Remember this miracle

Thursday 3-18-15 (Martinez, Argentina)

Scripture reading:    Josh 3-6          1 Cor 4

S.   Josh 3:13  The priests will be carrying the Ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth. When their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will pile up there in one heap."

Josh 4:1-3 When all the people were safely across the river, the LORD said to Joshua, "Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe.  Tell the men to take twelve stones from where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan and pile them up at the place where you camp tonight." NLT

O.  “Okay God, give me a few more minutes before You open the dam.”  “Hey, you captains of each tribe, come over here and pass the word around.  Go find a young guy from each tribe with plenty of muscle.  I don’t want just anybody.  I want men that can pick up a heavy stone and carry it on his shoulder.”  Now here they come.  All the people are safely across.  At any moment God’s dam upstream will release a flood of water sweeping everything before it.  Twelve men run back out into the middle of the river bed.  Each one searches for his stone.  His stone will be unique.  It will represent the thousands of the people of his tribe.

A.  Now if I was one of those guys, I would have found and dislodged the largest stone I could carry.  No young man with this kind of command would pick up a little baseball size rock to represent his tribe.  This was very likely going to be a contest of who can find and carry the biggest stone.  Now they are coming up one by one out of the river bed.  With bare feet carefully searching the ground to avoid obstacles, each with a large stone on his shoulder… all the way to the camp sight and there to build a monument… a stack of stones that will remain in place for centuries to remind their children and grandchildren of “the Lord of all the earth” that stopped the Jordan river at flood season so that the Israelites could cross on dry land. 

P.  Lord, You chose the right man when You chose Joshua.  Any lesser man would have waited until the season of the year when everyone could wade across the river.  But You told Joshua to march and he believed that even though it was flood season You were big enough to stop the flow.  I pray for that kind of faith… a faith that obeys Your commands even when the going seems impossible.  Then when I have witnessed Your miracle-working power, help me to mark that spot… and record Your miracle so that it will be passed on to my children and theirs.  Lord, we are far too forgetful.  Your miracles seem to fade into the background.  They start seeming like myths of the past.  Help us to remember and set up a memorial for others to see and believe.   Maybe that “marker,” that “monument” or “memorial” will be the pages of a book that others can read and be encouraged to step out boldly in their walk of faith in “the Lord of all the earth.”  

  

Ralph