OUR LORD WHO SETS UP MEMORIALS TO THE SALVATION OF HIS PEOPLE

In Joshua 4 verses 3 - 7, we continue with the study of Israel's crossing of the Jordan river. The passage reads like this;

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan.

Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. 

When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

The instruction was given for twelve chosen men to go to the middle of the Jordan river and for each man to pick up a stone on his shoulder.

These stones would serve as signs to future Israelites who would see them and ask what their significance was.

Each stone would be a marker of a time when the Lord intervened on behalf of Israel to make a way out of slavery in Egypt, lead them through the wilderness and after 40 years, into the promised land across the Jordan river.

The twelve stones are reminiscent of the twelve apostles who were first of the living stones among those who gained the promise of God through faith in Jesus.

The ceremony Jesus instituted to commemorate the access given to the promised land was the last supper during which He called on His disciples to reenact the breaking of bread and the sharing of wine as a memorial to the Lord's death which was the price paid to buy us out of slavery and admit us into the land  promised by God.

Bless the One who we remember for saving us and who availed to us so rich a promise.

Amen.