Joshua 4:19-24 – Keep Remembering!

V19 includes another one of those little details (like 3:15) that we could easily skip over: “The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho”. Now turn back in your Bibles and read Exodus 12:2-3. It was on the same day 40 years previously that Israel had begun to prepare for going out of Egypt by setting apart the Passover lamb. So we could say that the same day that marked the beginning of their deliverance now marked the completion of their deliverance. What the LORD had begun, He now brought to completion. The God of Israel has written His faithfulness across another date on the calendars of His people! Israel had been a slave; now Israel was receiving its inheritance in the land of Canaan.

There can be no doubt about the teaching that Israel was to take from this event. Verses 21-24 re-emphasise the importance of families telling their children about the amazing thing God had done at the Jordan. The LORD, Israel’s God, had done it again! He had now put the Jordan River on the map of faith along with the Red Sea – so that even Gentile observers might have clear proof of His might and so that Israel would reverently and continually submit to Him (v24).

The Israelites are now in the Promised Land! God has performed wonders on their behalf which will challenge the citizens of Canaan to choose either for or against Israel and their God. “… the hand of the LORD is mighty …” (v24). Both the people of Canaan and the people of Israel will see that He is able to overcome the resistance of His enemies just as He overcame the resistance of the Red Sea and the Jordan River. His own people will know this success as they learn to fear Him (v24) – that is, to worship and obey Him alone.