Readers Guide: “The Word for Today” Sunday, October 21, 2012 Read – Joshua 3 & 4 The more familiar story of God’s people “passing through the waters on dry land” is the story of God freeing them from bondage in Egypt and their escape through the Red Sea. The story told in these chapters is a reprise of that story. Both stories are about significant events in the life of God’s people and come at strategic moments. There are similarities in the stories as well as differences. The similarity is that an object in the hands of God’s representative is the power through which the waters are parted – Moses’ staff at the Red Sea and the Ark of the Covenant carried by the priests here. The point of both stories is that it is God who does the acting. In a story that sounds like the earlier calls in Deuteronomy to be sure to tell the children about the mighty acts of God here the people are to take twelve stones from the center of the river and make a monument of them to remind those who come along in later times about this miraculous crossing. Each of these stories reinforces the main idea which is to help people remember that the land is a gift from the hand of God – the people do not earn it or achieve it. We have not read chapter 5 but it has one interesting thing worth noting – apparently circumcision was suspended during the wilderness journey. That is surprising given the seriousness given to the keeping of the circumcision practice in Genesis. This will not be the only surprise we will encounter regarding sacred practice. As we read the stories of the kingdom we will discover that Passover was not celebrated for hundreds of years as well.