Meditation 5
The Twelve Memorial Stones at Gilgal

We encounter the revelation of the twelve stones for the first time in the Scriptures when Moses had received the revelation on the mountain, and went down to proclaim this truth,
Moses put all Yahweh's words in writing, and early next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel (Ex 24. 4).

We encounter them again in the description of the breastplate of the high priest (Ex 28) and once again in the Divine Order of March in the desert (Nb 2. 1-34) and once more at the entrance of the Hebrews into the Promised land: “Go on ahead of the ark of Yahweh your God into mid Jordan, and each of you take one stone on his shoulder, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel, to make this a sign among you; and when in the future, your children ask you, “What do these stones mean for you?” you will then tell them, “The waters of the Jordan separated before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the river separated. These stones are an everlasting reminder of this to the Israelites” (Js 4. 5-7). As a matter of fact it is astounding to see how purposefully God uses the symbolic language of His holy images in His artistic gallery – the Bible,
The upper waters stood still and formed a single mass over a great distance, at Adam, the town near Zarethan (Js 3. 16).

The flood of the original sin streaming from Adam is suspended as the twelve memorial stones were the prefiguration of the sacrament of Baptism and its fullness. These stones are continuous admonition of the live in grace which the Israelites picked up out of the river of death under the protection of the ark of the covenant. These twelve stones they brought with them to Gilgal. The Hebrew word gilgal means “ring of stones.” The  Israelites  carried these stones with them to Gilgal and there they put them in a circle round the Sanctuary of the Tabernacle,
It was the tenth day of the first month when the people came up from the Jordan and made their camp at Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho. As regards those twelve stones, which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set them up at Gilgal (Js 4. 19, 20).

What is noteworthy in this context is the fact that the prefiguration of the rite of baptism is thus twice repeated, firstly by the passage through the Red Sea, and secondly by the Jordan experience after the purification in the desert. As a prefiguration of the coming Church the passage over Jordan refers to the sacrament of Confirmation, a permanent settlement in the Promised land by living on the harvest of the land, that is, the charisms of the Holy Spirit in the Beatitudes. This was a central issue in the ancient Church where the baptism of Christ in the Jordan event was His baptism in the Spirit, as Kilian McDonnel and George T. Montague have pointed to,
Jesus baptism in the Jordan is his baptism in the Spirit. There he is declared Son of God. By a claim he himself made, at the Jordan he is anointed with the Holy Spirit and given charism . . . If Jesus’ baptism is the definition of Christian baptism, then to downgrade his baptism, to obscure its memory,  is to imperil an aspect of Christian baptism. [1]


That is the reason why the admonition regarding the existence of these twelve memorial stones is so precious and the same applies to us as the ancient Hebrews, “The waters of the Jordan separated before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the river separated” (Js 4. 5). Thus the Spirit of Life is prefigured by this sacred symbolism. The twelve stones refers thus to the baptism in the Holy Spirit as only thus the Church of Christ can lay the twelve foundation stones of the heavenly Jerusalem as the bride of Christ (cf. Rv 21).

The power of death is broken once and for all! Theses “memorial stones” which the soul picks out of the river of death shall become a garland or a Gilgal (circle) around the Tabernacle of her heart as a reflection of the Celestial City of etnernal life. It is in the radiant and illuminating rays streaming as light beams from the Holy Spirit where the jewels of the spiritual breastplate are revealed in a living faith and become thus the rungs in the soul’s Ladder of Love to God. The memorial stones are a serious warning to all nominal Christians regarding the Power of the Spirit.

[1]. Christian Initiation and Baptism in the Holy Spirit, p. 307.