The Stones of Remembrance

The Stones of Remembrance

A Sermon on Joshua 3 — Crossing the Jordan

By Bro. Jeremy Arnold · Pleasant Springs Church · June 28, 2026

Key Texts: Joshua 3:10–13 • Joshua 4 • 1 Peter 2 • Hebrews 12:1–2

We have gone through the plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the long journey through the wilderness — all the while being guided and provided for by God. Now Israel stands at the border of the Promised Land, separated by an overflowing Jordan River. This sermon walks through that crossing, the memorial stones God told Israel to set up at Gilgal, and the One those stones were always pointing toward.

This generation was born in the wilderness. Their forefathers had died there because of unbelief, and now the younger generation stands at the brink of the Jordan, ready to cross over into the Promised Land. If we read on into chapter 4, we will see God command them to take stones out of the riverbed as memorials for future generations.

Before we move on, several things are worth pointing out here.

Here we see that the God who was with His people in the wilderness is the same God who goes before them into enemy territory. His presence did not end at the Jordan — it led them through it.

The Ark represented God’s throne on earth — the place of His covenant presence among His people. Once again we see God’s desire to dwell with His people. Joshua tells the priests to take the Ark, step into the overflowing Jordan, and stand in the midst of the river while all Israel crosses over. As the Ark goes before Israel into the Jordan, God Himself goes before His people.

Then a man from each tribe was to take a stone from the middle of the river, where the priests stood, and stack them on the other side where they camped at the crossing site.

Just as the Israelites were to be God’s representatives, Peter calls believers “living stones” (1 Peter 2). While Joshua’s stones testified to what God had done, our lives are to testify to what Christ has done.

The memorial stones were designed so that future generations would ask, “What do these stones mean?” Notice that God didn’t tell them to build a monument for themselves — He told them to build one for their children. Faith is always one generation away from being forgotten. When asked, every generation would then hear about God’s faithfulness. God wasn’t merely interested in getting Israel across the river; He wanted every generation after them to remember His mighty acts.

Just as people passing by would ask what these stones meant, we too erect monuments in recognition of loved ones who have passed, of historical events, of famous people and major events — statues, plaques, pictures, paintings, even songs and poems. But no matter the memorial, probably the most influential is a testimony.

A couple of people I would like to draw our attention to now are Joshua and Yahweh. Joshua’s Hebrew name (Yehoshua, or the shortened Yeshua) is the very name from which we get the name Jesus. Both mean, “Yahweh saves.”

When Moses sent the ten spies to spy out the Promised Land, they came back with an evil report — that there were giants in the land and that they themselves looked like grasshoppers by comparison. That was everyone except Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb calmed the people, saying that God was able to deliver them and that they could go in and possess the land.

Just as Israel followed the Ark into the waters of the Jordan, believers follow Christ.

In closing, I would like to put us in remembrance of Hebrews 12:1–2.

The focus isn’t the Promised Land — it is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The stones at Gilgal still testify that God was faithful to Israel. But today there is an even greater testimony: there is an empty tomb. Joshua’s stones declared that Israel crossed a river; the empty tomb declares that Christ conquered death. Joshua led God’s people into an earthly inheritance; Jesus is leading His people into an eternal inheritance.

To read the book of Joshua well, it helps to know who first received it and the moment it describes. The following background is offered for deeper study — the same Author-and-Audience approach we use across the Discipleship School, with the Septuagint (LXX) and ESV set beside the preached text.

The book takes its name from Joshua son of Nun, the Ephraimite who served as Moses’ assistant from the days of the Exodus and was commissioned as his successor (Numbers 27:18–23; Deuteronomy 34:9). Jewish tradition (the Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–15a) credits Joshua with writing the book, with the account of his death added by the high priest Eleazar and Phinehas. The narrative itself notes that “Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God” (Joshua 24:26), and several passages read as eyewitness testimony.

His Hebrew name Yehoshua — shortened to Yeshua after the exile — means “Yahweh saves,” and it is the very name rendered Iesous in Greek, from which we get Jesus. The man who carries Israel across the Jordan and into their inheritance bears, by name, the gospel he points toward.

The first hearers of this story were the second generation of Israel — the children of the Exodus, born and raised in the wilderness, whose parents had perished there because of unbelief (Numbers 14:26–35). They had not seen the Red Sea part; they had only heard about it. Now, around 1406 B.C., they stand on the east bank of a flooded Jordan (Joshua 3:15 notes it was harvest season, when the river overflows its banks), about to receive their own crossing — their own story to tell their children.

The book is addressed to a people facing three things at once:

LXX phrases: theos zōn en hymin — “a living God among you” (3:10); kibōtos diathēkēs kyriou pasēs tēs gēs — “the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth” (3:11). The preached text above follows the KJV as delivered; the Greek and ESV are set alongside for study.

The threads in this sermon — God’s presence going before His people, the driving out of hostile powers, living stones and testimony, and the empty tomb — each open into a fuller study in the Discipleship School. Keep growing: