Joshua 19:49-50 – You Then Me
This is a true story, written by Emory Thomas Jr., and was printed in the Wall Street Journal.
Ernest “Bud” Miller was the president and chief executive officer of Arvida, which is a real-estate company. Mr. Miller closed regional offices, reorganized departments, and laid off half of his work force, which meant 1300 people lost their jobs. Now, I understand already this doesn’t make him sound like a popular guy. Let me explain. By doing this he turned a money-losing company into a money-making one. If the company had remained in the red, all the people would have been fired. By Mr. Miller’s downsizing, he saved 1300 jobs from being lost.
Anyway, despite all the cuts, Mr. Miller believed that one more thing had to go. So, he resigned. He gave up his job. This is what he said: “I couldn’t justify me to me. I couldn’t look at the people I let go and say that I applied a different standard to me. Every fiber of my person wanted to stay. But professionally this was the decision that had to be made.”
So, his resignation eliminated one of the 2 senior jobs at the company. The chief operating officer became the chief executive. Bud Miller, age 53, gave up an “upper six figure salary package” – that is, over ½ a million dollars a year salary, because he wanted what was best for the team. I’ll tell you, real integrity is seen when we do what is right even at our own expense.
Today I’d like to continue on in our series on Joshua, today in chapter 19. We have maybe 5 or 6 messages left in Joshua, and then we’ll begin something new for Christmas. You’ve been patient and attentive and even though we’ve been in Joshua on and off for about 5 months, I haven’t gotten too much hate mail over it. Let’s read 19:49-50.
So, let’s backtrack and review. Joshua, the replacement for Moses of the people of Israel, was made leader and commander of the armies. Slowly, they marched across the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the land God told the Israelites was theirs. Now, the dust has settled, and the 12 tribes have mostly claimed the land that was allotted to each of them. They didn’t drive out the foreign nations completely, and that would come back to haunt them. That’s the setting of the book of Judges, that the foreign armies continued to sting like hornets and pester the Israelites. Part of it was a judgement of God – His people didn’t obey Him, and so God didn’t give them victory. But part of it was common sense – if you don’t get rid of the enemies, they’ll keep coming back.
But the time came that the land was more or less conquered, and the division of the land was done. This tribe would be within these boundaries, this tribe would be here, and so on. Each tribe would be required to keep the enemies out of their own boundaries, and Joshua, the mighty warrior, would finally take a break, and would settle down.
The Lord had promised Joshua a place, and the Israelites thought this would be a good idea, too. So they told their leader that he could take any place he wanted. He chose Timnath-serah, a town 25 miles or so from Jerusalem, in the western hills of the land given to Ephraim.
Now, what’s important to notice here is that Joshua did not take his land until everyone else had gotten theirs first. He didn’t rush ahead to get the best part. He didn’t climb over people to make sure he got what he thought he deserved. No, Joshua waited until everyone else got God’s best for them, before he asked God for his share. Joshua was selfless.
You can find all kinds of people in the Bible who are good examples and bad examples of selflessness. For instance, there’s the story of Abram – Abraham – and his nephew Lot. They arrive in a new place, and Uncle Abe tells his nephew that he, Lot, can have any part of the new land. Well, Lot looks around and sees the best part, the most fertile, the lushest vegetation, and he wants it for himself. Abram gives it to him, but God sees this act of selflessness on Abe’s part, and gives him great land too. Actually, if you look at the story, Lot’s choice of land cost him his integrity, and it almost cost him his life. Abram’s unselfishness was rewarded, but Lot’s selfishness brought him pain.
David had an incident of selfishness, for sure. All because he wanted an attractive woman, he heaped up sins like adultery, greed, and murder one after another. His sin broke up 2 families, and it carried on in the lives of his children, who learned from Daddy to make sure you get what you want.
Let’s flip ahead to the New Testament. I’d like to show you a story you may be familiar with. It’s in Matthew 20 and Mark 10. Now, the disciples, a couple of chapters earlier, had already argued about who would be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom. When Jesus decided to rule the world, who would be the greatest? They were a little embarrassed even that point about what they were arguing over. But, leave it to a mother to fight for her children. Momma Bear coming to the rescue of her 2 boys.
We speak of James and John as the sons of Zebedee, but their mom was likely Salome, who went to the Jesus’ empty tomb on Resurrection Morning. She came to Jesus and wanted Him to grant her a favor. She looked humble enough, kneeling down and asking nicely. She gave Jesus worship, but what she really wanted was something from Him. We do the same. We play our religious games. We look righteous and sound holy, but we just want to get things our own way.
What she asked was this: She wanted her sons, James and John, to sit at Jesus’ left and right hands in the kingdom. But she did not know what she was asking for. She may have had pure motives. She wanted the best for her kids. That isn’t wrong. But in the process of wanting the best, she lost sight of what God wanted for them. She wanted them to be in charge. God wanted them to be preachers and evangelists. Sometimes parents have to give up their plans in order for God’s plans to happen.
But James and John were not innocent by-standers. The Mark account tells us that they themselves asked Jesus to be in charge. And Matthew records that they were fully in support of ruling things, also. They wanted to rule the roost.
But Jesus said that real greatness is not about being in charge. The world’s way of doing things is very different from God’s. The world says that greatness is found in power, by the things that a person has the ability to control. The world says that greatness is found in prestige, by the applause that a person gets. The world says that greatness is found in position, by where a person is in life. The world says that greatness is found in possessions, by the things that a person owns. And the world says that greatness is found in popularity, by how many other people like a person.
Jesus takes all that and turns it upside-down. He says that power and prestige and position and possessions and popularity are not nearly as important as putting others first. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
True greatness is found in service. It means putting the needs of others ahead of your own. It means, in the words of Philippians 2, to consider others better than yourselves. It means looking not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. It means making sure that other people are taken care of first, and only then claiming what you’ve got coming to you, just like Joshua did. True greatness is found in selflessness. To be a great Christian, to be a great mom or dad, to be a great church, you must understand that you must serve others. You must put others before you. You must live selflessly.
Well, what does that mean? What does it look like? “Clearly it doesn’t mean me! I’m not selfish. I live to help others.” Well, I hope so. But let me help you with some thoughts. Selflessness means not taking the best parking spot, even on rainy days. It means letting someone else, who doesn’t understand about Jesus’ commands, take the best and then wonder why you did it. Selflessness means not taking the best spot in the check-out line. Someone once said to get in the longest line at the check-out, to slow you down and teach you humility. Selflessness means not butting into lines ahead of others. The very essence of Joshua’s selflessness was waiting his turn.
It means serving in your community and your church. Most people come to church and sit in their pews and go home after an hour and never actually do anything about it. They don’t help out for special services. They never volunteer their abilities. They look like a stranger off the street coming in to church and having no connections here.
Selflessness means valuing others opinions. It means not coming across as know-it-alls. It means that you don’t make it your job to show all the ways that a person’s beliefs are wrong. It means understanding that good, well-meaning, God-fearing, Jesus-loving, Spirit-filled Christians may think very differently from you on big biblical issues. It means understanding that the level of their faith is not connected to how well they agree with you. Selflessness means loving others, despite the differences.
Selflessness means helping others worship. Even if you think that the service is boring and the preaching is bad, selflessness means not griping and grumbling and whispering and talking and distracting other people. This almost sounds like kindergarten rules, but sometimes grown-ups need to be reminded that if you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all.
Selflessness means standing up for others. It means getting in between a victim and the people who are bullying the person, whether physically or verbally.
Selflessness is serving others. It means trusting God’s standards of greatness more than the world’s. It means not jockeying for position, climbing over others to get your opinions verbalized. Selflessness is seen through the life of Jesus, who set aside all the rights and privileges He had, so that He could become a servant to all. He put the needs of the many ahead of His own needs. He loved others, no matter how wrong they were. How can you become less selfish? What can you do to live more like Jesus?
