“An essential readiness”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, July 15, 2022
Joshua 4:19-5:1,10-15 (Forward, p. 78) CEV p. 212
Bible study experts often issue stern cautions to people regarding historical narratives, and, taking today’s passage as an example, one can easily see why. What their cautions have to do with is the all-too tendency of readers to want to apply the passage directly and immediately to themselves and their particular situations.
Thus, with today’s passage, they might conclude that God will provide us with food but change our provisions, and even change our diet according to circumstances. Or that God will facilitate our travels by eliminating all barriers, as in parting the waters of the River Jordan. Or that God and God’s army take no sides, neither favouring one side (as in God’s own people) nor the other. But then, that doesn’t seem to ring true with what we find recorded, revealed, elsewhere in the Scriptures. All that this seems to say to me is that God is sovereign, and that He ‘calls the shots’.
However, if we look at verses 2-9—verses omitted in today’s reading—we discover some other things, things that had to do with God’s people being able to enter into God’s provision, into the Promised Land. Firstly, all the males among their people had to be circumcised, a sign of their belonging to God and to His people. (This rite had not been practiced at all during their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness). It would seem also to be a sign of a new beginning, one where they were no longer slaves and where the reproach of being slaves had been rolled away. And then secondly, seeing as they were now God’s redeemed people they were able to celebrate the Passover for the first time since leaving Egypt. All this happened in readiness to their entering the Promised Land.
So, are there some parallels or lessons that we can take from this? The apostle Paul talks about the necessity of a circumcism of the heart (vs. one that is outward and physical) in belonging to God’s people. This too can be seen as a sign of our redemption, a release from our bondage to sin. And logically too, this can be seen as a precondition to joining God’s people for their covenant meal, the Eucharist or Holy Communion. One other thing: the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of ‘entering into our rest’ and draws a parallel between it and the Promised Land. And, surely entering into ‘our rest’, our relationship with Jesus, implies these things as well, things with a direct parallel to what was necessary for Israel. Amen.
Forward notes: “Those twelve stones, which they had taken out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal, saying to the Israelites, ‘When your children ask their parents in time to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground’” (verses 20-22).
“The stones the people erect in Gilgal are the first in a pattern of sorts. The Israelites heap stones throughout their journey in Canaan to remember events, both good and bad. These stones at Gilgal are meant to be a reminder for the generations, yet I wonder if stacking them helped the Israelites as well. They made a camp at Gilgal and marked another way God fulfilled the promise of freedom to his people by celebrating the Passover.
“Amid the difficult text about conquest, these quiet moments reveal the institution of remembrance and the construction of ritual. Passover begins with God’s actions in Egypt and into the wilderness, and through that same journey, the story is taught by the people who lived it to those who would live because of it. God’s liberation of the Israelites moves from fact to story to faith—and is never any less true or any less transformative.”
Moving Forward: “What are the memorial stones of your faith?