Old Testament Reading – Exodus 12:1-14, 24-28
New Testament Reading – 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Victorious Christian Living
“A Memorial to the Lord’s Mighty Hand”
Joshua 4:1-24
In the 4th chapter of Joshua, the Israelites completed their crossing of the Jordan River. Nearly 500 years had passed since God promised Abraham, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7)
- Once the people had crossed the river, Joshua commanded the men to take twelve large stones from the riverbed and to set them up on the west bank of the Jordan River, and to set a second twelve-stone memorial in the riverbed, where the priests had stood, holding the ark of the covenant while the Israelites crossed over into the Promised Land.
- Joshua 4:21-24 – “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land; for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
The primary purpose of preaching is to remind people of the mighty hand of God – what He did throughout human history to reveal Himself to mankind, and to redeem lost man from an eternity in hell.
- The Bible records the history of God’s acts of redemption, deliverance, and salvation.
- 1 Corinthians 10:11 – “All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written down for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
- The Bible says God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through Moses. He enabled them to cross the Red Sea on dry land, and every day for 40 years, God provided manna and water for the people, and God enabled the Israelites to cross the Jordan River into the promised land, just as He said He would.
- Romans 15:4 – “Everything that happened in the past was written for our instruction, so that through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.”
The Bible, which covers thousands of years of “His Story,” is not necessarily about the men and women involved in the events, but rather the mighty power of God that is revealed in and through their lives to accomplish the next step in His plan of redemption.
- Abram didn’t wake up one morning and decide to start a new nation of people, nor did he have the power to do that; God called him to do it, and God gave him the power to do it, and the Jewish nation that exists today is the fulfillment of God’s intentions.
- Moses didn’t want to go to Egypt to deliver his people from bondage, and neither did he have the power to do it. God called him, God sent him, and God enabled Him to carry out his mission, so the glory of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt belongs to God, not Moses.
- Moses didn’t stop the waters of the Red Sea or provide food and water for 2-3 million people for 40 years, and Joshua didn’t stop the waters of the Jordan River while that 2-3 million people walked across it on dry land. God did!
- While every miracle God the Father performed in the Old Testament and every miracle God the Son performed in the New Testament achieved some kind of purpose for that day and that time, to advance God’s plan for our redemption, as Paul said, those events were recorded for our purpose, so that in reading about them and hearing them preached, we might also stand in awe of God’s sovereignty, God’s authority, God’s majesty, God’s supremacy, and God’s dignity, for each miracle proved God’s power to save us from our sins.
1. The Completion of the Crossing of the Jordan River – Joshua 4:1-18 – Vs. 15-18: “Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, command the priests who bear the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” And it came to pass, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet touched the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks as before.”
- According to Genesis 15:18, God promised Abraham the land of Canaan in 1850-1800 B.C. “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates”.
- The Israelites entered the Promised Land, around 1407-1406 B.C., which meant they were fulfilling the promise God had made to Abraham nearly 500 years earlier.
- They had crossed the final geographical barrier to the Promised Land.
- They had lived to see the dreams of their forefathers become reality.
- Having overcome every obstacle by their faith in God alone, they knew that He who had brought them this far would not abandon them.
- The Lord told Joshua to establish two stone monuments as memorials, not only establishing Joshua as the new Moses, but as a reminder to the people, that as Joshua would now lead them into the battles ahead, He would be with them.
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2. The Intention of the Two Stone Monuments – Joshua 4:19-24 – Vs. 24 – “That all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
- God’s people often fail in their trust in God because they forget to tell their children of the great things God has done for them, or they forget them as well.
- In the 78th Psalm, Asaph exhorted fathers to “Tell the next generation of the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done, so that the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, so they would in turn, tell their children, so they would not forget His deeds, but keep His commands.”
- In Deuteronomy 6, Moses told the second generation of Hebrews, “These words which I command you shall be in your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, so when your son asks you what is the meaning of these testimonies, these statutes, and the judgments which the Lord has commanded you, you shall say to your son….we were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out with His mighty hand.”
Joshua intended the memorials to affect three groups of people.
- 6-7 – the children of the parents who had just crossed over the Jordan: “When your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?”
- 21 – the children of the future – those born in the Promised Land: “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ Then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land.”
- 24 – those who would hear or read about it in the future: “That all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
The prophetic connection of events:
- In Exodus 12, God changed the first month of the Hebrew calendar from Abib to Nissan, and on the 10th day of Nissan, the families were to select a lamb to be sacrificed on the 14th day of Nissan.
- Therefore, the Israelites exodus from Egypt began on the 10th of Nissan, the same day of the month the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, 40 years later, and the same day of the month Jesus rode the colt of a donkey into Jerusalem 1500 years later.
- Acts 1:7 – “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set with His own authority.”
