A Miraculous Crossing, This Time with a Memorial -- the events of Joshua 3:14-4:9
- mww
- 39 minutes ago
- 14 min read
God gave His people a reminder of their victory.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Joshua 3:14-4:9
If you're willing to accept that God can perform miracles, you'll find much deeper meaning in this week's passage -- the importance of memorials, the fact that God doesn't always explain His plan, and not taking for granted that memorials are only as valuable as the lessons we teach about them. I also give an option of covering an event in Joshua 22.
4:7 Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites.
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Father's Day!
In the setup to this week's passage, we have this verse:
7 The Lord spoke to Joshua: “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so they will know that I will be with you just as I was with Moses."
Essentially, what that means is that God gave instructions to Joshua, Joshua led the people to obey those instructions, and God gave Joshua success in everything they did.
Pretty simple.
Well, today is Father's Day. What makes for a "successful" father in today's world? There are lots of possible answers. (And be sure -- "fatherhood" is now the regular subject of lots of think pieces these days, like Fatherhood in Decline: More American Men Are Saying No to Becoming Dads.)
I suggest that being like Joshua is the simple key to being a successful father: listen to God, and lead your family to obey God. But that's also easier said than done. This week's discussion would be something like, "What does it mean for a father to 'successfully' lead his family to obey God?" Lots of nuances here, and I hope your group would be sensitive to those.
Anyway, happy Father's Day!
Trip Souvenirs
We can kinda look at the memorial stones the Jews pick up in the Jordan as "souvenirs". (Kinda.) So, what's a favorite souvenir you have from a trip, and what makes it special to you?
-- Memorial Stones
The more serious version of that topic would be to think about the "journey of your Christian life". These might be physical or metaphorical, but we all have "memorial stones" we've picked up throughout our life. What are the ones you still think about? This would be a little like sharing your testimony in your group -- always good practice.
River at Flood Stage
I'm cautious with this topic idea because catastrophic floods have been all-to-regular this past year. Never use a topic that will trigger a group member unless you absolutely have to.
Have you ever stood near a river at flood stage? What does that "feel" like? I find it absolutely terrifying. I feel very unsafe.
Well, the Jordan River is at flood stage in this week's passage, and God tells His people to walk toward it. He commanded some priests to put their foot in the river! I'm not sure how I would process my emotions in that moment. What do you think would be going through your mind?
Fake News (in an age of AI Slop)
I read an article this week that I found heartbreaking.
Here's one quote from the story:
[quote]
He paced at the front of the room and started to show slides of A.I. videos from the last several years. A fake image of the Pentagon exploding had briefly rattled the stock market in 2023, erasing more than $500 billion in a few minutes. Deepfakes from the war in Ukraine were still fairly easy to identify, with discolored explosions and misshaped buildings. Gaza fakes were much better. By the start of the Iran war, short A.I. footage was essentially indistinguishable from real video. Now thousands of North Korean government operatives were applying for remote jobs at U.S. companies, using A.I. to impersonate Americans in real time on Zoom calls and then funding a nuclear weapons program with their salaries. A nontechnical criminal, Farid said, could now use a still photograph and a 10-second audio clip to shape shift into anyone online. “You might think you can look and tell the difference while you’re sitting there doom scrolling,” he said. “Believe me, you can’t. That’s where our methods come in.”
[block quote ends]
Here's where I'm going with this. We are not going to study Joshua chapter 22 in the Lifeway schedule, but I think it's a valuable event that you might think is worth carving out time to cover. In this week's passage, God's people build a stone altar/memorial near the Jordan to help their children remember what God did there.
Well, in chapter 22, the tribes who chose to live on the far side of the Jordan (the "Transjordan Tribes") build their own stone altar/memorial to express their unity with the other Jews. News travels fast that the Transjordan Tribes have "abandoned their faith in God and become like the pagans" -- even though that's not at all what they were doing.
God's people end up at the brink of war over this misunderstanding. It took cool heads and a lot of talking to prevent that war from happening.
In a world where fake news can not just travel fast but also be accompanied by convincing-looking photos and videos, how much more difficult does this become!
In other words, this is a discussion about the ol' "rumor mill". That hasn't changed -- what's changed is how quickly rumors can spread today and how convincing they can be made. What can we do to help prevent rumors from bringing our churches to the brink of war, so to speak?
Bonus Idea: Crossing the Jordan
This has absolutely nothing to do with the passage, but somebody might bring it up. The idea of "crossing the Jordan" is all over our old hymns. "On Jordan's Stormy Banks" and "He Leadeth Me" etc. How is the symbol used in those songs, why, and how useful is that symbol? This might be something you bring up at the end of the lesson time so that your group can reflect on what they just learned. This passage has nothing to do with dying (or Christian salvation, depending on which hymn verses you're reading), so the connection is spurious. But it's still an interesting illustration. What is its value?
Where We Are in Joshua
After last week's episode with Rahab and the spies, the spies returned to Joshua and gave him the good news. Joshua then staged his camp near the Jordan and prepared the people to cross. Their instructions? Follow the ark of the covenant (but keep your distance).
3:5 Consecrate yourselves, because the Lord will do wonders among you tomorrow.
God would perform this miracle: the people would cross the Jordan as if on dry ground. That miracle would give them the confidence that God had indeed given them the land of Canaan. Those earlier verses also give the tidbit that the Jordan was in flood stage, meaning that it was probably 100 feet wide and flowing dangerously quickly.
This Week's Big Idea: The Jordan River Miracle
If you believe in miracles, this week's passage is a cakewalk. But there are still folks who want to find a natural explanation for what happened in this week's passage. Here's a common explanation (I've linked to this guy's site before):
The Jordan River follows a tectonic plate boundary, and earthquakes are not uncommon. He shares a story of an earthquake that happened in 1927 that caused a landslide next to Adam (the same location mentioned in this week's passage) that blocked the Jordan for about 24 hours. (As far as I can tell, that really happened.) He concludes that that's a potential explanation for how God stopped the flow of the river.
Be clear -- that's still a miracle! A miracle of timing that seems even more miraculous to me.
But for those who prefer a purely supernatural explanation, you have this going for you: the river at flood stage would have meant that the banks would have been muddy messes. No one is crossing a bunch of mud with small children and the elderly and all of their things in carts. That suggests a further miracle on God's part.
Here's a snippet of the Jordan after the winter rains. It's not like they were crossing the Mississippi, but it's still clearly an act of God to get everyone across.
Stone Altars
This week's passage makes a big deal about a stone monument. A similar monument in chapter 22 is called an altar, so I'm going to remind us about God's rules for altars.
Ex 20:25 Make an earthen altar for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your flocks and herds. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause my name to be remembered. 25 If you make a stone altar for me, do not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it. 26 Do not go up to my altar on steps, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it.
Most altars in the Old Testament were places of sacrifice (yes, animals, but also grain and produce and wine); some were of remembrance. These were separate from a temple (an enclosed structure), though most temples had altars nearby. For obvious reasons, more stone altars have survived than earthen ones, but it seems that the Jews built both.
Why uncut? God is very clear about that. Not putting human "work" into the altar emphasized God's grace in providing the stone(s). And in any event, the Canaanites built elaborate carved stone altars, and God wanted to distance His people from their practices.
Another provision was that these altars could not have steps leading up to them. Yes, it was immodest, but it was also a common feature of pagan altars that God steered His people away from. Unfortunately, and symbolic of the many problems they would run into, archeology has shown that the Jews did not stick faithfully to these rules against carved altars and steps. This astonishing Canaanite altar was uncovered at Megiddo and was apparently used by the Jews there.
The temple in Jerusalem fit into a different category because it was fully "designed" by God.
Anyway, I think this explains why God commanded the Jews simply to "stack stones" for this monument/altar.
Part 1: A Miraculous Crossing (Joshua 3:14-17)
14 When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people. 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge 16 and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan. The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah—the Dead Sea—was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
Joshua, the author, builds dramatic tension here with all of these details. And when the priests put their feet in the rushing water, the water stops! Remember that God hasn't told anyone how they were getting across the river. Just like at the Red Sea (and just like Abraham hundreds of years before), God simply told His people where to go and to trust Him with the details.
I included that map above in part to show where Adam might be located. Whatever means you think God used to accomplish this miracle (see above), it's a miracle.
Joshua actually called the Sea of Arabah the "Salt Sea" (for obvious reasons), but we only call it the Dead Sea today.
The priests carried the ark to the middle of the riverbed, and then all of the people followed. This is probably the closest most of them would ever get to the ark.
Note that not all of the people crossed! This is a critical note if you plan on talking about Joshua 22. Two-and-a-half tribes chose to settle on the far side of the Jordan; they stayed behind and sent a fighting force with the rest of the army.
For this section of the lesson, your purpose is to help the group understand the location. And if you don't have to defend God's right to perform miracles whenever and however He chooses, then this should be a simple section.
Aside: The Ark
If you need a recap on the ark, skim through lessons we've had on it before:
The ark was a tangible representation of God's presence, and thus it was extremely holy.
Part 2: An Important Memorial (Joshua 4:1-7)
1 After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua: 2 “Choose twelve men from the people, one man for each tribe, 3 and command them: Take twelve stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.”
4 So Joshua summoned the twelve men he had selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go across to the ark of the Lord your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes, 6 so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 you should tell them, ‘The water of the Jordan was cut off in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s water was cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites.”
Remember that according to 3:9-13, the purpose of this miracle was to give the people confidence that God has indeed given them the military victories in the days ahead. The repeated use of "the Lord spoke" reiterates that this is God's plan -- if the people listen, they will succeed.
God wanted to give His people an extra aid in remembering this miracle. (Note: the Red Sea is far away.) The people gathered twelve large (whatever a man can carry on his shoulder) stones from the middle of the riverbed which Joshua would later pile up in a memorial altar. If you've spent time around a river, you know that stones are worn smooth by the water over time, so it would have been quite obvious that these stones came from the riverbed.
And yes, this leads some people to have weird ideas about what kind of pile of stones Joshua made. Basically, not this:
But it would have been obvious the it was a man-made thing.
The key to this section is the memorial part of it. You might have heard that we're about to celebrate America's 250th birthday. We talk about "memorials" just about every Memorial Day, so it might be hard to find a fresh approach.
On Wednesday night, David noted this short video by Hillsdale College and the White House (in prep for our 250th) that made the connection between commemoration (co-remembering), foundation, and renewal. It's why our country has so many symbols and rituals -- to remind us as a people how we got here and what should be important to us.
God told His people a lot that they also were supposed to "remember". You can look up "remember" and "memorial" and "commemorate" and "bring to mind" (depending on the translation you use) and find it 100 or more times in the Old Testament. Remembering what God has done is a key part of being God's people. Last year, we studied the Passover; this past quarter, we studied the Lord's Supper. These things -- these rituals, these memorials -- are designed by God to help us "be" His people.
Maybe this is your direction -- what is the value of a memorial or a ritual? Why would God command His people to have/do such things?
We know what the Bible says here. But what about in your life right now? Do you take the time to appreciate these memorials? Do you teach your children what they are?
Aside: Joshua's Memorial Stones
I find this interesting:
7:25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought us trouble? Today the Lord will bring you trouble!” So all Israel stoned them to death. They burned their bodies, threw stones on them, 26 and raised over him a large pile of rocks that remains still today. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor still today.
8:28 Joshua burned Ai and left it a permanent ruin, still desolate today. 29 He hung the body of the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take his body down from the tree. They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and put a large pile of rocks over it, which still remains today. 30 At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, 31 just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used. Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it.
10:27 At sunset Joshua commanded that they be taken down from the trees and thrown into the cave where they had hidden. Then large stones were placed against the mouth of the cave, and the stones are still there today.
22:33 The Israelites were pleased with the report, and they blessed God. They spoke no more about going to war against them to ravage the land where the Reubenites and Gadites lived. 34 So the Reubenites and Gadites named the altar: It is a witness between us that the Lord is God.
24:26 Joshua recorded these things in the book of the law of God; he also took a large stone and set it up there under the oak at the sanctuary of the Lord. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone—it will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord said to us, and it will be a witness against you, so that you will not deny your God.”
That's seven stone memorials (including the one in chapter 4) in the book of Joshua. Each one presents either a cautionary tale or a reminder of a promise, and when the book was written, it seems like people actually remembered what each represented.
But these piles of stones didn't have placards. How do you remember something that doesn't have a convenient label?
Part 3: Wrapping Up (Joshua 4:8-9)
8 The Israelites did just as Joshua had commanded them. The twelve men took stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each of the Israelite tribes, just as the Lord had told Joshua. They carried them to the camp and set them down there. 9 Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing. The stones are still there today.
This is somewhat anticlimatic for a lesson passage. The people did what God told them to do.
Now, there is a bit of debate about verse 9 -- is this a second memorial that they left in the Jordan River? Or did they initially set those rocks in the riverbed where the ark stood and then remove them after the people crossed? There are arguments for both, and I don't think it changes the meaning of anything.
The Lifeway material suggests bringing in a smooth stone for each group member, having them write a one- or two-word "reminder" on one side. I like that and heartily endorse it. The graduate-level version of this is not to mark it at all (like the Jews didn't) and see how well your group remembers what it represents to them. (For me personally, I place a lot of value in visuals and writing.)
I see a challenge in this week's lesson to share your testimony of God's faithfulness in your life. Somebody you know needs to hear it, needs to know that God is faithful to His people and His promises. God bless you!
Closing Thoughts: Joshua 22
I've mentioned this a couple of times. If you used this topic above, you would also have your group read Joshua 22:10-12 and 24-27.
This is fascinating. Note that those Jews took it upon themselves to build this altar, and note the very different meaning they had behind it.
If you really wanted to chase a rabbit, study how things went for them. Indeed, by being so separate from their brethren, they did drift away somewhat faster than the other tribes.
A memorial is only as good as the lesson you continue to teach.
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