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Memorial Stones and Landmarks
It was so important for the Israelites to remember this historical event of being delivered from Egypt that God ordered Joshua to pick twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man. Each man was to take out of the midst of Jordan a stone for memorial. They were to carry these stones along in a way that would solicit inquiry from their children. They would then explain to them how Jordan was parted for the Children of Israel to pass.
There are so many things that happen in life, and people are bound to forget some of them or fail to pass the experience to the succeeding generations. Some of these things must be preserved because they are so important. It can happen that the generations that never had any personal experience and emotional attachment to what happened can begin to move away from identifying with them. There can also happen many things in between that can push some experiences into the antiquity of time. This explains why the Children of Israel were commanded to objectify the experience when they crossed river Jordan:
“And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:
“And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.” —Joshuah 4:1-7.
Earlier, Moses had also directed the people after having been self commanded by God to preserve manna for memorial purposes:
“And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.” —Exodus 16:32-34.
When I was growing up, there were some objects at our home that seemed to be outliving the generation of our parents. I grew into adulthood and the objects didn’t look like they would waste away any time soon. At times we would ask how, where and when they were acquired. We learnt that some of these things were passed to them from our grandparents. If there was a spectacular thing about the object, the story will be told. This was the idea when God commanded that some memorial objects be kept. God knows that such objects would solicit some questions by the younger generations. That would give a perfect opportunity for the parents to tell them the story behind those objects.
There are things we acquire in life and when these things linger, they become reservoirs of memories of places we have been; things we have done; people we have met; jobs we have done; beloved ones we have lost, etc. This explains why human beings tend to accumulate so many things around themselves some of which they do not seem to use.
When we check our surrounding, there are things we don’t use but we haul them around with us whenever we are migrating. After having moved from different houses and places, I can testify that a time for migrating is the time we may realise we have so many things. It is the time to throw things we don’t need and give away some of them. But there are things we can’t just throw even if we are not using them in any way. And we wouldn’t give them away either.
The information about our identity and destiny is embedded in our heritage. If there be any promises God made to our fathers or forefathers, He equally made them to us. Some of God’s promises are generational. Most of the generational promises are also conditional. Let us consider one example.
“Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; And keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself: That the Lord may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.” —1 Kings 2:1-4.
What king David was doing was to pass to his son the information about a promise that God made to him (David). This promise would be carried along his descendants if they kept their side of the bargain. It was therefore important that this information was passed along. King Solomon however, didn’t do as well as his father. It is not recorded that Solomon called his son Rehoboam in order to commission him, charging him to remain true to God in order to perpetuate the fulfilment of the promise. He himself didn’t follow the instructions of his father neither did he fully serve God (1 Kings 3:3, 11:4-6). It was evident that something had gone completely wrong when Rehoboam refused the counsel of the old men and instead allowed himself to be misled by his age mates. It is no wonder that the kingdom split at the inauguration of Rehoboam’s reign and the Bible also records that Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord during his reign (1 Kings 14:22).
This means that if we remain in tune with God, we become the fulfilment of the promises God made to our fathers. If our fathers were not believers, we can start the management of spiritual heritage for the benefit of our descendants. Our children and our children’s children, etc. will reap the fulfilment of God’s promises to us.
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