Twelve Stones to Remember the Father
At our Father's word twelve men carry twelve stones out of the riverbed to build a marker at Gilgal. The reason given is entirely about the future: one day children will ask what the stones mean, and their parents will have something concrete to point at.
4 1When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, our Father said to Joshua,
2"Take twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe. 3Command them: 'Take twelve stones from here, the middle of the Jordan, from where the priests' feet stood firm; carry them over with you and set them down at the camp where you sleep tonight.'"
4So Joshua summoned the twelve men appointed from Israel's sons, one per tribe. 5He told them, "Cross before the ark of your Father into the Jordan's middle, each of you take a stone and carry it on your shoulder—one for each tribe of Israel's sons, 6so this will be a sign among you: when your children ask later, 'What do these stones mean to you?' 7Tell them: the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of our Father's covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones will be a memorial to Israel's people forever."
8The Israelites did as Joshua commanded: they took twelve stones from the Jordan's middle, one per tribe of Israel, as our Father had told Joshua, carried them to their camp, and set them down there. 9Joshua also set up twelve stones in the Jordan's midst, where the priests' feet had stood carrying the ark of the covenant; they remain there to this day. 10The priests carrying the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything our Father had commanded Joshua to tell the people was finished—just as Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed quickly. 11When all the people finished crossing, the ark of our Father and the priests crossed over before the people. 12Reuben's sons, Gad's sons, and Manasseh's half-tribe crossed over armed before Israel's people, as Moses had told them. 13About 40,000 armed for battle crossed before our Father for war, to Jericho's plains. 14That day our Father made Joshua great in all Israel's eyes; they revered him as they had revered Moses, all his life.
15Then our Father said to Joshua,
16"Command the priests carrying the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan."
17So Joshua commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan." 18When the priests carrying the ark of our Father's covenant came up from the middle of the Jordan and their feet touched dry ground, the Jordan's waters returned to their place, flowing over all its banks as before.
19The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of month one and camped at Gilgal, on Jericho's east edge. 20Joshua set up those twelve stones at Gilgal—the ones they had taken from the Jordan. 21He told the Israelites, "In days to come, when your children ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' 22tell your children: 'Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.' 23For your Father dried up the Jordan's waters before you until you crossed over, just as your Father dried up the Red Sea before us until we crossed over, 24so all earth's peoples may know our Father's hand is mighty, and so you may always revere your Father."
