Sermon Tone Analysis

Children’s message:

Children’s message:

Invite kids forward, parents can follow along in verse 16

Who here knows what a memorial is?

That’s right, it helps you remember something!

What are some things you do to remember something?

You could write it down, what else? Yes, sticky notes and phone reminders are all ways to remember something.

Sometimes your mom’s and dad’s might pick up a rock or count beads to remember how far they’ve walked.

How many of you have heard of tying a string around your finger?

A string tied in a bow around your finger is symbolic of a reminder, when you notice it, and its pretty hard not to notice it, it reminds you of something you are supposed to remember; the reason you tied it there in the first place.

Today, we’re going to read about something God did that he told his people to remember.

They were obedient and built a memorial, and wrote about it so we could remember it too!

Before Joshua could lead the Israelites into the Holy land, he had a big problem.

Looking at the map of the land that they were told to enter, what do you think Joshua’s problem was?

Right; how would he ever get all the people of Israel across the River?

It must have looked impossible as they stood and watched the wide river rushing by.

Have any of you seen a river stop and form a wall?

Neither had any of them, and there were no boats or bridges, what would happen now?

You know, I bet Joshua was reminded of something.

Can you think of another time when a huge crowd had crossed a wide body of water?

Yes, when their parents crossed the Red Sea.

Remembering that, would help Joshua and his friends know that the Lord would be faithful to them too.

God told Joshua to “command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come up out of the Jordan.”

And they did, verse 18, “the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.”

A man from each tribe carried a stone from the river to Gilgal where they would camp that night.

When Joshua had led all the people to the other side, he directed them to pile them up and build a memorial, saying in verse 21, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ (22) tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

(23) For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over.

The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea drying it up before [them] until [they] had crossed over.

(24) He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Thank you kids for listening so patiently, as you head back to your parents, I want you to take a string to remind yourself of this story.

Sermon:

There are times in our lives when we tend to remember exactly where we were.

Minute details down to what we were wearing, what we were doing.

A day much like any other, but one that profoundly redefined our world.

The day JFK was assassinated, the day MLK was assassinated, perhaps 9/11.

I grew up in Alaska, a place where air travel was a necessity.

At a young age I experienced airports, both traveling from place to place, and welcoming visiting relatives.

Who else remembers greeting a loved one as they departed the Jet-way that led directly to the airplane?

There are other times that become mere footnotes.

Everything changes, but perhaps we remember the wrong thing.

I wonder if you remember the day you became a Christian?

There are all sorts of inventions, accomplishments and advancements that have changed life as we know it, but maybe we have taken them for granted.

Do you remember anything about the day you bought your first cell phone?

What a radically different world we lived in before the dawn of cellphones, or at least before they were commonplace.

Remembering is how we preserve, not just our story, but the story of how God was faithful to us.

“We will never forget,” is a phrase that has come to represent various tragedies throughout history.

For many here today it has only one meaning.

Though the phrase has been used since, those occasions, though life-changing for many, have not gripped us in the same way.

These are times that altered life as we knew and experienced it before.

That’s the kind of day this was for Israel.

It was not important that they remembered what they were wearing, though they had not needed to make new clothes because their garments did not wear out; they didn’t need to cultivate the land or provide their own food, because God gave them Manna, God even provided them water in the desert.

But for 40 years the Israelites were wanderers, having no place to call their own, they had no national identity.

Having been enslaved in Egypt for over 400 years, their customs were not their own.

Everything that would identify them as Hebrew, from their clothes to their sayings, were essentially borrowed.

They had no traditions as a nation.

God realizes that Israel has often forgotten what he has done for them, and we are no different.

In Deuteronomy 6:12 Moses issued a final warning to Israel just before they entered the promise land, to remember; Moses declares, “be careful that you do not forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” This is very different from setting a cell phone reminder or tying a string around your finger.

It’s about them as a people, to remember him corporately.

You see, Judaism was never more than one generation away from extinction.

It’s not surprising that the meaning of the Hebrew word for memorial means “to remember.”

For that reason, often those memorials were alters made of stones.

A declaration to the world that something had happened here, that this was hallowed ground.

Several times alters were set up, either out of tribute or by instruction to testify to specific times of favor or delivery; but this one is markedly different.

Until this point the sojourning nation would not have a place to return, a place to tie to a memory or story to.

This day would change all of that.

God instructs them not only to remember, but gives them the means to do just that.

That’s why it’s important to remember the basics as we mature in our faith.

Now it’s possible, even likely that Gilgal is not a town at all.

One way we know this is that almost everywhere “Gilgal” appears in the original Hebrew, it is preceded by “the.”

It should really be read as “the gilgal.”

This suggests that “Gilgal” is not the name of the town, rather it is a type of place.

I’ll give you an example, people often refer to the nearest town as simply that, “I’m going into town,” rather than saying its name.

People often go to “the store” to do their shopping.

People who live near a large body of water refer to it as “the river, the lake, the beach…” Of course, there are many different towns, stores, and beaches, and each has a specific name.

In the Bible, the same is probably true of Gilgal.

“The gilgal,” as it is written in Hebrew.

So “a Gilgal” is probably a type of place.

And there might very well be several different Gilgals, as many Bible scholars have suggested.

So, what is it?

In Hebrew it means “to roll.”

The symbolism being recorded in Joshua 5:9, God says to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”

The significance here is hard to understate.

These people have known nothing else; they were raised up by a generation cursed to die in the wilderness, never to see the land promised to them because of disobedience.

This changes everything.

This place called Gilgal is where they rededicated themselves.

Recall the Ark carried by the priests which was literally the presence of God, pillar of cloud by day, fire by night, later put in the Holy of Holies after the Temple is built.

It’s important to note that the Ark is called by a new name for the only time in The Book of Joshua (v.

16).

In the original Hebrew it is here called “Ark of the testimony” rather than the “Ark of the covenant.”

Not only are the males circumcised at Gilgal –symbolic of a renewal of the covenant made at Sinai, but this is a reenactment of Israel cutting the covenant with God.

Israel is the recipient here, and witness to God’s fulfilling of his part; which is delivery into the Promised Land, but now, as Israel passes before the Ark in the midst of the river, God’s presence displayed in full power, commanding the waters in a way Jesus will repeat in a display of his authority; God here witnesses Israel’s acceptance, rededicating themselves as his people.

At Gilgal God called his people to remember their commitment.

Have you ever seen a handprint in a concrete slab?

Maybe you’ve laid your hands in some freshly poured concrete at some point.

The point is the concrete wasn’t always hard, the hand prints testify to the point that these things really happened.

In the same way, there’s a story that goes with this pile of rocks and each tribe got to contribute.

So, what does God want from us?

How do forgetful people hold on to the fundamentals while growing?

Perhaps you don’t recall the specific day you became a believer, but you should remember the reason. 1 Peter 3:15 says, “in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have...” Those of us who remember the reasons we began something in the first place will have a compelling motive to strive when they feel like quitting.