Recollection (Joshua 4)

Thank you for joining us. This morning's reading is from Joshua chapter 4. This is the second time that we hear the story of the crossing of the River Jordan, and you may remember that before this happened, God had promised Joshua that he would exalt him among the people, so that everyone would know that God was with him. Reading from verse 1. When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests stood, and to carry them over with you, and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.

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. So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them.

They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood, and they are there to this day.

Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the Lord and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. The men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them.

About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war. That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.

So Joshua commanded the priests, Come up out of the Jordan. And the priests came up out of the river, carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

On the tenth day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, In the future, when your descendants ask their fathers, What do these stones mean, tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful, and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.

Please be seated and have your Bibles open at Joshua chapter 4, where we read in the 22nd verse, actually it's also part of the 21st, What do these stones mean? Tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. The eighth verse of the, the ninth verse of the following chapter, Then the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. So the place has been called Gilgal, rolled away to this day.

They gave me an impossible task last Wednesday, so I'm getting my own back. That was at our Bible study to speak on four chapters in 35 minutes from the book of Joshua. Well, we had a fairly hurried tour de force of those chapters, and what I want to do is to take out one little expression that hit me when I was preparing that address, and I want to flesh it out in a little bit more detail.

Joshua, well, that's a Hebrew word, so you all need to know at least one word of Hebrew. It's the Hebrew equivalent of Iesus, which is Greek, so we're not doing too badly in two minutes. We've learned one Hebrew word, and I reminded you of one Greek word, Joshua equals Iesus, which equals Jesus.

So the name Savior is carried by Joshua in the Old Testament, as the name Savior is carried by our beloved Lord in the New Testament. There is a sense in which you can discover truths about the Lord Jesus, and certainly a great deal of teaching concerning spiritual warfare by looking into the book that bears the name of Joshua. For I remind you that in this book we are poised with the sight of the Hebrews at the frontiers of the Promised Land.

Then they move over and into Canaan, and the remaining chapters of the book are replete with the most exciting historical illustrations of battles, successes, and failures, as the Old Testament people of God, under the leadership of Yeshua, of Joshua, endeavor to fulfill the purposes of the Lord. Now the Old Testament was not just written for scholars of ancient history. The Old Testament was written so that you and I might have illustrations from a New Testament perspective as to how we are to live our lives.

As the Hebrews followed Joshua, so we follow our beloved Lord Jesus. Interesting, isn't it, that Joshua, we are informed, selects twelve men when he is on the banks of the Jordan and sends these men into the river in order to collect a stone, the significance of which we'll go into in a moment. Verse 4, chapter 4, so Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites.

These men were going to share in a burden, as our beloved Lord called twelve men, to serve Him and to carry something of the burden of ministry. Here are the hundreds, no, thousands of Israelites, and before they can enter Canaan they have to pass, they have to negotiate an obstacle. That is none other than the Jordan River, which at this particular point in the year was in full flood.

You know, it is very interesting how the New Testament and Old Testament writers, certainly the latter, sometimes regard the Jordan. For instance, in Jeremiah chapter 12 and verse 5 the reference is made, how will you do in the swelling of the Jordan? Some of you are familiar with Negro spirituals, swing low, sweet chariot, coming forth to carry me home. I looked over, Jordan, and what did I see? Coming forth to carry me home, a band of angels waiting there for me, coming forth to carry me home.

In poetical, spiritual fashion, the Jordan can stand for the moment of death, when you carry from this world into the next. So, the prophet says, how will you do in the swelling of the Jordan when you are ushered into the presence of God? But not only is it of geographical importance in our story and spiritual application, but when you move through to the New Testament, what do you find? Well, there is a man called John. He is the cousin of our Lord Jesus, and he is preaching a ministry which could be summarized as a ministry of repentance.

The word Jordan in the original Hebrew has got the idea of vengeance and turning and wrath and penalty. Now isn't it significant that you get John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan, and he is crying out a message of repentance? Repent, why? Because the Son of God is coming. God's representative in this world is about to commence his ministry.

How do we show that we are prepared, John? Well, by being immersed in the Jordan, on confession of your sins. See how it all begins to fit in when you start at any point in Scripture and you use Scripture to compare Scripture? Then you get the full-blooded meaning. Now, when our Lord Jesus comes to see his cousin John, he meets him as a mature man by the Jordan.

And what happens? Well, you can read about it in the opening chapters of Luke's gospel and John's gospel and Matthew's gospel. In fact, all the gospels will give you some insight. Our Lord Jesus asks to be baptized.

Where? To be baptized in the Jordan. Why did Jesus come on earth? Well, he came to identify himself with the great problems of humanity. What are the basic problems? The problem of sin and death.

When our Lord was baptized in the Jordan, according to John's gospel, the first chapter in the 28th verse, he was baptized near to Bethany, the alternate Greek rendering which I think is retained in the authorized version of Scripture, says that Jesus is baptized in Bethbara, which is the Hebrew for the place of the crossing. All right, hold it in mind. I haven't forgotten my starting point, but you've got to get a perspective to understand why we're looking into Old Testament historical narrative.

Here is Joshua, and he's talking to these twelve men, and he has in mind, of course, the security of all the thousands of Israelites who are hopefully going to cross the Jordan. What happens? Well, as the priests move towards the edge of the river, brilliantly, marvelously, miraculously, the waters are pushed on one side. Congealed water forms a barricade, and the rest of the Jordan empties into the Dead Sea.

And the priests go through, and they wait halfway, and the twelve men that Joshua has selected pick up twelve stones. And when they get to the other side, we discover that Joshua himself takes each stone, not a big stone, sorry, not a small stone, a big stone, because they had to carry the stones on their shoulders. And he erects these twelve stones into a monument.

And he says, when your children ask what is the meaning of these stones, tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. When John is preaching his message of repentance, he's very concerned to say to his hearers that they have no right whatsoever to put their trust in the fact that they are the descendants of Abraham. Luke chapter 3 and verse 8, do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

You see the point? Where is John ministering? Beth Barah, the place of the passage. Why is it called that? Well, no prizes, it's too easy. Even the infants could come in with the right answer.

It's the place where the Israelites crossed the Jordan many centuries ago. And in the center of the Jordan, revealed when she's not in full flood, is one of the two monuments erected in honor of the occasion. And over in nearby Gilgal, which is between the banks of the Jordan and Jericho, is a second monument.

John says, do not put your trust in the fact that you are children of Abraham, God in his miraculous fashion. As these stones indicate something of the dynamic of his power, he can raise up children just from the stones. What do these stones stand for? They stand for God's merciful activity on the part of the Hebrew people centuries ago.

Now, here's the question. How many sacraments do we acknowledge in the church, the Protestant church? And the answer is, unlike the Catholics who we respectfully, lovingly, firmly say have got it wrong, we say there are two. There are not seven.

There are two. And those sacraments are the essence of simplicity. There is the baptism into water on confession of your sin.

There is taking bread and wine in order to recall the death of our beloved Lord. Isn't it interesting? Is the picture falling clear in your mind? That as the Israelites go through the river Jordan, a mound is erected of stones, a cairn on the bed of the river. And some miles away, a similar cairn.

What do the stones mean? They speak of God's preservation. They speak of God acting on behalf of the people. What does baptism speak of? What does the Lord's Supper speak of? It speaks of God's activity on our behalf.

What do you mean by these stones? Tell them, says Joshua. Tell them in the generations to come. Tell them of this great God and the way that he delivered this nation at a point of its need.

Why do you need the mound of stones? Tell me the old, old story, for I forget so soon of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. Tell me the story slowly that I may take it in, the wonder of God's redemption in freeing me from sin. The greatest problem of the Old Testament Hebrew was amnesia.

They forgot so quickly the mercies of God. The greatest problem of the Christian church is its lapse in memory. We forget.

So, what does God ensure? That there is an equivalent of the two mounds so that our memories may be jogged. Joshua goes on in the twenty-third verse of the fourth chapter of the book that bears his name to say, ìFor the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.î Joshua is one of the two men who can go down memory lane and recall a miracle of similar dimension.

When the Red Sea opened, it was to terminate the captivity of the Hebrews from Egypt. When the waters of the Jordan are opened, it is to initiate the entry of the people of God into the country that God gave Abraham centuries before. Then it was an escape from their enemies.

Now it puts fear into their enemies. Look at verse one, chapter five, ìWhen all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we crossed over, their hearts sank and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.î Then there was a strong wind. Now thereís no wind.

Our God can use all means or no means at all. Then it was night. Now it is day.

Then the Hebrews were unbelieving. They argued against Moses as they saw the waters of the Red Sea, ìHave you brought us here to die in the wilderness? Why didnít you leave us in Egypt?î Didnít they give Moses a rough time, those people? If any man needs an apology from his congregation, I suggest Moses. But on the banks of the Jordan there is not a spirit of unbelief when it happened before the Egyptians perished.

But in the crossing of the Jordan there will be no lives lost at all. If the crossing of the Red Sea stands for one thing, it stands for salvation. If the crossing of the Jordan stands for anything, it stands for resurrection.

For here is a nation who was almost dead and theyíve been raised again by the providence of Almighty God who has caused the sea, the Jordan, to open and brings them through onto promised land territory and strikes fear into the hearts of the adversaries. Isnít it wonderful when you see how the Old Testament fleshes out the New Testament? When the Red Sea was crossed, only Caleb and Joshua were going to enter into the fullness of blessing, but on this occasion itís going to be all the Hebrews who will enter into the territory of Canaan. What are these stones? Tell them.

Theyíre a memorial to the past. Moreover, they are a ready prompt for the present. You see, the Hebrews have discovered that the salvation that comes to them is of Godís own initiative.

Thereís no one else who can help. The priests, they go over the land. They go over the Jordan.

They carry the Ark of the Covenant. By implication, reference is made in the ninth verse of the fourth chapter. Itís fleshed out more fully in the fourteenth verses of the previous chapter.

The Ark of the Covenant stands for what? It stands for the purposes of God and the presence of God. You have to be very admiring of those priests, donít you? They go into the center of the Jordan and thereís this congealed wall of water and there they stop. Now, if I had been a Hebrew, Iíd have the world record for crossing that one mile of the Jordan.

I do it quickly, great faith, but I do it as quick as I could. But these fellows are on their own and they represent God for they have the Ark of the Covenant on their shoulders. Do you remember our beloved Lord said once to Peter, because Peter said, ìIíll follow you anywhere.î And Jesus said, ìWhere I am going, you cannot come.î And you move out of the picture of Joshuaís priests and you see a more wonderful picture of Godís own priest, his son, the blessed Savior, and heís pinned to the cross and heís holding back the congealed wall of Godís wrath.

And he says, ìI looked for someone to have pity on me.î There was no one. He took it all, the full responsibility for the opening of the Jordan. He took upon himself.

What do you mean by the bread and the wine? Tell them. Tell your children so that they can tell their childrenís children, so that they can tell their childrenís children, children. You see, the significance is this, that the education of a younger generation rests primarily with the parents, not with the Sunday school teachers, not with the day school teachers, not with God help us contemporary society, responsibility to tell them rests with the children, rests with the parents.

And should they forget, thereís the mound in the center of the Jordan thatís seen most of the year and is baptized and eclipsed for one period. And even during that period, thereís the other mound at Gilgal which reminds the Hebrew parent not to be negligent in terms of his children, her childrenís education. Tell them.

Tell them what? Tell them that Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. But donít be too wooden about that, whatís the implication? The following chapter, the eighth verse makes reference to the reproach of Egypt. Iíve got the wrong verse there, Iíll get it in a moment.

The ninth verse, ìThen the Lord said to Joshua, ìToday I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.îî What was the reproach of Egypt? Well, the Egyptians had said that God was just, the Hebrew God was just allowing the Israelites to go into the wilderness where they would die of thirst and hunger. But today, the reproach has been rolled away. Israel is established as a nation.

What were the two Old Testament sacraments equivalent to baptism and the Lordís resurrection? Table in the New. What marked Israel off, the Hebrews off, as the special people of God? Well you remember, Abraham years ago was commanded by God to circumcise himself and to circumcise the males of his household. And from that moment on, the mark of the covenant that these people were related to God in a special way was through circumcision, which made a man very weak, very unable to do any exercise or activity for a while.

Circumcision was an indication of the dependence of the people of God on the God of the people. Now if you read these two chapters thoroughly, you will discover that the rite of circumcision has not been practiced since the rebellion of people against God in Sinai. In other words, there was a whole generation that had grown up that did not bear the mark.

What do these stones mean? They mean that a people has been reborn. Look at verse four of the fifth chapter. This is why he did so, all those who came out of Egypt, all the men of military age died in the desert.

Verse five, all the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not. Therefore God tells Joshua to make flint knives and the covenant of circumcision will be re-enacted. What was another mark that these people were the special people of God? Well go down to the tenth and the eleventh verses of the fifth chapter and you've got your hint and your answer.

On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. Forty years had elapsed. Just four days short of the forty years because God controls the calendar of events.

He is the God of history. There are things in history he permits. There are things which he promotes.

Here is one of the things that he promotes, his promotions. The Israelites cross over Jordan dry shod. There are four days to spare for them to prepare through circumcision to take again the Passover lamb and to remember the great deliverance from Egypt.

So you see the re-institution of these two Old Testament sacraments. Dad, what do the stones mean? And I will say it's when the nation was rejuvenating. It's when the Old Testament church again became the church.

The church of God, I preach this so often, is the most powerful institution in the world. It was since the days of Abraham and on through the purposes of God in the Old Testament and into the New Testament. And when the church is functioning as the church, she's a mighty army with banners who brings fear and terror into the hearts of her adversaries.

When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan, when they saw, when they heard, their hearts sank. They no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. What do these stones mean? They mean that the church has been reborn within the purposes of God.

And when you transfer this through into the New Testament and you think of our blessed Lord standing, so to speak, in the middle of the Jordan, you remember that his death paid the price for the sins of every believing man and woman. When you go to the tenth verse of the fourth chapter, you discover that when the waters were cut off, they actually suppressed the flow. It's the sixteenth verse of the third chapter, I'm sorry.

The flow is suppressed. It piled up in a heap a great distance away at a town called Adam, or Adam, in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the sea of the Araba, the salt sea, was completely cut off. You can take this or leave it as you please, but it seems to me too coincidental that the effects of the crossing of the Jordan start at a place called Adam.

And the consequences flow as the waters move towards the Dead Sea. When our beloved Lord died on the central cross at Calvary, his blood cleansed not only believing people in his day and future generations of people, but they dealt with the problem of sin all the way back down the course of human history to the original sin of Adam and Eve. What do the stones reveal? What do they stand for? This bread, this wine, this water in which we immerse people, they stand for nothing else than the purposes of God.

In moving towards an undeserving people with righteousness and with forgiveness. And when those twelve men that Joshua selects who are preordained to do this task, when they carry those heavy lumps of rock which are built into these mounds, each one is careful not to drop his burden. There are twelve tribes of Israel.

When Elijah makes an altar decades, centuries later, there will be twelve stones representing the complement of Israel. The salvation which God offers is for the totality of his people. There is not one person for whom Jesus died who can conceivably be lost.

Israel is never better when she's acting together. When even the representatives of the tribes who first go across dry shard the Jordan, the militia, though these are from tribes who will not move over to Jericho because their land is on the west side of the Jordan, nonetheless they cross over. They will put their hand to the task.

They will be involved in the subjugation of Jericho and the rest of Canaan. The church needs to get its act together. The church is never more blessed than when she works together, each individual carrying his own burden and ministering to the needs of others.

The church is a unified structure. The church is a spiritual organism. The church is the people of God living for the glory of God, in the authority of God, on the earth today, and the earth is God's.

And Israel was never more blessed than when she was together, not split into two denominations or into twelve tribes, although they are convenient as a register, but when every Hebrew was ministering to the needs of another Hebrew and they were all worshipping God in a compliment of praise and honor and glory. What mean the stones? Tell them, tell them, this is where God brought the Israelites over, dry shard. What means the bread and the wine and the fill, full but open baptismal tank? Tell them, tell your children, tell your neighbors and never forget, there is a redeemer.

Jesus, God's own son, who came, the swelling of the Jordan, to make the passage possible for you and me. Bow our heads in prayer and we come around the table of our Lord. We're bringing this bread and wine to everyone who's here this morning because it fits in with this address, though don't take the bread or the wine unless you confess the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior.