Revering the Word
Joshua 1 Important historical and foundational context to Joshua.
Good morning everyone. We moved to Joshua chapter one today. It is good and right for us before we begin to remember the setting which we are. In fact, let's go back to the beginning. When God created Adam and Eve, he said, "I've created you in my image and likeness. Be fruitful and multiply." God's desire was to have a group of people that would become his family who would resemble or reflect the character of God that they would become more like him. He created mankind to be like him and to exude the godly create godly characteristics that he gave man when he made them. And he wanted them to come together, man and woman, to be fruitful and multiply, to have a family and expand that family and to expand his goodness, to expand his likeness, to expand his image throughout the world. Unfortunately, with the sin of Adam and Eve, they multiplied but they multiplied a sinful version of themselves. And ever since mankind has had a sin problem. Since that time, God has developed new ways in order to seek to fulfill his original mission to create man and his image and likeness and be fruitful and multiply. And you might recall that after the world became utterly corrupt and the only thing that was on their thoughts and the intentions of the minds of the people was wickedness. God flooded the earth and he started over with a man named Noah and his family who were much more righteous than the people around them. And when Noah got off the ark after the water receded on the earth, he gave them the same command saying I've created you in my image and likeness and be fruitful and multiply. However, Noah too still had the sin problem that he inherited from his father. Later on, God decided, you know what, I'm going to establish a family of all the families of the earth because now their Noah has repopulated the earth and there are different families of the earth. But God said, you know what, what I want to do is I'm going to start with a family, the family of Abraham and I'm going to make him my chosen family of the families of the earth. And my blessing and favor is going to be beyond Abraham. And I want to bless Abraham and make his name great. And I want the people of the world to see the blessing that's on Abraham and I want Abraham's family to be a blessing to all the other families on the earth. And when they see the blessing that's on Abraham's family, that they're going to want to know the God that is blessing Abraham and follow the same God that Abraham is following. So God started a family through Abraham and he promised Abraham land. He said, Abraham, I'm going to give you a land and I'm going to make you great and I'm going to make you a family and I'm going to make you a nation. You're going to have as many families as the stars are in the sky. And that was quite an amazing promise because Abraham and Sarah were barren. They didn't have any children, but yet God did ultimately fulfill that plan even their old age after many years of waiting to have Isaac. And Abraham had Isaac and Isaac, the promised child, had Jacob and Jacob struggled and wrestled with God, which is where we get the name Israel from. And Jacob's name was changed to Israel and Jacob's family was Abraham's family through Isaac. And they became the Israelites. And God indeed multiplied them, but he had to actually save them from starvation. And he did that through bringing them to Egypt under when Joshua was a leader in Egypt, excuse me, Joseph was a leader in Egypt. And God's family multiplied significantly in Egypt, but they were not free to worship God. And ultimately God then set them free from Egypt through the Passover and they spent 40 years in the desert under the leadership of Moses. And God is now beginning to take his family who has significantly multiplied Israel. And he's preparing them to give them the land that he promised to Abraham and God still about his plan to bless his family, multiply his family and multiply his goodness and people that would follow his image and likeness and reflection on the earth. But unfortunately, the people were very disobedient in the desert. And as a result, Moses and the first generation of people that were going to enter the Promised Land were not going to get to go because they had proved to be unfaithful to God. And God said, I'm going to let your children go over, but I'm going to let this generation die out in the desert because I think God was concerned that if this first generation is a generation that comes over, they're not going to accomplish the aim that I have set for them to give them the land and for them to be my family and for them to reflect my image and likeness and multiply because they've been so wicked. So they failed to enter the Promised Land. They were not able, not allowed to enter the Promised Land, but the next generation was allowed to enter. Part of that next generation was Joshua. Joshua was a younger person in Egypt. He came out through the Passover. He lived in the desert under the leadership of Moses, but he wasn't part of the first generation, but he was the second generation. And Joshua appears, you know, in the first five books of the Old Testament, and he was one of the more courageous young men. And he was a one of the good spies with Caleb that went and spied out the land and said, no, we can trust God and we can take this land. And now with Moses not being able to enter the rest, it's called, and that's going to come up here, the rest of the Promised Land. Because that was going to be a time of victory and a time of rest. Now, instead of Moses leading them who has now passed, Joshua is going to be the one who succeeds Moses and leads the people into the Promised Land. He leads that next generation to take the land. Now, what we're going to see in the book of Joshua, not so much in this chapter, but there's going to be a conquest. God's people are going to go and take over the land. And it's in some ways hard a stomach because, you know, they're going to destroy the people of the land. And there's no getting around that. That's part of God's mission for the Israelites that they would come in and take over the land. In fact, he wanted them to destroy the people of the land. And it's important to see what God's objective was. God is trying to establish a people who will be fruitful and multiply, who will reflect his priorities, his characteristics, that who will multiply his image and likeness. And God knows the waywardness of mankind. And he is very concerned that if Israel comes into the land and if they don't establish God's authority and his image and likeness in the land, that they're going to end up partnering with all the nations and the peoples and the gods around them. And everything that God had established and trying to create a people that were going to reflect his image and likeness would be thwarted because they're going to end up intermarrying and worshiping pagan gods in the land. The land that they're about to take, the gods, there's a plinthitude of false gods. And there is an abundance of wickedness. Remember, that's the propensity of God's people, is to live in wickedness. It's been happening all throughout creation. And God's about to send his people that he's protecting in the desert now to enter the land and a land of wickedness. And he's like, I need you to be able to start over in this land and not inherit the wickedness of the land around you. So that is why it was a conquest. And unfortunately, as we'll see, they're going to fail to fully do what God has commanded. And as a result, you know, eventually Israel is going to fall into pagan practices. And what what really all this leads to is the utter failure of mankind to live to the standard of God. And that's going to raise up another Joshua one day. And but not exactly Joshua, the one he's going to raise up one day is going to be Jesus. Because the only way that we're gonna be right before God is through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, who dies as the Lamb of God to take the sins of the world. Because mankind just fails to live to the standard of God. So we needed someone to forgive us of our failure to live to that standard. And that one is Jesus. And now through the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to still be fruitful and multiply through discipleship through our offspring and seek to reflect the image and likeness of God and the character of God on this earth. And one day God's going to bring it all to full circle and he will have a nation that follows him. And the fullness of it's going to happen in future eschatological times when ultimately in the new heaven and new earth, but also during the millennium, you know, God's going to succeed in bringing about the nation that he wants to have and the people that he wants to have. But while we're here on this earth, God is still desiring that we would embrace the mission of God to be fruitful and multiply to reflect who he is to raise our children as best we can to influence the culture around us to follow Jesus. But until until the future eschatological times, you know, there's still going to be a thorn of the sinful, Adamic problem that's in our world of people not following Jesus. So that gives you a picture of the background of what's going on throughout biblical history, but also what's going on in this book. So Joshua, now in the desert with God's people, Moses has passed and he's going to be the one to lead them. Let's go ahead and take it in. Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of none, Moses servant saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore rise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I am giving to them to the sons of Israel. See, this is God's faithfulness because he promised this land to Israel and now he's going to fulfill his promise. Every place in which the soul of your foot treads, I will, I have given it to you just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness of this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river of Euphrates, all the land of the hittites and as far as the great sea toward the sitting of the sun will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. God's going to be with Joshua and give them victory. But he wants Joshua, listen to what he says here and I think he wants this for us to his people of God today be strong and courageous. For you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their forefathers to give them that's to Abraham. He's going to give them what he promised. God's going to fulfill what he promised. And just as he fulfilled what he promised here, he's going to fill what he promised to us. And he's going to bring a bottom millennium. He's going to bring about a new heaven and a new earth. And you can trust God for the future. But what does he want us to do? What do they want Joshua do? Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. I want you to honor me and my words. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. But you shall meditate in on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Now I want to pause here for a second and just say how important this is. In the Old Testament, they had an Old Testament word. They had the book of the law. They had the commandments of God and they were to be careful to do all that was commanded so that they could have success and it's the same today. You know it's so interesting. Occasionally I will post some things on social media and you know sometimes people will want to debate and so there's this woman who is claiming to be Christian but she's completely for abortion and you know God put his spirit in John the Baptist while he was still in his mother's womb. God knows us in the womb. God would not want to destroy a womb. It's very clear biblically that abortion is wrong and you know grace to listen you can be forgiven of any sin. I don't want any woman who's listening to know that no matter what you've gone through in your past even if you've been a part of the practice of abortion through Jesus Christ you can be forgiven Hallelujah. This is not about judging. That's not why I'm bringing this up but it is about judging right from wrong. It's not about judging people but we have to we have to adhere to what God has said and God formed us in the womb. God knows us in the womb and He doesn't want us to kill something that He has put inside of our womb. And what saddens me is Christians who don't think we need to go by the word of God. Jesus said you don't live by bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We don't have we can't just arbitrarily just do willy-nilly whatever we want and act like that honors God or create our own opinion of the word. That's what a lot of people are doing today. They say oh well yeah I like the Bible but I like my opinion of it and you can't you can't recreate it to say what you want it to say. And if you don't honor what God has spoken if you don't honor His word then you're really not honoring God. Really what you're worshiping is yourself. If you don't follow the Bible you're worshiping yourself because you're saying I worship what I believe about the Bible rather than the Bible itself. So basically you're worshiping your own opinion and it's very sad that's what's happening in the world today and there's not blessing in that. And just as Joshua is commanded to follow the book of the law and to not to turn to the left or the right but to be careful to do all that it is according to the law we need to do what the Word of God says today and just as they would not be blessed when they didn't fall God in fact they weren't when they entered the Promised Land and they disobeyed God they paid the penalty for it and if we just disobeyed God and don't follow His word it's not gonna go well for us and God wants it to go well but He wants it to go well by us being a reflection of His character and His image and likeness and we can't just play with that and act like we get to alter what God has spoken. So very important verse 10 then Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying pass through the midst of the camp and command the people saying prepare provisions for yourself for within three days you are to cross this Jordan to go in and to possess the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess it and this comes up a ton in the book of Joshua that God is going to give you the land and He's going to have you possess it because He promised it. He promised it to Abraham's family and He's going to give it to them. To the Rubenites and the Gadites and to the half tribe of Manasseh now you might recall that these people wanted land on the other side of the river and God said that's fine I'll give you land here but you have to agree to come over and fight with Israel to take the promised land then once the promised lands won you can come back across the river and you can have the land on the other side and they they agreed to that commitment so this that's being reminded here remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you saying the Lord your God gives you rest and will give you this land your wives and your little ones in your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan but you shall cross before your brothers in battle array all your valiant words and shall help them until the Lord gives your brothers rest as He gives you and they also possess the land which the Lord your God has given them then you shall return to your land and possess that which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise so again they had to come over and fight with Israel but then they were going to go back to the land that God gave them on the other side of the Jordan but the one of the things that I want you to see is a couple of times in this chapter we see the Lord your God gives you rest and the promised land was going to end up being a land of rest God was going to give them the land they were going to be strong and courageous they were going to be victorious and God was finally going to give Abraham's people the land and they were going to have rest and what a beautiful thing that is that God promised and you know to be at rest what a wonderful thing to to have be in your home be in your land and to have rest and this concept of rest is brought up a lot or it's brought up scripturally and and today we have rest we have rest in Jesus we have rest from our sinfulness because of the forgiveness that we have through Jesus Christ and ultimately we have the rest of eternity the promise of eternal life but a lot of people in the Old Testament didn't get to enter the promised land because they disobeyed God and didn't they weren't faithful they were unfaithful and they never got to enter the rest of the promise land and that gets brought up for us today in Hebrews chapter three and four in particular this is talked about and he says and to whom this is verse 3 18 of Hebrews and to whom did he swear they would not enter his rest but to those who were disobedient the disobedient unfaithful people of the desert didn't get to enter the rest of the promised land and then what's compared to that is so we see they were not able to enter because of unbelief ultimately the root cause of their disobedience in the desert was unbelief and this goes on then in Hebrews 4 to talk about the believers rest therefore let us fear while if a promised remains of entering his rest any one of you may seem to have fall have come short of it for indeed we have good news preached to us just as they also but the word they heard did not profit them because it was you not united by faith in those who heard for we who believed enter that rest so now through the gospel just as the the Old Testament people were promised the rest of the promised land were promised the rest of forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Jesus but it's it's important that we are in faith and that we are not unfaithful like the Old Testament people of Israel were and in Hebrews chapter 3 and chapter 4 it gives us a warning and it says listen they were unfaithful in the desert they were disobedient in the desert and therefore they were not allowed to enter the promised land and it's used read it for yourself in Hebrews chapter 3 in Hebrews chapter 4 it's used as an example for us that now that you've been given the gospel through Jesus you've been given the forgiveness of sins you've been given the power of the Holy Spirit and you've been given the promise of eternal life be be God's people live live for him trust in him keep your faith in him and and as a result of that you will as people of faith enter not only the rest that you can have with God now but you will enter the rest of eternity but it is important that we remain the people of God and that we stay in faith and and in that people in the desert who disobeyed through a lack of faith they did not get to enter the rest we need to remain faithful to God as well read it for yourself Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 all right verse 16 the answered Joshua saying all that you have commanded us we will do this is to that those tribes that had to come over and fight and then would be able to go back they're agreeing again they've agreed many times now throughout the first five books of the Bible that yes they will be obedient and make sure they come over and fight with Israel but all that you have commanded us we will do and wherever you send us we will go just as we obeyed Moses in all things so we will obey you only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses anyone who rebels against your command and does not obey your words and all that you command him shall be put to death only be strong and courageous so they're saying they will follow him you know wherever he says and wherever he goes Joshua is going to be their leader and they will be faithful to him and soon God's people are going to enter the promised land I think this is an important introduction to the book of Joshua everything that we've talked about today and indeed God it's going to be incredible the victory sometimes God's going to have walls fall down just because they march because literally God is going to be with them to fulfill what he has promised to give them and in the same way God's going to fulfill his promises to us and one day if you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior you're going to enter not only the rest now that we can have having peace with God but we're going to enter the rest of eternity hallelujah what a great promise for us let's be faithful to God hallelujah he is worthy God bless you and amen You You