Joshua 1:8 captures what the book of Joshua is all about. Let me encourage you to memorize it: “Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
Joshua 4 illustrates this. The nation of Israel was on the east side of the Jordan. The Promised Land was on the west side of the Jordan. There were no bridges to cross the river, and it was the time of year when the river was at flood stage. God instructed Joshua how He was going to get them to the other side. All he had to do was explicitly obey and get them to obey him. They did, and God stopped the flow of the river so they could walk across on dry land.
So that they would never forget the miracle and the principal of explicit obedience to what God says, leaders of the twelve tribes were to pick up twelve large stones from the riverbed, carry them up to the west bank and build a memorial there with them.
Verse 6 says, “In the future when your children ask you, ‘what do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
Do you have any memorials that are a springboard to sharing significant events in your life and what God has said to you during those times? Such memorials become memory faith-builders to you and others.
