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"Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel,
out of every tribe a man. And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the
Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon
his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel"
(Josh. 4: 4, 5).
"And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones
out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the
tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they
lodged, and laid them down there" (Josh. 4: 8).
The above passages reiterate the association of the twelve stones with the twelve
tribes. Two other passages complete the record, making six references to the number
twelve in this section:--
"Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' 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" (Josh. 4: 3).
"And Joshua set up twelve stones ('other twelve stones' LXX) in the midst of Jordan,
in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and
they are there unto this day" (Josh. 4: 9).
Several points call for notice in the above account. First of all, observe that what the
twelve representative men did, is said to have been done by "the children of Israel"
(Josh. 4: 8). We find the same principle at work in the record of the Passover, where,
although the head of the house was the one who actually killed the passover lamb, yet, as
it was a representative act, we read: "And the whole assembly of the congregation of
Israel shall kill it in the evening" (Exod. 12: 6). Not only is the representative principle
manifest in the reference to Israel, but also in the fact that the many passover lambs slain
that night are spoken of as "it", plainly looking forward to the great Antitype. It is well to
see this fact clearly, for there are some who would rob us of this glorious ground of
acceptance.
We next observe that the twelve stones were not gathered from any part of the river
bed that was most accessible, but had to be taken "out of the place where the priests' feet
stood firm". Moreover Joshua set up twelve more stones in the midst of Jordan, in
exactly the place from which the first twelve were taken. When we are dealing with
stones, it is not possible for them to be in two places at once, but when we consider God's
people, we learn that they are buried with Christ, and also raised together with him.
Again, we observe that it was Joshua, not the twelve men, who placed the twelve
stones in the river bed, and it was Joshua, and not the twelve men who pitched them in
Gilgal. We have symbolized in these two sets of stones a twofold work, that remained
unexplained until Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans.
The special significance of Gilgal where the rescued twelve stones were pitched by
Joshua will become apparent on reading Joshua. This chapter forms the second half of
the crossing of Jordan, and is to be considered in our next article.