Stones That Speak

There are many tasks we "leave to the professionals" because we lack the training, skills, tools or time to do a quality job.  When hiring a contractor we spare no pains to read through pages of reviews to ensure the price is reasonably and professionalism is adequately high.  One thing I find remarkable about God is His gracious choice to rely upon volunteers to gladly proclaim His praises and goodness.  God never shies away from using the weak and foolish to do His perfect will, broken vessels through whom His immeasurable glory shines.  Should a vessel God uses be proved flawed, He remains righteous, holy and good.

When the children of Israel passed through the Jordan river, God caused the waters to stand in a heap.  The priests who bore the ark of the testimony stood on dry ground in the midst until all passed over.  Joshua instructed a man from each tribe in Israel to carry a stone from the riverbed of the Jordan which were later set up in Gilgal.  Joshua 4:21-24 says, "Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying: "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?' ²² then you shall let your children know, saying, 'Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land'; ²³ for the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over, ²⁴ that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever."  Silent stones were used by God as a memorial of the mighty deliverance He worked among them:  He brought them out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and He also caused them to pass over the Jordan to enter into the land He promised them.

The stones themselves were not sufficient to present the message of God's might and power.  God instructed the people to give their children an answer for why the stones were set up in Gilgal and to acknowledge the mighty hand of God Who worked in their midst.  The parents and their children were chosen by God to be a witness to the "all the peoples of the earth" of God's might that He might be feared now and forever.  Isn't it amazing God would use mortal men to proclaim His goodness?  Our lives on earth are compared to grass that dries up, a vapour that quickly dissipates and yet He has called us to fear the LORD our God forever.  Even as God made a way for the Hebrews to escape the advancing Egyptian army by parting the Red Sea and caused them to pass into Canaan through the Jordan on dry ground, God is able to overcome every obstacle so we can perform His perfect will.  Our lives on earth are short but God has miraculously overcome the curse of sin by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ so we can live forever with Him.

God did not reserve His public relations to priests and prophets but to everyone called by His name, having been born again through faith in Jesus Christ.  Paul spelled this out in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21:  "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  We are to make known the might of God to the ignorant as well to those who know God.  Paul and his fellow apostles urged believers to be reconciled to God and to walk righteously before Him and the world.  We are living stones whose mouths open with praise to God and minister His truth to all in the fear of the LORD.  Once we were drowning in sins that brought death, and now we have been set free and made His holy habitation.  Believer, God has chosen you and me to be His ambassadors, and though we be unworthy let us walk worthily before Him.