Joshua 4--Twelve Memorial Stones from the Jordan

Joshua 4
English Standard Version

Twelve Memorial Stones from the Jordan
4 When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. 5 And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

8 And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the LORD told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. 9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst 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. 10 For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst 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 passed over in haste. 11 And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the LORD and the priests passed over before the people. 12 The 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. 13 About 40,000 ready for war passed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho. 14 On 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.

15 And the LORD said to Joshua, 16 “Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.” 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” 18 And 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.

19 The 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. 20 And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21 And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For 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, 24 so 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.”

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So now we see why Joshua said for each tribe to select a strong man to represent them, for each representative was to take a stone from the center of the river where the priests had been standing and take it to the western shore of the Jordan River, and they were to use these stones to build an altar until the LORD that would be a memorial to them and to the generations that come after them so that their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren would see the altar and ask what it was there for.  We have seen this throughout the Old Testament, especially in the book of Genesis where God instructed the patriarchs to stop and build and altar and change the name of the place so that they and their children and their children's children would always remember what the LORD did in that place.  So it was in this place that there would be a long-standing altar there to remind the people not only of the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River, but the miraculous victory that the LORD was about to provide in the Battle of Jericho.

The text reminds us that the priests stood fast in place the whole time that the Israelites were crossing and the only ones who went near the Ark were these twelve representatives that needed to take stones from the river where the priests were standing.  However, the other Israelites passed over quickly and then the priests took the Ark of the Covenant back to its place in front of the people with the tribes that wanted their inheritance to the east of the Jordan River being the group that led, just as Moses had commanded by the word of the LORD.

The author specifically goes back to tell us that the priests did not move from their place in the Jordan until the LORD gave the command for them to move, and when He did, they came up out of the midst of the Jordan and as soon as they were safely out of the river bed and on dry ground, the LORD cause the waters of the Jordan River to return to their natural state--at flood stage, just like they had been.

The record records that this all happened on the tenth day of the first month, if that date sounds familiar to you, it's because it is the date of Passover (Exodus 12:3).  So it was that the LORD added a fuller picture of the gospel that Passover that we are not just saved from something, but we are saved unto something--that is that the LORD has prepared a place for all those that He has redeemed.  For Israel they looked forward to the Promised Land that represented the kingdom of God here on earth, but we look forward to a better kingdom, the kingdom of heaven which will literally be heaven on earth one day.

It is no mistake that the phrase "passed over" has been used so many times in this passage (go back and read it again) and all this is happening on the Feast of Passover.  God is reminding the people that this is not just a time that the curse of the tenth plague passed over the people marked by the blood of the Passover Lamb, but that this was the time in which they crossed over the physical barrier of the Jordan River into the covenant Land that was forever promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants.  The connection is also made by Joshua that these Israelites have had their own Red Sea experience (all of the generation that was there at the Red Sea died in the wilderness except Joshua and Caleb) and that the LORD did this mighty work so that once again all the nations of the world--specifically the Canaanites they were about to face--would know that the hand of the LORD was might to save and so that all the peoples of the world would fear him (read that as "obey him") forever.