The Book Of Joshua 9 Of 9

As we come to the middle of the book of Joshua, the book of Joshua takes a sharp turn.

From the beginning of the book until the middle of the book we have:

• Heard about victory after victory. Some of those victories occurred on the other side of Jordan, but most of them occurred after they crossed Jordan.

• Seen miracle after miracle. And all of these miracles in the book of Joshua would have to be classified as major miracles.

Look at the miracles:

(1) Crossing Jordan

(2) Sun standing still

(3) Hail stones God sent down to destroy the five armies in Joshua chapter 10

But now as we come to chapter 11-12, and throughout the rest of the book, Joshua deals primarily with the dividing of the land.

The dividing of the land is not as exciting for us as it was for them. They have been waiting for years for this to happened.

We will not go verse by verse through the remaining chapters, but as you scan these chapters where the land is being divided, you will find some wonderful spiritual nuggets are nestled in these chapters if you choose to dig them out.

Let’s look at some of the highlights in these remaining chapters.

For example, let’s look at -

I. THIS GREAT LEADER

Joshua has to go down in Bible history and Ancient history as one of the greatest leaders that mankind has ever had.

WHY DO WE SAY THAT?

Because of two things:

(1) HE HAD TO BE A GREAT LEADER TO STEP INTO THE SHOES OF MOSES AND LEAD THE NATION AFTER HIS DEATH

But in some ways he surpassed Moses. How?

(2) IN THE MIRACLES THAT TOOK PLACE IN HIS LEADERSHIP

He goes down in history for doing something that no man has ever has done before or since.

That is, when the sun was going down in the heat of the battle, as he was fighting five armies at one time, he needed some more time to get the job done.

Look what he did in Joshua 10:14, we read, “And there was no day like that before it or after it, THAT THE LORD HEARKENED UNTO THE VOICE OF A MAN: for the Lord fought for Israel.”

Never in the history of mankind has God allowed a man to take the controls of nature and say, “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.”

But there is another reason that Joshua has to be considered a great leader.

Joshua is around 80 years of age.

Look at Joshua 13:1, we read, “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.”

It was the desire of this man’s heart to be used of God as long as he had breath in his body.

It is disturbing how many people use the one life they have, and when their life is over, they really have not done anything for the Lord.

Now if they were like a cat, as people say, and had nine lives and chose to waste one of their lives, we could understand that!

But the fact is, we only have one life.

Illus: And the old saying is still true today, “Only one life twill soon be past, and only what is done for Christ will last.”

Illus: There is a television commercial that shows the black youth of this nation wasting their lives when it comes to education, and the advertisement says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste!”

But equally bad, if not worse, “A life is a terrible thing to waste!”

Illus: Preachers are more conscious of this than ordinary people, because they are the ones who have to preach the funerals of these people who have wasted their lives.

They are the ones that have to analyze these lives that have been lived, to see what they can say as they stand over them. About the only thing that can be said for some people is:

• They lived

• They ate

• They breathed

• They died

Illus: Some elderly people’s lives remind me of a big delicious steak. Imagine someone sitting down at the table with a big delicious steak. Every bite they take is enjoyable, but when they have eaten half of that steak or two-thirds of that steak, they take the other part and throw it into the trash can.

This is what many folks in this congregation that are 30 or 40 years of age have done. That is, they use their life to promote the work of God, but then when they reach the middle age of their life, they take the other half and throw it away. WHAT A WASTE!