By Jay T. Robertson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Mobile
REMEMBERING GOD’S WORKS
Joshua 3:14–4:9
The day the Israelites thought would never come had finally arrived. The day when they would finally move out of the desert across the Jordan River into Canaan — a journey of only 11 days from Mount Sinai, which had taken them 38 years — was about to be realized.
Dry Ground (3:14–17)
This section highlights the climax of the Lord’s wonders as His people crossed through the Jordan River on dry ground. Everything occurred exactly as the Lord had told Joshua.
The moment the feet of the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant touched the water’s edge, the Lord would stop the river in its tracks.
The entire nation of Israel would pass through the dried-up riverbed on dry ground, in the height of the flood season. The God of the exodus is the God who would settle the Israelites in Canaan.
This miracle demonstrated for the Israelites that the living God was among them and would dispossess the peoples living in the promised land to allow His people to settle in the land.
The God of Israel is the Lord of all the earth. The Ark symbolized God’s presence among His people and His faithfulness to His covenant promises.
When the people of Israel set out to cross the Jordan River, God Himself went before them. The significance of the Ark going first into the Jordan River shows that God must lead in any successful spiritual enterprise, and it is the same God who must lead and be followed.
The God who led Joshua is the same God who led Moses and worked through him.
Memorial Stones (4:1–7)
It was customary for peoples in the ancient Near East to memorialize events, specifically after battles they believed their armies were given victory in by the superior power of their gods. Israel also practiced this custom beginning with the time of Abram, who entered the land and built an altar at Shechem.
The purpose for selecting 12 men — one from each tribe (3:12) — now becomes apparent in chapter 4.
By instruction from the Lord, Joshua commanded the 12 men to each take a stone from the Jordan River.
These 12 stones were then set up as a memorial for future generations to remember the faithfulness of God who had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt and brought them victoriously into the promised land.
When their children would ask them about the purpose of the stones, the people were to remind them how the Lord had cut off the waters of the Jordan River and allowed them to cross over on dry ground. These stones were to be a perpetual memorial for the nation.
Lasting Reminders (8–9)
In addition to the 12 stones set up at Gilgal, which was Israel’s first campsite in the promised land, Joshua also set up 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan River where the priests carrying the Ark had been standing.
Placing 12 stones in the riverbed commemorated the place that God had dried up, where the Ark had been held and where He showed by a miracle His mighty presence, power and worthiness of respect.
These memorials were for future generations of Israelites and “so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord’s hand is strong, and so that you may always fear the Lord your God” (v. 24).
EDITOR’S NOTE — The Sunday School lesson outlines are provided by Lifeway.
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