Scripture: Joshua 4: 1-9; 19-24
Sermon: What Do These Stones Mean?
Topics: stones, catechism, Jordan, new beginning
Preached: September 13, 2015
Rev. Mike Abma
When the entire nation had finished crossing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua: 2‘Select twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, 3and command them, “Take twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you camp tonight.” ’
4Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. 5Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, 6so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?” 7then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial for ever.’
8 The Israelites did as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord told Joshua, carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there.
9(Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan
[NIV Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan]
in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.)
10 The priests who bore the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed over in haste. 11As soon as all the people had finished crossing over, the ark of the Lord, and the priests, crossed over in front of the people. 12The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the Israelites, as Moses had ordered them.13About forty thousand armed for war crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for battle.
14 On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.
15 The Lord said to Joshua, 16‘Command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant to come up out of the Jordan.’ 17Joshua therefore commanded the priests, ‘Come up out of the Jordan.’ 18When the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.
19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.20Those twelve stones, which they had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal, 21saying to the Israelites, ‘When your children ask their parents in time to come, “What do these stones mean?” 22then you shall let your children know, “Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground.” 23For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we crossed over, 24so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, and so that you may fear the Lord your God for ever.’
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
When I was about 11 or 12 years old, I thought the Charlie Brown Halloween Special was the funniest thing ever.
Perhaps you remember it.
Charlie Brown and his friends go trick-or-treating.
After each house, they ask, “What did you get?”
Everyone replies with things like,
“I got pieces of candy,”
“I got a chocolate bar.”
“I got a package of gum.”
But each time Charlie Brown says, “I got a rock.”
“I got a rock.”
I knew it was coming.
I knew Charlie Brown was always going to get a rock.
But for some reason, I still thought it was funny, every time.
Why did I think that was funny?
Perhaps it is because I knew getting a rock was about the worst thing you could get.
What could you do with a rock?
I knew too much about rocks and stones.
When you grow up on a farm in this area of the world, one of the spring jobs is picking stones out of the fields, stones that the frost had pushed to the surface.
It is one of the worst jobs, digging those hard, heavy stones out of the ground, lugging them to the wagon, and at the end of the day, piling those stones up on the edge of the field.
ISRAEL’S NEW BEGINNING
The Israelites also knew all about stones and rocks.
They had been wandering around the desert for 40 years.
And what is in the desert, the wilderness, other than a lot of sand, and stones, and rocks.
But there is something new, remarkably new, about the stones mentioned in this 4rth chapter of Joshua.
For one thing, these 12 stones were from the middle of the riverbed of the Jordan River.
The Jordan River plays a very prominent role in the book of Joshua.
The Jordan is mentioned 70 times in Joshua.
The Jordan is mentioned 28 times in chapters 3-4.
In chapter 4 alone it is mentioned 16 times.
Why such a prominent place?
Because crossing the Jordan represented a New Beginning for God’s people.
Their wilderness wandering was over.
Their entry into the Promised Land had begun.
This was a New Beginning.
Even the stones from the middle of the river were New.
These were not sharp, jagged, rough desert stones.
No, these were stones from the middle of the riverbed.
These were stones smoothed, and rounded by years of flowing water.
These were stones that looked different and felt different than the stones they were
used to because they came from such a special place,
a place that would have been impossible to access,
without the miraculous help of God.
THE PLACE AND TIME OF THE PILE OF 12 STONES
To commemorate this miraculous new beginning,
to memorialize this miraculous crossing,
God tells Israel
to choose 12 men – one from each tribe.
Each of these men was to select a stone from the middle of the river –
small enough to carry
but large enough to be significant.
The Place they put these stones is important.
Each of these 12 stones was carried to the western shore of the Jordan River
where they were piled in a place known as Gilgal.
I should tell you that the word stone in Hebrew is Eben.
And the word help is Ezer.
So this pile of stones was their Ebenezer – stones of help.
This pile reminded them,
and told the world
that by God’s help,
they had already established a foothold in the Promised Land
even though they had not yet conquered it.
The Time they made this pile of stones is also important.
Verse 19 tells us this happened on the 10th day of the first month.
Why is that day so significant?
It was so significant because 40 years earlier,
their parents and grandparents were stuck in Egypt.
40 years earlier, on the 10th day of the first month,
those earlier generations celebrated their first Passover.
That first Passover is described in Exodus 12,
and it ends with these words:
“When your children ask, “What does this meal mean?”
You shall tell them that the Lord struck down the Egyptians,
but passed over the Israelite houses, sparing Israelite lives.
Now, here, exactly 40 years to the day later,
after that whole first generation had died in the desert —
everyone gone, except Joshua and Caleb –
this new generation is given very similar instructions:
“When your children ask their parents, “What do these stones mean?”
You shall tell them how
the Lord dried up the Jordan River and allowed us to cross over,
just as the Lord dried up the Red Sea and allowed our parents and
grandparents to cross over.
And why was it so important to remember these things,
to remember the lesson of this pile of stones,
and to pass this lesson from generation to generation?
The reason it was so important was
for the benefit of both God’s people and the world.
It was so that all the people of the earth would know how strong and
mighty the hand of the Lord was;
and it was so that God’s people would remember to stay faithful to God,
forever and ever.
LESSON OF THE PAIL OF STONES
A teacher once took a pail or bucket and she filled it up with 12 good sized stones so that the 2 stones filled the bucket.
She then turned to her class and asked: “Is this pail of stones full?
They all nodded their heads and said it looked full.
No, she said, it is not full.
Then she took a bag of pebbles or small stones, and poured them into the bucket so they came to the rim.
Now is the pail full she asked.
The kids looked, and said, it sure looked full now.
No, she said, it is not full.
Then she took a bag of sand and poured the sand into the bucket so that it filled all the spaces between the big stones and little stones.
When the sand got to the rim, she asked again, “is the bucket full?
The kids were sure it was full now.
But she answered again, No, it is not full. And she got some water and poured it into the bucket so that it was full of water.
Now, she said to the class, what is the lesson you just learned?
Well, the kids thought the lesson must be
that when it comes to learning
you can always cram more things, more information
into the knocks and crannies of our brain.
That must be the lesson.
No, said the teacher.
The real lesson is that you need to begin with the big stones.
You have to start with the big, solid, at times hard, realities and truths
before you start adding other things.
You have to start with the first things first.
CATECHISMS
So if we are these buckets, if we are these pails,
what are the stones we need to start with?
What are the big things we need to get right
before we can start adding everything else?
Let me tell you a little about Catechisms because I think Catechisms help us answer this question.
Catechisms have been around for a long, long time.
They have their roots in passages like Joshua 4 and Exodus 12,
passages where the young ask those older:
“What does this mean?”
From very early in the church’s history,
catechisms were structured with questions and answers.
And what were these questions and answers about?
The Apostles Creed.
Catechisms were structured around the 12 Articles of the Creed:
- God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
- Jesus Christ his only begotten Son
- His mysterious Incarnation – conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary
- His death – suffering under Pontius Pilate, being crucified, dying and being buried
- His glorious and mysterious resurrection
- His ascension into heaven
- The promise that he will return to judge the living and the dead
- God the Holy Spirit
- The Church – the communion of saints
- The forgiveness of sins
- The resurrection of the body
- The life everlasting
These are 12 articles of faith.
They are solid realities from a place beyond our grasp,
but which have been revealed to us.
These are solid realities that ground us, that guide us.
They remind us who God is — our Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer
and who we are – people chosen and redeemed by God.
We can hold these articles in our hands,
turn them over in our minds —
Solid, heavy with reality and mystery and truth, and say,
“I remember and believe in God the Father Almighty….
I remember and believe in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son.
I remember and believe in God the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church…
We hold them in our hands, in our hearts,
and we also point them out to our children
and say, this is what we believe.
CONCLUSION
I remember when I came to Calvin College years ago.
I crossed the border from Canada into the USA.
It was the first time I left home for any real length of time.
It was the first time I left the farm I grew up on.
I remember taking 3 stones – pebbles really – that fit in my pocket.
I wasn’t sure why I took them.
They just felt good to touch, to feel, to handle,
to roll around in my hand.
There was something comforting in that,
reminding me of who I was
where I was from
the hard things that had shaped me.
We are all going to leave this Chapel soon.
We are going to go home,
begin the week,
be bombarded by assignments,
responsibilities,
expectations,
the weight of the world.
Perhaps it is a good thing to pick up a stone every once in a while,
big or little, it does not really matter.
It is a good thing to pick up a stone,
to feel its weight in our hands
to feel how solid it is.
Stones, though hard and heavy, can convey comfort.
They can remind us of God, our Rock.
They can remind us of Jesus, the Living Stone.
They can remind us of how
we have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light
How we have been called out of the wilderness of our sin
into the wonder of his eternal kingdom
a kingdom we already experience now
but a kingdom we are eager to experience in its fullness.
Holding a stone in one’s hand can
remind us that in Christ we too are stones,
precious in his sight,
and that we are being piled up
built up into a house
that exists to be a witness —
a witness to the world
and a witness to each and every generation.
A witness that our God is a mighty God,
A witness that Jesus, by his death and resurrection,
conquers and leads us through the terrifying waters of death into eternal life;
A witness that the Holy Spirit is with us now, and will be with
us forever.
So hold a stone in your hands,
And remember
And believe
Amen
Prayer: Lord, you are our Ebenezer – our stone of help.
Without your help, we would not be here.
Without your help, we will never make it home.
Even as we hold on to you, and all that we believe,
Help us know that you are holding on even more tightly to us
Now and always. Amen
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