Joshua 4:19-24 meaning

In Joshua 4:19-24, Joshua builds a memorial to God in Gilgal.

The previous section explained the power of God to control His world and perform wonders. While the Jordan River was at flood stage, He miraculously stopped the upstream waters and cut off the downstream, allowing the Levitical priests to stand motionless amid the riverbed until His covenant people crossed it on dry ground.

After the crossing, Joshua asked the Levitical priests bearing the ark of the covenant to come up from the Jordan. As soon as the priests reached the other side, the LORD caused the waters to start flowing again and overflow its banks as before (Joshua 4:15-18). The present section continues the narrative, providing the reader with some historical background.

The passage tells us that the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho (v. 19). According to the Hebrew calendar, the first month is Nisan (also known as Abib). The tenth day of the first month would be exactly four days before Passover. It was on this tenth day that the Israelites were to bring the lambs into their homes to inspect them for blemishes. Jesus also presented Himself to the religious leaders for inspection four days before the Passover He was crucified on.

To learn more about how Jesus fulfilled each aspect of Passover, see our article, “Jesus and the Messianic Fulfillments of Passover and Unleavened Bread.”

This time of the year corresponds with March-April in our Gregorian calendar. At that time, the Israelites encamped at Gilgal, a town near Jericho. It was their first foothold on Canaanite soil and became Israel’s first place of worship (Joshua 5). At Gilgal, Joshua set up those twelve stones, which they had taken from the Jordan (v. 20).

Joshua raised the stones that the twelve men representing the Israelite tribes had taken from the dry Jordan riverbed to commemorate that miraculous crossing (v. 8). As a leader, he felt the necessity to encourage the people to remember what God had done for them and to pass it along to their children. Therefore, he said to the sons of Israel: When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ (v. 21).

Joshua knew that the memorial would evoke questions from future generations. He foresaw a day when Israelite children would ask their parents about the significance of these stones. For this reason, he gave them an answer that emphasized the miracle of the river crossing. He urged the people to inform their children, saying: Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground (v. 22).

Children need knowledge and instructions because they come into this world knowing nothing about it. That is why the Bible commands each parent to “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6; Deuteronomy 6:6-7).

A proper knowledge of God’s precepts leads to a deeper relationship with Him. It also fosters righteous living. Specifically, however, this monument would give Israelite parents the opportunity to teach their children knowledge of who God is and what He can do. The parents could point to those twelve stones and say, “Look what the Lord did for us! Look how He provided for us! He is the Living God who created all things and has authority over all things, even the flow of a river. He halted the flow of the Jordan so that we could cross into this Promised country on dry land. How mighty and loving our God is!”

For this reason, Joshua did not want future generations to miss the miracle of the crossing. He urged the parents to inform their children about how they crossed the Jordan River while it was at flood stage.

Joshua next provided supplemental information about the Jordan crossing through a comparison: For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed (v. 23).

Like the crossing of the Jordan River, the Red Sea event was significant and worth remembering in Israel’s history. The Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for about 400 years and were hopeless. But the LORD did not forget them. He commissioned Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He also sent His angel, who appeared as a cloud, to protect Israel. God separated the waters of the Red Sea, allowing His people to cross on dry land. Meanwhile, the Egyptian army pursued God’s people but were drowned (Exodus 14:15-29). It was said that God’s own breath is what parted the waters:

“At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up,
The flowing waters stood up like a heap;
The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.”
(Exodus 15:8)

Joshua closed this chapter by stating Yahweh’s twofold purpose in performing the miracle of the Jordan crossing. First, He did it so that all peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty (v. 24). The miracle was not simply to get the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. It had a greater purpose⎯to testify to the LORD’s greatness and power. Second, God performed the miracle of the Jordan crossing so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.

To fear the LORD is to display an attitude of reverence and awe for Him. It entails caring most of what He thinks and says to ensure our behavior pleases Him (Deuteronomy 5:29, 6:2, 13). In sum, to fear God is to live wisely; that is, to speak and act according to God’s perspective and requirements (Proverbs 9:10; Psalms 111:10). Earlier in our chapter, the Hebrew word translated “revered” in the NASB95 could also be translated as “feared”:

“On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered [feared] him, just as they had revered [feared] Moses all the days of his life.”
(Joshua 4:14)

Joshua, as God’s servant and leader to Israel, was feared on a smaller scale. The people looked to him as they had looked to Moses to tell them God’s commandments as they undertook the immense challenge of conquering Canaan. What Joshua said is what happened, because Joshua only spoke what God told him to speak. During this conquest, step by step, the Israelites were called to obey God’s precise and sometimes strange commands, whether it was to put the ark of the covenant in the Jordan first, and to see the waters miraculously dry up, or if it was to march around the walls of Jericho in the coming siege, and then see the walls fall down simply by the power of God. God’s commands in our lives are for our benefit, if we but have the faith to obey them (James 1:25).

As a chosen people, the Israelites were to live for God. They were to be a light to shine before the other nations. Thus, the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River would prompt the covenant people to revere the LORD throughout their lives.