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Joshua 4 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
Sitting on my bookshelf at home is a Danone Aqua Spring Mineral Bottled Water. It has been there for years. It’s filled to the top with water. However, this isn’t just any old water. In fact, it’s not even mineral water. It’s the water from a pool in Panama City, FL where my wife and I were baptized. We’ve kept it for all these years as a visual reminder of the public commitment we made to follow Jesus the rest of our lives.
When I see that water bottle, I reflect back on God’s faithfulness. I remember my fallen sin nature. I reminisce about everything I did in my life that was for myself and how He delivered my mind and my heart and my soul from my fleshly ways. It’s a great symbol for where we were and where we are now headed. It changed the direction of our lives forever.
There’s no doubt that as my children grow up, I will tell them the story of that water bottle. I will tell them how powerful the transformation was and how faithful God was to redeem us. It will always hold a special place in my heart. Does the water bottle itself mean anything? Not really. But it’s symbolic of a spiritual miracle. It represents the awakening of our souls and the removal of the scales from our eyes. As someone who wants to cherish that moment in time, I took the water bottle as a visual representation of that powerful moment.
Here in Joshua 4, the people are encouraged by God to do the same thing. They take 12 stones (probably large ones) to build a memorial that will symbolize God’s faithfulness in crossing the Jordan. This was a story that would be told for generations.
As a friend once told me, “It’s not that we lack intelligence, it’s that we just need to be reminded.” Reminders of God’s faithfulness produce hope, love, adoration, and joy. They warm our souls to the core and remind us of who we are and to whom we belong. Where do you need to be reminded today?