To Restart Requires Monuments to Remind Us of God's Activity...

Yesterday, we talked about the reality that signs can serve as the proof of the truth of God's activity in the world. Just like the stones that Joshua set up in the middle of the Jordan River, monuments reinforce and remind us of the activity of God in our lives. There are material objects that are a part of our lives that remind us of a part of the story of our life.

And as this story concludes, we see a timeless principle when it comes to restarting our lives, beginning in Joshua 4:15:

Now the LORD said to Joshua, "Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan." So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, "Come up from the Jordan." It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before.

Can you imagine what that must have looked and sounded like? Can you imagine the sound that would be made as millions of gallons of water suddenly returned down the Jordan and began to overflow its banks again? Can you imagine what that must have looked like?

God brought the Jordan River back to its place prior to the miracle, which was at flood stage overflowing its banks, to remind the Jewish people of the significance of what He had done. We see what happens next in verse 19:

Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. He said to the sons of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?' then you shall inform your children, saying, 'Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.' "For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever."

After crossing into the Promised Land, the Jewish nation set up camp in a place called Gilgal, which was located on the outskirts of Jericho, which would be the first city that the Jewish people would encounter. And as the Jewish nation set up camp, Joshua took the twelve stones that had been gathered from the Jordan River and built the monument just as God had commanded.

Joshua then explains to the Jewish people that these stones would serve two purposes. First, these stones would provoke future generations to ask a simple question “what are these stones?” In other words, what do these stones represent? These stones would provoke a conversation from future generations that would result in an opportunity to share the story of God’s activity in the lives of the Jewish people.

Second 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. These twelve stones would serve to remind not only the Jewish people, but all who would later pass by of the supernatural activity of God that had occurred here. And with this reminder, God would receive the glory and reverence that He was worthy of.

You see, monuments serve as reminders. We need reminders because we have a tendency to forget, don’t we? And it seems that we especially need reminders when it comes to our relationship with God. During our day to day lives following Jesus, it can be really easy to forget all that God has done in our lives. And during times of trouble and difficulty, we can find ourselves so focused on our circumstances that we forget God’s presence and past activity.

And in this story, we see God provide us with another timeless principle when it comes to restarting our lives. And that timeless principle is this: to restart requires monuments to remind us of God’s activity. As we have talked about throughout this series, when it comes to attempting to restart our lives, there are often times where we can find ourselves facing frustration, tension and even trouble. And in the midst of this tension and frustration, we can easily lose sight of the evidence of God’s past activity in our lives.

Just like the twelve stones that were set up at Gilgal, monuments remind us of the evidence of God’s past activity and give us the opportunity to share the story of God’s activity with others. And it is in the reminding and the sharing of the past evidences of God’s activity that can provide for us the confident trust and courage to do the right thing when it comes to restarting our lives, even when it is not the easy thing. The reminding and the sharing of God’s activity in our lives also provides the opportunity for future generations to see and hear of God’s transformational power as being a real and tangible reality that can be experienced today.


Now a natural question that can arise when it comes to monuments is “what does a monument have to look like? How do I establish monuments?” Tomorrow, I'll share some real and practical ways that you can establish monuments in your life and in the life of your family.