Reflections on Joshua 4

Joshua 04 (Contemporary English Version)

1. After Israel had crossed the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua:
   
2. Tell one man from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a large rock from where the priests are standing. Then have the men set up those rocks as a monument at the place where you camp tonight.
   
3. (SEE 4:2)
   
4. Joshua chose twelve men; he called them together,
   
5. and told them: Go to the middle of the riverbed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe.
   
6. Someday your children will ask, "Why are these rocks here?" Then you can tell them how the water stopped flowing when the chest was being carried across the river. These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today.
   
7. (SEE 4:6)
   
8. The men followed the instructions that the LORD had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down.
   
9. Joshua had some other men set up a monument next to the place where the priests were standing. This monument was also made of twelve large rocks, and it is still there in the middle of the river.
   
10. The army got ready for battle and crossed the Jordan. They marched quickly past the sacred chest and into the desert near Jericho. Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh led the way, as Moses had ordered. The priests stayed right where they were until the army had followed the orders that the LORD had given Moses and Joshua. Then the army watched as the priests carried the chest the rest of the way across.
    
11. (SEE 4:10)
    
12. (SEE 4:10)
    
13. (SEE 4:10)
    
14. "Joshua," the LORD said, "have the priests come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them." So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the LORD had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the floodwaters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again. That's how the LORD showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader. For the rest of Joshua's life, they respected him as they had respected Moses.
    
15. (SEE 4:14)
    
16. (SEE 4:14)
    
17. (SEE 4:14)
    
18. (SEE 4:14)
    
19. It was the tenth day of the first month of the year when Israel crossed the Jordan River. They set up camp at Gilgal, which was east of the land controlled by Jericho.
    
20. The men who had carried the twelve rocks from the Jordan brought them to Joshua, and they made them into a monument.
    
21. Then Joshua told the people: Years from now your children will ask you why these rocks are here.
    
22. Tell them, "The LORD our God dried up the Jordan River so we could walk across. He did the same thing here for us that he did for our people at the Red Sea,
    
23. (SEE 4:22)
    
24. because he wants everyone on earth to know how powerful he is. And he wants us to worship only him."
    

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    Chapter 4 completes the account of the Jordan crossing. In the previous chapter we are told of how the priests carried the ark of the covenant into the river and how the waters suddenly stopped flowing as they set foot in the water, "rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan." (3:16) Not only did the water stop flowing, but the riverbed dried up allowing the people to walk on dry ground. As the priests stood in the riverbed holding the ark, the people walked across to the other side led by 40,000 men from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh who claimed land on the west of the Jordan. These men crossed in battle formation in front of the Israelites as a protection against enemy attack.
    
    Chapter 4 picks up with the selection of twelve stones from the riverbed that were to be carried to where they spent that first night in Canaan. There they were to set up the stones as a memorial and testimony of what the Lord did for them on that day in stopping the flow of the Jordan for them to cross. Prior to crossing, the Lord had instructed Joshua to select 12 men, one from each tribe, for this purpose. Once the people had crossed to the other side, God instructed Joshua to have the 12 men go back into the riverbed and select the stones. Beyond serving as a memorial, the stones had two additional purposes. First as a sign to future generations of Israelites: "in the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean to you?' you should tell them, 'The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the LORD's covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan's waters were cut off.'" (4:6-7) Second, the stones were to also serve as a testimony, "so that all the people of the earth may know that the LORD's hand is mighty, and so that you may always fear the LORD your God." (4:24)
    
    While the men were gathering the stones from the riverbed, Joshua went about gathering 12 stones which he set up "in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing." (4:9) This he evidently did as his own personal memorial. Once the people had all crossed the river and the stones had been gathered, the Lord told Joshua to instruct the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come up from the middle of the Jordan. Once "their feet stepped out on solid ground, the waters of the Jordan resumed their course, flowing over all the banks as before." (4:18) That night the Israelites camped at Gilgal, only two miles from Jericho, where they set up the memorial of 12 stones.
    
    Parents should note the responsibility inferred in this passage for spiritual training of their children. When the Israelite children asked about the stones, what were the parents to do? They were not to send them to a Levite or priest, but the fathers were to give an answer to their children's questions. If spiritual training does not take place in the home, it is often not passed along to the children. Children who do not see spritual values as important to their parents - important enough for them to teach those values themselves - often see no reason for adopting those values for themselves. While it is true that the church has a responsibility in teaching the children, it should be in partnership with the parents not in place of them. The first and greatest responsibility is with the parents.