Summary: Joshua, Final Part

ALL THAT YOU CAN BE (JOSH 24:1-31)

After twenty years two college rivals bumped into each other. “Do you realize how I used to be so fat and flabby?” asked the first. “Well, I’ve been on an exercise program for a few years, and now I run marathons.” “That’s great!” replied the other man.

“And,” the first man continued, “ Do you remember how I used to be shy, too, and a poor student? Well, I took a course in public speaking, and now I make hundreds of thousand of dollars a year on the lecture circuit.” “That’s great!” came the reply.

“What about you?” The first man inquired. “Have you changed at all?” “Yes, I have,” said the young man. “Remember how brutally honest I used to be and how when someone said something uninteresting, I would reply, ‘I couldn’t care less?’ Well, now I just say, ‘That’s great!’” (Reader’s Digest 1/97)

Joshua lived to an incredibly old age of 110 and he did all that God had asked of him, even though he had a pair of large shoes to fill. Moses was the all-time uncontested servant of the Lord. Eighteen of twenty-two occurrences of the phrase “the Servant of the Lord” in the Old Testament refers to Moses. The odds were stacked against Joshua, humanly speaking. Not only was Moses known popularly as “the servant of the Lord,” the Lord affectionately called him “My servant Moses” (Josh 1:2, 7), and even Gentiles regard him as “His servant Moses” (Josh 9:24). However, in many ways, Joshua was no different from Moses. Joshua (Josh 24:29, Judg 2:8), too, received the designation “the servant of the Lord” posthumously, as Moses did right after their death. Joshua was originally known as “servant of Moses” (Num 11:28) but he stepped out of Moses’ shadows in the end to be known as ‘the servant of the Lord.” God’s promise to him was realized: “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Josh 1:5)

What shaped Joshua’ life? How did a man succeed a legend that was irreplaceable and distinguish himself in his own right? How does improve on the past when there appears to be no room for improvement, no call for improvement, and no formula for improvement?

Make Your Learning and Lessons Count

24:1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. 2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ’Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5 “’Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. 6 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. 7 But they cried to the LORD for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time.

One day Lucy overheard Charlie Brown wistfully bemoaning his lot in life to himself: “Y’know I’ll bet if I were to disappear tomorrow nobody would miss me!” Lucy came up to Charlie Brown and said pointedly to him, “Oh! I don’t think that’s true, Charlie Brown.” The ever-hopeful Charlie Brown, caught off-guard by Lucy’s remarks, said, “You don’t?” Lucy put her hands behind her back, tilted her head slightly to the ground, and whispered, “No, I don’t think that’s strictly true at all.” Then she raised her head to face Charlie Brown and bluntly corrected: “Even if you were to disappear today, nobody would miss you!”

Joshua knew in his heart what God had done not only for him, but also for his forefathers and his people. They were nothing special, and they had nothing much and did nothing significant. As Moses had charged Israel before his death and their arrival at the new land (Deut 31:14), Joshua charged the new generation to be true and faithful to the Lord in the new land now that the conquest was realized. He reminded Israel how insignificant they were and how futile, meaningless, and hopeless their lives were previously. Joshua presented a stunning account of Israel’s history with the Hebrew word “took.” According to Gen 11:31, Terah “took” Abraham from the Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan with him, but in Joshua’s version God stated that He was the one who “took” Abraham to the Promised Land. Why the discrepancy? Terah took Abraham out of Ur but Terah died on the way to the Promised Land. Abraham’s trip was going nowhere, but God intervened and took him on an incredible journey on the road to the Promised Land.

The Hebrew repetition of the personal pronoun “I” occurs an astounding twenty times in Joshua’s passionate rendition of God’s faithfulness to Israel from verse 3-11. The verb “I gave” makes up six of the “I” verbs: I gave him (Abraham) Isaac (v 3) and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau(v 4). I gave the hill country of Seir to Esau (v 4) . . . I gave them into your hands (v 8) . . . I gave them into your hands (v 11) . . . I gave you a land on which you did not toil (v 13) and cities you did not build. The final reminder of God’s gift to Israel was pointed (vv 12-14): “You did not do it with your own sword and bow. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.

Israel had an ignoble history. They were idolaters, slaves, and nomads. Their fathers served idols for generations beyond the River, endured hardship in Egypt for four hundred years (Gen 15:13, Acts 7:6), and wandered aimlessly in the desert for forty years of (Deut 2:7), but the Lord had plucked them out of obscurity, propelled them to unimaginable heights, promoted them into a new powerhouse.

Make Your Labor and Loyalty Count

14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” 16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”

Christians should remember at all times that a self-serving life does not satisfy, that we were created to serve the Lord, and that service to God must take precedence before service to man or society. It is not the most fun, likely, or receptive thing to do, but it is the most fulfilling, lasting, and rewarding thing to do.

It’s been said, “We have one life that will soon pass but only what’s done for Jesus will last.”

Joshua distinguished himself as Moses did in service to God. From verse fourteen onwards till the end of the chapter the word “serve” occurs a blistering fifteen times in the passage, including three times in verse 14 and four times in verse 15 alone. The Hebrew word for “serve” is oddly mistranslated as “worshiped” once in verse 14. Others occurrences are in verses 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, and 31. As someone once said, “God did not save us to be sensation, but to be servants.”

The Hebrew text emphasized that service must be done in sincerity and truth (v 14). Sincerity means without spot or blemish, the same word used fifty four times in the Old Testament to describe the kind of animal sacrifice God requires. Sincerity has to do with the integrity of the sacrifice and truth has to do with the integrity of the person offering the sacrifice. The prophet Samuel echoed that true service to God must be heartfelt: “But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully/in truth with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you (1 Sam 12:24)”.

Serving the Lord requires a high level of commitment. This involved removing or leaving, putting away or casting aside idols or anything that veered them from God or steered them into sin. The Israelites must make a choice. They had to choose a side, take a stand, and make it public. They cannot be bench-sitters or wishy-washy. Joshua was not concerned that they would not worship God but that they would not worship God exclusively, that is worship God and idols, God and Baal, God and nature. It’s been said that the greatest threat to Christianity is not substituting Christianity with false religions, but mixing Christianity with other religions, for example, believing Christ and Buddha, blending Christian and New Age, or bringing folk religions into Christianity. Joshua had the harshest words for these syncretists: “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.” (vv 19-20).

Make Your Lifetime and Legacy Count

29 After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 30 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 31 Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel. (Josh 24:29-31)

//A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island. The two survivors, not knowing what else to do, agreed that they had no other recourse but to pray to God. However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island.

The first thing they prayed for was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit. The other man’s parcel of land remained barren. After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked, and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the land. On the other side of the island, there was nothing. Soon the first man prayed for a house, clothes, more food. The next day, like magic, all of these were given to him. However, the second man still had nothing. Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that he and his wife could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island.

The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God’s blessings, since none of his prayers had been answered. As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from heaven booming, “Why are you leaving your companion on the island?” “My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them,” the first man answered. “His prayers were all unanswered and so he does not deserve anything.” “You are mistaken!” the voice rebuked him. “He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings.” “Tell me,” the first man asked the voice, “What did he pray for that I should owe him anything?” “He prayed that all your prayers be answered.”

Joshua served God all the days of his life. More than that, as long as he was alive, Israel served the LORD faithfully throughout his lifetime and even the lifetime of the elders who outlived him. Israel did not go astray as long as Joshua lived. People’s lives were blessed. The land enjoyed peace, security, and more importantly, unity. What an impact Joshua had on Israel. What an impact a leader has on his or her coworkers. What an impact one life had on many.

Joshua was an ordinary person. He did not have the drama of Moses. Nor did he have a brother like Aaron, a sister like Miriam or a father-in-law like Jethro to support him, guide him and advise him. He was a warrior who knew geography more than he understood people. He was not an orator, communicator, or educator like Moses. Joshua was a tribal leader who learned national leadership. Leadership did not come naturally to him; companionship was his strong suit. Given a choice, he was more comfortable assisting Moses, being a sidekick, and staying in the background than hogging all the attention, calling all the shots and making all the decisions. Given a second option, he would rather share the spotlight with Caleb than be in the spotlight by himself, rather be second in command than be second to none, and rather return to old times than begin a new era.

Most of all, Joshua was the right person at the right time and the right place. He was not a supreme leader like Moses; he was more a sharing leader. Some speculate that Moses was the better leader of the two, saying that Moses groomed Joshua to succeed him, but Joshua groomed nobody, and that’s why the period the Judges was a mess. That is not true. At his death the elder carried on nicely for a long time.

Conclusion: The good news in life is that there is always room to grow, to change, and to mature even if one live to one hundred and ten. The words of an old popular youth song apply to the old as well: “When you’re young, the world is waiting for you, every day is bright and new. Starting now there’s lots of living to do, when you’re young.” Let us not cease to enlist in service, strive to serve or behave as servants of the Lord. Are you willing to make an impact on your friends, coworkers, and the world as a servant of the Lord? It is never too late for the young, the aging, or the old!

Victor Yap

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