For the Israelites, they were told to build a 12 stone monument that would be a reminder to them about what God did for them in the tough times. In this case it was crossing the Jordan river (which they would have otherwise not been able to do) and also a reminder of even further back about their escape from Egypt (another trial) and how God facilitated their escape from Pharaohs army by crossing the Red Sea. God specifically made them set this reminder so that they would remember who got them through their times of need (God) and so they would know who had the power and who it was that needed to be feared (God and not Pharaoh, God and not the people of Canaan. etc, etc). So when you are thinking about the past, don't skip over the difficult times, but remember how you got through those times.
Joshua 4 is a reminder to not forget these times because these times are often associated with God and what He did to help us get through the tough times and that it is God who holds the power and HE is the one who we should fear (and not the trial).
He said to the Israelites "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'what do these stones mean?' tell them 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground'. For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what He had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that thSomething I was thinking about when reading through Joshua 4 was how we look upon our past. When looking upon the past, (not all the time but for a lot of it) we tend to remember the good times. Those times when things were going well in our lives and in doing so we often forget the struggles or we try to ignore them; not wanting to dredge up the memories attached to them.
e hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God. - Joshua 4:21-24
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