Studies in Joshua
Study 3
Introduction
Last Lord’s day evening we were looking at chapter 1 of the book of Joshua. This book which records for us how God’s people took possession of the land of Canaan, that glorious inheritance which God had promised to them, that blessing that he wanted them to enjoy. The blessing was there for them to lay hold of and enjoy but the blessing would only be theirs if certain conditions were fulfilled. And we considered two of those conditions last time – A Submissive Acceptance of the Providence of God – Moses was now dead and Joshua had been appointed their new leader; The people were not to dwell on the past, they were not to wallow in self-pity over the fact that they had suffered what in human terms was a terrible loss in the death of their great leader, they were to accept what had happened and go on from the new situation and new circumstances they now found themselves facing. There had to be a submissive acceptance of the providence of God. Then too there had to be A Clear Awareness of the Plan of God – they had to realise that God’s plan for them was that they would cross over the Jordan and take possession of the land that lay before them, the land he had given to them by promise and that he wanted them to actually experience and enjoy, and realising this they had to act upon it.
Now this evening I want us to pick up where we left off last week and look at a number of other conditions of blessing as we find them in this first chapter.
And the first one that I want to bring to your attention this evening is this – that in order for the Children of Israel to actually enjoy the Blessings which God set before them and held out to them there had to be
1) Diligent Obedience to The Word of God:
This comes out very clearly in verses 7 & 8. “be careful to obey all the Law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful”
Joshua was the new leader of God’s people. He was the one who had the responsibility to lead the people forward into the blessings of Canaan that lay before them. And here before he undertakes that awesome task, here as he gets his commissioning orders from God, God makes it clear to him that the Law, that is Word of God was to be at the very heart of his own personal life as a leader and also at the very heart of the life of the people he was called to lead. This was to be the framework, the theological, moral and civil framework around which the life of the nation was to revolve. It was from God’s Word that He as the leader and they as a nation were to find direction and guidance and laws and moral standards and so on for their everyday life. This was God’s written and revealed will for them as a people. This was the instruction book for how God wanted them to live. And God makes it clear to Joshua that it would only be as He personally and they collectively obeyed God’s Word that blessing and prosperity would come to them. Look at these verses “be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go” and again “…be careful to do everything written in it. THEN you will be prosperous and successful” There was an inseparable connection between obedience to the Word of God and blessing from the hand of God. And the connection between the two amounted to this, the latter ( i.e. the experience of God’s blessing) was conditional upon the former, (i.e. their obedience to God’s Word.). If he and they obeyed God’s Word they would know the blessing of God upon them. And you notice that the obedience God required was not partial, selective obedience to certain commands and laws that the people agreed with and were happy enough to submit to, but rather it was total comprehensive obedience to everything God had laid down for them in the Law. “be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you…be careful to do everything written in it.” Neither Joshua in his role as leader nor the people could pick and choose what laws they wanted to obey and what laws they preferred to ignore. As the leader Joshua had a responsibility to apply the whole of the Law to his own life and to the life of the nation. He was not to cave in under pressure from any elements among the people who might try to get him to ignore or turn a blind eye to what God’s Law had to say in respect of any area of life. He had to be courageous and strong and turn to and follow God’s Word in every sphere of life and in every situation and circumstance that arose within the nation. And God emphasises the fact that such obedience, such an implementation of the Law would require courage. “be strong & very courageous (v7 & 9). It would require courage because there would be times when, like his predecessor Moses he would be put under pressure to capitulate to the wishes of the people rather than follow and apply the Law of God.
Now of course in order that he might do this successfully both in his own personal life and in carrying out his responsibilities as leader of the people Joshua had to ensure that he had a good knowledge and understanding of the Law. That of course necessitated him taking time to study it. Hence God reminds him of his responsibility in relation to this, telling him he is to “meditate upon it day and night” The word ‘meditate’ is an interesting Hebrew word. It means ‘to mutter’ and what the Jews used to do in order to get something into their head was to read the material aloud to themselves and then go over it time and time again verbally repeating what they were reading. Hence you find this other phrase in v 8 that the law is “not to depart from his mouth” In other words it was something that he had to study. Something that he had to think about. Something that was to be regularly on his mind. Something he had to learn. Joshua had to become proficient in his knowledge of the Law and obedient in his application of the Law.
And you know folks if you as an individual want to know God’s blessing upon your life, if you as a family want to know God’s blessing upon your life, if we as a congregation want to know God’s blessing upon our life, if we as a nation want to know God’s blessing upon our life, then the Word of God must have a central place in each of these spheres. We cannot of ourselves cause our nation to give the Bible the central place in its life which it ought to occupy and render obedience to its commands and formulate its policies according to the Bible’s principles and standards. It grieves us that as we enter this new millennium there is a widespread ignorance within our nation and even within our Province of the teachings and the standards of God’s Word and even where something of a knowledge of those teachings and standards do exist there is a stubborn unwillingness to obey them and allow them to shape and mould the laws and the life of our nation. But whilst we cannot of ourselves do much to ensure that the Word of God occupies a central place again in the life of our nation, we can ensure that it occupies a central place in our own personal life, in our family life and in our congregational life. Like Joshua God calls upon us to study and become familiar with the teaching of His Word. To read it regularly so that we might get to know it better. To study it and think about it and saturate our minds with it so that it becomes part and parcel of our very make up and that not just so that we have a head knowledge of what’s written in the book of Genesis or in the letter to the Ephesians or wherever, but rather that in familiarising ourselves with its content we might learn and better understand its teachings and the moral principles and standards which arise out of those teachings and that our lives would consequently be shaped and moulded by these things. In other words we are to Study the Word in order to obey the Word. God says to us as he says to Joshua ‘do not let this book of the Law depart out of your mouth, meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything that is written in it. THEN you will be prosperous and successful’ In other words – Read your Bible, learn its teachings, submit to its principles, obey its commands and you will experience God’s blessing upon your life.
Let me ask you this evening my dear brother and sister in Christ, do you as an individual read God’s Word regularly. Do you take time to study it and to think about it. Do you want to find out what God has to say in this book about how he wants you to live your life, as a husband, as a wife, as a mother as a father, as a son as a daughter, as an employee as a citizen, as a member of your congregation and so on? Are you filling your mind with that Word and thinking about it and allowing it to shape and mould your life, to shape and mould your outlook on life, to shape and mould your desires, to shape and mould your priorities, to shape and mould your conduct? Are you obeying it when you realise it is calling you to stop doing certain things in this area of your life and that area of your life. When God’s Word says to you, ‘you should be doing this’ do you obey it? Brethren God wants you as a Christian, assuming you are a Christian, to experience and enjoy His abundant blessing upon your life but such an experience of God’s blesing is inseparably connected with and conditional upon obedience to God’s Word.
And what is true in relation to you as an individual is also true in relation to your life as a family. Again let me ask the question – Is the Bible central to your life as a family. You Fathers and mothers who are here this evening and who still have children living at home – Do your children know that your life as a family is Bible-centred. Do they know that the Word of God is very very important to your family life? Are they used to seeing you read it, are they used to hearing you talk about the Word of God. Do they know that family decisions are guided by it principles and based upon it’s teachings? Do you read it to your children, or now that they are older, do they know that you expect them to read a portion of it each day. Would they be able to say of you ‘my mummy, my daddy really knows their Bible’ You know a Bible centred family, a family where the Word of God is loved and read and obeyed, will be a family that will experience and enjoy the blessing of God upon their home.
And what about us as a congregation. Well I believe that our experience as a congregation is living proof of the very point I am making, that those who obey the Word of God will experience and enjoy the Blessing of God. I believe that the Bible is firmly fixed at the centre of our life as a congregation and God is blessing us, we have experienced some measure of blessing and I believe that in the year that lies before us we will experience even more blessing as we keep God’s Word at the very heart of our life. I for my part as your minister have endeavoured to keep God’s Word at the very centre of my preaching and to preach God’s Word in such a way as to achieve the twofold aim of increasing our knowledge and understanding of the scriptures and of seeing those scriptures transforming our lives so that we become more like Christ. And that is happening. The Word of God is also at the very centre of the decision making in our congregation. I can say without any hesitation that your Elders in the decisions they are called upon to make, want to do first and foremost what is Biblical and sometimes that has involved us taking decisions which humanly speaking it was not easy for us to take and which were it not for the fact that the course of action decided upon was clearly Biblical we might have preferred not to take. And God has honoured those Bible centred decisions. I can also say that there is a real Bible-centred attitude towards one another among the vast majority of our members and a willingness and desire both to continue to be and to be known to be a Bible-centred Church.
God had wonderful blessings in store for His people as they stood on the border of Canaan, but their entering into and enjoyment of those blessings were conditional upon their obedience to the Word of God. And so it is with us today. God wants us to enjoy His blessing upon our life, our personal life, our family life, our congregational life, but such blessing is inseparably connected with and conditional upon our obedience of His Word.
But I want you to notice secondly this evening that for Joshua and the Children of Israel, the enjoyment of God’s blessing was also conditional upon their
2) Unwavering Faith In The Promises of God:
What a wonderful promise that was that God gave to Joshua in v 3 and what an appropriate and encouraging time it was to give it to him. Joshua has just been placed in a position of great responsibility, a great opportunity lies before him, tremendous blessing is within his and his people’s grasp, but he knows only too well that the blessing will not come easily, he knows that such blessing will have to be won, battles will have to be fought, enemies will have to be conquered and those enemies were humanly speaking very formidable, seemingly much stronger than they were. The inhabitants of Canaan were war-like people with well-organised, well-trained and well-equipped armies. These were nations that were used not only to defending their own territory against attack but also to taking the initiative in invading other nations with a view to extending their own political boundaries and strengthening their own political standing in the region. To all outward appearance it must have seemed to Joshua and to the people of Israel as they stood looking across the Jordan into enemy occupied territory that there was no hope of them ever conquering their enemies and possessing that land.
But God comes to Joshua with this wonderful word of promise – “I will give you every place where you set your foot, just as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert and from the Lebanon to the great river Euphrates-all the Hittite Country – and to the great sea on the West. No-one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life.” And then he goes on in v6 to say “be strong and courageous for you will lead these people to inherit the land.”
God says to Joshua , “Joshua I am going to give you this land. Not just a small section of it, but all of it. Including the land occupied by the Hittites, which was considerable. You will lead this people into it. You will possess your inheritance.” I am going to bless you. What a wonderful and what a timely promise..
But you know having a promise is one thing, believing it and acting upon it is another, especially when everything you see around you seems to argue against the possibility of that promise being fulfilled. Put yourself in Joshua’s shoes for a minute. For one thing the land that they are supposedly going to possess is on the other side of the Jordan river and the practical reality of the situation is that the river is over a mile wide, it is very deep, far too deep to wade across, and there is no bridge. Now that in itself wouldn’t exactly inspire you with confidence in taking the land or enthusiasm to do so. Sure it wouldn’t. As if that isn’t problematic enough the people of Canaan live in Huge cities which are so strongly fortified that even a well equipped army would have their work cut out in trying to capture them. And well the Children of Israel at this stage of their development as a nation were not what you would call a well equipped and well trained army. So looked at merely from the practical and from the human perspective conquering Canaan, taking possession of the land seemed impossible. But the other side of the coin was this – God had promised to give it to them. And this was the challenge that faced Joshua as he stood on the bank of the Jordan river. Would he trust God’s promise. Would he step out in faith believing that God not only could but actually would fulfil what he had promised. Or would he trust his senses and follow his own human reason and take a much more cautious and responsible course of action that was more in keeping with the stark realities he saw all around him. Would he walk by faith or by sight?
Well we know what he did don’t we. He demonstrated unwavering faith in the promise of God despite the difficulties before him. He said to himself God has promised to give us this land; humanly speaking it seems impossible, but I believe God and I trust God and I am going to step out in faith into this difficult situation knowing that God wont let me down, that he will fulfil his promise.
You remember the promise God gave to Abraham when he was a very old man and his wife Sarah was well past child-bearing age, the promise of a son. Looked at from the human perspective what God promised seemed impossible. Indeed such were the apparent physical difficulties involved in such a promise ever being fulfilled that Sarah’s initial reaction to the promise was one of unbelief – me a child at my age, no chance. But as one of the heavenly visitors pointed out by way of rebuke ‘Is anything too hard for the Lord?’ Regardless of how much faith Sarah had in God’s promise of a child the New Testament in Hebrews 11 makes it clear that Abraham looked past the seemingly insurmountable difficulties and believed that what God had promised he would accomplish. Heb 11/11 “By faith Abraham even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise and so from one man came descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky as countless as the sand on the sea-shore.” By faith he laid hold of God’s promise and his faith was rewarded when the following year Sarah gave birth to Isaac.
Augustine once wrote – “Faith is to believe what we do not see and the reward of faith is to see what we believe” As he looked across the Jordan that day Joshua with his physical eyes saw the land of Canaan occupied by the enemy, but with the eye of faith fixed firmly on the promise God had given him he saw something completely different, he saw the land occupied by God’s people. He saw the enemy defeated and the people of God enjoying the blessings of their inheritance. Impossible? Not when he had God’s promise to rest upon.
I think it was Charles Wesley who wrote the words
Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees
And looks to that alone
Laughs at impossibilities
And cries ‘it shall be done’.
And you know friends if we are to experience and enjoy God’s blessing in our life we need to unwavering faith in the promises of God. God has given us many promises in His word – what Peter calls ‘great and precious promises’ promises of provision in times of need, protection in times of danger, of peace in times of affliction, of comfort in times of sorrow, of help in times of trouble, of deliverance in times of temptation, of strength in times of weakness, guidance in times of decision making and so the list goes on and on.
It isn’t easy to exercise and manifest such faith in God’s promises sure its not. Its especially difficult when one is looking out onto very dark and humanly speaking problematic circumstances, circumstances which seem to mock the promises of God.
Take for example the young wife and mother whose husband is, taken from her and her children through what in human terms is a premature death. She knows that God has promised to be the widows stay, she knows that God has promised to supply all her needs, she knows that God has promised to be her help and her strength in times of trouble, but all she can see as she looks around her with her physical eyes are the problems and the difficulties that lie ahead. Its not easy in such circumstances to exercise unwavering faith and trust in the promises of God and yet she discovers that as she does so, as she lifts her eyes from the circumstances she finds herself in and looks through and beyond those circumstances to God and to the promises he has given her and as she rests by faith in those promises the blessings associated with them begin to be fulfilled and become a reality in her and her children’s experience.
Take the Church that looks around the local community in which God has placed it. They know that the Lord has promised to build his Church. They know that nothing is too hard for the Lord. They know that he has promised that his word will not return unto him empty. But the area is so godless, the people so disinterested, the task seems so enormous and in the light of such tangible realities there is the temptation to despair of ever seeing souls won for Christ and in such an attitude of despair not to bother doing any outreach, not to bother trying to do battle with the enemy and seek to overthrow Satan’s strongholds. But then the eye of faith begins to look past the difficulties and to look beyond the problems and fixes itself instead upon the promises God has given in his word in relation to building his Church, in relation to gathering in his elect and laying hold of those promises that Church boldly steps out in faith to minister to the people around them. And as they do so they begin to see God at work in their midst as some people begin to show some interest in the gospel and then there is the breakthrough and someone from the area is converted and then others come to faith as God’s promises are fulfilled and blessing comes.
Take the young man who is thinking of going into the gospel ministry. He is keen to do God’s will, keen to preach the gospel, but he is deeply worried that he will not be able to meet all the demands of life as a minister in a congregation. Worried that he will not be able to prepare the requisite number of sermons each week. Worried that after a few months in the ministry he will ‘dry up’ and have nothing new to bring to the people. And yet others know he has evidently preaching gifts and are encouraging him to go into the ministry. And he comes across that wonderful promise in Philippians 4/19 ‘my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus’ and across that promise in 2 Cor 9/8 “God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…’ and he lays hold of that promise and he applies it to his specific need and with faith in that promise reminds God of it every day he is in his study preparing his sermons and one year in the ministry goes into another and another and another. The blessing he so much desired and needed has been secured but only as he exercised faith in God’s promise.
There is a third condition of blessing in this first chapter and this relates particularly to blessing in relation to the Church and that is that there must be
3) Manifest Unity Among the People Of God:
This comes out in verses 12-end. Here Joshua reminds the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of God and half the tribe of Manasseh that even though they have already secured their allotted inheritance, for they had requested and had been given the land on this side, i.e. the east of the Jordan, they nevertheless had still a responsibility to get involved in and help their brethren secure the inheritance on the other side. In other words Joshua was saying to them, we need you to work with us. We must all work together in taking the land. We need your help. We cannot do this work on our own. And realising their responsibility in this matter the 2 ½ tribes who were already settled in the east gave themselves wholeheartedly to the work that still had to be undertaken and in so doing demonstrated in a very tangible way their oneness with the rest of God’s people. And united, working together they went forward to obtain the Blessing.
And friends the Church that is united, united in heart, united in purpose, united in love, united in the Lord’s work is a Church that will know God’s blessing upon it. Every member of the Church has a responsibility to be involved in some way in the work and witness of the Church and where you have a Church where all the members are united and playing their part there you will find a Church which will experience the blessing of God upon it. Isnt this the thrust of the 133rd Psalm – Behold how good and how plesant a thing it for brethren to dwell together in unity…. For THERE (ie there where there is such unity) the Lord bestows his blessing…’ Paul in Philippians exhorts the believers there to ‘stand firm in ONE spirit, with ONE mind, striving TOGETHER for the faith of the gospel’ The Church at Jerusalem in the immediate aftermath of Pentecost were according to Acts 4/32 of one heart and of one mind, there was a sense of unity and a working together for the cause of Christ and that Church experienced God’s blessing upon its work and witness.
Brethren we here in Broad lane have in recent years enjoyed a wonderful sense of unity and we have seen more and more of our members demonstrating a willingness to get involved in and be part of the work. They don’t want to sit idly by and let others struggle on with the work. And I believe there is a direct correlation between the unity that exists within our congregation, together with the increased willingness by many to be workers rather than spectators and the measure of blessing we have enjoyed. Let us strive to maintain that unity, let us pray that more of our members will join the ranks of active service units of Christ’s army here, let us keep the Word of God central to our life as a congregation and to our lives as individuals and families and let us demonstrate faith in God’s promises and in God’s power and in so doing I believe that there will be even greater days of blessing ahead for all of us.
May it be so the glory of Christ’s and for the good of His people amen.
