Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Last week week we began looking at chapter 4.

This chapter is giving us as readers more details about the peoples crossing and what the people were to do.

More importantly, the chapter gives instructions to remember.

Remember what the Lord has done.

It tells the Israelites to have an answer for what it means to them, individually, as to what the Lord has done.

Last week we began thinking about what it means for us as Christians, to be a Christian.

What does Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, two memorial events we are to do according to scripture, what do they mean.

Through our time in Joshua 4, we ought to be inspired to remember what the Lord has done.

As we read chapter 4, a few questions may creep up in our mind.

We see statements repeated and it almost seams like we are stuck on the same track, listening to the same thing over and over.

It can be a little confusing, especially if we are trying to understand the timeline of events with the peoples crossing over the river.

This is a style of story telling in Hebrew stories to emphasize specific points.

The point here is to remember what the Lord has done!

Two memorials?

Today we will begin by jumping in with verse 9.

This verse can actually be a little confusing when we read it.

Depending on the translation we read, it seems like out of the blue, we see Joshua, setting up a bunch of stones in the river, where the priests are standing.

It causes to wonder, what happened?

Did Joshua set up stones in the middle of the river as a memorial?

Did Joshua set up the stones that were to be taken?

Did the 12 men pick up the stones Joshua set out?

It is a difficult verse to understand, the language is vague and could go in either direction.

ESV and NKJV are very similar.

NASB is also close.

But then we get to the NIV

What is going on here?

Many of a translations give us a picture of two sets of stones, but the NIV is pointing to there only being one set of stones.

Why is this?

Was there one set of stones or two?

Did Joshua set up stones in the river as well?

To begin to understand the difference here, we need to have bit of background on how our English Bibles have come about.

This actually goes all the way back to the 3rd century before Christ.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, an Egyptian king who reigned from 285-246 BC commissioned 72 scholars, 6 from each tribe of Israel, to translate the Pentateuch - the first 5 books of the Bible into Greek.

This translation is called the septuagint, which means 70.

The rest of the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek by various hands over the next hundred years or so.

This is similar to the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible.

The reason was that the Hebrew language was not really spoken.

If you think about it, the people of Israel were conquered and taken into slavery in other lands.

Children they had were raised to speak the language they were in to be able to communicate.

So Hebrew was essentially a dead language, and Greek was becoming the common language of the time.

The Septuagint, is the first translation of scripture into another language.

The influence of this first translation is what gives us the difference in our English Bibles today.

You to look at the Septuagint translation of Joshua 4:9 and you see

But Joshua also stood another 12 stones.

The word another is expressly added to the text.

The NIV in their translation chooses to look at the original Hebrew in a different manner.

That these stones, Joshua picked out and set up for the 12 men to take up for the memorial they would build.

In my mind, and the mind of many commentators, this translation makes sense.

For a few reasons.

We don’t see evidence of God commanding Joshua to build two separate memorials.

Thinking of the Jordan river, being already a fast moving river, currently in flood stage, these would have to be some massive rocks to have remained to this day.

Could God have kept them there by His power, yes, without a doubt, but even for them to have been visible during normal flow, they would have had to have been rather large.

Average depth for the Jordan at that time is believed to be between 3 and 10 feet.

I don’t know if you have tried moving a 4 foot stone, let alone the size of this pulpit or larger, but its not easy.

There are a few other considerations as well.

The people were crossing over prepared for battle.

We must also remember that we are reading Hebrew Narrative, the story was told, and the people completed their river crossing at the end of chapter 3, and now the writer is going back to tell some of the important details.

Another thing that understanding the text as the NIV translates it does is again promote the importance of Joshua.

He chooses the stones for the memorial.

This is something that would exalt him among the people, which we are reminded of coming up in verse 14.

If you read what are believed to be the top 5 commentaries on the book of Joshua, only one of them suggests there were two memorials.

James Montgomery Boice writes

Were there two memorials?

There could have been, of course.

But in my judgment, the New International Version is right in its translation in thinking that the words had been should be assumed in verse 9.

If they are, the sentence would speak of setting up the twelve stones that had been in the Jordan where the priests had stood, rather than of setting up twelve additional stones in the river.

In other words, there was only one memorial.

I think this is right for two reasons.

First, the command of God to Joshua and through him to the people concerns only one memorial.

Joshua could have decided to add a second one entirely on his own, of course, but this is not in keeping with his character or with God’s original instructions to him to obey the Lord implicitly in all things and not to turn aside from God’s law, either to the right or to the left.

It is more like Joshua to obey the specific command of God and not add to it.

Second, in telling the story, verse 9 seems to explain what happened to the stones taken from the Jordan, not how an additional collection of stones was set up.

In this sequence we are told first that the twelve men bore the stones up out of the Jordan and put them down in the camp (v.

8).

Then we are told that Joshua himself set them up as a memorial (v.

9).

It is also significant that at the end of the chapter, when the stones are again mentioned, nothing is said of a second memorial in the Jordan.

The verses speak only of the stones Joshua set up at Gilgal (v.

20).

Of course, whether there was one memorial or two, the point of the action was the same.

The people needed a memorial because, like ourselves, they tended to forget the goodness and mighty acts of God on their behalf.

My purpose in telling you all of this is rather simple.

It is good to read multiple reliable translations of the Bible because translation really is a bit of an art.

Just because it is different, does not mean that it is wrong, doesn’t mean that it isn’t God’s word.

Especially when we look at the scholarship behind the translations we have today.

I believe that the NIV translates this verse, in the manner that helps us to best understand and remember the amazing powerful act that the Lord did for His people and it most shows the important role that Joshua played for the people.

In chapter 4, with the retelling of the Israels crossing of the Jordan, there is a pattern that emerges.

Verses 1-14 represent one section and verse 15-5:1 represent a second.

Each section closes by stating the result of that stage of the crossing.

In the first section we God’s initial instruction for the people to remember what He has done for them.

Verse 10 brings us back to the what the rest of the people are doing.

Crossing completed: stage one.

4:10-14

People cross - 10-13

The priests are still standing in the riverbed.

The end of verse 10 tells us that the people passed over in haste.

The idea of crossing in haste also supports there only being one memorial.

Speed implies organization.

They were prepared and crossed in an organized manner.

Some may have been concerned that the water would come down on them, but these people also grew up hearing about how the Lord had parted the Red sea, and it did not close until the Lord allowed it to.

Completely engulfing Pharaoh’s army.

This section leading up through verse 13 brings us to the end of the river crossing story again with a few more details.

The 2 and 1/2 tribes kept their promise and now lead the way, ready for battle.