Chapter5: Two Kinds Of Memorials
WHAT WAS HAPPENING as Rahab waited in that place of danger with her scarlet cord in the window? What occurred between the time the spies left her and the time Jericho fell?
Soon after the spies had returned to the east side of Jordan and reported to Joshua, Joshua sent officers among the people to prepare them for the great moment of crossing. The ark of the covenant of the Lord was to lead the procession. Because the ark represented the presence of God, there was to be between it and the people a space of 2,000 cubits (about 3,000 feet or well over half a mile). Finally Joshua himself told the people, “Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you” (Josh. 3:5).
God said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee” (Josh. 3:7). After this encouragement, God told him how to instruct the priests who would bear the ark. When they came to the brink of the Jordan, they were to stand still in the water. Then the people would know that God was really with them because as the priests’ feet touched the river, the river would be rolled back. Why? Because “the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan” (Josh. 3:11). Joshua promised the people that “as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap” (Josh. 3:13). Though it was the time of flood, the water would stop.
This was, of course, a continuity with what they had experienced when they came out of Egypt, and Joshua, Caleb and those who were children then would have remembered that event well. Now they were going to see a sign that paralleled the parting of the Red Sea. Though God gave the same sign as he had with Moses, in order to establish Joshua’s authority with the people, there was obviously something much more important at work than either Moses or Joshua. There is a continuity of the power of the Lord. In both cases, the power of the Lord was there.
THE FIRST KIND OF MEMORIAL: TWO PILES OF STONES
When all the people had passed over the Jordan, Joshua obeyed some important instructions from God:
The LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people. (Josh. 4:1-11)
These verses describe the first of the two kinds of memorials I want to discuss in this chapter. The Israelites set up two piles of twelve stones so that the people could look back to what God had done in the past as a reminder that he had promised to care for them in the future. Christians through the years have often spoken of “stones in the midst of the Jordan.” In the beginning of L’Abri Fellowship, we were going through a great number of difficulties, a real spiritual battle. At that time we sent out our first family prayer letter, pointing out where we were being attacked, but also mentioning the “stones in the midst of Jordan,” God’s acts for us in the preceding weeks. It was then—July 30, 1955—that we first held our yearly day of prayer, a practice we have carried out from that day to this.
The first pile of twelve stones, one for each of the tribes, was set up in the bed of the Jordan. Inscribed on a stone in the lake near Geneva is the message, “When you read this, weep.” Someone carved this because when the water gets that low, the territory is in drought. When you can read the words, then cry, because the country is in trouble. The memorial in Jordan was exactly the opposite. Someone could have written upon it, “When you see this, rejoice and remember.” Occasionally, the Jordan gets very low, and the Israelites were able from time to time to see these twelve stones and to recall the great things God had done for them.
The second pile of stones was in a way even more exciting. Twelve men each took a stone out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, put it on his shoulder, and carried it out of the river. These stones, which bore the marks of the waters of the Jordan, stood on the dry land as a perpetual testimony of God’s interest in the Jewish people.
During the first night on the west side, the people camped close to the river, at Gilgal. As they looked up at the mountains that rose steeply to the west, their minds must have been filled with questions. But at the same time, they were in the land, they had taken the twelve stones, and the water had rushed back into place. That night they would have looked at those twelve stones stacked into a pillar (Josh. 4:20) and realized that God had done something great. They could have tremendous confidence for the future. Those stones were a memorial to God’s faithfulness, and therefore a reminder of his trustworthiness in the days that lay ahead.
The Jews had been waiting to enter the land since the time of Abraham. These particular people had been wandering in the wilderness for many years, waiting. Now, though the Jordan in flood had stood in their way, they were in the land. They were where Moses himself had not been allowed to go, and they established the first kind of memorial for all generations. These stone memorials were set up for two purposes. Joshua told the children of Israel at Gilgal:
When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever. (Josh. 4:21-24)
First, the stones were to instruct future generations. We can imagine a godly Jew in years to come taking his children to the twelve stones in Gilgal and saying, “Look! These stones were taken up out of the Jordan. I was there. I saw it happen.” Then the grandfather would tell the grandchild, and though the people died off, the story would go on.
Second, the stones were to tell the other nations roundabout that this God is different. He really exists; he is a living God, a God of real power who is immanent in the world.
God today gives us, especially at the beginning of our Christian lives or at the start of a Christian work, things that we can remember. This way, when the waves get high, we can look back and see that God has worked, and that helps to give us a faith in the future. It is this work of God in our lives that should be open to observation and should give a testimony to the world roundabout us that God is mighty and God is different, that God is neither a projection of man’s thinking nor a God who cannot move in history. The power of God should also be manifested through the Christian community as a testimony to the world and to the Christians themselves.
THE ARK: THE CHARACTER AND PROMISES OF GOD
In preceding chapters we have studied a number of continuities: the written book, the supernatural power, the supernatural leader, the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, the national blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, and the reverse side of the covenant of grace—judgment. Now we will study two more continuities that were flowing along, both represented by the ark.
“The ark of the covenant of the LORD your God” stood at the center of the narrative we have just discussed. What was the ark? It was a representation of the character of God. The people had no image to worship; in fact, they were commanded not to make an image. One cannot make an image of God, for God is spirit. But God has a character, and the ark was a statement of that character. Basically, the ark was a box with a lid. It contained the law, expressing the fact that God is holy, and on top of it was the atonement cover, the propitiatory, the mercy seat (to use the beautiful translation that Luther gave us), representing the love of God. God’s love covers God’s holiness when we come to God in his own way.
The ark was more, however, than a representation of God’s character. It was the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the ark of the oath and promises of God. Because of his character as shown in the Ten Commandments—he is a holy God, and he will not lie—people need not be afraid that he will renege on his promises. Because this is the kind of God he is, he will not turn away; he will not become a liar. As the people watched the ark being carried more than half a mile ahead of them, it represented not only the existence of God and character of God, but also the fact that he had made promises that he meant to keep.
In Joshua 3:11 the ark is called “the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth.” God isn’t a localized God, but the universal God. His power did not stop when the Israelites crossed the Jordan, any more than it ceased when they left Egypt. He is a God who is universal and not localized—in contrast to the heathens’ way of thinking about their gods.
In Joshua 4, the words “the ark of the covenant of the Lord” are used over and over again. They are repeated like a chorus. We proceed in the narrative, see another part of the story, and then are reminded again that the ark was the external sign of the oath and promises of God. He was showing that he meant to fulfill his promises.
We do not know what happened to the ark. It is conceivable that it was destroyed when Jerusalem was laid waste by Babylon, or it may have been brought back from Babylon and perhaps was in the Temple when Titus demolished it in A.D. 70. Perhaps the ark did not come to an end. It is not far-fetched to think it exists somewhere and will one day reappear. Whatever happened to it, we must understand that what it represented did not end. The covenant and the oath of God (which reaches all the way back to Genesis 3:15) has come up to today through different forms. From the times of Noah and Abraham, sweeping on through the Old Testament into the New, the promises of God will continue right up to the end of this era and beyond it into eternity.
As we see what happened in Joshua’s day, we can take heart in the midst of our struggles. The God who kept his oath and promise to the children of Israel at the dramatic moment of their walking over the Jordan and entering the land will keep his word to the very end. As Bunyan’s Pilgrim crossed another river, the river Death, the oath and promises of God gave him absolute assurance. Not only in the river Death, but in the whole of life, we can count on God to keep his living promises.
THE SECOND KIND OF MEMORIAL: TWO LIVING SIGNS
Not long after the two piles of stones were in place, a second kind of memorial was established at this crucial moment in Jewish history.
And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: all the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people who were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not show them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. (Josh. 5:1-9)
Along with the two piles of stones, God gave two living signs, two sacraments. The emphasis in the above quote is on circumcision. God commanded Joshua to circumcise the children of Israel, and Joshua carried this out. All those born during the wilderness wanderings—in other words, all those forty years old and younger—had to be circumcised. This was a huge number.
When the circumcision actually occurred, they called the place where they camped that night Gilgal, which means in Hebrew “a rolling.” A rolling in what way? God said that with the circumcision there was a rolling away of the “reproach of Egypt” that was upon them.
This circumcising was a strange thing for Joshua, a keen military commander, to do. He was incapacitating his whole fighting force, an absolutely unmilitary act. It is silly to march your men right into the teeth of the enemy and then disable your own people. Joshua did it, nevertheless, because God told him to.
From a human viewpoint Joshua was jeopardizing everything. Why was circumcision so important? In Stephen’s speech in the book of Acts we get an answer. Stephen said about Abraham that God “gave him the covenant of circumcision” (Acts 7:8). Circumcision was not just an abstract religious rite, but was rooted in what Stephen properly called “the covenant of circumcision,” which originated with Abraham. The reason Joshua’s act was so crucial is that before the Israelites began their battles, every man was to have upon his body the mark of the Abrahamic Covenant.
We have seen that God repeated the covenant to Abraham a number of times. In one of the last repetitions, God added something new:
Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant. (Gen. 17:9-14)
God told Abraham to mark himself and every man-child of his household with a covenant token. Previously they had not been marked with an external sign; now they were to take one upon themselves at the command of God. So circumcision had a real meaning. It was the mark of the covenant—God’s promises placed on the bodies of the Jewish men.
Notice how fitting this was. The covenant sign to Noah (Gen. 9) was in the sky—the rainbow. Why? Because it was a covenant not only with Noah but with all of nature. It was a covenant with the earth itself. Therefore, the sign was in the proper place. When the covenant of grace flowed on to Abraham, an appropriate sign was again given. To Abraham the covenant was highly personalized; so the sign was placed on his own body and the bodies of his children. God said it was a token of the covenant “betwixt me and you.”
Abraham circumcised his household immediately, for Abraham believed God.
And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him. And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. (Gen. 17:23-25)
Immediately after Isaac was born, he was circumcised as well (Gen. 21:4).
It was not, then, only those who believed personally or who would believe that were circumcised. Ishmael, for example, was circumcised as well as Isaac. The servants, too, were circumcised. There was an external portion of the covenant represented in the circumcision. In other words, the circumcision was related to the national, natural blessings. It marked the Jew as a Jew. This is the first thing we must understand about circumcision.
Five hundred years later, the Passover was established. When it was first performed, there was an exact repetition of what happened at the time of Abraham:
And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: But every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. (Ex. 12:43-48)
How did a person gain entrance to Passover? Through circumcision. The two sacraments were blended here.
The Passover, of course, involved the tremendous promise of the coming redemption of Christ, on which all the blessings of the covenant rest—both the national and spiritual. They all rest upon Christ’s death because they are all rooted in the covenant of grace. For as man turned from God in his rebellion, God immediately promised the Messiah; and every good thing that comes to us rests upon God’s grace and upon what he promised to do in Jesus Christ. But there is also an external blessing, seen in the fact that Ishmael was circumcised as well as Isaac. It is the same when a person comes into a Christian church and shares in the Christian situation. He may or may not be saved; nevertheless, here he is in the midst of the worship service and the ongoing life of the church. He or she is raised in the family of God or comes in from the outside and shares certain blessings because of this association. Back in the Old Testament there was also an emphasis on the external blessing of the circumcision.
But circumcision was not only connected with the external, national blessing to the Jews as Jews. It also had a strong spiritual overtone. Deuteronomy 10:16 reminds us that circumcision was intended to mean something in the flow of the spiritual side of the Abrahamic Covenant: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.” Deuteronomy 30:6 has the same emphasis: “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.”
This teaching was reiterated years later by the prophets. Jeremiah told the people, “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart” (Jer. 4:4). Speaking to people all of whom were circumcised, Jeremiah was saying, “Don’t you understand? There’s a spiritual side to circumcision. It is not just your body that is to bear this mark. There is to be a spiritual reality in your life as well.”
Jeremiah gave another striking expression of this. He mentioned the various nations that were uncircumcised, those about whom the Jews would proudly say, “You see, we are circumcised; they’re not.” Then he declared, “All the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart” (Jer. 9:26). “Don’t forget,” Jeremiah warned the people, “circumcision is to be spiritual. It is not only to indicate physically that you are a Jew.”
So the circumcision did two things: It marked the Jew as a Jew in the natural flow of history, but it also marked the spiritual side of the covenant, recalling the tremendous fact that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. God gave not only natural promises to Abraham, but spiritual promises to the whole world (Gen. 12). Likewise, there were two aspects to uncircumcision. On the national side, if a person was uncircumcised, he was outside the Jewish people. On the spiritual side, he could have the physical circumcision and yet have an uncircumcised heart. As such, he had no part of the spiritual blessing.
Prior to the campaign against Jericho, it was important for Joshua to circumcise the men so that they bore the external sign of the covenant. In the book of Exodus we find an exact parallel. Moses was on his way to lead the Israelites out of bondage. He had been away from his people for forty years. He had married a wife who was not a Jew and had male children who were not circumcised. Before he could begin his leadership, something had to happen: “And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision” (Ex. 4:24-26).
What does this story mean? Simply this: God actually pointed out to Moses that Moses was not ready to lead God’s people until the body of his own son was marked with the sign of the covenant of grace. Moses could not bring himself to do it, and so there was a momentary struggle between husband and wife. When Zipporah had performed the rite, Moses could lead the people.
At Gilgal, because the males were uncircumcised, the Israelites were not ready to fight the battle of the Lord. They must first bear the mark of the covenant. As soon as the people were circumcised, they were ready to proceed.
THE PASSOVER
Immediately after the men were circumcised, the second of the sacraments was observed: “And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho” (Josh. 5:10). The two sacraments were brought together again at this moment of history.
And once more we have a strong parallel with Moses. A short time after the mark of circumcision was placed on him, Moses, under God’s hand, was the instigator of the Passover. The parallels between Moses and Joshua are amazing and teach us an important lesson. “Years pass,” God seems to say, “but throughout history there is a continuity in my dealings with my people. This continuity is rooted in myself—my character, my promises, my covenant.”
As with all the other continuities, the continuity of the Passover did not end with Joshua. The Passover is continued in the Lord’s Supper. Both signify the same reality:
Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover. Now when the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve. . . . And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. (Matt. 26:17-20, 26-30)
Jesus was saying, “I’m taking the Passover because although the time is changing, there is a continuity.” Though there was a change in the external form, there was no change in the flow of the covenant, and there was still an external token. The Passover became the Lord’s Supper. Paul says we are to keep the Lord’s Supper until Jesus returns. The Lord’s Supper looks back to Christ’s death and forward to his second coming.
What, then, was the Passover? The Passover also looked two ways—back to the liberation from Egypt and forward to the first coming of the Lord as Savior. The Bible clearly indicates that the Passover was a prophecy of what Jesus would do. For instance, the Passover lamb had no bone broken, and John says that no bone of Jesus was broken while he was on the cross, “that the scripture should be fulfilled” (John 19:36). Paul says, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).
Remember that in Joshua 5 the sign of circumcision was given before the Passover was celebrated. We have a similar continuity today. We have seen in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah that circumcision related to the spiritual portion of the covenant. Paul picks this up in Romans: “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart” (Rom. 2:29). Of course! All the little bells ring! This is exactly what Jeremiah said! This is what Deuteronomy says! Real circumcision is related not just to the natural blessings in the body but to the spiritual blessings as well. True circumcision is of the heart. So just as a circumcised Israelite could eat the Passover at Gilgal, a person today who is circumcised in heart is one who can go on to the Lord’s Supper.
Later on in Romans Paul speaks about this even more strongly. Discussing the blessing that came to Abraham on the basis of his faith, he says, “How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised” (Rom. 4:10-11). Abraham did not have to be circumcised in order to be saved. There may have been as many as twenty-five years between Abraham’s first belief in God and his circumcision. In all those years, Abraham was not separated from God. He had believed God, and God had counted it to him for righteousness. “That’s just like your justification,” Paul is saying.
Yet that does not mean circumcision was unimportant when the right time came. Being uncircumcised, he had been declared righteous; he had become a child of God. But years later a sign and seal was applied to him. In Genesis 17:11, God told Abraham, “Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.” In other words, “You’re already mine, Abraham, but I’m going to give you a token in your flesh.” In Romans 4 we find exactly the same thing. What the Hebrew means by token, the Greek means by seal.
There is a flow between the circumcision of the Old Testament and the baptism of the New. The New Testament speaks of baptism as the Christian’s circumcision. “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: buried with him in baptism” (Col. 2:1112). The main flow of the sentence is clear: “In whom also you are circumcised in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism.” We could say it this way (though the previous quote is the literal translation), “You are circumcised by Christian circumcision—being baptized.”
Abraham was not saved by circumcision; he was already saved. And the New Testament argues, especially in various Pauline sections, that a person does not have to be either circumcised or baptized to be saved. You can be saved without the sign. The book of Romans argues that neither the Jews nor the Gentiles needed the sign of circumcision for their redemption. First Corinthians also argues it. Galatians, strongest of all, argues against any legality that would add an external sign such as circumcision or baptism to the way of salvation. Salvation is all by grace, all based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. You can add nothing to it—nothing at all.
Nevertheless, Abraham was commanded to take the covenant sign. Moses, too, learned how important the covenant sign was. And God told Joshua, “You have entered the land; now place the covenant sign on the men before they march against Jericho.”
So while Rahab was waiting, God was leading his people to establish at Gilgal two kinds of memorials—two piles of stones and two living memorials. When they were in place, Joshua was ready to march toward Jericho.