Surrounding the new year, many people set aside time to make plans and plan goals for the upcoming year. While I certainly look ahead and prayerfully consider what God might be leading me toward in the 365 days before me, God willing, I find it pivotal to pause and take a look back before taking a look ahead.

All throughout Scripture we see God call His people to “remember”. To remember the things that He, God Himself, has done, and the ways that He has delivered His people. We even see instances of God instructing the people to make pillars and monuments to mark places in remembrance of what happened there. Today, let’s examine Joshua chapters 3-4.

Take a moment now to read these brief chapters for yourself, then join me in further thought.

Here we read of another miraculous water parting. Many of us have learned of the event recorded in Exodus where the Red Sea parted before Moses and the Israelites on their exodus (mass departure) from Egypt. Now we read of the waters of the Jordan parting before Joshua, the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant, and the Israelites. God has done another miraculous miracle (as He has continuously done for the Israelite nation). After this miracle has happened – the Jordan parting and all of the Israelites arriving on the other side, walking on dry ground – we see God give clear instruction to Joshua. In Joshua 4:1-10 we read that God told Joshua to instruct twelve men (one from each tribe) to take twelve stones from the Jordan and to bring them with them and lay them down wherever they would lodge that night.

Why do this?

“And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that 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. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.” (Joshua 4:5-7 ESV)

A few verses later in Joshua 4:9 we read that Joshua himself, too, did something with twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan. 

Why?

“For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua.” (Joshua 4:10)

God had done as He said He would do.

Say that again.

The Israelites’ covenant God had kept His covenant promise. He had brought the Israelites through parted waters, again, safely to the other side. He had done what He said He would do that day, accomplishing what He had told Joshua to tell the people. 

This same Covenant-keeping God would continue to see them through, and what did He desire for the Israelites to do upon crossing the Jordan?

Remember it.

Not just for a moment, but – in this case – to tangibly take evidence: the stones that the priests had stood on in the miraculously parted, dry waterbed of the Jordan. He instructed them to bring these with them to where they would be lodging that night as a tangible reminder. Not only so that they would remember, but so that their children would remember as well (Joshua 4:6-7).

Carrying these stones and having them before them was a reminder of God and His faithfulness. A visual remembrance of God’s power that would last more than a moment; a lesson and reminder for generations.

May we always reflect on what God has done, and be encouraged to keep believing what He has said He will do.

Friends, it can be so easy to quickly move ahead and move on when the promise is fulfilled. When provision has come and the immediate need has passed. Let us not be quick to forget about the good things God has done, nor neglect reflecting on His faithfulness. 

Let us not forget the hard things He’s faithfully brought us and sustained us through. Let us not forget of the miraculous work He has done in our lives. May we never forget of His presence with us, whether in our wandering wilderness or long-awaited promised land. May we never forget of His works, but what’s more, may we never forget to thank Him for it and tell others, including future generations.

In conclusion, what mighty acts of God do you need to reflect on today? What obstacles did He part for you and sovereignly bring you through? What provisions did you experience? What steps of obedience did He lead you in? What sweet moments in His presence did you cherish? What promises has He kept to you (this itself is exhaustive as He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us who are His chosen people; we can recount on many precious moments with His presence everyday)! (see Deuteronomy 31:6, Matthew 28:20)

I charge you, don’t pioneer ahead into this new year without building your “twelve memorial stones”. Whether you bear them on paper, in a leather bound journal, or in the notes section of your phone. Whether you reveal them in a collage of pictures, a token as a reminder, or you present an offering of thanksgiving before God. How will you remember, in an intentional way, God’s faithfulness that He has shown you, and who will you tell?

– Lizzy Blanchard

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