Twelve Stones

Stones will speak

Joshua 4: STONES!

1 Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying,

2 "Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe,

3 and command them, saying, 'Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.'"

4 So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe;

5 and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel.

6 "Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?'

7 then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever."

AFTER THE MIRACLE:

Story is not over after witnessing a colossal miracle of great magnitude, God was very particular that the people remembered it, so He made preparations for it.

a) SELECT 12 FAITHFUL MEN: 12 men (not Levites) from each tribe must be selected for this important job, they got to be people of good reputation, faithful and godly men, given the nature of job that was given to them.

Friend, carrying out the work of God is just not only for priests or Levites, but God needed 12 men to be selected among the people, who had part in building this monument of stones. We cannot just be mere guests in the church and be spectators watching performances on the pulpit week after week, ( sitting and finding fault too) but all of us have a part to play in building the Kingdom of God. Arise! Wipe the church chairs, sweep the church, carry the chairs on your shoulders, arrange tea and snacks for team working out in the field, help in Sunday class, go….volunteer…..and look for work. One day you need to give an account of what you did for the Church and the pastor. One day I found a man swiftly walking towards the church office, I asked the reason, he said, ‘I did not get my yearly calendar, I am a tither and I give mine faithfully, I am rushing to the office to point out their carelessness in not giving me one.’ Did you see the attitude? Atrocious! COVID19 was sent exactly for such people…..next (COVID) is on its way…..go ahead and stone me for saying this…..

Friend, if you have tasted the goodness of God then you would never leave the Church without having a part in His work. Immediately after my salvation and the miracle that I experienced in my life, along with my husband, we would stand in a particular place outside the church and offer whatever kind of help might be needed. We became active participants in the church, we opened our home for prayer cell and we also moved out to do ministry during weekends, because during that time I was working for a multinational bank, which I eventually resigned in the year 2004 to work full time in the Lord’s vineyard.

b) GO THE EXTRA MILE FOR THE WORK OF GOD:

They need to “cross again to the ark of the Lord God into the middle of the Jordan”.

These 12 men were asked to cross again and go the Ark, in order to bring the stones from the middle of Jordan. Lazy, careless, self-centered, selfish people would never be able to do this.

There is severe dearth of faithful people who would go to any extent to serve the Lord. Distribute gospel tracts, help pastor during odd hours, volunteer in church activities even when it is very inconvenient. Are you listening to me? Christmas drama practice, choir practice, helping out in mission work, everything requires some kind of sacrifice from us which God would definitely remember and bless us. Whenever I think of the three mighty men of David: Josheb-basshebeth, Eleazar and Shammah, who went into the enemy’s camp to bring water, I feel an ache in my heart to have such people in our ministry, read:

2 Samuel 23:1615David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!” 16So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD, 17saying, “Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this! Is this not the blood of the men who risked their lives?” So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty men.…