Fight for Life
A study through the book of Joshua
SHARING THE LIFE
Joshua 15
Sermon given on June 12, 2005
Core Christian Fellowship
Sunday Morning Service
Pastor Rick Lancaster
SHARING THE LIFE
She answered, “Give me a blessing…”
Joshua 15:19a NKJV
Introduction
Turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 15. The title of this study through the book of Joshua is: Fight for Life. In the first half of the book Joshua and the nation of Israel had to fight for the Promised Land. Even though God had promised it to the descendants of Abraham and promised to drive out their enemies from before them they still had to fight.
As we study through this book we are looking at it from the perspective of the life that Jesus promised us.
Read John 10:10b page 567
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Last week we looked at Caleb and said that he was living the life that God had promised us. And in chapter fourteen, last week we saw that there were several character traits that Caleb had that we need to work on in our lives so that we could walk in the life as well. It was said of Caleb that he “wholly followed the Lord”. And if we are to wholly follow the Lord we need to work the traits of integrity, faith, obedience, perseverance, and courage.
The title of our study for today is: Sharing the Life.
This life that has been promised to us is not just that we can have a great life but so that we can share it with others. Everything that God gives us is intended to be shared with others. God’s blessings, mercy, grace, power, wisdom, hope, peace, and everything else that is God’s is given to us for us to enjoy and to share.
Even though this life has been promised to us, we must fight for it. And through the first 12 chapters we got some tips on just how to do that. The first half of the book of Joshua ends with a statement that Joshua had been successful at conquering the land, followed by a listing of the kings that he and Moses had destroyed.
In the process of conquering the land they had taken possession of some of it but not all of it. Chapter 13 begins with a description of the land that the Israelites had not taken possession of. Joshua was told to divide all the land of Canaan as an inheritance for each of the tribes of Israel.
Chapter 14 began with an introduction into the process of dividing the land of Canaan. Joshua and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the tribes of Israel came together at Gilgal to determine who would get which lots.
Chapters 15 through 19 describe the division of the land. These five chapters go into great detail to describe the land allocated to each tribe. The process that was used to determine who would get which territories was by sacred lots.
Eleazar the priest was one of Aaron’s sons. He wore an ephod which was kind of like a vest. There were twelve precious stones on this ephod, each representing one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The priest would wear this ephod over his heart and it was to remind him to bear the burden of the people before God.
This ephod had a pocket on the inside that held two objects. The objects were called the Urim and Thummim. These objects were symbolic of the promises that God had made to the children of Israel. He promised them that He would not leave them or forsake them and that He would drive out their enemies from before them.
Whenever the Israelites needed to hear from God they would go to the priest and have him inquire of the Lord using the Urim and Thummim. God had given them these objects for that very purpose. There is no concrete evidence as to what these objects looked like or how they were deployed. All we know for sure is that when deployed they would reveal the will of God to the people.
And so to prevent the people from complaining about the fairness of the division of the land, God has them use the Urim and Thummim.
Today we are going to begin to look at this division of the land. The next five chapters go into great detail describing these divisions and the land that each tribe inherited. We are not going to spend a lot of time looking at the actual boundaries or cities that are included in these descriptions. It is beyond the scope of this study to do that. If I was Chuck Missler it would be different, but I am not.
What I am going to do in these next five chapters is pull out some spiritual nuggets that are there. In today’s study we will again be looking at the person of Caleb in verses 13 to 19 of our text today. We saw last week that Caleb was a man of radical faith. He had an unwavering belief that God’s promises were sure. And Caleb stepped out in the faith believing that if God said something that he had nothing to fear.
As we walk in the life that Jesus promised us, we need to find people like Caleb in our lives. We need to learn from their faith how to live this life. As they, in faith, follow Christ we can imitate their behaviors until that same faith is ours.
The apostle Paul said to the Corinthians:
Read 1 Corinthians 11:1 page 606
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
God will provide people like Caleb for you to imitate. Look for them and begin the process of watching their lives to see how they live so that you also can learn to live the same way; with the same fearless faith. This is called discipleship.
God has taught me in my Christian walk that there are three different types of discipleship relationships that I need to be developing in my life at all times. The first type of relationship that I need is a Paul.
Spiritual Relationships
1. Paul
o Spiritually more mature
2. Barnabus
o Spiritual peer
3. Timothy
o Spiritually less mature
It is necessary that we have all three of these types of relationships active in our lives at all times. This is one of the reasons why fellowship with other believers and participation in Bible studies is so important. It is usually within those environments that you develop those kinds of relationships.
In our text for today we are going to see some other ways that Caleb’s faith is lived out. But first we will look at the beginning of the process of the dividing of the Promised Land.
Read Joshua 15:1 page 124 Bible
Eleazar casts the sacred lots and determines that the tribe of Judah is the first tribe to receive its allotment in the Promised Land. This is very providential as we are soon going to see. But it is also significant because of the role that Judah plays in the future of the nation of Israel and for us as Christians.
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 49. The twelve tribes of Israel are all descended from one man. His name was Jacob, but God renamed him Israel. Jacob had twelve sons and so each of them is named as the head of one of the tribes.
Judah was the fourth son of Jacob. In Hebrew culture, birth order was very important. The first son born was given a greater portion of his father’s estate. Birth order also dictated who would lead the tribe once the patriarch died. Rueben was Jacob’s firstborn son and should have led the tribe.
Rueben was eliminated from the rights of firstborn son because he slept with one of his father’s concubines. Simeon and Levi were second and third in line but Jacob demoted them because they deceived and killed all the men of the town of Shechem after their sister Dinah had been raped. This leaves Judah in line to receive the inheritance as firstborn son.
And here in Genesis 49 we have a blessing that is prayed over the sons of Israel right before he dies. It is very prophetic and it is a fascinating study to look and see how God brought to pass everything that he said to the twelve sons.
Read Genesis 49:1-4 page 28 Bible
The tribe of Rueben is one of the two and a half tribes that took their inheritance outside of the Promised Land. We will study later the fall of these two and a half tribes. They did not excel just as Jacob prophesied.
Read Genesis 49:5-7 page 28 Bible
Jacob says that the tribes of Simeon and Levi are dispersed throughout the other tribes. When we get to chapter 21 of Joshua we are going to look at this more closely but one thing we have already seen is that the tribe of Levi was given no inheritance but will be scattered throughout the whole nation of Israel as they serve the Lord.
The tribe of Judah gets their allotment first and then when it comes to Simeon’s turn to receive their inheritance in chapter 19 we find that they are given land inside of Judah’s land. In fact, we don’t hear a lot about the tribe of Simeon after this. Ultimately they were absorbed by the tribe of Judah.
Read Genesis 49:8-12 page 28-29 Bible
Verse 10 is key in this prophecy. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is referred to as “the lion of the tribe of Judah”. The first king of the nation of Israel was Saul from the tribe of Benjamin but the second king was David from the tribe of Judah.
We also know that Jesus’ mother Mary and her husband Joseph both were descended from the tribe of Judah. Throughout the history of the nation of Israel God has continued to reveal His choice that the tribe of Judah was the chosen tribe of the chosen people.
Turn back to Joshua 15. He does it again here as the allocation of the land begins; He causes the first lot to fall to Judah. And then the allocation of the parcel of land is very large. It is so large in fact that when it comes to Simeon’s turn that they give them part of Judah’s which is how Jacob’s prophesy is fulfilled.
Verse 1 through 12 of chapter fifteen describe the boundaries of the land that was allocated to the tribe of Judah. I would encourage you if you are interested to study that on your own. Let’s pick it up in verse thirteen.
Read Joshua 15:13 page 125 Bible
It is interesting to me that the land that God promised to Caleb just happens to be within the land of his tribe. Coincidence? I think not! God works things out the way that He wants to. God arranged it so that Caleb would spy out the land that He intended to give to him and arranged it so that it was within the inheritance of his tribe.
God is in control of absolutely everything! There is nothing outside of His control or His ability to control. This is important to remember, especially when things are not going the way that we want them to. When things are hard and we are experiencing some of the really difficult trials in our lives, we need to remember that there is nothing that is outside of God’s control and ability to control.
That comforts me! When things aren’t going the way that I want them to I can rest in the knowledge that God is in control. I put that information together with the fact that God loves me more than I can possibly imagine and it can help me to endure the most difficult of trials.
Read Joshua 15:14 page 125 Bible
This is an amazing statement that it is very easy to miss what it is saying. Last week in chapter fourteen, while Caleb was asking Joshua to give him the land that God had promised him, Caleb reminded Joshua that there were giants in the land.
Turn to Numbers 13. Caleb knew these giants were in Hebron because he had seen them when he was there forty-five years ago. When the twelve spies were sent into Canaan, Caleb and the others saw these giants in the land.
Read Numbers 13:27-33 page 80 Bible
The whole nation of Israel is terrified of these giants. The ten spies do a great job of making these giants seem even more giant than they are. Skip down to chapter 14 verse 6.
Read Numbers 14:6-9 page 80 Bible
Joshua and Caleb both remind the people that God has promised them the land and that He would drive out nations far greater than they are from before them. They even say that they these enemies will be their bread.
Turn to Joshua 14. Caleb has seen these giants before. He wasn’t afraid of them 45 years ago. In chapter 14 Caleb is asking Joshua to keep the promise that God made to him 45 years ago.
Read Joshua 14:12 page 124 Bible
This land with the Anakim, or giants, was the land that had terrified the people 45 years earlier. That is precisely the land that Caleb wants. He knows that all he needs is God on his side and that is enough to defeat any enemy including giants.
Go back to Joshua 15:14.
Read Joshua 15:14 page 125 Bible
Caleb deals with these giants that terrified the entire nation of Israel in one verse. These giants caused the people of Israel to have to wander around in the wilderness for 38 years. All of the adults died during that hike. Only those that were under the age of twenty at the time survived plus Joshua and Caleb.
And Caleb takes out these giants in one verse. We often give too much credit to the giants in our lives. All of us have giants in our lives. The giants are those things that are so huge that there is no way that we can handle them on our own.
Your giant might be the threat or reality of losing a job. Or your giant might be overwhelming debt. It could be a spouse or a child that is behaving badly. It could be the loss of someone close to you due to death or divorce. It could be a major health problem that is the giant that is threatening you. Your giant could be a major change that God is leading you to in your life. Turn to 1 Samuel 17.
This is a very familiar story about a giant and a young man. The giant is nine feet, nine inches tall. He has been trained since he was a youth to be a warrior. His name is Goliath. For forty days this giant has been taunting the army of Israel to come out and fight him.
Read 1 Samuel 17:10-11 page 156 Bible
King Saul and the army of Israel look at this giant and are afraid of him. Not one of the seasoned troops of the army of Israel, the children of God are willing to go out and face this terrible giant.
Then along comes this kid who takes one look at this situation and says that something needs to happen.
Read 1 Samuel 17:26 page 156 Bible
King Saul hears of this young man talking trash in the camp and calls for him.
Read 1 Samuel 17:32 page 156 Bible
The king tries to talk David out of fighting the giant and when he sees that he can’t he gives him permission to go and even tries to give him a fighting chance by giving David the king’s armor. The armor doesn’t fit him and so he takes it off.
Read 1 Samuel 17:40-51 page 156-157 Bible
What killed goliath? Was it the stone that David threw? No! Was it the sword that cut his head off? Well that finished the job but no that is not what killed Goliath. No, what killed Goliath was the faith of this young man David. He believed God was bigger than this giant. He agreed with the Apostle Paul:
Read Romans 8:31 page 598
If God is for us, who can be against us?
There is no giant in your life that God can’t overcome. There is no trial or tribulation that is beyond God’s ability to deal with it. It wasn’t David that defeated Goliath; it was God. David was just the first person that came along that would believe that God was strong enough to have the victory.
For forty days the nation of Israel stood by shaking in their boots as Goliath taunted them and God, while God waited for someone to come along that would have faith. Any one of the thousands of Israel’s troops could have been the one that God used if they had just had the faith.
Your giants are no bigger than Goliath. The giants in your life are just as easy to defeat as Goliath and the giants in Hebron. We must decide to stop giving them more credit than they are due and focusing our attention on the God that can deliver us from them. Trust Him to defeat them and allow Him to lead you to one victory after another as you walk in the abundant, victorious life.
And as we learn to live this live of Christ’s abundance and victory, we will not be going alone. Most of us have families and friends that will also benefit from the life that we are living.
It is an absolute fact that your life has an impact on others. Whether for good or for bad or great or small; everyone’s life impacts others. Verse 14 of our text says that Caleb drove out the sons of Anak. And while it is perfectly possible for God to have used Caleb by himself, in reality Caleb took his clan with him.
The victory that God won with Caleb was not just for Caleb but for his whole family. That’s the way that God works; He works His mighty works in one person but intends the blessing to reach out to others around them.
Caleb knows that God is blessing him and he wants to share that blessing with others so that they also can experience God the same way that he has. Caleb puts forth an offer to someone to step up and share God’s blessings.
Read Joshua 15:16 page 125 Bible
Caleb was the general of the army that were members of his clan. He was the senior man and had proven himself in battle many times. This decision was not because of any difficulty with the city that they were attacking or that he was tired or afraid.
Caleb wanted someone else to get some of the glory that God had been giving to him. When God blesses our life, He expects us to share it with others.
Read Joshua 15:17 page 125 Bible
Our Western sensibilities object to the fact that Caleb gave his daughter to this man without her having a say in the matter. But in her culture this was a very natural thing and she probably even was happy about it. She would be married to a war hero and that would benefit her in that society.
Read Joshua 15:18-19 page 125 Bible
The land that Joshua had given to Caleb was quite large. It was the land that the spies had walked upon as they were checking out the land forty-five years earlier. Caleb does not keep it all to himself. He gives an inheritance to his daughter on the plains. The only problem with the plains is that there isn’t much water. So to make use of the land they need water.
So Achsah (ak-saw) comes to her father and asks him to give her springs of water. Generously he gives her upper and lower springs. God has given us such an abundance in this country, it is sad how little we share with others. Most of what we get is consumed by ourselves when there are many around us that are experiencing need.
One of the ways that you will experience the life that God has promised you is when you begin to share what you have with others.
Read Matthew 25:34-40 page 524 Bible
If you want to live the life that God promised you must begin to look at you life differently. The abundant, victorious life is not about having but about giving. The more you give, the more you have of the life that God intended you to live.
It is not your money that God wants. God wants everything you have. Don’t get me wrong, God doesn’t want you broke and homeless. What God wants from you is for you to lay everything you have on the altar and give Him permission to use whatever He wants to.
An interesting thing about God, the more we give to God, the more He let’s us keep for ourselves. God doesn’t NEED anything that we have. God created the world and everything in it. If He needed something He wouldn’t tell us. It says in Psalms:
Read Psalms 50:7-12 page 302 Bible
God doesn’t need your stuff or your money. But what He wants is your heart. And the way that He will get it is by teaching you to put less value on your stuff and money than you do on your relationship with Him. Jesus said that you can’t serve two masters; God and Mammon. Mammon is wealth or possessions. You can’t truly love both God and your stuff.
Caleb is showing his love for God by sharing the stuff that he received from God.
The rest of chapter 15 is a listing of the towns and areas that were included in the allocation to Judah. If you are inclined, it can be an interesting study to locate these towns and look at their significance in history.
As we get ready to partake of communion, I would like to draw your attention to the last verse in chapter fifteen.
Read Joshua 15:63 page 125 Bible
We have already talked about this on several occasions during this study and we are reminded here of the danger of allowing the enemy to remain in the land.
The Jebusites were a continuous source of frustration and problems until David drove them out of Jerusalem. If we leave enemies in our lives they will find ways to harass and attack us. These enemies are sins. If you don’t completely drive a sin from your life, it will very effectively prevent you from living the life that Jesus came to give you.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. In a few moments we will partake of Communion. Communion is one of the two sacraments that Jesus left for us to practice. The purpose of communion is to bring you back to the cross of Jesus. It was at the cross that our way to eternal life was made. It was at the cross that our sins were forgiven and cleansed. It is at the cross that we have access to the life that Jesus promised in John 10:10.
Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 page 607 Bible
That is the part that most people are familiar with but there is more that we need to look at.
Read 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 page 607 Bible
In addition to bringing us back to the cross, communion is a time of reflection. It is a time for us to examine ourselves to determine if we are where we should be with the Lord. It is a time for us to seek His forgiveness and be cleansed of the filth of the sins that stains our lives.
Invite Worship Team up
As Louis and the team plays this next song and the elements are being passed, I would like each of you to spend some thinking about the things that we have talked about today.
But before we begin, I would like to address those that have not accepted Jesus as their savior. These elements are not for you. These verses that we just read speak of eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. That includes someone that does not believe that Jesus died for their sins. If that is you, please allow these elements to pass out of respect for God.
But if something that was said today was what you needed to hear so that you might believe, then all you need to do is confess to God that you are a sinner and that you need Jesus to save you. Then you join us as we partake together as a family in communion with our God.
If you are here today and have allowed a giant in your life to take your eyes off of the Lord? Have you forgotten that God is bigger than any thing that could possibly come into your life? If that is you, then during this song, you ask God to strengthen your faith and ask Him to help you to keep your eyes on Him rather than your giant.
For some of you God may have spoken to your heart about sharing the blessings that He has poured into your life. If that is you then during this time you ask God to show you how He wants you to respond.
Some of you are here today and you are still allowing enemies to have camps and towns in your life and they are regularly harassing and attacking you. You find yourself being defeated on a regular basis. Go to the cross and ask Jesus forgive your sins and help you to defeat these enemies once and for all. Only Jesus can free you from the bondage of sin.
Read John 8:36 page 566
If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Open your heart and let the Lord speak to you now about how He wants to work in you today.
