Stacking Stones

Joshua 4:1-7
1 When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. 5 And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

In May of 2018, Shelly and I took a long-anticipated trip to Washington DC, and combined with it four days of touring central Virginia and southern Pennsylvania Civil War battlefields and notable historic places made famous by that war. We visited the battlefield at Fredericksburg, VA., the site where Stonewall Jackson died, and the area where the Wilderness battle was fought. The next morning we visited the McClean house in Appomattox Courthouse where Robert E Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S Grant on April 9, 1865. We continued north up Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, crossed into Pennsylvania and spent a day and a half in Gettysburg, PA., touring that significant battlefield. At each stop, we encountered numerous plaques, monuments, and tablets (iron or brass plaques with raised lettering to withstand the elements) honoring individual people and entire fighting units, and describing in detail what occurred at that spot. In and around Gettysburg, PA. alone there are 1,328 monuments, memorials, markers, and tablets. Being novice historians, reading many of the tablets enhanced our knowledge and understanding of what happened there.

Joshua 4 gives the account of a highly significant event in the life of God’s people, the Israelites of the Exodus. After succumbing to the sin of idolatry by casting and worshipping a golden calf, the nation’s punishment was to wander in the wilderness for 40 long years, sufficient time for the generation primarily responsible to have passed on. Now, those forty years later, the Israelites were on the verge of realizing His original plan for them, that of inheriting the land promised from the beginning of their existence. He had shown them grace in allowing them to return to communion with Him. As they marched across a dry Jordan River whose waters had been walled up, God gave instructions to Joshua for a monument of remembrance to be constructed so that all future generations could be reminded of His faithfulness and the providential care of their ancestors. Twelve stones, large enough to have to be carried on a man’s shoulder, were taken from the middle of the Jordan and be grouped together as a monument where they camped for the first time on their promised land. The monuments and markers we observed at the Civil War locations noted acts of heroism by fighting units or examples of great leadership by generals and colonels. Also, they were one-time written accounts of these significant events. Conversely, the monument constructed near Jericho in the promised land focused on God and His providential care of the people he took as his own, and this remembrance, instead of written, would be passed verbally and repeatedly from generation to generation. The pile of twelve stones near the western bank of the Jordan was particularly meaningful. It was forty years in the making, and clearly showed how God, after choosing Abraham and the nation he would father, mercifully did not allow their sin or the forsaking of Him to divert his gracious plan for them. Seeing that stack of stones would forever give the Israelites opportunities testify to their children and grandchildren of the mercy and providential care of the Lord, and the reliability of His promises.

Considering this account of a visual memorial to the faithfulness of God made me wonder what times or specific events in our lives might be considered “stacking stones” moments of our own? What instances of God’s particular faithfulness should prompt a regular retelling to future generations. The profession of faith of a child or grandchild would certainly be worthy of a stack of stones. Likewise, the fifty or sixty year marriage anniversary of a Christ-centered union. The birth of a child to a couple who long struggled to start their own family is a stacking stones event, as well as the return to health of ourselves or a loved one after an extended period of illness or infirmity. And examples of God’s providential care don’t always come in the midst of positive or joyful events. Those who have endured the pain from the loss of a loved one earlier than ever expected might stack stones in remembrance of the comfort and peace God gave them to get through this darkest of times.

If you’re like me, it’s easy to get caught up in the regular tempo of life and too seldom think about the particular instances where God’s faithfulness was on full display. It might be a good exercise to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and intentionally write down a list of the stacking stones events that have highlighted our lives. Remembering and pondering these times regularly would be beneficial to each of us. But God’s command to the Israelites to pass down these accounts of His deliverance and care falls on us today as well. We may, or may not, be
interested in constructing actual stacks of stones in or around our homes.
However, whether that exercise is literal or figurative, we can’t forsake the duty to relate, in personal terms, to friends and family the examples when we rejoiced in God’s faithfulness or felt his uplifting hand in difficult times.

May the words of Psalm 40:10 ring true in us:
“I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.”