SERIES: Joshua: Victory through Faith
Find Ways to NOT Forget
SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk
DATE: May 26, 1996
Introduction: On my first trip to Moscow, a pastor from Minnesota and I volunteered to meet some people at the Moscow train station and then take the underground Metro to the Moscow Bible Church for Sunday morning services. Rick Thompson, the pastor at Moscow Bible Church, wrote out detailed instructions on how to get to the church from the train station. It had all the important stops and the trains we were to take at different stations. Since we had been to the train station before, we knew how to get there without the directions.
We waited for a time but our friends never made it from Kiev, so my friend and I decided to just head over to the church. But when I went to look in my backpack, the directions weren’t there. We did pretty well until we got to one of the main transfer stations where you could take any one of 8-10 trains. We were standing in the station, looking at signs we could not read, guessing at what metro line we needed to take and talking about how to ask someone to help us. From behind us came a woman who couldn’t have been more than four feet tall, and in broken English she says to us, “You take that one,” “You take that one.” And she pointed toward one of the staircases that led to a particular track. And just as fast as she came up behind us, she disappeared in the crowd of people.
Since we had no better options and we couldn’t be any worse off than where we were, we took the stairs and the train that the little woman had told us to take. Now we are on a train that a little woman told us to get on, and we look at the Metro map to decide where we just might want to get off. We recognize one of the stops down the line and decide to try that one. We get out of the train, go up to street level and there in the distance we recognize the building where the Moscow Bible Church meets.
As we walked to the building, we tried to figure out who the little woman could have been, how she would have picked us out in the crowd and know to tell us which train we were to get on. We finally stopped analyzing it like a couple of accountants, and just prayed and thanked God for reminding us that He was not far off and that little details were not escaping him. I had fun remembering that little event last week as I was preparing this message. I don’t have too many events like that, but I do have a few. Until Carol and I got talking one night, I had forgotten about it. It was long out of my memory.
In Joshua, chapter 4, God ensures that what happened to the people in the miraculous crossing of the Jordan would not soon be forgotten. He does not do the miraculous all the time, but when He does, He wants us to find ways not to forget. God’s word for us from Joshua, chapter 4 is that when God performs a miracle in our lives, we are called to remember that event. To get a better hold on that message, I want us to look at Joshua 3 and 4 with three questions in mind.
Why does God do amazing things in our lives?
What does God want us to do when He does something amazing?
Why is remembering so important?
Why does God do amazing things in our lives?
This is important because often we seek miracles in our lives for reasons that may not be the same reasons God has. God performed the miracle at the Jordan for reasons that are similar to the great things he may do in our lives. I find three main reasons why God did the miracle at the Jordan.
1. He wants his people to know that He is living among them. (3:10; 5:4-6). Chapter 5 of Joshua, which Mike will preach on next week, tells us that most of the men and women who crossed over the Jordan had been born during the 40 years of wilderness wanderings. They had not personally experienced the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. Though they knew the story, they themselves had not experienced it.
In preparing the people to cross the Jordan, Joshua begins his instructions this way in verse 9 of chapter 3: “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites.” God was intentionally going to teach His people a lesson that they would need after crossing the river, a lesson many had not yet experienced firsthand. He was communicating to them that “I am a living God, not just a God of past history, but a God of the now and I am a God who is among you!”
The second reason God does amazing things is because …
2. He wants to further His purposes (3:7; 4:14). God had a Kingdom purpose behind the Jordan miracle. In verse 7 of chapter 3 the Lord tells 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.” In verse 14 of chapter 4, we see that this is exactly what happened: “they (the people of Israel) revered him, just as they had Moses all the days of his life.” God exalts Joshua in the eyes of the people because He wants the people to know that He is the leader to follow from here on out. It will be Joshua that leads them into the next phase of their journey with God.
Often God will work out wildly fantastic circumstances and timings for a specific ministry purpose. I suspect that many of you could testify to this!
A third reason God does amazing things in our lives is that …
3. He desires people to know Him and fear Him (4:23-24). Look with me at chapter 4, beginning at verse 23. Joshua tells the people of Israel that God had instructive purposes behind this miracle.
“For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”
God used this miracle as a witnessing tool. He wanted to reveal Himself and instruct the people of the earth about His power. And for the people of God, who already knew He was powerful, it was a reminder that though they had a close relationship with Him, He was still to be granted tremendous respect and honor.
God has greater purposes to His miracles than simply meeting our needs. I would suspect that if we each categorize the amazing things God has done in our lives, somewhere along the way we would find these purposes played out. When God performs amazing things in our life, we are called to recognize and be amazed at the purpose He displays in those miracles.
The second question I want us to consider this morning is this:
What does God want us to do when He does something amazing?
One of the key terms in chapter 3 and 4 is ark of the covenant or ark of the Lord or ark of testimony. The term is repeated or referred to no less than 20 times in these two chapters. The ark of the covenant was a sacred chest containing the two stone tablets on which God wrote the law for the people of Israel. It was an external reminder that God had made a binding agreement with the people. The ark was closely connected to the presence of God among Israel. One person has written about the connection this way: “Wherever the Ark is, Yahweh is always present.”[i]
The repetitive focus on the Ark in these two chapters teaches us that …
1. God wants us to remember Him. (4:5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 16, 18) The ark goes into the flooded Jordan first, the Ark remains there while the people cross, and the Ark is carried out of the dry riverbed with all of Israel looking on from a distance. Our eyes are repeatedly focused on the Ark, because wherever the Ark is, God is always present. What is most significant is not that the flooded Jordan gets backed up, but that it backs up when the Ark gets there. And it stays backed up while the Ark is in the middle of the Jordan. And it remains backed up until the Ark leaves the Jordan.
If there was any doubt that the living God was among them at the beginning of chapter 3, by the end of chapter 4 no one was left unconvinced. Forever focused in the memories of the people of Israel was not simply the event but the Ark. The living God was among them.
When God does amazing things in our life, our tendency is to become enamored only with the details and the circumstances of what He does. God wants us to be enamored with Him! Sometimes, we go a step further and begin to expect God to work in some formulaic fashion. The pyrotechnics of the miracles always change, but the God the behind them never does. We are not to worship the miracle but to worship the God behind the miracle.
2. He wants us to remember the event as a community. (4:5, 18, 19-22) Twelve men go back into the Jordan—one from each tribe, so that every individual in the community has a representative. They go to where the Ark is being held up by the priests and they each hoist up on their shoulders a boulder. Verses 19 and 20 tell us they carried these stones 10 miles to the city of Gilgal where Israel would begin their resettlement. And there they carefully assembled those stones into a memorial.
Just as when we drive into Washington DC, we think of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln as we see their monuments; and just as we remember the men and women who died in Vietnam and in Korea and in World War II whenever we see their memorials; God’s people would walk past this pile of stones and remember God and celebrate together in their heart what He had done.
We are each involved in a number of communities of believers of different sizes. A family is a community. A small group is a community. This whole church is a community. In each of these groups we need to have times of intentional public remembering of the great things God has done in that community.
Those of you who were at family camp in the fall of 1990 will not soon forget Rich Schumacher being wheeled into the dining hall at Pinecrest. God showed that He was among us. He is using Richard to further his Kingdom. And there is a good deal of respect toward God because of it.
When Mike’s car was demolished by a horse a few years ago, I was talking with one of the paramedics that went to the scene. He told me that one of the strange things about that accident was that the horse died on impact. Because of their size, horses tend not to die in accidents like this. If he had lived, the paramedic said, the horse may very well have just rolled around and crushed Mike. God showed that He was among us. He is using Mike to further his Kingdom. And there is a good deal of respect toward God because of it.
A few months ago, we heard the testimony of Ben and Debbie Mudd, who were remarried after being divorced. What is amazing is that on June 15, another wedding like that will occur right here. God is showing us that He is among us. His Kingdom is being furthered through these families. We are to respond rightly to God in each of these.
Though each of these events I just spoke of are community events, they are also highly personal times with God. When God does something amazing….
3. He wants us to remember the events as individuals (4:9). In this passage more than just a community memorial is built. Look at verse 8 of chapter 4. After Joshua tells the people what to do, the author tells us:
“So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down.” Now don’t miss this…. “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. And they are there to this day.”
Put yourself in Joshua’s shoes for a moment. He had been in the promised land 40 years ago on exploratory expedition. He had seen and tasted the abundance and provision that the land God had promised to give the nation would be for the people. He had wandered in the desert for 40 years as Moses’ apprentice. Then Moses dies and God picks him to fill big shoes. The Lord had encouraged him three times, “Be strong and courageous,” no doubt because God could foresee a potential crisis of confidence. In 3:7, the Lord tells Joshua that He is going to exalt Joshua in the eyes of the people and that God would be with him wherever he went.
All the people have crossed to the western shore of the Jordan. They have watched the representatives of their tribes go to the place of the ark and select a stone and carry it back. But now Joshua walks alone to the place where the Ark is raised up high. And in front of the priests, Joshua assembles a monument of twelves stones by himself. You hear the large boulders making contact with one another. Joshua and the Lord have a little private moment.
I spent this week remembering. I started from the events that brought me to Christ till today. I have five, maybe six events over the twelve years that I need to remember. I am going to find a token that will represent for me those events and I want to put them in a box so that I will have a little box of memorials. And then as the Lord does amazing things in my life or in my family, I will add a token to the box.
The third question I want us to think about today is …
Why is remembering important?
Don’t forget that in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 4 we see that it is God who commanded Joshua to tell the people to build that stone memorial. God is very concerned at that moment that his people not forget Him, not forget His power, His faithfulness, His leadership. We forget amazing things pretty quickly, don’t we? Remember the 286 computer and how amazingly fast it was. You could still buy one 6 years ago. You can buy mine if you need a doorstop.
Remembering the amazing things God has done is important because…
1. The memory offers assurance of God’s power and faithfulness in the future. (4:12-13) Look at verse 12 and 13 of chapter 4: “The men of Reuben, Gad and the half‑tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, 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.” The nation crossed not into a land without future conflicts but into a land that was filled with people who would hard fight for their land. There were still going to be some “rivers” ahead that they would think uncrossable. You know what God will tell Israel to do in a couple of chapters? He will tell them to go conquer Jericho. And here is how they are to do it: walk around the city for six days blowing trumpets and then on the seventh day, have all priests blow their horns and have the people shout at the top of their lungs. Why do that Lord? Then the walls will come tumbling down! Yea right! Good things we brought these swords just in case.
But each day the men leave Gilgal and see the memorial. “Oh yea, God is with us!”. And each evening they would come home and see that memorial again, “Oh yea, God is with us.” They would have constant assurance that God could do it.
I sensed last week that there are a few rivers in our lives that seem on the uncrossable side. If this is so, go back now and think about the memorials in your little box. Sift those memories through your hands and look them over and over again. Don’t look for a formula in those, just remember the times when God showed you that He is in your life and He showed you his power.
2. The stories teach our children about God’s power and faithfulness. The story of the stones of remembrance is told twice in this chapter. Both times Joshua explains that one of the reasons God had them build this memorial was so their children could be taught about God’s power and faithfulness. We see this first explained in verse 4-7 and then at the end of the chapter, we read,
“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 of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.”
What a gracious thing God did for the fathers! He had them build a memorial knowing that the children would someday want to know what that big pile of rocks is all about. This would then give the dads an opportunity to set their children down and tell them not just about the river but the God who went into the river with them.
The wonders God does in our lives are not simply to “wow” us in the now, but the stories are to be passed down to our children. When we can share stories of the amazing things God has done in our lives or in our communities, a number of things will occur for our children. First, it will make Christianity real to them. For many children, God is equated only with a certain building and a certain day. When they hear the stories of their parents, they will know by example that God is at work on days other than Sunday, that He is at work in places other than the physical walls of this facility, and that the living God is at work in the lives of people other than the professional believers—the lives of people like themselves.
Also, when parents share the stories of God’s amazing acts of power and grace, they will be giving their children categories that they can follow as they seek to have God work in their lives. And when parents share their stories with their children, their encouragement to “go and pray about it” will have some credibility, because the children know that their parents have done and are doing what they are asking.
Let me make one side note to the men. In Ephesians Paul exhorts us this way: “Fathers, do not exasperate you children, instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (Eph 6:4) I do not for a minute want to minimize the power of the stories of mothers. But what a powerful example it is when our children hear that we fathers are walking with God. If you are single man, begin saving up your stories. If you are a father now, ask God to give you fresh eyes to see the amazing things He is doing in your life.
This is helpful not only for our biological children but also for our spiritual children. People we are discipling need to hear our stories, not so they can think we are great but so they can know that God is among us.
Conclusion: The movie Schindler’s List tells the story of a man named Oscar Schindler, who during World War II selfishly developed a business that would use cheap Jewish labor to make a fortune selling items for the war effort. During the movie, the director Steven Spielberg shows how Oscars Schindler’s selfish motives begin to change and become more humane when he begins to see that his business is keeping his Jewish workers out of the concentration camps and out the ovens of death.
The movie’s title refers to the names of all the Jewish men, women and children who were intentionally put on a list by Oscar Schindler. Once a name was put on that list, they became “Schindler’s Jews”, which protected them from deportation, because now they were considered vital to the war effort. This intentional act saved the lives of hundreds of Jews.
At the end of the movie Spielberg stops telling the historical story and begins communicating through pictures in real time. His camera takes us to Jerusalem, where Spielberg has brought all the Schindler Jews who are still alive. His camera shows them walking down the hillside of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives in single file to the grave of Oscar Schindler. As each survivor approaches Oscar Schindler’s grave, they lay a small stone on his grave. One after another after another. Soon there is a large pile of stones there.
Mr. Spielberg knows his Old Testament. He is drawing a parallel to our passage in Joshua. He is making a statement to the Jewish people. God saved his people. Just as in the days of Joshua, so too is He doing that now. Be amazed by what God has done. Remember it. Tell it to your children.
The message is the same for us. When God does amazing things in our lives, we are must remember and find ways not to forget.
Transition to Communion
Someday, I will take my children to the third floor, east wing, of a fraternity house on Providence Rd. in Columbia, Missouri. I will point to where a red couch was and tell them the story of how Jesus met me there, where I understood for the first time that He died on the cross for me, personally. And that’s there I allowed Jesus to wash me clean and make me a new man. Where would you take your children.
On the night before Jesus died, not wanting his disciples to ever forget Him or what he was about to do, He instituted for the church a simple meal that was to serve for all time as a memorial. Like the twelve stones taken from the Jordan, the bread and the wine are here to bring our minds back to the red couch in the fraternity house. To remember that Jesus’ body was broken and His blood was shed so our sins before a holy God could be wiped away.
He wants the church to celebrate this little meal, to recall the amazing thing that God did at that cross. And by remembering it, we bring the past event into the present, where we find confidence that Jesus is among us. Also, as we remember, it jogs our memory again to recall that Jesus will appear a second time, not to die for sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
DATE: May 26, 1996
Tags:
Miracles
Remember
Children
[i] Kaiser, 158, quoting Von Rad.