God, his great works and why he does them
Text Joshua 4 Time 07 06 20 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church (Zoom)
If you go to Aberystwyth and to Aberystwyth Castle you will see there an interesting circle of 12 stones with a huge flat stone in the middle (maen llog or the logan stone). You can see similar structures around Wales and it means that a national eisteddfod has taken place nearby. There was one in Aber in 1915 (and an earlier one in 1865). I have read that the stones all stand for one of the old Welsh counties but I am not sure. We'll come back to these gorsedd stones as they are called.
We come this week to Joshua 4. As we said last week, Chapters 3 and 4 belong together (like two sides of the same coin) and we could have taken them in one bite but I thought it better to look at them separately. To remind you what we said last week, there were four points
- Consider the importance of being prepared for God to work
- Realise that what God does for us is intended to exalt Christ
- Note how God is eager that we should be assured of victory through him
- Recall how God's people entered Canaan and how God leads his people all the way
God was able to part the Jordan as easy as turning a tap on or off. He is the living God. He did it as he did it (using the priests and the ark) in order to impress certain things on people. I want to make three further points this week about God's miracles or great acts and why he does them. So we say
1. Consider this great act and the importance of recalling such acts and speaking of them
As we come into Chapter 4 the miracles is almost complete and the focus turns to remembering the miracle. There are three stages I guess here
1. Be prepared to recall God's great acts
In verses 1-3 we read how when they had all finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD told Joshua to choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, this has already been mentioned in Chapter 3 but here it is said and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight. So while the Jordan was still parted, they were to take 12 stones, what would become memorials stones, from the very bed of the river.
We have a rather high opinion of ourselves in certain areas and one of those areas is our memories. We imagine that we will always remember God's great acts. We will never forget that God created the world, that he brought his people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, that Christ died on the cross, that we have been converted.
Sadly, all the evidence is that we are quick to forget and forgetfulness is one of the greatest enemies of faith. This is something politicians rely on. If you are in power then you do the unpopular things early on and the popular things later, if you can. One writer says that it is like in marriage where often the biggest danger is not infidelity but forgetting why you married in the first place.
When it come to God's great acts we need to be prepared to remind ourselves of them.
2. Make efforts to recall God's great acts and speak of them
Here Joshua calls together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and tells them, to go ahead of the ark and from the middle of the Jordan each to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among them. Joshua says 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 ... 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 here was a sensible and practicable plan for recalling this amazing event. The 12 stones would stand - perhaps they would have looked something like a gorsedd circle, or a smaller scale Stonehenge. You could not prove beyond doubt that the stones had come from the bed of the Jordan but the very claim would have its power and interest. Imagine a man and his son some years after this walking and coming across them.
There are several passages like this in the Old Testament and this is one reason I am keen on using catechisms - questions and answers. It is sometimes called the Socratic method but it's older than Socrates.
In a similar way, we are commended to remember creation and the resurrection by making the Lord's day different to all the other days of the week and teaching our children to do the same. Jesus commended us too to remember his death by meeting together and eating bread and drinking wine. It is good then for children to be around and to learn from the symbols. We can't do it at the moment but we are trying to do what we can. There are other sensible and practicable measures we can take to remember the things that matter.
3. Go on recalling God's great acts
Just to complete this point look at verses 8 and 9 where we learn that the Israelites did as Joshua commanded ... and took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, ... and .. carried them over with them to their camp, .... Then 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. That that had been is added by the niv to smooth out a possible problem. As it stands the text seems to suggest there were two memorials - one in the Jordan and one at Gilgal, which is possible but I would think unlikely. The writer certainly adds And they are there to this day. Quite how much longer that is we do not know but presumably it was at least a generation.
Think of our chapel. It was built in 1870 and has been there ever since. It reminds us of the faith of our forebears. If you go to St Paul's, say, that takes you further back, to 1697, and Westminster Abbey even further again, to 1065. (The year after it was built William I was crowned there).
God's people have been keeping the Lord's Day at least as far back as Constantine and indeed right back to Jesus's own day. It's the same with communion. Or have you heard of the Hinton St Mary mosaic. It was found in a Roman villa in Dorset some years ago and appears to be one of the oldest surviving depictions of Christ. Behind the head of the Christ figure are the letters chi and rho, the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ - Christos. Christ's head is a part of a larger mosaic, also containing pagan elements, so its a strange mixture but it shows that by about 350 AD people in this country were thinking about Christ and worshipping him.
Or think of the blessing of reading church history and Christian biography. Or keeping a journal or diary recording God's goodness to you an then reading it from time to time.
There are good ways and bad ways to remember God's great acts. The lesson is to be prepared to recall his great acts, to do that and to take advantage of reminders by reminding ourselves and sharing it with our children and others. Keep the Lord's Day, go to communion when you can. Do whatever else you can legitimately do to keep God's great acts in your mind.
2. Consider this great act - the obedience required in it and how it anticipates what comes next
In verses 10 and 11 we turn back to the matter of the miracle itself. 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.
So the people did not dawdle crossing the Jordan, they hurried. There were about two and half million of them so they had to hurry. The priests and the people did as they were told to do, however, and the people kept watching and the priests kept carrying the ark until the process was complete.
If it is patient obedience that is needed when God does a great act surely that is what is needed at all times. Be obedient. Be patient. Serve faithfully.
There is also a note in verses 12 and 13 saying that The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, ready for battle, 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. This reminds us that this miracle was preparation for something to follow - the Battle of Jericho which lay ahead.
God's great acts are not simply to be marvelled at then but prepare for something further. So the incarnation for example was the miracle that led t the perfect life of Christ and the perfect life led to his death on the cross. His death was followed by his resurrection and his resurrection by his ascension and his ascension by his session at Gods right hand. And the session itself leads on to the miracle of his return. The return prepares the way for judgement and judgement for eternity itself in heaven or hell. When God converts a person that is not the end of the story but only the beginning. The Christian life itself is a preparation and anticipation of life in heaven to come.
3. Consider this great act - and the reasons why God did it
Why did God bring about this miracle, this great act? At least three reasons are given here
1. This great act was designed to exalt God's servant
In verse 14 we come back to what was spoken of back in 3:7 And the LORD said to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. verse 14 says That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses. We will come back to that.
Verses 15-18 then describe Joshua in action - the LORD tells him to Command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant law to come up out of the Jordan. It is time for the separated Jordan waters to be reunited. So Joshua command(s) the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan." and they do, 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. You can almost see it with your own eyes. The timing shows it was God's work. Similar things happened in the Jordan they say in 1267, 1906 and 1927 and God may have used natural phenomena but the timing is all important.
So one of the reasons for this great act is that God wants to exalt his servant. We pointed out before that Joshua is a type of Jesus and at this time Joshua passed through the Jordan as Jesus would die for his people. This miracle is also a reminder that all God's great acts are designed to exalt Jesus. Not just his own great miracles and his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, etc, but all the miracles we know of and all the great acts of God including especially conversion.
2. This great act was designed to leave God's people in awe
Further, this great act was designed to leave the people in awe. 14 That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses. The same thing comes out in verse 24b ... and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.
There is a military tactic called shock and awe. The technical name is rapid dominance but it is known as shock and awe. It is based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force that it paralyses the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroys their will to fight. Imagine seeing the Jordan open up as these people did. It would surely quell any fears, silence any complaints. What an amazing thing God has done.
And so it is with us when we see what God can and does do. He overwhelms us with his great acts and we are left powerless to resist him. That is why such efforts are made to resist believing in things like the virgin birth or the resurrection. How overwhelming if they are true. But they are. Recognise it is so.
3. This great act was designed to show future generations how great God is
In verses 19-23 we come back again to the twelve stones the chapter begins with. On the tenth day of the first month exactly 40 years then after they had prepared for the first Passover when keaivng Egypt the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. At Gilgal Joshua set up ... the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. told the Israelites that in the future when their descendants ask(ed) their parents, 'What do these stones mean?' they were to tell them the story. 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 what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.
We may wonder why God does not do more miracles than he does. One reason is that he wants us to remember the lessons of the ones he has already done. He does not want us to forget his power and his greatness - hence these stones, hence the Bible; hence things like Sundays and communion and sermons.
4. This great act was designed so that all peoples on earth might know how powerful God is
Verses like this are quite striking. It ties in with the reminder in 3:13 that God is the Lord of all the earth. This is a relatively small group of people in an obscure part of the word yet the Holy Spirit who inspired the writer know the future and so he says God did this great miracle so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful! Wow! Do you ever doubt the power of God? Doubt no more. He brought his people dry shod across the Jordan) as well as across the Red Sea). Do you ever doubt the power of God? Doubt no more. He raised Jesus from the dead. Do you ever doubt the power of God? Doubt no more. He converts people - sometimes obviously wicked people who are dead set against him, people like Paul or like bank robbers and gangsters and murderers. Know that God is powerful indeed and he can do as he chooses.
God's desire is that we may always fear the LORD (y)our God. This miracle is designed to help us in that direction. Remember it.
