Joshua 4—What do these stones mean?

Young families today have many more convenient devices than my parents did with which to create pictorial records of the years of child-rearing: video cameras, cell phones with built-in cameras. My dad was way ahead of his time in the 1920s and 1930s, when he used an 8 mm movie camera to make home movies of us kids. When Wini and I were raising our small children in the 1960s, I was much more primitive about it than my dad. We have some still photos—and that's all!

(No, the above is not a photo of my family, nor is that me with the "F" sweater"!!)

God wanted Joshua to create a kind of scrapbook entry for the Israelites that in the future would not only preserve the historical record of what happened on the day they crossed the Jordan, but a family teaching moment. That is what the pile of 12 stones on the western bank of the Jordan provided.

Although the twelve men commissioned each one to shoulder a large stone from the river bed were from different tribes, they deposited their stones together in one memorial. And the memorial was intended to attract the curiosity of later generations, who would inquire of their parents or of older members of their villages what was the meaning of this group of twelve stones.

This suggests that there was no explanatory plaque accompanying the cluster of stones. A living guide (in this case perhaps a parent) is always preferable to a mere label. The person consulted can not only explain the monument, but also bear witness to what the memorial means to himself. Israelite families passing the pile could re-live the crossing of their ancestors from the Wilderness into the Promised Land, and the older generation pass on to the younger not only its history, but its living faith.

Notice too, how in verses 1-9 the procedure is described four times: once when God gives the command to Joshua (1-3), a second time when Joshua passes the command along to the people (4-7), a third time when the author describes the people's obedience (8-9), and a final time at the end of the episode (19-24). This is a feature of good story-telling, one you will always find in the technique of riveting story-tellers around campfires. Each time the account is repeated, instead of being bored by the repetition the hearers enjoy hearing how the story-teller will vary his manner of telling. The children in the audience especially will watch for possible additions or omissions and take delight in pointing them out to the speaker. The speaker will sometimes deliberately make a change to see if his audience will detect it and catch him. You will often find this style in biblical narratives. It reminds us of how many of these accounts originated and were passed on.

One such detail in chapter 4, which an alert listener would immediately pick up on as a fulfillment of something touched upon in the earlier narrative in 1:12-18, is the presence of the "men of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh" who crossed over the Jordan armed in front of the other tribes, as Moses had directed them (v. 12-13).

The final time that the transfer of the stones is described (19-24), we are given interesting additional information. We are told the date of the crossing: the 10th day of the first month, which is the date of Passover (v. 19). And we are now told the location of what earlier was simply called "the place where you stay tonight" (v. 3) — it is "Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho" (v. 19). These two additional details will constitute a thread that is picked up again in chapter 5. The name "Gilgal", which sounds like the Hebrew verb galal "to roll away" will be related to the circumcising of Israelite fighting men of the generation born in the wilderness years (5:1-9), and the Passover will now be celebrated for the first time in the Promised Land (5:10-12). But the place name Gilgal for an alert Hebrew listener could remind him or her of the heap (Hebrew gal) of 12 stones, which Joshua made there (4:20).

The number 'twelve', as the text informs us, was to relate to the twelve tribes which crossed the river under the leadership of the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant.

In Christian hymnody the verbal image of crossing the Jordan usually stands for the believer's crossing over from earthly life to heavenly at the moment of death. A classic example is this fine hymn (listen to it online).

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

Refrain: I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
Oh, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

O’er all those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day;
There God the Son forever reigns,
And scatters night away.

(Refrain)

No chilling winds or poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and feared no more.

(Refrain)

When I shall reach that happy place,
I’ll be forever blest,
For I shall see my Father’s face,
And in His bosom rest.

Undoubtedly, the association of crossing the Jordan with the death of a Christian has something to do with the transference of the concept of the "Promised Land" from a literal geographic location on earth, which it definitely meant for ancient Israel, to an eternal home in Heaven for Christians.

But, of course, the analogy cannot be perfect. For although the land of Canaan was for the entering Israelites, who had lived for 40 years in the deserts, truly a "land flowing with milk and honey", it was—unlike Heaven—a dangerous place, with enemies lurking everywhere, and opponents to defeat.

In our studies of the next chapters we will see just how dangerous it was for the Israelites, and how much they had to depend upon God who had ordered them to conquer and settle this land.

But for now we should ponder, as modern-day believers, the lesson of the stone memorial. When we first chose to believe in Jesus and asked him to forgive our sins and set us on the path of service and fellowship with him, we were like the Israelites who trusted Yahweh-God to bring them through the raging, flooding Jordan. Once on the other side, they faced dangers, but a chance to fulfill God's will and realize an age-old promise made to Abraham. Once we have passed from spiritual death into a new life of walking with Jesus, we too may face dangers. Perhaps not life-threatening, but ostracism by those who do not like us to share the message of Jesus with others in a natural and friendly way. That opposition may even come from members of our own families. It may all too soon come from "politically correct" laws of our governments, federal and state and local. But whatever faces us, we can look back at our "pile of stones", our remembrance of how Jesus brought us out of the life-threatening flood of our own sins, and onto the firm ground of life in Christ. I take pleasure in remembering my experience of finding Christ. I hope that each of you do as well.