Joshua 4:11-24.\u00a0 Yesterday I mentioned that this story connected back to Moses.\u00a0 Just like God did a great miracle at the beginning of Moses\u2019 time of leadership He did a great miracle at the beginning of Joshua\u2019s.\u00a0 this was sort fo like a stamp of approval on these leaders.\u00a0 Later on when things got tough the people should have been able to remember these miracles and been reminded about the power of God and been that Moses and Joshua were speaking for God.\u00a0 There is another echo in the story of past events too, we are told that everything was completed \u201cjust as the LORD had commanded\u201d.\u00a0 That phrase is repeated over and over in the book of Exodus as the Tabernacle and all the stuff in it was being made.\u00a0 It is important to see that both Moses and Joshua were faithful to God.\u00a0 They listened and acted.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s part of the story is an echo too.\u00a0 It repeats the story from yesterday from a different point of view.\u00a0 Yesterday the author focused on the miracle.\u00a0 The reading today focuses more on the obedience of Joshua and the people.\u00a0 We see the 2-1\/2 tribes from the east side of the Jordan crossing over just like they had agreed to do with Moses.\u00a0 But now they are doing it under the leadership of Joshua.\u00a0 Then we see Joshua giving direction to the priests to come up out of the riverbed and when they do the river returns.\u00a0 This is a lot like when Moses put his hands out and the waters of the Red Sea returned to their place (Exodus 26:14-28).\u00a0 Finally Joshua took the stones that they had brought from the riverbed and set them up as a memorial just like God had told him to do. So they were obedient.<\/p>\n
The story ends today with Joshua reminding the people about the reminder.\u00a0 He reminds them what the stones are about and what they are to tell their children.\u00a0 The stones were set up in a place called Gilgal.\u00a0 Jericho was six miles from the river and Gilgal was in between.\u00a0 The Israelites set up camp in Gilgal when they crossed the river.\u00a0 It looks like Gilgal remained their command center the whole time Joshua was alive and even for part of the period of the Judges.\u00a0 In Judges 2:1 we see God approaching the Israelites to scold them about not doing what He had told them to do about getting rid of the people in the promised land.\u00a0 God came to them from Gilgal.\u00a0 That is probably where the Ark and the Tabernacle had been set up in the beginning.\u00a0 By the time of the second judge, Ehud, there are idols set up in Gilgal (Judges 3:19).\u00a0 Right next to pile of stones which were to remind them about the power of the true God were false and useless images of so called gods.<\/p>\n
It is sad how quickly we can forget, even when we have things around to remind us.\u00a0 It\u2019s also sad how many things we bring in that crowd out those reminders. Sometimes it isn\u2019t things that make God hard to remember sometimes it\u2019s other memories.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting in relationships how one bad thing can wipe out a whole bunch of good things.\u00a0 One lie and people see us a liar even after years of honesty.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying lying is right I\u2019m just saying we are quick to forget, especially good stuff.\u00a0 In Deuteronomy 4:1-9 Moses was reminding the people to be diligent about remembering all the things God had shown them and told them (Deuteronomy was Moses\u2019 farewell speech to the Israelites.\u00a0 It was given shortly before crossing the Jordan River several day or maybe a few weeks before the stuff we are reading about right now.).\u00a0 We need to be diligent to remember what God has done in our lives and the lives of those around us.\u00a0 We need to work hard at doing the things that please God (Deuteronomy 6:17) and we need to be diligent to teach our children about God (Deuteronomy 4:9.\u00a0 But, not quite yet for you Junior High students).\u00a0 And we need to be diligent so the world around us can see God too (Deuteronomy 4:6-8 and Joshua 4:24).\u00a0 We need to remember and act and teach and show so that the all those around us will see and know about God to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).\u00a0 God help me remember.\u00a0 Help me set up the stones from the rivers you have me cross.\u00a0 Help me not allow other monuments to be set up and hide the stones.\u00a0 Help me be diligent to remember.\u00a0 Let my actions be faithful to what you have done in my life.\u00a0 Help me be evidence of you to the world.<\/p>\n
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Joshua 4:11-24.\u00a0 Yesterday I mentioned that this story connected back to Moses.\u00a0 Just like God did a great miracle at the beginning of Moses\u2019 time of leadership He did a great miracle at the beginning of Joshua\u2019s.\u00a0 this was sort fo like a stamp of approval on these leaders.\u00a0 Later on when things got tough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}