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To read:
Joshua 4:1-13
When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the
LORD said to Joshua: Select twelve men from the people, one from
each tribe, and command them, 'Take twelve stones from here out of
the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet
stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place
where you camp tonight.'" Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from
the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. Joshua
said to them, "Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the
middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his
shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, so 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 in front of the ark of the
covenant of the LORD. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of
the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites
a memorial forever."
The Israelites did as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones
out of the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the
tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD told Joshua, carried them over
with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there.
(Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle 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.)
The priests who bore the ark remained standing in the middle 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 crossed over in haste. As soon as all the people
had finished crossing over, the ark of the LORD, and the priests,
crossed over in front of the people. The Reubenites, the Gadites,
and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the
Israelites, as Moses had ordered them. About forty thousand armed
for war crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for
battle. |
To think about:
Years ago as a camper in a church-related facility, I recall
gathering around a pile of rocks, and in a traditional communal
rite, ceremonially placing on the already growing mountain of
predecessor rocks a stone I had carefully selected. It was the
ceremony of Cairn, a symbolic act from the Celtic tradition,
representing in this tranquil setting the collective people of God
who had over the years met in faith, fellowship, and love of the
Lord.
Twelve stones were carried into the Jordan River in front of the
sacred ark of the Israelite people—twelve stones symbolically
representing the twelve tribes of Israel, to whom a loving and
forgiving God had made the covenant of a promised land for his
people, the very ones who had turned from the Lord in their days of
trial. Canaan, a new home, the Israelites under Joshua's leadership
were on the road to freedom at last, as with the trumpets' blasts on
the seventh day of marching around the city, the walls of Jericho
fell shattered to the ground.
About 1270 years later, a divine "Joshua" walked the land of Galilee
and proclaimed the promise of God's new covenant with his people.
This covenant of salvation was fulfilled not by warfare and
destruction as in Canaan but rather by peace and by love. However,
it came only through the personal sacrifice of God's begotten Son,
whose death on the cross and resurrection from the grave fulfilled
then and continues to fulfill the assurance of redemption and the
promise of a post-earthly home for all who believe in Jesus, the
Savior. In this Lenten season, may the cross of Christ be the rock
upon which we build our faith, and the stone rolled from the tomb
the source of all hope. |
