Skip HeitzigSkip Heitzig

Skip's Teachings > 06 Joshua - 1998 > Joshua 4-5

Message:

SHORT URL: http://SkipHeitzig.com/1129 Copy to Clipboard
SAVE: MP4 MP3
BUY: Buy CD

Joshua 4-5

Taught on
Date Title   WatchListenNotes Share SaveBuy
8/19/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 4-5
Joshua 4-5
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
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.

FREE - Download Entire Series (MP3) (Help) | Buy series | Buy audiobook

Transcript

Open as Word Doc Open as Word Doc    Copy Copy to Clipboard    Print icon    Show expand

Chapter 4 of Joshua, I thought I would cover that last week, but as you remember, it was only a dream. [laughter] The first verse of chapter 4 says, "And it came pass . . . ." That's a Bible phrase you've probably noticed in many different place in the Bible, "And it came to pass . . . ." And I actually heard of a woman who made this verse her favor verse in the Bible, this phrase: "And it came to pass . . . ." And it was at a church meeting when the pastor asked people to share their favorite verse, she said, "My favorite verse is that verse in the Bible, it says, 'And it came to pass . . . .' " And he was confused, as probably you are. "What does that mean?" She said, "Well, every time I go through a very difficult trial, I know that hasn't come to stay, but it has come to pass." [laughter]

Well, that's not the intention of the verse. It's simply a transition. After they cross the Jordan River at the commandment of God, it happened, or "it came to pass" that they moved into setting up some stones on the other side. Now, if you'd look back to chapter 3 in verse 5, there's that great promise of anticipation where he says, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." Finally, they're at the threshold of the door to the Promised Land, something they've waited for, for a whole generation. And I bet Joshua barely got any sleep that night. "Finally, I'm not a spy anymore. I'm going to go in and occupy this thing," maybe tossing and turning and dreaming about this day for years. It's come to pass. It's here. "The Lord will do wonders among you."

And so they're there at the river crossing over. We saw that last time. And they're moving forward. And, essentially, Joshua is the book of occupation. They move forward. God promised them this land, but they've got to take it. Are you moving forward? It's a question that we brought up in these studies in the past. It's a question that we'll revisit in the future. It seems that either you are an overcomer or you are overcome. You are either a victor or a victim. There's not a whole lot of middle ground in the Christian life. The Christian life is a life of motion. Paul said, "walk in the Spirit," not "veg ye in the Spirit," but "walk ye," as Old King Jimmy says. "Walk in the Spirit," make a progression, move forward. It's sort of like riding a bicycle uphill; you stop peddling, you will go backwards.

And so this is the book of occupation. They're going to move by faith forward into the land, going forward in faith versus going backward in unbelief. And they've already done that. They've circled the desert for years in unbelief; now it's time to go forward. God has not changed nor have God's promises changed. I'll tell you what has changed, is the attitude among some of God's people. "I don't know if God could really do that today? I mean, that was back then. The Bible is a great book to read, but I mean, does it happen now? Could God work on my behalf?" It's not that God has changed nor his promises have changed, but that attitude of apprehending something by faith, taking a risk, stepping out, we find few who are willing to do that. Many start out right, but they don't end up the way they started out.

They start out, you might say, with a bang, but they end with a whimper. They start running the race of faith only to be sidetracked or slowed down or completely disqualified from off the track. They stop at Kadesh. You know the story. They almost made it to the land, then they wandered for another thirty-seven and a half years, about forty years all together in the desert. And it seems that there are a great number of God's people who begin so well. They cross the river, the Red Sea. They're delivered from their sin. They're all excited, but they hit a crisis of faith, some shattering experience that shakes them to the core, a Kadesh Barnea. And they come back from that experience going, "Man, them giants are big. There's some big cities with huge walls. I don't think we're going to make it."

And they come back from that experience shaking and making a decision of unbelief rather than faith. Started out so well, but you see them years later---"Well, what are you doing now with the Lord?" "Oh, nothing." "Nothing? You started out so well. Remember we were so excited about serving the Lord together? What happened to you?" On Thursday nights this month I'm teaching a Bible study in Southern California, Costa Mesa. And the last Thursday night after the study I was talking to people. And I saw people that I had grown up with in the Lord. I tell you what, I was so encouraged, because these were people I had known as a young brat in the area. They traveled overseas on missions trips with me.

One was a gal that worked in the bank and was at my Bible study in Garden Grove, and other people that lived in Corona del Mar were kind of like aunts and uncles in the faith. And they were there and we were all talking afterwards, just a great reunion of faith, still walking in the Lord. And we're looking in each other's lives, counting our wrinkles and gray hair, but the milestones of faith---such an encouragement of what God has done. Hebrews 11 we've made mention to you before in conjunction with this episode, because it's mentioned twice. Rahab is mentioned as a heroine of faith. Joshua is mentioned as a hero of faith, the crossing of the Jordan, the taking of the city of Jericho. And it is a chapter filled with people who started and continued and finished well in their faith.

They made it all the way through, so that like Paul at the end they could say, "I finished the race. I fought the good fight. And there's now laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord our God shall give to me on that Day." A thing that you notice about them, though, is that their faith is not a passive feeling, but it's very active. They did something. They're not saved by works, but their faith produced an action. Abraham is mentioned. What did he do? He left his home and he went out into the desert and followed the Lord's calling to a new land. Moses left the treasures of Egypt and took the risk and followed God to be a leader of God's people. Gideon takes 300 men against thousands of Midianites and Bible said they covered the whole land as they looked over the valley at the hill on the other side.

But they did something. God moved according to their faith. Now, we saw last week, and we see it here again as we get into chapter 4, that the ark is mentioned. It's very prominent. We have priests bearing the ark of the covenant on their shoulders, prescribed by law, crossing over. First of all, standing in the midst of the sea. It divides. They stay there. The children of Israel go around them, a couple million, so they got to stay there a long time as they get over. And then the ark bearers go join the rest of people on the other side. But the ark is mentioned, and as we saw last week, the ark is prominent. It's a symbol of the presence of God. God is going with them; moreover, God is going before them to open up the difficult passages, the presence of God. It was not a good luck charm.

But Psalm 99 and other places says that God is the one who "dwells between the cherubim," in reference to the ark, and God will "shake the earth." And so the ark is a symbol of that. It is also, as we saw last time, a symbol of mercy. Because inside the ark was a copy of the commandments, the commandments which the children of Israel had broken. The first set of commandments Moses physically broke, because they had broken the Law, now this is set number two. So as long as the commandment was around, it was always a reminder of their failure. But that's where the ark and the mercy seat come in, because as we mentioned, on the Day of Atonement every year the priest would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, on the lid. And so that the angels looking down upon it would not see the broken Law, but the blood that covers it.

It was a Day of Atonement. So as long as the Law was around, it reminded them of failure; as long as the law that was broken was covered by blood, it was a symbol of God's mercy. Now, I think I've told you before that my parents for a long time had a hole in one of the bedroom doors in my house that I put there. They sort of left it there as a trophy. I kicked it one day when I was mad, put a huge hole through the door. I was trying to practice my karate, which I don't know. I just kicked the door and hurt my foot, but put a big hole in the door. And my parents decided to leave it there. So every time I came home, I was, like, so embarrassed. And my friends come over: "What's that hole for?" "Don't ask." [laughter] As a great act of mercy they decided to put a piece of white cardboard over the white door so as to cover the hole, but it was still there.

And the great act of mercy came when they removed the door and put a brand new one in. But as long as that door was there, it reminded Skip of Skip's failure at home. I was at Franklin's home, not his home now, but Billy and Ruth's home where he was raised, and his "mama," as he calls her, Ruth, pointed to a hole in the cabinet where Franklin had shot a bullet in the kitchen [laughter] in his rebellious years. And she decided, "You know what? I'm going to leave that bullet hole forever there, just, you know, it's always there and I can kind of look at it or show him this hole as kind of a symbol of failure." And so this ark, if they would just think about this Law, they go, "Oh no!" But the fact that God dealt mercifully with their sins, thus he was present in the atonement of their sin, was a great encouragement as they watched that box go before them over the Jordan.

Now, in chapter 4, this is the second event that comes with the crossing over the Jordan River; and that is, the setting up of memorial stones, twelve memorial stones, because of what God has done. Now, men love monuments. We're fond of setting up some monument to remind us to some great event, whether it's the Arch of Titus in Rome, speaking of all of Rome's victories over her enemies, or the Arc de Triomphe in Paris or the many battle fields of the Civil War. We have, in many cases, very elaborate monuments of what we have done. And so when you're in a city and you see these monuments, you can discuss it, and it brings you back to that historical event. Well, God has a monument built, however, God's monument is much less elaborate. God is a very, very simple---just twelve rocks, good enough.

And there'll be no plaque, just twelve rocks. And it'll draw attention, just the fact that you've stacked these rocks up, your kids are going to say, "What's that stack of rocks doing there?" And in their curiosity you can tell them about what happened. That's why I love to go to Israel. I've been twenty-one times and I keep going back. Because I look at rocks when I go, and I see certain rocks in Jerusalem like the Western Wall. They've been there for a couple thousand years. And I think of the history of that as Herod built the temple, or I see the foundations laid by Solomon---still see the rocks that Solomon laid, or some of the walls that were there as David came into the city of Jerusalem when it was still called the Jebusite city, and the well through which his captain climbed, or the fishing piers in the Galilee that date back from the time of Christ.

And you just see that and it's like---anybody that says the Bible isn't real has got to have a hole in their head, because of all of this radical testimonial around. So, if somebody asks, "What do these stones mean?" and we can tell them on the trip to Israel, and their faith is greatly strengthened. With that background, let's jump into the chapter. "It came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying: 'Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them saying, "Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of Jordan from the place where the priests' feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight." '

"Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe; and Joshua said to them: 'Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, "What do these stones mean to you?" Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.' "God understands our tendency. Our tendency is to forget. Would you agree with that?

Have you forgotten scriptural truths that you once read, and then you go over them again and you go, "Oh, man, I forgot about that. It's been there all along, but it's a long time since I've revisited that." And because we have the tendency to forget, that's why Peter said, "As long as I have this body I'm going to remind you of these things continually, till I die." And so stones were set up to remind them of God's great acts of love and mercy. Now, they were to return to this spot which is going to be called Gilgal; you'll see in a minute. Gilgal will become their base of operations. This is headquarters now on the western side of the Jordan River, which means they'll go to Jericho, come back to Gilgal, go up to Ai, come back to Gilgal, go down south toward the valley of Aijalon.

They'll come back to this base, which means that any time they come back a little bit discouraged, all they have to do is look at those stones. Now, they're going to probably forget. They're going to be so overwhelmed with enough difficulties and battles that they'll probably come back with their head hung a little bit low sometimes. So it's like, "Okay great, you're a little discouraged, but look at those rocks. Man, check out those stones. Do you remember where they came from? They came from the bottom of that river when the waters were abated and you walked over on dry land. Remember what God has done," a testimonial to them from generations that would ask. It brings up to us the need to pass on the present truths of God that God is showing you to the next generation. And that's your responsibility, by the way.

You and I have the responsibility to convey truth to the next generation; not just secondhand truth, but to encourage them, stimulate them, so that what they hear about in our lives, they experience in their lives. So it becomes firsthand, not secondhand. We have to stimulate that. I draw your attention to a very familiar verse to all parents, and that is back in Deuteronomy, chapter 6. Let me read it to you. If you want to turn there, you can, if you can turn quickly. If you can't, I'll read it to you. "Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in all the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all of his statutes, his commandments which I command you, and your son and grandson, all the days of your life, that you may be prolonged.

"Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe, that it may be well with you, that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you---'to a land flowing with milk and honey.' Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." It was the father's responsibility, the parents' responsibility to teach spiritual truths to their children. Jewish dads didn't rely on sending their kids to Levite school so that they would learn these things; it was their responsibility.

By the way, the model for that would be the book of Proverbs, which is essentially an entire document written from a father to a son or children, instructing children in the ways of God, telling them how to handle lust, how to handle money, how not to be lazy, how to serve the Lord diligently, wisdom in living. And then you're familiar with that famous proverb: "Train up a child in the way that he shall go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Every parent has that mandate to "train up a child." What does that mean to "train up"? Well, the Hebrew word is chanak, which literally means, interestingly enough, to stimulate the taste or to put something into the mouth of another---train, put something into his mouth.

The Aramaic word that resembles the Hebrew word speaks of a process of taking date syrup on a finger and putting it into an infant's mouth to stimulate the sucking reflex. They would still do it. Take a little bit of it, the sweetness causes the lips to pucker up, and develops that little reflex. So, by your teaching and by your lifestyle, parents, train, stimulate the taste, the spiritual taste buds of your children. Pass it on. Who are you passing God's truth on to? Where's the baton going when it leaves your hand? When you leave this world, can you say, "I'm content. I've passed it on. The baton is in their hands. They've seen my lifestyle. They've heard my words. I've trained them"? I think that we should be setting up, in a sense, memorial stones. You may want to keep a journal.

I was looking over---I don't keep a faithful journal. I wish I could say I did, but I don't. But I do keep of sorts what God has done. And when I look over the years of my journal, "Oh, I remember when God did that. That was awesome." And it's like a spiritual milestone for me. It's a stone of remembrances. I can pass that on, that experience on. The other day, last week in fact, my wife found our letters. The letters that when I was single and she was single, and I was living in Huntington Beach and she was living in Hawaii, and we were corresponding back and forth to each other every few days. I kept the letters that she sent; she kept the letters that I sent. Before we were married we stuck them together, put them in a box, and we took them out last week, read them. What a milestone.

And I could look back and go, "Oh, yeah, I remember the Lord speaking to my heart. I remember how we got together. I remember how the Lord nurtured our relationship, and how we could say as we looked at each other, 'God is bringing us together. This is an act of God.' We love each other, but God is also calling us together so we can go through the storms of life, come back to our Gilgal, look at those stones." And we need to do that, not just for our sakes, but for the sake of our children. Gives them tremendous security. I agree with the person who said, "Parents are partners with God in making disciples of their children." It's a great way to look at it, amen? Make disciples of your children.

Verse 8, "And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded them, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day." "This day" being the day this this was written. If you try to find them today, they probably still are to this day, question is or problem is we don't exactly where, but they're there somewhere. Stones don't move around quite that easily. In Israel there's a lot of them. This isn't the first time, by the way, that Israel does this, right?

We know that Moses set up stones at Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal when they cross into the land. We know that---or gave the command to do so. We know that Achan had had a pile of stones put on his grave after he lusted after the Babylonish garment at the taking of Jericho. And that was a remembrance of: "Don't do this, look what happened to poor Achan. He's dead under these stones. This is a stone of remembrance over somebody's grave who disobeyed God." Joshua set up a huge stone of witness in Joshua, chapter 24, when he made the commitment, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," and told the people to make the same kind of a commitment. He's saying, "I'm going to make this commitment, and here's the stones as a witness."

"So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua." Notice there is in this book quite a number of references to "as Moses said." The idea is to tie in Joshua's leadership with the mentoring of Moses. "As Moses was, so you will be. As I elevated Moses in the sight of the people, so I'll elevate you." And as Moses obeyed, so did Joshua. So, "[They] crossed over. It came to pass, as all the people had completely crossed over, that the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the midst of people. And the men of Reuben, the men of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them.

"About forty thousand prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho." Now the 40,000 it's referring to are the armed men, the armed soldiers of these two and a half tribes: Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. Now, remember the deal that they made with Moses? "Hey, we want the east side of the Jordan, a lot of great cattle places, green grass. We want to stay here." "But, tell you what," Moses said, "fine, but you gotta come over with us when we cross the Jordan and fight with us for the rest of your brethren, and when the land is conquered, then you go back home." So 40,000 men went over, which is about 29 percent of all of the men that were taken in a census back in the book of Numbers, about 137,960, maybe.

That was about the exact number, if I'm not mistaken, is the one that was---that was how many were numbered. So, about one out of three cross over the Jordan to help in this fighting. Verse 14, "On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. Then the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, 'Command the priests who bear the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan.' Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, 'Come up from the Jordan.' " It's easy when you just do what he says. Didn't add anything to it. "And it came to pass, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet touched the dry land, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks."

Remember it's springtime, so it gets pretty high. "Now all the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal near the east border of Jericho." "Gilgal" means rolling, or literally a circle. And the reason being, it is supposed, is that it refers to an ancient pagan altar where stones were set up in a circle for pagan ritual worship. And so there were probably many Gilgals around the land. It was a typical Canaanite worship altar, a Gilgal, a circle, something that looked like a round setup. So they set up their stones at a place where other stones were set up, in a sense reclaiming what was given over to false gods, now set up for Yahweh the true and the living God of the Israelites. They're reclaiming the territory.

They're taking something pagan and making it something that is now godly. God's going to be worshiped here, not these other false gods. Now, I do see sort of a principle here. Some people have complained to me about Christmas and Easter. I had a question a couple weeks ago how that somebody's friend, a very legalistic person said, "Christians can't celebrate Christmas. Christians can't celebrate Easter. Those are pagan holidays." And I said, "First of all, if you look at Romans and Corinthians, we can do anything we want: 'One man esteems one day over the week---of the week over the others, one man doesn't, but let each be persuaded in his own mind.' " You say, "Well, how do I answer him?" Well, first of all, you don't have to answer him, if you don't want. You don't have to justify something that you know is true.

But if the guy is searching, tell him you want to reclaim those days. "Yeah, but he said we don't know when Jesus is born." Good, point well taken. The fact is the world designates it as a day when Jesus is born. And even the world, pagan world, will put up Nativity sets in their places of business, and many will acknowledge a little bit of Christ. Use it to the advantage of the gospel. Say, "Hey, you got a Nativity set in your window, can I tell you about the person that you sort of are celebrating?" At least during Christmas people's hearts are open more than in many other times of the year. I see it as a very effective time to reclaim that holiday back for the Lord. Same with Easter.

You know, Martin Luther had his Gilgal in the fifteen hundreds. He decided to take bar melodies, bar songs, and put Christian lyrics to them, and you sing one of them every Christmas: "Away in a Manger." How dare you sing a bar song at Christmas. [laughter] "Oh, I didn't know it was a bar song." Well, Martin Luther did and didn't think anything of it. He just changed the words. If you come from a traditional church, you sing another one, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"---bar melody, different words. Salvation Army decided to do that. General William Booth said, "You know what? I want to reach street people. I don't want to use boring music to do it. Let's go out with street organs and drums and symbols." And they hit the streets, and all the church people said, "That's devil music."

And you know what? He said, "I don't care what they think. I'm reaching people they're not even concerned about. I want to preach the gospel to these people." And I think of the revivals of Dwight L. Moody and his worship leader Ira Sankey. And they took popular music, waltzes. That was, like, really worldly music back then, waltzes. [laughter] We laugh at that, but I mean, you know, we talk about rock music today is worldly. Well, you know what? The church saw it as an abomination to take a waltz, but he did anyway, and put lyrics to it. And when he went to Scotland (Glasgow, Scotland) and had his meetings, the Scottish Christians called it "steam kettle music," just makes this rattling noise. They were used to only singing the hymns written in the Bible.

What was he doing? Taking a Gilgal and setting up stones, saying, "You know what? I'm going to take these popular melodies and I'm going to put some lyrics to them." Sort of like, you know, taking a Beach Boy's song or something. [drumming and singing to Surfin' USA melody] If everybody had a Bible . . ." [laughter] I mean, you could do a lot of things with it. We ought to do that one. [laughter] We actually have formed a little band called The Good Shepherd's Lively Hearts Club Band, [laughter] and we're taking some of the old---seriously---Beatles' songs and we've converted them. And we're going take it to the Soviet Union, because they're really into this music, and we're going to preach the gospel on the streets.

And we're going to take it to India this year and to Tucson later on. So we figured, hey, you know, good enough for Luther and William Booth and Ira Sankey, we'll do it. Look at verse 19, "The people came up from Jericho"---and I want you to notice this---"on the tenth day of the first month." The first month is not January. It's the Hebrew calendar. It's the month of---well, if you're preexilic (before the Babylonian exile), you would call it the month of Abib. If you're postexilic (after the Babylonian exile), it's a month of any Nisan. Easy for you to remember, think of the truck, Nissan. That's the first month of the Jewish calendar. The tenth day of the month is---our attention is drawn to it. They specifically where wrote this in there to draw your attention to it.

Traditionally what the Jews do on the tenth day of the first month, that is the day when the lamb is selected for the Passover. It is examined for spots and blemishes. If it has none, it is selected, it is taken home. You keep it for three days, the next day celebrate the Passover. And so on this day, the tenth day of the month, they come over here to Gilgal. Years later, April 6, AD 32, in our calendar, was also the tenth of Nisan, and if you were in Jerusalem on that day, you would find Jewish families all over the city finding their lambs, selecting, paying for them, taking them home. That's what they're going to kill at the Passover. The lamb is presented at that time. On that day, April 6, AD 32, another Lamb was being presented to the nation of Israel.

Jesus was on the Mount of Olives and said to his disciples, "Hey, go to the next village and get a donkey. I'm going sit on it," fulfilling Zechariah 9:9, "Rejoice, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! For behold your King is coming . . . lowly on a donkey, the foal of a donkey." So he sits on a donkey, comes in, and for the first time in his entire messianic career allows himself to be publicly worshiped as the Messiah, publicly worshiped. Before they tried to make him a king, he escaped. He told people, "Don't tell anybody that I'm the Messiah." This is the only time he said, "Get me a donkey. Set me on it." And he goes into the city of Jerusalem and they cry out, "Hosanna!"---messianic---"Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Now, it was so evident in what was going on that the Pharisees said, "Hey, Jesus, tell your disciples to quiet. This is, like, blasphemy. They're calling you the Messiah." And that's the whole point. The Lamb was being presented to the nation on that day, the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. And a few days later he was crucified as predicted by Daniel, chapter 9. But remember what Jesus said to them as he's going down the Mount of Olives? He stops and he starts weeping over the city, and he said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! If only you would have known what is made for your peace, in this thy day, but now it is blinded from your eyes. And your enemies will cast a trench about you, and you're going to be wiped out."

Jesus wept over the fall of Jerusalem coming in AD 70, because they didn't recognize this day, the tenth of Nisan, April 6, AD 32. And it was a very specific predicted day in Daniel 9. I don't have the time to go through it. I'm so excited about it, even though I've taught it a hundred times. I could do it, but we have tapes on it, the amazing predictions to the very date of the tenth of Nisan as the land is presented. Anyway, they cross over. They're there on the tenth of Nisan. It's all preparatory for the Passover, as we see. "And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. Spoke to the children of Israel, saying, 'When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, "What are these stones?" Then you shall let your children know, saying, "Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land.

"For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.' " So, first stop in the new land, headquarters, Gilgal. It's the beachhead that is now set up. That's their bastion. That's their camp, base of operations that they will keep returning to. It's a place they reclaim for God. It was a place of worship. It was a place they could take their kids to and said say, "Kids, look, God did this for us. Never forget this." As beautiful as that is, I've got to tell you the bad news: eventually Gilgal lost its spiritual significance.

People didn't keep going there and talking about what God had done. In fact, later on it reverted back to a place of pagan worship while the children of Israel occupied the land, and God pronounces judgment upon Gilgal because of that. A couple Scriptures bear that out. Hosea 4:15, "Though you, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah offend," which they did. "Do not come up to Gilgal," which they did. In Amos 4:4, "Come to Bethel and transgress," said in a mocking way, "at Gilgal multiply transgressions." And then again in that same book of Amos 5:5, "For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing." What's the point? Unless we teach the next generation the truth about God and his Word, they're going to start turning away and following the world. It's going to happen.

If you don't cultivate the garden, the weeds are going to grow up. Cultivate it with the next generation. We do it by precept and by example. Socrates used to marvel, he said that parents could spend so much time, in particular fathers, spend so much time training their animals and so little time training their children. In other words, he saw men so busy with their work, their career, their farming, etcetera, they spent no time with their children. "Children are a heritage from the Lord," Psalm 127 teaches us. Is God the center of your home? Is he? I'm not asking you do you just have a little plaque that says "He's the unseen guest at every meal," or you have a big Bible on the table---is he really the center of your home? Do you talk about him along the way, when you get up in the morning, when you go to bed at night?

Look at verse 24, "That you may fear the Lord your God forever." But it didn't happen, unfortunately. That's the sad history of Israel. Now we move into chapter 5. Hey, at least we got into the next chapter. "So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their hearts melted; there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel." Now is the time to strike from a human vantage point, from a military vantage point. They're already depleted of their strength, their courage. It's like, "Oh no!" You see, it was flood time at the Jordan.

I'm sure the people in and around Jericho thought, "Ah, it's flood time. It's spring. They can't cross over till the end of summer. The only way they'll be able to get through is to ford the stream, so we've God plenty of time to prepare for battle, make extra weapons, come up with strategies." And they find out they're already across. God did for them what he did for them at the Red Sea years ago. And it says, "Their hearts melted within them." So they're discouraged, perfect time to strike. It's to Israel's advantage. Strike now while they haven't got the power, the strength. However, I love this about Joshua, he doesn't consult the military manuals, but the Lord. They're not ready yet. In fact, God waits about two weeks before they have a battle.

It doesn't make sense from a military standpoint. Of course, does the battle of Jericho make sense from a military standpoint? "Let's toot or horns and the walls are going to fall down." [laughter] In fact, I'm sure if I would have followed Joshua around when he was marching around the city a couple weeks later and said, "Joshua what are you doing? This is ridiculous!" I think Joshua would have said, "I agree with you, but I'm not the boss." "I thought you were the general?" "Well, no. There's somebody higher than I am." And you're going to meet him at the end of this chapter, if we can make it through. But there is a point I want to make: God is not in a hurry. We are sometimes, but God is never in a hurry. So if you ever feel pressured to make a snap choice without consulting the Lord, don't. It's not worth it.

Be able to pull back and just say, "I need time to mull this over before the Lord. I gotta pray about this. I got to get God's direction." "Yeah, but it doesn't make sense." Yeah, I know. Give God the greatest glory then, if he does it without it making sense. So, he did. Well, what are they going to do? They're going to prepare spiritually. There has to be consecration before there can be victory. A few things have to happen: circumcision, the Passover, eating a meal---see, you like that, right, eating a meal? You might not like the first two, circumcision and Passover, but the eating of the meal, they're going to taste the first produce of the land. And then, fourth, they have to acknowledge the leader of the battle who's introduced in this chapter.

Okay, so we're introduced in verse 1 to the fact that they're spirits are down. "At that time the Lord said to Joshua, 'Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again, the second time.' Joshua made flint knives for himself, circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness," which is this next generation here, "on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised." Circumcision was a covenant that God gave to Abraham, and it was the sign of the covenant.

It was an outward sign of a covenant that God made. He made it with Abraham. Even Stephen acknowledges that to the Sanhedrin in the book of Acts: "[God] gave to Abraham the covenant of circumcision." The covenant that God made with Abraham was for the land, right? "I'm going to give you this land for you and your descendants." Because the covenant of Abraham dealt with land, and the sign for the covenant was circumcision, here is the fulfillment of the promise through this generation. It'd be very odd for Abraham to circumcise Isaac his son, but not the generation who should be embodying that covenant to be circumcised. That was God's covenant. Now, I want to just give you a word about covenants. Covenant is a deal or a transaction.

In the Bible covenants are divided into two classes, basically: an unconditional covenant and a conditional covenant. Very self-explanatory. A conditional covenant is where you have your part, or man has his part, God has his part. And God's part is in response to man's obedience. So, "If you did this," God says, "then I will do that. If you don't, then I won't." That's a conditional covenant. Then there are unconditional covenants. Man may have a role to play, but basically God makes a pronouncement: "I'm going to do this, whether you like it or not, whether you're in agreement with it or not, whether you're obedient or not, I'm going to do it." The Edenic covenant, or the covenant in the garden of Eden, called the Edenic covenant, was a conditional covenant.

They stayed in the garden of Eden as long as they didn't touch that tree. Did they touch it? Oh, yeah, they were out. They didn't fulfill the condition. The Abrahamic covenant, the covenant he gave to Abraham---unconditional covenant. "Abraham, I'm going to give you this land, you and your descendants as an inheritance forever," unconditional. Now, the Law or the Mosaic covenant was conditional. Now, here's the problem: you read all this together and you go, "I am so confused, because God says, 'I'm going to give you this land,' but then God says, 'Moses, if you blow it, I'm kicking you out of the land.' " So you have a bisecting of two kinds of covenants. What do you do with it? Let's simplify it. The land (Abrahamic covenant) was a gift unconditionally; their tenure in the land was conditional.

How does it work? It works like this: God says, "Here's the land, it's yours." So he brings them into the land. Now, they're under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic covenant. Are you following me? Are you? Okay, they get under through Joshua. They come into the land. They're under the umbrella of the Law of Moses, a new covenant. "You do this, I'll do that. If you don't do this, you'll be out of the land," God said in the Law in Deuteronomy. Did they obey God? No. So he kicks them out of the land. Their tenure is now violated. They're out of the land. They're in Babylon. God brings them into captivity so that they'll wake up and go, "God, I'm sorry. I repent." He made it miserable for them. And in repentance, God says, "Okay, I'm going to bring you back."

So that though they were isolated for seventy years, he brings them back, because it's still for the children of Israel forever. So even in AD 70 when the Romans wipe them out and they get scattered all over the earth, still has a promise, the covenant to Abraham, forever. So May 14, 1948, Israel becomes a nation and people from all over the earth occupy Israel, Jews from Russia, Ethiopia, five and a half million of them today from all the four corners of the earth. And then you have the Scripture in Isaiah 11:11, "When I set my hand this second time," which is '48, "to recover the remnant of Israel." It's an occupation. God says they'll stay in the land. So, we have conditional and unconditional covenants. The unconditional covenant of the land has the seal of circumcision, the outward sign of an inward change.

Now, circumcision, the cutting away of the flesh---I don't think I have to tell you what that is. I think everybody knows what that is, right, circumcision? It was more than just "I'm cutting off a fleshly foreskin to disassociate myself from the sexual weirdness of Canaan." It was a spiritual thing. In fact, listen to this text. Deuteronomy 10, God says, "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiffnecked no longer." The outward sign was to reflect an inward change. Here's the problem: God says, "Don't be stiffnecked any longer"; were they stiffnecked? Continually stiffnecked: they complained, they moaned, they disbelieved, they worshiped false idols. And so they come to Kadesh Barnea, they disbelieve, 1,200,000 die; 85 funerals per day that averages out to be.

Seven people per waking hour kick the bucket as they're marching from Kadesh now to the Jordan River. "Don't be stiffnecked. Let this serve as a symbol of 'I'm going to obey God.' " And so this generation had never done it. It's time for them to enact the covenant. "For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord---to whom the Lord swore that he would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that he would give us, 'a land flowing with mill about and honey.' Joshua circumcised their sons whom he raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.

"So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their place in the camp till they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua"---again, a very---it's not a smart military strategy to incapacitate your men of war, right? [laughter] They were incapacitated for some time. It takes time to heal from that. So they crossed over. In a sense, they're vulnerable. The Jordan River doesn't separate them as a natural boundary. Now, they've been circumcised. And all the other guys are thinking, "I hope Joshua's hearing from God. You know, this is kind of weird." [laughter] So, "They stayed in their places. Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.' Therefore the name of the place is called [rolling or circle] to this day."

What does it mean, "roll away the reproach"? Couple of things are thought. Number one, they were not circumcised while they were in Egypt. It was forbidden by the Egyptians, because the Egyptians circumcised their priests and the high class of their society. And so perhaps they would mock the children of Israel because they were not allowed to do it . It was a reproach. Now they could do it. The other possible meaning is that, you know, they said, "We're going out from Egypt with a mighty hand," and they crossed the Red Sea, and it's miraculous, etcetera; but do they ever make it to the Promised Land? Not that generation. They all died. They left Egypt, but they die in the wilderness. So they became a laughingstock to the world, to the Egyptians.

"Oh, great, you left us, but you had it worse. You died in the desert. You never made it to the Promised Land. What Promised Land?" But now they've crossed over and the reproach is ended. He's rolled it away. "Now the children of Israel camped at Gilgal, and kept Passover [Pesach] on the fourteenth day of the month," according to the Scripture, "at twilight in the plains of Jericho." This is the third Passover they ever observe. The first was in Egypt. You remember that---lintels and doorposts laden with blood, the firstborn of Egypt was killed. The second was Numbers, I think, chapter 9, as they're about to break camp and set out for Canaan. The third is when they cross over the Jordan. They're now in Gilgal.

They keep the Passover, which would mean that this new generation---remember, it was twenty years old and above was the generation that was killed in the desert. So, if you were twenty years, or nineteen and below, chances are they were there. So they remember what happened forty years ago. They remember dad killing the lamb, taking the hyssop and putting blood up on top and on the sides of the doorposts. They remember the shrill, the cry of the Egyptians when their firstborn were killed. They remember leaving Egypt at night. They remember the terror of looking back and seeing the Egyptians on their tail. They remember the thrill of having the water stand up as a wall and going across the Red Sea. And this is sort of like reliving it, wasn't it for them? Because crossing the Jordan was very similar.

The water stands up in a heap, they cross it, though it's the daytime. And now they have the Passover. They go, "Oh, man, last time it was in the desert, and before that was in Egypt." It brought back all those vivid memories. It's a time of consecration. "And they ate the produce of the land on the day after Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day." So they're eating now of the harvest. Probably there were fields to the east of Jericho, grain fields, barley fields. Remember God said in Deuteronomy 8, "The land that you're going is a land of figs, pomegranates, grain, barley, wheat." And all of these fields were probably tilled by the people of Jericho who had fled their fields when they saw the children of Israel. They're locked up in Jericho, and the children of Israel walk into sample, taste the fruit.

"Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna," praise God [laughter], "but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year." As suddenly as the manna began in the wilderness, it suddenly ends as soon as they get into the land of milk and honey. You say, "Well, why?" Why not? You don't need a miracle at this point. God promised them the land. "I'm not going to just needlessly give you manna," when he said, "I'm taking you into a land of figs and pomegranates and dates and barley. Here it is, eat it. You were in the desert before, you needed it. You don't need it. Here, go eat. Take it. Do it yourself. Grab it." So the manna ceased. Manna's interesting stuff. Forty years it appeared from heaven on the ground. They picked it up every morning.

Let me just read a portion of Scripture. Deuteronomy 8, God says he provided through the manna: "Your feet did not swell." Shows me that inside that manna were all of the basic nutrients, vitamins that you need for a staple diet. One of the problems in the Orient is swelling of feet, because of a restricted diet. Sameness of diet would create that, but yet they're eating this every day, day in and day out, and their feet aren't swelling. God had fortified the manna. Pretty good stuff. Numbers 11, "And the people went about and gathered it, and ground in their mills or beat in it mortar, and baked it in pans, and the taste of it was like the taste of pastry prepared with fresh oil." It is wild sounding stuff. I've often wondered what it would be like---"pastry with oil." Well, it sounds pretty good. Baklava is kind of like that.

And I'm sure, though, they had to be very creative. Don't you think? Every day, morning, noon, night---morning, noon, night---forty years of manna. [laughter] You think they put out cookbooks like 1,001 and One Ways to Cook Manna? No doubt. Mr. Moses did that, of course. [laughter] They had manna burgers, I think. [laughter] Bamanna bread was a favorite. [laughter] I think they came up there with mannacotti. [laughter] Makes sense. Maybe mannadrin orange soufflé ---aw, forget it. "It came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, 'Are you for us or for our adversaries?' " Makes sense. You're a general, you see a guy with is sword, "Who goes there? Friend or foe?"

If he was a friend, he shouldn't be there with a sword. He gave no command for the Israelites to take a sword. If he was a foe, he's ready to fight him. So he asked him, "Are you for us? Are you on our side or are you on their side?" I love the answer. He says, "No." What kind of an answer is that? [laughter] "Whose side are you on, ours or theirs?" "No." [laughter] "No," meaning that's not the issue. "The issue isn't am I on your side, the issue is are you on my side?" Because he says, "No, but as the Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to him, 'What does my Lord say to his servant?' The Commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, 'Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.' And Joshua did so."

We've run out of time tonight. It's past our time. I'd love to comment on it, and I shall next time we get together. But we have children and I want to honor them and honor the teaching of the Sunday school. But we're going to find out a lot about this guy. Joshua gets a lesson in leadership. Finds out he's not the leader, finds out he's not the general, finds out he's the buck private, in fact, and that he better commit to this guy, because the battle is won or lost with this guy in charge or not. We'll find out why next week. It's a very, very interesting person. You know him very, very well.

For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.

Additional Messages in this Series

Show expand

 
Date Title   Watch Listen Notes Share Save Buy
7/29/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 1
Joshua 1
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
8/5/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 2
Joshua 2
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
8/12/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 3
Joshua 3
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
8/26/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 6
Joshua 6
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
9/2/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 7
Joshua 7
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
9/16/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 8-9
Joshua 8-9
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
10/21/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 10-12
Joshua 10-12
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
10/28/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 13-15
Joshua 13-15
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
11/4/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 16-19
Joshua 16-19
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Transcript Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
11/11/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 20-21
Joshua 20-21
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
11/18/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 22
Joshua 22
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
12/9/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 23
Joshua 23
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
12/16/1998
completed
resume  
Joshua 24
Joshua 24
Skip Heitzig
  Watch
Watch and take notes
Listen - Mini Player
Listen and Take Notes
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Video (MP4)
Audio (MP3)
Buy CD
There are 13 additional messages in this series.
© Copyright 2024 Connection Communications | 1-800-922-1888