Rudyard Kipling was the poet laureate of England in his lifetime. And on one occasion, he had the duty that poet-laureates have of writing a poem for a state occasion. This particular poem he wrote has in it the couplet:
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
I’m told that this was not well received by the government because it implied that England at the time might well forget God’s blessings to her. And yet, it was a good poem and an even better reminder not to forget all that the Lord has done for us. There is a great and tragic tendency on the part of human beings to forget the goodness of our God.
Now, we’re looking at those chapters of Joshua that deal with the crossing of the Jordan River. Like all good stories, Joshua is written in episodes. There have been two already. Chapter 1 focuses on the commissioning of Joshua in his first commands to the people. Chapter 2 concerns the sending of the spies into the Promised Land and their meeting with Rahab, and it focuses on Rahab’s act of faith in protecting them and identifying with the people of Israel. And then in chapter 3, we have the beginning of this new episode, which is the crossing of the Jordan. The people had been waiting for this, not merely for the 40 years of the desert wandering, but, in a certain sense, for half a millennium, going back to God’s promise of the land given in His call to Abraham.
The people had been waiting all this time for the fulfillment of God’s promise; and now, at last, the moment had come. These three chapters of Joshua—chapters 3, 4, and most of 5—concern that episode, and it has three parts. The first is the crossing of the river. The second is the erecting of a memorial to that crossing. And then the third is the consecration of the people anew, and the commissioning of themselves to God before the actual conquest begins.
