Community Baptist Church and that land is the land you are currently sitting on. This building is a sort of memorial to not only WHAT God did but also WHERE He did it. Do you see how much more meaningful it is when you know the location? That is what the Israelites did. Let’s read on

Joshua 4:10–24 ESV

For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste. And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the Lord and the priests passed over before the people. 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. About 40,000 ready for war passed 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 stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up 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 the Lord 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 returned 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. 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 the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord 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 the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”

Josh 4:10-

A Call to Remember

Now Joshua recalls for us the whole story. Now, I want to call attention to verse 13 for just a second. Last week, I made a big deal that there were 2 million some odd people crossing over the Jordan River. And some astute scholar out here is waiting to challenge me with this verse that says it was only 40,000 people. You may remember that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had decided to take their inheritance from the west side of the Jordan. So, the 40,000 is from those 3 groups, not the whole nation. And those 40,000 joined the other 10.5 tribes to cross the river. I’ll stand by my original estimate of 2 million or so people given the 600,000 census number from . But notice the story. They passed over in haste and the Lord exalted Joshua that day. The people stood in awe of him like they had Moses. And then God tells Joshua to call the priests up out of the riverbed. And as the priests step out of the river, the water comes right back to where it was at the beginning. This is just as much a part of the miracle as making the water stand up in a heap upstream. The precise timing of the priests lifting their feet from where the water had been and then it was there again! God has performed a miracle! So they set up stones to remember, just like God said to do. And then Joshua reminds them to teach their children about this second dividing of the waters. Folks, God showed the people of Israel that Moses was His chosen man by many signs and wonders including dividing the Red Sea. And here, God shows the next generation that Joshua is His man by stopping the Jordan River. In both cases, however, the men who are the leaders, Moses and Joshua, give all the credit to God for the miracle He has performed. God has done in this dividing of the water, what no man could do. God has shown that He is sovereign over His creation, over ALL His creation.

Now, I want to bring this to us here today. God is still in the miracle business, but are we capable of remembering? Have we built our towers of memorial stones? No, I’m not talking about rocks anymore. Think about this for a moment. If God has done a miracle in your life, how do you go about telling others about it? What is it that reminds you to tell others about God’s sovereign work? Can I give you a moment to remember? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, God did a miracle in your life. HE SAVED YOU! He brought you from darkness to His glorious light. You were dead in your trespasses and sins and He gave you life! Folks the Jordan River stopped and went back. If you go to Israel today, the River is still flowing in basically the same bed it was back when Israel crossed it. In other words, this miracle of the Jordan had a short time span. But for the Christian, the miracle is one that lasts for ever! For all eternity! You are saved from the just penalty of your sin! It is a miracle!

Now, what could possibly be our memorial stone for this miracle? Well, it’s not stone, but there is a way we can tell the story of the miracle of our salvation. It is by observing the Lord’s Supper. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote about the Lord’s Supper.

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Cor 11:26

You see, the miracle of our salvation happened because Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin. Or, as Paul wrote in

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus took on Himself all the sin of the world, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 10:9 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

We must never forget that Jesus gave us life when we deserve death. And that is why we take the Lord’s Supper. Next Sunday, as part of our Freedom Celebration, we will all be invited to come and take of the Lord’s Supper. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior. If you have been baptized as a believer in Him, you are invited to remember with us. Just like Israel was called to remember the miracle that opened the way for them to enter the Promised Land, we need to remember all that Jesus did for us so we could have life in His name. It is my prayer that if you don’t know this Jesus, may this morning be the time when you experience the miracle of eternal life. Then, you can take of the Lord’s Supper. You will join with believers from all lands and times in proclaiming, in remembering, Jesus’ death for the full pardon of sin. Let’s pray.