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“Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest’s 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.”  Joshua 4:3

 When Joshua brought Israel across the Jordan River, it was harvest time.  During harvest the waters overflowed the banks 10-12 feet and created a rushing river.  It was the only time Israel needed help to cross the Jordan but it was also the only time God had appointed for them to cross.  He wanted to magnify His Name in the eyes of Israel that they would fear Him!

The priests carried the ark into the Jordan as Israel followed 3000 feet behind.  They were going a way they had never gone before.  “…ye have not passed this way heretofore.”  Joshua 3:4 They needed to be able to see the ark before them at all times to know the way they should go.  As the priests entered the Jordan, the water rolled back from the city of Adam unto the Dead Sea.  Israel walked through on dry ground. 

After their crossing, one man of each tribe took a stone out of the place where the flood waters had been and carried it to their lodging place.  Joshua piled the stones for a memorial.  God wanted Israel to remember what He had done for them.

 Israel had been delivered from Egypt’s bondage by great plagues sent from God, but they forgot.  He rolled back the Red Sea like a scroll and they passed over on dry ground and they forgot.  He fed them manna and gave them water from a rock, their shoes grew with their feet and their clothes never wore out but they forgot.  They were destroyed in the desert because of their unbelief.  They could not remember who He was or believe what He would do for them. 

 When the second generation came to the Jordan, He instructed them to never forget what He had done.  “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God forever.  Joshua 4:24

 As we enter into this new year and walk through places perhaps we have never been before, let us never forget.  Pause to remember today how He has smiled on you in 2006.  Has He healed you?  Has He delivered you from trouble?  Has He blessed your finance?  Has He saved your loved ones?  Whatever He was for you in 2006, He will be for you in 2007!  See you never cease to remember Him in all His power and His glory!