The Covenant People and the Covenant Sign - Part Two

I suppose we ought to spend just a little bit of time thinking how terrifying this crossing of the Jordan must have been for the Amorite and Canaanite kings. They had been afraid beforehand, of course, because here was this vast host out there across the Jordan. But as these kings looked at the nation of Israel, perhaps Israel seemed somewhat removed from them. After all, the Israelites were on the other side of the Jordan, and the river was at flood stage. No doubt Israel intended to invade, but they would have to wait until the waters had receded. But until that happened, there was time for these kings to prepare. Yet suddenly, through this great miracle, that whole vast horde of people were crossing the Jordan. If you were one of the kings of the Amorites or the Canaanites, that was a horror story indeed.

 
The Covenant People and the Covenant Sign - Part One
This week we are continuing our study in the third episode of Joshua, which is the crossing of the Jordan River. We learned last week that this third episode has three parts. The first part was the crossing of the Jordan itself, with the ark of the covenant going before the people. The second piece was God’s command to set up the memorial stones. Now this week we come to the third of the incidents that are connected with the crossing, and this concerns the consecration of the people once they had passed over into the land and had set up their memorial. The story is told in Joshua 5:1-12, and it entails two acts of consecration, which we would call sacraments.     
 
Lest We Forget - Part Five
Now where does that leave us? The point I want to make is the one I have already been alluding to, namely, that we all need memorials like this in our lives. The people of Israel needed their memorials, and they needed other memorials besides this one. In 1 Samuel 7:12 we’re told of the prophet Samuel setting up a memorial which he called, “Ebenezer." It was the occasion of a great victory in which God had intervened in a supernatural way to defeat the Philistines. It says that in the remainder of Samuel’s lifetime the Philistines didn't invade the territory of Israel ever again. To mark that great victory, Samuel set up this stone, which he called, “Ebenezer," which means “the Lord helps." And he said, "We’re naming it ‘Ebenezer' because hitherto hath the Lord helped us."
 
Lest We Forget - Part Four
There are three specific reasons given for the erection of this memorial. It pertains to three different groups of people. The first reason is that it was to be a memorial to the generation then living, the generation that had crossed the Jordan. We find that in verse 6: "These stones are to serve as a sign among you." Here were people who had witnessed a great miracle of God in dividing the waters of the Jordan in order that they might cross on dry ground. But these same people would quite naturally tend on occasion to become discouraged during the years of fighting in their attempts to drive out the Canaanites. Their discouragement might be for a number of reasons. 
 
Lest We Forget - Part Three
Now I need to acknowledge that there’s a bit of a technical problem at this point. It's perfectly evident from any reading of this chapter that the 12 men chosen by the people were to each lift up a stone from the Jordan, carry it up, and then place it upon the bank. These were then arranged into a memorial. This was a mark of their camp at Gilgal to which they often returned. There’s no question about that. This technical difficulty that I refer to comes from the fact that in the original version of verse 9, the text literally says, "Joshua set up 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood.” This has led many commentators to suppose that there were two memorials. There was a memorial composed of stones that were taken out of the Jordan and set up upon the bank. And there was a second memorial of stones that were taken from the bank and set up in the middle of the Jordan. So that raises the question of whether there was one memorial or two.