The Three "onlys" All Worked Out (Joshua 21:43-45, 22:1-9) Series

When we started this study on Joshua, it was kind of overwhelming. How can you tell what you're supposed to focus on as you read? How can you tell what's important to the author?

Usually what biblical authors do near the start of their books is give you some help in this. They'll highlight specific themes, or raise questions for you think about as you begin reading.

This was what AJ (author of Joshua) did in Joshua 1. He deliberately set up his book in a way that makes us focus on three questions as we read. It's been a while since we've intentionally looked at these, so let's just recap.

The three questions were these:

(1) Will Yahweh prove his power, and faithfulness, to his people?

(2) Will Joshua and the people be strong and brave?

(3) Will the people obey Yahweh and his servant Joshua in all that they command?

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Let's just unpack each of these a little as a reminder to ourselves:

(1) Will Yahweh prove his power, and faithfulness, to Joshua and to his people?

The book of Joshua began with Yahweh making 7 promises to Joshua. Let's read verses 1-6.

And then, after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh,

Yahweh said to Joshua son of Nun, the one serving Moses, saying,

"Moses my servant died,

and so then, rise!, cross! over this Jordan-- you and all this people to the land

that I am giving to them--to the sons of Israel.

(1) Every place that the sole of your feet walks on it, to you I give

just as I spoke to Moses.

(2) From the desert and this Lebanon and up to the great river--the river of Euphrates--, all the land of the Hittites and up to the great sea, the great setting of the sun shall be your territory.

(3) No man shall stand before you all the days of your life.

(4) Just as I have lived with Moses, I shall be with you.

(5) I shall not abandon you,

(6) and I shall not reject you.

Be strong

and be brave

(7) because you shall give this people the land

that I swore to your fathers to give to them.

These are great promises. There's a reason so many Christians know and memorize parts of these verses-- we find ourselves wanting to claim these promises for ourselves.

The question is, can Joshua trust these promises? Will Yahweh keep his word? Will Yahweh be with Joshua just as He was with Moses?

Our gut instinct as readers is to assume that Yahweh will prove trustworthy. Maybe, this question doesn't even occur to you. But in the moment, in real life, trusting God and his promises is far more scary than when we read about it in the Bible.

If you're Joshua, you don't get to see how your story ends. You can't cheat to Joshua 24. All you see is an enormous task in front of you. And if you're an Israelite, you've seen evidence of Yahweh's power through Moses.

And you know Joshua was picked to be Moses' successor. But you maybe wonder-- will Yahweh keep his promises to Joshua? Will Yahweh be with Joshua, just as He was with Moses? Or is serving Joshua going to be like being on the JV team?

These are legitimate questions at this point in the book. And the tribes feel the force of these concerns. That's why, when they commit to obeying Joshua, they diplomatically make their commitment conditional through two "only" statements. Let's read Joshua 1:16-18:

(16) "All that you have commanded us we will do,

while all (=everywhere) that you send us we will go.

(17) As all (=everything) that we listened to Moses, in the same way we will listen to you.

Only, may Yahweh your God be with you,

just as He was with Moses.

(18) All (=every) man that rebels against your mouth, and doesn't obey your word in all that you command shall be put to death.

Only, be strong and be brave."

The tribes will follow Joshua, but they will not follow to their death. They will follow to victory. They will follow and obey if Yahweh is with Joshua. They will follow and obey if Joshua is strong and brave.

So as we read through Joshua, we found ourselves wondering, will Yahweh prove faithful? Will Yahweh keep his promises? When the tribes make their commitment conditional on Yahweh's faithfulness, what that does to us as readers, is make us focus on the question of Yahweh's reliability.

(2) Will Joshua and the people be strong and brave?

Christians like to claim the promises made to Joshua in 1:1-6, while completely ignoring the context-- ignoring the cost. I think this is half the appeal-- the promises we read look guaranteed, apart from anything that Joshua/we might do. But this is only true if we are careful to stop reading at the end of verse 6. But if we keep reading, and understand how the "only" works at the beginning of verse 7, the entire thing reads differently.