That You May Fear the Lord Forever


Joshua 4:10b-24
The people passed over in haste. 11And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the Lord and the priests passed over before the people. 12The 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. 13About 40,000 ready for war passed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho. 14On 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. 15And the Lord said to Joshua, 16“Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.” 17So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” 18And 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. 19The 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. 20And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23For 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, 24so 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.”

God’s people now stand in The Promised Land. They have by no means acquired that land, but they have arrived. It is a miraculous moment, as the priests leave the dry river bed and the Jordan River begins to flow again. Just as the sole of priestly feet touched the water and it dried up, so now the soles of their feet leave the river bed and water returns. Imagine what it must have been like to experience this miracle in person!

Yesterday we discussed the building of a monument to this event using rocks from the dry riverbed. But in actually, there were two such piles of rocks. There was the one erected at Gilgal and there was also one erected (apparently by Joshua himself) on the riverbed itself. When the waters began to flow again, they flowed over that pile of stones.

The two stone memorials of Joshua remind us that it is good to contemplate, celebrate, and then to commemorate the gracious and amazing acts of our Savior-God. Commemoration will in turn lead to more contemplation and celebration of his gracious redemption.
Harstad, A. L. (2004). Joshua (p. 201). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

There is also mention made of the men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh who had already claimed their inherited land on the east side of the Jordan. There were 40,000 armed men from those 2½ tribes who agreed to help their brothers gain the land that was promised to them. In Number 26, we find a census of the fighting men of Israel, and those 40,000 who went west with the rest of Israel probably represented about 1/3 of the men available from those 2½ tribes. I mention that only because it gives us a feel for just how many people made up the Nation of Israel at the time.

In this one miracle, God has solidified Joshua’s place as the leader of The Children of Israel and set the nation up for success in gaining the rest of what God has promised. He has also taught the people how to set before themselves a constant reminder of what He has and will do for them as their God. They now stand poised to receive a promise made to Abraham over 600 years earlier.

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