Submitted by Pastor Richard Boettner, Rock Port Baptist Church

As I am writing this week a holiday will be coming this Monday, May 26, which is our annual observance of Memorial Day. Although this article will publish after the holiday, it would not be too late to visit a local cemetery. While often noted as a government (not a church) holiday with national origins, Memorial Day has caused me to think about those who lived before me, those who died in military service, and those who helped make my life what it is today. We can humbly remember with gratitude and respect.

A Bible story from Joshua 4:1-9 speaks of building memorials. Joshua has led the entire nation of Israel to cross the Jordan River as a final step to entering the new promised land. In a demonstration of God’s power, the water miraculously stops, and there is dry land exposed. The priests remain in the river bed with the ark of the covenant to symbolize God’s hand in protecting each one who is crossing to the other side. Stones are carried out from the river bed to build a memorial on the other side.

I will list some principles of remembering that can help us in today’s world:

1) Remembering starts with the goodness and faithfulness of God. This is God’s work that the river can be crossed and His presence makes it possible. In the future people will remember what God did, not merely what people did.

2) Remembering requires obedience to God’s command. “The Israelites did as Joshua had commanded them” (vs. 8). In detail the Scripture records the number of people was about “40,000 equipped for war” (vs. 13), and that the people “hurried” (vs. 10), suggesting that they crossed with eagerness, energy, and excitement to see God’s command fulfilled.

3) Remembering is done in the presence of God. The very stones came from the place of God’s presence, and could not have been brought out of the river except with God’s miraculous intervention. The memorial would serve as a visible demonstration of something that only God could do.

4) Remembering is a team effort. Twelve men, one from each tribe, work together and carry one stone each out from the riverbed to where the memorial can be built on the other side. There is nothing but cooperation here, no one trying to outdo someone else, or find the best or biggest stone. The task needed the representation of all the people, and no one person could do the job alone.

5) Remembering includes our whole family. Conversations and discussions are certain to happen, especially with our children and those who will learn of this event in the future. Joshua encourages this teaching as he states: “in the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

6) Remembering grows more fulfilling over time. A final statement of the text suggests the permanence and ongoing purpose of this memorial: “Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.”

On a practical level this passage encourages us to remember and maintain the memorials we have in our cemeteries of Atchison County. It encourages us to teach our children the lessons of the past, and how God provided for different people in another time and place. We are also reminded that as the stones are still there today, God is still with us in today’s world.

Finally, in remembering we are most blessed as we remember what Jesus paid for us on the Cross, as he told us to take the bread and the cup “in remembrance of Me.” Both names Joshua (Hebrew) and Jesus (Greek) mean “Savior.” When we reach the end of our earthly life and make the final crossing to the promised land of heaven, He will be our Savior and will be with us.

Thanks for reading and studying with me for the OTSS column. Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions at rockportbaptistchurch.com.