The Twelve Stones

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 2min
 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 7
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“It came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man; and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night” (Josh. 4:1313About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle, to the plains of Jericho. (Joshua 4:13)). It was the testimony of where the ark had been. I do not doubt that the twelve stones are the memorial. It is like what the Lord’s Supper is to us.
But further: “Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day” (Josh. 4:99And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. (Joshua 4:9)). The putting in of these twelve stones expressed the whole of the company. What we were, so to speak, is all under the waters of death. I learn that in the death of Christ I am free to say good-bye to myself. I am a person dead and risen, and I have life in a risen Christ, but God would always keep alive in my memory the way in which I have been brought into blessing and association with His Son. To this end, I think we are greatly helped in the Lord’s Supper. “Those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal” (Josh. 4:2020And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. (Joshua 4:20)). They remained as the eternal witness of a finished work, just as the Lord’s Supper speaks to us.
W. T. P. Wolston