After the entire nation of Israel crosses the Jordan into the promised land, the Lord instructs Joshua to have twelve men remove twelve stones from the middle of the river to build a monument to commemorate this miraculous crossing.
You'll recall that the priests stepped forward first and that the water stopped flowing as soon as their feet touched it. The Lord made a way through the Jordan River just as He made a way through the Red Sea. While the whole congregation was passing over with all their belongings and livestock, the priests stood in the middle of the riverbed holding the ark on its poles. This is the spot where the men are to gather the rocks.
"When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 'Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you will stay tonight.'" (Joshua 4:1-3) In Chapter 3 Joshua told the people to choose one man from each tribe but he didn't specify what these twelve men were going to do. We could assume that each of these men walked at the head of their tribe and led their people across the Jordan, and that may be the case, but I also think the twelve men chosen in Chapter 3 are the same twelve men who take up stones in Chapter 4.
"So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, 'Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you.'" (Joshua 4:4-6a) The word translated into English as "sign" means in the original language: "beacon, monument, remembrance, token, proof". The Israelites have many battles ahead of them in the promised land. Even if they didn't, life isn't a bed of roses all the time for anyone living in this fallen world. The people will face challenges. They will come upon problems that to human eyes will look as impassible as the Jordan River looked at flood stage. But the Lord made a way through the Jordan River at flood stage and the Lord is able to make a way through any obstacle. The monument made of stones taken from the middle of the Jordan will serve as proof that the Lord is a miracle-working God. When facing a challenge they can look back to this monument and say, "Here is the proof that God did what is impossible for man. We could not have obtained these stones if He had not parted the waters and led us through on dry ground. He performed a miracle on our behalf and He is still the same God today that He was then."
It helps when we're facing a new problem to think back on the problems the Lord has solved for us in the past. How many times did your circumstances look impossible? Were you discouraged by them? Were you depressed over them? Did you despair of them working out in a favorable way? But then God stepped in and turned your situation around. He worked things out so you were actually better off after you'd been through the hard time than you were before you went through it. I went through a season that lasted several years where there was barely enough light on the path ahead for me to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I felt hemmed in on every side. I couldn't see a way that any of the problems that had come against me could be worked out in my favor. But at the very right moment and in the very right way, God stepped in and every obstacle in my path suddenly started falling down one after another like a row of standing dominoes. Situations that by human efforts should have taken years to clear up were solved within a matter of months. The Lord had lined up people and resources and circumstances in such a way that when the day came that He intended to part the waters for me, everything was already in place to turn my situation around so miraculously and so swiftly that there was no way on earth I could say anything except, "God did this!"
That's what the Lord intends the Israelites to say whenever they view the monument they're setting up in Chapter 4. "In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever." (Joshua 4:6b-7)
"So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day." (Joshua 4:8-9)
The stones of this monument are to serve as a visual reminder of the miracle the Lord did on their behalf. The monument would not be there if the Lord had not parted the Jordan River. The stones would have been forever hidden and forever inaccessible if He had not drawn the waters back from them. The power of God will be undeniable when they gaze upon these stones. They can't help but feel encouraged in the future, no matter what comes their way, when they view this monument and think about what the Lord did on their behalf on the day He led them across the Jordan. They will take heart knowing that the God who did big things in the past is still ready, willing, and able to do big things today and in the future.
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