When the LORD directed Joshua and the Israelites to cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan (i.e., the Promised Land), He commanded them to set up two memorials, each comprised of twelve stones. The first monument of twelve stones was set up by Joshua himself in the riverbed of the Jordan (Josh4:9), which was supernaturally exposed while the ark of the covenant was present in the riverbed and the LORD held back the waters of the river. Thus, after the crossing of the Jordan River by the Israelites, this monument was immersed under water and invisible to succeeding generations of Israelites. The picture symbolized by this memorial would seem to be the burial of the prior (old) generation of Israelites who were disobedient outside of the Promised Land. The second monument of twelve stones was set up on the western bank of the Jordan River by twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes, just outside the city of Gilgal (Josh4:3,20). This monument, which represented the new generation of Israelites who obeyed the LORD and entered the Promised Land, would be visible to succeeding generations of Israelites, and it was to serve as “a sign” and “a memorial unto the children of Israel forever” (Josh4:6-7) to the supernatural provision made for the Israelites who first possessed the land God promised to Abraham; it was to be used to instruct the “children” of succeeding generations who would ask, “What mean ye by these stones?”
Over fourteen centuries later (i.e., from c. 1405 BC to 29 AD), John the Baptist would begin his ministry of baptizing repentant Jews at “Bethabara” (which means house of the ford; Jn1:28), the very place on the Jordan River at which Joshua and the Israelites had set up their monument of twelve stones. In contending with the Pharisees and Sadducees over their refusal to acknowledge their own need to repent, John asserted:
“And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Matt3:9)
In the context of Matthew 3, there is no obvious referent for the near demonstrative pronoun “these” used with “stones”. As a plausible conjecture, John’s mention of “these stones” as an object lesson for the Jewish leadership likely referred to the monument of twelve stones erected by Joshua and his generation of Israelites, which was apparently still standing after all this time.
Through the Apostle Paul, the Lord has also directed the Church to observe two ordinances (1Cor11:2), both of which are memorial in nature (cf. Rom6:4; 1Cor11:25), and which bear intriguing analogs to the memorials of Joshua. The first ordinance is baptism, which is performed/observed only once, and which immerses a believer under water; this ordinance is analogous to Joshua’s memorial set up in the dry riverbed of the Jordan, and which would be immersed1 under the river once it resumed flowing. The second ordinance is the Lord’s Supper, which is to be performed/observed repeatedly by all succeeding generations of Christians as a method of instructing believers concerning the supernatural provision of God made for us by “the Lord’s death” (cf. 1Cor11:23-26). In an analogous way, the Christian analogs picture the once-and-for-all death of the sinful “old man” and the creation of the “new man” who lives forever in the believer (cf. Rom6:3-11).
ENDNOTES:
- Note that Joshua’s memorial placed in the dry riverbed of the Jordan was not sprinkled with water, nor was water poured upon it, but it was fully immersed under the water. This is consistent with baptism by immersion. ↩︎
Leave a Reply