And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the eastern extremity of Jericho.
The crossing is over. Now come two details that look like plain bookkeeping: a date and a place name. Both carry weight. The date ties this day to the Passover, and Gilgal becomes the camp Israel keeps returning to.
For people who had come out of Egypt, this date carried a memory.
Verse 19 tells us the date of this event, the tenth day of the first month. Would they not remember this date? In Egypt they were told to take a young lamb on this day and keep it for four days until the Passover. (Ex. 12:2-3) This signified a new beginning for Israel. Now they face another new beginning — but in very different circumstances!
Scripture never says Israel came up out of the Red Sea. Of the Jordan, it says so plainly.
It is never stated that they came up out of the Red Sea. Historically, of course, we know they did. But recording it would have spoiled the picture, just as it would in Romans 6 to say we were risen with Christ. Later Scripture states it fully: the people came up out of the Jordan. There it needed to be said, but not before.
Twelve stones came out of the riverbed. What they stood for, and where they stood, both mattered.
They represented the twelve tribes, the people, snatched from death by the ark. The ark had stood in the very spot where deliverance was needed. It had held back the waters of Jordan so that Israel could pass over. The stones became a monument at the very entrance of Canaan, at Gilgal, a place the people had always to return to. From then on they were a sign always before their eyes and the eyes of their children.
Two and a half tribes had settled on the far side of the river. Fewer than twelve tribes were camped in Canaan. God still commanded twelve stones.
God did not order the stones split, nine and a half set in Canaan and two and a half on the wilderness side of the river, to match how much of the land Israel had actually taken. He commanded instead the number that spoke of the whole nation. Those stones stood where, in His purpose, undivided Israel inherited and encamped.
Israel's first camp sat on the edge of Jericho, the city they were about to fight.
Gilgal is their first camp in Canaan, where the stones are pitched; and to it after their battles they constantly return. It is their stronghold that no enemy can take, and their base of support. How could they not be strong as they remember that wonderful deliverance! God is for them: who can be against them? Who can force them back into the flood He has so wonderfully brought them through?
Israel reached this camp on the day the lamb was set apart, with the Passover four days ahead. Before that meal, and before any battle, something had to happen in the camp itself.
If Israel are about to bring the sword against the Canaanites, they must first take the sharp knife to themselves. They had never been circumcised in the wilderness. The reproach of Egypt had never been rolled away from them. Before they could keep the Passover and eat the old grain of the land of Canaan, they must have the sentence of death written on them. No doubt this was anything but pleasant to nature, but it had to be done.
That is why Gilgal mattered long after the crossing.
Gilgal, therefore, stands for the judgment of self. This is the place of our strength and power. Israel had always to return to Gilgal; when they did not they were defeated. Defeat, failure in our walk, always drives us back to self-judgment and humiliation. Victory and blessing may keep us from it; and that is our real spiritual danger.
- Date. On this date in Egypt, Israel set apart the Passover lamb. The same date now marks a fresh beginning in the land.
- Entry. Scripture says Israel came up out of the Jordan. It never says that of the Red Sea. This crossing is not only escape, but entry.
- Stones. Twelve stones stand at the entrance of Canaan — one for every tribe, including those settled across the river. They testify to God's purpose for the whole nation.
- Camp. Gilgal sits on the edge of Jericho — the first camp is also the base of support they return to after every battle.
- Return. At Gilgal Israel took the sharp knife to themselves before taking the sword to Canaan. When they stopped returning there, they were defeated.
And those twelve stones which they had taken out of the Jordan did Joshua set up in Gilgal.
Israel has crossed the Jordan and camps for its first night in the land. Joshua's first act there is to set up twelve stones carried out of the riverbed — so why stones, why twelve, and why at Gilgal?
One writer sets out everything the pile announced at once.
These stones proclaimed certain realities. They were taken from the dry bed of the river, so they declared God's power in cutting off the waters before the ark of His covenant. There were twelve of them, one stone for each tribe, so they declared that all Israel had entered Canaan. They stood together in Canaan, so they witnessed to Israel's unity in that land. Moreover, they became a memorial to the nation of what the Lord had done for them.
The number twelve was not a count of who had arrived.
God did not order nine and a half stones for Canaan and two and a half for the wilderness side of the river. He did not match the stones to how much land Israel had taken. He commanded the number that spoke of the whole nation to stand where, in His purpose, undivided Israel inherited and encamped. His will was that the stones should testify to His purposes for all His people Israel.
The place mattered as much as the stones themselves.
They were to be a memorial to the children of Israel, laid in the place where the people spent their first night in the land of Canaan. That place was Gilgal. They stood for the twelve tribes, the people snatched from death by the ark. The ark had stood in the very spot where deliverance was needed, and it had held back the waters of the Jordan so that Israel could pass over. The stones became a monument at the very entrance of Canaan, at Gilgal. The people always had to come back to that place. From then on the stones were a sign always before their eyes and their children's eyes.
One writer sets the two piles of stones beside two truths in Colossians.
In Colossians 2 and 3 we have what clearly matches the two sides of this picture of the Jordan. "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world…" This answers to the middle of the Jordan. There the waters of death normally rolled, hiding from sight everything beneath them. Then at the start of chapter 3 we have, "If then you have been raised with Christ." This answers to the stones taken up out of the water and placed on the other side. "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Note the point: the memorial was not a single stone, but twelve, both in the river and on the farther side.
after-note: DISCUSS not needed
Being raised is not the end of the lesson. One writer hears a command in the stones standing at Gilgal.
The stones brought up from the bottom of the Jordan stood in Gilgal. They said, "You are risen, so put to death what belongs to the flesh."
The stones did not do the work. They pointed back to a work already finished.
They remained as the eternal witness of a finished work, just as the Lord's Supper speaks to us… God would always keep alive in my memory how He has brought me into blessing and association with His Son.
Joshua expected children to ask about the pile. One writer explains why that mattered so much.
Why insist on this? Because it is natural for us to forget even such great miracles of God's power and to slip into a careless, casual condition. The children had not seen this great miracle. Hearing about it would not impress them much unless their parents showed a great appreciation of this work of God. What is more, this was meant to affect all the peoples of the earth, as well as instilling the fear of God in all Israel.
- Taken — the stones came from the dry riverbed where the ark had stood, so they carried proof of God's power.
- Twelve — one stone for each tribe, though only nine and a half tribes settled west of the river. The count spoke of God's purpose for the whole people, not of what they had taken so far.
- Pitched — Joshua set them at Gilgal, Israel's first camp in the land. The people kept coming back there, so the memorial stayed in view.
- Paired — stones left in the river speak of dying with Christ. Stones carried out speak of being raised with Him, and rising with Him brings the call to put the flesh to death.
- Passed on — memory fades, so Joshua built the pile to make children ask, to hold Israel in the fear of God, and to reach all the peoples of the earth.
And he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children hereafter ask their fathers, saying, What [mean] these stones?
Israel has just crossed the Jordan on dry ground. Twelve stones lifted from the riverbed now stand at Gilgal. Joshua looks past the generation that saw it happen. He tells the fathers what to answer when their children point at the stones and ask.
The stones were not decoration. Israel set them up so that a child would one day have to ask about them. Every tribe helped carry them.
The whole assembly was to grasp the great fact and act on it — "from each tribe a man" — "each of you take up a stone upon his shoulder." Each stone came from the very spot where the priests' feet stood firm. All were to come into living personal contact with the great mysterious fact that the waters of the Jordan were cut off. All were to share in setting up a memorial of this fact — one that would make their children ask what it meant. It was never to be forgotten.
The same writer notes what set these stones apart from all others:
These were stones of unusual significance. No other stones could tell such a story, teach such a lesson, or stand for such a staggering fact. There were no other stones like them.
Joshua does not leave the reply to the parent's invention. The required answer is a report of what God did.
The pillar of twelve stones, set up in Gilgal, became a memorial to the nation of what the Lord had done for them. The children would ask their fathers, "What do those stones mean to you?" The answer was to be an account of the Lord's doings: "The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off." And Christians may well recount to their children what God has done. Our little ones should be grounded in the great truths of God's word. We should plant the facts of redemption, resurrection, and ascension in their minds and memories.
Joshua made provision for teaching the children what the stones meant. That care for the young ran through Israel's life, and the duty fell on the parent.
It is not too much to say that the children were never forgotten in any important act or ceremony of the congregation of Israel… God placed on the Jewish parent the responsibility of teaching his children the knowledge of His word, His work, and His ways. The aim was that the children's hope might also be in God. They were to teach expecting God to bless their work. They knew it was not His will that one of their little ones should perish.
Joshua had already said this in verses 6 and 7. Saying it twice is deliberate, and the reason is in us.
Then Joshua repeated to Israel what he had said in verses 6-7. He reminded them to answer their children's questions in the future with the full truth: they crossed the Jordan on dry ground when the Lord dried up the waters for them. Why insist on this? Because it is natural for us to forget even such great miracles of God's power and to slip into a slack, careless condition. The children had not seen this great miracle. Hearing about it would not impress them much unless their parents showed them how much they valued this work of God.
A second writer draws the same line from the forgetfulness of the heart to the need for something visible and lasting:
The human heart is so forgetful and unsteady that there is need of some lasting memorial of God's goodness. The Lord's Supper has this character in Christianity.
The stones came out of the place of death and now stand in the land. Darby sees a picture of the believer's position in this.
Note that circumcision is not the only thing at Gilgal, on the far side of the Jordan, in the land. The stones from the bottom of the Jordan are set up there too — we carry the witness and power of death there. We are dead and risen with Christ, not merely circumcised in heart.
Grant draws the line straight to our own children:
The Israelites were to teach their children the meaning of the stones. In the same way, believers should teach their children that the death and resurrection of Christ are the basis of all blessing for His people. We today have a memorial of this great work of God in the Lord's Supper, for believers are told, "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). We too should take care to teach our children what this memorial means.
- Remember — the stones stood at Gilgal for one purpose: the crossing "was never to be forgotten."
- Ask — the memorial was designed to pull a question out of a child who had not been there.
- Answer — the reply was fixed in advance: a plain account of what the Lord did, not what Israel achieved.
- Teach — the duty falls on parents, and children take it in when the parents themselves treasure the work of God.
- Carry — the Lord's Supper is to believers what those stones were to Israel — the witness that we are dead and risen with Christ.
then ye shall let your children know, saying, On dry land did Israel come over this Jordan;
Joshua set up twelve stones from the riverbed at Gilgal. He then told the people what to answer when a child points at them and asks what they mean. The answer is a fact, not a sermon: the nation walked across the Jordan on dry ground.
The stones were not a private keepsake. One man from each tribe carried a stone on his shoulder. The whole nation had a hand in the work.
The whole assembly had to grasp this great fact and act on it — "a man from each tribe" — "take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder" — a stone taken from the very spot where the priests' feet stood firm. Each of them had to come into living personal contact with the great mysterious fact that the waters of the Jordan were cut off. All of them had to share in building a memorial of this fact — one that would make their children ask what it meant. They were never to forget it.
The words the parents must repeat cover every single person in the camp.
Every member of the camp had passed clean over the Jordan. Not one of them was allowed to feel the slightest touch of the river of death. Grace had brought them all safely over into the inheritance promised to their fathers. The Red Sea had separated them from Egypt. Now they were brought right into Canaan across the dry bed of the Jordan, and camped at Gilgal, in the plains of Jericho.
One writer reads the stones lifted out of the riverbed as a picture of the Christian's new place before God.
When they looked at these stones, their children would ask, "What do these stones mean?" They could point to them and say: just as these stones came up out of the Jordan onto dry land, so they had been brought out of the Jordan into this land of promise. This memorial is a picture of the fact "that we are alive to God in our Lord Jesus Christ." We are a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. It is the memorial which tells us that we are raised up and seated in Christ in the heavenly places.
The command speaks to fathers. One writer applies it straight to Christian homes.
The pillar of twelve stones, set up in Gilgal, became a memorial to the nation of Jehovah's work for them. The children would ask their fathers, "What do those stones mean to you?" The fathers were to answer by telling the Lord's doings: "the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off." And Christians may well recount to their children what God has done. Our little ones should be grounded in the great truths of God's word. Plant the facts of redemption, resurrection, and ascension in their minds and memories.
Joshua says the same thing twice in one chapter. One writer asks why, and finds the reason in us.
Why insist on this? Because it is a natural tendency for us to forget even such great miracles of God's power and to slip into a lax, careless condition. The children had not seen this great miracle. Hearing about it would not impress them much, unless their parents showed a great appreciation of this work of God.
Israel set the stones up at the place where they lodged for the night. One writer turns from those stones to the memorial Christians have.
But what a blessed portion is ours as we look at the stones in the lodging place! We are only "lodgers" in this world, and only for a "night." But the Lord has given us a memorial too. It tells of our salvation, and also how it was accomplished... But who, even of the firstborn ones, can fully estimate the Lord's death? As the stones were a memorial for the children of Israel forever, so the Lord's supper is in remembrance of Him until He comes.
- Fact. The answer to the child's question is an event, not an opinion. The nation crossed on dry ground, and the river of death did not touch one of them.
- Memorial. Israel placed the stones to make the children ask questions. The fact was never to be forgotten.
- Meaning. One writer reads the stones lifted out of the Jordan as a picture: we are alive to God, raised with Christ into a new place of blessing.
- Charge. God gives parents the answer in advance. Ground your children in redemption, resurrection and ascension as settled facts.
- Danger. Joshua repeats the command because forgetting comes naturally. Children value only what their parents clearly treasure.
because Jehovah your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until ye had passed over, as Jehovah your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had passed over;
Joshua is telling parents what to say when their children point at twelve stones and ask what they mean. The answer he gives them is not about Israel's march but about God's hand. He also ties this crossing to the older miracle at the Red Sea, telling the two rescues as one story.
The Jordan was not a trickle at that season. It was in flood, and God stopped it when the obstacle was at its worst.
The Jordan fills all its banks throughout harvest time. For Christ, when He rolled back its stream for us, death had all its terrors. But its flood is stopped, its waters are heaped up far away, so that they should not come near His people as they cross. It was our death He bore. It is taken out of the way, and we pass over to our inheritance, untouched and unhindered by it.
Joshua sets the two crossings side by side. Commentators have long held that they picture two different things, not one truth told twice.
Many have observed that the crossing of the Red Sea foreshadowed the death and resurrection of Christ for His people. The passage of the Jordan pointed forward to the death and resurrection of the saints with Christ. This very clear distinction must be plain to every spiritual mind that weighs the two Scriptures in the light of the New Testament.
Another writer puts the difference as a matter of direction: what God brought them out of, and what He brought them into.
The Red Sea was God's way of power for bringing His people out of their slavery. The Jordan was His way of power for bringing them into the fulness of their blessings. In the one case, death, in figure, was passed through. In the other, death, in figure, was out of sight altogether.
A popular reading treats this river as the crossing every believer makes at death. Commentators push back on that and point to something entered now.
The passage of the Red Sea pictured Christ dying for the believer, by which the believer escapes death and judgement. The passage of the Jordan pictured the believer dying with Christ and rising with Him. The path of death becomes the path of life. Many have taken the Jordan itself as a picture of the death we must pass through to reach heaven. But it is rather a figure of something entered while still on earth. Through death with Christ, the Christian comes into his heavenly position. There he has to stand for the Lord in conflict with spiritual powers of wickedness, just as Israel had to fight the Canaanites.
These are words for parents to speak. Joshua expects them to repeat the story years later, to children who never stood on that riverbed. One writer explains why it mattered so much.
Why should this be insisted upon? Because we tend by nature to forget even such great miracles of God's power, and to slip into a careless, casual state. The children had not seen this great miracle. Hearing about it would not impress them much unless their parents showed them a deep appreciation of this work of God.
One generation told the next what God had done. Another writer presses the same content on Christian parents.
And Christians may well recount to their children what God has done. Our little ones should be grounded in the great truths of God's word. The facts of redemption, resurrection and ascension should be planted in their minds and memories.
Joshua does not stop at the family. The reason he gives right after this verse reaches past his own nation.
Joshua 4:23 links the crossing of the Jordan with the passing over of the Red Sea. This was not only to remind God's people of what He has done for them, but "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." What a testimony God has given to men in the death of Christ. It is in bringing Christ out of death that God has displayed the "immeasurable greatness of His power" (Eph. 1:19-23). Whether men accept this testimony or not, it is also given so that His own might fear Him forever.
- Dried, not dammed — the river was at full flood when God stopped it. His people crossed the worst obstacle untouched.
- Dried out — the Red Sea brought Israel out of slavery; it pictures Christ dying for the believer.
- Dried in — the Jordan brought them into their promised land. It pictures the believer dying and rising with Christ, and standing in conflict there.
- Dried for you, dried for us — parents were to retell the crossing, because people forget miracles. Children take it to heart only when their parents treasure it.
- Dried for all the earth — the aim runs past Israel to every nation, so that all may know God's mighty hand, and His own may fear Him forever.
that all peoples of the earth might know the hand of Jehovah, that it is mighty; that ye might fear Jehovah your God continually.
Israel has just walked across a dry riverbed into the land God promised, and twelve stones now stand at Gilgal to mark it. The verse gives the reason for that pile of stones, and it reaches far past Israel. The nations are to learn what God's hand can do. Israel is to keep a fear of Him that never wears off.
The stones were not decoration. Men carried them out of the dry riverbed, and every detail of them carried a message.
These stones proclaimed certain realities. Taken from the dry bed of the river, they declared God's power in cutting off the waters before the ark of His covenant. Twelve in number, one stone for each tribe, they declared how all Israel had entered into Canaan. Set up together in Canaan, they witnessed to Israel's unity in that land. Moreover, they became a memorial to the nation of Jehovah's work for them.
Joshua told the parents to give their children the full truth of the crossing. God pressed this hard, and one writer explains why.
Why insist on this? Because it is a natural tendency for us to forget even such great miracles of God's power and to slip into a lax, careless condition. The children had not seen this great miracle. Simply hearing about it would not impress them much, unless their parents showed them a great appreciation of this work of God.
The same task falls to parents today. One writer names what they must pass on.
And well indeed may Christians recount to their children what God has done. Our little ones should be grounded in the great truths of God's word. We should plant the facts of redemption, resurrection, and ascension in their minds and memories. The pillar of stones taken from the Jordan's bed was thrown down long ago. But the Christian's pillar of witness is the word of God, and it can never be removed.
The stones at Gilgal were the second memorial. One writer reads them as a picture of the new life God's people have in Christ.
The other memorial was erected at Gilgal. They would look at these stones, and their children would ask, "What do these stones mean?" Then they could point to them and answer. These stones were taken out of the Jordan onto dry land. In the same way, they themselves had been brought out of the Jordan into this land of promise. This memorial is a picture of the fact "that we are alive to God in our Lord Jesus Christ." We are a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old things have passed away; look, all things have become new.
The verse widens the audience beyond Israel. The nations were to learn who this God is: tied to one people, and Lord of the whole earth.
The rivers and their stones were memorials to the twelve tribes. Beyond all these, the stones carried a witness to God everywhere. He was "the Lord their God" by relationship with them through the ark, for they had followed it in triumph to the other side. He was also "the God of the whole earth," for the Jordan had fled away and stood up as a heap before Him. It is in this double title and character that the Lord now appears before them and "all the people of the earth" at Gilgal, as a God who does wonders.
The verse ties the Jordan back to the Red Sea, and both events point forward to a greater display of the same power.
The crossing of the Jordan and the passing over of the Red Sea are linked together. This is not only to remind God's people of what He has done for them. It is also so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty. What a testimony God has given to men in the death of Christ. In bringing Christ out of death, God has displayed the "exceeding greatness of His power." Whether people accept this testimony or not, God also gives it so that His own might fear Him forever.
That fear is reverence, and it slips away without notice.
We rejoice in God our Father. But let us never forget that our Father is God. Reverence and godly fear are always the right attitude in His presence. Holy confidence and free access to Him do not mean familiarity, and familiarity may slide, without our noticing, into treating Him lightly.
- Stones speak. The twelve stones declared God's power over the waters, the whole nation's entry, and Israel's oneness in the land.
- Memory guards. Left to itself, the heart forgets even great miracles and drifts into carelessness. So God gave Israel a reminder in stone.
- Children ask. The memorial exists for the next generation. Parents answer with the facts of redemption, resurrection, and ascension.
- Nations watch. The event showed a double title — the Lord who belongs to His people, and the God of the whole earth.
- Fear remains. The same power that dried the Jordan raised Christ from the dead. The right answer is lasting reverence, not familiarity.