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“Every Day Should Be Memorial Day”
Joshua 4
IPC, May 24, 2009

It’s Memorial Day weekend and Ingleside folks are observing it in a number of ways.  Our family gathered at Unicoi State Park yesterday for an Ingram Family Reunion, which is Rachel’s side of the family.  I actually met some “outlaws,” I mean “in-law” relatives I haven’t met before.  It was a good time.  We often see Memorial Day as the kick-off to summer vacations and numerous folks will be having barbeques and gatherings tomorrow.

Memorial Day has its history following the War Between the States.  In 1868 an army general, John Logan, ordered that the graves of Union soldiers who died in the “recent rebellion” (as he termed it), should be decorated strewn flower petals.  Southern communities were already doing this at confederate cemeteries and this May observance started out by being called Decoration Day.  Southerners expanded it from decorating military graves to putting flowers on the graves of family members, military or not. 

Most Sundays, I pray for our military during my pastoral prayer in worship.  Since the latest Iraq war began in 2003, almost 4300 U.S. service personnel have died and 681 have died in Afghanistan since 2001.  Freedom really isn’t free.  It has been paid for with the lives of men and women who have fought in our military since our country’s inception.  In the midst of our cookouts and sporting events, we should be thankful to God for the sacrifice that has been made by men and women in uniform.  

It is fitting that we should honor those who have sacrificed themselves for our freedom.  And it is troubling that the American people seem content to abdicate more of our personal freedoms to government control.  But I won’t “chase that rabbit” this morning. 

I’ve entitled this morning’s message Every Day Should Be Memorial Day.  Let me explain the title.  God realizes that we often forget what He has done for us.  In Deut. 6:12 Moses issued a final warning to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land: “Take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”   The Hebrew word for memorial means “to remember.”  Given our tendency to forget, it is little wonder that memorials have played an important role in the Bible.  Noah, Abraham and Moses built a number of altars to commemorate God’s guidance and deliverance in the lives of His people.  After God destroyed the world in a flood, He told Noah, “Whenever you see the rainbow, remember My promise that I will never destroy the earth by water again.”  So every time we see a rainbow, we can remember that promise too. 

On this Memorial Day Weekend, I want to focus on a special memorial that was built in Joshua 4.  The Hebrew people had left Egypt forty years earlier and wandered in the wilderness because of their disobedience to God.  Moses had died and Joshua had taken command of the nation.  Forty years earlier, God had parted the waters of the Red Sea, to allow the Israelites to escape the pursuing Egyptian army.  In Joshua 3, God parts the Jordan River to allow the children of Israel to enter the Promised Land.  After they all passed across the river, Joshua, in chapter 4, commanded that a representative of each of the twelve tribes of Israel was to remove a large stone from the river bed of the Jordan and take it to their camp.  Picking up at verse 5: “And Joshua said to them, ‘Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, & take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be assign among you.  When your children ask in time to come, “What do those stones mean to you?” then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.  When it passed across the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.  So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.’”  

And during this time Joshua set up twelve more stones in the midst of the Jordan where the people had crossed.  The twelve stones that each tribe possessed were used to build a memorial at Gilgal, where they had camped after crossing the river.  There are at least three reasons for building these memorials: 

It was a time of:

1. Remembering what God has done.

We talked about the old couple having trouble remembering things earlier this month in a sermon.  And it’s amusing to watch some of you trying to recollect what that story was about.   (A brief hint: ice cream with strawberries vs. bacon and eggs.)  Since I tend to forget things, I live by lists of things I write down.  The problem is, I sometimes forget where I put the paper I wrote the list on.   

Verse 7 tells us that the “stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”  These stones were to be a reminder of Israel’s own personal experience.  The stones should cause their children to ask, “What do these stones mean to you?”  These stones were to remind those who were there of what they saw, heard and felt.  “Tell your story.  Keep a clear memory of what God did for you.  Keep on telling your story so that you never lose your own sense of awe and wonder of what God has done in your life.” 

Apply that to yourself.  What kind of memorials do you have in your life this morning?  Whether we realize it or not, we all have memorials in our lives.  They may not be a circle of stones, but one built in memories.   

Several stand out for me. I have memories of places.  My home church where I first committed myself to Christ.  Where I married Rachel and baptized my three children.  A hillside in Toccoa, GA. while in high school, where I totally committed myself to the Lordship of Christ.  As a young youth pastor at a retreat at Lake Tiak-O’khata in Louisville, Mississippi.  Sitting around a campfire with a nineteen year old guy who was hitchhiking and decided to camp out at the lake.  We talked all night about his questions and skepticism about “religion” and he gave his heart to Christ around daybreak.  Standing on the front parking lot of Crews Middle School in early 1999 and looking across the street at a beautiful pastor and praying that God would provide that land for us.  These are places that remind me of the things that God has done in my life.  You, no doubt, have such places in your life.   

I also have memories of people.  These are people that God has used in my life.  Some are school teachers and Sunday School teachers who made me love learning.  Some of them are people who encouraged me to go into the ministry.  How often do we sit down and thank God for those people that He has used in our lives? 

I have memories of experiences, of God’s answering prayer and God’s marvelous hand of provision.  Through them I have learned invaluable lessons on faith. 

There are mementos of the past.  The shelves of my office are dotted with miscellaneous objects that remind me of life experiences and mission trips.  Each object triggers memories of what happened then—of what God did and how the experience impacted my life.   

In Joshua 4, two memorials were erected…one in the midst of the Jordan River and the other at Gilgal.  Every time an Israelite saw either of them, they would hopefully remember what God had done. 

And these memorials, according to our passage, were to serve as the basis for sharing faith with their children.  We see two places that concept is emphasized in chapter 4—in verses 6 and 7 that I’ve already read and again in verses 21-23.  The intention of a memorial was to provoke questioning from future generations.  I have read before that Christianity is never more than one generation away from extinction.  My Reformed belief in a sovereign, electing God knows that statement is not entirely true.  However, while Christianity is spreading in many areas of the world, particularly in the southern hemisphere, we see the influence of Christianity declining in our country.   

Think with me about how far our country has drifted away from its foundation in just one generation.  In 1962, prayer in schools was declared illegal.  The next year, Bible reading was outlawed in the public schools.  In 1980 it was declared illegal to post the Ten Commandments in schools.  Christmas vacation is now called Winter Break.  God warned Israel in Deut. 6, not to let the environment of the pagan society around them dictate their values.  After warning them not to forget God in verse 12, Moses goes on (Vs. 13-15): “It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve & by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you, for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God, lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, & he destroy you from off the face of the earth.” 

British poet Samuel Coleridge once had a discussion with a man who firmly believed that children should not be given formal religious instruction, but should be free to choose their own religious faith when they reached maturity.  Coleridge did not disagree, but later invited the man into his somewhat neglected garden.  The man exclaimed, “You call this a garden?  There are nothing but weeds here.”  Coleridge replied, “Well, you see, I did not wish to infringe upon the liberty of the garden in any way.  I was just giving the garden a chance to express itself.” 

These memorial stones were to be a signpost to a lost world.  Josh. 4:24 “So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”  It has always been God’s intention that the whole world should “know” that He is the only living God.  Not only was the crossing of the Jordan River a moving event for Israel, but it was a terrifying event for all the people living in the land of Canaan. 

2. Time of renewing personal commitment. 

Joshua 4:8 “And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded & took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua.  And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged & laid them down there.” 

Joshua not only ordered these men to go back but he joined them back to the center of the riverbed.  While the men carried their twelve stones back to shore, it appears that Joshua personally picked up twelve stones and built a memorial in the very center of the riverbed, as a personal act of worship.  After he finished his altar and the twelve guys carrying the stones reached shore, Joshua commanded the priests that were carrying the Ark of the Covenant to come up from the riverbed.  (Vs. 16-18)  Notice verse 18: “And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, & the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place & overflowed all its banks, as before.”  As soon as the priests touched shore, the wall of water that had piled up for miles back up the river came crashing back into place. 

Not only was this to be a time of personal commitment, but it was to be a… 

3. Time of rolling away old defeats.

Vs. 19-20 “The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, & they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.  And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.”   It is significant that this happened on the tenth day of the first month, exactly forty years to the day, since Israel marched out of Egypt.   

They left the edge of the river and went to a place called Gilgal to make their camp.  It was on the eastern border of Jericho, which would be the first city they would conquer.  Gilgal means “the reproach has been rolled away.”  Forty years of spiritual defeat and failure have been rolled away.  It was the dawn of a new beginning for the people of God.  The days of stubborn refusal to respond to God under Moses were gone, complaining had ended and the hopeless wandering in the wilderness was behind them.  They were now a people with a new sense of purpose, who were determined to take new territory for God.   

For us today, we should look back at the spiritual monuments in our lives that stand out as times when God changed our direction and gave us new hope and a new sense of purpose.  As we see the faithfulness of God in the past, it should spur us on to abandon ourselves to God and to step out into the unknown to take new territory for Him.   

What did these stones mean?  They tell us of God’s past activity, His power and His might and our need to fear and reverence Him.  When our children see the “stones” of our lives, what will they remember?  Will remember us for our faith?  For our consistency in serving the Lord?  For our Christ-likeness?  Will they remember you for the inheritance of love that you leave them?  Will you be remembered as one who lived life to the fullest?  Will they see you as one who knew how to enjoy life?   I hope Rachel and the boys will not be glad that I am gone because I was a “sour apple” in life.   

About 10 years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street.  He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black 12-cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only 2 months old.  He was watching carefully for kids darting out from between cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.  As his car passed that spot, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and (WHUMP) smashed into the Jag’s shiny back side door.  Josh slammed on brakes, ground his gears into reverse and with tires spinning, went back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. 

Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him against a parked car, shouting, “Who are you? And what the heck were you doing? That’s my new Jag and the brick you threw is going to cost you a lot of money.”  “Please, mister, please…I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do. I threw the brick because no one would stop.”  Tears were dripping down the boy’s chin as he pointed around the parked car.  “It’s my brother, mister,” he said.  “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.”  Sobbing, the boy pleaded, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair?  He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.”   

Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the swelling lump in his throat.  Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything else was ok.  He then walked with them to make sure that the younger brother was able to get them back home all right.   

It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining 12-cylinder Jaguar XKE—a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix that side door.  He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention again. 

The monument of twelve stones at Gilgal was to serve as a visible reminder of the faithfulness of God.  It was a silent monument to a special day that the people of God boldly placed their feet in the surging, rushing current of the Jordan, confident that God would see them to safety on the other side.

Remember that, people of faith.  Don’t wait for someone to throw a brick at you to get your attention.  Let’s pray.

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In Christ,
Bill Bratley - Pastor