Joshua 1:1-18

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Joshua 1:1-18

“Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Num, Moses’ minister, saying, 2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given to you, as I said unto Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. 5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. 7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success. 9 Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. 10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 11 Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it. 12 And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua saying, 13 Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land. 14 Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them; 15 until the LORD hath given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD’s servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sunrising. 16 And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. 17 According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the LORD thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. 18 Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of a good courage.”

Introduction

“The book of Joshua, how many of you have read ahead, the first chapter? That’s good, so you have an idea, the rest of you don’t know if I’m making stuff up or telling the truth. Paul said the Bereans were more noble, Acts 17:11, because they studied the Scripture, they searched the Scripture to see if the things he was saying was true, that’s your responsibility, we don’t beg you for money, obviously, or tell you how to dress. But what we want you to do is do your homework, read your Bible, so when you come here, you’re up to snuff, you know that I’m not making things up, you can search the Scriptures to see if these things are true. And you know, we’re beginning the book of Joshua, this Sunday, the Lord willing we’ll finish the book of John and head into the book of Acts (see https://unityinchrist.com/Acts/Acts_2_41.html), both of them go together in regards to the exhortations and the lessons contained in Joshua and Acts, very well they go together, I think it’s a great time for us as a church and as the Church, in this nation and in this world to be exhorted in regards to the days that we live in, the challenges that are ahead of us. And there’s some wonderful things here in this book of Joshua. It is, certainly, historical, it is historical and it is typical, there are lessons in here and types for us, historical, it is the nation of Israel finally coming to the end of their 40 years in the Wilderness. They’re entering into the Land of Promise, it’s not a land that they deserve, it’s not a land that they had earned, but a land that was promised as far back as Abraham, and they have heard about over and over. They are entering into the Land of Promise, they are to enter it, they are to conquer it, and they are to occupy it. And those are the divisions of the Book, the entering of the land, the subduing of the land, and the occupying of the land. This piece of real estate, at least west of Jordan, about the size of the State of New Jersey, that would determine much of the moral and religious character of the rest of human history throughout the world. So, remarkable lessons and challenges here, these people enter this land with a Book, with the Torah, the first five books of Moses, with a standard unlike any other people that have ever lived to that time on the face of the earth, with, God says, such statutes and such laws and such ordinances that make them different from any other people that have ever lived. And they were to be a priesthood to the other nations of the world. So there are things going on here, and part of what happens in the Book of Joshua is being wrestled out in our culture, in our election coming up [President Obama about to be elected at this time], in the world that we live in today, there are standards and morals and ethics, and there are things that are being wrestled over and argued over, and they are put down on the page and carried into the Promised Land and through the victory of Joshua and the establishing of the nation of Israel, those things have been passed to us in remarkable ways, and they are current to our lives today. And I think it’s important for us to understand those things. Joshua, as a man, it tells us in chapter 24, when he dies he’s 110 years old, the scholars argue about the seven wars of the years of Canaan, some think it covers a shorter period, some about the period of 24 years. Either way, Joshua is over 85 years old when this takes place, as he ends up to be their leader entering into the land. That means that he was somewhere between five and ten years old in Egypt when Moses killed the Egyptian and fled to the back side of the desert in Midian [which is in Saudi Arabia]. It means that he grew up in Egypt watching his father come home from making bricks with whip marks on his back, he grew up as a slave [to read about the historic period of time when this happened, see https://unityinchrist.com/lamb/exodus1.html]. His mother was a slave, his father was a slave, and Joshua was a slave, and came under the taskmaster’s whip, and was part of those who had cried out to God, and God told Moses “I have heard their cries.” This man was a slave, this man grew up under tyranny, he grew up under persecution, he grew up in tremendous adversity, he grew up in circumstances that so many today would say “Well that’s the reason that all the problems I have is because how messed up my childhood was,” now listen, Joshua takes all of that away from us. This is a man whose going to walk with God, this is a man who has had one of the roughest and undesirable of beginnings, and at this point in the Book he’s over 85. Those of you who are senior citizens and citizens here, no excuse not to serve Christ, I don’t care if you are 70, 80, 85, 90, there’s still something for you to do in the Lord. He is not done with you. Joshua and Caleb are the only two of that older generation that are entering in, that had remembered what it was like in Egypt, they remembered the miracles that came. Joshua was there on the Passover night, and it tells us in Chronicles in chapter 7 of 1^st Chronicles around verse 27, that he was the firstborn, so his life was at stake the night that the blood was put on the doorposts and lentils, he was about 45 to 50 then. And the angel of death was going through the camp, he lived through that, that was engraved on his memory, it never left him for the rest of his life. He walked through the Red Sea and he saw the walls of water on either side, and the Egyptian army destroyed and floating on the shores of the Red Sea. This man had been trained, listen please, in ignorance, he had been a slave, then he had been a soldier. The first time we have the word “Joshua,” referring to him in Exodus chapter 17, where Moses and the children of Israel faced Amalek and the army of Amalek, where the Amalekites come after those who were straggling, the weaker and so forth. And Moses says to Joshua, “I’m going to go up on the mountain, Joshua, I’m going to pray, and you’re going to be down in the valley with a drawn sword, and as long as I hold up my staff God will give you victory,” and Aaron and Hur held up his arms and Joshua down there had a tremendous victory, in fact chapter 17 around verse 14 it tells us something specific Moses was to write down and rehearse before Joshua. It is obvious that Joshua was being trained in ignorance, he never dreamed, just being obedient to Moses, that he was being trained for the battles of Canaan, that he would see the walls of Jericho fall down, that he would see the sun and the moon stand still in the Valley of Ajalon [Joshua 10:12-13], he never dreamed. He was being faithful in those days, he was not striving, he was not bugged that he wasn’t the head honcho, he was a man as it were under authority, he was growing and learning, and in all of that God was preparing him for what he had for him. And I think that’s true in all of our lives today. He was a servant, it tells us in Exodus 24 around verse 13, that he was Moses’ servant, and certainly before anyone can lead, they need to learn to serve. And he was not grating over that, it was a privilege to him, he was close to Moses, he was close to the Tent of Meeting, he would be there often when Moses left, where the presence of God was, he was a godly man, he was content to serve and to take his place. He was a spy, if you remember, he was sent in to Kadesh Barnea with the other 11, only him and Caleb came back with a positive report, 38 years before this, and they said ‘They’re gonna be bread before us, we’re gonna beat them up, who cares if they’re giants, let us loose, we’re ready to go in and get ‘em.’ And the nation had turned away, and for 38 years he had thought about that, probably wondering ‘Am I going to be an old man, am I ever going to get in?’ And now we find him standing on the border of the Promised Land.

‘The Times, They Are A-Changin’

It says “Now” in Hebrew, the first word in Hebrew is, by the way “And” which connects it to the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, “And after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,” (verse 1) Remember back in Deuteronomy 34, verse 8 it says they had mourned for Moses 30 days in the Plains of Moab. “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister,” literally “Moses’ servant” “saying,” it doesn’t specifically say how he spoke, we’re assuming that Joshua is in the Plains of Moab. There have been at least 30 days since the death of Moses, the nation has been mourning, Joshua had received that exhortation from the LORD in chapter 31 of Deuteronomy that he would lead the nation, God said “Be strong and of good courage, Joshua, for I am with you.” It’s hard to say in those 30 days the weight that was bearing down on him, he was thinking. And now the LORD speaks to Joshua in the Plains of Moab here, and he says to him, “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.” (verse 2) Now, this is an interesting time, there are things changing. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like change. I am a creature of habit. I like to get up around the same time, I’ve found a particular kind of coffee I like, and every time I change I regret it, I like to grind the same beans every morning, I like to have the same cup, I like to watch the news, I’m a creature of habit. Usually if that all goes ok for me I get off to a decent start, I don’t appreciate being interrupted, and I don’t like changes, I’m in a routine, I’m just old I think, I don’t know what’s happening to me. But we don’t like change, many of us. This is a time of change, there is no more Moses, there will be no more Manna falling from the sky, there will be no more pillar of cloud by day or pillar of fire by night leading the children of Israel. They will no longer be dwelling in tents, they will be moving into cities and into houses. It will be a time of dramatic change, as they go over the Jordan into Canaan land. Of course the beautiful picture is Joshua, and this is the first book in the Bible named after a person, Joshua is the Hebrew for the Greek word Jesus, they’re both the same word, ‘Yeshua,’ meaning ‘the Lord has become our Salvation’ His name was Oshea [Numbers 13:8], somewhere there in Egypt his parents being whipped every day, named their son Oshea, in faith, they must have been godly parents, which means salvation. They must have longed to be redeemed from Egypt. And Joshua, as Moses is sending him in to spy out the land, changes his name from Oshea to Ya, put’s Jehovah in front of it, YaOshea, Joshua, the LORD has become our Salvation. And it’s a beautiful picture of Moses and of the Law not being able to lead us into the things of God, but Jesus Christ [Yeshua haMeschiach] of course, is the one who can take us in, Moses could not cross the Jordan, it would have to be Joshua.

What Does The Land Of Canaan Picture For Us?

And look, Canaan land is not a picture of heaven [eternal life in the Kingdom of God], I know many of the old hymns and spirituals sing of the Canaan land as heaven. Well it isn’t that, there are battles there, there are giants there, there are temptations there, there are defeats there. I’m hoping, when I get to heaven, all of that is over, I’m not looking forward to get to heaven [which will end up on earth, cf. Revelation 21:1-23], with more battles and more giants and more struggles, that’s not heaven. This is a picture of something else. All of us in our lives have our Egypt, or should. You know, I remember Egypt, you know, again, sometimes I talk to some of the kids who grew up in church here, and for me I remember being under the bondage Pharaoh, I remember being subjected in the world, and my taskmasters were drugs or alcohol, one thing or another, and none of that really freedom, everybody thinking ‘If I could have that, you know, I could be free,’ and you look at those in the Betty Ford Clinic who have everything, and they’re miserable. And so many people, it’s their goal, to get their first million or whatever, and it doesn’t fulfill. I’m hoping if the Lord’s leading you to your first million, that you get there. In fact if you attend our church I hope you get to your first billion and you’re a tither, regardless, you know, that’s not the goal. I think it was George McDonald that said, “Without the Lord, you either fail miserably, or we succeed more miserably.” And to make the pursuit of our life simply gain can be a very treacherous success. We all have our Egypt, and it’s wonderful through the blood of the Lamb to be set free from our Egypt, to be set free, out from under Satan, from under Pharaoh as it were, through the blood of Jesus Christ. There is a journey, we all have our Wilderness wandering, as it is. And there are lessons there, from God feeding, to certain victories, certainly, and some Christians you see they spend their whole life in the Wilderness, it never seems they settle in to the Christian experience, they never move into the things God has for them. But there is that part of our experience which corresponds to the Wilderness Wanderings. And they weren’t really wanderings, they were being led the whole way. And then there’s Canaan, Canaan is a picture to you and I of the promises God has made to us. As Christians we live, we are to live and walk in the promises of God, “there are great and precious promises given to us whereby we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world through lust” Peter tells us. We don’t live on explanations. Sometimes that’s what we want from God all the time, ‘Why are you doing this, why are you doing that?’ The truth is, we live on promises. The things of God are set before our hearts, we have a blessed hope, and we have things that he’s promised to us now. And Canaan corresponds to that. There is a Christian life. The ancient people of Israel were predestined and chosen for a particular inheritance. You and I in like manner are predestined and chosen, and we have a particular inheritance, now, and in the world to come. [Comment: “the world to come” is a phrase the Jews coined in the pre-Christian era up through it, to refer to the prophecies and promises of God found in the Old Testament about the coming Millennial Kingdom of God which the coming of the Messiah would usher into this world. Zechariah 14:1-19, and numerous prophecies found in the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, just to name a few major sources, foretell of this coming Kingdom of God to earth. In recent times, this very same term was coined by the former Worldwide Church of God, calling it “The World Tomorrow,” in their booklet “The Wonderful World Tomorrow, What It Will Be Like.” Biblically, the booklet was accurate, and spelled out what that coming Kingdom would be like. It is that coming Kingdom which will make up a part of our eternal inheritance, as the resurrected saints of God (cf. 1^st Corinthians 15:49-56) receive rulership positions as eternal kings and priests in it (cf. Revelation 5:9-10).] The children of Israel were to be led into their promises by a divinely appointed leader named Joshua, Jesus. You and I have been led into the promises of God in our lives by a divinely appointed leader name Jesus, not under the Law, not deserving it, but by grace. The children of Israel entered into those things, and there were still struggles involved, they were to do it by faith. You and I, if you haven’t noticed, even walking with the Lord, entering into the things of the Lord, there are struggles involved for you and I, and this is the place where we find no longer Moses the Law-giver, but the children of Israel have the Law, they have the Book of the Law, and they are to order their lives by the things that are written in God’s Word, and you and I are to do the same thing. So the spiritual corollaries are remarkable, really. God has made us promises, about living a victorious life, sometimes we find Christians that are still struggling with drugs, but God has promised us victory. He hasn’t promised us victory without battle, there is subduing, and there is occupying the things that God gives to us. Much of the New Testament talks about shields of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the helmet of Salvation, it talks about the enemy, it talks about wrestling, it talks about the pulling down of strongholds. It doesn’t just talk about those things just for fun. We live in that environment, there is constantly for you and I a bringing of all of our thoughts into captivity to Christ. “That the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but powerful to the pulling down of strongholds.” God has set great and precious promises in front of us. We are to enter into those things, certainly dependent on our divine leader. Certainly we enter into those things by faith, not by the Law, we don’t deserve them, we don’t earn them, they’re given freely to us, they are promised to us through his completed work on the cross, and yet even in Hebrews it says we are to labour to enter into that rest. It seems like contradictory ideas. [Comment: he’s trying to explain the hard to understand doctrine of Law & Grace. For more on that subject, see https://unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm] And for you and I in this world, there is the world of the flesh and the devil, that all of those things that all of the time are pulling on us, there’s this constant undertow. But greater is he that is in you than that’s in the world, we have a spiritual leader, we have a Promised Land, we have a victory that’s guaranteed, you and I through the power of God’s Holy Spirit have been enabled to lead victorious lives in this present world. Because what unbeliever wants to hear ‘Ah ya, it’s fun to be a Christian, I’m struggling with drugs, I’m struggling with pornography, ya you should be a Christian,” what’s the point? ‘No thanks, I think I’ll be a Buddhist or something, see ya Eor.” If we can’t promise them something, what’s the point? What’s the point? But the truth is, God has given us victory, God has enabled us, we sin because we want to, not because we have to. And Joshua, and the book of Joshua, and as we enter into the Book of Acts, we have great lessons in regards to these things. And believe me, they’re applicable to all of us, applicable to every one of us, I think about these things as I’m looking. So, in this first chapter God is going to tell Joshua to go over Jordan, then he’s going to tell Joshua nobody’s going to be able to stand in front of you, that’s the conquest of the land, and then he’s going to tell him he’s going to divide the land between the tribes, that they’re going to receive their inheritance, the three sections of the book are put before the heart of Joshua, he’s being encouraged as he goes, and we’ll see that as we move on.

“Be Thou Strong And Of A Good Courage”

So “Moses my servant is dead;” God’s very sensitive here as he talks to Joshua, “now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.” (verse 2) And I wonder when Joshua hears that what he’s thinking about “over this Jordan”? We’re told specifically that the Jordan, it’s at the swelling of the Jordan, it’s at floodtide at this point in time. Those of you who have been to Israel with us, any of you who are going to go in the Spring, you won’t see the mighty Jordan, you’ll see the muddy Jordan. In most places coming down the Jordan Valley it’s about 12 to 15 foot wide, but it snakes all the way down the Jordan Valley. But when the rains come in a flood, instead of making all those curves it overflows its banks and it gets much wider. Not so much today, because the Israelis use so much of it for irrigation and so forth, but as Joshua and the children of Israel are looking at the Jordan, it’s overflowing its banks, in places it’s a quarter mile wide. And God is saying “go over this Jordan.” Joshua’s thinking ‘ok, but I’m thinking I’m missing a little bit of information here.’ “go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.” And “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given” past tense “unto you, as I said unto Moses.” (verses 2-3) ‘it’s already yours, I’ve already given it unto you.’ Listen to verse 4, “From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, [and great Hittite cities were discovered in archaeological digs at the northern end of the Euphrates, in modern-day Turkey] and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.” In this verse, the LORD describes a 300,000 square mile territory. The closest Israel ever came to it was under Solomon, under David and Solomon. This is all the way to the river Euphrates [from its headwaters, including those Hittite cities in Turkey, all the way to where it empties into the Persian Gulf would be Israel’s promised eastern border, to the Mediterranean Sea, this area would include all of Lebanon, Syria into Turkey to the headwaters of the Euphrates, all of Iraq on the western side of the Euphrates, down through all of Jordan and Saudi Arabia]. This teaching wouldn’t be popular today in the world we live in, for Israel to be a country that goes from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, but that’s what God speaks of here. [He also said in another place that their western border would also extend to the Nile River, and if you follow the Nile south, that would include all of the territory on the eastern shore of the eastern shore of the Nile, going down into central Africa, coming out around Somalia. This is more than likely going to be the territory of the entire 12 tribes of Israel, not just the Jews, who are only one tribe, after the 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ.] Interesting. “From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea” the Mediterranean “toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.” (verse 4) And Joshua’s thinking ‘Man, 38 years ago we’d have been glad just to enter into Kadesh-Barnea.’ “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” (verse 5) Now I’m sure that was a great encouragement, but he also remembers Moses spent half his life laying on his face, saying ‘Oh God, don’t kill them, don’t kill them.’ “as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” though the battles may be hard. He doesn’t say there won’t be any battles, he just says “I won’t fail thee and I won’t forsake thee.” Paul, or the writer to the Hebrews, whatever your bent is, picks up on this and says to us “let your conversation, your lifestyle, be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have, for he hath said,” and he quotes here, Joshua 1:5, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” So this is passed over to us in the New Testament, Jesus said ‘Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.’ The same promise here, made to us. I think of David, and all of the things he had been through, all of the victories that he would have, I think of Goliath and all of the incredible things that were attached to David’s life, and yet David as he stands before the LORD, Psalm 18, he says “Thou also hast given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand hath holden me up,” and he says this, “and thy gentleness hath made me great.” And we can say the same thing, God is a God of power, he laid out the heavens with the span of his hand, from his index finger to his thumb is the distance across the universe today. Ah, his power is unimaginable, when we see a lightning storm or we see the North Cascades or the Grand Tetons, we think of God’s creation and the awe and power of it. And David says ‘But the truth is, LORD, the fact that you stooped down to my life, that you stooped down to me, it’s your gentleness.’ His power and his might would just consume us. David said ‘it’s your gentleness, you have made me great.’ And look at God here stooping down to Joshua, saying, ‘Nobody’s going to be able to stand before you, wherever you go, as I was with Moses, that’s the way I’ll be with you, and I will not fail thee.’ Unable to, his character, he’s not able to fail, “nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.” (verse 6) Joshua is going to hear this four or five times, God said it to him in Deuteronomy 31, he’s going to say it to him at least three times here, the people are going to say it to him at the end of the chapter, “only the LORD thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses.” (verse 17b) I got a feeling Joshua’s not so strong and courageous, he keeps hearing this over and over again. “Be thou strong and of a good courage:” listen, here’s the reason “for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.” (verse 6) It’s a land of Promise.

How God Works With & Through Us

You watch the dynamics of all of this, you think “God could have just rolled over, he could of, from that side of Jordan, just blown down the walls of Jericho.’ He could have subdued the nation [of Canaan] with nothing, you know with David, it tells us when he numbered the children of Israel God was angry and he slew 22,000 with a plague [and we’ve lost over 530,000 within one year to the COVID-19 virus, putting that in perspective, I wonder if God isn’t trying to get our attention here in the U.S.] God could have easily just given them the land by miraculous victory, could have just handed it to them. But he chooses to do it a vastly different way. In fact it will tell us in Judges he chooses to give it to them “portion by portion” because if he gave them the whole thing at once they wouldn’t be wise enough to subdue it and keep it, and God in his wisdom gives us things by step A, step B, step C, he gives it to us that way. And he says to Joshua, ‘I’m going to give you the land, to receive the land of Promise you need to be strong and courageous.’ It seems like a contradiction, it’s all by grace, it’s the Land of Promise, you receive it by faith, so be strong and courageous, strong in faith, courageous in your actions and your doings. God’s going to ask him to do some things. This land of Promise is a land of testing, there’s gonna be faith, he’s going to say to the priests, ‘just march on down there with a million and a half people, I’m not gonna stop the river until you get ankle deep, so don’t worry about it, just walk in to the river and then I’ll take care of things.’ That’s quite a test. They hadn’t read the chapter, and it had never happened in the past. There’s a battle of consecration for all of us, when they get to the Plains of Gilgal they’ll be circumcised, they’ll celebrate the Passover, before God lets them into any battle, there’s the cutting away of the flesh, there’s a remembering of the blood of the lamb, before God gives us any victory--because all of our victories are secondary victories, the primary victory takes place alone with him, in his Word, and in prayer, when our lives and our hearts are where they should be, there’s always the secondary victory that manifests in the physical. We’re going to watch Israel here, when they suffer defeat, it’s a secondary defeat, whether it’s Aachen, whether it’s Ai, they suffer defeat because it’s a secondary defeat, their primary defeat was disobedience, or it was lack of prayer, the lessons in this are tremendous. So there are lessons of consecration, lessons of faith, and Joshua is going to say to his military commanders, and there was no city like Jericho, he’s going to say, imagine that, what’s the plan of attack, you know, General Petraeus or any of those guys, Joshua is going to say ‘What we’re going to do, is we’re going to walk around it once a day for seven days, we’re just going to walk around it, and on the seventh day we’re going to walk around it seven times, we’re going to blow the trumpets and scream, and the walls will fall down.’ The generals are saying ‘Just run that by me, one more time.’ There’s going to be battles of faith, there’s going to be genuine struggles and testings…and God says ‘Nobody’s going to be able to stand before you. I’ve sworn this to you, I’m going to give it to you, I may lengthen the day, Joshua, I may make the sun and the moon stand still, so instead of fighting eight hours you can fight for sixteen hours,’ and I’m thinking ‘Lord, don’t do that to me, the days are long enough, I’m tired of fighting by 5 O’clock, do you really have to do this?’ He says ‘I’m with you, I’ll never leave you or forsake you, even if it means the lengthening of the day to provide victory.’ Can’t he just give it to them? And even in that battle, at the end of the battle it says there’s hail coming out of heaven, couldn’t he have just done that early in the morning and did it more quickly? There’s something in this, you know, for us. We have a God in heaven who cares, and he’s raising kids, I’ve raised four, he’s raising us. Our destination again, not just a place but an image. He’s conforming us into the image of his Son, it says he learned obedience through the things he suffered, that I might know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, if by any means I might be made conformable to his image. He [Paul] said his experience was forgetting the things that are behind, pressing on to the mark of the high calling, he said, ‘I have not yet taken hold of that which I’ve been taken hold of before, but this one thing, forgetting the things that are behind, I press towards the mark,’ Paul says it’s a struggle. You know, we don’t fight in vain, we don’t just beat the air, he says “I press towards the mark of the high calling.” There are challenges that come to us every day, and sometimes we just forget that God has promised us, God is leading us, if we’ll just obey it will work out, we can lay hold on these things, he’s given us his Word, he’s given us his promises, we want to throw the towel in. We want spiritual inheritance, we want spiritual growth, spiritual maturity like we want instant-on television, instant breakfast, instant cameras, instant this, we want it all that way, and it just has never come that way and will never come that way. He’s honing us, and we’re way more complicated, we’re not just flesh and bone, there’s a soul and there’s a spirit, and God is refining and honing us, and changing us, and purifying us, and leading us, and teaching us to trust him. [Comment: to see more about that soul and spirit, different Biblical teachings, see https://unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm] “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.” (verses 5-6) the reason, ‘you will divide this land for an inheritance, it’s going to happen, which I sware unto their fathers to give it to them. And yes there’s going to be some tough days of battle, but I will be there with you.’

Joshua Is The Very First Human Being On Earth Who Is Charged By God To Conduct His Life And His Actions By The Written Word

Now he tells them, verses 7, 8, 9 “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.” (verse 7) Now we’re going to have here, look, please, “to do according to all the law,” we’re going to have it down in verse 8 again, “that thou mayest observe, to do.” All through this he’s going to challenge them, ‘I’m giving you my Word, not just so you can do mental exercises with it, not just so you can debate the theology, not just so you can decide you’re an Armeniest or Calvinist, not just so you can decide whether you’re a post-toastie or pre-mill, I’m giving you my Word so you can do it, so you can walk in it and live in it and obey it.’ Because that is the place of my blessing, that is the place of subduing and occupying. Not just knowing. Charles Swindoll said “We don’t lack for knowing, we lack for doing.” He said “Do we really need another book or tape on marriage, we know all the chapters, we know what God says, we don’t lack for knowing, we lack for doing.” “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.” (verses 8-9) Here he says “only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee:” look, “turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest.” (verse 7) That’s what he wants for us. So, do it, to hear it, to do it, and he says that we need to be strong and courageous for that to happen. Look, in the world that we live in today, are you watching the news? Are you watching the culture? Are you watching the things that are being thrown around in politics? Are we completely tossed to and fro by the winds of man and human politics in this world? Or do we understand we have a Master that’s higher than that, who reigns, whose glorious, whose above all this? Because if we own that, and we own Jesus Christ, it will take, we’ll have to be strong in the faith, courageous in our behavior, to bring our lives in line with the things that he’s written to us in the world that we are living in. You have to be willing to go against the tide of your friends, of your families sometimes, it takes us being strong and courageous to enter into the things that he’s promised to us. Because it will be against the tide of this present world. Listen, Jesus said, “Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go thereon, narrow is the way that leads to eternal life, and few there be that find it.” You will always be the minority, you will always be the minority, we are to be evangelizing, we are to be sharing Christ with our loved ones [and this is by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, as the apostle Paul did throughout the known world (what Gospel? see https://unityinchrist.com/misc/WhatIsTheGospel%20.htm)] The truth is, the Bible says when the anti-christ comes, multitudes, nations, kindreds and tongues will wonder after the beast, and receive his mark, because their names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. So right now, what an incredible window we have. Right now, before Christ comes, before the Rapture takes place, look at the Harvest Crusade, look at the things that are going on, what an incredible opportunity we have to be strong and courageous for Jesus Christ. Share him with the people you’ve been thinking about for years and haven’t shared him with, have the courage, in love, to speak to relatives and friends that you haven’t spoken to. Understand we have a window of opportunity, and God has called you and I for such a time as this. We’re the one’s he’s chosen to live now. He could have chosen us to live in any generation, he plugged us in at this time in human history. [Comment: And just before this coming time of Tribulation, World War III, God did promise one more major revival of his Church, the overall Body of Christ, and God promised this in Joel 2:28-29. You can play a part in this revival, even though it is God through his Holy Spirit who will initiate it, whenever it is his will to do so. Want to know more, and how he carried out the last major revival just a little over 50 years ago? see https://unityinchrist.com/prophets/Zephaniah/REVIVAL.html] And he has given us the exhortation of his Word, and he’s saying to Joshua here, in the face of tremendous adversity, ‘Look, this is all going to fall before you, if you will obey me, if you will take my Word seriously, if you will do it, and if you don’t turn to the right or you don’t turn to the left,’ we’re not to add to it, we’re told, that’s a Pharisee, you don’t detract from it, that’s a Sadducee, don’t diminish that thereof, God tells us, don’t take even a little bit away from it. He says ‘don’t turn from it to the right hand or to the left hand, that you may prosper’ is what God wants, “withersoever thou goest” and what you’re giving yourself to. And Joshua is beginning to understand, look in verse 8, it says “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein:” (verse 8a-b) Something very interesting here as we look at this, this Book, Joshua is realizing ‘I don’t have Moses anymore, but I have the Book.’ Joshua is the first human being on earth who is charged by God to conduct his life and his actions by the written Word. He is the first man on the planet who is told to conduct himself holy by a book, very interesting. And that puts him in the same ball game that you and I are in…puts him in the same boat as you and I. He has a Book, and God says this Book, that’s remarkable. There are liberal scholars that want to say it wasn’t until hundreds of years after this that the Pentateuch was compiled, the first five books. There is great evidence, and conservative scholarship believes that in fact Joshua had a copy of the Law, the first five books of Moses. And God says to him ‘This Book of the Law, listen, shall not depart out of thy mouth,’ don’t tell stories, if you have a chance to sell something into somebody’s life, let it be the Word of God, because it doesn’t return void. Look, we need an open door to share the mystery of Christ, we know that from Paul. But when you do have an open door, give them the Word of God, sow the Word of God into their lives. He says here, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein:” (verse 8a) Well people say, ‘Well Pastor Joe, I don’t have enough him, when we come to counseling you tell us to read the Bible,’ EXCUSE ME, what do you want us to say? you know, read MAD Magazine, what do you want us to tell you? We love you, that’s why we tell you to do that. “Well I’m so busy, I don’t have time.” Are you busier than Joshua? He had 2 million people, an army and a country he had to conquer, a river he had to cross, are you busier than him? God said you should meditate in this his Word, day and night. Listen, that never changes. The whole Book of Psalms begins with “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly and standeth in the way of sinners…his delight is in the law of the LORD, upon it he shall meditate day and night, he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of living waters, his leaf shall remain green and whatever he does shall prosper, the wicked are not so, nor the unrighteous…” you read Psalm 1, the whole point is there, is meditating on the Law of the LORD day and night. Meditate on it. You can do that while you’re driving, when I’m in the middle of a conversation and somebody’s talking to me, and people talk to me because they think I know something, I feel so sorry for them, but the thing I’m thinking is ‘Lord, what does your Word say? How do I answer this?’ Just to sit and to ruminate and to think and have a Biblical answer for someone. But for my own heart, to sit, to think, it isn’t just study. If all I do is study, for Sunday mornings and Sunday nights and Wednesdays nights, I dry up. I have to sit with it, I have to read, just love to, reading through a large print New Testament, now I’m underlining. And it’s talking to me, and it sits with me all day. And if Joshua had time to take to heart this exhortation from the LORD, you and I also do. And imagine Joshua now, when he meditates on this Word, what is he meditating on? I bet he thinks, as he’s getting into battles in the land of Canaan, I bet he thinks back to the battle with Amalek, I bet he meditates on it. He has a copy of a story that he was the main guy in the story. That would be fun to meditate on, wouldn’t it? As he’s standing there on the Plains of Moab looking across at the Promised Land I bet he’s meditating on Numbers 13 when the nation of Israel had turned away before him, he must be saying ‘We’re not going to do that again, we’re going to go in, because I’m too old to wander for 38 more years.’ Imagine what it was for him, having lived through some of these things, to think back, he remembers paths they went on, he remembers the Red Sea. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe” the reason of having it in your heart and mind is that you might learn “to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (verse 8) no doubt privately and publicly, so important for us to be doing that. “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:” reason “for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” (verse 9) Also in all of our struggles, in all of our battles, that is always the key to alleviate fear. There’s no other key given in Scripture, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” Without that consciousness we’re always defeated by fear. Here he says to him, “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed” why? “for the LORD thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.” The presence of the LORD, the consciousness of his presence, the remembering of his promises, the believing that he’s with us, whatever the circumstances of life brings, that is the key to alleviate fear and stress and anxiety, knowing he is with us. And I’m not good at it all the time, I’m not good at it all the time. But he’s gracious to remind me, and he’s gracious to speak to me about it, and he’s gracious to subdue my heart when it’s jumping all over…and he challenges Joshua here, again, ‘Be strong and of good courage.’ I got a feeling Joshua is a little like Timothy, where Paul says to him ‘God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind.’

‘Prepare ye Vittles, In Three Days We’re Going Over The Jordan’--Why Three Days?

“Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it.” (verses 10-11) Now he gets the leaders together, look at what he says here. “Pass through the host” a million to a million and a half people, “and command the people, saying, Prepare ye victuals” now if you watch the Beverly Hillbillies you know what that means, ah, “Prepare ye victuals;” well, the Manna’s going to stop, their enemy is sure not going to feed them. But these are the leaders of the people, they’re the officers. You’d think if he’s saying “Prepare ye victuals” he’s saying “for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan,” they’re looking at it at floodtide, they’re probably thinking ‘What do you mean, prepare ye barges, prepare you boats, prepare you tackle and grappling hooks, we’re going over…what do you mean Prepare you victuals, what is this about?’ Isn’t it interesting? Because God of course is going to make the river stop, God’s going to be with them as they walk over, the greatest victory in the land is going to be Jericho, God’s going to make that happen without them touching it so they understand what the program is going to be. And Joshua, the commander says ‘Prepare vittles,’ Moses never said that either, because the Manna was falling. “Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan,” and it’s within view, as they’re looking at it, Jericho on the other side, “to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it.” (verse 11b) Now why three days? Interesting picture here, for within three days, they’re on edge of the Promised Land, they’ve been waiting for 38 years, “for within three days.” And the reason is, is because there’s a prostitute who lives on the wall in Jericho, and her name is Rahab. And for one prostitute, God will hold up the entire army. For one prostitute God will hold up the entire progress of his divine program. You know sometimes people think because they’ve fallen into sin, or they’ve had moral failure, they’re cast off, God doesn’t care about them, there is a prostitute who lives on the wall, her name is Rahab, and she has taken note that those inhabitants of the land of Canaan are melting before this God. She’s heard the reports of how this God destroyed the Egyptian army, and the kings of the Amorites and the Moabites. She’s going to say to the spies ‘The report of you has melted away the inhabitants of the land.’ And though she’s a prostitute, she’s thinking ‘This is a God of slaves, this is a God of slaves, this is a God who took slaves out of Egypt, and maybe there’s a place for me amongst these people.’ This is a God who loves this woman so much that he holds up the whole program for three days. And this prostitute will end up to be the great grandmother of David the king [Salmon & Rahab had Obed, and Obed had Boaz, and Boaz and Ruth had Jesse, who had David, I think Rahab is David’s great-great-great grandmother]. And the great-great-great-great-keep on going grandma of Jesus the Messiah, you can read about her in Matthew chapter 1 in the genealogy. The great, great, great grandma of David, and of Jesus is living on the wall of Jericho, and in the next three days in chapter 2 we’ll look at her, the spies will go in, and will return having promised her that when they come and the walls fall down and the land is destroyed, she’ll be spared. And a very strange thing happens, they go around the city for seven days, they blow the trumpets, the walls fall down, except one piece of wall which stands up, with a house on the top with a red rope hanging down the side of the wall. God is something else, isn’t he? He is something else. “Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it. And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua, saying, Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.” (verses 11-13) now if you’ve never been with us before, and you’re wondering what in the world we’re talking about, I know Gadites sounds strange, those are not things that hang from the ceiling in a cave. As the children of Israel came into the Promised Land, two and a half of the [12-tribed nation of Israel] tribes, Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh loved the grazing land on the eastern side of the Jordan River, they had many cattle, you know, they cared more about making a living than making a life evidently, but they said ‘Let us stay here, and Moses said ‘fine, you can stay there as long as your young men that are fit for battle go in and fight the wars of Canaan until all of your brethren have received their inheritance, then you can go back.’ So that’s what this is about here. “And to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, spake Joshua, saying, Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, The LORD your God hath given you rest, and hath given you this land.” (verses 12-13) Joshua’s probably thinking, ‘Ya, he gave you rest, and war,’ remember the other part. “Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them;” (verse 14) Now we have an interesting picture here, at least to me. When we get to chapter 4 verse 13 it tells us that there are 40,000 from Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh that go before the armies of Israel into the land. In the Book of Numbers when we study those tribes, there’s some 136,000 some odd men fit for war from Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, but it specifically here speaks of the “mighty men of valour.” So evidently some were more fit for battle, and God in his grace evidently left almost 96,000 back in the hills of Gilead to protect the women and the children and the homes and so forth. So it is interesting that only 40,000 are described as going in with the armies of Israel, “until the LORD have given your brethren rest, as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the LORD your God giveth them: then ye shall return unto the land of your possession, and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD’s servant gave you on this side Jordan toward the sunrising.” (verse 15) Now look, I don’t know what you’re going to do with that, but I think there’s something here that’s telling us we should not be content with the blessings of God in our lives when we see others around us that haven’t entered in. We shouldn’t be content when we see those around us who are in need. John in his first Epistle will say ‘How does the love of God dwell in you if you see that your brother has need, and you don’t make any move to help him in that situation, to be gracious, to be loving, to help to meet that need—How dwelleth the love of Christ in you?’ [I’m thinking in this regards to the situation this nation is facing right now, explained in https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans3.htm and what’s covered in the book “The Beast Side, Living and Dying While Black in America” by D. Watkins. The Body of Christ is seriously falling down in many of these areas, where loving support could be given, along with giving them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.] So there’s part of the lesson here, they were not allowed to settle in to the blessings that they had already received, until the rest of their brethren were settled. And I think there’s a great exhortation for us in that, I don’t think we should be content when we see someone we love suffering, I don’t think we should be content when we see someone else around us in need. I think we should be responders, and I think the Body of Christ demonstrates itself in a great way to a lost world, and Jesus said ‘All men will know you’re my disciples by the love that you have one for another.’ So I have this picture here, given to us. “And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and withersoever thou sendest us, we will go.” (verse 16) I’m sure Joshua really appreciates that. Because he knows he can’t fill Moses sandals. I’m sure there’s already enough that have said, ‘You know, we’ll do whatever you say, but you ain’t no Moses, just remember that.’ He’s gotta live with that, that’s why God keeps telling him ‘Be strong and of good courage.’ “According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the LORD be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of a good courage.” (verses 17-18) That’s the guy you want leading you into the land, somebody who is strong and of good courage. And look, God’s leaders need encouragement, don’t ever hesitate to say to the pastors, you don’t have to say it to me, that’s not why I, but the others, you see them walking around, don’t hesitate to say “Be strong and of good courage.” People need encouragement, you need encouragement, we need encouragement, and it’s important. But read ahead, next week there’s be no playoff, as far as I know, and we’ll head into Jericho with the spies, and we’ll meet this woman, this remarkable woman Rahab who lives on the wall. One of the most remarkable demonstrations of God’s love and grace anywhere in Scripture. I encourage you, so read through chapter 2 or 3, in fact, read the whole Book of Joshua, and get a sense of where this is all flowing, some incredible things, you want to be familiar with some of these characters as we go through. Let’s stand, let’s pray, we’ll have the musicians come, and look, I encourage you, if you feel like there are promises, ‘God has set things before me, I just sometimes struggle to step out of my comfort zone,’ or, ‘Lord, there are people in my family you’re telling me to witness to, let me be strong and of good courage. Lord, there are things I know you’ve been setting, been setting before my heart, and I’ve been no, no, not me, how could I ever do this,’ it’s just a great time to say ‘Lord, as we head into the Book of Acts, and we look at a church empowered by the Holy Spirit, not by their own gifts, and as we look at Joshua and this challenge about faith and the things that God puts in front of us, what a great time to just be reconsecrating our lives, saying, ‘Lord, here I am, let’s have a fresh beginning here Lord, give me my second wind spiritually, Lord this is the 7^th round, let me, give me my second wind here…’ [transcript of a connective expository sermon given on Joshua 1:1-18, by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]