Stones of Remembrance

All Israel crosses the Jordan and gathers on the western bank. But before the Levites bring the ark of the covenant up from the riverbed, God commands Joshua to send the 12 men chosen by the tribes back into the channel. Their task: to collect 12 stones from the spot where the ark stood, the very presence of God, and to take them to the new camp on the western side of the river.

As usual, Joshua is quick to obey the Lord, and in sending the men to collect the stones he explains to them the purpose behind the command. God intends that the stones be built into a monument on the shore at the place where the Israelites crossed the Jordan. It will be a tangible reminder of this great divine work for future generations. He envisions a scenario of a father walking beside the river with his sons and daughters, who spot the monument and ask, “What do these stones mean to you?” At that point, the father is to tell the children how the Jordan’s waters were halted by the presence of the Lord their God so that Israel was able to cross on dry land. In this way, the memory of the crossing will be passed on and preserved “ ‘forever.’ ”

It is crucial to note that this memorial is God’s idea, not Joshua’s. “God, knowing their frame, and how apt they had been soon to forget his works, ordered an expedient for the keeping of this in remembrance to all generations, that those who could not, or would not, read the record of it in the sacred history, might come to the knowledge of it by the monument set up in remembrance of it,” Matthew Henry writes in his commentary.

After the 12 men complete their task, bringing 12 stones to the camp, Joshua takes yet another step to memorialize the event. He sets up 12 stones in the midst of the riverbed, at the spot where the Levites carrying the ark had stood, so that another monument will mark that precious spot when the river’s waters begin to flow again. The writer of the book notes that these stones “are there to this day,” his own era. This phrase, used several times in the book of Joshua, is likely intended as an attestation of veracity. “If you find this account difficult to believe,” the writer is saying to his readers, “go to Jordan and look. Joshua’s stones are still there, having been stacked on the day the Lord held back the river and brought us into the Promised Land.”