A human question, and its answer
What Mean These Stones?
After Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground into the promised land, God commanded them to set up twelve stones as a memorial. The reason was a question their children would one day ask: "What mean these stones?" It is a question about memory, and about passing living faith to the next generation.
“That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?”Joshua 4:6
Who asked, and why
Who asked, and why. This question belongs to the children of future generations, but God put it on their lips before they were even born (Josh 4:6). As Israel crossed the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the riverbed while the waters were cut off, and the whole nation passed over on dry ground (Josh 3:17). God then told Joshua to have one man from each tribe take up a stone from the place where the priests' feet had stood and carry it to their lodging place. Joshua explained why: "That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall answer them" (Josh 4:6-7). The question anticipates a day of forgetting. Children who never saw the river part would look at a pile of stones and wonder. God, knowing how quickly a people forget his works, built a question into the landscape so that the answer, the story of his faithfulness, would be told again and again across the generations.
The answer
The answer. Joshua gave the words the parents were to speak. "Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever" (Josh 4:7). The stones were not sacred in themselves; they were a prompt for testimony. Their whole purpose was to provoke the question so the story of God's power could be retold. Joshua set up a second heap of twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan as well (Josh 4:9), and he told the people the deeper aim of it all: "That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever" (Josh 4:24). The answer to "What mean these stones?" was never geology. It was the mighty hand of God and the fear of the Lord handed down to children who had not seen it themselves.
How Christ answers it
How Christ answers it. God's people have always needed tangible reminders that anchor faith in remembered acts. On the night before he died, Jesus gave his church its own memorial, not stones but bread and a cup. "This do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). As the Jordan stones told of a river crossed into the promised land, the Lord's table tells of a greater crossing, out of death into life through his body broken and his blood shed. And as Israel's children asked "What mean these stones?" so children in every generation ask what the bread and cup mean, and the answer is the gospel: that the Lord passed through death for us and opened the way home. Christ himself is called the stone, "the stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner" (Ps 118:22), the sure foundation on which faith is built. The memory God commands is finally the memory of his Son, retold until he comes.
Questions people ask
Why did God want the children to ask questions?
Because questions open the door to testimony. God built a memorial that would provoke curiosity so that parents would retell the story of his faithfulness, keeping the memory of his works alive across generations (Josh 4:6-7).
Were the stones themselves holy?
No. The stones were a sign, not an object of worship. Their purpose was to prompt the question and carry the memory of what God had done, pointing to his mighty hand, not to themselves (Josh 4:24).
What is the Christian equivalent of these stones?
The Lord's supper is a God-given memorial for the church. Jesus said, "This do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19), giving bread and cup so that his saving death would be told and remembered until he returns.