Serve The Lord — Joshua 1

0:00 So, we're studying Joshua today and when we ask the body for suggestions for characters in the Bible to study. Joshua got two votes. I don't know who the votes were. So, if you want to admit to that later, please do so but Joshua got two votes and so I'm covering Joshua today and Joshua's got 24 chapters. And I will not get through 24 chapters in an hour ever and no one else will either but Joshua is is got a lot of content and it reads a lot like a fairy tale really and I mean that in the best possible way but you read the book of Joshua and you just hear amazing supernatural thing after another and it's just the entire book and it it really struck me this time reading through it.

0:59 You'd if you've grown up reading this and hearing these stories, sometimes they lose their impact and as I was preparing for this, they I rediscovered some of that impact and sat here going through this going, this is is just unbelievable. And so since there's 24 chapters and we're not going to be able to do any of it justice, I'm going to actually leave the storytelling to maybe Denzel will want to pick some up because he's our good resident storyteller and so is Don Morris. So I'm going to let them maybe take some of these 24 chapters and give us the stories. But I'm not that much of a storyteller and so what we're going to do instead of trying to pick the highlights out of these 24 chapters is, we're going to take a look at chapter one and we're going to look at chapter 24. In chapter one, we see god's charge to Joshua.

1:53 This this is god's sort of marching orders. Pardon the pun. It's it's literal and and figurative. He, god is giving Joshua his marching orders and I think there's a lot we can learn from that and then at the end of the book, when Joshua is addressing the nation of Israel, we see Joshua's recollection and we see Joshua's instruction to the nation and it's a result of his walk with god during his time leading Israel. So, there's a lot that we can learn here.

2:24 So, in in terms of summary, before we get into chapter one, in in case you didn't know, Joshua covers the conquest of Canaan. Joshua was the successor to Moses and Joshua had been a very careful and pretty excellent really understudy of Moses. During the forty years that Israel was wandering in the wilderness, Joshua chose to serve Moses as his assistant for lack of better term. Joshua was with Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 24 when Moses received the 10 commandments. Joshua was also one of the 12 spies who originally went out into Canaan to survey the land and its inhabitants.

3:16 We read about that in Numbers 13 and of the older generation who left Egypt, only he and Caleb were allowed into the promised land across the Jordan River. Joshua was a man of tremendous faith. That's something that we get out of this book. He had a lot of courage and he had a lot of great natural leadership ability and he believed that god not only could do what he promised but he believed that god would do what he promised. And this is kind of in stark contrast to the rest of the Israelites who came out of Egypt, who just god would hand them something time and time again and then the next day, Israel is forgetting about god and doubting god's provision and Joshua is here.

4:10 No, he's a man who believes god will and can do what he promises. The deliverance of Israel that began in Exodus is now completed in the book of Joshua. This is the military campaign that lasted about six or seven years where where the Israelites wiped out Canaan pretty much. Not 100% but god wanted the wicked nations in Canaan to be gone and he gave that land to Israel. The extent of Joshua's conquest was vast but his age actually prevented him from completing the task.

4:56 He was already 80 years old when he started. So he didn't get to finish. You can read about that in chapter 13 which I'm not going to cover but it's in chapter 13 if you wanna read about it. I think... Well, one of the reasons of this book is we should know how God kept the rule of Thomas and Abraham, and how the wicked were expelled from Canaan, and how we see god fulfilling promises to faithful servants.

5:30 The children of the Israelites who had left Egypt. So, the the second generation would get to claim the promise. As as the lord destroyed the whole generation that left Egypt, he destroyed them for their unfaithfulness. Now, their children get to inherit god's promise. Moses changed Joshua's name.

5:59 In numbers 13, Joshua wasn't just Joshua. It was Hosea. Joshua changed, I'm sorry, Moses. He changed the same to Joshua. The translation from Hebrew Joshua into Greek is Jesus.

6:13 And that's one of the ways we see this. But we see we see a parallel between Moses which kind of represents the law and the fact that the law cannot lead god's people into their inheritance but Joshua which is Jesus in Greek is is kind of a foreshadowing of the new covenant and Jesus Christ in resurrection who can deliver god's people to their inheritance. Moses could not go into the promised land and lead the people to the law cannot do that but Christ can and so there's a little bit of there's a little bit picturesque illustration here. So, with that, covering our review in my dwindling less than thirty minutes. So, let's look at chapter one.

7:47 No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous.

8:07 Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you?

8:34 Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God with you wherever you go. This is Joshua's charge directly from god and we're gonna start digging in here actually in verse six. And what god is giving Joshua among other things. One one of the first things he's giving Joshua is the conditions of the promise of victory.

9:12 Joshua is called to boldness in god. Maybe this is exposing a weakness perhaps. Maybe there was a need for such a command because even a great leader like Joshua needed an encouragement like this. It kind of reminds me of of how in Ephesians five, men are told to love their wives and women are told to respect their husbands because those are what we have a hard time doing. And so that's the commandment we need to hear.

9:41 Men don't have a hard time respecting their wives. You guys probably don't think that much about people loving their husbands. And that's why the man is written that way. Maybe you've heard something like that before. I didn't come up with that.

9:53 I forgot somewhere. The Lord gives us instructions because he knows exactly what it is that we need the most. And so he's giving this to Joshua and he says it three times in in that little short address. He tells Joshua to be strong and courageous. He's calling him to boldness, but the boldness is not Joshua himself.

10:16 God is calling him to trust in him. We can be too full of self confidence. Right? It's not being boldness to carry our heads high and to be confident in ourselves. This is just like David going up against Goliath who said, forget the armor, forget any weaponry.

10:40 I'm just walking up to this guy because he's blaspheming god I am confident that god's going to take care of the Philistine. I'm just going to stand here. I will twirl a few stones but you know, I'm not the one doing it and this is what god is calling Joshua to do and this is what he's calling him to be. This is this is the courage that needs. Look Joshua, I'm gonna give you everything you need.

11:06 I'm gonna hand this over to you, but you've gotta stand in the face of Canaan. You've got... They've got armies that are so much bigger than yours. They have more of a superior, which Israel wasn't allowed to have because it was a it was a temptation for Israel to say they could continue Canaan through their military training. God did not have cavalry or chariots or any other They're looking out at Canaan and they see city walls that reach the proverbial heavens that was ever being commanded to pull them down and what's in front of Joshua is an impossible task and that's that's god's point.

12:07 So what are the conditions? First, says, you're going to all the law. Joshua must be careful to observe the law. So, the pillar of Joshua's success were god's law and god's word but then it was Joshua's commitment to it. That was absolutely necessary, and it was commitment to all the law that God has given to all the law.

12:38 Joshua didn't need to only read it. It was to be on his list, be shown on the part of his mouth within his mind, meditate on it day and night, and he had to do it. Observatively do all that is written. God's word had to permeate Joshua. Just like it's supposed to permeate us.

12:57 This is what we're supposed to be taking out of this. Largest Joshua, just as visible to us us today as they were in Joshua, and what Jesus is facing, and we're not facing Canaan. These are absolutely as essential to the New Testament believer today so what's god's point here? What's his promise? For then, you will make your word prosperous and you will receive success.

13:25 Living god's word this way is a guarantee of Christian success. Have to throw that qualifying word in there because success. This is how the world measures success. But that is not Christian success. And God does not define success as a life without problems.

14:01 But what success means is is a life that is able to deal with anything because it takes advantage of god's presence and god's promises. We may be led as sheep to the slaughter. The world may think of it that way but Paul says in Romans, more than conquerors through him. We have the power. We have everything.

14:37 We have everything that we need and more than what we need. God absolutely does give us more than we can handle and that's the point. He can handle because we can only understand for god when he's given us his life. He's got nowhere else to go and now, god is the one who has to get us through it and we're going to lean. We're going to rest on those promises But his promises have conditions.

15:13 His promises have conditions. So, are we living the life that we are supposed to? Have we allowed god and his word to permeate our lives and to fill our lives and do we operate that way? Do we live our lives that way? So, these are some of the challenges that chapter 24 and so Joshua has completed the possible They didn't they didn't stand in front of Jericho and yell and the walls came down.

16:05 It's quite literally impossible. So, and there's 23 more chapters in the middle that I skipped about things like that, okay? There's a lot in there. So, please reread it but Joshua in chapter 24, he he addresses Israel and he's at Shechem which is this sort of valley in between some mountains. It was like a natural occurring amphitheater.

16:34 It's a tidbit that no one really wanted to know but there there it is for you. But in verse 14 is where I want to start here and about all the time we have. Up until verse 14, Joshua does here relay a message from god about Israel's history And God kind of leaves out all of the bad stuff that Israel did. But the point is, verse 13 verses is God is saying, I did this for you, and I did this for you, and I did this for you, and I did this, and I this, and I did this. It leaves out all of the you did that, and you did that, and you leave all of that out.

17:57 And the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the ways in which we went and among all the peoples through the midst in whose midst we passed and the lord drove out and the lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the lord for he is our god. Now, therefore, fear the lord and serve him in sincerity and truth, verse 14. Serving in sincerity and truth.

18:46 This isn't a blind leap of faith. Israel saw god. He's they saw god work. This generation, they saw the the forty years in the wilderness and god's provision but now, they've also seen god's providences and military for their conquering king and go after miracle after unbelievable miracle. It makes sense for them to exclusively serve a god who had known so much for them.

19:23 Schaefer put it like this, Joshua is a long for the future when he's rooted in a space time past. He did not ask the people to make a guardian leap of faith. This stress on god's action history recurs throughout his farewell. It's kind of the the reason that god showed them in the verse in the in the first 13 verses of the chapter why he related the history of what he did for them. He's trying to remind them because maybe it's weekly, maybe it's daily, maybe it's every hour.

20:04 We need a reminder reminder of of what what god god has has done done for for us. Us. God is asking you to trust in the reason. What do you the lord. And so god is contrasting his word the with the three other gods that we can associate actually with the other three bodies of worship.

20:39 But in verse two through four, it was that the gods of the other side of the Euphrates. So, these were the gods of the Sumerian and the Babylonian culture. Abraham was called Abraham was called was called check verses five through seven, showed down the culprit side of the Red Sea where the gods were being in Egypt. This generation was born in Egypt. They knew the gods of Egypt.

21:20 In verses seven through 13 and also again in verse 15, it says across the Jordan where the gods of the Amorites were. And the Amorites here, this was kind of a generic term for all of Canaanites. All Kleenex are tissues, but not all tissues are Kleenex. That kind of thing. So the Amorites here isn't specifically the gods of the Amorites, this is these are the gods of Canaan.

21:45 These are the gods of their culture. This is where they were. And so god contrasts what he has done for Israel with these other gods. And so Joshua applies the principle then. He says, the lord god of Israel is greater than all of these.

22:18 Like, you can just feel his sort of, his excitement over it. Serve him in sincerity and truth. Sorry, I'm still in verse 14. Sincerity and truth. Joshua's calling boldly for a for a deep commitment, a true commitment.

22:42 A true and deep commitment to god. H. D. M. Spence in the pulpit commentary, I can't cross this.

22:49 I'll I'll probably read it twice. But he said this, the best test of sincerity is not always the open hostility of foes. For this always places the energies of combat while at the same time it makes a massive duty of war. Saying it's easy to be sincere when you're like David and Goliath and there's something right there. That's a great test of sincerity.

23:20 Still less is it at the hour of triumph over our foes, then there is no temptation then there is no temptation to rebel. The real test of our faithfulness to god is in most cases our power to continue steadfastly in one course of conduct when the excitement of conflict is removed, and the enemies with which we have to contend are the insidious allurements of ease or custom amid the commonplace duties of life. I love that quote so much. I love that so much. It's kind of...

24:01 If you want... If if I could sum it up, it's sort of the... You know, it's easy to serve God when you're faced with a brick wall you can't get over. Maybe I could put it that way. But when it's hardest is when we're at ease.

24:18 Like in the comfort of our day to day life, when we're sitting at home not being influenced from outside. Maybe it's the concept of it's not what you do it's hard to be sincere in your We know we can't function by ourselves. So, it's easy because that's in front of us. Well, okay. It's easier to serve god than it's easier to be sincere in your faith than because I've got something I can't get over but what about when there isn't anything there?

24:52 When there's not a big obstacle in front of you. How do you be sincere in your faith? There's the judgment about the sincerity of faith because you have a following Christ. Verse 15. I made a few words.

25:17 Choose god or choose an alternative. Disagreeable in your sight to serve the lord. Choose for yourselves today who we will serve. Joshua gives a strong exhortation to serve the lord. Perhaps, some of them did not want to serve the lord.

25:42 So, one of them. If they do not choose to serve the lord, they were responsible to choose the preferred deity that they will serve. They might choose the gods of heritage, the gods of the culture, or the gods of the upbringing. Yet, they had to make a choice. Everyone serves some kind of god, big g or small b.

26:10 Everybody serves one. And our choice should be clear among the alternatives. It should be. God lays this out for them and it's what we need to be looking at ourselves. Okay, we don't have the first 13 verses of chapter 24.

26:29 That's Israel's history up until this point but when you think about, okay, let me look at my own history from the last whatever whatever you want to make it, the last year, the last five years, the last ten years, the last forty years. What god has done for you. So, now, in the midst of this, John six in one of his better moments. Lord says, whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

27:46 I don't know but he offered them an alternative but he says, me and my house, we will serve the lord. His choice was clear. His choice was sensible. His choice was logical. His choice was right.

28:04 The English uses a future tense but the Hebrew tense has a more full meaning and continuous action sense. So it involves the future but it can also point to the past and include the present. So Joshua is undoubtedly affirming, I have chosen and I will continue to. He could make this statement because he chose the belief, that chose to stop. He chose to serve the Lord.

28:37 He chose to fight the Americans, choosing the things that cost him everything. He chose to reject the golden calf, choosing when the flesh might say and dictate otherwise. Joshua chose to serve the lord by serving Moses, choosing a humble place. Joshua chose to believe god's promise about the promised land, choosing against the majority. So we're all in a position.

29:56 There could be a right way. There could be a wrong way. There is a right way to use the dishwasher. There is a right a right way, and they even outline it in the user manual. There is a right way.

30:15 If you wanna talk about it, I'll I'll I'll show you. You can load your dishwasher. I'll come over and fix it. So we're faced with choices. Not all of our choices are black and white moral choices.

30:36 But we can definitely make better choices and there are choices that we can make that are based on, okay, here are the principles that we have. Here's the truth of god that we have. How do we apply this to this decision? How do we make the right choice? How do we make the right choice?

32:32 Level to be concerned about what others think of us. But Joshua's relationship with God was not based on public opinion. It wasn't based on any man or person. It was based on God alone. And he would serve god no matter what anyone else did.

32:54 So, Joshua's decision meant that he had no more hesitation. Joshua's decision meant that he lived above the evil influence of others. Joshua's decision was deep. It was clear. It was fixed.

33:17 It was well grounded. It was solemnly made. It was absolute. And you know what else? And that's my hope here.

35:24 Lord, we thank you for the example of Joshua that that you have given to us. Thank you for the lessons that we can learn to I'm do wilderness, how you have led us to our promised land, and now ask for us to trust you and to have faith. Lord, we live lives worthy of you and your calling. We ask you to be with us and to help us. We pray these things in the Lord Jesus' name.