Living Stones
Joshua 3:5- 4:24
Introduction
It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea; but there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five feet. The biggest shark...ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them and a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, "Cherry," that was the B- 17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off."
Now this is still Captain Rickenbacker talking, "Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it." And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice.
You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know...that he never forgot. Every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eye-browed, and slightly bent. His bucket was filled with shrimp to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness. (Heaven Bound Living)
The people of Israel were a community sustained by the Lord God Almighty. They had been chased by Pharaoh through the sea and been delivered, wandered in the desert living on the Lord’s provisions, seen their enemies conquered by the hand of God, and now, they were getting ready to cross into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This was the second time around. The leader is Joshua, not Moses. The first opportunity they had turned back from the land, not relying on the Lord’s promise, and all but 2 had died in the desert. Joshua and Caleb were the 2 who had been promised a return trip.
Before they entered the Lord had commanded them prepare for the crossing.
Consecration - 3:5
Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”
They were told to consecrate or sanctify themselves. The people needed to get ready for what the Lord was about to do in their midst. They needed to get clean before the Lord.
Outer purification or cleansing consisted of washing ones garments and cleaning ones body and abstaining from all impurities of the flesh. I am not sure if they had time to wash their garments given the short amount of time available but I do know the sanctified the inside.
"It (consecration) consisted in spiritual purification also, i.e., in turning the heart to God, in faith and trust in His promise, and in willing obedience to His commandments, that they should lay to heart in a proper way the miracle of grace which the Lord was about to work in the midst of them and on their behalf on the following day."
Why was this so important? They were going to be in the presence of a holy God and they were entering into the land promised to Abraham and his descendants. It is called the Holy Land even to this day. They needed getting ready.
They also were to make a commitment before the Lord.
Commitment - 4:14-17
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.
The movie Saving Private Ryan is a depiction of the events surrounding D-day and the days that followed. The realistic scene of the landing at Omaha beach shows German machine guns (mg42) waiting to open up as soon as the landing craft drop their ramps to debark the men.
It is said, many of the soldiers died that day not of machine gun fire but drowning. As they leapt over the sides to get out of the craft and avoid fire, they dropped into water over their heads. Many soldiers who were short drown that day because of the weight of their equipment. They couldn’t get out of the water because of the packs they carried on their backs. They died before they could even fire a shot.
The priests were to take the ark and begin walking into the water. The river was at flood stage and the priests caring this heavy ark on their shoulders were to step into the raised waters and cross on the promise that God will take care of everything.
Remember, these people are the descendants of the ones who had seen the waters of the Red Sea parted. They had heard the story but they had not witnessed it. It was a step of faith to begin walking into the flood waters. They had to trust the Lord at His word.
The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
All the people had to pass as the waters remained stacked on either side. I am sure it was an ominous feeling with that wall of water standing up straight up in the air. I would imagine they wondered if everyone had consecrated themselves. I would imagine the priests wondered the same thing. What if someone wasn’t clean enough, would the Lord allow the water to wash us away? In any case faith had to be exercised to cross over.
Once everyone was across the Jordan, Joshua told each man chosen from each tribe to gather their stone. which represented their tribe. (12 stones, 12 tribes) These men had to go back into the waters and gather these stones while the priests remained in the water. Again, it was another act of faith and commitment to the Lord and His power.
Why did they do this?
Commemorate - 4:20-24
They were to remember what the Lord had done that very day and in the future teach their children. They were to commemorate the miracle of standing water, the crossing on dry ground of all Israel and more importantly, the power and provision of the Lord.
And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”
It was to honor the Lord for what He had done. The Lord wanted them to have a reminder of what had happened that day. It was a visual aid for the Israelites. In times of doubt, they could look at that pile of stones and remember what the Lord had done for them.
Why are we stacking stones today?
We are stacking stones to commemorate or remind ourselves what our Lord has done for the last 50 years. The successes of this church and its’ ministry are about the Lord, not us. We are to remind ourselves of His grace, His provision, His power working in this place. We are stacking stones today for the same reasons the Israelites did those thousands of years ago with one small difference.
We are the stones. 1 Peter 2:1-5
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
We are to sanctify ourselves, cleanse ourselves through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who cleanses us from all sin. As we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, the stone the builders rejected, He cleanses us and we become like living stones. Instead of brick and mortar we are the church. When we carry our rocks out today it is not to commemorate the building or the land, it is to commemorate, to remind us, what the Lord has done in our lives.
It is Jesus who has bridged the gap between us and God through the cross. Everything that separated us from Him was paid that day he died. Literally, the cross spans the gulf between God and man and allows us to cross over from death to life in Christ.
I urge you this day to cross over by receiving the free gift that God offers in Jesus. Cross over by confessing and allowing Jesus to sanctify you by His sacrifice. As we come to Him, Jesus, we become His "living stones".
