The Book Of Joshua - Stones Of Memory (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much once again for giving us this opportunity to come your way, to minister God’s word and spend a few moments in prayer as well.

This week, we have been looking at the book of Joshua and how God deals with the people of Israel. Today, we look at stones of memory. Joshua chapter 4, verses 1 through 3, ‘When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”’ Crossing the Jordan was miraculous in its own way. The Lord commanded Joshua to have twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a stone for the center of the riverbed. Once everyone had crossed, the priest with the ark, came out of the riverbed. As soon as they were safe on dry land, the waters of Jordan rushed in. The people camped that night in Gilgal about two miles away from Jericho. Joshua, took the twelve stones they had brought and stacked them into a memorial. The stones at the bottom of the Jordan river had probably never seen dry land until the people of Israel crossed it. But when taken from the exposed riverbed, twelve of these stones became a monument of God’s mighty hand. Standing in a pile beside the river, the stones were to remind all those who passed by that the Lord dried up the Jordan so that the people of Israel could pass by and enter into the promised land. He told the nation; it was a sign to all the nations of the earth that the Lord had parted the waters of Jordan just as He had parted the Red Sea in Egypt. God wanted Israel to learn a very important lesson from the miracle of the crossing of the river Jordan. First, God demonstrated that He was with Joshua just as He was with Moses. The ark of the covenant was God’s throne and dwelling place on earth, the centerpiece of the crossing of the river story. It must have felt surreal to finally standing Canaan; kind of when you unlock the door to your first home. You have envisioned it, planned it, imagined what you will do with it but when you step into it, emotions soar. To be the fulfillment of an ancient promise to Abraham must have been overwhelming but the stones of Gilgal was a reminder. Memory was their ministry to remind everyone God’s power and faithfulness to His promises. Struggles will come; they always do in this world and the stones of memory will be there to remind us of the source of all goodness and joy. To this very day, God’s words remind us of all that God has done especially through Jesus Christ. It is a great collection of memory stones, pointing us to the savior as our chief cornerstone.

Let’s pray, Father, we just thank you so much for your word and the lessons we can learn from it. Even as the people of Israel put a memory there in Gilgal, help us to remember the cross and the things you have done for us and to walk in obedience and faithfulness, we thank you, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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