Signs that Remind Us of a Story...

As a church we have been looking at a letter in the Bible that records the efforts of an entire nation to restart their lives after forty years of wandering in a literal desert of hurt, pain, and failure as a result of past decisions. This letter, called the book of Joshua, records how the Jewish people experienced the same frustration, tension and trouble we can encounter when it came to restarting their lives.

And as we enter into this story as the Jewish people literally are walking into a new life, we see another timeless principle that enables us to restart our lives so that we would be living in the relationship with God and one another in a way that God has created and called us to be in Joshua 4:1:

Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, "Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, and command them, saying, 'Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.'"

As we saw last week, as the priests stood in the middle of the now dry riverbed of the Jordan River carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, which symbolized where the presence of God dwelt amongst the Jewish nation, over 600,000 men began to cross the river into the Promised Land. If you include women and children, most scholars believe that between 1.5 and 2 million people would have crossed the Jordan River as the water stacked up some 19 miles away.

As the nation began crossing the Jordan River, God reminded Joshua, who was standing in the River next to the Ark of the Covenant, of His command to have twelve men, one from each tribe that represented the twelve sons of Jacob who formed the Jewish people, to fulfill the special role that they had been chosen for. These twelve men were commanded by God to go back into the Jordan River and were to take twelve stones from the river and bring them with them into the Promised Land to the location where they would camp that first night. We see Joshua’s response to the reminder as the story continues:

So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel.

Joshua responds to this reminder by repeating God’s instructions to the twelve men who had been chosen to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. So after making it across the Jordan, these twelve men were now told that they would have to go back into the Jordan, which was being held back by the hand of God while at flood stage. And once back in the middle of the now dry riverbed, they were to grab take up a large rock from near the place where the Ark was located that was heavy enough that it would need to be carried on their shoulder, and then walk back out of the Jordan. These representatives would then have to carry the rock to wherever they ended up setting up camp later that night. This rock, the representatives were told, would be used to represent their tribe.

Now imagine yourself as one of the twelve representatives that were chosen for this task. You have just set foot into the Promised Land, only to be told to go back into the swollen, flooded Jordan River that was being held back by the hand of God to get a large rock that you would have to carry with you for an unknown distance. Now what would you be thinking? What would be the first question that would come to mind?

I don’t know about you, but here would be my first question: why? "Why do we need a rock from the Jordan? We live in a desert; there are plenty of rocks around. Why do I have to go back down there to get a wet and slimy rock that I am going to have to carry for who knows how long?" Joshua, however, does not wait for the question before providing the answer to the why, which we see in Joshua 4:6-7:

"Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever."

Joshua explains to the twelve representatives that these stones will be a sign among the Jewish people. These stones were to be a sign that reminded them of a story. This morning, we need reminders, don’t we? And our lives are filled with reminders, aren’t they? That is why we take pictures and make scrapbooks and photo albums on Facebook. That is why we post on the walls of our Facebook pages and tweet on Twitter.

All around us are signs that remind us of a story. That is why we can look at a piece of jewelry and be taken back in time to the story of how we received that jewelry. That is why we can look at an old worn out recliner and be reminded of the grandfather whose lap we once sat on. These pieces of material in our lives remind us of a piece of the story of our lives. So when our children ask, “where did this old stool come from?”, we can remind them of the story of the grandpa who made that old stool.

And for the Jewish people, these twelve stones would serve a sign to remind them of a piece of the story of God’s activity in the lives of the Jewish nation. After getting the answer to the why even before they asked we, see the representatives response revealed in verses 8:

Thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the LORD spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there.

The representatives responded by doing everything that Joshua had commanded them. Then Joshua, however, does something that seems most unexpected and unusual as the story continues. Tomorrow, we will look at Joshua's most unexpected activity.

In the meantime, what are some signs around you that remind you of a story. What are some material objects that are a part of your lives that remind you of a part of the story of your life?