A Look Back

Joshua 4:1-9

Introduction:

Þ America loves memorials.

Þ Every town has some sort of memorial.

Þ We all want to remember the good things of the past. We talk of the “good old days” or “when I was a kid…”

Þ Some things never change. Our text today is about a pair of memorials built as Israel crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

Þ The nation of Israel had wandered the desert for 40 years. Moses is dead and Joshua is now in charge. God has performed another miracle to bring the nation across Jordan on dry ground.

Þ The years of desert wandering are over and the war for the land has yet to begin.

Þ This text gives us some interesting facts about monuments.

o 1. Monuments are permanent. When people set up monuments, they usually use materials that will stand the test of time. Mount Rushmore is a monument to four of the great presidents of America’s past. We even go to great lengths to repair monuments. The Statue of Liberty went through a major overhaul for her 200th birthday. It was built to be there in the side of that mountain forever.

o 2. (Many) Monuments are public. They built one in the camp. Every town in America has some sort of monument or memorial. They’re usually put in a place where the people are. We even call our arena war memorials. People build memorials in places where people visit.

o 3. (Many) Monuments are private. Joshua built a monument in the river. Have you ever smelled something and it triggered memories? For me, the smell of diesel fuel burning or the smell of a rifle takes me back to dozens of places and hundreds of memories, some good, others bad. I have those monuments in my life that attest to my history and help me remember.

Þ The nation has just visibly passed from one period in their history into the next. From the years of wandering to the beginning of their occupation of the land that God promised them.

Þ When they pitched camp, they still had dust from the desert on their tents. Their water jugs had desert water. The last meal that they ate was manna from heaven.

Þ While their memories of walking through desert places, waiting on God for His provision in barrenness is still fresh in their minds, they build the monument.

Þ At this time of the year, the last Sunday before 2004, this passage is reminding us that…

Each of Us Must Establish Monuments. Why?

I. To Picture the Past.

Þ Every person has a past.

Þ The monuments of the past remind us of that past.

Þ The Vietnam memorial, “The Wall,” was built to remind us of the people who fought that war.

Þ There is a movement today raising money to build a national WWII monument to remember the people who have been called, “The Greatest Generation”.

Þ These monuments take us back so that we can remember our past.

Þ Look at verses 1-3.

Þ They’ve taken stones from the river to build a monument. Those stones represent the day that they crossed over.

Þ What about our past could God want us to remember?

Þ Remember: We Were Children of Satan.

Þ John 8:44 (KJV)44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Þ Matthew 13:38 (KJV)38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

Þ 1 John 3:10 (KJV)10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Þ The salvation of a man’s soul sets up a monument. A place where he made a u-turn. The time when Jesus interrupted my day and showed me my sin and helplessness.

Þ I can take you back to the place and introduce you to the man who led me to Christ. If it’s still there, I can show you the place on the altar where we knelt and he took a Bible and showed me the way.

Þ We Were Children of Satan, but also We Were Clueless About God.

Þ During the years in the wilderness, Israel learned many things about God.

Þ Look back. What did God teach you this year? Did you learn about His faithfulness? His holiness? His justice? His mercy? His love? What did YOU learn?

Þ Is there a monument this year that God setup after He brought you through a trial, a stressful period?

Þ God uses the hardships of life to teach us about Him.

Þ What I knew about God the day I was saved was very small. What He’s taught me as He’s held my hand through the dark days of my life has been more than any book lesson.

Þ Israel could take you back to the monument and tell you about what they experienced in the desert. They could tell you about the days when it seemed hopeless and there was nothing left to do but die.

Þ Job could take you to monuments in his life when God took care of his needs. He could take you to the monuments of the graves of his children and tell you that through it all, God was with him.

Þ I could take you to some monuments of my own that will show you that God makes good on all that He promises.

Þ Look back. What monument to God’s work do you need to see?

II. To Focus on the Future.

Þ Verses 4-5 and 8 tell us of the twelve stones placed in the midst of the camp, where everyone could see them.

Þ This pillar not only reminded them of where they had been, but also where they were headed.

Þ ILL: Six months after the terrorist attacks on America, there were two brilliants sets of lights illuminating the night sky of New York. Two focused beams shooting straight into the heavens. This tribute was built to remind us that we had suffered a great loss that day, but also served as a look ahead to our resolve to do whatever it takes to ensure that it never happens again.

Þ Israel knew that ahead of them would be war. Battle after battle to claim the land of promise from those who occupied it.

Þ Monuments remind us that: We Are Winning a War.

Þ God had promised them victory in this war.

Þ Joshua 3:10 (KJV)10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.

Þ God has also promised us victory

Þ 1 John 5:4 (KJV)4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Þ Revelation 3:21 (KJV)21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Þ Romans 8:35-37 (KJV)35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Þ Like Israel’s entry into the Land of Promise, our walk with Christ is a continuous battle against Satan and his forces.

Þ We are not called to an easy life, but one of combat against the darkness.

Þ Look at that monument. You won that last battle, but the next one is around the bend.

Þ Be vigilant, be obedient. Stay away from sin and follow the path God has laid out. That is where we meet the battle.

Þ The war is won, we are only responsible for the battles that we face daily.

Þ Also, We Are Headed for Heaven.

Þ The nation of Israel was promised peace and fruitful living if they would obey God and conquer the land.

Þ If they had obeyed God, they would not have fallen into idolatry as easily, they would not have had to battle countless enemies repeatedly, and they would have had peace in the land of promise.

Þ Aren’t you glad that your land of promise comes with total peace? Aren’t you glad that God has promised heaven to His children and we do not have to rely on our faithfulness to get there?

Þ Just as Israel had a land of promise, so do we.

Þ Our promised land has nothing to do with conquest, warfare, or strife. Our Promised Land is that land of heaven.

Þ Some day soon, Jesus is going to descend from heaven into the clouds and call us home.

Þ Remember that this wilderness we live in is temporary. We have a permanent home in heaven waiting for us.

Þ Take a look at the monuments in your life and remember that they were established to Picture the Past, Focus on the Future, and…

III. To Glorify God.

Þ In verses 6-7 God, through Joshua, explains some of the reasoning for the pillar.

Þ God understands His creation and knows that people need something visible to remind them of His presence in their lives.

Þ The monuments in our lives represent crisis points.

Þ It is at these moments, when we find ourselves backed into a corner and faced with decisions that we would rather not make that God shows up and makes His presence known and directs the path in the direction that He wants.

Þ We establish monuments to glorify God To the Next Generation.

Þ Joshua has it right in verse 6. Children will ask us “why”.

Þ Why do we go to church so much?

Þ Why do we use the King James Bible?

Þ Why do we sing these songs?

Þ Why don’t we go those places?

Þ Why can’t I say those things?

Þ The whole time, we must have these monuments to answer our children and explain to them the reasons.

Þ Take your children back to the monument and tell them why.

Þ Proverbs 22:6 does not tell us to say, “I’ll explain later,” or “Because I said so,” or “I’ll tell you when you are older.”

Þ When our children want a reason for why we do what we do, we must give it to them for if we fail to get reasons, we may lose our children.

Þ The reason that we lose our children to cults or they fall away from God is because we fail to take them back to the monuments and explain to them the reasons for our service.

Þ When we speak to the next generation, we have to glorify God In the Former Gifts.

Þ SONG: “To God be the glory, great things He has done. So loved He the world that He gave us His Son…”

Þ Those that come after us need to hear about the great things that God has done.

Þ How quickly the children of Israel forgot the great works of God. They forgot the plagues when faced with the Red Sea.

Þ They forgot the Red Sea when faced with hunger in the desert.

Þ They forgot the manna and quail and water when faced with giants in their land.

Þ They would forget just a quickly the Jordan crossing were it not for a visible reminder.

Þ Their children would never know about the glorious things that God has done if it weren’t for a monument that they could go to and ask, “Why is this here?”

Þ ILL: At the end of WWII, the Allies decided that the best course of action for the rest of the world was to divide Germany into two nations. One would be nurtured and rebuilt under the US and Western European nations. The other would be rebuilt by the Soviet Union. Part of the deal was the dividing of the city of Berlin, the capitol of Germany. Soon after, the Soviets built a wall along the border between East and West Berlin. For 40 years, that wall symbolized a divided nation. Today, there is only Germany and Berlin. There is no East and West, but one nation, one city unified and whole. Today, we can go to Germany and find on display pieces of that wall and Germans tell their children that those rocks used to keep them apart.

Þ What monuments can you take your children to? The day of your salvation? The time when they were sick and there was no insurance for a doctor’s visit? The time your car broke down and you couldn’t afford to fix it?

Þ Our children need to see where God has interrupted our lives for His glory.

Þ My sons have seen the times when there was no money and enough gas for a trip to work and little food when a check came in the mail.

Þ My sons have seen God move in our lives. We take them back there from time to time and remind them what God has done for us. Sometimes, they take me back, too.

Conclusion:

Þ I wonder how often Joshua came back to that place just to look at the river and think about the monument that only he and God knew for sure was there.

Þ What monuments can you look toward?

Þ Where can you go to picture the past?

Þ Where do you look to focus on the future?

Þ To what do you point to bring glory to God?

Þ Either you need to establish a monument today, or you need to look at one. Which is it?