Reading: Joshua 4
“When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do these
stones mean to you?’”
Joshua 4:6
Memorials commemorate lives and events. Personally within
families, and publicly within the histories of communities and nations.
Although often given at death, they in fact honor life, by acknowledging their
gift of being to those who knew them.
Some are given to perfect strangers due to acts of bravery,
of courage, and of honor.
Names are often identified in Bible stories to acknowledge a
particular action, both as a positive example or a negative one. After the
twelve priests faithfully stood firm holding the ark until all the people
passed it might be expected that their names be part of the story as a memorial
and perhaps within their own generation they were.
But Israel knew that God alone had saved them and so this
memorial was not only to answer the questions of their children but also, “so that all the peoples of the earth may
know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, and so that you may fear the Lord
your God forever.” The memorial was even prepared ahead of time as each of
the twelve tribes had a representative carry a stone with them from one side
unto the other.
From a land of slavery into a land of promise. “So these stones shall become a memorial to
the sons of Israel forever.” Both a spiritual and an historical critical
event to be passed along from generation to generation.
As a witness forever. Both the stones and the words of the
story behind them.
Lord, you have also cut us off from the power of darkness
and crossed us over to Your light. Lord, please help us to be as faithful and
readily stand where You place us until all that You command is completed.
Psalm of Worship: Psalm 124:6-8
“Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey…
… We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and
earth.”
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