10042020 Joshua 4 - Stones for Remembering...

Remembering...

Do you have trouble remembering?

Wracking your brain to think of something you’ve forgotten...

Aides to remembering - mnemonic

A mnemonic (/nəˈmɒnɪk/, the first "m" is not pronounced) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery as specific tools to encode any given information in a way that allows for efficient storage and retrieval. Mnemonics aid original information in becoming associated with something more accessible or meaningful—which, in turn, provides better retention of the information.

The problem is I have trouble remembering those things I need to remember to help me remember!

One of the greatest enemies of faith may be forgetfulness...

Forgetting about God’s Goodness

Forgetting about God’s Sovereignty

Forgetting about God’s Covenant Faithfulness

What is the remedy for forgetfulness....

Read Joshua 4:1-24

Prayer of Illumination

ADVANCE TO NEXT SLIDE

…Remember God’s Goodness (Joshua 4:6-7)

When God’s people left Egypt at the end of four hundred years of slavery we’re told in Numbers 26 they numbered 600,000+ (Numb 26:51 = 601,730, see also Ex 12:37; 38:26; Numb 1:46;11:21). With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm God open the Red Sea to provide a way for God’s people to escape.

Only three days later in the wilderness of Shur the people began to grumble and complain because they had no drinking water (Ex 15:22-23). God is Good. There God provided water for them turning a bitter situation into something good and sweet.

12 days later as they came to the wilderness of Sin (Ex 16:1ff), these same people began to grumble and complain against their leaders, Moses and Aaron, because now they had no food. They had water but no bread and meat, so after hearing the grumblings of the sons of Israel (Ex 16:12) God is Good. Now he provides manna and quail.

Several times after leaving Egypt and before reaching the border of Canaan, the promised land, the people continued their grumbling and complaining against Moses and Aaron. Each time Moses interceded for these hardheaded - stiff necked people. Each time God relented from destroying them and showed them His goodness.

As God’s people arrived on the border of the promise land. Moses appoints and sends 12 people, a representative from each of the 12 tribes to go into the land to “see what the land is like”. At the end of 40 days (Num 13:25) the men returned and gave a report:

Numbers 13:27–28 NASB95

27 Thus they told him, and said, “We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 “Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

Numbers 14 - the people rebel (we can’t take the land - it is a land that devours its inhabitants and the people there are giants). GOD IS GOOD. He provides an intercessor Moses.. They did not believe God’s word spoken through Moses that the land was already theirs. They rebelled and refused to enter the promised land. As there are blessings for obedience, there are consequences for disobedience....

Numbers 14:34–37 NASB95

34 ‘According to the number of days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will know My opposition. 35 ‘I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they will die.’ ” 36 As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, 37 even those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a plague before the Lord.

So, for 40 years these people wandered around in circles in the wilderness until that entire generation of people perished (just counting the men - 600,000 over 40 years thats about 41 people per day)....

Now, Moses has died. Joshua has assumed the leadership position of God’s people as he takes them into the promised land.

The Walls of Jericho have come tumbling down in a way that seems impossible. God’s people are faced with another obstacle - the Jordan River is now at flood stage (Josh 3:15) - the priests with the ark of the covenant move out before God’s people - as soon as they put their feet into the water - the waters were dammed up (at a place called ADAM) and the people crossed opposite Jericho (Josh 3:16).

Joshua 3:17 NASB95

17 And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

Joshua 4:1–7 NASB95

1 Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, 2 “Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, 3 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.’ ” 4 So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; 5 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. 6 “Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 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.”

memorial = לְזִכָּר֛וֹן = for remembering

God gives His people a way to remember his goodness - helping them to remember where they had been and what they had accomplished through His goodness to them…Because one of the greatest enemies of faith is forgetfulness.

Forgetting where we have been - forgetting what God has done and how he has provided...

This happens in our marriages

This happens in our friendships

This happens in our churches...

God’s goodness to his people here at WPC....

Over the past 68 years, God has been good to His people here.

…so Joshua says - “So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” - not a memorial to anyone particular person, but a reminder to the sons of Israel - the people of God - that GOD IS GOOD.

“let this be a sign among you”these 12 stones were mnemonic devices helping That generation and the people who came after them that GOD IS GOOD - Let this be a sign to those who come after you and ask “What do these stones mean?”

We have remembrances in our Lord’s church even today...

The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and of Baptism

The Preaching of the Word

These are all stones of remembrance recalling how Christ has opened a pathway through the great river of sin that we through faith follow and are led by Him into the promised land of eternal salvation and all the while not forgetting - God is good.

One of the greatest enemies of faith is forgetfulness...

So, let the physical things God has blessed HIS PEOPLE with be reminders OF GOD’S GOODNESS

Remember the Lord’s Sovereignty (Power)

Joshua 4:9 NASB95

9 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.

Joshua sets up 12 stones in the middle of the river where the priests had stood…Imagine a pile of stones peaking their heads above the rushing water as the priest stepped out of the Jordan and the water returned to flood stage.

How did those stones get there? (Jos 4:23) = “For the LORD your God dried up the waters...”

Those ‘memorial stones’ are a testimony to the power of God’s mighty word when the people of God had been faithfully obedient to the Word of God.

NOW there was one heap of stones in the middle of the river - one heap of stones on the opposite shore (west side) of the Jordan where they camped near Gilgal.

What is the Sovereignty of God?

Do you believe that God is sovereign? I’ve heard people say, “I know God is sovereign, but . . .”

When really pressed, even many professing Christians don’t actually believe that God is absolutely sovereign. And if we don’t believe that God is sovereign, we don’t actually believe that God is God.

Quote: J.C. Ryle - “Of all the doctrines of the Bible non is so offensive to human nature as the doctrine of God’s sovereignty.

The Biblical teaching about the sovereignty of God is that “he spoke all things into existence by the word of his power and pronounced them all very good.

He reveals in Scripture that He is indeed sovereign over all things, that He has foreordained all things that come to pass, and that He is neither the author nor approver of sin (Isa. 46:10; James 1:13; Westminster Confession of Faith 3.1).

He reveals that He is sovereign over all and that we are responsible for our actions (Acts 2:23). He discloses that He is the primary cause and that He uses secondary causes—such as us—to bring about His ultimate ends (Prov. 16:33; John 19:11). He reveals that while He has ordained the ends of all things, He has also ordained the means to all ends.

Acts 2:23 NASB95

23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

Acts 4:27–28 NASB95

27 “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.

Those stones of remembering were to be reminders to all those who passed by of GOD’S GOODNESS and His absolute ability to keep His promises in a mighty and a powerful sovereign way.

One of the greatest enemies of faith is forgetfulness...

So, REMEMBER THOSE TIMES OF GOD’S GOODNESS

So, REMEMBER GOD’S POWERFUL SOVEREIGNTY...

Remember HIS Covenant Faithfulness

Joshua 4:19 NASB95

19 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.

We probably don’t pay much attention to this, but take note of the day… it is 10th day of the 1st month (Nisan…sacred calendar) that God’s people camped at Gilgal גִּלְגָּ֔ל

Joshua 5:9 (ESV)

9And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

It was almost 40 years earlier to the day that Israel was commanded by God through Moses to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread - The Passover - that feast reminding them of God’s faithfulness to them as He freed them from those 400 years of slavery in Egypt.

It was a celebration commemorating the beginning of deliverance and redemption out of slavery/bondage in Egypt (Ex. 12) and their entrance into a land flowing with milk and honey.

What had started at the Red Sea was now completed at the Jordan (v. 23) because God is faithful.

God had been faithful to his promise and had provided free access into a land flowing with milk and honey, but it took 40 years, and it happened just as he said it would.

GOD IS FAITH-FULL

The same God who was faithful to his promises then is our God of faithfulness now. He keeps His promises today to those who are in Christ - trusting in Him and Him alone for their hope and salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:9 NASB95

9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

2 Corinthians 1:18–19 NASB95

18 But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. 19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB95

13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Psalm 117:2 NASB95

2 For His lovingkindness is great toward us, And the truth of the Lord is everlasting. Praise the Lord!

He gives us a stones for remembrance - The Cross (the emblem of suffering and shame, the place where the penalty of sin has been dealt with and the empty tomb - a place of remembrance - the place where God the Father put his stamp of approval on Christ’s sacrifice rolling away the stone of reproach - the place where He gives us his assurance that we too will one day live in the new that new heaven and new earth forever with Him.

Why did God do these things?

Joshua 4:24 NASB95

24 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.”

Because of his love for his people…that all the peoples of the earth might know...

That he is powerful - sovereign - in control of all things - that all the peoples of the earth might know of his goodness and his covenant faithfulness.

We all need reminders - things to jog our memories - stones of remembrance “memorial stones” of our faith!

The “memorial stones” of our faith serve to remind us that God is faithful in times of our lives where we might otherwise be fearful. The memorial stones are the memories we have of times when God moved mightily in our lives. They serve to strengthen our faith in times of fear and doubt and uncertainty.

We need memorial stones in our lives, and our lives themselves are “memorial stones”!

1 Peter 2:4-5, “Coming to Him as to a living stone...you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house...” 1 Peter 2:7 says Jesus is the “chief cornerstone.”

As “living stones,” our lives and our Church should be a “living” memorial and legacy of God’s grace, his goodness, his sovereign power and his covenant faithfulness!

As a living memorial, our lives speak long after our lives are gone, for generations to come – living proof of a loving God to a watching world! What is the testimony these stones of remembrance will give…God’s goodness, his power, his faithfulness?

1 Corinthians 10:3–4 NASB95

3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

Remember God’s Goodness, Acknowledging His Sovereignty, Remember his Faithfulness