Revering the Word
Joshua 23 Why did God desire them to thrust out the nations?
Good morning, everyone. This morning we are in Joshua chapter 23. Two chapters left to the book of Joshua. Now it came about after many days when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side. And Joshua was old, advanced in years that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, and their heads, and their judges, and their elders. And said to them, "I am old, advanced, and years." And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has been fighting for you. See, I have a portion to you. These nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off from the Jordan even to the great sea toward the setting of the sun. So Joshua in his older years in these last two chapters is going to be giving some farewell addresses to the people. And right now what he's reminded them of is how God has provided them rest. Now as we'll see it's not that the full territory has been taken, and it's not that there's any enemies, there's just not currently any war, and largely Israel has rest from its enemies, but there's still more land as we'll see to be taken. Verse 5, "The Lord your God, He will thrust them out from before you, and drive them before you, and you will possess their land just as the Lord your God promised you." So he's talking about the future land that they still need to take. Listen to this verse, very good, "Be very firm then to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left." He's really wanting them to honor all that God has instructed them both in the Word and in their instruction to take the land. And this is what it says in verse 7, "So that you will not associate with these nations these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them." Now this is a very interesting talk about here, and what's being said is that Joshua is making sure that they thrust out the people that are before them, and he does not want them mixing with them to take on the worship of any of their foreign gods. Now it's really interesting and challenging, I would say, interpreting the Bible to take a look at the dual commands of God to Israel. If we were to go back, and if you've been with us through this journey, you've seen that God gave a covenant to Abraham where he said, "Abraham, I'm going to give you this land, and I'm going to be a blessing to you so that you can be a blessing." And you know, it's also talked about how those who curse Israel will be cursed, those who bless Israel will be blessed. That's definitely a strong feature of the Old Testament as well. But God was desiring to give Abraham this land so that he could be a blessing and that through him he'd bless the people around him. However, in giving them the land, God knew of the sinfulness and the pagan worship that was in the land of Canaan. And although they were to be a blessing, it says though God knew ahead of time that they were going to be unable to live in Canaan amongst the people of Canaan because there was just too many sinful tendencies. And the false gods would be too enticing to Israel and he knew it wouldn't work out well. So he wanted them to take the land and thrust out the nations before them so that they could create a community that would worship Yahweh and not be infiltrated with false gods. So it's interesting because now today, you know, we live in a different era and now the family of God, you know, God still got a plan for Israel, but he has ushered the church into the family of God through faith in Jesus. And now we really still carry on the blessing in the sense that, you know, God wants us to reach the nations and help people to discover Jesus, go make disciples of all nations. He's not asking us anymore to thrust the nations out before us, rather he's asking us to reach them. But at this time in history, this is what God was having them do. And I want to take you to a couple passages that kind of help explain this. The first one is in Genesis 15 verse 16. And it says this, that after Abraham was promised this land, it says, then in the fourth generation, they will return here for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. Now by extension, Amorites were living in the land of Canaan. And he's saying that their iniquity was not yet complete. So Abraham was not going to get the full measure of the land. Then he had to have Isaac, Isaac had had Jacob, Jacob, went into Egypt, then they came out of Egypt. And now through Joshua, they're getting the land. And it says, though that gave time for the sinfulness of the land to become complete, so that in a sense, God was justified in having Israel take over the land because their iniquity went so great. Now this is carried forth as well in Deuteronomy chapter 9. And I want to take you there for a moment and we'll take in that passage. It's really interesting. Because it's not because of Israel's greatness or because they are so holy that God is driving out the nations, but it's really because of how wicked they were. And it's hard for us to maybe capture the wickedness. You know, we can see it a little bit in the days of Noah when he said all the thoughts and intentions of their heart were only evil all the time. Now that's not set of Canaan, but based on what we see here in Deuteronomy chapter 9, that's likely to be kind of the status of Canaan. That's how the pagan nature of it that God wanted Israel to thrust them out. So, I want to take you to Deuteronomy chapter 9. And we're going to pick it up in, let's just pick it up in verse 1. Let me read for a bit here. Hero Israel, you are crossing over the Jordan. Now, this was before they crossed, right? Deuteronomy was the reminder of the law before they crossed the Jordan to take the land. It says, you are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater in mightier than you. Great cities fortified to heaven. If people great and tall, the sons of Anakim whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, who can stand before the sons of Anak, but you know, God is bigger than any of these nations. So, he did drive them out. But know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and he will subdue them before you so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly just as the Lord has spoken to you. Now, this is where we really get in that sets the stage, but listen to what he says about the people in that land. Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you because that you would say this, because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land. But it is because of the wickedness of those nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not your righteousness, verse 5, for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Know then it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God has given you this good land to possess. For you are stubborn people. Remember not to forget, you know, all the things that you've done in the past he gets into how they provoked the Lord. But there we have some clarity in that even though God asked Abraham's family to be a blessing, he knows the great wickedness of the land of Canaan and that is why they are thrusting them forth. Now whether that makes you feel better or not about Israel coming in and taking that land, ultimately it is what God designed, it is what God ordained, and God miraculously did give them this land and had them drive out the enemies. I think sometimes in things that we don't understand or that are hard for our minds to fully comprehend we have to just trust God. God knows things we don't know and if we knew everything God knew we very well may well maybe we wouldn't because we're not God and we don't think like him but maybe if we knew everything God knew we would see his reasons, his justification for why he did the things he did. If we don't understand I think we just got to release that to God and trust him because you know God is fulfilling his promise to give them the land. So now after he said in verse 7 don't bow down to the gods of that land in verse 8 of Deuteronomy or excuse me back to Joshua 23 verse 8 he says listen this is a great verse but you are to cling to the Lord your God as you have done to this day. What a great word and we could say that today we need to cling to Jesus right. Now verse 9 for the Lord has driven out great and strong nations from before you and as for you no man has stood before you this day. I mean Joshua is just echoing that how God has miraculously provided them for them. One of your men puts to flight a thousand for the Lord your God is he who fights for you just as he promised you. I mean remember when they simply just marched around the walls of Jericho and the walls fell that's the kind of things that Joshua is reminding them of right now in this close to a farewell speech that he closes out in the next chapter. So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God. What another great just verse on its own listen to that. So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God. Now listen to verse 12 for if you ever go back and instead of cleaning in God it says and cling to the rest of these nations these which remain among you and intermarry with them so that you associate with them and they with you know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations out from before you but they will be a snare and a trap to you and they whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you and at times God would give Joshua and Moses you know prophetic knowledge about what was going to happen in the future and you know in our in our Bible reading plan as I looked ahead we're going to you know flip to the New Testament we kind of go back and forth between old and new and I think that's a good thing to do in reading through the whole Bible so we're going to go a second Corinthian shortly here and then I believe in the not too distant future we'll come back to the Old Testament and we'll pick it up in the book of Judges and that's the next book and what we're going to find out is that indeed the very thing Joshua is saying here is exactly what happened that they didn't drive everyone out and indeed they became a snare and a trap their gods became a snare and a trap Israel became they worshipped false gods and they became wicked in their their thoughts sadly so Joshua's predicting really prophesying what is about to happen now behold today Joshua says verse 14 I am going the way of all the earth meaning he's going to pass and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed all have been fulfilled for you not one of them has failed that isn't that incredible he's thinking he's just reminding them of the incredible faithfulness of God through the desert now into the promised land how God has miraculously provided them for them water from the rock manna from the sky quail from the sky you know crossing the Jordan River on dry ground crossing the sea initially on dry ground the walls of Jericho falling you know just everything that God has done to provide for them he's he's helping them to remember verse 15 it shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you so the Lord will bring upon you all the threats until he has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you you know Moses predict the same thing Joshua's falling suit he knows that in the future they're going to be unfaithful and they're going to lose what God gave and you know they did they eventually lost the land and God amazingly in our day and age has restored them to the land with a lot of you know a lot of terrors on all sides but they are back in their land but anyways it's being told to them and you might recall and it's very significant that in Deuteronomy we have the old covenant which was the covenant of blessings and curses and the blessing was Israel if you obey if you will follow i'm going to bless you i'm going to bless the fruit of your room i'm going to bless your fields i'm going to bless your livestock i'm going to bless you on the way in and bless you on the way out however if you turn away and you dissipate and you follow false gods then all these curses will come upon you and in the old covenant became a covenant of blessings and curses what's really incredible is that God's people due to their faithfulness really would be under the curse of the law the curse of the Old Testament because of their old faithfulness unfaithfulness but what God did through Jesus is he sent his son to take our curse Jesus died on that cross and he took the penalty for our disobedience to the old covenant so that we could be forgiven of our sin hallelujah and offer eternal life and be and then be be grafted back into the vine of God and become part of his family because Jesus took what separated us our sin our curse upon that cross hallelujah but indeed Israel was ultimately going to end up becoming under the curse of the Old Testament that's what Joshua is saying here verse 16 when you transgress the covenant this is exactly what he's saying of the Lord your God which he commanded you and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them then the anger of the Lord the curse of the covenant will burn against you and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given you it's kind of a sad state of affairs isn't it taking that all in just realizing all that God has done all the blessing all the favor that he has given them and yet God knows and Joshua knows through God and Moses knew too that in the future they're going to fall away and they're going to worship other gods and that's something that God does not want to see it makes God's heart hurt it it makes him sad to see his people fall away and that's why there's so many reminders in the New Testament for us to remain in faith praise God we've become born again praise God we're children of God praise God we've been forgiven and we have the Holy Spirit living in us in the promise of eternal life but just as he did not want them to be unfaithful he wants us to stick with him to the end and be faithful to the end and these things are all good warnings for us let's stick with Jesus hallelujah and he's there to help us to do it hallelujah all the way to the end God bless you all