When all the nation had completely crossed over the Jordan, Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, “Take twelve men out of the people, a man out of every tribe, and command them, saying, ‘Take from out of the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you’ll camp tonight.’ ”
Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, a man out of every tribe. Joshua said to them, “Cross before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in the future, saying, ‘What do you mean by these stones?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of Yahweh’s covenant. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.’ ”
The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. They carried them over with them to the place where they camped, and laid them down there. Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day. For the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything was finished that Yahweh commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and passed over. When all the people had completely crossed over, Yahweh’s ark crossed over with the priests in the presence of the people.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 9, 10 l. And it came to pass, etc The brief…
l. And it came to pass, etc The brief and obscure allusion previously made with regard to the twelve men he now explains more at length. He had said that they were chosen by the order of God, one each from his own tribe; but breaking off his discourse, he had not mentioned for what purpose. He now says, that by command of Joshua they took up twelve stones and placed them in Gilgal, that a well marked memorial might exist among posterity. Moreover, as he only relates what was done after the passage of the people, what is interposed should be interpreted as in the pluperfect tense. It is also very obvious that the copula is used instead of the rational particle. The substance is, that before the priests moved their foot from the middle of the river where they stood, the stones at their feet were taken and placed in Gilgal, to be perpetual witnesses of the miracle, and that Joshua thus faithfully executed what God had commanded. Joshua, therefore, called the men whom he had previously chosen, but not without the command of God, that through it he might have a stronger attestation to his authority. For had Joshua raised up a trophy of that kind of his own accord, the piety which dictated it might indeed have been laudable, but the admonition founded only on the will of man might perhaps have been despised. But now when God himself raises the sign, it is impious to pass it carelessly by. He intimates, accordingly, that it was a monument deserving of the greatest attention when he introduces the children asking, what mean these stones?
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 9, 11 Meaning, the place where they should camp.
Meaning, the place where they should camp.
As Josh. 3:17.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–11 Jos 4:1 And it came to pass, when all…
Jos 4:1 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
Ver. 1. And it came to pass, when all the people.] Heb., All the nation; Goi, so the Israelites are here and elsewhere called. The Jews, then, have no reason to reproach Christians by that name, calling us Goiim and Mamzer Goiim, bastardly heathens.
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Were clean passed over.] Without the least opposition of the Canaanites, who were intimidated and infatuated.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 This was commanded before, Jos 3:12, and is here…
This was commanded before, Jos 3:12, and is here repeated with enlargement, as being now to be put in execution.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 We may well imagine how busy Joshua and all…
We may well imagine how busy Joshua and all the men of war were while they were passing over Jordan, when besides their own marching into an enemy's country, and in the face of the enemy, which could not but occasion them many thoughts of hear, they had their wives, and children, and families, their cattle, and tents, and all their effects, bag and baggage, to convey by this strange and untrodden path, which we must suppose either very muddy or very stony, troublesome to the weak and frightful to the timorous, the descent to the bottom of the river and the ascent out of it steep, so that every man must needs have his head full of care and his hands full of business, and Joshua more than any of them. And yet, in the midst of all his hurry, care must be taken to perpetuate the memorial of this wonderous work of God, and this care might not be adjourned to a time of greater leisure. Note, How much soever we have to do of business for ourselves and our families, we must not neglect nor omit what we have to do for the glory of God and the serving of his honour, for that is our best business. Now,
I. God gave orders for the preparing of this memorial. Had Joshua done it without divine direction, it might have looked like a design to perpetuate his own name and honour, nor would it have commanded so sacred and venerable a regard from posterity as now, when god himself appointed it. Note, God's works of wonder ought to be kept in everlasting remembrance, and means devise for the preserving of the memorial of them. Some of the Israelites that passed over Jordan perhaps were so stupid, and so little affected with this great favour of God to them, that they felt no concern to have it remembered; while others, it may be, were so much affected with it, and had such deep impressions made upon them by it, that they thought there needed no memorial of it to be erected, the heart and tongue of every Israelite in every age would be a living lasting monument of it. But God, knowing their frame, and how apt they had been soon to forget his works, ordered an expedient for the keeping of this in remembrance to all generations, that those who could not, or would not, read the record of it in the sacred history, might come to the knowledge of it by the monument set up in remembrance of it, of which the common tradition of the country would be an explication; it would likewise serve to corroborate the proof of the matter of fact, and would remain a standing evidence of it to those who in after-ages might question the truth of it. A monument is to be erected, and, 1. Joshua, as chief captain, must five direction about it (v. 1): When all the people had clean passed over Jordan, not even the feeble, that were the hindmost of them, left behind, so that God had done his work completely, and every Israelite got safe into Canaan, then God spoke unto Joshua to provide materials for this monument. It is the pious conjecture of the learned bishop Patrick that Joshua had gone into some place of retirement to return thanks immediately for this wonderful mercy, and then god met him, and spoke thus to him. Or, perhaps, it was by Eleazar the priest that God gave these and other instructions to Joshua; for, though he is not mentioned here, yet, when Joshua was ordained by the imposition of hands to this great trust, god appointed that Eleazar should ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim, and at his word Joshua and all the children of Israel must go out and come in, Num 27:21. 2. One man out of each tribe, and he a chosen man, must be employed to prepare materials for this monument, that each tribe might have the story told them by one of themselves, and each tribe might contribute something to the glory of God thereby (Jos 4:2, Jos 4:4): Out of ever tribe a man. Not the Levites only, but every Israelite must, in his place, help to make known to the sons of men God's mighty acts, Psa 145:12. The two tribes, though seated already in their possession, yet, sharing in the mercy, must lend a hand to the memorial of it. 3. The stones that must be set up for this memorial are ordered to be taken out of the midst of the cannel (where, probably, there lay abundance of great stones), and as near as might be from the very place where the priests stood with the ark, Jos 4:3, Jos 4:5. This intended monument deserved to be made of stones curiously cut with the finest and most exquisite art, but these stones out of the bottom of the river were more natural and more apt indications of the miracle. let posterity know by this that Jordan was driven back, for these very stones were then fetched out of it. In the institution of signs, God always chose that which was most proper and significant, rather than that which is pompous or curious; for God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. These twelve men, after they got over Jordan, must be sent back to the place where the ark stood, being permitted to come near it (which others might not) for this service: "Pass over before the ark (Jos 4:5), that is, into the presence of the ark, which now stands in the midst of Jordan, and thence fetch these stones." 4. the use of these stones is here appointed for a sign (Jos 4:6), a memorial, Jos 4:7. They would give occasion to the children to ask their parents in time to come, How came these stones hither? (probably the land about not being stony), and then the parents would inform them, as they themselves had been informed, that in this place Jordan was divided by the almighty power of God, to give Israel passage into Canaan, as Joshua enlarges on this head, v. 22, etc.
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II. According to these orders the thing was done. 1. Twelve stones were taken up out of the midst of Jordan, and carried in the sight of the people to the place where they had their head-quarters that night, v. 8. It is probable that the stones they took were as big as they could well carry, and as near as might be of a size and shape. But whether they went away with them immediately to the place, of whether they staid to attend the ark, and kept pace with the solemn procession of that, to grace its triumphant entry in to Canaan, is not certain. By these stones which they were ordered to take up God did, as it were, give them livery and seisin of this good land; it is all their own, let them enter and take possession; therefore what these twelve did the children of Israel are said to do (v. 8), because they were the representatives of their respective tribes. In allusion to this, we may observe that when the Lord Jesus, our Joshua, having overcome the sharpness of death and dried up that Jordan, had opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers, he appointed his twelve apostles according to the number of the tribes of Israel, by the memorial of the gospel to transmit the knowledge of this to remote places and future ages. 2. Other twelve stones (probably much larger than the other, for we read not that they were each of them one man's load) were set up in the midst of Jordan (v. 9), piled up so high in a heap or pillar as that the top of it might be seen above the water when the river was low, or seen in the water when it was clear, or at least the noise of commotion of the water passing over it would be observable, and the bargemen would avoid it, as they do a rock. Some way or other, it is likely, it was discernible, so as to notify the very place where the ark stood, and to serve for a duplicate to the other monument, which was to set up on dry land in Gilgal, for the confirming of its testimony and the preserving of its tradition. The sign being doubled, no doubt the thing was certain.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–11 And it came to pass, when all the people…
And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan,.... As related, Jos 3:17,
that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying: as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 Twelve stones taken up out of the midst of…
Twelve stones taken up out of the midst of Jordan, and twelve set up there for a memorial, ver. 1-9. The march of the people through Jordan, ver. 10-13. God magnifies Joshua, who commands the priests to come out of Jordan, ver. 14-17. The waters close again, ver. 18, 19. Joshua erects twelve stones for a memorial, ver. 20-24.
Spake - This was commanded before, chap. iii, 12, and is here repeated with enlargement, as being now to be put in execution.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10 When the people are passed over, Joshua commands twelve…
CHAPTER IV
When the people are passed over, Joshua commands twelve men, one
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taken out of each tribe, to take up a stone on his shoulder out
of the midst of the river, and carry it to the other side, to
be set up as a memorial of this miraculous passage, 1-7.
They do so, and set up the stones in the place where they encamp
the first night, 8, 9.
The priests stand in the river, till all the people are passed
over, 10, 11.
Of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
40,000 fighting men pass over with the other tribes, 12, 13.
Joshua is magnified in the sight of the people, and they fear
him as they did Moses, 14.
The priests are commanded to come up out of the river, which, on
their leaving it, immediately returns, and overflows its banks
as before, 15-18.
This miraculous passage takes place the tenth day of the first
month, 19.
The stones are set up in Gilgal, and Joshua teaches the people
what use they are to make of them, 20-24.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 9, 10 Jos 4:1. The Lord spake unto Joshua — This…
Jos 4:1. The Lord spake unto Joshua — This was commanded before, (Jos 3:12,) and is here repeated with enlargement, as being now to be put in execution. It is the pious conjecture of the learned Bishop Patrick, that Joshua was gone into some place of retirement, to return thanks immediately for this wonderful mercy; and then God met him and spake thus to him. Or, perhaps, it was by Eleazar the priest that God gave these and other instructions to Joshua; for though he is not mentioned here, yet, when Joshua was ordained by the imposition of hands to this great trust, God appointed that Eleazar should ask counsel for him, after the judgment of Urim; and at his word Joshua and all the children of Israel were to go out and come in, Num 27:21.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 8, 9 Take you twelve men - The order is given…
Take you twelve men - The order is given in the plural, because no doubt the tribes themselves were to choose their own representatives, the choice being approved by Joshua Jos 4:4. These twelve would be left with Joshua on the hither bank of the river, waiting to receive his orders after the rest of the people had made their way across Jos 3:17; Jos 4:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11 Choose. Hebrew, "take," as [in] chap. iii. 12. Those…
Choose. Hebrew, "take," as [in] chap. iii. 12. Those twelve men were ordered to attend the ark, and to observe the miracle with care: these are chosen to carry the stones for the monuments. (Salien) --- Calmet supposes that they are the same people, and that the former verse might be translated, "the Lord had said." But this does not agree with the context. Hebrew, "and it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over the Jordan, that the Lord spake." The former injunction was given before they entered the river. Hebrew, "the ark passeth...Now therefore take," &c. (Haydock) --- One was selected from the tribe of Levi, and one from that of Joseph, so that all the twelve tribes were represented. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 Joshua called the twelve men--They had probably, from a…
Joshua called the twelve men--They had probably, from a feeling of reverence, kept back, and were standing on the eastern bank. They were now ordered to advance. Picking up each a stone, probably as large as he could carry, from around the spot "where the priests stood," they pass over before the ark and deposit the stones in the place of next encampment (Jos 4:19-20), namely, Gilgal.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 BUILDING MONUMENTS. — Jos_4:1-24.
BUILDING MONUMENTS. — Jos_4:1-24.
[This chapter, more than many others, affords us a noticeable example of the style of the Hebrew historian. While the central theme of the whole chapter is the building of the stone monument in Gilgal, observe how farther particulars of the passage of the Jordan are recorded, which the writer did not wish to interrupt the order of his narrative, in chapter 3, to tell. Strict chronological order is not sought after by him, but rather a record of the facts, leaving the reader’s common sense to infer the order; or rather, treating the order of events as of little moment. See Introduction.] 1. All the people — All the people of the nine and a half tribes which afterwards permanently occupied Western Palestine, and the forty thousand picked soldiers of the Eastern tribes.
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[2. Take you twelve men — These men were surely not elected after the people had crossed the Jordan and while the priests were standing in the river bed, but previously, as Jos_3:12 clearly implies. See note there. The command there given to Joshua was to elect the twelve men now — that is, before crossing — and the exact repetition of the command in this place is only in keeping with the simple style of the Hebrew historian. The choosing of the twelve men, which was, perhaps, done by a popular election, took place before they crossed over; the orders to take each man a stone from the midst of the Jordan were given after all the people had crossed.] 3. The place where the priests’ feet stood firm — After the waters had rolled away at the touch of the priests’ feet, they bore the ark into the middle and deepest part of the channel. See note on Jos_3:13. This is also implied in the command, “Come ye up out of Jordan.” Jos_4:17.
Lodging place — Gilgal, six miles west of the Jordan. See Jos_4:19-20. They lodged at Gilgal not one night only, but many days.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10 Ch. Jos_4:1-18. Completion of the Passage
Ch. Jos_4:1-18. Completion of the Passage
1. when all the people were clean passed over] Below the spot, where the priests stood firm and motionless, the host, probably at various points, “hasted and passed over” (Jos_4:10).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3, 7, 8, 10 (3) Out of the midst of Jordan . .…
IV.
(3) Out of the midst of Jordan . . . twelve stones—(9) Twelve stones in the midst of Jordan.—It would seem that we are to understand two cairns to have been set up, one on either side the river, to mark the place where the Israelites crossed. The western cairn was in Gilgal, the other on the opposite side, at the edge of the overflow, where the priests had stopped. The only difficulty lies in the words above cited, in the midst of Jordan. The phrase, like many other Hebrew phrases, is used in a different way from that in which we should use it. The words “in the middle of the Jordan” to an English reader appear to mean half-way between the banks. But if the river were divided, and half of it had recoiled many miles towards the north, and the rest flowed away to the south, any one standing between these two parts of the river might be said to stand in the midst of Jordan, the two parts being on either side; and he would be equally in the midst, as regards them, whether he were at the edge of the stream or not. It is contrary to common-sense, as well as to the words of the text, to suppose that a cairn was set up in the midst of the river’s bed. “They are there unto this day,” the writer adds in Jos_4:9. It is perfectly clear from Jos_3:8 that the priests stood at the brim of the overflow. That spot and no other would be the particular spot which it would be most interesting to mark, the place from which Jordan, in full flood, was driven back.
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Further, the words “in the midst” (Hebrew, Vthôlc) do not necessarily mean more than within. In Jos_19:1, it is said the inheritance of Simeon was within (b’thôk) the inheritance of the children of Judah. Yet it was entirely on one edge of it. May not the ark standing in the midst of Jordan represent that suspension of the power of death which is effected by the interposition of our Saviour, and fills the interval between the reign of death “from Adam to Moses,” and the “second death” that is to come?
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10 The memorial.
The memorial.
From this chapter we learn several lessons.
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I THE DUTY OF COMMEMORATING, BY A PIOUS MEMORIAL, THE GOOD THINGS GOD HAS DONE FOR US. The memory of events under the law was ever kept up in this way. The memorials of God"s mercy we read of in the Old Testament are innumerable. There was circumcision, the memorial of God"s covenant with Abraham; the stone set up at Bethel, the memorial of Jacob"s vision. There was the passover, the memorial of the deliverance from Egypt; the manna and Aaron"s rod in the ark; the memorial of the miraculous feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness; and the selection of the progeny of Aaron for the high priesthood. Thus we have the memorial here mentioned of the passage of Jordan, and the memorial of the victory over the Philistines in 1Sa_7:12. National deliverances also were commemorated by annual feasts. Such was the feast of Purim, the establishment of which is recorded in Est_9:20-32. Our Lord gives His sanction to the principle in the institution of the sacrament of Holy Communion, and the Christian Church has made it her own by the establishment of festivals like Easter, Whitsuntide, Christmas, and the like. The same principle is at work in the erection of memorial churches and other means of commemorating great mercies, or the lives of good men. But the principle is capable of extension. It seems a little ungrateful that we as a nation, or even the members of our religious bodies, think so little of commemorating God"s signal mercies and deliverances by special days of thanksgiving. The observance of such days as January 30th, May 29th, November 5th may have assumed too political and party a character, but there are surely other days of national blessings which, if observed as days of thanksgiving, would not be open to the same objections. At least we may go so far as this. Gratitude, in the Old Testament, was testified by outward signs. Where those outward signs are wanting among our. selves, it is to be feared that the gratitude is wanting also. The country ought to be covered with memorials of national and local as well as individual mercies. Days of recognition of such mercies to the empire, or particular parts of the empire, should be more common than they are. Our unhappy divisions, or even the fear of aggravating those divisions, should not withhold us from publicly recognising what in our hearts we believe to be acts of God"s gracious providence over us. A stranger going through our country should have frequent occasion to ask, "What mean these?" and should repeatedly receive the answer, "These are the memorials of the great things God did for us in our fathers" days, and in the old time before them.
II THESE MEMORIALS TEND TO STIR UP A SPIRIT OF PIETY AND GRATITUDE. There is no more frequent speech recorded in connection with memorials, whether buildings or festivals, than the supposition of an inquiry regarding their nature on the part of the young, and of an answer on the part of parents explaining it. Now the abstract facts of history make but a faint impression on the young, while a noble building or a remarkable observance attracts their attention at once. It is an old heathen proverb," Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus." It is surely a matter of Christian prudence to stir up as early as possible in the minds of the young an interest in the truths of religion, and of the history of their country and Church. This is done, as regards Christian doctrine, by the increased attention given to the commemoration of the chief events in the life of Christ at the great Christian festivals. But much more might be done. How much of our decreasing respect for the Reformation may be traced to our neglect of some sort of yearly commemoration of those who laid down their lives for it, is a question. How much our very faint sense of the mercies of God to this country, and in particular to the wonderful salvation God vouchsafed to us in the destruction of the Spanish Armada, is due to the same cause, may also be a question. As regards the latter, it is perhaps not too much to say that scarcely one educated Englishman out of ten, and no uneducated one, has any idea from what vast perils we, as a nation, have been delivered by that one event. And in spite of the many signal mercies we have received, and in spite of the great things God has wrought for us in granting us the character we enjoy for fairness, uprightness, respect for liberty and law, and in spite of the vast and extended dominion He has placed in our hands, our sense of gratitude to God for these things seems diminishing daily. We shall do well to ask ourselves how much of it is due to a neglect of the principle laid down in this chapter regarding the wisdom of memorials of past blessings which shall induce the young to ask what they mean, and shall enable us, in reply to their question, to incite them to "praise the Lord for his mercies, and declare the wonders that he doeth for the children of men.
III EVERY TRIBE TOOK PART IN THE WORK. The principle above contended for is capable of misapplication. The multiplication of party or sectarian memorials of animosity and ill feeling would be an evil, rather than a blessing. Even memorials of the Reformers, or of so great a national deliverance such as that to which we have just referred, might easily, as is the case in Ireland, be made occasions of strife. But this applies rather to the abuse than the use of them. In modern days of freedom of thought there could hardly exist a single anniversary the propriety of which would be questioned by no one. To keep only such anniversaries as no one objected to, would be to keep none at all. But care should be taken that all memorials of this kind should be
(1) so kept as not wantonly to insult the prejudices of others, and
(2) should be confined to events in which the community as a whole had a share. The victory of Israel over Benjamin was not commemorated by a memorial, though it was doubtless a real national blessing. Only such events as can be commemorated by taking "out of every tribe a man" are intended by the foregoing remarks.
IV WE ARE ALL EQUALLY BOUND TO DECLARE WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US. The duty of erecting the memorial was not confined to the priests or Levites. So now, it is not the clergy only who are to proclaim God"s "noble acts." All, in their several spheres, are to make known the great things He has done, and to take part in the public commemorations of them. The Church does not consist of clergy only, but of clergy and laity. So, too, the duties of a public recognition of the goodness of God are as incumbent on the laity as on the clergy. The laity are to bear the stones on their shoulders, and to deposit them where the people rest for the night. It is not well when they leave these duties to women and children, or to those whose duty it is to bear the ark. The duties of worshipping God in the sanctuary on other days beside Sunday, of promoting religious works and religious societies, is often left to the clergy by those who have plenty of time, if they preferred to spend their leisure hours in work for the benefit of others rather than in regarding their own comfort.
Other points in the narrative are worthy of mention.
I THE PEOPLE HASTED AND PASSED OVER. They hasted
(1) because they feared the waters might return and overflow them. So, even when we are experiencing a deliverance by the mighty hand of God, ought we to be watchful and trembling lest we be again overtaken by sin. Want of watchfulness in the hour of triumph has been the occasion of many a fearful fall. Or they hasted
(2) because they were anxious to enter the promised land. Would that all Christians were as full of a chastened eagerness to enter upon the conflict with evil, which they only can do who are delivered from the power of Satan and of sin. Would that they were as anxious to "forget" the days of sinful indulgence they have "left behind," and to "reach forward" unto the time of victory and triumph, which to faith appears clearly "before." Lukewarmness in the Christian course is the forerunner, not of victory, but of disgrace. Or
(3) they hastened that they might not try the patience of God. He only works miracles when natural means are insufficient. If we expect Him to stay the waters of Jordan to suit our convenience, to preserve us from temptation when we ought to have removed ourselves from its influence, to guard us by His special providence from dangers from which ordinary care and watchfulness would have preserved us, we shall be mistaken. We ought not to keep the priests standing in the Jordan one minute longer than is necessary.
II THE ISRAELITES WENT OVER "PREPARED FOR WAR." This was true, not only of the two and a half tribes, but of the other tribes also.
(1) The Christian must be ready for a conflict. His Master forewarned him that tie came to send "not peace, but a sword," upon the earth. We have to "fight the good fight of faith," to "wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." We do not enter the land of promise to be idle. A conflict against evil awaits us, both within our own hearts and in society around. A man who leads a life of inaction against evil within or in society around him is a traitor to the cause. We should deceive him were we to lead him to suppose that he should enjoy the milk and honey, the pleasures and consolations of religion, till he had undergone its perils and its struggles first. And
(2) preparation for war involves self discipline. The word in the original means "disencumbered." The impediments to action were to be removed; that is, habits, social customs, business engagements, which fetter us in our conflict with evil, must be given up. Even the ties of affection must not be suffered to hamper us in the discharge of our duty. The most innocent amusements, if incompatible with effectual action against God"s enemies, must be cast aside. Like the runner in the race, we must "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." So, and so only, must we enter into the enjoyment of God"s covenant, and fit ourselves for the unspeakable blessings which God has prepared for those who are "faithful unto death."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 What mean ye by these stones?
Jos_4:1-24
What mean ye by these stones?
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The first act in Canaan
These stones proclaimed certain realities. Taken from the dry bed of the river, they declared Gods power in cutting off the waters before the ark of His covenant; twelve in number, one stone for each tribe, they declared how that all Israel had entered into Canaan; set up together in Canaan, they witnessed to Israels unity in that land. Moreover, they became a memorial to the nation of Jehovahs work for them. First, these stones declared Jehovahs great work for His people; even Jordan emptied of its waters before the ark of His covenant, and His people brought thereby into the fulness of their blessing. Now as we truly recognise that we are brought, in Christ, into the heavenly places, our first action in spirit will resemble that of Israel: we shall extol God for His power and might in accomplishing His purpose in bringing us into such blessing. Christ, our ark, went down into death for us, exhausted its power, stripped it of its might; and God has given us, who were dead in sins, life together with Christ risen from among the dead, and has set us in Him in the fulness of blessing, so that as truly as Israel through the passage of the Jordan were in Canaan, saints now are in Christ in the heavenly places. To enter into this grace, it is necessary to keep before our hearts, in faith, the measure of Gods Divine power exercised towards us, the exceeding greatness of which is according to that energy and might of His which He wrought, &c. (Eph_1:20). And speaking in the language of the type under our consideration as clean passed over Jordan, the Christians first act should be the heart recognition of what God has done. We are across the river; to God through Christ be the praise. Next, the stones, twelve in number, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel (Jos_4:5; Jos_4:8), spoke of the whole of Israel. Christians occupy themselves practically with spiritual, not national, unity; therefore with the truth that all saints of every nation are one in Gods sight and according to His purpose. Saints are seated together in the heavenly places in Christ, the one common place of blessing for all who believe. One association and one privilege mark all saints, and all equally have the highest and the best place. Even as each individual believer has life for himself together with Christ risen (Eph_2:5), so have all believers the highest privileges in common; they are by God made to sit together (Eph_2:6). The pillar of twelve stones, set up in Gilgal, became a memorial to the nation of Jehovahs work for them. The question, What mean ye by these stones? which the children would ask their fathers was to be answered by a relation of the Lords doings. And well indeed may Christians recount to their children what God has wrought. Our little ones should be grounded in the great truths of Gods Word. Redemption, resurrection, and ascension facts should be implanted in their minds and memories. (H. F. Witherby.)
The pile of stones speaking
It is an outrage to build a house like this, occupying so much room in a crowded thoroughfare, and with such vast toil and outlay, unless there be some tremendous reasons for doing it; and so I demand of all who have assisted in the building of this structure: What mean ye by these stones?
1. We mean that they shall be an earthly residence for Christ. Jesus did not have much of a home when He was here. Oh, Jesus! is it not time that Thou hadst a house? We give Thee this. Thou didst give it to us first, but we give it back to Thee. It is too good for us, but not half good enough for Thee.
2. We mean the communion of saints.
3. We mean by these stones the salvation of the people. We did not build this church for mere worldly reforms, or for an educational institution, or as a platform on which to read essays and philosophical disquisitions; but a place for the tremendous work of soul-saving. Do not make the blunder of the ship carpenters in Noahs time, who helped to build the ark, but did not get into it. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Stones buried and raised
I. These stones were most emphatically A monument of great might. The hand of man is capable of great achievements. How stupendous, how unparalleled, was the work of carrying Israel across Jordan in this fashion; yet how easily, how quickly, how quietly, was it all done!
II. Yet these stones formed a monument that might be despised. Simple and rude it was; it had no beauty or architectural comeliness, to be desired; it was nothing more than a rough pyramid of twelve muddy stones. With what contempt would an Egyptian look down upon it. But, after all, ostentation is human, simplicity is Divine; for though, from a human point of view, the wonder commemorated here was very great, what was it from the Divine? Nothing. What, after all, was the opening up of this passage to Him who upholds all things by the word of His power, who gathers the waters in the hollow of His hand, who taketh up the isles as a very little thing? Nothing, and less than nothing. It was easy for the men of Israel to raise such a monument. Yes; yet it was harder for them to heap up these stones than for God to heap up these waters; and all the might that reared the pyramids could never have congealed these depths.
III. Again, this monument had a worldwide reference and a special application. Most monuments have a very restricted reference. They speak to a political or a religious community; to the inhabitants of a city or the natives of a country, or to the members of a common faith; but this simple monument on Jordans bank has a voice for all mankind. It gives a declaration of Gods mighty power, so clear and emphatic that if men do not hear its testimony it is because they have stopped their ears. And if it had, for the human race as a whole, a great lesson to teach, it was fraught with special instruction to the Israel of God. To all men it cried, God is mighty; to Israel it testified, This God abides thy God for evermore. He is your refuge and strength. Therefore this monument was set up that they might remember and fear the Lord for ever and walk in His ways, and do His commandments.
IV. Other lessons are taught by these stones. They were twelve in number, arranged in their places by twelve warriors, one from each tribe; therefore it is plain that the whole people are represented by these stones. Also there were two sets of twelve stones: one set in the bed of the river, buried by its waters; another raised from the bed of the river, and piled upon its bank. Therefore we have here the whole people represented in two different aspects. The twelve buried stones speak of Israel in one relation; the twelve raised in another. Think of the buried. What mean ye by these stones? They lie on the bottom of the river, covered by its muddy waters. They represent Gods chosen people, for they are twelve. The strange place, therefore, in which they lie, must be a representation of some spiritual and important truth concerning Israel. What is it? By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The death of those who came out of Egypt made this very plain. Now the children have arisen in place of the fathers, and they are about to enter in. What is their title to the inheritance? Is it better than that of their fathers? Is it true that they are worthy; that they have clean hands and a pure heart, and have not lifted up their souls unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully? Is it true that they are righteous? Can they claim entrance because of their obedience to the law? Nay, by the law shall no man be justified; and this burying of the twelve stones most solemnly emphasises this declaration. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. The sinner must leave the old man behind; the body of sin must be destroyed; we must be born again ere ever we see or enter into the kingdom of God. Do we ask, where is the old man, the body of sin? The Cross and grave of Christ give answer: it is gone, clean gone for ever; lost sight of, as these stones in the bed of Jordan. They are buried, to know no resurrection; yea, God tells us He has cast them behind His back, into the depths of the sea, a far deeper grave than Jordan. Through Alaric I. the Goths first learned the way to Rome. He and his rugged hosts were everywhere invincible. All Italy, luxurious and effeminate, lay at his feet. He extended his conquest as far south as Sicily. But at Cosenza in Calabria he was seized with a deadly malady. When he died, his followers had to face a great difficulty. What were they to do with the dead body of their great leader? It was impossible to carry it back over Italian plain and snowy Alp to the dark forests of his fatherland. It dare not be left to the mockery and desecration of the caitiffs he had conquered. Therefore they determined to bury it in the bed of the river Busento. They set their captives to the task of diverting the stream from its channel, and there in its dry bed they dug the grave of Alaric. Then, when he was buried deep in his rocky tomb, and the waters rolled once more in their wonted channel, to hide for ever the secret of this strange sepulchre, all the captives were put to death. These Goths wished to give their king a grave which no hand could reach. Even such a grave has God given our sins, and here in these stones we behold a picture of what He has done. We are buried with Christ. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God by Christ Jesus our Lord. But there were twelve stones raised upon the bank as well as twelve buried in the bed of Jordan, and we may well ask, What mean ye by these stones? This is the positive side of the same truth we have been considering. As the buried stones speak of death, so the raised speak of resurrection. We are not only buried with Christ, but are also quickened with Him, raised with Him, and seated with Him in heavenly places. The twelve buried stones picture our place on account of sin; the twelve raised declare our place on account of righteousness. The first speak of weakness; the second of might. The one declares all old things are passed away; the other, all things are become new. These twelve stones set on Jordans bank were raised from Jordans bed. That river, as it were, begot them. They were of it, from it, out of it. Even so the Church of Christ is begotten and brought forth from His death. The agonies of Christ crucified were the travail pangs of the new creation. As His people are buried with Him, so are they quickened, begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Yes, it is a lively hope. The great pyramid of Egypt was after all a monument of despair, the eternal abode of the dead. This little pyramid of Canaan is a pyramid of hope, placed in the goodly land conspicuously and permanently; reminding those that believe that we are not only raised with Christ, but seated with Him in heavenly places--that we are henceforth a constituent part of His inheritance. (A. B. Mackay.)
Voiceful stones
This primitive form of a memorial is common to almost all nations. Of this character are the Egyptian obelisks and the cairns and the Druidical circles in England and Scotland. The text is the question of the children. The sight of the cairn would awaken curiosity. It has been well asked, What child in Altorf but must have inquired respecting the statue of William Tell, or in Lucerne about the lion sculptured by Thorwaldsen to commemorate the deaths of the Swiss Guard? These memorial stones would remind the tribes of Gods greatness and goodness. But the stones must have tongues in order that their testimony may be more complete. They were not simply to be memorial; they were also to be declaratory . . . Occupying to-day for the first time this place of worship, it is fitting that we should ask and answer the old question, What mean ye by these stones? The form which the stones have taken partly answers the question. Turret, tower, and spire point heavenward. In its symmetry and sincerity the whole structure preaches the need of truth in the heart and life.
1. These stones express our conviction of the worlds need of Christs gospel. Sin is the terrible fact in human existence. It is the absence of wholeness and of happiness; of Godlikeness here, and of heaven hereafter. It has separated man from God, and man from man. It is the prolific parent of all our woes. In the fulness of time the Christ was born. One element, the negative element, in that fulness was the worlds fruitless effort to help itself. Mighty Rome, in her abject helplessness, was calling for a deliverer. Beautiful Greece was stretching out her hands for a healer. Christ was both to both so far as they received Him. The experience of the world must be that of each individual. God says, and experience echoes the saying, Thou hast destroyed thyself. Thank God He speaks this other word: But in Me is thy help.
2. These stones express our faith in Christs gospel to meet the worlds need. To each man, guilty and condemned, it offers, through the death and mediation of Christ, a full and free pardon. It makes the redeemed here have foretastes of heaven. It harmonises all the conflicting interests of human society.
3. These stones declare our faith in and our duty toward the aggressive, the missionary side of Christs gospel. It means to conquer the world. It will do it. This is its lofty ambition and its Divine destiny. In this respect it stands unique among the religions of the world. We are not to satisfy ourselves by singing, Hold the fort! we must shout, Storm the fort! Our anti-mission Church is an anti-Christian Church.
4. These stones declare our faith in our distinctive organic order as a body of Christians, as being in harmony with Christs gospel. (R. S. MacArthur.)
Stones of memorial
I. The memory of gods goodness is honouring to god himself. To receive favours from an earthly friend, and then to forget them, and to act as if they had never been bestowed; this is ingratitude, base and contemptible. How much worse is the conduct of those who are insensible to and negligent of the favours shown by God to man! Especially should redemption wrought by the Son of God be kept in everlasting remembrance. The least we can do is to praise and glorify the God of grace.
II. The memory of gods goodness is a stimulus to piety. Remembrance feeds the flame of devotion, of love, of trust. To think of Gods favours and to be thankful is a good thing, is profitable to the spiritual life, and conducive to fellowship with God, and to true happiness and contentment.
III. The memory of gods goodness is an encouragement in time of trial, danger, and fear. The distressed and harassed may well call to mind the Divine interpositions of the past, which will lead them to exclaim: The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will help us. (Family Churchman.)
The memorial stones
I. What was Gods purpose?
1. The memorial was to be an aid to faith.
2. It had the purpose of cherishing gratitude.
3. It was a reminder of the need of unity.
II. What are the prophetic aspects of this memorial?
1. The two piles of stones, according to St. Augustine, represent the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles; the new Israel on the bank of the old river, the old in the midst of the stream, as the buried past. Thus the memorial is the Church of Christ, built upon the apostles, the one Divine Society, which is founded on a Rock, and against which the gates of hell may beat, but cannot prevail; for it is a memorial for ever.
2. As the passage of the Bed Sea represents baptism--God safely led the children of Israel Thy people through the Red Sea, figuring thereby Thy holy baptism (Prayer Book)--so some writers have seen in the crossing of Jordan a figure of the pardon for sins committed after baptism; in other words, an image of repentance. Further, as after passing Jordan, the Passover was kept, so after repentance the Holy Communion is received. In fact, the memorial as to its purposes may be compared to the Holy Eucharist; that is, a memorial of the death and passion of Christ: Do this, for My memorial; it is the great service of thanksgiving for redemption, as its name announces; and it is a pledge of unity, for we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one Bread (1Co_10:17).
3. Further, as through Jordan the Hebrews entered the land of promise, the Holy Land, so penitence must be introductory to a holy life, which leads to heaven.
4. It may be noticed that by some modern writers Jordan is regarded as the river of death, and the words, How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? (Jer_12:5) to be applicable to the fears which surround death, through which all must pass before they can see the kingdom of God.
III. Lessons.
1. To sustain our faith by the use of those outward and visible signs--the Sacraments, which our Lord has appointed as the memorials of what He has wrought for us.
2. To make our lives more lives of thanksgiving, and especially by receiving the Holy Eucharist, which is the thanksgiving which Christ ordained to be offered up to the end of time, till He come (1Co_11:26).
3. Further, let the twelve stones remind us of the union which should exist between the members of Christ; for whilst we are bidden to honour all men, the apostle says further, love the brotherhood.
4. The cairn of stones at Gilgal should teach us that we as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, &c. (1Pe_2:5). The truest witness to Christ is to be found in the lives of His members, those who make Him visible. To such, the power which made a way for Israel through Jordan will not fail them, and the promise will be fulfilled by the Saviour (Isa_43:2). (Canon Hutchings.)
Memorials
I. That the spiritual life should be one of continued memorials. Is it not one continued course of mercies? And as these mercies, these proofs of love and care telling sweetly of the provision of a Father, the grace of a Saviour, the presence of a Comforter, are manifested day by day and hour by hour, what cry so fitting as that of the Psalmist, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits? How delightful to look back and trace the dealings of God with your soul; or, not confining the mind to spiritual things, to see how, at times, especial providences have fallen out, telling of unceasing watchfulness on the part of the Lord, and calling for devout acknowledgment on yours. How delightful to find that you have not overlooked these signs of goodness, but that they still live fresh in loving recollection, and that here on earth those things are not forgotten which assuredly will furnish themes of praise hereafter in heaven. It has been so all along. Observe Abraham on mount Moriah; Jacob on the plain by Luz; Moses after Israels defeat of Amalek at Rephidim; Samuel when the Philistines had fled before him; look at the children of Israel here at Gilgal; the same Spirit moves them all.
II. It is useful to consider what we should commemorate, and the manner in which such commemoration should be observed. We might speak of national mercies, and mercies to our Church; of signal benefits, such as our pure creed, our heritage of the Word of God, the opening of wide fields for Christian enterprise, the revival of the spirit of religion, which, a century ago, made England see a wondrous resurrection from spiritual death, and which is still manifesting itself in a thousand forms for the good of man. Such things as these call for deep thankfulness. The Christian community which can recount them may appropriate the language (Psa_78:1-7). But just in proportion as thankfulness fills the individual heart will the general mind of the community feel its expanding power. The revival of Gods work in this, as in other respects, must begin in the individual, and the community will take its tone from the majority. And if we learn to value for ourselves, by personal participation, the blessings of the gospel of Christ Jesus, we are prepared to appreciate the benefit which those blessings confer on the community: if we really set up our memorials for saving mercy conferred on ourselves, the Divine goodness shown to our nation and our Church will not readily be overlooked.
III. Why it is desirable to act in the way that has been pointed out. We are prone to look rather at our sorrows than at our joys; to brood over trouble rather than to be grateful for prosperity. Poor complaining souls, take heed lest you rebuke God. Look on the other side. Try to count your mercies. My mercies. Yes! The help God has given you over and over again; the difference which you may find between your trials, which are so great, and those of your neighbour, which are even greater; the patience and long-suffering with which God has borne all your repining, your murmuring, your forgetfulness of Him, your doubts and fears and unbelief; the grace which has spared you instead of cutting you off in sin and casting you down to hell; the rich privileges and means of spiritual good brought to your very door and placed within your reach, set by your side from time to time, with merciful perseverance and consideration for your soul. Let us be well assured that if we kept these things more in remembrance the spiritual life of the people of God would flourish and abound to an extent as yet not generally seen.
1. There would be more gratitude. Fresh exercises of praise would spring from hearts whose thankfulness would be from time to time more specially revived.
2. There would be more hope. As desires after mercies might arise, they would not be vague, but accompanied by well-grounded expectations based on the past experience of so many mercies remembered.
3. There would be more faith. When dark clouds gather we should see the light streak where they would ere long break, the golden fringe to show that the sun is still there. We should feel that these shadows shall be dissipated as others have been.
4. There would be more happiness. Where gratitude and hope and faith abide, repining and doubt can find no room. (C. D. Marston, M. A.)
Memorials
Memorials! What are they? For what do they stand, and what do they teach? They are special signs of Divine interposition in human lives, and commemorate some event or circumstance claiming special remembrance and study.
I. This memorial was commemorative and suggestive.
1. It commemorated a new departure. They had not been this way before, they had never stood so near the fulfilment of hope as they did now. This is typical of every life. We all have our new departures, times of marked and decisive change, when some sudden bend in the road completely changes the track, leads us into new scenes of activity or rest, giving us new revelations and new experiences, and are truly periods of deep interest, epochs, red-letter days in our lives; we cannot forget them, and have raised memorials marking them as points to be remembered and studied.
2. It commemorated a signal mercy. Every Christian life has its seasons of peculiar need, which are often made special means of grace. And should he not raise memorials to mark both the trial and the mercy?
3. It commemorated a remarkable deliverance. What a sublime spectacle! When all human aid is unavailing, and nothing can save but direct Divine intervention, then Jehovah commands the waters to stand up upon a heap, again showing His salvation to His people. Some such memorial you have in your life. Some time of pressing need, when human help failed, and God came to your deliverance by opening up a path through the deep waters for you. And have you made no mark, no sign, put up no lasting reminder?
II. The value of such memorials.
1. They witness for God. They stand at different points on the ways of life, bearing silent but telling testimony to the power and grace of the Infinite Father in some time of sore and pressing need, confirming our faith in the doctrine of the conscious, abiding, personal presence of God in the lives of His people.
2. They remind us of mercies received in the past. We are consciously faulty in memory, are apt to forget the blessings already received, and to grow impatient and fretful when things are a little contrary; then it is of service to us to go back a little in our history to some of these times of Gods special nearness to us, when He gave us such unmistakable proof of His presence and grace by some marked deliverance, some special blessing, or some signal answer to prayer; when we can refresh our faulty memories by putting our hand upon some place, or time, or event in our life that we had marked by a stone of memorial, as a record of faith in God and gratitude to Him.
3. They inspire confidence and hope for the future. Much was before them to perplex.
4. They check despondency and gloom.
5. They supply precious lessons of Divine faithfulness. God would have us raise these memorials by the way to remind us of His covenant engagements. The past shall repeat itself in our future.
6. These memorials are of service to others. The pillar at Gilgal was not only to be a memento of the sovereign mercy of God to those who had actually witnessed the cutting off of the waters of Jordan, blot it was to supply to posterity some precious lessons of Divine majesty and love. Much so it is with the memorials of Christian lives--they exert a helping influence on other lives.
7. These memorials supply incentives to increased devotion, and stimulate to loftier praise. In this day of scepticism, coldness, indifference, and practical infidelity, when the actual presence of God in individual lives is more or less ignored, it is both refreshing and reassuring to take up Christian biography and hear how the holy men and women who have passed into the Fathers house accounted for similar events in their lives. I have sometimes seen family Bibles marked with peculiar hieroglyphics which a stranger could not read or understand; but ask the husband or wife to tell you what these marks mean, and you will find that each has a history precious and sweet to the marker. They are pillars that have been raised to remind them of some special answer to prayer, when they pleaded that promise; or When some extraordinary light broke upon the mind, on a certain day, as they pondered and prayed over that verse; or perhaps it was a literal fulfilment of another promise on which they had rested in a time of distressing calamity, and they have placed these memorials there to call to mind the signal mercy of God in their time of urgent need, and they would as soon doubt the need as they would the source of supply. God did it for us, they say, as surely as He divided Jordan for Israel to pass over to Canaan. I have also heard matured Christian men converse together on Gods dealings with them, and have felt a strange thrill pass through me as one of them has put his hand upon some pillar in his life and said, Here God met me, and I communed with Him. It was a time of bitter pain and need, and I was bowed down to earth with the burden, and was fainting by the wayside, but the Lord drew very near, and I seemed to hear His voice speaking to me, and asking me to tell Him about the pain, and I was drawn out to tell Him all, and He blessed me there, by giving in a way marvellous to me just what I needed; I rose up a strong man, and the grace was so like a miracle that I put up this memorial, and this spot is very dear to me, for here I saw God face to face and my life is preserved. (J. Higgins.)
The stones buried in the Jordan
As a memorial of this wonderful passage, twelve stones were selected from the rocky bed of the river, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel; and these were borne across before them on the shoulders of twelve men, and planted on the upper terrace of the valley beyond the reach of the annual inundation. In this manner was formed the first sanctuary of the Holy Land, which was a circle of upright stones--like one of the so-called Druidical circles in which our pagan ancestors worshipped in our own country. But besides this memorial which was set up on the western bank of the Jordan, there was another set up in the bed of the river itself. In the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood, in the centre of the channel, twelve stones like those which had been carried across to the opposite bank were arranged probably in the same manner; and when the river, which had been temporarily driven back wards to allow the Israelites to cross, returned to its forsaken bed, its dark, muddy waters flowed over the buried stones and hid them for ever from view. Thus there were two monuments of the miraculous passage of the Jordan taken from the materials of its own bed; one that gave rise to the sacred shrine of Gilgal, which was for a long time the appointed place of worship in the land; and another that was buried out of sight for ever in the muddy ooze of the deep rushing river. The sacred narrative tells us what were the purpose and meaning of the monument that stood on the dry land and was visible to every eye; but we have to find out what were the purpose and meaning of the monument that was invisible beneath the waters of the river. The place where they entered the Holy Land is unique. There is no other place like it in the world. It is the deepest chasm on the surface of the earth--at a great depth below the level of the sea. Do we not see in this circumstance a symbol of the deep repentance and self-abasement which a people so sensual, so ignorant, required before they could be fitted to occupy the heights of worship in Gods holy heritage? Then look further at the fact that the time when the Israelites crossed the Jordan was the spring-time, which in Palestine is the commencement of the barley-harvest. We are told elsewhere in Scripture that the harvest is emblematical of the judgment. It was therefore a time of judgment when the Israelites crossed the river; their past sins, their numerous rebellions, and outbursts of unbelief, deserved condemnation and punishment; their iniquities rose up against them, and demanded their exclusion from the land of promise as unworthy. But God in His great mercy held back the waters of the Jordan, the waters of judgment and death, which would otherwise have overwhelmed them, whilst His holy ark stood in the midst of the stream, and Israel crossed in safety; a token surely that though He was angry with them, His anger had passed away, and He was about to give them double for all their sins. Look further still at the significant fact that when the Israelites had erected their first sanctuary on the other side of Jordan, on the soil of the Holy Land, which by this solemn act became their own inheritance, they were immediately circumcised, and thus consecrated anew to the Lord, made new creatures, as it were, from their birth to Him. So that we see in this incident, as well as in the circumstance that the older generation which had left Egypt all perished in the wilderness, and only their children entered the Holy Land, what we may regard as the origin and illustration of our Lords saying, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Seeing, then, that all the incidents and circumstances of the passage of the Israelites across the Jordan form a very focus of symbolism, we are surely warranted in looking for a spiritual significance in the burying of the memorial stones in the bed of the river. The Jordan was a boundary river, separating between the wilderness and the promised land. It flowed down to the dreary, lifeless solitude of the Dead Sea. Its waters, laden with mud, were dark and drumly, and concealed their bed and whatever they flowed over completely. Its course also was very rapid and impetuous. In all these respects it was a most expressive symbol to the Israelites. The transition from the wilderness to Canaan was not made over continuous dry land; a water-boundary was interposed, through which they had to pass. And did not this teach them that in the passage from the wandering life of the desert to a settled home in the land of promise they were not to continue the same persons in the new circumstances that they had been in the old; but, on the contrary, were to undergo a moral change, a spiritual reformation. They were to be made a holy nation, in order to be fit occupants of the Holy Land. Their passage of the Jordan was therefore a baptism of repentance; the river at the entrance of the Holy Land, like the laver at the entrance of the tabernacle, afforded a bath of purification; and the memorial stones laid in the bed of the river, over which the waters, when they had safely crossed on dry land, returned, burying them for ever from sight, represented the fate which should have been theirs had God dealt with them according to their sins. And just as the scape-goat carried away the sins of the people, confessed on its head, into the wilderness, into a land of forgetfulness, so the dark, muddy waters of the Jordan carried away the stones which represented the sins of the Israelites into the Dead Sea, there to be engulphed for ever. All baptism is in a spiritual sense the crossing of a boundary. When a child is baptized it crosses a boundary between nature and grace--between ignorance and knowledge. And when in later life we are baptized with a spiritual baptism, born again of water and the Spirit, we cross the boundary between spiritual death and life--from the kingdom of Satan to that kingdom which is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now the river of baptism is a river of death. In crossing it we die to sin and live to righteousness. In entering into the new life the old life perishes. Through the death of the old man there is the resurrection of the new man. All that is connected with the old life of sin and unbelief is taken from us and carried down to the Dead Sea. The body of sin is drowned in the waters of forgiveness, and shall no more rise up against us. Like the stones in the bed of the Jordan, there is no resurrection for that which was connected with our former dead sinful selves. And how precious is the significance of the buried stones when looked at in this light! It is not a truth that pleases the intelligence by its ingenuity only; it is a truth that Satisfies the heart by its suitableness to its wants. How comforting and reassuring is the thought that when, through faith in Christ, we have crossed from a state of nature to a state of grace, all our sins are cast into the sea of Gods mercy. They are as completely buried out of sight as the stones in the ooze of the Jordan. The peace that is like a river and the righteousness that is like the waves of the sea flow over them,(H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The witness of the stones
1. They were stones of witness, for in after-years they powerfully proclaimed that the miracle of dividing the water of the Jordan was true, since they were raised at the very time; they were erected publicly in the sight of the people, and no one would have dared to make such a monument, and to declare that it commemorated such an event, had the miracle never taken place. Scripture miracles are attested by witnesses, which attestation distinguishes them from the so-called miracles of the heathen world.
2. And the stones of Gilgal were stones of encouragement, for when Israel looked on them, and recollected that they recalled Gods power, no doubt could be felt that God was able to make their enterprise a success. When the great cities, vast wealth, and mighty armies of the Canaanites were considered, many a Hebrew might feel his heart sink within him as he looked on the rude and undisciplined host which Joshua had led across the Jordan. But a glance at the stones of the circle of Gilgal would dispel all such fears, and he would think--The mighty Jehovah who divided the waters of Jordan is on our side; and against the power that cleft asunder the waves of that river what can the might of the Amorites avail? Jehovah is with us, and against Him whose word divided Jordan vain is the power of the Canaanite, and our victory is absolutely sure.
3. But while these stones gave encouragement to Israel, they bore witness in a different manner to their enemies, for to the Canaanites they were stones of warning. How could Amorite or Hittite withstand invaders whose God possessed the power of dividing the waters of Jordan? They had run riot in sin; they had stifled conscience: they had despised warning; and now the day of mercy was past, and the avengers were upon them, and who could hope to resist their power and to escape their swords, when their God made the waters of Jordan to stand as a heap in the day when His people passed over? Sin will not go for ever unpunished; Gods Spirit shall not always strive with man, and corruption shall not with impunity defile the fairest portions of a groaning creation: but when the day of grace has passed, the day of vengeance shall certainly follow. The stones in Gilgal are gone, the circle is destroyed, and the stony witness of encouragement and warning is no longer borne; but there are stones around us now which give their witness, and our ears must be heavy if we do not hear, and our minds dull if we do not understand, the testimony that they deliver. What mean these stones?
1. They show Gods power; for who could make such mighty foundation rocks, and after their formation could heave them up into their present lofty heights, but a Being possessed of almighty power?
2. What wisdom, too, is exhibited in their formation! What a wonderful skill is shown in the selection of their constituent elements, and in their combination according to a fixed design!
3. And what goodness also do these stones of the hills manifest? for how useful they are to man, and how it stimulates his inventive faculty to quarry, shape, and erect them as monuments to beautify the creations of his genius! Man puts up milestones to measure the length of his journey, and God also erects milestones to mark how man himself is advancing on that journey which we are all travelling. What is our life but a journey? ever advancing and ceaselessly progressing day by day, month by month, and year by year. Lifes journey is to many painful and wearisome. The morning of life, with its freshness, is gone; the noonday sun beats fiercely on our heads; the novelty of changing experiences has passed away; and as we slowly advance along the highway of daily life, our hearts begin to get weary, and we too become discouraged because of the way. God puts up His milestones to mark our progress on lifes journey, and as we pass them successively, it is solemn to notice their witness and their character. The eyesight begins to grow dim: slowly, indeed, but surely; and we treat the fact almost with indifference. It is a mere common event, but it is another milestone on the road of life, to show that the end will before long draw near. The hearing is dulled. Pleasant sounds can no more be enjoyed, and the harmonies of natures and of human music gratify us no longer. We quietly accept the inevitable, perhaps with sigh, but at all events with resignation, knowing that it must be so; and in the heavy ear we recognise another of Gods milestones. Memory now begins to fail. We cannot trust it as formerly, and do not attempt to tax its power for fear that it should prove treacherous. Failing, capricious memory! what is it but another milestone placed by God by the side of the road of life to tell us that we have passed over the greater part of our journey and are drawing near to home? The milestones of the way, how differently they affect different people! Here is a man going away from his country, seeking his place of abode in a distant land, and leaving behind him all he holds dear in this world: his lands, his treasures, and his friends. Milestones are sad things to him, for they tell him that his time in the land in which all his pleasure is found is rapidly passing away. But here is another man, returning to his home. He has been in a foreign land; has made his fortune: has landed on his return at the well-known port, and is journeying rapidly along the highroad to his loved and long-expected home. He knows a welcome is there: dear ones are all looking out for his arrival, and his greeting will be joyous, while he will not merely meet them, but will never leave them again. How quickly he walks! How slowly the milestones seem to pass! The heat of the sun, the length of the way, the ups and downs of the road, are all nothing to him, for the thought of the home ever drawing nearer and nearer makes him take no notice of them whatever. So it should be with us. We have had, perhaps, our morning of life, and it may be that the journey is beginning to grow wearisome; but let us think less of the road and more of the home. (D. G. Whitley.)
The priests . . . stood . . . until everything was finished.
The way of difficulty
I. Remembrance of God is the only encouragement through which some parts of lifes way become bearable and passable.
II. Gods regard to the greater trials of our life does not call off his attention from details. He not only parted the waters, but He waited in the river, both in power and presence, until everything was finished.
III. the general commandments of the bible are meant to regulate and control the specific acts of our life. According to all that Moses, &c. But Moses had never given any commands touching the actual passage of the Jordan. Yet Moses had commanded an implicit reliance on Divine guidance and a careful obedience to Divine requirements. Such general words covered all the particulars of the case. There are many things in the family, in business, in the Church, and in the world, which no specific precept may touch; there is absolutely no place which we can occupy in our daily life which in principle and in spirit is not covered by the Scriptures.
IV. While divine patience never wearies in giving us necessary help, when God goes before we should promptly follow. The people hasted and passed over. Whatever motive actuated their haste, haste was the right thing for the time. God does not work that we may idly look on. His manifest energy is a call for our marked diligence (2Sa_5:24).
V. God, who makes way in the van of our difficulties, is no less necessary to secure our rear (Jos_4:11; Deu_25:17-18). Not only that He may see His people, but that He may save them, He besets them behind and before. (F. G. Marchant.)
The people hasted
Probably the majority of the people were moved by fear, but some feelings may have led some of the host to hasten, and other considerations others.
I. The haste of fear. This also leads to Canaan.
II. The haste of diligence. With so much to be done, each had need to remember, the night cometh.
III. The haste of reverent obedience. God does not work mightily and command urgently that men may move slothfully.
IV. The haste of compassion. While the people tarried, the priests must wait. No man ever idles without expense and inconvenience to some one else.
V. The haste of unconscious influence. The quick movement of a few would communicate itself to all. Our pace times that of our companion, and his that of others. (D. G. Whitley.)
Quick use of opportunity
They made the best use of the golden opportunity afforded them, and with the utmost alacrity and diligence hastened across the river while thus laid bare for them. The torrent was restrained by the mighty power of God to afford the people an opportunity to pass over dry-shod. But there was no time for presumptuous delays, as though they could count upon an indefinite prolongation of this favoured season, and might postpone crossing until it suited their pleasure, in the confidence that Gods grace would wait upon their dilatory movements. There was no disposition on the part of any to remain as long as they could on the wilderness side, with any chance of getting into Canaan before the waters should rush back again into their accustomed channel. (W. H. Green, D. D.)
The peoples haste
The priests and the ark stood still; but the people hasted and passed over. Many commentators assume that they hastened from fear. Such haste would have been both utterly unseemly, and an evil omen for the conquest. There were other reasons for making all possible haste. Were they not keeping the priests of God with their arms outstretched, to bear up their holy burden? And moreover, there, distinct before them, beautiful in the soft, rich light of the early morning, lay the homes, and vineyards, and fields, which they were to possess. A few steps, and their feet would be in Canaan; a few moments, and the weary waiting of years would end. As the tired labourer hastes at the first glimpse of his home, so must they have hastened. There may have been, also, some innocent rivalry to be among the first to touch the further shore. All these motives, indeed, might easily combine as they hastened and passed over. And shall not the thought that Jesus waits till all be gathered in--waits, without coming yet in His power and great glory--shall not this thought stir up His Church, not only to be looking for, but hastening His coming? The love of Christ constraining us, will urge us onward. And who that has had the eyes of the understanding opened to behold what are the riches of glory of this inheritance in Christ Jesus would not fain to his speed add wings, that he might enter it and at once possess it? (S. F. Smiley.)
Come ye up out of Jordan.--
Firm in duty
We can fancy how the people who had reached the western shore lined the bank, gazing on the group in the channel, who stood still waiting Gods command to relieve them at their post. The word comes at last, and is immediately obeyed. May we not learn the lesson to stand fixed and patient wherever God sets us, as long as He does not call us thence? Gods priests should be like the legionary on guard in Pompeii, who stuck to his post while the ashes were falling thick, and was smothered by them, rather than leave his charge without his commanders orders. One graphic word pictures the priests lifting, or, as it might be translated, plucking, the soles of their feet from the slimy bottom into which they had settled down in their long standing still. They reach the bank, marching as steadily with their sacred burden as might be over so rough and slippery a road. The first to enter were the last to leave the rivers bed. Gods ark goes before us, and is our rearward. He besets us behind and before, and all dangerous service is safe if begun and ended in Him. The one point made prominent is the instantaneous rush back of the impatient torrent as soon as the curb was taken off. Like some horse rejoicing to be free, the tawny flood pours down, and soon everything looks as aforetime, except for the new rock, piled by human hands, round which the waters chafed. The dullest would understand what had wrought the miracle when they saw the immediate consequence of the arks leaving its place. Cause and effect seldom come thus close together in Gods dealings; but sometimes He lets us see them as near each other as the lightning and the thunder, that we may learn to trace them in faith, when centuries part them. How the people would gaze as the hurrying stream covered up their path, and would look across to the further shore, almost doubting if they had really stood there that morning! They were indeed Hebrews--men from the other side--now, and would set themselves to the dangerous task before them with courage. Well begun is half done; and God would not divide the river for them to thrust them into a tigers den, where they would be torn to pieces. Retreat was impossible now. A new page in their history was turned. The desert was as unreachable as Egypt. The passage of the Jordan rounded off the epoch which the passage of the Red Sea introduced, and began a new era. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Life a journey
I. That human life in this world is a journey.
1. Change of scenery.
2. Approach to an end.
3. Unsettledness of feeling. Lifes journey is--
(1) Unremitting;
(2) irretraceable.
II. That human life in this world is a journey which will have an end.
1. Our end is certain.
2. It is solemn.
III. Human life in this world will have an end which may be glorious.
1. It may be glorious in the courage of the traveller.
2. It may be glorious in the destination reached. (Homilist.)
Those twelve stones.., did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.--
The double monument of the passage of the Lords host across the Jordan
Many fine allegories have been reared upon the foundation of the twenty-four stones that were placed, twelve in the river-bed, and twelve at the encampment in Gilgal. Some have spiritualised them as types of death and the resurrection; others have seen in them a representation of the prophets and apostles of the Old and New Testament dispensations. They mean that the passage of the Israelites over Jordan is--
I. A real event. The history that records it is not an oriental poem or a patriotic legend. It is not a fine conception of an impassioned imagination. It is not an exaggeration. We have before us a plain matter of actual history.
II. A significant event.
1. God was glorified. He was herein exhibited as the living God (Jos_3:10), and the Lord of all the earth (Jos_3:11).
2. Joshua, moreover, was magnified, and shown to be Moses divinely-sanctioned successor (Jos_3:7).
3. The Israelites, moreover, were assured. With the remembrance of the naked channel of Jordan, what cause of trepidation can remain?
4. By this miracle their enemies were appalled--namely, the inland Amorites, the immediate spectators; and the Canaanites, or coast tribes (Num_13:30) in the distance, who heard the report (Jos_5:1). The passage took place right against Jericho (Jos_3:16). Oh, portentous sight for the inhabitants of that fortress!
III. A pattern event. It was with apparent reference to this event that God promised His people by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, When thou passest through the waters, &c. Let us, then, claim the promise, and embrace the consolation that this history declares to us for ourselves. And what can we do in these swellings of Jordan? Here is an answer to our misgivings, The Lord will do wonders among you!
IV. A symbolical event.
1. On the one hand, we may regard the passage of the Jordan as a glorious and abundant entrance into the promised inheritance.
2. On the other hand, we may regard it as illustrating, not only the triumphant close, but also the hopeful beginning of the believers course, and conversion, not death, will be the aspect of Christian experience that we shall recognise.
Application:
1. Are you yet in your sins? and do you long to experience the saving change of the new birth? But does a very torrent of difficulties seem to roll at their fullest height between you and the peace and pardon you long to enjoy? Go forward, and fear not. Jesus Himself calls you. He Himself accompanies you. Every hindrance will vanish if you obey His word.
2. Are you already amongst Gods people? Have you anxieties, difficulties, obstructions, in your course of life? He who opened a highway through the Jordan is also your helper.
3. Is Jesus your hope, and do you nevertheless quail when you think of the hour of your departure hence, when you must leave all you love here below? (Isa_43:1-8). (G. W. Butler, M. A.)
The stones of memorial
I. Great events deserve commemoration. In them God is the teacher. Men have always been ready to perpetuate the memory of their own great deeds. By memorial structures, memorial days, memorial observances, they have sought to keep alive the knowledge of their achievements and to foster a regard for the sentiments which lived in them. It has been common for all men in every age to act upon the principle which Daniel Webster stated when the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument was laid: Human beings are composed not of reason only, but of imagination also, and sentiment, and that is neither wasted nor misapplied which is appropriated to the purpose of giving right direction to sentiments, and opening proper springs of feeling in the heart. But no memorial structure elaborately reared to perpetuate right feeling and sentiment could subserve this end as fitly and fully as did the rude circle of stones set up at Gilgal. It nursed no pride of ancestry. It declared Gods mighty acts. Reminded by this rude memorial, one generation praised His works to another. They were led to speak of the glory of His kingdom, and to talk of His power.
II. God expects the children to become interested in great events of the past. It was for the childrens sake that the circle of stones was set up at Gilgal. It was to awaken their curiosity. God wishes the children to ask a great many questions. In this way He would have them learn what He has been doing for His people in past ages.
III. God expects the fathers to be ready to answer the childrens questions. The stones of Gilgal could be of little use to those children whose parents did not keep freshly in mind the events commemorated. They would become a monument whose inscription had faded away. No doubt the word fathers means parents, but it is worthy of remark that it does not mean mothers only or especially. The father who gives over to the mother the religious training of the child fails in the special duty which fatherhood imposes. He shirks the greatest responsibility of life. The father who answers his childs questions by evasion acts unworthily. My wife takes care of the religion of the family, a busy man said. But this is not Gods plan. This fathers life, in many respects admirable, failed miserably in a central, essential duty. For this failure no other well-doing could compensate.
IV. The stones erected at Gilgal suggest more lasting memorials which God has set up.
1. A memorial book. Concerning this book He would have the children question and the fathers give answer. How has this book been made, and by what providence has it been preserved?
2. A Church with memorial rites. What do baptism and the Lords Supper have to tell us about Gods ways with men?
3. A memorial day. Sunday is Gods commemoration day. It stands a lasting memorial of the greatest event in human history. (W. G. Sperry.)
The memorial stones
Gilgal, the first encampment, lay defenceless in the open plain, and the first thing to be done would be to throw up some earthwork round the camp. It seems to have been the resting-place of the ark, and probably of the non-combatants, during the conquest, and to have derived thence a sacredness which long clung to it, and finally led, singularly enough, to its becoming a centre of idolatrous worship. The rude circle of unhewn stones without inscription was, no doubt, exactly like the many pre historic monuments found all over the world which forgotten races have raised to keep in everlasting remembrance forgotten fights and heroes. It was a comparatively small thing; for each stone was but a load for one man, and it would seem mean enough by the side of Stonehenge or Carnac, just as Israels history is on a small scale as compared with the world-embracing empires of old. Size is not greatness; and Joshuas little circle told a more wonderful story than its taller kindred, or Egyptian obelisks or colossi.
1. These grey stones preached at once the duty of remembering and the danger of forgetting the past mercies of God. When they were reared they would seem needless; but the deepest impressions get filled up by degrees, as the river of time deposits its sands on them. We do not forget pain so quickly as joy, and most men have a longer and keener remembrance of their injurers than of their benefactors, human or Divine. The stones were set up because Israel remembered, but also lest Israel should forget. We often think of the Jews as monsters of ingratitude; but we should more truly learn the lesson of their history if we regarded them as fair, average men, and asked ourselves whether our recollection of Gods goodness to us is much more vivid than theirs. Unless we make distinct and frequent efforts to recall, we shall certainly forget Gods goodness. The cultivation of thankful remembrance is a very large part of practical religion; and it is not by accident that the psalmist puts it in the middle, between hope and obedience (Psa_78:7).
2. The memorial stones further proclaimed the duty of parental instruction in Gods mercies. They speak of a time when tradition was the vehicle of history; when books were rare, and monuments were relied upon to awaken curiosity which a fathers words would satisfy. Notwithstanding all differences in means of obtaining knowledge, the old law remains in full force, that the parent is the natural and most powerful instructor in the ways of God. The decay of parental religious teaching is working enormous mischief in Christian households; and the happiest results would follow if Joshuas homely advice were attended to, Ye shall let your children know.
3. The same principle which led to the erection of this simple monument reaches its highest and sacredest instance in the institution of the Lords Supper, in which Jesus, with wonderful lowliness, condescends to avail Himself of material symbols in order to secure a firmer place in treacherous memories. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Lord your God dried up the . . . Jordan.--
Hindrances removed
That is true. We saw it. We were there. It is happening every day. Take out the mere detail and put in the great picture, and what is it? It is Divine interposition in the affairs of life. It is God taking away all hindrances to the progress which He Himself has purposed and defined; not the hindrances to your progress, but the hindrances to His own progress as shown through your life. He will not take any stones out of our way if they lie between us and ruin. He will rather embed those stones a little more firmly. God be praised for His hindrances! We wanted to make that contract, and could not. We had the pen in hand to sign it, but the ink would not flow, or the light suddenly gave out, and we dropped the pen. What did it? We see now we were going to sign away our birthright, our liberty, our honour, our conscience, and we were doing this more or less unconsciously, and God said No. Blessed be God for His denials! Sometimes we are able to say, Blessed be God for His bereavements! Let God alone. Let us put our lives lust into His hands and say, Lord, they are Thy lives more than ours. Thou hast only lent them to us. We would not spoil one moment of these trembling frailties which we call our lives. Undertake everything for us and use us. We will run Thine errands, we will obey Thy will, we will do what Thou dost bid us do. Lord, undertake for us. Then if there is a river in the way Thou wilt dry it up, if there is a Red Sea in the way Thou wilt command it to stand back, and we shall walk through the beds of rivers as if they were beds of roses, you would be greatly comforted, as I have been in a thousand instances, by reasoning from the river to the sea. This is the right method of inference, by induction and by deduction. What has God done for us in the past? Hear David. He said: The God that delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine. I will strike him in the name of the Eternal. Was it a rash act? It was reasoned piety. Why did the young mans blood boil for one moment and then subside? It was all the piety of the past gathered up into one supreme stroke. Sometimes one act of faith condenses a lifetime of study, experience, and prayer. Wondrously doth life bring its own power, and marvellously doth yesterday contribute its quota to the forces of to-day. When a great man advises you upon a certain course, he does not speak for the moment. For a quarter of a century and more he has been buried in the study of law, and when he gives you advice that could be written down in a line he puts a lifetime into that line. When the hoary physician touches your pulse half a century touches it. So we should thus see God moving, as in contemplation and in faith, from the Jordan to the Red Sea. He says to us, as we near the sea: What about the Jordan? Was there one drop of water on the sole of your feet? No, Lord, there was not. Then, saith He in reply, as with the Jordan, so with the Red Sea. It shall be dried up as if it had never been. When the disciples said, How can we feed this multitude? He said, Did I not feed a multitude once. What lack was there then? None. Had the people barely enough to eat? Nay. How many baskets took you up? Twelve. And He helped them to carry out that reasoning, that He who was able to do it once was able to do it twice; and if He could do it twice, He could do it for ever. Here is the historical lesson He teaches us, that what He did yesterday He is going to do to-morrow. If you have no faith in to-morrow, surely you have faith in your own recollection of yesterday. There are timid souls who never dare look at to-morrow. The Lord says to these, Then think about yesterday; that is over. Now what was done to you yesterday? You thought your heart was going to burst. Did your heart break yesterday? No. You thought all things were against you yesternight. Did one star fall out of its place? No, Lord, they are all there. Then, saith God, as yesterday, so to-morrow; as the Jordan, so the Red Sea. What is your experience? How have you been treated in straits and perplexities and difficulties? Who cooled your fever? Who brought light when all was darkness? Bacon saith, A little learning inclineth to atheism; but much learning, great wisdom, makes a man pray. Whenever you doubt God, think that you are but feebly or superficially instructed. When you can lean upon Him four-square, know that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. How true it is that all things in life are done by an unseen power in so far as they are either good or bad. The devil is as invisible as God. How wonderful a thing it is that-life becomes shaped into palaces and temples without any handling of our own. The Jordan was dried up not with hands; the Red Sea was dried up--not with hands. Hands, poor hands, what can hands make? The hand can make and break is a little proverb, I would suggest. Whatever can be made by the hand can be unmade by the hand. God Himself takes all primary ministry unto His own power and employs us, even when we are going about our own errands, simply as His messengers. All life as it grows wisely and well turns and tends to service. Blessed be God, there is a bondage of love, there is a slavery of joy! Are you dreading the Jordan? He will dry it up for you if you put your trust in Him. Are you dreading the Red Sea? He will blow it away with the wind of His mouth. You may go within a step of it, nay, you may touch it, but the moment the foot of faith touches that sea, the sea is gone. (J. Parker, D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 Jos_4:2. Take you twelve men] These had been already…
THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN, AND ITS MEMORIAL
CRITICAL NOTES.
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Jos_4:2. Take you twelve men] These had been already chosen for the work. The twelfth verse in chap. 3. is not to be regarded as misplaced, but as a brief record of the notice then given to prepare the men to whom reference is again made here. Jos_4:4 plainly recognises this previous selection.
Jos_4:3. Where the priests’ feet stood firm] The stones were to be taken as nearly as possible from this spot, that the monument might be more vivid in its appeal to memory and reflection.
Jos_4:4. Out of every tribe a man] The unity of the twelve tribes was to be preserved in one memorial. The very river which should afterwards separate the eastern tribes from the western, should furnish from its bed the materials for a memorial which should bind Israel together in the recollection of a mercy common to all its families.
Jos_4:5. Pass over before the Ark] Probably these twelve selected men had remained behind the Ark, on or towards the eastern bank, during the crossing of the multitude. When the people had all passed over, Joshua commanded these twelve men to take each a stone, and precede the Ark out of the river. As the Ark had been first in entering the river, so it should be last in leaving, that the power from the beginning to the end of the miracle might be manifestly of God. Upon his shoulder] This indicates that each stone was to be as large as one man could conveniently carry.
Jos_4:9. In the midst of Jordan] Dr. Kennicott’s proposal to read “FROM the midst,” instead of “IN the midst,” seems to have no support in the best MSS. Joshua appears to have erected this separate memorial in the ordinary channel of the river; and Calvin suggests that it could probably be seen when the “swellings of Jordan” subsided. If it be asked, “Would not the first rush of the waters, which had gathered during the passage of the Israelites, sweep the memorial away?” it may be answered that the Divine power, which had for so long kept the waters back, would also be able to guide them past these twelve stones.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_4:1-9
REMEMBRANCE OF GOD THROUGH HIS WORKS
An American gentleman, speaking very recently to a meeting of Christian people assembled in London on the occasion of opening some new buildings as a college for ministerial students, said, “I have been, during the last day or two, looking at some of the national monuments in your great metropolis, and almost every one seemed to me like an eloquent page in your conspicuous national history.” All current history may be said, in one respect, to be merely a monumental record; it perpetuates only the things which are most prominent. History, in the ordinary meaning of the word, is made up of great events and conspicuous lives. The principal events in the lives of principal men are written down; to these are added the chief events which belong to a nation or people, taken collectively, and the result is called “history.” Perhaps it is the best thing of the kind for which men can either find time or make room. And yet a mere record of great battles, chief men, and conspicuous parliamentary measures, is in many respects very unsatisfactory. The view which it gives is rather distorted than correct; and just as a drawing of a mansion which only set forth to view the tallest chimneys, the largest windows, and the most prominent features would be a poor picture, so history is poor and misleading if we forget to bring to it a good knowledge of human nature and human life, and to fill in, by the help of imagination, some of the numerous blanks which are necessarily there. We have only a partial history of the Lord’s mercies: they are “new every morning,” and where we cannot even count correctly, it is hardly likely that we shall truthfully record. God only asks His people to remember what they can. Comparatively, it is only here and there a monument which He bids His children erect. In the “sweet reasonableness” of His pity for our weakness, He did but bid His servant write, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
The subject set forth in these verses teaches—
I. Man’s forgetfulness of God and God’s works. This direction to build a monument, to perpetuate the memory of the miracle, is a recognition of our liability to suffer even the mightiest of the Lord’s works to pass out of mind.
1. The occasion of our forgetfulness is often found in the pressure of earthly duties. But for the specific command of God, it seems quite possible that the day on which the Jordan was crossed might have been thought too crowded with necessary duties to leave any time to prepare for the erection of a memorial. Think of having to get two millions or more of people over a river divided in this manner. Many of them would be timid and shrinking, many of them were children, who would have to be carried over a rough or muddy path, and up steep banks; and though, saving Caleb and Joshua, no man in the host would be over sixty years of age, yet in so vast a company there must have been many sick and feeble, who would have needed assistance in crossing. Added to all this, there was the enormous task of transporting to the other side the tents and effects of the people, and all their cattle. If, as many are but too ready to believe, there are ever days when religious duties may be neglected because of the pressure of secular claims, this day must have been one of them. It is with both instruction and reproof that this passage should be read by most of us; this day of pressing secular duties is also a day of urgent religious service. How commonly do we meet with people who seem to have no time for perpetuating their memory of God’s mercies; they have no time for prayer, no time for public worship, no time for religion. To be in harmony with itself, a life like that ought to have no time for death. “Time and Eternity,” said Pulsford, “both touch me, for I am both. Time assaults me for the dust which I have, and insists that I give back to the dust every atom which I have derived therefrom. Eternity appeals to me for the spirit which I have. Owing to these two claimants, the partnership will soon have to be dissolved between my soul and body, that Earth may take its own, and Eternity its own.” No man, be he ever so busy, can postpone for a single day the claims of eternity. Would it not be wise to make room for the claims of religion “while it is called to-day”? This pressure of business makes the pressure of religious need still more urgent, not less. The very fact that life is “so fast,” tends to blot out from the mind our memory of God and His merciful works. It is said that Luther, the hard-worked reformer, complained that the duties of life pressed him so heavily that he could not perform them without having three or four hours in each day set apart for prayer. Havelock, the busy soldier, is said to have risen every morning two hours before commencing his military duties, that he might spend them in communion with his God.
2. The real cause of our forgetfulness of God is ever IN THE HEART. The natural powers of our memory are strong enough to retain good recollection of things which we love. Cardinal Mezzofanti, who was the son of a carpenter at Bologna, and who died less than thirty years since, is said to have acquired his first knowledge of languages by listening to scraps of Latin and Greek, heard through the open casement of a schoolroom window, near which he often worked. To many of the boys within, the tasks were no doubt irksome enough; but the stolen waters were sweet to the poor lad who could not pay for such learning. He went on acquiring knowledge from the very love of it, till at the age of seventy he could converse in upwards of fifty languages, besides possessing some acquaintance with at least twenty more. If men only loved God as they love some earthly objects and pursuits, they would need few stone memorials to keep Him or His works in mind. Bad memory is usually owing to bad interest and poor attention. The heart needs setting right, and then the mind would not often be wrong.
3. The forgetfulness of God’s merciful works is a sure indication that we have forgotten God. A man may repeat the Apostles’ Creed week by week, or join with devout exterior in the worship of the Free Churches; but if he forgets God’s mercies, no weekly public service, let him engage in it as heartily as he may, is sufficient to contradict the six days of testimony that he has forgotten God.
II. God’s gracious interest in man’s remembrance of His works.
1. The Scriptures are full of Divine complaints and solicitations on this matter of human forgetfulness. God speaks as if man’s ingratitude wounded and pained Him. How pathetic are some of the words in which the Lord reminds men of their neglect. If an ungrateful heart were not invariably so hard, men might be moved to tears to read thoughtfully, as from the lips of Him who made heaven and earth, such words as those spoken through Hosea—“Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples;” or, “She went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord.” How humanly they read, and how real the pain of them seems; how they seem to tell of a heart balanced and poised between the dignity that feels so worthy of better regard that it may justly punish, and the love which is so deep and tender that it cannot forsake. A keen observer of human nature said—
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
To have a thankless child.”
We read some of these complaints from the Divine lips; and so real is the parental relation in which God stands to His people, that they come to us in all the tenderness and pain and pathos which pervade a natural cry from the wounded heart of an earthly father. Let us seek to possess an observant eye to the goodness of the Lord, and to cultivate a spirit of praise for His manifold mercies.
“Some murmur when their sky is clear,
And wholly brought to view,
If one small speck of dark appear
In their great heaven of blue;
And some with thankful love are filled,
If but one streak of light,
One ray of God’s good mercy gild
The darkness of their night.
“In palaces are hearts that ask,
In discontent and pride,
Why life is such a dreary task,
And all good things denied;
And hearts in poorest huts admire
How Love has, in their aid,
With care that never seems to tire,
Such rich provision made.”—Trench.
2. Although our remembrance can be but a small thing to God, He well knows that it is everything to us. However base our ingratitude may appear in His sight, our praise could be but a few strains the less in the mighty song of the universe. It is because of God’s love to us, and of His knowledge that our forgetfulness of His works must leave us to destruction, that He so graciously manifests this interest in our thankfulness.
3. He knows that His works are our only sufficient interpretation of Himself. Even Jesus Christ, who has been seen in the flesh, needs His mighty and merciful works to make Him known to men. He “went about doing good,” speaking gracious words, doing benevolent miracles, and thus we learn of Him who must otherwise be an abstraction. We want the cradle, and the life, and the cross, to expound the Saviour. So he who never reads God’s works, and above all His unspeakable gift of Jesus, can never have anything more for his religion than a superstition, and nothing more as an object of worship than a theological abstraction called Deity.
III. The condescension in which God graciously meets men in this infirmity of their forgetfulness.
1. He allows them to help their memory through things which are visible. A man ought to be able to remember his mother without a monument; much more should he remember Him who said, “Can a woman forget?” etc. Yet God deigns to say, “Put up the stones, and try and keep Me and My mercy in mind by the help of these.”
2. He points out such helps to memory as are most suitable. (a) The stones were to be taken from the very spot where the priests had stood. God condescends not only to allow His people a monument; they may have one so vivid, that, as far as possible, it shall recall the whole scene. (b) The twelve stones were to be taken out of the river, and carried to Gilgal, by one man from each tribe. The tribes would soon be divided by the river. It only wants something to separate men, and forthwith they grow clannish. A highway, a hedge, an idea, a dozen sticks, any small line, is often enough to divert human feeling into channels, and make the quarrelsome take sides. By this selection of a man from each tribe, God virtually says, “I will not only have your remembrance vivid, but I will have the praise of all Israel to be as the song of one man. Take, from the very river that will soon separate you, the materials for a memorial of thankfulness in which all your hearts may be knit together, and knit together in Me.”
3. These material helps, given to His early people, were given by God to teach a principle and to cultivate a habit. It was not merely now and then, when some mighty work was wrought on their behalf, that they were to pile up a few stones and occasionally go and inspect them, that this command was given. By this God would teach all men to definitely mark heavenly mercies, and cultivate the habit of thanksgiving for all His manifest help. The lesson was written also for our, admonition. Some people contemn the habit of having special services which mark the lapse of time. “Watch-night services,” special appeals on the occasion of a new year, and even the worship of the Lord’s day, have provoked remarks like the following:—“These things are all very well; but men ought to be religious and devout all the year round, and all the week through.” It is enough to answer, “The man who finds no special appeal made to his heart by peculiar seasons like these, is seldom very devout at any period.” It is natural, and the Divine teaching supports our human feeling, when we give emphasis to our praise where God has set special marks to His mercy. The conspicuous events of social life should find us setting up memorials in our hearts. Anniversaries of deaths, marriages, births, of business prosperity or failure, may well call for their corresponding stress of thought and worship in our religious life. Anniversaries of spiritual experiences should, above all, be times of memorial. He who has no special prayers and special songs will probably have few ordinary ones which are useful to himself or acceptable to God. He who spread the table of His supper for our help, and said, “Do this in remembrance of Me,” will love to see us finding in this memorial of the greatest work of God for man the devout recognition of the principle that all peculiar mercies demand our special praise.
TEACHING THE CHILDREN.—Jos_4:6-7
In the formation of the liberated Hebrews into a nation, most significant prominence is given, from the very beginning, to the religious education of their children. The godly nation was to be made by teaching godliness to its sons and daughters The fathers proved rebellious, and were left to die in the wilderness; the hope of Israel was in its children, and it was left for them to enter into the inheritance, and to commence the national life in its more consolidated form. Divine care was shewn concerning the children from the first. Even before the people left Egypt, the very rite which commemorated the exodus was pointed and emphasised in the direction of the children. The ordinance of the Passover was to be perpetual, that when the children should ask their parents, “What mean ye by this service?” they might be taught to fear, and love, and praise, and trust the God of their fathers’ deliverance. The sojourn in the desert is marked by repeated injunctions concerning the pious training of the young. The words of the Lord were to be taught to the children diligently, to be written even on the doorposts of the houses, and on the gates (Deu_11:18-21); and in a great septennial gathering in the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles, the words of the law were to be read and expounded, that any who had been neglected in servitude, that the “children who had not known anything,” and all the people, might learn to fear the Lord. In the miracle which makes a way through Jordan for entering into the long-deferred possession, equal stress is laid on teaching the children: as in the exodus, so here, the teaching of the young is the first thing for which provision is made. God’s hope of the nation is seen taking shape and form through hope in the families, and His hope in the families through religious training in childhood. Perhaps these early histories, in this aspect, ought to give more alarm to people who have grown up into manhood and womanhood “without God in the world,” than any other part of the Scriptures. Men and women sin away half or three parts of a lifetime, and contemplate repenting before they get too old, and before they die. Taking these urgent injunctions, which are written as in capital letters on the very face of the miracles which lead out of bondage and into Canaan, and reading them in the light of the overthrow of the fathers in the wilderness, it seems as though even God were half hopeless of genuine piety in those who grow well into maturity without the knowledge and fear and love of Himself.
Dealing rather with modern necessities than with ancient details, we may consider the subject of parental training in two principal aspects:—
I. Some mistakes which we are apt to make.
1. Perhaps we are too ready to assume, that the children of Christian parents will become Christians. Saved ourselves, it becomes easy, in the bustle of daily life, almost to take it for granted that our children will be saved also. True, we Christian parents teach our children; we are not Antinomians, and we believe that if they are to be saved we must train them. True, we pray for our children; it is right and it is pleasant to remember before the Lord these who are so dear to us. But is this real, or do we suffer it to become perfunctory? Do we realize that our children may be lost? We believe that some children grow up to be bad men and godless women, and that many of these die out of Christ, and perish. Our Christian convictions and our whole Christian work are grounded upon this. Then it ought not to be thought sensational to ask, Have we realized that our dear children may thus perish? Have we carried our awful convictions about the children of other people to the case of our own dear boy or beloved girl? To what holy patience and perseverance and effort and prayer would such a realization lead. What is meant by those dark pictures in the Bible about the children of godly parents? What are we to gather from the histories which tell us of the wickedness of the children of Eli, of Samuel, of David, of Hezekiah? What are we to learn from these? Many have looked on them as a ground for serious discouragement, and yet that cannot be the reason why they are written down for our reading. Matthew Henry says of the two thieves at the crucifixion, “One was saved, that no man might despair; the other was lost, that none might presume.” Should we not also read, The children of some godly parents are saved, that no Christian father or mother may despair; the children of some of the best O. T. saints seem lost, that no one may take it for granted that his children will be saved. Piety does not run in the blood, nor is grace always hereditary.
2. Many make the mistake of supposing that a child must grow up into maturity before its conversion will probably take place. The possibility of early conversion is generally admitted; as a matter of fact, many parents do not expect it in their own children while they are children. Some seem to take it for granted that there will most likely be a previous course of open connection with the world, that presently conversion will come with a kind of manifest jerk, and that then it will probably be genuine. A most unhealthy spirit seems in recent years to have grown up among some of the most earnest evangelical workers, in respect to the prominence given to cases of conversion after a long course of sin. It would be unfair, as some have rather recklessly asserted, to say that children have been received into the Church “with suspicion;” it is only too true that people have got to behave as if it were comparatively a small thing to be saved young, and something for endless parade when a bad man of forty or fifty years of age is brought to the Saviour. It is an occasion for joy, and great joy, when such as the latter are led to Christ; it cannot but be a matter for sorrow, when they are almost taught to feel as if there were some special merit in not having become Christians before, and when they are supposed to be authorities as to what is the proper measure of Christian zeal and holiness in proportion to the wickedness of their own previous lives. Instead of such men being helped to know that it is a thing for humiliation and a cause for modesty that they have served sin so long and so deeply, they are led to think that preaching to other people, and teaching even Christians whose lives have been a holy training, is the natural outcome and prerogative of their previous and long-continued wickedness. The way in which “converted prizefighters,” or “converted colliers,” or “converted chimney-sweeps” have been handed round, as if they were a kind of specially burnished jewel worthy of the profound attention of the Christian public, has, during late years, been a fit cause for considerable shame. To say nothing of the comparative neglect which Christian children and youths must have sometimes been made to feel, or of the premium tacitly put on a previous life of wickedness, the serious harm done to these people themselves ought to have led Christian men to keep them more decently in the background. The temptations given to vanity and self-esteem, in some cases, might well have been fatal even to a trained Christian life; how could it be expected that such feeble uprightness could endure so severe a strain in the direction of the old and chronic crookedness? What wonder if “the sow that was washed has turned again to her wallowing in the mire,” when men in authority have made the heat of temptation unbearable even to acclimatised feeling and habit, and then have driven some newly cleansed one straight in the direction of the mud?
3. There is a temptation to make the teaching of children interesting rather than substantial. Too interesting it never can be made, so long as love of the pleasant and the cheerful does not impair the quality of the truth imparted. Has it been wise to give up the old methods of catechisms, and learning verses and hymns? Are not many trusting more to impressions, scratched lightly in with the point of an anecdote or picture, rather than to that deeper graving in of truth on the mind which used to be customary? The story of the cross and of the Saviour’s love should be cut deeply into the memory, as well as be made pleasant to the heart for the time in which it is being heard. Impressions are very fleeting, and most of us soon forget them, but well-learned words come up even in after years, and repeat the impressions again.
II. Some encouragements which we are tempted to forget.
1. The work has God’s command. No Israelite had any need to fear that he would be doing wrong in an earnest endeavour to lead his children to God. The memorial was for the teaching of all the people and all their children. We need none of us feel that we are presuming, in any efforts which we may make to lead our children to the Saviour. No man is made to feel that God would not welcome his children also. On this point we cannot apply the commands of Scripture to the wrong family. We cannot get the wrong child in any family. Whatever truth there may be in election, we never have to read, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and if he happen to be one of the elect, he shall not depart from it.” With such encouragement, every one may and should bring up his children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” A lady, it is said, once told Archbishop Sharpe that she would not communicate religious instruction to her children until they had grown to years of discretion; she received an answer from the prelate no less true than blunt, as he replied, “Madam, if you do not teach them, the devil will.”
2. The work to which every parent is thus commanded is full of promise. It has the promise of nature. Most training, when wisely and perseveringly pursued, does succeed. The obedient vine and tree, which yield to the gardener; the dog, who learns from his shepherd; the horse and the ox, that learn to obey their trainers; all these preach encouragement. If the Christian training of children be more difficult, it has, to meet that, the higher stimulus of the promise of God. God co-operates with the pious parent. This memorial was a Divine suggestion, and carried in itself the promise to every pious Jew that he should be a “worker together with God.” The promises are unto us and to ours also, if we are Christian parents; and if we have not that necessary qualification, our first duty is to seek Christ for ourselves. Do we go to this work, feeling as we do it that God works with us?
3. The work has an eternal and glorious reward To the faithful parent it would not be right to say that it may have such a reward; surely it must have. We can hardly think of a holy and persevering labour of faith for our own children as fruitless at last. It cannot be that a life of faith and prayer and wise labour shall ever fail here. But Christian parents may have to wait long; it may be that they will not even live to see their children brought to Christ. If we can be patient anywhere, surely we may be for our children’s salvation. It is said that when Kepler, the immortal astronomer of Wurtemburg, who discovered the laws of the motions of the planets, lay dying, he was asked by a friend whether he did not suffer cruelly to be obliged to depart without seeing his discoveries appreciated. He answered, “My friend, God has waited five thousand years till one of His creatures discovered the admirable laws which He has given to the stars; why should I, then, not wait till justice is done to me?” We might all well labour on in the beautiful spirit of that reply. How long, in many cases, does God patiently wait for the salvation of the parents themselves; remembering that, they may well wait before Him for their children. But to earnest prayer, wise training, and holy faith, the reward cannot but come eventually. Let us lead our children to Christ. Though it may not be before, yet when we are dead and gone, when the coffin and the grave contain all that is left of us to earth, when the clods of the valley cover our heads, and years of fled time have in many minds obliterated our memory, still shall our children remember that they once had Christian and then have glorified parents. Thoughts of a holy life and earnest prayers will follow them, even in the way of sin; and when the sacred beacon of our past rises, like another star of the East, to guide them to Him who was born in Bethlehem, that memory of Christian father and godly mother will be for ever a shrined and holy thing in our children’s hearts. It will go with them in their own Christian life, recollected as their noblest birthright, and cherished as a princely heritage. With our own Cowper, they may think of us and sing—
“My boast is not that I deduce my birth
From loins enthroned, and rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,
The son of parents passed into the skies.”
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos_4:1-2. “The command of chap. Jos_3:12 is reported in that place, because it was given by Joshua at that time. The election of twelve men by the people would have been impossible whilst they were crossing, though, after they were chosen, Joshua could easily explain to them, whilst the rest were passing over, what they were to do. The twelve men were elected by the people, that they might act as their representatives, and be witnesses of the miracles which were about to be wrought at their passage through the river.”—Keil.
BEARING WITNESS TO THE WORKS OF THE LORD
I. God’s witnesses are carefully prepared beforehand. Memorials of God’s wonderful works and great mercies had for some time been contemplated. A command in relation to them had been given by Moses (cf. Deu_27:2). This commandment was partially obeyed on this very day of the passage, and fully at Mount Ebal (chap. Jos_8:30-32). The men who were to prepare for this particular memorial at Gilgal had been already selected. They were to be stationed close to the spot where the waters were divided; and while the multitude “hasted and passed over,” they could stand during the whole time and watch this marvellous work, reporting it afterwards each man to his own tribe. God graciously prepares the testimony of those things which He would have most surely believed among us. For centuries before He came, the prophets bare witness unto Christ. Jesus Himself told His disciples of things to come, that when these came to pass they might believe. Peter speaks to those in the house of Cornelius of “witnesses chosen before of God, who did eat and drink with Christ after He rose from the dead.” Elsewhere the same apostle says, “We were eye-witnesses of His majesty.” In the testimony of the Lord’s marvellous works and mercies, nothing is left to accident.
II. God’s witnesses are so prepared as to merit the confidence of men. In this case they were chosen by the people from among themselves. They were not priests or Levites, who might afterwards be suspected, from motives of interest, of having coloured the report to keep up the good name of the Ark.
1. The witnesses to the truth of the Scriptures demand our confidence. Many of them were men who sacrificed much for the truth’s sake. Who can venture to cast suspicion on such men as Moses, who “forsook Egypt;” or Jeremiah, whose life was one long persecution; or Elijah, who seemed alone in his fidelity, and whose grief in the desert is told with such evident truthfulness? What a life of testimony, ever bearing witness of itself while testifying of the Saviour, is the life of Paul! Think of his self-sacrifice, of his persecutions, of his boldness, his manifest integrity, his exemplary life, and of the unmeditated coincidences of his letters as shewn in Paley’s Horæ Paulinæ.
2. The witnesses to the truth since the days of the apostles have been also eminently worthy of the faith of men. (a) Many Christians have been men of holy and self-denying lives; men who have done great services or given much in sacrifice for their fellows; men whose death has been a confirmation of their own previous testimony. (b) There is the witness given by poetry, painting, music, and literature contributed by many who have made no profession of attachment to the gospel. The noblest inspirations of men have been drawn from the Bible, and have thus borne testimony at least to its elevated character and holy power. (c) There is the witness of the enemies of the gospel. Literature abounds with concessions and expressions of admiration in which avowed unbelievers have borne their witness to Christ and His word. Few will suspect these of any interested motives. (d) There is the witness of Christian societies and Christian work. When men look at the fruits which the tree of truth has ever borne, and is still bearing, they read testimony which surely is worthy of some confidence: missionary societies and schools; hospitals and poor laws, both of which sprang from the Church.
III. God’s witnesses are so placed that they can speak with authority. These men were near to the Ark, and to the scene of the miracle. They could tell what they saw with the claim that belonged to men who had possessed good opportunities for information. The apostles repeatedly insisted on their qualifications in similar respects. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes.… declare we unto you,” said John. Think of the power in which these men were qualified to speak, when they stood up to bear witness, “beginning at Jerusalem” amongst the very men who could best sift their evidence, and whose malice and desire to vindicate themselves would lead them to deny anything which could be denied. Let us learn that no word of God is to be received lightly. Dr. Bushnell says, “A suit upon a note at hand had long been pending in one of the courts of our commonwealth, payment of which was resisted on the ground that it was and must be a forgery, no such note having ever been given. But the difficulty in the trial was to make out any conclusive evidence of what the defending party knew to be the truth. His counsel was, in fact, despairing utterly of success; but it happened that just as he was about closing his plea, having the note in his hand, and bringing it up so that the light struck through, his eye caught the glimpse of a mark in the paper. He stopped, held it up deliberately to the light, and behold, the name, in water-mark, of a company that had begun the manufacture of paper after the date of the instrument! Here was evidence without going far to seek it; evidence enough to turn the plaintiff forthwith into a felon, and consign him, as it did, to a felon’s punishment.” The truth of God’s word has also the witness in itself; although its water-mark is one, not which disproves, but which strikingly confirms, its own utterances. This “man of our counsel” has the aspect of truth in every feature, and may well be felt to speak with indisputable authority.
IV. Those who bear witness for God now should also seek to make their testimony unimpeachable. There is still room for holy and disinterested and self-sacrificing lives. These will impress most men more than argument, and more than eloquence. To all Christians the word is spoken still, “Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord.”
Jos_4:1, first clause. THE COMPLETENESS AND DELIBERATENESS OF GOD’S WORKS.
I. The effectual working of Divine power. “All the people were clean passed over Jordan.” Not one of the mighty host whose inheritance lay on the other side of the river was left behind.
1. Divine power was sufficient to cover all human weakness. Some of the people would be infirm, some infants, some sick and diseased; all passed over nevertheless. So in our passage to the inheritance above, God’s power not only meets the case of the spiritually strong, it equally covers the need of those who are spiritually feeble. The gospel of our JOSHUA, also, is a gospel for the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. When Moses stood before Pharaoh previous to the exodus, Pharaoh spoke as if he had made a great concession when he said, “Let your little ones also go with you.” Moses answered him, “Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind.” Brave words were those, for one man to dauntlessly speak in the face of a despot, and they were as beautiful in their significance as they were bold in their spirit. Nothing of the Lord’s was to be left in the land of the idolater. The power of God should be found sufficient to bring out every one of the cattle also.
2. Divine power was sufficient to cover all difficulties and obstacles. God not only parted the waters, but held them parted till all the people were clean passed over. Not less “the effectual working of His power” proves sufficient for all obstacles in the path of His children now.
II. The absolute sufficiency of Divine mercy. All passed clean over. The fathers had died in the wilderness, for mercy must punish sin, lest all suffer destruction. Justice is more passive than active in the matter of punishment for transgression; it is the attribute which proclaims that punishment is right and due. It is Mercy that applies punishment. It is Jesus Christ with tears in His eyes who says over Jerusalem, “The days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee.” So, for the sake of the living, Mercy had sorrowfully smitten and buried the fathers in the wilderness. But the children were completely forgiven. They, too, had sinned deeply and long. The plains of Moab were close by; the people had grievously erred there, but Divine mercy is equal to the occasion, and it is from those very plains of Moab that the people pass over. Every one enters in; not only Phinehas and Joshua and Caleb, but the forgiven sinners also. How complete and beautiful is the pardon of the Lord! No man may tamper with sin, for even Mercy stands weeping by the graves of the dead which her own hands have slain; all the more glorious is it to see that where Mercy once forgives she has no memory whatever of the past. While the people clean pass over, she utters not a single upbraiding to any one of them all.
“Kind hearts are here, yet would the tenderest one
Have limits to its mercy; God has none;
But man’s forgiveness may be true and sweet,
When yet he stoops to give it: more complete
Is love that lays forgiveness at thy feet,
And pleads with thee to raise it. Only heaven
Means crowned, not vanquished, when it says, Forgiven.”
A. A. Proctor.
III. The majestic deliberateness of Divine methods. Four hundred and seventy years before God made a covenant with Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed have I given this land.” At the same time the four centuries which were previously to elapse were predicted as years to be spent in Egypt, many of which were to be years of bondage and affliction. At the end of four hundred and thirty years, not a day had been lost in the Divine count of time (cf. Exo_12:40-41; Gal_3:17). Then the Israelites sin in the desert, and calmly and patiently God takes forty more years to blot out the evil of this transgression. Slowly and painfully, and often solemnly, these days of the wilderness go by, God working miracles, shewing mercy, and bearing His people all the way. Here at the end of the time—four days before the end, for His mercy loves to discount the bill of our suffering—God divides the river, and leads the people into the land. How calm, how deliberate, how patient, how stately, is the slow, sure march of God in this working for His people’s good!
1. The natural processes in the cure of human sinfulness and weakness are slower than men usually estimate, and God does not hurry them. It took four thousand years for fallen man to become ready for the cross; then, “in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.” It took over thirty years for the Saviour, in His way from Bethlehem to Calvary, to leave the influences and words and works necessary for the salvation of men; at the end of this period He prays, saying, “Father, the hour is come.” So the time from the cross to Pentecost, from Pentecost to the last words of the solitary man of Patmos, ere he sits down to write the gospel which closes Divine revelation, seems long. God’s way has no hasty miles.
2. The slowness of God’s method is never for lack of pity and mercy. Scripture calls the Divine waiting “long-suffering,” a word which means not simply long patience, but also long pain. So we read of this waiting in the desert, “Forty years long was I grieved,” etc. The bearing of God, while He waits, shews that His deliberateness and slowness are never for lack of mercy. Think of the manna falling in the wilderness on the days of Israel’s great sins! Manna on the morning of Koran’s rebellion; manna and the brazen serpent in one day; manna from heaven and a calf for a god on earth; think of it, and see how God’s slow methods and great mercies go on together!
The magnitude of the miracle.—“This seems to us a more signal miracle than the passage of the Red Sea; and it appears as if expressly framed, not only to effect its own objects, but to relieve the other from all naturalistic interpretations. In connection with the Red Sea passage, we hear travellers and scholars talk learnedly about east winds and tides and shallows, so that, whether intentionally or not, the fact, as a demonstration of Divine power, is explained away or attenuated. But nothing of this is possible in the case of the passage of the Jordan. The fact must be taken as it stands. It was a miracle, or it was nothing. There has not been, and there cannot be, any explanation of it on natural grounds. And if, therefore, men are obliged to admit this, it becomes scarcely worth their while to tamper with the Red Sea miracle—unless they would deny the authority of the narrative altogether.” [Kitto.]
Jos_4:3-5. “OBJECTIVE TEACHING.”
I. We see God developing the spirit of enquiry. The Lord loves to set His children problems. This is not to perplex them, but to teach them. Men everywhere may hear Him saying, “SEEK, and ye shall find.” His way is to stand up before men strange objects, and so to set them asking questions.
1. God takes this way in Nature. We are to “lift up our eyes on high,” and reverently to enquire, “What meanest Thou by these stars? Who hath created these things?” In the depths below, where “He putteth forth His hand upon the rock,” marking it here with the footprints of extinct animals, there with the rain-drift, and piling it elsewhere in strange formations of strata, we are to behold that which shall prompt our devout question, “What meanest Thou by these stones?” There is no thunder in which we may not hear “the voice of the Lord;” no lightning of which we may not enquire concerning the laws of electricity, and thus find out in a deeper sense how “His brightness is as the light.” Nature is full of wonders; strange forms stand up in all her fields to provoke the spirit of investigation within us.
2. It is the same in providence. The wicked prosper, and the righteous fail; and this has set men asking questions ever since the days when David wrote the thirty-seventh Psalm, and he or some one else the seventy-third, not to speak of earlier bewilderment. Why do babies die? Why do our boys and girls just get our whole being entwined around their own, and then suddenly pass from us? Broken-hearted fathers and mothers, for centuries, have been walking into grave-yards, looking at little graves and “broken columns,” and have cried out in anguish, “What meanest Thou by THESE stones?”
“Only a baby’s grave,
A foot or two at the most
Of star-daisied sod.
Yet methinks that God
Knows what that little grave cost.”
So intense have been the questions; so soft and trustful, as the case has had to be referred back to Him, have been at least some of the answers. Sudden sickness or calamity blasts the hopes of a life which henceforth drags on in pain; appalling accidents slay their thousands, and fierce diseases their ten thousands, and men and women who are left bow their heads low, hardly lifting them for a time, saving in the energy that asks with such terrible earnestness, “Why is this? Wherefore am I dealt with thus?”
3. It is so hardly less in the Scriptures. The hardened heart of Pharaoh here, slaughtered Canaanites there; the origin of evil, the mysteries of the fall; federal responsibilities and privileges; sovereignty over, and accountability in, the will; vicarious burdens, pain, and death; atonement, its effect; punishment, its duration; immortality, its basis and conditions: what numberless stones there are, standing up, too, in such strange forms! What can these all mean? They mean enquiry, investigation, reverent curiosity. “SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES;” that is what they have said to thousands; thousands have obeyed, wondered still more, adored, trusted, loved, and been content presently to put for their whole case, “Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Anything is better than stagnant contentment with our own ignorance, which corrupts so fast into deadly pride, unless there are problems from which we have now and then humbly to turn away, saying, “Thy judgments are a great deep!” This is what so many of the stones mean.
II. We see God cultivating and directing the powers of memory.
1. The powers of memory in many instances have been not a little remarkable. It is said that Themistocles could call by their names each one of the twenty thousand citizens of Athens. Cyrus is reported to have been able to name every soldier in his army. Ben Jonson tells us that he could repeat all that he had ever written, and whole books that he had read. Still more remarkable instances are on well-authenticated record. Memory was as much given to be trained as any other faculty.
2. Memory, however, may be abused, and so God directs it to the highest objects. Men are to remember His marvellous works and His gracious goodness.
3. In teaching us to remember His works, God uses the natural rather than the ornate. Stones from the river’s bed, where the feet of the priests stood firm, would tell the story better than the most artistic and elaborate monument. So, as M. Henry suggests, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world” to keep His name and works before men to this day.
III. We see God, through well-directed remembrances, provoking praise to Himself, and care for the piety of men in the future. The Israelites for years to come, their children, and all who saw the stones, were to learn to fear and worship God. Memory was to provoke praise, and lead to interest in the piety of others.
Jos_4:6-7. “TAUGHT OF THE LORD.”
I. God’s method of teaching children He stimulates enquiry. He would have the fathers set their children asking questions. This is the Divine plan in the service of the passover. The same idea pervades such passages as Deu_6:8-9. This method has the advantage of beginning with the heart. When a desire to know is created, when curiosity is excited and interest is stirred, teaching is comparatively easy. True tact begins by laying siege to the heart; let that be taken, and forthwith the mind readily yields. Our human methods of teaching, although much improved during the last generation, are too often awkward and unnatural. Impress a child very formally and solemnly that you propose to give him some religious instruction, and you repel him by the very manner of your approach. The light and cheerful heart of a child shuts itself up before a solemn face, a didactic bearing, and under the opening sentences of a set lecture, as a sensitive plant closes before the coming of a cold wind or the beginnings of night. Satan teaches his pupils by beginning with the heart; he fascinates men through the medium of the senses, sets the heart aglow with wicked longings, and the biggest dullard can soon master the hardest ways of sin alter that. Heaven and hell alike shew us that the way to learning is through loving. He whose interest is deeply excited is already far advanced towards the attainment of the lesson which the careless pupil thinks it very tiresome to have to begin.
II. The subjects which God selects for the teaching of children.
1. God does not urge upon men the teaching of things which are secular. This is not because secular things are unimportant. All through the Scriptures, and not least in the Pentateuch, the importance of knowing civil and social duties is fully recognised. But men do not so much need urging to teach their children the things of this life.
2. Divine wisdom, therefore, lays stress on spiritual teaching. It is this which is of supreme importance, it is this which parents would most readily neglect; therefore, whenever the subject of teaching children is mentioned, God says, “Teach them of Me, teach them of My works, teach them My words.”
III. The ends which, through such teaching, God would secure.
1. He would lay deep the foundations of the national welfare. These should rest in nothing less than the Lord Himself. So far is the Bible removed from any sympathy with the modern cry against “political dissenters” and “political Christians,” that it shews us God Himself most carefully connecting the political welfare of His people with their religious training. Worldly and wicked men may think it highly desirable to have all government in their own hands; it is so much more comfortable than to be subject to the constraints of piety. Besides, it is easier for such men to feel religious when they control the Church, than when “society” is held in check by men of evident godliness. Some good but weak-minded Christian people think that it conduces to piety for all who love God to let politics alone, and thus leave all government, and elections to all places of authority, in the hands of the enemies of the cross of Christ. This is not the manner of God with His model nation. Divine wisdom was wont to teach that personal holiness was a necessary qualification for civil authority; the holiest men were placed highest in power, and their sins were treated as so much personal unfitness for the control of others. The children of every household were to be trained in the fear of the Lord; all the nation was to be pious. Had this direction been faithfully followed, and all Israel loved God, no one thinks that it would have been necessary to have spared a few wicked Canaanites for the government of the people, in order to keep the piety of the nation uncontaminated by politics. God would have all the people pious, for thus only could their highest national welfare be secured.
2. This teaching was to aim not less at the personal welfare of each citizen. (a) God would have them correct the mass by attending to the units. (b) God would have each person to feel himself a subject of Divine care and love.
3. Most of all, this religious teaching was meant to secure spiritual life and eternal salvation. Civilization would be nothing, social and national greatness nothing, without this. All the ways of God with men are meant to lead upward to Himself. He who afterwards said through Hosea, “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms,” never yet taught men a single step which was not meant to lead to the throne of God and eternal life, and which was not a part of the way there.
“Parents should relate to their children, and hold before them, not their own vile deeds, but God’s merciful deeds (Exo_10:1-2; Deu_6:20).
“That is the right application of God’s marvellous and beneficent acts, when we learn from them truly to know, fear, and love Him (Joh_2:11).” [Starke.]
These stones were erected into a memorial to keep the generations in remembrance that the waters were cut off “before the Ark of the covenant of the Lord.” How readily we forget, in our afflictions, that the covenant is our only security. Like Canute and his courtiers, we too endeavour, by methods of our own, to keep back the tides which flow towards us. Happy is he who at such a time is enough in the secret of the Lord to hear Him whisper, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.”
Those who have been delivered from suffering and danger, through the covenant mercy of the Lord, should not fail to erect memorials of praise, which may serve to teach and remind others of the only means by which the waters of affliction can be effectually cut off.
Jos_4:8. VICARIOUS SERVICE AND HONOUR
I. Our labour for God’s people is representative labour. We work not only for others, but in place and instead of others. One man was chosen from each tribe to bear these stones from Jordan to Gilgal, and the work is spoken of as that of “the children of Israel.”
1. There is not room for all Christians to be doing the same thing, nor are there men to spare. If the Church were to attempt it, the industries of life would be crowded at some points, while at others they would be utterly forsaken. And the desolation of the forsaken places would soon be fatal to the overwrought industry of the crowded places, even if the crowds themselves were not fatal to the success of the few works in which everybody felt it his duty to engage. Christian men cannot all preach; there is not room, nor time, nor can more than a few be spared for the work. For the same reasons, all cannot be Sunday-school teachers or missionaries. So some are chosen out of our families and congregations to serve for all. But those who go down into the deep waters for service are there for their brethren, who elsewhere are engaged in “holding the ropes” which keep the direct workers from sinking. These twelve men from the tribes needed others, it may be, to help their wives, and little children, and aged relatives, or their sick, or some weak ones in the host for whom they should have cared, across the river. Thus the division of labour, urged so forcibly by Adam Smith, must ever be recognised, if we are to realize as we ought the proper “wealth” of Churches. Each worker in a prominent position should say, “I am here at this post for all my brethren; I represent them, and I must carry as for them, as well as for myself, as big a stone as I can, so that my tribe, my church, my school, my town my family, may be well represented in this memorial of work for the Lord, which we are trying to build to the honour of His name, and for the help of the generations now and to come.” Each worker in a lowly position may feel, on the other hand, “I am here that my brother may be yonder; and all the time I am freeing his hands to bear the actual burden of memorial, I am working in his work, which but for me and others like me he could not labour in at all.
2. All are not fitted to do the same thing. Life’s discipline tries us and selects us, choosing one man for this part of the common service, and another for that. The tender and gentle-spirited man may not be fit for carrying large stones, but he may care for the children and encourage the weak excellently. The brawny muscular man may do well for the stones, but be poor and out of place in stimulating those who lack faith, or in sympathising with such as need patience and gentleness. Both workers are wanted, and one may be as valuable as the other.
II. The results of work for God are representative results. If Christian men thus labour vicariously and for one common object, it follows that the fruits of labour belong to them all.
1. No Christian worker whose labours seem much blessed should claim preeminence in usefulness over his equally laborious and earnest brother. No doubt some are more useful than others, but they are often poor judges, and especially so if they think their superior usefulness very self-evident. After all, we can seldom tell who is most successful in the process of bringing souls to the Saviour. Some conversions are claimed by many different workers, each one, instrumentally, regarding the work as his own. There are other cases in which the new-born believer acknowledges some one Christian worker as the means of leading him to the Saviour, whereas, perhaps, there have been fifty or a hundred other workers, each of whom has done as much, and it may be some of them far more than the last. If a chain in the time of storm were to hold a ship from going on the rocks, would it be meet for the link next to the vessel, supposing it sentient and vocal, to exult over its brother links, and cry, “I saved the ship, and its two hundred passengers owe their lives to me; not a link had hold of the vessel but myself”? Why, every link all down the chain would have done as much as the links nearest to the ship. The same principle is often not less true in the salvation of men.
2. No conscientious worker should depreciate his service, and discourage himself, because he seems to be less successful than others. If he be working zealously and faithfully, perhaps he merely stands farther from the results. Spring does not get depressed, and say, “I was utterly unsuccessful with that wheat, and in my hands it never became much more than grass, whereas summer had no sooner come in than it burst out into ear, then into blossom, and in a few short weeks it was converted into golden grain ripe for the harvest.” Spring had as much to do with that conversion as summer, though it had died out of the calendar, and become a buried season, long ere a single ear was ripe. And winter did as much in that conversion as either spring or summer. But for its cold wind and hardening atmosphere, keeping back as they did the blade, and allowing time for the downward growth beneath the soil, the whole crop might have been “root-fallen” and “lodged” and blighted, and never have come to corn at all. Winter and spring were much farther away than summer, and did a lowlier and less cheering part of the work; but surely at the time of garnering the Lord of the year shall say to these also, “Well done, good and faithful spring; well done, good and faithful winter: enter each into the joy of harvest.” Not less do humbler workers contribute to the salvation of souls, and not less will they have the commendation of the Lord of this more glorious harvest.
III. The honour in God’s work should thus also be representative honour. It should not merely be so by and by before the throne; as far as possible, it should be thus down here. They also who took care of the families of the men from the twelve tribes had part in the memorial of Gilgal. When Ciseri painted that wonderful picture of “The Entombment,” which has been for some time hanging in the gallery of the Crystal Palace, the honour was not all won by the artist’s hand. In point of execution, that may have been nearest to the work; but the eye saw, the mind thought, the imagination conceived, the emotional nature felt, the nerves and the whole body suffered the strain, as the hand became the vehicle to carry to the canvas those marvellous mysteries of light and shade, and that embodiment of a broken heart which looks out upon the beholder through the grief-smitten face of the Madonna. Did we regard our spiritual work as all our other labour and the processes of nature teach us to regard it, the balance of honour would be struck more evenly. Those who are known as very successful would still be glad in a just and righteous joy, though a few might be found humbler and speaking less often of their work; while, on the other hand, many a godly mother who thought she had failed with her children, many a teacher who prayed and strove and saddened under a similar sorrow, many a humble preacher and lowly servant of Jesus would be encouraged, as they were helped to feel that their words had not fallen to the ground, and that their arduous and well-meant labour was “not in vain in the Lord.”
Jos_4:9. THE MEMORIAL IN JORDAN
I. The value of corroborative testimony. In the years to come, when the generation who had seen the miracle had died out, the memorial in the river would help to impress beholders with the absolute truth of the tradition. Jordan would go to confirm Gilgal, and the stones at Gilgal would serve to substantiate the record of those in Jordan. So in the history of our Lord’s ministry, Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John, each serve to confirm the other. A single epistle of Paul might be questioned, but the coincident testimony of them all has placed them each above the reach of the most malignant criticism.
II. The beauty of offerings which come from the promptings of the heart. This memorial in Jordan does not appear to have been commanded. It may have been that Joshua was told to erect this also, but there is no record of the command. This memorial seems to have been the outcome of the heart’s gladness. Such “praise is comely” to God. Christ’s reception of the irregular and, to some, unseemly offering of the woman’s box of ointment.
III. The permanence of interest which belongs to our holier service for God. “They are there unto this day.” Bush says, “These are either the words of Joshua, who wrote his history near the close of his life, and about twenty years after the event occurred, or they were added at a subsequent period by Samuel or Ezra, or some other inspired man or men by whom the sacred canon was revised.”
1. Our holier times of thankfulness to God and communion with Him can never be forgotten by ourselves. If Joshua wrote this verse twenty years after the miracle, it shews how deep was the spiritual joy in which he had thanked God for dividing the waters. Every godly man should have times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord which he can never forget.
2. Our holier times of thankfulness to God and communion with Him will lead us so to use and record them that they will long prove of interest to others. If Samuel added these words, it must have been three hundred years later; if they were added by Ezra, it must have been after the lapse of nine centuries. Probably they were written by Joshua, for the phrase, “unto this day,” occurs no less than twelve times in this book. Be this as it may, it is the work of our deeper spiritual experiences which furnishes memorials of interest to others. When, being dead, a Christian man yet speaketh to those who follow him, it is ever from the intenser experiences of his spiritual life. It is such experiences that preserve the names of the men themselves: Luther, Knox, Brainerd, McCheyne. It is only in the outcome of his richest life that any Christian survives himself.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v9 Jos 4:10 - Jos 4:24.
Joshua
STONES CRYING OUT
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Jos 4:10 - Jos 4:24.
This chapter is divided into two sections. The first {from Jos 4:1 - Jos 4:14} has as its main subject the bringing up of the twelve memorial stones from the bed of Jordan; the second {Jos 4:15 - Jos 4:24} gives the conclusion of the whole incident. The plan of arrangement, already pointed out in a former chapter, is very plain in this. Each section has God’s commands to Joshua, Joshua’s to the people, and the execution of these. To each is appended a summary, which anticipates the more detailed particulars that follow. Our text begins in the middle of the first section, but we must glance at the preceding verses. These tell how, when the people were all across, Joshua, who had apparently remained on the eastern bank with the twelve representatives of the tribes, received God’s command to tell these the purpose for which they had been chosen, and to set them to execute it. This additional instruction is the explanation of the apparent discrepancy between Jos 3:12 and Jos 4:2. Jos 4:4 - Jos 4:8 tell Joshua’s communication of the instructions to the men; Jos 4:8 narrates the execution of them by each man’s wrenching up from the river’s bed a great stone, with which he toiled through the muddy ooze to the western shore, and thence over the hot plain to Gilgal, where the host camped; Jos 4:9 tells that twelve other stones were set up where the priests had stood, and were visible at some time after date, when it was written; but when that was, or whether the verse is part of the original or a later note, we cannot say. At any rate, there were two memorials, one on the bank, one in the stream-’a grand jury of great stones,’ as Thomas Fuller calls them. There is no difficulty in supposing that the monument in the river was firm enough to resist its current, and high enough to be visible either above the surface or beneath the ordinarily shallow water.
I. The first picture here brought before us is that of the motionless ark in the midst of what had been Jordan. There is an obvious intention to contrast the stillness of the priests, bearing it on their shoulders, and standing rooted in that strange place all these long hours, with the hurry around. ‘The priests stood . . . and the people hasted.’ However broad the front and swift the march, the crossing must have taken many hours. The haste was not from fear, but eagerness. It was ‘an industrious speed and mannerly quickness, as not willing to make God wait upon them, in continuing a miracle longer than necessity did require.’ When all were over, then came the twelve and Joshua, who would spend some time in gathering the stones and rearing the memorial in the river-bed. Through all the stir the ark was still. Over all the march it watched. So long as one Israelite was in the channel it remained, a silent presence, to ensure his safety. It let their rate of speed determine the length of its standing there. It waited for the slowest foot and the weariest laggard. God makes His ‘very present help’ of the same length as our necessities, and lets us beat the time to which He conforms. Not till the last loiterer has struggled to the farther shore does He cease by His presence to keep His people safe on the strange road which by His presence He has opened for them.
The silent presence of the ark is enough to dam up the stream. There is vehement action around, but the cause of it all is in absolute repose. God moves all things, Himself unmoved. He ‘worketh hitherto,’ and no intensity of energy breaks the depth of His perfect rest. His activity implies no effort, and is followed by no exhaustion. The ark is still, while it holds back a swollen river for hours. The centre of the swiftest revolution is a point of rest.
The form of the miracle was a condescension to weak faith, to which help was ministered by giving sense something to grasp. It was easier to believe that the torrent would not rush down on them when they could look at the priests standing there motionless, with the visible symbol of God’s presence on their shoulders. The ark was no more the cause of the miracle than were its carriers; but, just as Jesus helped one blind man by laying moistened earth on his eyes, and another by sending him to Siloam to wash, so God did here. Children learn best when they have something to look at. Sight is sometimes the servant of faith.
We need not dwell on the summary, beginning with Jos 4:11, which anticipates the subject of the next section, and adds that the fighting men of the tribes who had already received their inheritance on the east bank of Jordan, loyally kept their promise, and marched with their brethren to the campaign.
II. Jos 4:15 - Jos 4:18 finish the story with the return of the waters to their bed. The triple division appears again. First God commands Joshua, who then transmits the command to the people, who, in turn, then obey. And thus at each stage the divine causality, Joshua’s delegated but absolute authority, and the people’s prompt obedience, are signalised; and the whole incident, in all its parts, is set forth as on the one hand a conspicuous instance of God’s interposition, and, on the other, of Israel’s willing service.
We can fancy how the people who had reached the western shore lined the bank, gazing on the group in the channel, who still stood waiting God’s command to relieve them at their post. The word comes at last, and is immediately obeyed. May we not learn the lesson to stand fixed and patient wherever God sets us, as long as He does not call us thence? God’s priests should be like the legionary on guard in Pompeii, who stuck to his post while the ashes were falling thick, and was smothered by them, rather than leave his charge without his commander’s orders. One graphic word pictures the priests lifting, or, as it might be translated, ‘plucking,’ the soles of their feet from the slimy bottom into which they had settled down by reason of long standing still. They reach the bank, marching as steadily with their sacred burden as might be over so rough and slippery a road. The first to enter were the last to leave the river’s bed. God’s ark ‘goes before us,’ and ‘is our rearward.’ He besets us behind and before, and all dangerous service is safe if begun and ended in Him. The one point made prominent is the instantaneous rush back of the impatient torrent as soon as the curb was taken off. Like some horse rejoicing to be free, the tawny flood pours down, and soon everything looks ‘as aforetime,’ except for the new rock, piled by human hands, round which the waters chafed. The dullest would understand what had wrought the miracle when they saw the immediate consequence of the ark’s leaving its place. Cause and effect seldom come thus close together in God’s dealings; but sometimes He lets us see them as near each other as the lightning and the thunder, that we may learn to trace them in faith, when centuries part them. How the people would gaze as the hurrying stream covered up their path, and would look across to the further shore, almost doubting if they had really stood there that morning! They were indeed ‘Hebrews’-men from the other side-now, and would set themselves to the dangerous task before them with courage. ‘Well begun is half done’; and God would not divide the river for them to thrust them into a tiger’s den, where they would be torn to pieces. Retreat was impossible now. A new page in their history was turned. The desert was as unreachable as Egypt, The passage of the Jordan rounded off the epoch which the passage of the Bed Sea introduced, and began a new era.
That parallelism of the two crossings is suggested by the notice of date in Jos 4:19. ‘The tenth day of the first month’ was just forty years to a day since the first Paschal lamb had been chosen, and four days short of the Passover, which was solemnised at Gilgal {Jos 5:10} where they encamped that night. It was a short march from the point of crossing, and a still shorter from Jericho. It would have been easy to fall upon the invaders as they straggled across the river, but no attempt was made to dispute the passage, though, no doubt, many a keen pair of eyes watched it from the neighbouring hills. In the beginning of the next chapter we are told why there was this singular supineness. ‘Their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more,’ or, in more modern language, panic laid hold of the enemy, and they could not pluck up courage to oppose the advance of Israel. If we add this result to those mentioned in chapter in., we find sufficient motive for the miracle to take it out of the class of purposeless, legendary wonders. Given the importance of Israel as the depositaries of revelation, there is nothing unreasonable in a miracle which so powerfully contributed to their conquest of Canaan, and we have yet to learn that there is anything unreasonable in the belief that they were the depositaries of revelation. The fundamental postulate of the Old Testament is a supernatural revelation, and that opens the door for any miracle needful for its accomplishment. It is folly to seek to conciliate by minimising the miraculous element. However much may be thrown out to the wolves, they will not cease to pursue and show their teeth. We should be very slow to pronounce on what is worthy of God; but any man who believes in a divine revelation, given to the world through Israel, may well believe in such a miracle as this at such a moment of their history.
III. The memorial stones {Jos 4:20 - Jos 4:24}. Gilgal, the first encampment, lay defenceless in the open plain, and the first thing to be done would be to throw up some earthwork round the camp. It seems to have been the resting-place of the ark and probably of the non-combatants, during the conquest, and to have derived thence a sacredness which long clung to it, and finally led, singularly enough, to its becoming a centre of idolatrous worship. The rude circle of unhewn stones without inscription was, no doubt, exactly like the many prehistoric monuments found all over the world, which forgotten races have raised to keep in everlasting remembrance forgotten fights and heroes. It was a comparatively small thing; for each stone was but a load for one man, and it would seem mean enough by the side of Stonehenge or Carnac, just as Israel’s history is on a small scale, as compared with the world-embracing empires of old. Size is not greatness; and Joshua’s little circle told a more wonderful story than its taller kindred, or Egyptian obelisks or colossi.
These grey stones preached at once the duty of remembering, and the danger of forgetting, the past mercies of God. When they were reared, they would seem needless; but the deepest impressions get filled up by degrees, as the river of time deposits its sands on them. We do not forget pain so quickly as joy, and most men have a longer and keener remembrance of their injurers than of their benefactors, human or divine. The stones were set up because Israel remembered, but also lest Israel should forget. We often think of the Jews as monsters of ingratitude; but we should more truly learn the lesson of their history, if we regarded them as fair, average men, and asked ourselves whether our recollection of God’s goodness to us is much more vivid than theirs. Unless we make distinct and frequent efforts to recall, we shall certainly forget ‘all His benefits.’ The cultivation of thankful remembrance is a very large part of practical religion; and it is not by accident that the Psalmist puts it in the middle, between hope and obedience, when he says ‘that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments’ {Psa 78:7}.
The memorial stones further proclaimed the duty of parental instruction in God’s mercies. They speak of a time when tradition was the vehicle of history; when books were rare, and monuments were relied upon to awaken curiosity which a father’s words would satisfy. Notwithstanding all differences in means of obtaining knowledge, the old law remains in full force, that the parent is the natural and most powerful instructor in the ways of God. The Jewish father was not to send his child to some Levite or other to get his question answered, but was to answer it himself. I am afraid that a good many English parents, who call themselves Christians, are too apt to say, ‘Ask your Sunday-school teacher,’ when such questions are put to them. The decay of parental religious teaching is working enormous mischief in Christian households; and the happiest results would follow if Joshua’s homely advice were attended to, ‘Ye shall let your children know.’
The same principle which led to the erection of this simple monument reaches its highest and sacredest instance in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, in which Jesus, with wonderful lowliness, condescends to avail Himself of material symbols in order to secure a firmer place in treacherous memories. He might well have expected that such stupendous love could never be forgotten; but He ‘knoweth our frame,’ and trusts some share in keeping His death vividly in the hearts of His people to the humble ministry of bread and wine, Strange that we should need to be reminded of the death which it is life to remember! Blessed that, needing it, we have the need so tenderly met, and that He does not disdain to accept loving memories which slumber till stirred by such poor reminders of His unspeakable love!
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Double Memorial of the Passage of Jordan
The Double Memorial of the Passage of Jordan
The main subject of the chapter is the memorial cairn set up at Gilgal, which is described in two sections, Jos_4:1-8 and Jos_4:20-24, separated by the record in a single v. (Jos_4:9) of another cairn set up in the midst of Jordan, and by a long parenthesis (Jos_4:10-19) describing in an expanded form the crossing already narrated in Jos_3:14-17. The repetitions are most satisfactorily explained on the hypothesis that the narrator has incorporated extracts from more ancient sources in his narrative.
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5. Pass over before the ark] Apparently the twelve, who with the rest of the host have already crossed to the W. bank, are bidden to return to where the priests are still standing with the Ark in the midst of Jordan, to set up a cairn of twelve stones (Jos_4:9) on the spot in the river bed and to take up a stone each in addition and return with it to the bank again.
12. As Moses spake] see Num_32:20.
19. The tenth day of the first month] i.e. Abib or Nisan (March-April). They would reach their camp at Gilgal just in time to select the Paschal Lamb (Exo_12:8) to be slain on the fourteenth day: see Jos_5:10.
24. That ye might fear] RV 'that they may fear.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v3 The two memorials
The two memorials
The two memorials. The twelve stones taken out of Jordan and erected by Joshua in Gilgal, and the twelve stones left in Jordan to be overwhelmed by its waters, are memorials marking the distinction between Christ’s death under judgment in the believer’s place Psa 42:7; Psa 88:7; Joh 12:31-33 and the believer’s perfect deliverance from judgment. The stones in Jordan stand, typically, for Psa 22:1-8.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 4. The Memorial Stones
4. The Memorial Stones
CHAPTER 4
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1. The first memorial (Jos 4:1-8)
2. The second memorial (Jos 4:9)
3. The return of the priests with the ark (Jos 4:10-18)
4. The encampment at Gilgal (Jos 4:19-24)
Jehovah commanded that the great event should be remembered by a memorial. From the river-bed, where the priest’s feet stood firm, twelve men, one from each tribe, were to carry twelve stones and leave them at the first lodging place in the land, that is, at Gilgal. These memorial stones were to tell subsequent generations the story of God’s faithfulness and power in bringing His people through Jordan into the land. Another memorial of twelve stones was set up by Joshua in the midst of the river, where the priests stood with the ark. This whole record has been much questioned by the critics; it has been charged that there are two different accounts. Professor George Adam Smith states: “For instance, in the story of the crossing of Jordan, as told in Joshua 3 and 4, there are two accounts of the monument set up to commemorate the passage. One of them builds it at Gilgal on the west bank with stones taken from the river-bed by the people; the other builds it in the bed of the river with twelve stones set there by Joshua. (The same view is held by Friedrich Bleek; no doubt Prof G.A. Smith has it from him.) Such criticism reveals the astonishing weakness of that entire school. Why should the ninth verse of the fourth chapter be looked upon as an interpolation, or as another account of one transaction? There is nothing in the text to warrant such a statement. The fact is there are two transactions. The one by the twelve men, who take the twelve stones and set them up at Gilgal. The other by Joshua, who puts twelve stones in the river-bed.
But if these critics but knew a little more of the spiritual and typical significance of all these events and transactions, they would soon learn better. What do these two memorials mean? They tell out the story what God has done for His people. In the midst of Jordan the children of Israel could see the pile of twelve stones Joshua had put there as a memorial. As they looked upon them and the waters rushing about them, they remembered that where these stones are, there the ark halted and the waters were cut off and His people passed over.
The typical application is not hard to make. The twelve stones in the river-bed tell out the story of the death of Christ and our death with Him. We are dead to sin and to the law as well as crucified unto the world. We must, therefore, reckon ourselves dead unto sin.
The other memorial was erected at Gilgal. As they looked upon these stones and their children asked them, “What mean these stones?” they could point to them and say, as these stones were taken out of Jordan on the dry land, so had they been brought out of Jordan into this land of promise. This memorial is the type of the fact “that we are alive unto God in our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are a new creation in Christ Jesus, the old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. It is the memorial which tells us, that we are raised up and seated in Christ in the heavenly places. These two great truths seen in this double memorial must ever be remembered by God’s people, as Israel was charged to remember the passing over Jordan and the bringing into the land.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 The Stones Taken from the Midst of the River…
The Stones Taken from the Midst of the River Bed
v. 1. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying,
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v. 2. Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, as had been provided for before the crossing began, Jos 3:12,
v. 3. and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, from the very center of the stream’s bed, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging-place, where ye shall lodge this night. It is plain that this entire paragraph, up to and including v. 7, belongs, in point of time, to the morning hours, and is here inserted, together with the actual execution of the order and in explanation of it.
v. 4. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, selected for this particular work, out of every tribe a man;
v. 5. and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord, your God, into the midst of Jordan, or, Go over to the place where the ark is now stationed, and take you up, every man of you, a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel,
v. 6. that this may be a sign among you, serve for a memorial, a monument, in their midst, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, "What mean ye by these stones?
v. 7. then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off, as related in the preceding chapter; and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever, to remind every succeeding generation of the great miracle which the Lord performed in keeping His promise and in leading His people safely into the Land of Promise.
v. 8. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, the twelve men acting as the representatives of the entire host or congregation, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, where camp was pitched that evening, and laid them down there, in the form of a rough monument.
v. 9. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, where they might become visible when the water was at low stage, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the Ark of the Covenant stood; and they are there unto this day, to the time when this report was put down or this book written. This second monument was erected by Joshua without special divine direction, but nevertheless with a good purpose, for it served to bring home to the people the fact of God’s protection and assistance in the conquest of Canaan.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10 General Information:
General Information:
Though Yahweh was speaking directly to Joshua, all occurrences of you include Israel. (See: Pronouns)
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crossed over
The words "crossed over" refer to going to the opposite bank of the river. AT: "went across" (See: Idiom)
the Jordan
the Jordan River (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Give them this command: ' ... '
The nested quote can be stated as an indirect quote. AT: "Give them this command to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing on the dry ground, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you will spend the night tonight" (See: Quotes Within Quotes and Direct and Indirect Quotations)
translationWords
people group
Yahweh
Joshua
tribe
command
priest
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv2, 5, 6, 9 4:2 The twelve men represented Jacob’s twelve sons. The…
4:2 The twelve men represented Jacob’s twelve sons. The tribe of Levi was not counted because the Levites settled in designated cities among the other tribes (Gen 49:5-7; Num 1:49-52; 18:20). However, the number of tribes remained at twelve because Joseph’s two sons (Ephraim and Manasseh) were accounted as separate tribes (Gen 48:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.