2018.10.10 Hopewell @Home ▫ Joshua 4

Read Joshua 4

Questions for Littles: How many men were they supposed to pick (v1-2)? What were they supposed to do (v3)? Who would ask about the stones in the future (v6)? Where did they set up the stones (v9)? Where were the stones at the time that the book of Joshua was written? What was the Lord doing to/for Joshua on that day (v14)? What happened as soon as the priests’ feet touched the dry land again (v18)? According to v24, why did the Lord dry up both the Red Sea and the Jordan?

In the passage for this week’s Old Testament reading, we learned that the Lord loves us and cares to help us with our foolishness and easiness to forget His goodness, power, and salvation.

Not only does He bring the people across the Jordan in a miraculous way, but the Lord commands and emphasizes their making memorial of that miraculous salvation.

Oh how we need this merciful reminder from the Lord—precisely because we so easily forget! And there are at least three reasons for us to be so sure to remember:

First, we need to remember so that we can teach our children. Believers’ lives are filled with weekly Lord’s Days, sacraments, daily family worship, discipline and instruction, and more. All of it forces us to remember and gives them an opportunity to ask about what it all means to us.

Second, we need to remember because in all of these things, Jesus Christ is exalted before our eyes. Joshua doesn’t just have the same name as Jesus. He has the same role as Jesus: the appointed Savior of the people of God. Of course, Jesus is infinitely more of a Savior than Joshua. So, how much more important it is that He would be exalted in our sight, and that we would honor and obey Him!

Third, we need to remember so that we would tell others. It is our job to tell others about the mighty hand of the Lord and to encourage one another to fear Him as well (v24).

What is a daily way that we tell children about what the Lord has done for us? What is a weekly way that we tell children about what the Lord has done for us? How do you respond to Jesus’s salvation in your life? Whom do you tell about Christ?

Suggested songs: ARP78B “O Come, My People” or TPH550 “Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds”