I just finished working my way through the book of Joshua again, and one of the things that really struck me this time was the significance of rocks, not only in Joshua, but throughout Scripture. I've always appreciated the way that God frequently gives His people markers, memorials, ebenezers, to help them remember the things he has taught them. Frequently those memorials are rocks or altars of some sort, and this is particularly true in Joshua. When the Israelites cross the Jordan, God commands them to take 12 stones (large enough that they are told to take them upon their shoulders) from the middle of the Jordan and build a memorial so that the children of Israel will see it and ask their parents why it is there, providing the opportunity for the story to be recounted to them of God's miraculous deeds. In the last chapters, Joshua prepares the people for his death by reminding them of all that God has done for them, and reiterates to them God's promises and warnings. He then sets up a large stone altar as a witness that the people have declared their intention to serve the Lord. I could not help but think of Jesus' words when the Pharisees tell Jesus to rebuke his disciples for crying out to praise him. He responds in Luke 19:40, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." I fully believe that the earth itself could and would cry out in praise of it's King if God so ordered it, and I don't mean to take away from the reality of that possibility of the meaning of Christ's words. But I also wonder about the possibility that Jesus' words to this primarily Jewish crowd were meant to bring to their minds the many stones which could be found throughout their nation as memorials to the miraculous deeds of the Lord. The reference would, by it's very nature, testify to His authority and deity. It would, in actuality, testify that He was more than man, but was in fact God. The same God who brought His people out of Egypt and delivered them into the promised land. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, now become flesh and dwelling among his people, just as he promised, for the purpose of providing a single, final atonement on their behalf.
The continuity of the Scriptures is incredible. The amazing fact that the more I read the Old Testament, the more obvious it becomes that the gospel is absolutely evident from Genesis to revelation. God's plan to redeem his people through the person of Jesus Christ was not something he thought of after everything went wrong. It was the plan He already had from the beginning of time to reveal His character and glorify His name. What an awesome priviledge to be able to say that I, a nobody, am part of that plan.