How can a stone be a witness? Well, we have plenty of mute memorials, don’t we? Yesterday around 20 survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor gathered near the USS Arizona Memorial to remember that terrible day. But every day of the year, the silent memorial and the sunken battleship speak eloquently of the 2400 men and women who died that day.
In the same way, the stone that Joshua set up stood as a silent witness to the unconditional promises that God and His people had made to each other that day. It served as a reminder of all the ways that God had delivered His people, first from bondage in Egypt, then through their wilderness wanderings, and most recently in the military campaigns which had broken the back of the enemy resistence in the land which God had promised to His people. It served as a reminder of the choice the people had made to serve the Lord and to obey His voice.
So, why do we need such reminders? Well, why are weddings always held in the presence of witnesses? Because we don’t always feel the way we do on the day that we make such solemn vows. Although the greater part of the Canaanites’ military power had already been broken, God’s people would have many more years of fighting ahead of them before they could fully claim their inheritance. When the going got tough, returning to the memorial would be a comforting reminder of God’s promises to them, as well as a sobering reminder of their own promises not to take the easy way out by compromising with the pagan people of the land.
Just so, when the going gets tough in marriage, those who were witness to a couple’s wedding vows can remind them of the joy and the love they had for each other on that special day. They can also remind them of the promises they made to stick together “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow.” Witnesses can and should both comfort and challenge us.
Everyone who has ever trusted in Christ and made a public profession of faith has received similar promises from God – promises of forgiveness and protection, promises of unconditional love and amazing grace. And everyone who has ever joined any Christian Church has also made similar promises, to love and serve the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, loving our neighbors as ourselves. When we look at our memorial – the cross of Christ and the empty tomb – we know God will keep His promises. Will we keep ours?
Joshua 24:22-28 (NAS)
22 And Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the LORD, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”
23 “Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.”
24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and we will obey His voice.”
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
27 And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which He spoke to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, lest you deny your God.”
28 Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.
