SERIES G --- THE PROMISED LAND --- LESSON 04

A MEMORIAL

TWELVE STONES

From Joshua 4

After all of the people of Israel had crossed the Jordan River, Adonai spoke to Joshua. [Give these orders to the twelve men who were chosen, one from each tribe. Tell them to take twelve stones, one stone for each tribe, from the place where the priests are standing in the middle of the riverbed. Bring those stones with you and lay them in the place where you set up camp tonight.] Joshua commanded the twelve men as Adonai had said. [Go to the middle of the Jordan River, where the priests stand with the Ark of Adonai. Each of you will pick up a stone, so there will be twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. These stones will be a reminder to your children. When they ask what these stones mean, then you will tell them how YHVH stopped the waters of the Jordan River when the Ark of the Covenant crossed it. These stones will become a memorial for the people of Israel forever.] The twelve men did exactly as Joshua told them. From the middle of the Jordan River, they gathered twelve stones, as Adonai had Commanded Joshua, one stone for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The men took the stones with them to their evening campsite and set up a monument there. In the middle of the Jordan River, where the priests stood with the Ark of Adonai, Joshua built another monument of twelve stones. It stood there; at the time this book was written. The priests who carried the Ark waited in the middle of the river until Joshua had done all that Adonai had Commanded through Moses. When these things were done and all of the people were across, the people of Israel gathered to watch the priests carry the Ark from the river. About forty thousand armed men, from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, led the people of Israel to battle across the plains of Jericho, as Moses had commanded. On that day, Adonai gave Joshua such great honour in the eyes of the people that, as long as he lived, they showed reverence to him as they had to Moses. The people had seen Joshua give orders to the priests who carried the Ark, commanding them to bring the Ark from the river. [Order the priests to come up from the Jordan,] YHVH told Joshua. ‘Come up from the Jordan!’ Joshua relayed YHVH’s Command to the priests with the Ark. When the priests with the Ark came from the middle of the Jordan and their feet touched dry ground, the waters of the river began to flow again and flooded over the banks. The river was as it had been when they had approached it. It was the 25th of March when the people of Israel crossed the Jordan and set up camp at Gilgal, at the eastern edge of Jericho. There the twelve stones were laid up as a monument. Once more, Joshua told the people of Israel about the monument of twelve stones. ‘When your children ask what these stones mean, you must tell them how Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. Tell them how Adonai dried up the waters of the Jordan until you had crossed the river, just as He had done when He dried up the Red Sea until we had crossed it. Let all people on earth know that the hand of Adonai is mighty and that you will show reverence to Him forever.’

COMMENTARY

OTHER CONQUESTS FROM EGYPT: SETI I

Stories of YHVH’s miracles are exciting for every generation. For the children in Israel however, a visit to the Jordan River meant far more than just a story. There YHVH Commanded that the people make a memorial of twelve stones taken from the middle of the Jordan when Israel crossed over into the Promised Land. These stones would make history and YHVH would seem very near. Fifty years had passed since an Egyptian army had set foot in Canaan. Because of its internal problems, Egypt almost ignored all foreign conquests, including Canaan. In fact, when the Hittites from Turkey moved in and settled much of the country, the pharaohs did not send military help, even though the Canaanite princes asked for it. When Seti I became pharaoh, everything changed. Though the rulers in Canaan had stopped sending tribute to Egypt many years before, Seti used that as an excuse to invade. He claimed that the quarrelsome princes were planning to rebel against him. Seti brought with him many cruel practices common to earlier pharaohs. He captured thousands of prisoners and marched them back to Egypt as sign of his victory. Their hands were bound together and all the prisoners were yoked to each other at the neck. After being displayed, most went into slavery. But some were killed as sacrifices to the sun god Amon. Such actions were similar to those of Thutmose III, the strongest warrior-king in Egyptian history. In fact, Seti proudly referred to his reign as the {renaissance,} meant to recall Thutmose’s great expansion of the empire. Before he was through, Seti I had managed to re-conquer and win back one third of Egypt’s original territory.