Posted: 9/02/06
Bible Studies for Life Series for September 10
The victories God provides are worth remembering
• Joshua 4:1-3,8,10-11,17-24
By Kenneth Lyle
Logsdon School of Theology, Abilene
Like most homes in America, ours contains a permanent marker to commemorate all things celebrated in the Lyle household. This centrally located obelisk displays cherished reminders of victories in the classroom, on the baseball field, the football field and the basketball court. There are reminders of family gatherings both past and future. Perhaps most important are the photographs of special moments when brother and sister set aside minor differences and come together to embrace each other and the idea of family. Yes, the refrigerator in our kitchen is a veritable totem of remembrance.
The story of Israel crossing the Jordan as recounted in Joshua 4 contains an explicit command to “mark the occasion” of this victory. Even as Israel experiences the victory God promised and wrought, they prepare and create appropriate monuments to God’s working in the world and in their lives. Yes, they created stone monuments that are “… there to this day” (4:9); but, they also forged impressive narratives that help us recount “the thrill of victory.”
Most of us will not have the opportunity to confirm the existence of stone monuments in the middle of the Jordan or along its banks, but we can appropriate and give testimony to the power of Scripture and God’s victories won in our lives. As Christians, we have unique opportunities to commemorate the triumph of God in Jesus Christ. Long after stone monuments crumble and fall, the stories of God’s victory remain.
For Israel, the crossing of the Jordan River into the land represented a long-awaited realization of a promise from God. Their 40 years of wandering comes to an end with the command to cross the river and enter the land of promise. Israel moves across a natural barrier, but they also move across a spiritual barrier. As a people, they renew the process of becoming what God intended them to become.
As Richard Nelson suggests: “The Jordan is not just an item of geography but part of a symbolic system. It represents the boundary between being a landless people and being a nation that possesses a homeland.” Nelson helpfully reminds us the “story” of crossing commemorates the shift from promise to fulfillment. The transition from the leadership of Moses to the leadership of Joshua—begun in chapter 1—finds reinforcement in the stories of chapters 3 and 4.
The focal passage for the lesson (Joshua 4:1-24) connects to the narrative begun in chapter 3. A close reading of these two chapters reveals apparent repetitions and contradictions. Some may become frustrated with how the narrative presents the story in rapid “flashback” sequences, but these passages demonstrate the recollection of events from different perspectives and with different emphases. Overall, the various stories come together to form a monumental story of how God brings promised victory to Israel, and how Israel commemorates that victory.
The order of events is instructive. God stops the river’s flow (3:16). God expedites an efficient and timely crossing on a dry riverbed (4:10-13). God restores the flow of the river to flood stage (v. 18). God, and God alone, provides the victory. As leader, Joshua reminds Israel, and he reminds us, to remember that truth.
The narrative seems fully aware that what God does at the Jordan, God has done before. In fact, this becomes an important part of the remembrance of the victory. After Joshua sets up the 12 stones taken from the river, he says: “In the future when your descendents ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘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 just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over” (vv. 21-23).
Implicit in Joshua’s explanation is the expectation that later generations of God’s people would be interested in the victory of God commemorated by a monument of stone. People will ask, “What do these stones mean?” Joshua anticipates the power of monuments to evoke probing questions, and he implores God’s people to be prepared with an adequate response.
The question remains: “How do we as Christians establish appropriate monuments to the victories God has wrought in our lives?” Monuments that do not just stand in place, but also that evoke probing questions from subsequent generations. Monuments that do not just commemorate a moment in time, but also require us to forge telling narratives of how God works and continues to work in the world.
I would like to suggest two forms of commemoration already available to the church but that sometimes become as stagnant as a pile of rocks in the wilderness, when they should be a lively presentation of the good news of Jesus Christ.
It is difficult for the Christian to read the story of Israel crossing the Jordan without reflecting upon the baptism of Jesus and his command that this should be part of the experience of following him. For the Christian, baptism is an appropriate commemoration of God’s continuing victory in the world. The experience of baptism is meaningful for the individual involved, but perhaps more significant is the power of a baptism to present the basic gospel story and to evoke probing questions.
For both my children, initial inquiries about becoming a follower of Christ came subsequent to witnessing a baptism. The powerful visual of an individual immersed in water, and the dramatic words, “Buried with Christ … Raised to walk in newness of life” prompted “What do these stones mean?” moments for my children.
Likewise, the communal experience of the Lord’s Supper stands as a commanded monument for those who call themselves disciples. In eating of the bread and drinking of the wine, we give living testimony to the victory of God in Jesus Christ. We are told to “do this in remembrance of me.” In the doing, we will find opportunities not just to remember, but to proclaim.
Discussion questions
• Can you recall your baptism? What could make baptism more memorable for the participant and more engaging for those who view it?
• What events in your life do you need to backtrack toward so that you can build the monument that time deserved?
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