Join me in prayer as we ask the Lord’s blessing before we hear our sermon text this morning from Joshua chapter 4. Pray with me and let’s ask his blessing upon the reading, the hearing, and the preaching of that word. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we do come before you. We bask in knowing the privilege of your presence as we worship you together now. We thank you Holy Father, that you are indeed holy and good, Lord, and that even despite our weakness and our unholiness, you are powerful to purge out from us all that is unclean, Lord. And so we ask as we come to you, take your will and place it in our minds that we may think rightly, place it in our hearts that we may love in new ways, Lord, that we would again come before you, and even now ask, speak, for your servants are listening. This we pray in Jesus’ name, and all God’s people said, amen. You may be seated.

As you’re taking your seats, please turn to Joshua, the book after Deuteronomy, the book of Joshua, reading chapter 4, all 24 verses. Joshua chapter four, please your full attention once more, this is the word of the living God.

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, take 12 men from the people, from each tribe a man and command them saying, take 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priest’s feet stood firmly and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodged tonight. Then Joshua called the 12 men from the people of Israel whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of his tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask, In time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded, and took up 12 stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord had told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan, in a place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day. For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until evening was finished, that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste. When all the people had finished passing over the ark of the Lord and the priests passed over before the people, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over, armed before the people of Israel, as Moses had told them. About 40,000 ready for war passed over before the Lord for battle to the plains of Jericho. On that day, the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they stood in awe of Moses all the days of his life. And the Lord said to Joshua, command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan. So Joshua commanded the priests come up out of the Jordan. When the priest bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priest’s feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before. The people came up out of the Jordan on the 10th day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those 12 stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, when your children ask their fathers in times to come, what do these stones mean? Then you shall let your children know. Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did the Red Sea. And he dried up for us until we passed over, which he dried up. so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen indeed.

We’ll return to Mark next week, this passage of Mark coming up for us. There’s this handful of events that take place in that chapter that seem rather disparate and unconnected, but they’re not. It’s quite amazing what we have coming up, but I thought in light of some of the things we were doing in Sunday school, this would be appropriate for this time. So we’re looking at Joshua chapter 4, and this text has to do with the resolution of a problem and the remembrance of the people, a resolution of the problem and the remembrance of the people. We learn from this book, from this passage, Joshua 4, that because the Lord has powerfully delivered his people, we are to remember his accomplishment, to receive that promise, and to rest in his presence, resting in that blessing.

So by way of background, because we’re dipping into the middle of the story, we know what the background is, right? Israel has gone into slavery in Egypt. They’ve been freed by the mighty arm of the Lord. The Lord has raised up for them a leader, Moses, who leads them out of Egypt to the great redemptive event of the Old Testament, which is the crossing of the Red Sea, the exodus from Egypt. And Moses is to lead them into a land promised to them, a land described as flowing with milk and honey, the promised land, a land watered, as it were, from heaven, the text says. God has freed them from their bondage in Egypt and he’s given them instructions on how they are to live out of that freedom that they have in joy and in peace before him. And we know what happens with them, how they had trouble and how they were delayed in entering in the land for 40 years. And after these 40 years, their leader Moses, he dies and his successor Joshua comes to prominence. This one whom the Lord said we are told will raise up and exalt in the eyes of the people just as he did Moses. Joshua is the new Moses who will save his people, who will lead them into that promised land.

And then we finally come to the Jordan River. They must cross it in order to finally enter into that land promised to them. The crossing of the Jordan River is indeed the climax point of the Exodus. Right, it’s not the crossing of the Red Sea, they’re crossing out of Egypt. But it’s the Jordan River that they must cross to get to that promised land that is the climax point of the exodus, the start of that entry into the land. It’s a sort of hinge, if you will, to cross the Red Sea out of Egypt, and they cross the Jordan River into the promised land. But as the people reach the goal of their travel, they find something in the way of that goal, and that is the river. The Jordan River, we’re told in this text, what time of year it is in chapter three, and then it’s repeated in chapter four. And that at this time of year, the river is flooded over the banks. It’s a flooded river. It’s a barrier of the people to entering into that land. And the text emphasizes that it’s a flooded, humanly impassable barrier, this flooded river.

And you probably all know something of what this is like, to travel and to be weary from traveling. You kids know how torturous travel can be. I know I did. And with all the anticipation from the longing for it to be over and get out of the car, whether back home or back to the destination, we know of this cresting of that final hill or turning that final bend to get to that destination. There’s this expectation and this excitement that we have, this building. And we know the grueling weariness of that travel is about to be over. It’s like many of you may feel in your commute day to day. This painful journey is about to be over. I remember I would go through this in much worse traffic than we have here every day. And very oftentimes I’d finally get to that final off ramp only for it to be closed down. There’s construction or there’s an accident or some other obstacle preventing my nearly completed travel home to be over, keeping me from getting where I want it to be back to my home. And so you can imagine how much more the nation wandering for 40 years and the longing and the rejoicing to enter that land and the disappointment in finding a massive flooded river blocking the off-ramp for them, right? It’s blocking them.

And we’ve talked a lot about it in a number of weeks prior to this of just what the body of water was to them. The sea, the river, the waters of chaos represented dread, fear, danger, represented death to them. And so their crossing into the land was blocked by this water of death. And for them, it was impossible to cross. And this great climax of entering into the land is threatened by this obstacle. There’s actually two obstacles that we see here. The first one that needs to be resolved is the water, this impassable river. So the Lord commands Joshua in chapter 3 to have the priest take the ark and enter the water. And this is exactly what comes to pass in chapter 4. There’s a lot of repetition in the text. The Lord said to Moses, and Moses did what he said, right, and repeats it. And the resolution of the problem of the river is a mighty act of God himself. It’s his very presence providing deliverance for his people, deliverance over this water, this death, into the land of promise, his love and his grace to his people. It’s important as we look at this, we remember what the ark was, right? What is the ark that these priests are carrying? We know that it was a wooden box, but it was a wooden box covered with what? Covered in gold. And it had inside of it significant mementos of God’s faithfulness, right? There’s this jar of manna, there’s the staff of Aaron, and then there are the two tables of the law in the ark. On top of the ark were these two cherubim facing each other, and in between was the very throne of God. The throne, of course, was empty because this could not contain God, of course, and God could not be pictured, couldn’t be imaged. But this ark represented the Lord’s presence in the midst of his people. And it was the holiest symbol of his commitment, of God’s commitment, to be with his people, his weak and feeble and forgetful people. Here was his presence. So the solution to the obstacle blocking their way was God’s very presence depicted in this arc, carried on the shoulders of the priests before them. So the first obstacle is the water. The second problem they have is the war to take place when they do come into the land, the war that’s awaiting them. So there’s water and there’s war. And again, the resolution to this problem of war is God’s presence with them. The Lord has promised to accomplish victory for them. and his presence will ensure that that happens. They were to what? To trust in God. They would trust in his promises to them. They were to rest secure in his word to them. Even in the face of these distractions, even in the face of these fears and these temptations, to the contrary, like we today are to trust in the Lord and to rest in his word. despite the temptations and the distractions and the allure and pull of the world and of our hearts and of the devil to distrust him and to not rest secure in his word. We too are to rest in that word and to trust our mighty Lord and his mighty acts. But just think of the collective defeat and sigh they must have given upon seeing this impassable flooded water. And think of also the mother’s hearts, the hearts of the mothers, as they realize while going through this river, that on the other side, there was war waiting for them, war waiting for them, battle for their sons and their fathers and their husbands, the water and the war. We too have fears and worries and weakness in our faith and in our trust in God and his word and his promises to us. Whether it’s a life-threatening illness or an accident or a relational issue, health things are very real. Financial struggles are very real, all to varying degrees. And we, too, struggle with weak hearts and weak faith and weak memories of what God has done for us. We have collective amnesia, and we have spiritual amnesia of who we are in Christ. And even on this side of the cross in the resurrection, we battle the constant pull of doubting, doubting what we know to be true. And these lures to disbelief and circumstances that challenge us are a real part of our living in this pilgrim life. But understand, brothers and sisters, The promise of God to be with his people is no less real for you than for the people of God in Joshua’s time. It’s no less real for you. God’s promised to be with you, his people. And the greater resolution to your problems unto your life is him, it is yours. Jesus Christ, man dwelling, he’s made his dwelling among people, right? He’s tabernacled among his people. Emmanuel, God with us. And so in his promises and in his presence, the Lord provides this resolution for Old Testament Israel, yes, but for you too, here in Fort Wayne in 2024. It’s his promise to his people. We remember, we’re called to remember. And they’re to remember the Lord’s command Lord command Joshua to have them set up these stones so they’ll remember, these memorial stones, these stones of memorial. To what? To remember the great acts of God that he’s done for them, his faithfulness to them in order to pass on the memories to the children and to teach them. We know, if you’re familiar with the Old Testament, this call to remember is common in the Bible in general, and specifically, we see this similar pattern of do this, and when your children ask, tell them this, right? We see this pattern a number of times in the Old Testament. in significant places, right? So let’s look at a few of these places where we see this pattern. The first one is in the Exodus from slavery from the Egyptians, right? This was commemorated every year, and we all know this, in the Passover feast. which would be observed on the 14th day of the first month for them. And in fact, according to the law, as we read it, they were to pick the lamb to be slaughtered on the 10th day, which was the very night that they crossed the Jordan in our text today, the 10th night, the night of the selection of the slaughtered lamb. And that lamb’s meat was to be what? It was to be roasted and eaten with the unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It was being eaten in haste, and they were told at this event this different meal was to provoke the question from the children. What’s going on with this? Why is this different? And it says, and when you come into the land that the Lord, this is Exodus 12, the Lord will give you, as he has promised you, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? That is the Passover. you shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Egypt, I’m sorry, of Israel and Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, but spared our houses. That’s what we mean by this service. Remember this, children. And then the second great event that we used to be remembered in this way by the children’s asking was the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, right? In Deuteronomy 6, after the giving of the law, In verse 20, it says, When your sons ask you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God has commanded you? Then ye shall say to your sons, We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and our Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and against his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our forefathers. And the Lord commanded us through all these statues to fear the Lord God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as we are to this day. That’s the answer when the question comes from the children. What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of these testimonies? And so the law itself was motivation to remember and to retell of the glory of the Lord, deliberating power of the Lord, freeing and redeeming his people from enslavement that they saw, that they experienced in Egypt. And so we have the Passover and the law. They’re designed to raise this question from the children, the inquiring children, so that the parents could tell and teach the children how God himself spared them from death, how he set them free, how he gave them the law to teach them how to live that freedom, in that freedom, in joy and in peace. Passover and the law. And then the third place we see this is at the crossing of the Jordan in our text today. We see again the rescue of the Lord and the pile of stones would provoke the children to ask, what’s up with those rocks? What’s going on there? And in answering them, the children would be told that the Lord himself acted to rescue our people and to bring them to their home in this promised land, this land flowing with milk and honey. He brought us out of the flood of Jordan by pulling back the water and leading us through it. Well, we know that despite all of this provision from the Lord to remember, they still forgot. Just as we still forget, despite the great things the Lord has done in our lives, And there are two particular scenarios we see that lead us to forget most. And we forget when we are fearful, we forget when we are favored, right? We forget when we’re fearful and when we’re favored. The history of Israel is full of times when they were under the threat of neighboring nations, as they forgot the Lord, as they abandoned his ways. Even at the crossing of the Jordan, as we saw earlier, they entered into the promised land, but first there will be war and battle and death. It’s a pretty good idea that they are fearful upon entering into this battle. And it’s natural to think that they would be tempted to forget God’s provision for them and his promise to them and his presence with them. Do you think they’re distracted by fear as they do so? Are they unknown on the other side? Or the question, why are there 40,000 men armed for war? Like them, we too have a problem with memory. We have a problem with remembering. I don’t think it’s selective. I think it’s universal to find out that we have this problem. We all do at times. The fears, the temptations, the distractions that come upon us to forget God’s love for us, to forget his presence in our lives, to forget his grace and his power shown to and for us. What distracts you from remembering these things? What’s the source of fear that causes you this amnesia in your exile life, your pilgrim life? The Lord calls us back. He calls us to remember and to know him and to trust him. I know when I’m weakest and I feel the pinch of life in this fallen world and the pinch of life in this fallen body, when I’m most inundated by the inability to control the things in my own strength, this is when I’m most need to remember these very things, because it’s when I’m most aware of my fallen state, when I’m most afraid of spinning off the tracks, and when I’m most prone to forget, And recall, this is, I imagine it’s the same for most of you. And so we’re called to remember. Remember in the midst of our fears, dear Christian. Remember what the Lord has done for you. Remember his rest that is given to you, this promise to you, and rejoice in his presence with you. God with us. Emmanuel, Jesus Christ for you. He is your peace, he is your life, we’re told. Remember. Well, we forget when we fear, but we also forget when we’re favored, right? When we feel that we’re favored and blessing has been upon us. And we read this very clearly. This is forecasted in Deuteronomy 8. It tells us this very thing. It says in Deuteronomy 8, and you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and you have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and its scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth, right? There’s the warning right there. When all these blessings befall upon you, don’t forget that it was I who did this. It’s not your own heart. It’s not your own hand. I’ve done this for you. I remember when I first read the Old Testament, I thought it was amazing. It was amazing that the Israelites were so dull, that they were so lame and forgetting again and again. They went through all of this. They experienced this themselves. They parted Red Sea. They ate the manna for 40 years. They drank the water from the rock. Their shoes didn’t wear out and all the rest. And they were in disbelief again and again and again. How could they forget? And I thought, surely that would not happen to me. I would never forget these things. But of course, we do forget these things. even having the greater blessing of being united to Christ and the assurance of our new home in heaven and the new heart that he’s given us, we do forget. And so Israel is a picture of humanity here, and we all do forget, and we all do need the memorial to keep us remembering, remembering the great acts of God. And for us, it is the greatest act of God, and it’s delivering you, his people, by the work of his son, Jesus Christ. Christ, again, the one to whom you are united, If you belong to him, your life is hidden in his life, as Paul tells us in Colossians, we read earlier. Before we conclude our passage, I wanna look again at the presence of the Lord in the ark, right? This is fascinating and it’s glorious. The Lord’s presence in the ark. This ark that resolved the problem of the river and led to the command to set up these memorial stones. In addition to what we said earlier, we know that the Ark was rarely seen by the people. And only the priest once a year was to enter into the place where it was on the Day of Atonement. And what the priest would do for 40 years, you remember, What he would do for 40 years was to sprinkle this gleaming golden throne with the blood of the spotless sacrifice, this animal that was sacrificed as an atonement, blood sprinkled on this gleaming golden throne for 40 years. The ark was the very presence of the Lord himself. and it was his presence in the blood atonement, this blood-stained ark carried by the priest that removed the obstacle of death for them and allowed them into the promised land. Just it is the very presence of God himself in the atonement blood of Jesus Christ that removes the obstacle of death for his people and brings them safely into the greater land of glory. The event of the crossing certainly pointed back to the Red Sea. but it pointed forward to a greater exodus that the Lord himself would undergo for his people. From crossing to the cross, you see, in those 40 years of blood from the spotless animals could never fully remove human guilt, we’re told in Hebrews. And indeed, the ark and the rest of the picture give way to the reality in Christ’s coming and work on the cross. The greater servant of the Lord, not Moses, not Joshua, Jesus has led to a greater promised land His death does grant entrance into that land. It’s not a geographical place on this earth. The promised land was a picture of glory itself, and Christ buys you entrance into that land. He is raised to lead his people, to be with his people, his very presence and victory over death itself. He is the one stained with blood, his own atoning blood. And that is the bloodstained Savior that carries you, Christian, victorious over death in Christ, through your pilgrim life in Christ and into the greater promised land, not watered from heaven as if it was from heaven, as is described, but into heaven itself. That’s the promised land. He has promised to lead us into victory and to provide for the resolution of the obstacle of death with his own death and resurrection. He’s also given us a greater memorial in the supper that we’re about to partake of. He knows our foolishness. He knows our weakness, and he knows our forgetfulness. By his mercy and love, he has given us means to remember and be strengthened and to be fed. That is word, sacrament, and prayer. So brothers and sisters, to the end of all of this, as our passage ends, may we also know the mighty power of the Lord. in these great deeds of redemption throughout history, but most importantly, his great power seen in Christ’s life, death and resurrection, in your deliverance, in your salvation and securing for you a home and glory and assured inheritance. God keeps his promises. He is faithful and he is able and we are neither faithful nor able. When we rely on our own selves and our own strength and our own provision, which is truly weak and unstable, our sinful hearts want to forget and to be in control. Our life’s testimony by itself doesn’t declare God’s power and rescue. We need to surrender and to rest and to receive and to live out of what God has done. Therefore, be who we are. We are to remember, brothers and sisters, we’re to live our lives so that our children might ask, Why do we do the things we do so we can tell them? Because Christ saved us, he redeemed us, we belong to him, we are God’s people, and Christ is our savior. Christ is the resolution for your ultimate problems, not only for your birth into the Christian life, but for all of your life, even unto glory and beyond. So may we know this, brothers and sisters, and may we honor him as we partake of his appointed means of remembering to strengthen us. And let us consider these things afresh and praise him, knowing more and more that in our weakness, who we are and whose we are, remembering this great deliverance of the Lord to the praise of his glory. Amen.