I know some people who hate movies with happy endings. Their ideal is a movie where the main character dies – painfully and fruitlessly, with any luck. And they particular hate those sickeningly sweet Disney-style movies where you’ve got some hopelessly pathetic geek or incredibly inept kids sporting team or something like that and all it takes is a bunch of trite words from a washed-out coach to transform them into a world-beater. And those trite words are always pretty similar in content, aren’t they? There’s the staple scene near the end of the film when the team miraculously made the final but still they’re standing in the locker room nervously saying “we can’t beat these guys, they’re too big, they’re too strong, they’re too skillful”. Just once I’d like to see a movie end there, with the kids just giving up, going home and the credits rolling. But this is Hollywood, so the coach jumps up and gives a stirring speech about how they can look inside for the power, work as a team, that together they can do anything, that they’re good enough to beat the world, that they just need to believe in themselves, that they need to be confident, and strong and courageous. And of course in the end they go out and win amazingly in extra time and we the audience are supposed to say hoorah! – what a triumph of the human spirit. Quite frankly, it makes me want to vomit.
The book of Joshua starts with a bit of gee-up speech of its own, but it has some major differences with Disney movies. You probably noticed the constant refrain to Joshua – be strong and courageous. Don’t give up, don’t be afraid – be strong and courageous. Well – why? Why does Israel need to be strong and courageous?
To begin with we need to do a bit of background to find out where Israel have come from not only geographically, but more importantly in their relationship with God. And what we are going to see is that their situation, this land they are about to enter to possess, all their hope for victory, they all have their beginning and end in the great and powerful God who is gracious to them.
To understand God’s plan we need to go right back to Abraham in Genesis 12 and 15 where the LORD promises Abraham’s descendants their own land. Six or seven hundred years later, the Israelites still have not taken possession of their promised land. In between, the Israelites have moved to Egypt and grown to be a sizable nation. They’ve left Egypt having walked through the Red Sea, taken a detour down the Sinai peninsula where Moses received the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law and finally headed back north toward their promised land. And in Joshua 1, they are on the verge of entering. The trouble is, though, that they’ve been on the verge before. Some 40 years before, in fact.
You can see on the map the point marked “12 spies”. Moses had sent 12 spies, one from each tribe of Israel into the land to gather information. We heard about what happened from Numbers 13 and 14. The spies return and tell the people what an amazing, fruitful land it is. But it is full of other nations, other nations who appear like giants and who live in fortified cities. Ten of the spies say “we can’t defeat them, they’re too big”. But two – Joshua and Caleb trusted God. They too had seen the giants and the fortified cities, but they still trusted God.
The Israelites don’t trust God, however. Moses and Caleb and Joshua plead with them, but they are stubborn and faithless. And for their lack of faith they are punished. God’s anger burns against them and he tells Moses in Numbers 14: "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they." But Moses pleads with the LORD and he forgives them. But as punishment, none of that generation who saw the miraculous signs God did in Egypt will enter the promised land. And so for forty years, until that generation had died out, the Israelites wandered through the desert. The LORD did not abandon them. He was before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
The forty years are up. Moses has died after commissioning Joshua, his long time aid, to lead Israel. Throughout this time, Israel have been moving north on the east side of the Jordan river through the lands of the Moabites. They have defeated the Moabites and the Amorites and taken over their lands. These lands have been given to the tribes of Gad and Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance from the LORD. We can see on the map how these tribes are on the east side of the river, and that gives some explanation for the comments in vss. 12-15 of today’s passage. JOS 1:12 But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, 13 "Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: `The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.’ 14 Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers 15 until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise."
So there they stand. Hundreds of years after God first promised this land to Abraham, the people of Israel are about to enter it.
And God has some final words of encouragement for Joshua. He gives two what I think are very simple yet very profound commands. And remember that in speaking to Joshua, God is also speaking to the whole of Israel.
The two commands are these: Firstly, be strong and courageous; and secondly, be careful to obey all the Law of Moses. They’re the two simple commands: courage and obedience.
Firstly, courage. I began today by referring to the sickly motivational speeches we see in so many movies. The sort of “you can do it” speeches that no reasonable person in a real-life situation could listen to without bursting into gales of laughter. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the movie Independence Day. It’s about aliens invading the earth and Bill Pulman plays the president of the United States. Near the end of the film, huge alien spacecraft are hovering over the earth, all the major cities have been destroyed and the Americans have this last ditch effort sending tiny fighter planes against these monolithic ships. And the president gets up and gives this motivational speech to all the pilots ready to take off. He comments that they’re all looking very nervous and what he effectively tells them is to be strong and courageous. And why? Because they can do it. Because they’re fighting for their country, for the whole earth. Because they have the power to change the world. Because we represent humanity and humans are powerful. All people are united in this fight and there is nothing we can’t do! If it was God up there in the movie rather than a bunch of little green men it would be the Tower of Babal all over again.
The motivational speech God gives to Joshua is vastly different to all the speeches we see in movies. And the difference is that God doesn’t say “Joshua, you can do it”, “People of Israel, look inside for the power”. He says, be strong, be courageous, don’t be afraid because I am with you. Just like I was with Moses, so I will always be with you Joshua. It’s a great picture of the power and the grace of God. It reminds us that we can’t do anything for ourselves. We can’t save ourselves, we can’t get ourselves in the land that God has promised us. But we can be completely confident with God on our side. The mistake that the Israelites made back in Numbers 13 and 14 was that they thought that victory was their responsibility. They didn’t trust that God would do it for them.
To underline our reliance on God, it’s interesting to note that in Numbers and Joshua and Judges, Israelite military victories or losses have absolutely nothing to do with strength of arms. Whether God will grant them victory or not doesn’t have anything to do with having the strongest force or the weakest – all that matters is God granting victory. We’re going to see that over the next few weeks as we look at the fall of Jericho and at Joshua 7 where God grants victory to the Amorites because of Israel’s sin. Or perhaps most starkly in Judges 6-7 where God reduces Gideon’s army to a mere 300 men to take on the Midianite army numbering in the tens of thousands. And why? – so that Israel cannot boast in their own strength. It is God who decides the victor.
So when the LORD tells Joshua to be strong and courageous, all he is telling him is to have faith. To trust God. Joshua had no earthly reason to be confident. The Canaanites and the Amorites were bigger and they did live in heavily fortified cities - it was no different now than it was 40 years before. Back then, Israel were not strong and courageous. They did not trust God, despite the miraculous signs he had performed in Egypt. So now God’s message to Joshua and to the whole of Israel is simple – have faith. Be strong and courageous as you lead my people into this promised land because you know I will be with you.
The name Joshua means “God saves”. There’s another name in the Bible that’s even more familiar to us that means “God saves” and that’s Jesus. Joshua and Jesus are different forms of the same name. And the Old Testament has this very helpful knack of always pointing to Christ. The experience of the Israelites and the way they are to relate to God is a precursor and a sign post pointing to the climax of God’s plan in the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. And in Joshua we see the man called “God saves” leading God’s people into the promised land. And it’s all done under the power of God, under the grace of God. Without God’s grace there is no victory for Israel. They can’t do it on their own, and we see that repeatedly throughout Old Testament history. And we can’t do it on our own, either. Because just like Israel, we’re weak, broken, sinful people. If we try to aim to get to heaven on our own we lose heart because we know we can’t do it. But God can and God will and God does. That’s why Jesus died so that us sinful people can go to the place promised to us, the place much better than some earthly bit of land, the place that is really eternal, that is really God’s holy city, his new Jerusalem – eternal life with the LORD in heaven.
The second part of God’s simple command is this: obey the law of Moses.
With the death of Moses, Israel entered a new part of their history. Moses had a special relationship with God. He spoke with God face to face. He was more than a prophet – see Numbers 12 "When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.
NU 12:7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
NU 12:8 With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
To Moses God gave his Law and now it is that law which the primary mediator between God and his people. God still speaks to Joshua, certainly, but not in the same way he did to Moses. The Law had been given and now the people of Israel were to meditate upon it, know it and live it. The Law was now how they knew God and how they were to relate to him.
And with it came the condition of their continued blessing. God will bless the people with prosperity and success if they are careful to do everything written in the law. The law has literally hundreds of commands and prohibitions. This is an onerous task. And it is a task at which the Israelites will fail. Moses’ parting words to Joshua were a dire prediction that Israel would not be faithful to God, they would prostitute themselves to idols and God would punish them in his wrath. And that’s exactly what happens after Joshua’s death.
But God still loves them and when they cry out to him in repentance and desperation, he saves them. And he could forgive them because he knew that Jesus was going to die for them. So many fall into the trap of thinking that somehow the God of Joshua is different to our Christian God. In Joshua he sounds so harsh and strict and absolute but aren’t we worshipping a God of grace and love? But this is the same God. And we fall into sin and disobedience just as the Israelites did. We never manage to keep everything written in the law. And God is angry with us when we sin. And will punish us and withdraw his blessing from us when we are not faithful. This is not a different God. He demands of us faith and obedience, just like he demanded that of Joshua and the people of Israel. But also just like Joshua and the people of Israel we can be washed clean by the blood of Jesus, this “God-saves” man. In then OT God was waiting for his people to call on him to save them, and he is waiting on us to turn back to him, just like the wayward son in the famous parable. Many of us here today have done that – praise God. But God still commands us to stand firm, to be faithful and to demonstrate our faith in the way we live. Colossians 1: COL 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.
We’ve been saved by God, reconciled by Christ’s death on the cross and the condition we have is not obedience to every letter of the law – it’s to remain faithful. To continue trusting our Lord and Saviour in our hearts and in our minds and in our lives. If we continue in this faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel then we will enter the promised land, the new heaven and the new earth to be with God forever.
So this is the motivational message to Joshua and to us: we have a God who is powerful and sovereign. And this same God loves his people and loves to see them turn back to him and follow him in faithfulness and obedience. When we know we have that God with us we can be strong and courageous in following him with faith and obedience.
Handout:
Courage and Obedience
Joshua 1
Gee-up before the game
The story so far (Genesis 15, Numbers 13-14)
Courage (vss. 5-9, 18)
Not from ourselves
Victory from God
Faith
Joshua and Jesus
Obedience (vss. 7-8)
Moses and the Law (Numbers 12:6-8)
Conditions
The same God (Colossians 1:21-23)
A motivational speech from God.
