Monday, November 6, 2017

Why?

Monday, November 6, 2017
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel.  He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God.  Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel.  We will use these stones to build a memorial.  In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’  Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’  These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”   Joshua 4:4-7(NLT)
Remarkable events demand to be remembered.  Moses had walked into Pharaoh’s palace and uttered the words God had given him at the burning bush, let my people go. Months later, after 10 plagues and God breaking the stubbornness of Egypt, the Israelites picked up the bones of Joseph and shook 400 years of slavery’s dust off their feet, and headed for Sinai.  Their target was crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land. 
And now the moment was at hand.  As they’d left Egypt, with God dividing the waters of the Red Sea, and His people walking on dry land into the wilderness, they now left the wilderness as God moved back the waters of Jordan.  Only this time God instructed Moses to build a memorial with the stones of Jordan.  The express purpose of this memorial was like any other – to remember and re-tell the story.  The LORD wanted this passage from slavery into freedom told faithfully to all generations.
If you’ve ever had the privilege of parenting you have definitely heard that question, “WHY?”  Inquiring minds want to know the significance of why they’re being forced to go to Grandma’s house, or to school, or made to do anything at all.  Why?  And if you’ve ever run out of patience and been tempted to say, because I said so…don’t do it! 
Why?   I’m glad you asked; because every time a child utters that word there is a teachable moment at hand.  Here’s Paul’s answer to the age old question, WHY:
These things happened to them as examples for us.  1 Corinthians 10:11a(NLT)
The old saying isn’t strained here; one picture is worth a thousand words.  The freedom memorial built of twelve uncut river stones was a monument to the faith of a people willing to struggle through the wilderness – both a physical wilderness through which they stumbled in a 40 year detour, and the wilderness of faith storms building them into a nation ready to be the descendants of Abraham, and the inhabitants of God’s chosen center of the universe.
Becoming God’s person or nation; THAT is a story well-worth the telling, and hearing!

For You Today

Do you have a story of faith worth telling?  If you’ve been to the crossroad where you had to choose to follow Christ or live your life in selfishness, you’ve got a pile of stones raised up in a river of faith to talk about.   You can help someone else know WHY!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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