AppNotes

November 24, 2020

Several times in Scripture, God instructs His people to set up stones as a way to remember and give thanks for His care and as indicators of His ongoing actions on their behalf. If the Israelite children ask what the stones mean, God said, “Tell them they are a sign of My protection and power,” reminders to praise and thank Him. Perhaps the significance of heaps of stones in Scripture could be illustrated at your Thanksgiving table. Place a jar on the table and a bag of stones. Ask your guests to think of examples of God’s love in their lives. Use specifics, such as, “God gave me a good job … or a sunny day … or Jesus.” Drop a stone in the jar for each celebration of God’s care. Your heap of stones will grow into a thanksgiving memorial. Recounting God’s faithfulness and love in the past is encouragement and hope for the future.

Bible Reading

Joshua 4:4-7 NIV
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”