Outline // Monuments #3: So That They Will Ask

Background:
The Israelites had followed the Lord in the wilderness for 40 years.  They had set up the tabernacle, and the law, and had the ark of the covenant…all of the generation that had crossed the Red Sea, had now died off, and it was a new generation of people who were never slaves in Egypt, now crossing into the Promised Land.
But now they faced another body of water, between them, and what God had promised to their fathers and mothers.  The Jordan River is all that laid between them and the land that was promised.  And they had over a MILLION people to get across that river, no bridge, so this was a conundrum.  BUT GOD!
Is God gonna let a little water get in the way of what He promised His people?!
Is He gonna let a little “impossibility” stop Him?
Of course not, nothing is impossible for God!

Joshua 3:7-16
7 The Lord told Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses.
8 Give this command to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: ‘When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.’”
9 So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come and listen to what the Lord your God says. 10 Today you will know that the living God is among you. He will surely drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites ahead of you.
11 Look, the Ark of the Covenant, which belongs to the Lord of the whole earth, will lead you across the Jordan River! 12 Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”
14 So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. 15 It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, 16 the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.  

Here we see yet another example, of God saying YES immediately, but them having to wait a little while to see the results.

Joshua 4:1-8
4 When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe. 3 Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.’”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. 5 He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 6 We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
8 So the men did as Joshua had commanded them. 

1. God commands a memorial.  This wasn't optional.  It was intentional.
Memories fade.  Passion leaks.  It may be a slow drip, but it leaks.  It’s like a leaky bucket.
You may know TODAY that the Living God is among you…because he spoke, or he performed a miracle in your life, or He answered a prayer….but that passion leaks over time! Which is why we have to build things in to remind ourselves! Not just as an individual, or as a family…but as a people!  We have to continually fill that bucket!

2. Stones Tell A Story. The miracle becomes a teaching tool.
Proverbs 22:6, TRAIN UP your children in the way they should go….“Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.”
That word in Aramaic, means TRAIN UP.  DEDICATE. TRAIN.
 
3. Faith Must Be Passed On. "What do these stones mean to you?”
Are we leaving spiritual breadcrumbs for those behind us?

Joshua 4:9-11
9 Joshua also set up another pile of twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, at the place where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant were standing. And they are there to this day.
10 The priests who were carrying the Ark stood in the middle of the river until all of the Lord’s commands that Moses had given to Joshua were carried out. Meanwhile, the people hurried across the riverbed. 11 And when everyone was safely on the other side, the priests crossed over with the Ark of the Lord as the people watched.

4. The old has gone. The new has come.
→Manna was okay for a season….but growing you own food, from your own land…THAT’S BETTER.
→Water from a rock when you needed it…that was okay…but your own well, on your own land…THAT’S BETTER!
→Living in tents and moving from place to place…that was okay for a season…but I have SO MUCH BETTER FOR YOU!
Romans 12:28-29 says, “Since we are receiving a kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with holy fear & awe. For our God is a devouring fire.”