Cairn (Joshua 4:1-7)

I posted a few pictures above, and you can see there’s one commonality among all of them. In each one, you can see that the trophy is the center of attention. Now, hold on. No, this is not me treating to toot my own horn. I’m going somewhere with this. This trophy is not just about a win, a victory or a championship. This trophy reminds me of an important spiritual discipline that the Bible commands all Christians to follow.

I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Joshua. The book of Joshua is the sixth book of the Bible, right after the book of Deuteronomy. In fact, the story in the book of Joshua picks off right after the story in Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy closes with the death of Moses, and the book of Joshua opens with Joshua taking the reigns as leader. Joshua’s leadership role, however, differs from the leadership role Moses has. Whereas Moses was the lawgiver, Joshua is a general, although the book of Joshua will constantly remind its reader that God is ultimately the commander-in-chief. You might be familiar with the military strategy of “divide and conquer,” utilized by Philip II of Macedonia (Alexander the Great’s father), Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. Joshua’s military strategy was the complete opposite. Joshua conquered, then he divided. The reader can clearly see Joshua’s military strategy by the arrangement of the book. The first half of the book, chapters 1-12, focus on the conquest part, and the second half, chapters 13-24, focus on the dividing part. Since this passage comes from Joshua chapter 4, this passage comes the “conquering” half and will deal with that aspect.

Before we dive into chapter 4, let me quickly summarize the previous chapter, chapter 3, to set the context for chapter 4. At the start of chapter 3, we find Joshua and the Israelites camped at the Jordan River, near Shittim (pronounced “Sheetim”). This specific location of Jordan is key. Just like any major river, at some points you talk about its width in terms of feet, at other points, you talk about its width in terms of yards, and still yet at other points you talk about its width in terms of miles. This is one of the points you talk about it in terms of miles. Furthermore, Joshua chapter 3 informs the reader the setting takes place in the middle of the Jordan River’s flood season. Tack on another mile or two to the Jordan River’s width. If the distance alone wasn’t already a factor, the depth of the water would be. In non-flood stages, the Jordan River’s depth at this certain location is at least 3 feet deep, but now that Jordan River is in its peak flood stage, we’re talking closer to 12 feet. Joshua and Israelites truly have a problem on their hands. Here the Israelites stand at the door of the land that God has promised them, but they cannot enter, for the flood waters stand in the way.

Knowing the dire problem of the situation, Joshua commands the Israelites to consecrate themselves, or make themselves both physically and spiritually clean, so the people may petition the Lord. After the people of Israel consecrate themselves, the Lord instructs Joshua (my paraphrase), “Have the priests take up the ark of the covenant. Next, have the priests, bearing the ark of the covenant, march toward the Jordan. Then I will perform a miracle that will make it clear that I am the true living God on all the earth.” The priests take up the ark, they march towards the Jordan, and sure enough, once the first priest puts his foot in the Jordan – WHOOSH! – the waters of the Jordan River split and they heap up into a wall of water. One wall of water stands by the town of Adam, and the other wall of water stands at the mouth of the Jordan River, where the Jordan dumps its water in to the Dead Sea. Furthermore, Joshua 3 emphasizes that the Israelites crossed over a dry ground. Not a molecule of H₂0 remained on the Jordan’s riverbed. Once again, God has provided a solution to Israel’s problems.

Now if you’re just here looking for a good story, this is where the story ends. We’ve hit the climax, the exciting part of the story, with the Lord using his supernatural power to perform a miracle. We have a solution to our problem. The problem was the Israelites could not enter the Promised Land, and the solution was God parting the Jordan, allowing Israel to cross over into the Promised Land. But I believe that Joshua 4 serves an epilogue that gives us that timeless truth than everyone can apply to their lives, no matter where you live on this earth. So without further ado, let’s look at Joshua 4:1-7.

¹When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, ² “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, ³ and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.” ⁴ Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. ⁵ And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, ⁶ that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ ⁷ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

I’m going to stop at verse 7, for time’s sake. The rest of the chapter goes on to say that the Israelites did as Joshua commanded, and then it finishes by summarizing chapters 3 and 4. But don’t let my summarization of the rest of the chapter undermine what’s going on in the rest of chapter. A continuous theme that runs throughout the whole book of Joshua is that when Israel obeys, God blesses Israel with victory. When Israel doesn’t obey, whether that means doing the complete opposite or slightly veering off of their instruction, then they find themselves cursed and defeated. The repetition demonstrates that Israel is obedient, which will bring about much needed blessing for the first battle in chapter 6, the famous battle against Jericho.

Now let’s break down the Joshua 4:1-7. The paragraph opens, “When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan…” As I explained, this repetition reminds the reader that Israel obeyed completely, therefore God blessed them with safe voyage into the Promised Land. It also reminds us that the events of chapter 4 will pick up right after chapter 3 left off. After every person crosses over the Lord instructs Joshua to call together the twelve men, one from each tribe, who were specially consecrated in chapter 3. Since the twelve men were one from each tribe, you can tell these men were meant to be representatives of their respective tribe. Once Joshua calls these 12 representatives over, the Lord tells Joshua to pass on the message to them that they are to go back in the Jordan River, to the middle part where the priests stood with the ark of the covenant, each one is to bring back a stone, and they together are to bring those stones back to their new campground on the other bank of the Jordan River.

Now let’s pause here. Let’s put ourselves in the Israel’s shoes. How do you think they crossed the Jordan River? You don’t have to imagine too hard, for if we would have read on, Joshua 4:10b tells us the people crossed over “in haste.” They hurried over as fast as possible. While researching this passage, it didn’t take me long to find some modern-day skeptics, who had their doubts that something supernatural happened, who explain it away as natural science (I’m not saying God couldn’t use science. He could have very well used science. It’s doubting it was a miracle that I’m not OK with). I don’t think only modern-day skeptics struggle with what they hear about in Joshua 4. I bet right then and there, some of the people witnessing might have been skeptics, having doubts. How do we know this is from God? How do we know this isn’t some freak act of nature? Do we even know how long it’s going to last? For if you believed it was of God, you’d expect God to make sure everyone would get across, but if you don’t believe it’s from God, you don’t know how long it will last. Not knowing how long it will last, but at the same time, wanting to take advantage of it, you dart over to the other side. Now that everyone is safely to the other side, Joshua calls these 12 representatives of the tribes, and he tells them to go back! All the thoughts that must have gone through their mind. I even wonder if one of them really wanted object out loud. Yet, all these men go back. They lay down all their fears, and instead, they pick up faith. What great faith these men had! This faith allowed those men to put their fears aside and march back into the dried up Jordan River to pick up a stone, just as the Lord commanded. (The humorous side of me imagines one of representatives looking over the stones in the middle of the Jordan River, thinking to himself, “I could pick that one… no, that one will break my back even trying to pick it up. I could pick that one, but if I do, Joshua just going to send me right back in for another…”) If the men’s faith or God’s power wasn’t enough to encourage the men to go back in the Jordan River, the importance of the stone should be.

When the men come back with the stone representing their tribe, Joshua’s commands in Joshua 4:3 say “lay them down.” The Hebrew is הִנַּחְתֶּ֣ם (hinnahtem). The root of the word simply means “rest,” but in the case of this specific verb tense in Joshua 4:3, it means “cause them to rest.” This has a lot of significance. For starters, these stones would represent the Israelites. No longer would the Israelites wander from land to land; rather, God would cause the Israelites to rest in the Promised Land. More importantly, the verse explains that these stones the 12 representatives gathered were not simply thrown together in a heap. They were placed by design for a purpose

What was this purpose? It was not to be worshipped. That’s why God kept it simply to a heap of rocks, not some artistic form, like a statue. It was not to build an altar on which the people of Israelites sacrificed animals to God. Rather, these stones formed a memorial. The memorial was to remind the Israelites how good the Lord was them. When they were in a tough bind, the Lord provided a way. The memorial was intended to attest to a specific event. It wasn’t just “The Lord provided,” but moreso “When the Israelites were unable to enter the promised land because of the flooded Jordan River, God outstretched his almighty hand to defy the powers of nature and he divided the waters of the Jordan ensuring Israel had safe voyage into the promise land.” It was supposed to create a good story! The memorial was supposed to also spark up conversation about the Lord. In verse 6, the ESV reads the question the children might ask as, “What do these stones mean to you?” but a more literal translation of the Hebrew says, “What is it to you?” When the younger generations would ask such a question in the future, the old generation should take the responsibility to emphasize the importance of the memorial, almost to the point of stopping everything they were doing to do so.

Once again, I invite you think back to the Old Testament times, but not during the times of the events in Joshua. Think back to years, decades or even centuries after the events happened. An Israelite farmer now owns the land on which this memorial sits. One day, the farmer tells his son, “Son, I’ve been prayer extra hard during the past winter that God would give us a bountiful harvest this upcoming year. I believe that the Lord will answer that prayer, but we got to do our part as well. So on this first day of spring, first thing is first. We have to clear the land of all the debris the winter storms brought in over the winter. So you start at one end, I’ll start at the other, and we’ll meet each other in the middle.” The son sighs, for one can only get so excited about doing lawn work, but he listens to his father’s instructs and begins doing his work, picking up sticks, stones and leaves, and moving them off the land. Going from one end to another, the farmer’s son eventually comes across this memorial, but to him, it’s just a heap of rocks. The farmer’s son lets out a loud groan, thinking to himself, “Great! Now I got to pick up large rocks! They look so heavy!” So he begins. He picks up the first rock, and with much struggling - SPLOOSH! – the first rock goes back into the Jordan River. While trying to get a grip on the second rock, the son all of a sudden hears a loud yell. It’s from his father, running toward him, franticly waving his arms. The boy rolls his eyes his and groans again, thinking to himself, “Great, what I have done wrong this time? Am I using the wrong lifting technique?” When the farmer finally gets there, he yells to his son, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” The son replies, “I’m clearing the land, just like you asked me to do.” All the father can franticly say is, “Not those!” “Why Dad?” the son asks. “What are these rocks to you, that they are so important, that you run down and freak out when you see one move?” The father replies with his own question, “Son, have I ever told you about the time Lord helped our people here?” The son shakes his head no. “Well, son,” the father says, “have a seat. Let me tell you about what the Lord did here.”

That’s exactly what the heap of rocks was supposed to do. It was supposed to remind people when they saw it. In a time when writing was scarce, people needed images to remind them of significant events that happened in history. It was supposed spur on a good story, making the event even harder to forget. It was supposed to have importance. This wasn’t something the father would say to the son, “Long story. I’ll tell you at dinner after work.” It was so important, the people would stop whatever they were doing, sit down and discuss it

This heap of rocks has a proper term. It’s cairn, coming from the Scottish language. Cairns can found in many cultural throughout several different time periods. The debate rages on it origins. Some claim Yahweh founded this idea, and as other cultures encountered God-fearing cultures they adopted this practice, even if they didn’t worship the one true God. Others claim that God saw his creation practicing this idea of cairns, and wanting to relate his creation and speak their language, he joined in on creating cairns. No matter what its origins or what cultured practiced it, the meaning still stayed the same. Cairn were stone landmarks, meant to serve as memorial to remind people of something special that happened. They were to invite people remember, share stories and celebrate. And I might I add one more thing to that list. Cairns, in the Biblical sense, were to encourage Yahweh worshippers to put their faith in Yahweh and have hope that he would act the same way again when his people needed him.

So how do we, living in 21^st century America, practice what we learned in Joshua 4:1-7? I guess we could set up a heap of stones either inside or outside our homes, but that would be very much so against popular trends of interior decorating or landscaping alike. Rather, I propose 3 more realistic ways to practice this spiritual discipline.

First, while I would not suggest building a heap of rocks inside or outside your home, I would suggest decorating your home with keepsakes that will remind you of what the Lord has done for you. If you were to walk upstairs into my wife and my apartment (we have a 2^nd story apartment), the first thing you would see is a photo canvas of one of our wedding pictures. In fact, we have 2 of them (and I will admit, my laziness has not allowed me to hang the second one up). We also have many other photos hanging up from our engagement and our first anniversary. When I see these photos, it reminds me to praise God for how he has helped our marriage nurture. They also remind me the commitment I made to be faithful to my wife. This goes beyond just not committing adultery. When my boss calls me at home, asking me either to fill in for a co-worker who has called off on Sunday, or to go paintballing with my co-workers on a Saturday, I look upon those pictures, remember my vows, and say back, “At the wedding, I made a commitment: my wife comes first. Last weekend, I made a commitment that the upcoming weekend would be all for her. So I’m going to have to say no.” In the same way, I invite you hang up things that will remind you about how God has worked in your life. You’ll find out that not only will it remind you of how God faithfully acted in the past, but you’ll find yourselves looking for God in the same way in the future.

Second, celebrate holidays! God merely did not use cairns to help the people remember significant event. God also used holidays. In Leviticus 23, God commanded the Israelites to celebrate 6 holidays (I’m not including the Sabbath on that list, just annual holidays). Let me emphasize the word again: commanded. Celebrating the 6 holidays in Leviticus 23 were not optional; they were mandatory. Now let me be clear that some things did change with the New Covenant. In Colossians 2:16, Paul says that no one should judge you in regards to which festival you celebrate, so Christians are not required to celebrate those 6 festivals in Leviticus 23 (although I think the churches that do celebrate them are cool). But I don’t believe that means that the command to celebrate is null and void. Quaker pastor and writer Richard J. Foster has well convinced me in his book, The Celebration of Discipline, that celebration is a spiritual discipline all Christians need to celebrate. So we need to celebrate Christian holidays. Yeah, I know it can be difficult to celebrate the religious holidays with the commercialism that surrounds them. Besides, shouldn’t we be living out the meaning of the holiday every day? For example, when it comes to Easter, shouldn’t we be living out the hope of the resurrection every day? True, but I believe that holidays serve as a reminder (there’s that word again) to get us back on track. Going back to our example, when Easter rolls around every year, it should make us think, “Have I been living out the hope of the resurrection recently?” If the answer is no, Easter should be the day that you will start thinking about the resurrection and putting your hope in it.

And the spiritual disciple of celebration does not need to be confined to holidays established on the calendar. You can make up your own holidays. A few years ago, if you were to ask me what significance October 4 had, I would say none because it really didn’t have significance. Now it does have a lot of significance, for October 4 is my wife and my anniversary, and we do something to commemorate it. Of course, that’s an anniversary, it’s a big event in life, you should commemorate it. But it can be smaller things, too. On a day that the Lord did something for you in the past, commemorate that day. Do something to celebrate what happened, even if it just means lifting up a prayer of thanks. By celebrating days as special, we keep alive the memories of what the Lord has done for us.

Third, share a testimony. As I said earlier, seeing cairns should lead to telling stories. I consider myself a Mennonite, and I attend a Mennonite church. The Mennonites have a rich history of sharing testimonies. Previously in Mennonite history, most Mennonite church pastors were not seminary trained and ordained. A lot of Mennonite pastors were selected merely by prayer and lots. The few Mennonite pastors who were seminary trained and ordained were traveling pastors, traveling from town to town, church to church, spreading the gospel message. In either case, the question would arise, “How do we know what the pastor preaches is Biblical truth?” How do we know that the pastor selected from prayer and lots is speaking Biblical truth? He has not received seminary training, nor has anyone made sure he’s doing his daily devotions. How do we know the traveling pastor is speaking Biblical truth? We do not know him. For all we know he’s a conman, and this is elaborate hoax to collect the offering plate money. So the Mennonite denomination formulated a plan of testimony sharing. After the pastor would preach, the church service would have a time for the elders to get up a share a testimony of how the sermon applied to something that happened to them in the past or how they could use the sermon in the present or future. If an elder did not get up and share a testimony, it meant the pastor’s sermon did not speak Biblical truth. If an elder did get up and share a testimony, it validated the spiritual truth behind the sermon. And of course, the more elders that got up the better. I can imagine that this time following the sermon was a nerve-racking one for the pastor!

So take the time to share your testimonies. It doesn’t have to be constrained to just church, small group, prayer group or Bible study. Share testimonies at school and work. Share testimonies at the dinner table. Share testimonies when you visit someone. Share testimonies when you’re just hanging out. Tell everyone what the Lord has done for you. Not only will you give God the glory for doing so, but if someone else was in a situation you were in, it will encourage that person to seek the Lord for the answer, knowing that the Lord helped you.

In closing, let me practice what I preach. Let me explain to you why that ACC Tournament Championship trophy is my cairn. Going into that ACC Tournament, this Spring City team had just finished the 8-week season in 6^th place in League. While that might sound good, our final point average was 82, two quiz outs and a little more. So with that unimpressive point average, we were, well, to parody a Judy Blume book title, a “tale of a sixth place nobody.” Going into that tournament, our 7-quizzer quiz team had 2 quizzers out of state, and out of the 5 quizzers remaining, 1 quizzer only got 4 questions right all year and 1 quizzer just got back from baseball camp, so one could only guess how much studying he had. It looked like we were right in line to continue our average of 82 points, which would get a few wins in the round robin portion of the tournament, but that would be about it.

Our first match of the tournament was against Neffsville 1. We had a lot of errors, but since Neffsville 1 was, nicely put, a below average team, we easily won 120-45. Our second match was against Reading 1. In that match, we got over 5 errors, causing us to lose points. Somehow, it was still close, but Reading 1 beat us by a matter of 5 points. The close loss left us devastated. It really knocked off our game. Our next match, we got a bunch of errors, and yet we somehow won. Then came our next match, and once again, we got a lot of errors, but somehow, we won.

Then it came down to the last round in the round robin. In our round robin ground, only 3 teams had a winning record: 1^st place Petra 2, who was 4-0, 2^nd place Reading 1, who was 3-1, and 3^rd place Spring City, who was 3-1 (Reading 1 had the tiebreaker due to head-to-head results). The last 2 matches were Spring City vs. Petra 2, and Reading 1 vs. Neffsville 1, who was the below average season team who was still winless at the time. The only way we could make the playoffs is if Spring City won against undefeated Petra 2, and Reading 1 loss to winless Neffsville 1. It was not looking good.

That match against Petra 2 didn’t look good either. Our top quizzer of the year errored out during it. Somehow, we managed to stay afloat. It came down to the last question, question 15. We were down by 10. The quizmaster asked the question, and Petra 2’s top quizzer buzzed in. I thought it was over at that point. She answers, “Eljiah…No! Elisha!” The quizmaster responds, “No, I’m sorry, I have to take your first answer.” Who does the bonus go to? Of course it’s that quizzer who only got 4 questions right the whole year! But after thinking about it, she realized what the Petra 2 quizzer did wrong. She quietly answered, “Elisha?” She was right, sending the match into overtime, where we won with a team bonus.

After our win, the whole team rushed toward the standings board to see the results of the match between Reading 1 and Neffsville 1. They were still in the match. All we could do was pace and pray. I even remember vowing to my teammates, “If Neffsville 1 wins this match, I will hug them all.” Then the record keeper out. He walked to our group’s board. He drew the tally mark. I was the first one to see. When I saw the results, I yelled them out loud. I yelled...."NEFFSVILLE WON!!" The boys (including me) went wild. We jumped up and down, we high-fived, we fist bumped, we chest bumped, we screamed, we yelled, "WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE’RE NUMBER ONE!” Our friends from other teams joined in our madness. Meanwhile, our coaches still walking their way back to the standings boards kept bumping into other coaches congratulating them. They kept wondering why they were getting congratulated. They figured it out once they saw the commotion their quiz team was causing.

But it doesn’t end there. Due to tiebreakers, we actually went from 3^rd to 1^st in our group. Because we finished 1^st in our group, our first playoff match was against a team that finished 2^nd in their group, and from what I heard, they barely finished 2^nd. In that match, we got 5 errors, but we got 5 errors, but we won with team bonus. Since the playoffs are a simple single elimination playoff tree, you know your next match ins against 1 of 2 teams. During the whole playoffs, it seemed like every time the underdog won, meaning we were playing the underdog next, giving us the advantage, all the way to the final match against Goods 1. Now rumor had it that this team had the perfect match during the season: 5 quiz outs and a team bonus. We had the best match we had all night. We got the first 6 questions right, limited ourselves to 2 errors (the least amount of errors we had all day), got team bonuses and 2 quiz out, giving us the win, and earning us that championship trophy.

But this is where it becomes more than just a win, a victory or a championship. See, our coaches, the Deitricks would always do more than just coach us how to win matches. They mentored us so we could spiritually grow. This year, Dave would always talk about favor, as in “seeking God’s favor.” I didn’t fully grasp what it meant, so I didn’t fully know what to do with it. So I could do is I took it to heart and began putting my quizzing fate in God’s hands. Whatever happened was God’s will, so I prayed hard that the Lord would help me do my best. Now, after this tournament, I understood. There was no way with so many errors (36, to be exact) we should have won so many matches. There is no way that we should have beaten the undefeated and always formidable Petra 2. There is no way a winless Neffsville 1 should have won over Reading 1. There is no way we should have gotten such an easy path to the final match. But there is a way. It’s called God’s favor. On that I learned, just like the Israelites would learn in the book of Joshua, that God favors the one who surrenders their will to God’s will and who obeys what God has commanded them. So every time I look upon that trophy I remember how God has shown me favor in the past, and it encourages me to seek God’s favor in the future.

We didn’t just take home a trophy that night. We were allowed to take home the giant playoff bracket. Just like the trophy, that is at the Spring City church, but it is wrapped in the corner of the youth Sunday school room. There’s some good theology there. Just like the trophy, it is made of earthly materials and will go to the big bonfire in the end when Jesus returns. But this trophy reminds that I don’t have to wait until Jesus returns to see him in action. This trophy reminds me Jesus is active in the present, and I can expect him to continually act all the way to his return.