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Joshua 1
Skip Heitzig

Joshua 1 (NKJV™)
1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying:
2 "Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them--the children of Israel.
3 "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.
4 "From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.
5 "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.
6 "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
7 "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
8 "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,
11 "Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, 'Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'"
12 And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh Joshua spoke, saying,
13 "Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, 'The LORD your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land.'
14 "Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them,
15 "until the LORD has given your brethren rest, as He gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD'S servant gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise."
16 So they answered Joshua, saying, "All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.
17 "Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the LORD your God be with you, as He was with Moses.
18 "Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, in all that you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage."

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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06 Joshua - 1998

Pastor Skip Heitzig expounds on the book of Joshua as a historical book, as the Israelites enter, conquer, and divide up the Promised Land, and also as a practical book on victorious living.

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Joshua, chapter 1. If you have been with us in our studies of the Old Testament so far, our Through the Bible, and you followed the children of Israel through the wilderness, you know what a precarious history they've had; how exciting it was on the day they saw the Red Sea open up and they marched through on dry land following Moses; how exciting it was for them to look back and see God deal with the Egyptian army, completely obliterating them, and delivering them with a mighty arm, a mighty and an outstretched hand, as the Scripture says. So much so that the people who are living in the land of Canaan at the time that Joshua, chapter 1, opens up, the people have already heard.

God's reputation has preceded the children of Israel. And the people in Canaan are actually in fear and in dread of these wandering set of nomads out in the desert about ready to cross over into the Promised Land. The people of Canaan are afraid because they heard: "Your God opened up the Red Sea. Your God did all of these signs and wonders." And we're going to see that revealed by Rahab the harlot in the next chapter as the two spies are sent in. It was an exciting day as they crossed over the Red Sea. But so much of the rest of the history up till now is not a pretty picture, forty long years of wandering, forty years of complaining, forty years of idolatry in the desert before they even get to this point.

And if you look at the children of Israel wandering through the desert, rather than having a group of believing warriors, you have a group of unbelieving wanderers. Man, did they give Moses a hard time, didn't they? I mean, they complained about everything. God was miraculously taking care of them and leading them. Okay, it's hard to be out in the desert. We understand that. Or you can imagine wandering around for forty years in the same desert and what it would be like. "I think I've seen that cactus before." [laughter] I was in Sinai a few months back. We climbed it, and I looked over that area, and I understood why the Bible calls it the "great and terrible wilderness." There's nothing there but lots of mountains, lots of rocks.

It was a difficult, difficult time. Moreover, it was the world's longest funeral march. A whole generation of the children of Israel who had come out of Egypt died in the desert. So they must have been burying people every day as they were falling by the wayside until an entirely new generation has come forth. And these are the ones that are about ready to enter into the Promised Land. As I place all of those books together, from the time they went through the Red Sea, wandered through the wilderness, and are now at the brink of the Jordan River, all I can think is that we have a wonderfully stubborn God. Let me explain. The children of Israel were stubborn, but God has stubborn love. God has what we call a "covenant love."

That's how it's translated from the Old Testament word chesed/hesed, a covenant love, one that is committed to a process, a goal of deliverance, of maturity. And so though they would wander, though they would disobey, though they would fail, there's God: "Hey, I'm going to bring you into this land. And if you disbelieve me, fine, then you'll all kick the bucket and die. But I'll get these young, fresh ones a whole new start, a whole new generation. But I'm going to bring you into the land. I promised it to your forefathers." God is committed to the process, and whatever God starts, he finishes. "The One who has begun a good work in you," said Paul, "will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ."

Beautiful lessons are learned. Well, as we open up the first words and couple chapters, really, of the book of Joshua, we come to another body of water, this time the Jordan River, unlike the Red Sea. However, they still have to cross it. Now at this new body of water, now as they face new battles in a new area, there's another renewal of faith. There was faith at one time as they crossed the Red Sea, then there was lots of unbelief, and now faith once again as they're ready to enter into the Promised Land. A generation has died that is faithless, new generation has come. This is all brand-new people, a whole new cast, except for two people. There is two people that remain from the first generation.

They're old guys by now. They're in their eighties, perhaps close to ninety, one of them. One is named Joshua, the other is named Caleb. We remember them. They were the only two guys who came back from spying out the original Promised Land who said, "Hey, God promised it to us, no problem. We can take it," while ten of the spies said, "Oh no! There's giants in the land. We're dead meat. We'll never make it." So the rest of children of Israel believe the evil report, but the two guys that from the very beginning believed that God would give them the land, and also had to wander around paying the consequences with all the unbelievers, here they are once again, Joshua and Caleb.

Joshua is the general. "Born as a slave," says Josephus, "in the land of Egypt," now the general, the successor of Moses. And then Caleb, we'll get to him in a few chapters, he's eighty-five years old. In fact, he will tell Joshua: "I'm eighty-five years old today. It's my birthday. And I'm as strong today and ready for battle today as I was years ago. Let me at those giants. Give me a few more battles." And so I tell you what, for a couple of old guys, you look at that and you go, "I want to grow old like that." There's no feeling of "It's over. I have so much guilt from the past and now I'm useless." It's like, "No, wait a minute, it's only just begun. I'm only eighty-five. What could the Lord have for my life now?" It's great to see this example.

There's a few ways to approach this book, and we're going to approach it all three ways. First of all, it is a historical book. And we're going to see that the children of Israel not only come to the border of the Promised Land, but they will enter the Promised Land and the legacy continues. They're going to go through all of the motions of finding their allotment and settling in it. And we're going to see a history book, the history of the children of Israel in the land now. They haven't been in the land yet. This is the first step. If you go back to the beginning of the Bible and look at the books historically, we see the lessons, we see the history of the children of Israel and the lessons in the history.

Genesis is the book of beginnings. We see the beginning of sin, at the same time the beginning of God's plan to free man from sin. We see the beginning of a nation with Abraham and his descendants. In the book of Exodus we see how the family that moves to Egypt becomes a great nation. But they're enslaved by the Egyptians, and God raises up a deliver, Moses, to take them out of bondage into the Promised Land. Then we get to the next book, the book of Leviticus. It's really a book of worship. They receive the Ten Commandments from God at Mount Sinai and they receive the other laws that relate to life. But we see focused in in that book the tabernacle.

And we see that God now wants worship and he wants worship a certain way and he outlines how he is to be worship in a holy, reverent kind of a way. Then we get to the book of Numbers and the book of Numbers is a book of failure. That's where we read about them going from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea and sending out the spies into the land. And the ten come back and the rest of the children disbelieve, believing the report of the ten, disbelieving the report of the two. It's a book of failure. Then we come to the book of Deuteronomy, which is a rehash of the law, basically. It's sort of a recap of the rest of what has gone on before that.

But it is a link historically to the first four books which deal with Israel outside of the land; and the next seven books, beginning with Joshua, which is a history of the children of Israel inside the land. Deuteronomy is that historical link. So the book of Joshua is the first book of Israel in the Promised Land that God said they'd have. There's three divisions to the book of Joshua. I could give you a long extensive outline, but why? First of all, entering the land. That's the first five chapters, all the preliminaries: the first steps over the Jordan River; the first city, the city of Jericho, and then the city of Ai coming after that. But just the preliminaries: entering the land, establishing a foothold.

The second division is the conquering of the land beginning in chapter 6 all the way through chapter 12, battle after battle, conquest after conquest. They enter into the middle of the land of Israel. They move south and have a southern campaign. They move north and have a northern military campaign. If you're into the military and you know much about battles, this will fascinate you when we get to those chapters. Finally, the last portion of book is the allotment of the land, or the distribution of land. All the tribes are given their piece to take. So we're going to look at it historically. There's another way to look at it, practically. It's a very practical book.

You're going to find the book of Joshua is one of most relevant books for victorious Christian living in all of the Scripture. There are so many great applications. In fact, it's very similar to the book of Ephesians in the New Testament. It's the Old Testament corollary to the book of Ephesians in the New Testament. Let me remind you what Romans 15:4 says, "Whatever things were written before," that is, in the Old Testament, "were written for our learning, that we through the patience and the comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." So many people discount the Old Testament when it is such a practical book. Many churches don't read through the Old Testament or don't really spend much time on it, and so there's a lot of Christians ignorant of its message.

Well, we want to look at it as a practical book. Just tonight you're going to see some practical lessons. There's a third way in viewing this book; and that is, prophetically, prophetically. What I mean by that is that there are types, there are shadows, there are analogies in the book of Joshua that are prophetic in nature. For instance, Joshua is a type of Jesus Christ. I mean, just the name the "Book of Joshua" should give something away, because "Joshua" is our pronunciation for the Hebrew word Yeshua. The Greek translation of that is "Jesus." So anytime you have a book of the Bible with the name of Jesus on it, a little light should go "ding!" and you should think, "H'm, how does it relate?"

And there are certain corollaries if you just compare Joshua with Moses. Under the leadership of Moses, though he was a godly man, Israel never inherited the land, because they were never qualified under the law. They always disobeyed. But we come to the book of Joshua and God says, "I'm giving you this land. I'm giving you this land. I'm giving you this land." You'll read that tonight. So what they could not qualify for under Moses, they get given to them as a free gift. Sound familiar? It's like grace. What does the gospel of John tell us? "The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came by [Joshua] Jesus Christ." Very interesting analogy.

Also, Joshua complimented and completed the work of Moses; never contradicted it, but complimented it and completed it. He's the successor now. He takes over, brings them into the land. Jesus compliments and completes the work of the law; fulfilling the work of the law, never contradicting it, however. Matthew 5:17, "Think not that I have come to destroy the Law and the Prophets. I haven't come except to fulfill them." Something else is interesting: Joshua it says is the "minister" of Moses, or the assistant, but the word is minister of Moses; that is, he fulfills all of Moses' requirements even as Jesus fulfills all of the law's requirements.

Remember Galatians, chapter 4, it says, "When the fullness"—Galatians 4:4, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, made under the law," the fulfillment of the law, fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law. Now, question: Why did the law fail? Here they are entering the land through Joshua. It's a free gift. It's given to them by grace. They certainly didn't earn it, as we'll see in a moment. Why did the law fail? Well, I'm going to read Deuteronomy 5. If you can quickly turn to it, great. If you can't quickly turn to it, I'll read it. Deuteronomy, chapter 5, very key passage in the Bible, period. Deuteronomy 5:27, now this is the people, Moses is rehearsing what they said.

This is the response of the people to Moses in going to God to get the law. Deuteronomy 5:27, "You go near"—in other words, "We're not going to do it; you do it, Moses." "You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it." It's quite a commitment. Verse 28, "Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: 'I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken.' " Look at verse 29, " 'Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!' "

Now some commentators have said, "Well, the children of Israel made an outlandish commitment, saying, 'We'll keep what God tells us to keep.' Now they could never keep the law of God," say the commentators, "so this is really a lame kind of a commitment." However, God says what they have spoken is right, it's good. The problem was not their commitment, the problem was their heart. God says, "Oh, it's right what they said, but if only they could do it, if they only had a heart to do it." That's why when we come to the New Testament there's such hope, because we're promised in the new covenant a brand-new heart. God never says, "I'm going to take your old heart and scrub it up."

There's no talk about a healed heart. There's a talk about a new heart, being born again, a brand-new life, a new nature infused within the life of the individual who commits himself or herself to Christ, the nature of God, the ability of God. It's the miracle of the new birth, the transformation; not a reformation, a transformation. That's grace. So we have typical predictive prophecy. We're going to look at that. We're going to see how God dealt with the children of Israel and see how also God deals with us. So, Joshua and Caleb, we meet Joshua, first of all, in verse 1. "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant [or minister], saying: 'Moses my servant is dead.

"'Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—to the children of Israel.' " Now, for the sake of reaffirming the truth by visual, helps if I—there we go. A new—oops, didn't work. You know, I'm trying to impress you with my little video things here, watch. It doesn't work. This is actually a movie that's supposed to show, but it's not working tonight. So, anyway, we have little movie clips in here that aren't working. But let me draw your attention to—I hate when this happens [laughter]—to the map that showed up on your screen. The children of Israel are still encamped where we left them off many, many, many weeks ago when we were stuttering—stuttering?—studying Deuteronomy. [laughter]

Well, I'm dealing with Moses, you know, and Moses stuttered quite a bit. [laughter] In Deuteronomy 34 it says they were on Mount Nebo—that's where Moses died—camped on the east side of the Jordan River. And that's where the story of Joshua picks up, except this time they cross over into the land. And, again, this is a movie that the computer won't let me show to you. Oh, there it goes. Look at that. And see the hills in the background are the hills east of the Jordan River, the land of Gilead here, and then on south to where the children of Israel were encamped on the hills looking over into the Promised Land, being able to see from afar what they would possess.

Moses could only see this, of course, he could get a good glimpse of this and then he died. And then now it's up to Joshua to take the people into the land which Moses only saw but could not enter. And then they're camped at the Jordan River. That's the second body of water. The first body of water crossed over by Moses was the Red Sea. This is the Jordan River, much smaller body of water. However, it is at flood stage when they cross it, and so it requires a miracle of God for them to cross it and go from one side to the other. The Jordan River is really the giver of life to the nation. It flows from way, way up north where it has three different sources that converge, flows into the Sea of Galilee, flows out of the Sea of Galilee, goes all the way down to the Dead Sea.

The children of Israel are crossing just north of the Dead Sea and going from the east side, the east bank to the west bank. But this is a nice picture of the Jordan River. This is actually where we baptize people when we take them to Israel. And if you've been on one of our trips, this body of water is familiar to you, the eucalyptus trees in the background and the cool waters of the Jordan in the foreground. This is what the children of Israel saw when they came to the land. Now, the first place that they come to is the city of Jericho, which is the gateway to the land. It's a first city they conquer. And they send two spies out into the land, and we'll get to that story next week.

But if you can see in the picture in the horizon, the distance, you see the hills kind of in the haze? That is exactly where Moses died. And that's where the children of Israel were encamped with Joshua looking over into Jericho which was where this shot was taken from. And to give you a panorama of this, this is taken from the archaeological digs of Jericho looking over the city. It's called the "City of Palms" also in the Bible. You can see why. It's an oasis in the middle of the desert. And, once again, in the background you can see the mountains of Moab where Moses died, where Joshua and the children of Israel are now looking in ready to cross to land—a panorama of the city of Jericho.

Book of Joshua, I mentioned an outline to you: entering the land, chapter 1 through 5; conquering the land, 6 through 12; and distributing the land, chapters 13 through 24. So there's your little video. All right, let's go back to verse 1. We'll get this so perfected it'll be seamless one of these Bible studies, unless the Lord returns first. [laughter] Then if he does, my computer will be healed. [laughter] Look in verse 1, "After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord," what a great title. Can't get much better than that. "What are you?" "I'm God's servant." Now, Jesus said, "I don't call you servant anymore, but friends," but I find in the Scripture everyone who is a servant of God loves that title. Nothing wrong with it.

He died, "It came to pass the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, saying, 'Moses my servant is dead.' " Now, of course, he knew that, but I think it underscores a principle. " 'Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel.' " Look back at the last chapter of Deuteronomy. Just go back a couple verses, Deuteronomy 34:7. "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died," so it was time. "His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days." It was a long funeral. It was typical. It was customary.

"So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended." For thirty days, according to their tradition, there was a public display of grief. After all, "the servant of God," the leader, the man of God is dead. "Oh, we loved Moses," the new generation was saying. He's dead. They grieve. It's normal and healthy to grieve when somebody dies, even for the Christian. Of course, the Christian grieves differently from the nonbeliever. Paul says in Thessalonians, "We do not grieve like people without hope." When we grieve, though we weep and we mourn, we have hope mingled with it. It was typical to wear sackcloth. It was typical to put ashes or dust on the head. It was typical to rend or tear the garment as a symbol of mourning.

But now that's over, and God comes to Joshua at the end of it and says, "Okay, he's dead, now it's time to move on." Death is inevitable, mourning is essential, but moving on is vital. There comes a time when it's even healthy. I remember after my brother died, it was a very difficult time for our family. We were jelled together, but it just took the wind out of our sails. And one evening my brother came into the room and said, "You know what? It's horrible what has happened, and we've gone over it the last few days, but now it's time to move on with our lives. You can't put the clock backwards. Let's go on now from here." And now Moses is gone. That period of history is over. The past is the past.

Joshua is the new guy. Leaders will not lead forever, even godly leaders will pass off the landscape, and God has a new plan. And any Christian organization should take heed to this. It's always God's plan to do a new work, fresh leadership, new vision. And now God's man is not Moses, it is Joshua. Yet, some Christians, some organizations have this "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, amen." And you know what? Joshua, though he will not go against Moses—he mentions Moses fifty-seven times in the book of Joshua—he's tied to him. There's a unity. There's a continuity of the work, but there's not a conformity. Joshua will be very different than Moses in his work.

They read the same Book, the Bible, they worship the same God, but their styles will be different. And that's all right. The work of God will continue. God buries his worker, but his work goes on, this time through Joshua. "Every place," verse 3, "that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea," which is the Mediterranean, "toward the going down of the sun," on the west, "shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you."

The real estate they're about to occupy was very unique. It was promised to Abraham and Abraham's descendants. It was promised to Isaac. It was promised to Jacob. It was promised to Jacob's descendants, his children. The promise was also made to Moses and the children of Israel when they crossed the Red Sea. And now God reiterates the promise to Joshua, and the borders, the territory. If you were to look at a map and measure the territory, we're talking a big chunk. We're talking from the south down in the Sinai desert, "the wilderness" as it's called, all the way up to the Lebanese mountains, Mount Hermon and that spine of mountains way up north, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates which is in Iraq.

So that would encompass modern-day Israel, Jordan, and Iraq. I'm sure the Arab nations wouldn't go for those borders today without a bloodbath, but those are God's original borders. That's what he promised to the children of Israel. By the way, they never occupied it. They took part of it. You'll see how they take part of it, but not all of it. A total of 300,000 square miles is promised. They will occupy at the zenith, during the time of David and Solomon, a tenth of that, 30,000 square miles. Now, the land is before them. They're going to occupy it, but it's not going to be instantaneous. It's a process. Now think about it. This is the Promised Land, but it didn't come easy to them. They gotta cross the river. They find enemies.

They have to have a military campaign in the center. They gotta move south. They gotta move north. It will be difficult. You might ask: "Well, why? If God gave it to them, why doesn't God just, you know, open the doors, roll out the red carpet, and all the people just stand back or make—why doesn't he make all the people flee?" Let me give you the answer. No, let God give you the answer. I'll read it to you. Exodus 23 in verse 29 and 30, God says, "I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land."

This is going keep them dependent upon God for every step, every battle, every piece of land. And at the same time if all the inhabitants were the leave, the beast of the field would take over, the land would be untilled, and it would be unproductive. It would be too big of a project, so God says, "It's yours, but it's a process." Now, that's how the Christian life is. As God gave the children of Israel the land little by little, step by step, not all at once, we grow that way. Maturity in the Christian life is not instantaneous; maturity in the Christian life is a process. You learn how to sit like a little baby. You're born again. That means you're a spiritual little infant.

And we sit, and then we crawl, then we stand, and fall a little bit, and eventually get our footing and we walk. It is a process. So God has victories for us, but it is a process. Let me be more specific. You can stand and "claim the victory now," but it doesn't work that way. You can say, "I just claim every victory there is right now in the Christian life." And you might say a lot of hallelujahs and work up a sweat, if you will, and cast out every demon that you can think of. Some people have the idea: "If I just claim a deliverance and claim victory and find out all of my problems and cast those demons out, I'll have instant maturity." It doesn't work that way.

The Christian life is not a Popeye episode. How many of you remember Popeye the cartoon? How many? You grew up with him? How many have had a Popeye sighting in the last six months? No, I'm just kidding. [laughter] Remember when he was in trouble? Brutus was going to beat him up. What did he eat? Spinach, one can, instant hero. And some people would love the Christian life to be that way, just foom! Eat a text of Scripture, go out, it's all over. No problem. No more problems again. Doesn't work that way; it is a process. "Little by little I will give it to you." Look back at verse 3. " 'Every place the sole of your foot will tread I have given you, as I said to Moses.' "

Verse 11, look down at that." 'Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, "Prepare provisions for yourselves, for in three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in and possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess." ' " Verse 13, " 'Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, "The Lord your God is giving you rest and giving you this land." ' " Verse 15, " 'Until the Lord has given your brethren rest, as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them.' " The Promised Land is a gift. They do not earn it. They do not deserve it. In fact, they complain for forty years, far from deserving it.

If God gave them what they deserved, it would be all over. But, again, God is stubborn in his love. It is a free gift. When you receive a gift from a person, if you were to pull out your wallet and say, "Hey, man, how much did this cost you? I'm going to pay it back right now," you would insult that person. Because it is a gift, it implies it's free. It's done out of the goodness of one's heart. The person loves you, just wants you the enjoy it. Take it. What an insult it is then to God for people to say, "I'm going to earn my way to heaven." You can't earn your way to heaven. It's given as a gift, just like the land is. You cannot earn salvation now. It is given as a gift.

"For by grace you are saved through faith. It is a gift of God," said Paul, "and that not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast." So the land was given by God. You can't earn it. You can't work for it. They didn't. I've spoken to some lifeguards who at the ocean have to go out and fight the waves. And people get up into some of the tides, and the ocean is too strong for them, and so the lifeguard jumps in and swims after them to save them. And the lifeguards have told me the problems they have is when they encounter a drowning victim who wants to help the lifeguard. [laughter] Okay, first of all, I mean, he's in a mess. He got himself into that mess, now he's going to help the lifeguard get him out.

That's a big problem. They'll thrash and they'll flail and they'll try to kick. And often they'll kick the lifeguard and throw off his bearings and floatability. And so one lifeguard said, "One time it just had to pound the guy, [laughter] almost knock him out to get him to stop, otherwise we'd both go under. It's worse if he tries to help. I am the lifeguard, I need to do the saving." Okay, Jesus is called the Savior, he does the saving. Salvation can't be earned. There's nothing you could do nor give to ever earn it, so quit trying. Quit trying to earn his love and his favor. Receive it as a gift. That's how we get saved. We admit, "I'm a sinner, I don't deserve salvation, but, Lord, I'm trusting that you'll do it through the finished work of Christ on the cross."

So it's a gift. However, look at verse 5. "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave or forsake you." Verse 6, " 'Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.' " "Joshua, it's a gift. Tell the children of Israel I'm giving it to them. It'll be a process, but it is a gift. However, Joshua, though it is a gift, I'm giving you certain commands.

"You need to cooperate with me. It's free, but you need to do something: you have to obey, you have the apply yourself." Now it is that way in spiritual growth. God saves you as a free gift. He puts you in the land, so to speak. "Here's your inheritance." But now we have to cooperate with God. And though salvation is a free gift, to occupy the land we have to cooperate by obedience and by faith, meditating on the Word, as we will see in just a moment. He's to do that as well, Joshua is. And so when it comes to spiritual growth, there's God's part and then there's our part. Now, I often find there's two camps of people: one that talk about all of God's part and God does it all.

And, of course, he does when it comes to salvation, but when it comes to spiritual growth, we have to cooperate. But some people put all of the responsibility on God and we just don't do anything at all in cooperating with God's for growth. Then there's the other camp that puts too much emphasis on man. "You have to maintain your salvation. You have to maintain your standing," and putting people in morbid fear, basically, of their relationship with God. In actuality salvation—let me put it another way. The growth of the Christian life, once you're saved, it's like two oars of a boat. You need them both. If you just have one oar, you'll just go in circles.

If you have the other oar, you'll go in other circles the other direction. [laughter] You need both oars: you need faith, you need works; you need the book of Romans, you need the book of James. You can't just take one set of Scriptures and throw out the others. "It's a free gift, but I want you to do something, Joshua. I want you to cooperate. I want you to obey." I want you to turn for a moment with that thought in mind to the New Testament book of 2 Peter. I want to bear this out and flush it out with New Testament terms.

Second Peter 1:2, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Now, in those verses Peter says, "Everything you need in the land to grow as a Christian, everything you need for life and godliness is given to you. You have all the equipment, you have God's power, his divine power, and you have God's divine promises." That's what God has provided for you.

However, he doesn't stop with that. Verse 5, "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence"—better translation: "maximizing your effort, working as hard as you can." Not for salvation, but once you're saved, from salvation you cooperate with God. "For this very reason, giving all diligence, add the your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins."

God has given you everything you need to grow, to be godly. He's given you power and promises. Okay, what do we do with them? Do we underline them? No, we apply them. We apply his promises. We cooperate. We add to our faith. We grow in grace by obeying. Now look back at Joshua. He's told to be strong. He's told to be courageous. He's told to observe the Word of God. And notice back in verse 3, I think it goes along with this, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread I have given you." That's the same thing we just saw in 2 Peter, chapter 1. The land is a gift. Here it is. It's yours but you gotta walk on it. You gotta appropriate it. Your feet actually have to go for it. You gotta walk.

We're called to walk in the Spirit. We're not called to sit in the Spirit. We're not called to veg in the Spirit. We're called to walk. We have to make progress, regular, ongoing progress. We have to appropriate the blessings. "Here's all the equipment you need to grow. Here's my promise. Here's my power. Appropriate it. Walk." Now, that's the disappointing, tragic part of this whole story. Three hundred thousand square miles were given to them; they only walked on a tenth of that. The soles of their feet didn't walk the whole length of a land and the breath of the land. They didn't take it. Sure, they crossed the Jordan. Sure, they settled in the land.

And that was the problem, they just settled down. They didn't keep walking. There was so much more. That describes so many Christians. They just barely cross the border. "Whew! I'm in the land, man. I'm saved," and then they just settle. They don't walk. There's more. Read your bankbook sometimes, spiritual bankbook, the book of Ephesians. "Every spiritual blessing in high places in Jesus Christ" is given to the believer. But how many Christians do you know that know what they have spiritually in the bankbook and then regularly appropriate it, walk through the breadth of the land God has given to them, maximize their life? Joshua and Caleb certainly are good examples of that, but they are rare indeed.

Listen to what Spurgeon says: "Most Christians, as to the river of experience, are only up to the ankles; some others have waded till the stream is up to the knees; a few find it breast-high, and but a few—oh! how few!—" says Spurgeon, "find it a river to swim in, the bottom of which they cannot touch." So tonight you might say, "But I am saved." My question to you is: But are you enjoying the inheritance that is yours in Christ? Okay, you're saved, great. You've crossed over the land, great. You're inside of it, hallelujah. Don't settle down, now keep walking and see all that God has for you. " 'Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you my prosper wherever you go.

" 'This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have good success.' " "Be strong. Obey. Here's the Word, the first five books of Moses. Moses left that as the legacy. Meditate in it." Can you see how practical this is for us? Meditate in the Scriptures. The word "meditate" is found some twenty-five, twenty-six times in the Old Testament. When you hear the word "meditate," please don't think of it in terms of transcendental meditation. There's a lot of people, in this state especially, who are advocating that kind of meditation.

What they mean by meditation and what the Bible means are two different things. Usually they mean disengage the mind and leave it open to other impressions. That's the opposite of biblical meditation, which is to engage the mind, to think very clearly, cogently about the Scripture. You meditate on the promises of God. You're deliberately applying and focusing the mind on the truth of God. The word "meditate" itself means to ponder. It also is sometimes translated to mutter or to moan. In its root form it speaks of the low moaning. or groaning, growling of an animal, usually an animal who would chew the cud and kind of go mmm, bring out a sound after it chews the cud.

You know what the chewing of the cud is, you—not you, but an animal [laughter] will—and I didn't want to imply anything. [laughter] The animal will take the food in its mouth, chew it up. That's the mastication process of digestion. After chewing it, swallow it. Stomach will bring it back up into the mouth—a gross thought in and of itself, isn't it? [laughter]—chew it again, extracting all that it can out of what it was not extracted the first time, bring it back down, bring it back up, bring it back down. That's the chewing of the cud. Meditating in the Word of God can be like that. You take a portion of Scripture, you turn it over, you think about it, you focus it, and so much comes out the more you do it.

You want success in your Christian life? Meditate on the Word of God. Don't just be used to being spoon-fed: somebody else giving it to you, doing it for you. Learn to do it on your own. "Joshua, I know you're the general, I know you're the bigwig now, you have to meditate on the Word of God, and this Word shall not depart from your mouth." That's what it means. The idea is you're going to talk to yourself or to others about the Word of God, to mutter, to moan, to talk to oneself. "'That you may observe to do all that is written in it,' " verse 8, " 'For then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have good success.'"

Verse 9, " 'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.' Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 'Pass through the camp, command the people, saying, "Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in and to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess." ' " Now Israel is obviously very organized for Moses and right here for Joshua, so that whenever the leader wants to communicate with the nation, rather than trying to call all two and a half million of them together and shout at the top of his lungs, there is such an organization that all he has to do is speak to the leaders who will follow the chain of command.

And they will disseminate the message very quickly throughout the land. Notice the words of faith that Joshua gives to them. He says, "You will cross over this Jordan and go in to possess it." Those are words of faith. He's telling this new generation, "You're going to cross over. You're going to make it. This is the land God has given to us." Now, it was the same speech he gave forty years before to the other generation. They didn't really receive it. They disbelieved it. They went on their merry way saying, "Forget it," and so they had to wander for forty years. If they would have just believed this message forty years ago, that generation would have already occupied the land.

These are words of faith, encouragement to this young generation. Notice something else though in that verse: "Within three days you will cross over this Jordan." I don't want to get to mystical about it, but let me put that in another way. "Okay, you guys, you're on this side of the Jordan, in three days it's gonna be all brand new: in three days, new land; in three days, new life." I think there is an impression, a thumbprint, a fingerprint of the Holy Spirit here, a pattern. I take you back for just a moment to Genesis, chapter 22. You don't have to turn there, but I'll tell you the story. You remember Abraham is told by God to take Isaac his son to Mount Moriah and kill him?

It says, "On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes," and saw the mountain. That was the same day the angel said, "Stop! Don't do it." For three days Abraham's son Isaac was dead to Abraham. God said, "Kill him." For three days, imagine walking day after day after day, three solid days knowing, "I'm going to have to kill my son." For three days Isaac was dead in the mind and heart of Abraham. On the third day when the angel said, "Don't do it," on the third day his son came back to life, in a sense. New life happened. They're on this side of the Jordan, but in three days you're going to have new life. And I think there's a tie-in to the New Testament. Jesus died, rose again, on third day the Son was alive, new life.

And you're going to see throughout the Scripture this repetition of "third day" becomes very important. You might want to study it out. If you got a concordance, especially if you have a computer one, be quick for you to do that. Verse 12, "And the to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh"—we remember them in Numbers 32—"Joshua spoke, saying, 'Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, "The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land." Your wives, and your little ones, your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan.

" 'But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them, until the Lord has given your brethren rest, as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them. Then you're return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses the Lord's servant gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise.' " Remember these guys, these guys, two and a half tribes said to Moses as they were coming across the area east of the Jordan River, the area of Gilead and Moab, they looked and they saw, "Man, this soil looks good." Now if you stand on Mount Nebo and you look down into the land of Israel, it's very unimpressive.

It's below sea level. It's desert. Now on the horizon you can see the mountains and the fertile territory. And up north it's very fertile. But down south, where they were looking, looked bleak, and it was called the Promised Land. And two and a half tribes looked at that and said, "Um, hey, listen, on second thought, you know, why cross over? We like it right over here on the east side. Can we just settle here? It's rich soil. There's lots of farmland. It's expansive for our cattle and our flocks." So Moses said, "Okay, you two and a half tribes can settle east of the Jordan River, but you settle down, you leave your wives and children," and some people were left will there to watch them as well.

"And you must cross over the Jordan River with the rest of children of Israel, fight all of the battles, and when the land is settled, then you go back." They said, "Deal." I see a problem with their request. God never promised them the land east of the Jordan. It would expand all the way to the Euphrates eventually, but God told them primarily they should all cross over the Jordan into the land that I promised them. It was to expand out to the Euphrates and north, but they were settled on the borderland. They didn't really cross over. He helped but they were content with just the edge. And I see so many Christians, once again, who are just content with just the border.

"Hey, we're delivered out of Egypt, good enough. We made it through the desert. But you know what? I don't want to go any further. That's too dangerous. This is just convenient. No risks for God. I like it right here." And they never move on. You say, "Yeah, well, they never fight any battles either." Yeah, but they never have the victories. If you don't fight a battle, you don't have a victory. You want a victorious Christian life? You don't just sit there and claim it; you gotta fight. They didn't have the guts. But the fighting men had to go, the rest remained. "And so they answered Joshua, and said, 'All that you command us we will do,' " that's the leaders corporately, " 'wherever you send us we will go. Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you.' "

Now wait a minute, [laughter] I don't like the sound of that actually. "Hey, listen, man, just like we've always obeyed Moses, we're on your side." They didn't always obey Moses. They had a history of complaining. " 'Only the Lord your God will be with you, as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heeds your words, in all that you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage.' " These were great words. What words of encouragement for a new leader, young guy coming up to have somebody say, "You know what? We're loyal to you. We're on your side. You're in charge here, Joshua. God has given you the vision." So necessary for young leadership.

So important to have that kind of commitment in the church. And so they encouraged him. "Only be strong and of good courage," literally it means to put heart into it. That's what the word courage means or encourage, to put—they put heart into him. Now, before we close, Canaan, the land of Canaan, we've alluded to it all night, represents something. It's typical of something. You're going to find this in the New Testament. Many of you already know this because you've read through Hebrews and Corinthians, Romans. You know that there's—the land of Israel, the Promised Land, is a type of something else. Question is: What is it a type of? The land of Canaan represents what?

Now many people say, "Oh, it represents heaven." And the reason people think that is because some of the old spirituals that came at the birth of our nation had lyrics like, well, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Here's the lyrics: "When I look over Jordan, coming for to carry me home, I see a band of angels coming after me, coming for to carry me home." There was a lot of theology that came in this country at that time saying that the land of Canaan and the crossing of Jordan River represents crossing from the sorrowful present life over the threshold of death into heaven. And so the land of Canaan is heaven. "We're going to cross over Jordan and see . . ." you know. There's a lot of talk of this at funerals.

Well, it's wrong. The land of Canaan doesn't represent heaven. If it does, heaven doesn't look all that good, because as soon as they cross over the Jordan River, they have a fight on their hands. They have lots of pressure from the enemies. They have some failure and defeat. And you know what? I don't want that when I go to heaven. I got enough of that right here. Revelation says concerning heaven: "The gates shall not be shut," "there shall be no more curse," "and God will wipe away every tear." We have spiritual warfare now, not in heaven. It's over in heaven. So what does Canaan represent? It represents the victorious Christian life now, the conquest of the land, the spiritual allotment now.

The theme of Joshua, as Alan Redpath put it, is victorious living or Victorious Christian Living. God has given you an allotment. God has given you spiritual blessings. God has given us all that we need to grow and be godly and have a meaningful purposeful life. But you'll never experience it unless you learn to put the sole of your feet on it, and apply the principles of Scripture, and dare to believe God, and go out and take certain risks, and live by faith, take the promises of God. And when you do you'll have victory now. You don't always have to say, "Life is really bad right now, but one day I'll be in heaven." You can say, "I'm in a battle right now, great. I'm going to get the victory. By the grace of God I'm going to move forward."

And we have to be like this guy, Joshua. He's in his eighties. Caleb will be eighty-five. Some think he's in his nineties by now. And what fascinates me, the two oldest guys out of the whole bunch got more guts than anybody else. It's not a matter of age, it's a matter of faith. And they got a lot of faith. They're looking ahead, not to just heaven, but what God's going to do in my life now. How old are you? I'm not going to ask you to answer that out loud. Be interesting if we did. How many would be honest? No. I think you'd all be honest. [laughter] But think of your future, the years that you have left. Probably most of you—I can look around—most of you are not Joshua's age.

Would to God you had Joshua's attitude: "We're going to take the land, we're going to cross over, we're going to appropriate what God has for us. Let's move. Let's march." Very similar to Paul, right? We just finished his life in Acts last week, and now we have Joshua enthusiastic about the future work of God.

Additional Messages in this Series

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8/5/1998
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Joshua 2
Joshua 2
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8/12/1998
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Joshua 3
Joshua 3
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8/19/1998
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Joshua 4-5
Joshua 4-5
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8/26/1998
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Joshua 6
Joshua 6
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9/2/1998
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Joshua 7
Joshua 7
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9/16/1998
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Joshua 8-9
Joshua 8-9
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10/21/1998
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Joshua 10-12
Joshua 10-12
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10/28/1998
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Joshua 13-15
Joshua 13-15
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11/4/1998
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Joshua 16-19
Joshua 16-19
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11/11/1998
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Joshua 20-21
Joshua 20-21
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11/18/1998
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Joshua 22
Joshua 22
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12/9/1998
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Joshua 23
Joshua 23
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12/16/1998
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Joshua 24
Joshua 24
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There are 13 additional messages in this series.
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