Village Schools of the Bible

A Devotional Study of Joshua
by Max Frazier, Jr.

MEMORIAL STONES
Joshua 4

By faith Israel had crossed the Jordan. Now you would have expected them to rush on toward Jericho. After all God had promised them victory there. But no, God first leads them to a little, insignificant place called Gilgal. This would become a place of waiting for them.

Why wait? Why not charge straight into the battle? I have found that God gives us waiting time to renew us, to recharge our spiritual batteries, to give us new insights. So many of us, after crossing our Jordans, rush to our Jerichos, but God desires to first call us to Gilgal. Yes, the Jerichos are more exciting because this is where the action lies; while the Gilgals are more difficult because it is hard to wait on God.

It has been said that the outstanding characteristics of the great New England preacher Phillips Brooks (perhaps best known for his Christmas song titled, "O Little Town of Bethlehem") were poise and imperturbability. His intimate friends, however, knew that at times he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him pacing the floor like a caged lion. "What is the trouble, Dr. Brooks?" asked the friend. "The trouble is that I'm in a hurry, but God isn't!"

One of the things which God asked Joshua and the people of Israel to do here at Gilgal was to build a monument to commemorate God's bringing them across the Jordan River in a miraculous way. Memorial stones. Places of remembrance. We all need them to help us to never forget the workings of God in our lives. Your memorial stone may be at a summer camp where you came to know the Lord Jesus. It may be an altar in a church where you surrendered your life in service for the Lord. It also might be a college campus or just a place under a tree somewhere. It might also be the memories of a significant experience while studying the Scriptures through a class at the Village Schools. But at that place, wherever it might be, you had an unforgettable encounter with God. There may not be any physical monument there, as Israel created at Gilgal, but there is a mental monument.

And it is good when those times come and discouragement sets in, to go back and to be refreshed with what happened in the past. We can never return to that experience, even as God never again dried up the Jordan River for Israel. But we can draw strength and hope for the present by remembering that the God of yesterday is still the God of today and tomorrow.

So, in closing, let me ask you: Where are your memorial stones? Perhaps you would like to drop me an e-mail message at VsbMain@aol.com or send me a brief note describing your memorial stones. Those would be a blessing to me.

Father, how thankful we are for the memories of our times with You. We thank You for the lessons learned, the blessings received, the love shown to us. We thank You for the memories of those special places where we encountered Your presence in a very real and precious way. May those memorial stones of the past encourage our walk with You in the present and in the future. We pray this with thanksgiving in the name of our coming King. Amen.

Joshua 3 Return to Table of Contents Joshua 5