Twofer

             When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. 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.” (Joshua 4:1-7)

 

 Today’s a twofer. Let’s start with the theme of the past few days. Isael crossed the Jordan. They were in enemy territory. That wasn’t exactly a new issue, and granted, the fact that the flood-stage Jordan was not filling the river bed might give any enemies pause, but they crossed the river to start taking the land that was promised to them, but instead of getting on with it, God interrupts the regularly scheduled conquest for a craft project. Twelve men from the twelve tribes were to put a rock from the riverbed to build a heap of stones. It was to remind them, and to excite the curiosity of their children and grandchildren.

When I imagine myself in the crowd, I can’t help but imagine myself looking at my watch. Building memorials is all well and good, but memorials aren’t much use if we get killed before our kids can ask. Work and war now, craft and reminisce later. Come on! Let’s go! If He had to get ceremonial, why didn’t He instruct the twelve leaders to collect their rocks on the way. But no, God waited until everyone was across, then sent the twelve back. God isn’t worried about efficiency.

On the one hand, I love that God repeatedly does things that don’t make sense from a human perspective. On the other hand, I’m not as appreciative when He puts my plans on hold. It’s like when I walk my dog. If she pulls to get to something, or slams on the brakes to check out a small, I get impatient. When I’m the one stopping to take a picture or collect leaves (or whatever), that’s different.

So the first question: Is God camping out on something in your life instead of pushing ahead to get’er done?

The second point this morning is showing up at just the right time. This is the time of year when we consider the things we’re grateful for and look back at the year to remember what we’ve accomplished. And the right time to build the memorial is while the memory is still fresh. It involves paying attention when we may want to just get on with it. Memorials can be inconvenient.

I’m not sure how strong the Israelite men were, I found out this morning that a “one man stone” is 12-18 inches in diameter and weighs between 50 and 200 lbs. If they used nothing else in the construction, the resulting memorial was probably not huge. My guess is 3-4.5 feet tall, and about the same in diameter. We tend to think of memorials like the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln memorials, Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, or the Viet Nam wall. But those sorts of memorials are easy to avoid. It’s harder to avoid the more personal memorials, the journals, the signs, plaques, and pictures. We ignore them, maybe for years, but they’re there and available to remind us how far God has brought us.