Reading this account, do you ever wonder what the people at Adam thought when they saw the waters of the Jordan heap up as if in a mound? What might that have looked like? The crossing of the Jordan was not completely unlike the crossing of the Red Sea for Israel, but this time it brought them into the land where they were going, rather than rescuing them from the land they were leaving. It also served to solidify Joshua as Moses' replacement.
What I love best, though, about this story is the twelve stones for remembrance. Those stones stood for years a testament to what the Lord did for Israel on that day. The Israelites were to leave those stones for generations and to teach their children by them. You can almost imagine children running around them, maybe even climbing on them, and their parents telling them the story. It would almost be like Independence Rock on the Oregon Trail, an important landmark. Are those stones still there? Well, if they are, I don't think anyone could identify them. Perhaps over time and after many wars, they were scattered and lost. I'm not sure of the story. But I rather wish we had monuments like that. We have monuments to America's history scattered across our land; I wish we had monuments erected to the Lord's might rather than America's own. It would be a great object lesson to take my daughter and my son by such a place and say to them, "Do you see that? That was put up because the Lord...." Instead, I will have to teach my children without such a grand visual. Rather, I should pay attention closely in our daily lives, and if I chose a momento to keep, choose it wisely so that it could be used to teach my children about Jesus.
Tomorrow's Reading: Joshua 5:1-6:27
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