What does Joshua 4:6 mean?
What is the meaning of Joshua 4:6?

Serve as a sign among you

“Let this be a sign among you...” (Joshua 4:6a)

• The twelve stones lifted from the Jordan serve as a visible, physical marker—an unmistakable reminder that God halted the river and led His people through on dry ground (Joshua 3:13, 17).

• Throughout Scripture, the Lord provides tangible signs so His people will remember His power and character: the rainbow after the flood (Genesis 9:12-17), the Passover blood on the doorposts (Exodus 12:13-14), and the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:8-9; John 3:14-15).

• Such memorials safeguard hearts from forgetting (Deuteronomy 4:9; Psalm 103:2). They proclaim, “The living God acts in real history, and His works are trustworthy.”

• For believers today, baptism and the Lord’s Supper echo the same principle, openly declaring God’s saving acts in Christ (Romans 6:3-4; 1 Corinthians 11:26).


In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’

(Joshua 4:6b)

• God anticipates generational curiosity. He links the sign to purposeful storytelling, ensuring His mighty deeds are rehearsed in homes (Psalm 78:4-7).

• Parents become living links between the memorial and the message, recounting how the Lord “cut off the waters of the Jordan” (Joshua 4:7) just as earlier generations retold the Exodus (Exodus 12:26-27; Deuteronomy 6:20-23).

• Passing the faith is not optional; it is woven into covenant life (Ephesians 6:4; 2 Timothy 1:5).

• The question “What do these stones mean to you?” personalizes the event. Each listener must reckon with God’s intervention and decide how it shapes their own trust and obedience (Joshua 24:15; 1 Peter 2:5).


summary

Joshua 4:6 highlights God’s insistence on concrete reminders and intentional storytelling. The stones stand as a perpetual sign of His faithfulness, prompting each generation to recall and relay the mighty works of the Lord, so that faith never becomes abstract but remains anchored in real events and personal conviction.

Why were the stones from the Jordan River important in Joshua 4:5?
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