JOSHUA: Captain of our Salvation

Joshua means "Yahweh is salvation," or "the LORD is salvation." Variant forms of his name include Jehoshua, and Yeshua. It is the Hebrew name of the Greek form of "Jesus." In Numbers 13:16 his name was changed from Oshua to Jehoshua (Numbers 13:8, 16). The Divine name was incorporated into his. We first encounter the man Joshua as a successful conqueror, not slaying innocent people, but in fighting the enemies of the LORD (Exodus 17:8ff). He is a victorious conquering hero.

Joshua was born in Egypt and became Moses' right hand man during the exodus and desert wanderings. He was Moses companion at Sinai (Exodus 24:13), and one of the twelve spies who went to spy out the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb had the faith and courage to advocate conquering the land (Numbers 14:6ff). They were the only adult males who left Egypt to enter Canaan 40 years later (Num. 14:30). Joshua assumed leadership after the death of Moses. He was 110 years old when he died.

The book of Deuteronomy (33:37 thru 36:13) records the farewell and death of Moses. The book of Joshua opens with the work of Moses complete. God has provided His people with a written revelation, a priesthood, a place to worship, a system of laws and a new leader to conquer the promised land. Joshua takes over the leadership of Israel. The Israelites were encamped in the Plain of Moab, waiting
on God's command to go over and take possession of Canaan. His responsibility is to conquer the land and settle the tribes in their appointed boundaries. The date of crossing over Jordan is about 1406 B.C. The conquered land was first known as Canaan, and then Palestine. Then to the descendents of Abraham it was known as the Promised Land.

The first historical book in our English Bible is named after its conquering hero. It is the first in the Former Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. It begins with the Lord's commission of Joshua (1:19) and concludes with his death and burial (24:29 thru 33).

Ancient Jewish tradition in the Talmud attributes the book to Joshua, the commander of the Conquest of the Promised Land. A few sections could not have been written by him (15:13ff; 24:29f). However, Eleazar or Phinehas could have added these verses. Joshua 24:1 thru 26 specifically identifies Joshua as author and eyewitness to these events. The accuracy of the stories of the conquest is sup-ported by archaeological findings. There is disagreement among the scholars as to the date of some sites. The material comes from a time reasonably close to the actual events (6:25). Clearly the author was an eyewitness to many of the events (5:1, 6). The book as we have it was completed after the death of Joshua.

The events of Joshua begin where the book of Deuteronomy concludes. "After the death of Moses" (1:1; cf. Deuteronomy 34:16). Joshua takes over the leadership of Israel. It covers about 45 to 50 years. The date of the Conquest was c. 1406 B. C. The initial conquest was about seven years and 25 for the division and allotment of the land. The time of writing is not long after the events described, c. 1400 B. C. Cf. Numbers 13:15; Exodus 17:9f; 24:13; Numbers 14:6f; 27:1823. Joshua died c. 1390 B.C.

The faithfulness of God in fulfilling under Joshua's leadership the promises He made to Moses to conquer and take possession of the Promised Land (1:24; 11:23; 21:45; 24:1416). God is faithful to the promises He has made to the people of His Covenant. What He has promised He will do! God is faithful to His promises!

JHVH will hold Israel true to her covenant with Him. Victory comes through faith in the LORD God and obedience to His Word.

KEY VERSES: Joshua 11:23; 21:45

There are no distinct messianic prophecies in this book, however Joshua is clearly a type of Christ. Just as Joshua was the great conqueror leading the chosen people into the Promised land of Canaan, Jesus his great successor is lead-ing His own into the Promised Land of Heaven. Joshua's name Yeshua is the equivalent of the name Jesus. Both names mean, "Yahweh is salvation." He foreshadows the coming One who will bring "many sons to glory" (Hebrews 2:10). Our great conquering Hero leads us into our final rest.

Also, the scarlet thread which provided Rahab and her family safety (Joshua 2:1721), vividly portrays the safety that is the believers through the blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:1922).

CANAAN

The land of Canaan was composed of individual city-states. Each of these cities had their own king. Therefore, to conquer the land meant to defeat each city one at a time since there was no central government in Canaan. Toward the end of the conquest we find some of the cities banding together against their common enemy (chapters 10, 11).

These city-states in Canaan were well laid out and advanced culturally and technically. There was extensive foreign trade with Mesopotamia, Egypt and Cyprus. Canaanite houses were of good design with floors paved or plastered. Most cities had developed drainage systems. There were artisans of gold, copper and lead. Some of the finest pottery has been escavated there.

It is also important to keep in mind that Canaan was only one of Israels enemies at that time. Ultimately, however, she was the worst. Only a few of the battles are recorded in Joshua. The emphasis is on Israel driving out the inhabitants of the land so she could conquer her inheri- tance. She had to conquer the pagan influences of the land.

The inhabitants were immoral, they offered child sacrifice while female priests were temple prostitutes, Sodomites were male temple prostitutes, etc. The Temples of Baal, Ashtoreth and other Canaanites were centers of vice. Baal was the principal god of the Canaanites, and his wife Ashtoreth was their goddess. She was the personification of the reproductive principle in nature. Her Babylonian name was Ishtar, Astarte her Greek name. What made Canaanite worship of Baal so appealing to Israel was it was held to be the god of the weather and fertile crops. The worship of these Canaanite gods consisted of estrava- gant orgies in their vice centered temples. Immoral indul- gence was a means of worship for the pagan Canaanites, and they murdered their firstborn children as a sacrifice to the same gods. One archaeological find revealed a number of jars containing the remains of children and new born babes who had been sacrificed to Baal.

However, JHVH is holy and His people must be holy. God warned Israel, and later executed punishment upon them by cruel nations. Israel was solemnly warned that if she turned to the sins of the people of the land she would be cast out of the land. That was precisely what happened. The dealings of God with Israel is more severe than His dealings with Canaanites. God will not make a truce with sin! Assyria and Babylon ultimately became the instruments of God in dealing with Israels sin. We know from Judges 2:11 thru 15 that many Canaanites were allowed to remain in the land and as a result Israel suffered from their in- fluence spiritually. What had to be destroyed were the pagan shrines and their cultic devices. Wherever the Canaanite religion was tolerated the Israelites quickly absorbed it. There is truth here we need to latch hold to and that is whatever we are willing to tolerate we will never change.


Why does God command Israel to exterminate the people who were living in the Promised Land? Cf. Deuteronomy 9:46; 12:30-32; Leviticus 18:21-30; Numbers 25:15, 16-18; Joshua 6:17-21; 8:21-29.

It is important to keep in mind the peculiar role of the nation of Israel and the exceeding wickedness of the land that had been promised to her. Israel was the redemptive nation, chosen by God and set aside for His holy purpose as a witness and testimony to all nations. She was to show the way of eternal redemption. How could she do so if she were not separated from the evil influence of the Canaanites? When Israel chose disobedience and sin she gave away the blessing! The inhabitants of Canaan had espoused a type of religion in which sexual promiscuity played a prominent part. They practiced sacred prostitution, human sacrifices and snake worship. The immoral practices were an abomination to God and would offend the moral senses of most modern men including non-Christians. Archaeologists tremble at the evidence of wickedness in Canaan. God has always punished sin wherever He has found it. God is perpetually at war with sin; even in Israel. Achan defied God's warning and by this one man's sin, he involved the whole nation in sin. He and his whole family were stoned for his sin. Possibly, the whole family was involved in the deception, and the hiding of the items was a matter of agreement among the members. It would appear that not only Achan himself but his whole family was involved in the deception and cover up which brought national disaster. The amount of contra- band hidden in the family tent was sufficiently large that scarcely any member of the family could have been unaware of its existence. There seems to be agreement among the members of the family. Because of the social implications, the nation could not allow the sin to go unpunished. In the time of Joshua, the family was considered to be a unit but it was also considered to be a part of the larger family which was becoming a nation. To allow a sin with social implications to go unpunished would be a moral disaster.

J. Rea writing in the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia writes:

God is one, and He does not change. He is the same in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He shows love and mercy to the heathen (e.g. to Nineveh, Jonah 4:11) as well as to Israel in the Old Testament; and he shows wrath and takes vengeance on the wicked and idolaters in the New Testament (on the money changers, John 2:14-16; Romans 2:19; Ephesians 4:17-24; 5:3-11; & Revelation 21:8). God is no respecter of persons. Equally severe judgment was inflicted upon false prophets and idolaters among the ranks of Israel (Exodus 32:25-29and 35); Deuteronomy 13:1-18). God warned His own chosen people of the consequences of disobedience, and later executed punishment upon them by the sword of cruel nations. He will do so again in the end of time when Jerusalem will be besieged and trodden upon yet once more (Luke 21:24; Revelation 11:2; 13:5).

But why exterminate the Canaanites? Were they actually more wicked in Joshua's day than other idolatrous people on earth? The Aztecs and Mayas of Central America, for example, practiced human sacrifices. But in His inscru- table wisdom God selected Canaan, not another nation, as the land that he promised to Abraham. He considered it to be at the center (lit. "navel") of the earth (Ezekiel 38:12; cf. 5:5); hence it would exert an influence on the rest of the world throughout history out of all proportions to its size. Furthermore, the Canaanites were sinning against spiritual light. In the days of Melchizedek and Abraham they had a witness from the one true God, they saw divine judgment fall upon Sodom and its sister cities, and before the Conquest they quaked at His mention (Joshua 2:8-11) By 1400 B. C. the Canaanite civilization and religion had become one of the weakest, most decadent, and most immoral cultures of the civilized world. Many of its repulsive practices were prohibited to Israel in Leviticus 18.

Moreover, remember that in the midst of wrath Yahweh demonstrated mercy. Rahab and her family were spared, delivered from death "by grace through faith." She is even included in the lineage of the Messiah.

The horrible depravity and gross idolatry was a moral cancer that had to be removed at all costs. Israel acted as executioners of Divine wrath. Later the Assyrians would be the rod of God's anger to punish the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 B.C.), and Babylon would be God's instrument to take the Southern Kingdom into exile (586 B. C.). In a similar way Israel was God's instrument of judgment on the Canaanite citystates.

There have always been those who doubted the accuracy of the Biblical account because of the miracles in the book. How do you explain the sun being delayed in its setting? Who made the sun, moon and stars, and the universe? If you believe God the creator made the universe then there should be no problem in believing that He could intervene in His universe to accomplish His plan of redemption. It is the existence of His redemptive nation in its campaign to conquer the Promised Land that is at stake. God will not allow his redemptive purpose to be defeated. It is interesting that all ancient peoples on various continents have a tradition about the longest day in history. Who is in control of the sun, moon and stars? If you can ration- alize away miracles you can rationalize away God and therefore you rationalize away your responsibility to Him.

The object of all the miracles was to reveal the power and grace of God. Israel did not deliver itself. The mighty arm of the LORD God delivered Israel. It was not by mili- tary conquest as much as it was God's free gift of Canaan. God provided the land. Can you imagine what must have gone on in the minds of the enemies when they discovered the God of Israel was no local deity? JHVH is the God of the universe. Whatever happened that day caused the Israelites to be greatly strengthened and their enemies to become frightened before them. It was an act of God. God had kept His promise to be with His people.

CONTENTS: The book easily divides into three parts (1) the Conquest which lasted about seven years (chapters 1-12), the (2) Settlement in the Land which took another 25 years (chapters 13-21) and (3) the Consecration of the People (chapters 22-24).

Joshua died at the age of 110 years, but his message lives on even in our day. The LORD God is a holy God and He demands that His people serve Him in holiness. Just as Israel was to be a priestly nation to reveal Gods truth we, too, must be a people separated to God to accomplish His holy purpose.

Some Abiding Principles found in the study of Joshua:

When God's people obey unconditionally the victory is certain. Victory depends upon obedience to God. Obedience is imperative. If we love Him we will obey Him. When
there is total dependence upon God victory is assured. The triumph of faith is stressed in Joshua as it portrays the entire nation marching unitedly to victory in total trust upon the LORD. The spiritual victory that God provides in Christ is beautifully pictured in this book. The crossing over Jordan and conquering the Promised Land is a beautiful illustration of the Christian's spiritual exper- ience of conflict, triumph and blessing in the heavenlies or spiritual realm (Ephesians 1:3; 2:6; 6:12) through the mighty power of God (Eph. 1:19, 20, 20; 6:10). Compare the battle of Israel in entering and possessing Canaan with the Christian's battles on earth. The events of the Exodus and the Conquest are highly typical as seen in I Corinthians 10:1-11. For example, Joshua is the Captain who leads Israel into the Land, and Jesus is the Captain of our Salvation (Hebrews 2:10), who brings believers today into Promised Rest (Heb. 4:8, 9; Acts 20:32; 26:18). Joshua interceded for Israel when the nation sinned and was defeated (Joshua 7:6-15), so Jesus is our Advocate who intercedes continually for His own (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; I John 2:1). Joshua led the Israelites to victory over the enemies of God, so Christ makes possible our victory over sin (Romans 8:37; II Corinthians 1:10; 2:14) and Satan (Hebrews 2:14, 15; I John 3:8).

 

Joshua means "Yahweh is salvation," or "the LORD is salvation." Variant forms of his name include Jehoshua, and Yeshua. It is the Hebrew name of the Greek form of "Jesus." In Numbers 13:16 his name was changed from Oshua to Jehoshua (Numbers 13:8, 16). The Divine name was incorporated into his. We first encounter the man Joshua as a successful conqueror, not slaying innocent people, but in fighting the enemies of the LORD (Exodus 17:8ff). He is a victorious conquering hero.

Joshua was born in Egypt and became Moses' right hand man during the exodus and desert wanderings. He was Moses companion at Sinai (Exodus 24:13), and one of the twelve spies who went to spy out the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb had the faith and courage to advocate conquering the land (Numbers 14:6ff). They were the only adult males who left Egypt to enter Canaan 40 years later (Num. 14:30). Joshua assumed leadership after the death of Moses. He was 110 years old when he died.

The book of Deuteronomy (33:37 thru 36:13) records the farewell and death of Moses. The book of Joshua opens with the work of Moses complete. God has provided His people with a written revelation, a priesthood, a place to worship, a system of laws and a new leader to conquer the promised land. Joshua takes over the leadership of Israel. The Israelites were encamped in the Plain of Moab, waiting
on God's command to go over and take possession of Canaan. His responsibility is to conquer the land and settle the tribes in their appointed boundaries. The date of crossing over Jordan is about 1406 B.C. The conquered land was first known as Canaan, and then Palestine. Then to the descendents of Abraham it was known as the Promised Land.

The first historical book in our English Bible is named after its conquering hero. It is the first in the Former Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. It begins with the Lord's commission of Joshua (1:19) and concludes with his death and burial (24:29 thru 33).

Ancient Jewish tradition in the Talmud attributes the book to Joshua, the commander of the Conquest of the Promised Land. A few sections could not have been written by him (15:13ff; 24:29f). However, Eleazar or Phinehas could have added these verses. Joshua 24:1 thru 26 specifically identifies Joshua as author and eyewitness to these events. The accuracy of the stories of the conquest is sup-ported by archaeological findings. There is disagreement among the scholars as to the date of some sites. The material comes from a time reasonably close to the actual events (6:25). Clearly the author was an eyewitness to many of the events (5:1, 6). The book as we have it was completed after the death of Joshua.

The events of Joshua begin where the book of Deuteronomy concludes. "After the death of Moses" (1:1; cf. Deuteronomy 34:16). Joshua takes over the leadership of Israel. It covers about 45 to 50 years. The date of the Conquest was c. 1406 B. C. The initial conquest was about seven years and 25 for the division and allotment of the land. The time of writing is not long after the events described, c. 1400 B. C. Cf. Numbers 13:15; Exodus 17:9f; 24:13; Numbers 14:6f; 27:1823. Joshua died c. 1390 B.C.

The faithfulness of God in fulfilling under Joshua's leadership the promises He made to Moses to conquer and take possession of the Promised Land (1:24; 11:23; 21:45; 24:1416). God is faithful to the promises He has made to the people of His Covenant. What He has promised He will do! God is faithful to His promises!

JHVH will hold Israel true to her covenant with Him. Victory comes through faith in the LORD God and obedience to His Word.

KEY VERSES: Joshua 11:23; 21:45

There are no distinct messianic prophecies in this book, however Joshua is clearly a type of Christ. Just as Joshua was the great conqueror leading the chosen people into the Promised land of Canaan, Jesus his great successor is lead-ing His own into the Promised Land of Heaven. Joshua's name Yeshua is the equivalent of the name Jesus. Both names mean, "Yahweh is salvation." He foreshadows the coming One who will bring "many sons to glory" (Hebrews 2:10). Our great conquering Hero leads us into our final rest.

Also, the scarlet thread which provided Rahab and her family safety (Joshua 2:1721), vividly portrays the safety that is the believers through the blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:1922).

CANAAN

The land of Canaan was composed of individual city-states. Each of these cities had their own king. Therefore, to conquer the land meant to defeat each city one at a time since there was no central government in Canaan. Toward the end of the conquest we find some of the cities banding together against their common enemy (chapters 10, 11).

These city-states in Canaan were well laid out and advanced culturally and technically. There was extensive foreign trade with Mesopotamia, Egypt and Cyprus. Canaanite houses were of good design with floors paved or plastered. Most cities had developed drainage systems. There were artisans of gold, copper and lead. Some of the finest pottery has been escavated there.

It is also important to keep in mind that Canaan was only one of Israels enemies at that time. Ultimately, however, she was the worst. Only a few of the battles are recorded in Joshua. The emphasis is on Israel driving out the inhabitants of the land so she could conquer her inheri- tance. She had to conquer the pagan influences of the land.

The inhabitants were immoral, they offered child sacrifice while female priests were temple prostitutes, Sodomites were male temple prostitutes, etc. The Temples of Baal, Ashtoreth and other Canaanites were centers of vice. Baal was the principal god of the Canaanites, and his wife Ashtoreth was their goddess. She was the personification of the reproductive principle in nature. Her Babylonian name was Ishtar, Astarte her Greek name. What made Canaanite worship of Baal so appealing to Israel was it was held to be the god of the weather and fertile crops. The worship of these Canaanite gods consisted of estrava- gant orgies in their vice centered temples. Immoral indul- gence was a means of worship for the pagan Canaanites, and they murdered their firstborn children as a sacrifice to the same gods. One archaeological find revealed a number of jars containing the remains of children and new born babes who had been sacrificed to Baal.

However, JHVH is holy and His people must be holy. God warned Israel, and later executed punishment upon them by cruel nations. Israel was solemnly warned that if she turned to the sins of the people of the land she would be cast out of the land. That was precisely what happened. The dealings of God with Israel is more severe than His dealings with Canaanites. God will not make a truce with sin! Assyria and Babylon ultimately became the instruments of God in dealing with Israels sin. We know from Judges 2:11 thru 15 that many Canaanites were allowed to remain in the land and as a result Israel suffered from their in- fluence spiritually. What had to be destroyed were the pagan shrines and their cultic devices. Wherever the Canaanite religion was tolerated the Israelites quickly absorbed it. There is truth here we need to latch hold to and that is whatever we are willing to tolerate we will never change.


Why does God command Israel to exterminate the people who were living in the Promised Land? Cf. Deuteronomy 9:46; 12:30-32; Leviticus 18:21-30; Numbers 25:15, 16-18; Joshua 6:17-21; 8:21-29.

It is important to keep in mind the peculiar role of the nation of Israel and the exceeding wickedness of the land that had been promised to her. Israel was the redemptive nation, chosen by God and set aside for His holy purpose as a witness and testimony to all nations. She was to show the way of eternal redemption. How could she do so if she were not separated from the evil influence of the Canaanites? When Israel chose disobedience and sin she gave away the blessing! The inhabitants of Canaan had espoused a type of religion in which sexual promiscuity played a prominent part. They practiced sacred prostitution, human sacrifices and snake worship. The immoral practices were an abomination to God and would offend the moral senses of most modern men including non-Christians. Archaeologists tremble at the evidence of wickedness in Canaan. God has always punished sin wherever He has found it. God is perpetually at war with sin; even in Israel. Achan defied God's warning and by this one man's sin, he involved the whole nation in sin. He and his whole family were stoned for his sin. Possibly, the whole family was involved in the deception, and the hiding of the items was a matter of agreement among the members. It would appear that not only Achan himself but his whole family was involved in the deception and cover up which brought national disaster. The amount of contra- band hidden in the family tent was sufficiently large that scarcely any member of the family could have been unaware of its existence. There seems to be agreement among the members of the family. Because of the social implications, the nation could not allow the sin to go unpunished. In the time of Joshua, the family was considered to be a unit but it was also considered to be a part of the larger family which was becoming a nation. To allow a sin with social implications to go unpunished would be a moral disaster.

J. Rea writing in the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Encyclopedia writes:

God is one, and He does not change. He is the same in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He shows love and mercy to the heathen (e.g. to Nineveh, Jonah 4:11) as well as to Israel in the Old Testament; and he shows wrath and takes vengeance on the wicked and idolaters in the New Testament (on the money changers, John 2:14-16; Romans 2:19; Ephesians 4:17-24; 5:3-11; & Revelation 21:8). God is no respecter of persons. Equally severe judgment was inflicted upon false prophets and idolaters among the ranks of Israel (Exodus 32:25-29and 35); Deuteronomy 13:1-18). God warned His own chosen people of the consequences of disobedience, and later executed punishment upon them by the sword of cruel nations. He will do so again in the end of time when Jerusalem will be besieged and trodden upon yet once more (Luke 21:24; Revelation 11:2; 13:5).

But why exterminate the Canaanites? Were they actually more wicked in Joshua's day than other idolatrous people on earth? The Aztecs and Mayas of Central America, for example, practiced human sacrifices. But in His inscru- table wisdom God selected Canaan, not another nation, as the land that he promised to Abraham. He considered it to be at the center (lit. "navel") of the earth (Ezekiel 38:12; cf. 5:5); hence it would exert an influence on the rest of the world throughout history out of all proportions to its size. Furthermore, the Canaanites were sinning against spiritual light. In the days of Melchizedek and Abraham they had a witness from the one true God, they saw divine judgment fall upon Sodom and its sister cities, and before the Conquest they quaked at His mention (Joshua 2:8-11) By 1400 B. C. the Canaanite civilization and religion had become one of the weakest, most decadent, and most immoral cultures of the civilized world. Many of its repulsive practices were prohibited to Israel in Leviticus 18.

Moreover, remember that in the midst of wrath Yahweh demonstrated mercy. Rahab and her family were spared, delivered from death "by grace through faith." She is even included in the lineage of the Messiah.

The horrible depravity and gross idolatry was a moral cancer that had to be removed at all costs. Israel acted as executioners of Divine wrath. Later the Assyrians would be the rod of God's anger to punish the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 B.C.), and Babylon would be God's instrument to take the Southern Kingdom into exile (586 B. C.). In a similar way Israel was God's instrument of judgment on the Canaanite citystates.

There have always been those who doubted the accuracy of the Biblical account because of the miracles in the book. How do you explain the sun being delayed in its setting? Who made the sun, moon and stars, and the universe? If you believe God the creator made the universe then there should be no problem in believing that He could intervene in His universe to accomplish His plan of redemption. It is the existence of His redemptive nation in its campaign to conquer the Promised Land that is at stake. God will not allow his redemptive purpose to be defeated. It is interesting that all ancient peoples on various continents have a tradition about the longest day in history. Who is in control of the sun, moon and stars? If you can ration- alize away miracles you can rationalize away God and therefore you rationalize away your responsibility to Him.

The object of all the miracles was to reveal the power and grace of God. Israel did not deliver itself. The mighty arm of the LORD God delivered Israel. It was not by mili- tary conquest as much as it was God's free gift of Canaan. God provided the land. Can you imagine what must have gone on in the minds of the enemies when they discovered the God of Israel was no local deity? JHVH is the God of the universe. Whatever happened that day caused the Israelites to be greatly strengthened and their enemies to become frightened before them. It was an act of God. God had kept His promise to be with His people.

CONTENTS: The book easily divides into three parts (1) the Conquest which lasted about seven years (chapters 1-12), the (2) Settlement in the Land which took another 25 years (chapters 13-21) and (3) the Consecration of the People (chapters 22-24).

Joshua died at the age of 110 years, but his message lives on even in our day. The LORD God is a holy God and He demands that His people serve Him in holiness. Just as Israel was to be a priestly nation to reveal Gods truth we, too, must be a people separated to God to accomplish His holy purpose.

Some Abiding Principles found in the study of Joshua:

When God's people obey unconditionally the victory is certain. Victory depends upon obedience to God. Obedience is imperative. If we love Him we will obey Him. When
there is total dependence upon God victory is assured. The triumph of faith is stressed in Joshua as it portrays the entire nation marching unitedly to victory in total trust upon the LORD. The spiritual victory that God provides in Christ is beautifully pictured in this book. The crossing over Jordan and conquering the Promised Land is a beautiful illustration of the Christian's spiritual exper- ience of conflict, triumph and blessing in the heavenlies or spiritual realm (Ephesians 1:3; 2:6; 6:12) through the mighty power of God (Eph. 1:19, 20, 20; 6:10). Compare the battle of Israel in entering and possessing Canaan with the Christian's battles on earth. The events of the Exodus and the Conquest are highly typical as seen in I Corinthians 10:1-11. For example, Joshua is the Captain who leads Israel into the Land, and Jesus is the Captain of our Salvation (Hebrews 2:10), who brings believers today into Promised Rest (Heb. 4:8, 9; Acts 20:32; 26:18). Joshua interceded for Israel when the nation sinned and was defeated (Joshua 7:6-15), so Jesus is our Advocate who intercedes continually for His own (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; I John 2:1). Joshua led the Israelites to victory over the enemies of God, so Christ makes possible our victory over sin (Romans 8:37; II Corinthians 1:10; 2:14) and Satan (Hebrews 2:14, 15; I John 3:8).

 

 

 

Joshua 1:1-18

 

¹ After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: ² "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them--to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates--all the Hittite country--to the Great Sea on the west. ⁵ No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. ⁶ "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." ¹⁰ So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ¹¹ "Go through the camp and tell the people, `Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own. <sup>12</sup> But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, <sup>13</sup> "Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: `The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.' ¹⁴ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers ¹⁵ until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise." ¹⁶ Then they answered Joshua, "Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. ¹⁸ Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!"

 

This Land is Ours!

 

New Testament principles in the Christian life are often illustrated through beautiful word pictures in the Old Testament. In the book of Exodus, we see the people of God going out of Egypt. They were delivered from death by the Passover lamb. They were delivered out of the sin and bondage of Egyptian slavery. Believers of the Lord Jesus Christ are saved by God's grace. We have been delivered from the wrath of God by the blood of Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb slain for us.

 

When we go through a wilderness experience in the Spirit, usually it is God weaning us off self-confidence to a place where we must trust in Him alone. Despite the fact we are Christians, it still goes against our flesh. Even though we are not walking in rebellion per se, we still want to be in control of our destiny. God led Israel around in the wilderness. It was an eleven-day journey to the Promised Land that took forty years to accomplish in the flesh! They were going in circles of unbelief for forty years. How tragic that we go around in circles of the flesh while God seeks to wean us off our selfish lifestyle.

 

God wants to lead us into the Promised Land of Canaan. God's purpose for Israel was a land filled with "milk and honey." He was going to provide for all their needs. It is a beautiful picture of the Spirit–controlled life. It is the life God intends for every Christian to live. There are no exceptions. You can have every bit of the spiritual life in Christ that you want. God will not give you more than you are ready for however. Nor will He give you what you are not willing to have. It is possessing the life of fullness in Christ. Canaan makes a beautiful analogy of our full salvation in Christ. It is the portion for every believer. God is leading His people to the goal. Let's not be content for a wilderness experience such as Romans chapter seven.

 

The Holy Spirit takes us over into Romans eight. We don't have to stay in the wilderness. He brought us out so that He might bring us in to Canaan. Are we content to stay on the easy side of Jordan? God has the best for those who will walk by faith and enter into His abundant life. Good, or second best is for those who will not take His best. God has "blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Every believer is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, but how much of our inheritance have we appropriated by faith? How much have we claimed? How much do we enjoy in our daily Christian life?

 

The Lord wants us go to go on and receive all that He has in store for us. God intends for every Christian, every day to walk on conquered ground and experience victory, not occasionally, but every day. Now there is balance here in that we will endure trials, and suffering, pain, disappointment, occasional loss, and the like. However, we are the winners. Read the back of the Book, we win. Jordan is not a picture of death; it is a marvelous picture of crossing over into the life of fullness and allowing the Holy Spirit to possess more and more of the believer. This is the Christian life the way God intended it to be lived.

 

What is your attitude toward His purpose in your life? What is your response to the Word of God and the promises He gives to us?

 

The book of Joshua opens up with a change of command. The great giver of the Law, Moses, is dead. God brings about a change in leadership for the new nation. Moses was a great lawgiver, statesman and founder of the nation. Joshua is a great commanding general, a fearless conqueror and warrior. Moses was a patient leader of the people. Joshua was a take charge leader who commanded the people to "rise, go over this Jordan." Moses formed a discovery committee; Joshua gave a command to take the land.

 

Joshua's original name was Hoshea (Numbers 13:8; Deuteronomy 32:44) which means "salvation." Moses changed Hoshea's name to Joshua or Yehoshua. Joshua means, "Yahweh is salvation." Joshua will deliver God's people buy the power of Yahweh. Yahweh alone is our salvation. The Greek form of this name is "Jesus." "You will call His name Jesus, [Yehoshua, Joshua], because He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

 

GOD'S PLAN FOR ISRAEL

 

God's plan for Israel was to go in and take the Promised Land. Israel did not conquer the land for forty years because of unbelief. Numbers Chapters 13 & 14, contains the tragic story of unbelief. Two of the twelve spies said, "God gave us the land; let's go take it!" Caleb said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely over come it" (Numbers 13:30).

 

If the Shekinah glory of Yahweh had not appeared in the Tabernacle, "all the congregation of Israel would have stoned them with stones." The minority report was ready to claim the promises of God and take the land. The majority report was evil. They were faithless having lost the vision in a few days time. The minority report measured the giants in the land against God. The majority report could only see their own frail humanity against a land of giants. Ten of the spies evaluated God by their circumstances and only two interpreted the circumstances through the eyes of a sovereign God.

 

After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the children of Israel found out that the inhabitants of the land were scared to death of them. Can you imagine that? Rahab the harlot informed the two spies forty years later that the people of the land had for forty years been afraid of the Israelites. They had heard of God delivering them at the Red Sea and other feats. The giants whom Israel feared at Kadesh-barnea had been afraid of the people of Israel for forty years.

 

Moses had to die before they could enter the Promised Land. G. Campbell Morgan said, "Moses had to die. The death of Moses was necessary to progress into the land. Moses led you out, but he could not lead you in. Joshua led you in but he could not give you rest. Now there is one greater than Moses and Joshua who leads out, and leads in and gives rest. We must discover Him in spiritual communion."

 

"Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel" (Joshua 1:1–2).

 

Moses was allowed to see the land from a distance, but he was not allowed to go in and possess the land "because you broke faith with Me . . . because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel" (Deuteronomy 32:51). Moses threw a fit and lost the opportunity (Numbers 20:12; 27:12-14; Hebrews 3:16-19).

 

"Moses is dead" but God's work is not going to end. The LORD is their leader. He issues the command. "Now therefore, arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land, which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel." (Joshua 1:2).

 

It is time to go in and take the land (v. 3). It is their land. God gave it to them. "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory" (vv. 3-4).

 

Don't miss it; the land was theirs. It had been theirs for forty years! Because of their unbelief, they had failed to take the land. "I have given it to you." The original is in the perfect tense. Notice the words explicitly state, "I have given" meaning it was already done. It is a completed action. It is a prophetic perfect meaning the action is so sure to come to pas that it could be written as if it had already happened. It was already their land. God gave it to them.

 

Likewise, God has given us everything in Christ. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him" (Ephesians 1:3-4). Are we entering in and conquering the land?

 

Stake your claim. Go in and take possession of all God has given you in Christ. All of the Lord Jesus Christ is mine at conversion, but I possess only as much as I claim by faith. The great saints were all receivers. Go ahead take possession by faith! The Promised Land is typical of what we have in Christ. Alexander Maclaren reminds us, "God gives more than we take, and we are content to occupy but a corner of the broad land which He has given us." It is only as we take this place of identification with Christ practically that we enter into and enjoy our present inheritance with Him.

 

 

 

 

 

GOD'S PROMISE TO ISRAEL

 

Yahweh says, "I will be with you." The promise hasn't changed in forty years. He is the same God; it is still His word. When God spoke, He didn't stutter. He said precisely what He meant and He meant what He said. If God had not meant what He said, He would not have said it.

 

The LORD God said, "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them" (vv. 5-6).

 

God's promises means God's provision. Ask the Lord for strength and encouragement. He will make you strong. Obey His message and instruction as you find it in His Word. The Lord is with you. He has promises to go before you. Commit yourself to Him in full surrender and watch Him guide and provide. Make a commitment to follow Him in every area of your life. This is His money back guarantee. The LORD guarantees success. "I will be with you." Our part is to take Him at His word, and act upon it.

 

Remember that there are giants in the land! The giants are still there, and in forty years, there are more of them. God says, "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life." Not even giants. Not even idolatrous giants.

 

Do you have any giants in your land? You are no different from the children of Israel. Hebrews 13:5-6 is a direct application for you and me. "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you," so that we confidently say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age." Also, "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever." He changes not. His promises abide because He abides. God is faithful. God is able. God is going to do it!

 

Who is the giant in your life? "No man will be able to stand before you." What is your giant? It may be a person, may be your job, coworker, the circumstances in your face, a difficult situation at school, or in the home. Why will your giant not be able to stand? "Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you [put your own name here]; I will not fail you or forsake you" (v. 5). Just as I have been with Moses I will be with you and I will not fail you or forsake you.

 

It is a walk of faith. Verse six reminds us to "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their father to give them." The message is repeated in verses 7, 9, 18. "Be strong and courageous" (v. 6). "Only be strong and very courageous" (v. 7). "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go" (v. 9). "Only be strong and courageous" (v. 18). It is hard to miss, is it not.

 

God requires faithful obedience from us. "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go" (v. 7). If we love Him, we will obey Him. In fact, here is the where Joshua found his courage and strength. Verse eight says, "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success." When was the last time you got into God's Word and just chewed around on it like a dog gnawing a bone, or a cow chewing her cud. That is what this word "meditate" means. It is like an old dog chewing away on a bone. You can hear him off in the distance gnawing away. He makes noises as he chews. The word for "meditate" means "to speak with oneself" in a low voice as is often done by those who are musing, to contemplate, to have in mind, to purpose." It comes form the idea of "murmuring or muttering." It is the low voice of persons talking to themselves. When we meditate, we read over the texts to ourselves in half aloud reading and re-reading. This is the way you get to the good stuff in God's Word. It settles down into the mind and you begin to think biblically. You think the way God thinks.

 

Nowhere in the Word of God are we allowed to cut our minds free and let them float away to meditate upon whatever might enter into them. It is always an objective meditation upon God's Word. Let your mind run loose and Satan will give you a great meditation! One you will forever regret. You will never be strong and courageous in the Christian life if you do not spend time meditating on God's Word. You have to get into it and wrestle with it, meditating and memorizing it and making it as your own. Confident faith comes from meditating on God's Word. Paul said, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God."

 

ISRAEL'S PREPARATION

 

How do you go in and possess the land? There is only one way; it is by faith. Joshua commanded the people to get ready (vv. 10-11). "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are to cross this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, to possess it’ " (v. 11). Joshua didn't sit there and whine, "Well it's been forty years, so what is another month or two?" Joshua has been waiting for forty years! He has been ready and patiently waiting all these years. Let's go! Head 'em up and move 'em out the old cowboys would say in the old west.

 

Do you have a battle plan in your fight against the devil? God has made provision for you in your battle against Satan. Have you followed through? The Apostle Paul had a battle plan that he shared with us and it works. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might." Sounds like Joshua. It is not, it is Paul in Ephesians 6:10. "Put on the full amour of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil" (v. 11). "Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm" (v. 13). Don't go running out to do battle with your enemy without your armor on. Arm yourself with Christ. He is the armor of God. He is truth. You don't find spiritual truth anywhere else. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father, but through Me." He is your righteousness. There is no other righteousness that will satisfy God. He gives you His righteousness in place of your self-righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. He is my peace, my shield of faith, my helmet of salvation, the living Word of God. And don't forget to pray, Paul says.

 

Joshua commanded his people to get ready to cross over in three days. God says to us get ready to cross over. How do we prepare to go into a more intimate relationship with Christ? Paul helps us in our preparation in 2 Corinthians 10:5–6. "We are to destroy vain imaginations and every lofty thing that rises up against the knowledge of God, and we are told to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

 

We must reckon as to who we are in Christ. Take a stand on your eternal position in Christ. Paul told the Colossians, "For in Christ all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete" (Colossians 2:9, 10). To the church at Rome he wrote, "Be constantly counting upon the fact that you are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

All of these resources of heaven are available to us today. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. . . and my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." We take possession by taking one step at a time. Did you say, let's cross the Jordan in three days? Man this is flood season. This river is in the spring run-off and it is a mile wide raging torrent. It is muddy, brown, yuck. We'll all get killed. No. Joshua and Caleb had been there at the Red Sea and saw God open up the Sea and let them pass through on dry ground. They could say, "I saw God do it! And I will see Him do it again!"

 

PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

 

Verses 12-15 are parenthetical. The are in response to a compromise Moses made with half of the tribe of Manasseh, the tribes of Reuben and Gad. They had chosen to remain East of the Jordan and not go in and conquer Canaan. The concession is found in Numbers chapter 32. They appear to be content with their self-interests. They like the fertile, lush cattle land of Bashan, Gilead and Moab. They were content to stay the norm and were not concerned about the abundant Promised Land. They will keep their promise, but will go back to the old life at the first opportunity. History shows they were always getting in trouble with the enemy. When Assyria came calling on the Northern Kingdom of Israel these were the first tribes they defeated.

 

The land east of the Jordan is a place of indulgence. It is still wilderness. It is not the Promised Land.

 

They have their kin in our day who would rather remain focused on making a fair living rather than entering into a mature, intimate love relationship with Christ. The cost is too much for them to bear. On what level do you choose to live the Christian life? Some believers enjoy the blessings of Canaan. They go in and conquer the ugly, deceitful, ungodly, selfish sinful territory of the Hittites. However, some chose to live in the wilderness of sin in a half-hearted commitment in an easy land. They remain east of the Jordan and do not enter in and possess the land. They live in compromise with Moses, tolerating sinful flesh and making flimsy excuses for their selfish lifestyle. Christ calls us out of the self-centered condition into our Christ-centered position. On what level do I choose to live Christ?

 

The Apostle Paul challenges us to "test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourself, that Jesus Christ is in you––unless indeed you fail the test" (2 Corinthians 13:5). "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Colossians 2:6).

 

Where are you in your relationship with Christ? Are you halting at the Jordan? Are you afraid to trust Jesus for your daily victory? Have you drunk at some muddy, bitter waters for so long you can only wander around in the bitterness of self-defeat? I pray you will not be content to live east of Jordan in a half-hearted Christian lifestyle.

 

Joshua teaches us that strength comes out of our weakness and dependence. The only think that will keep you is your sense of constant need of God's presence.

 

God's promises means God's provisions. God promised the land and He would provide it. You take it by faith. You experience the life of Christ for every living moment in the same way you became a Christian. You believed the death of Jesus Christ for your sins. It was a step of faith. The same faith that got you out of sin and unbelief gets you into the land. "As therefore you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in Him" (Colossians 2:6). You take God at His word. "Abide in Me, and I in you." Learn how to lean on the power of God's Word.

 

The longer I live and minister the more I am convinced it is not how you and I begin the Christian life, but how we end it. Don't get me wrong, everyone one of us is dead in our trespasses and sins, and no one can enter into the kingdom of God except by a spiritual birth, repentance and the application of the blood of Jesus. Far too many are content just to enter in the Christian life and keep one foot in heaven and one in self. God has something much better. I refuse to be an average Christian. I want to be a member of the company of the committed. It is a choice I made, and it is a choice I hope you will make, too. If you are not satisfied with your Christian life, is it because you haven't really wanted any more. You can have all of Christ you want. "Every place where the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you." Chuck Swindoll wrote, "About the time we are ready to give up, along comes the Master, who leans over and whispers, 'Don't quit. Keep going,' as He provides His finishing touch of grace, joy, and love at just the right moment. His touch assures that we will be finishing well.".

 

 

 

Joshua 1:3 - I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.

 

Ephesians 1:3 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

 

 

 

All of the great saints were receivers. Oh sure, they were givers, cheerful givers, but they were also receivers. They knew how to receive from God! They learned how to receive from God the Father "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." All of the Lord Jesus Christ is mine at conversion, but I possess only as much as I claim and receive by faith. Joshua and his friend Caleb walked across the Promised Land. They had crossed the valleys, plains and mountains and had brought back to Moses samples of its fruitfulness. Forty years later Joshua and Caleb are camped across the Jordan River ready to enter and conquer the Promised Land.

 

After the death of Moses, God spoke to Joshua and said, "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you . . ." (Joshua 1:3). Go and take possession. All this land is yours. I have given it to you. Go in and by faith claim it as your own.

 

God has given every believer every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I got all of Christ when I trusted Him as my Savior. Am I appropriating my spiritual blessings? Am I drawing upon my heavenly resources for my daily life? Do I focus on my self-centered condition, or upon my eternal position in Christ? If I am honest with you and with myself no I am not, and neither are you. It is a continual struggle between the Spirit and the Flesh.

 

Practical everyday sanctification in the Christian life is not an instantaneous act. It is a steady, day by day growth process. I frequently use the term that God is a farmer not a computer operator. We are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit causes us to focus on Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit is to daily deliver us from sin and transform us into the likeness of Christ.

 

Although we may not be satisfied with the growth in our Christian life, we should be satisfied with what we have in Christ right now, understanding that the more we make ourselves open and available to the Holy Spirit the more like Christ we will become. The secret to growing in Christ is walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5: 16, " . . . walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (v. 25). The goal of the Holy Spirit is to present us to the Father complete in Christ (Colossians 1:28). He does this by daily transformation into the likeness of Christ. The Apostle Paul encourages us with these words in II Corinthians 3:18. "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

 

As we gaze into the Word of God, the Holy Spirit removes the veils of unbelief, and selfishness, and the eyes of our understanding are opened. We look into the face of Christ and we are gradually being transformed into His character. The more I gaze into His face I see the holiness of God, His divine love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fruitfulness, gentleness and self control. God has provided us with everything we need to live the Christian life. He does it in our vital union with Jesus Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God's Promised Land for the saint is immeasurably rich. You are immensely rich in Christ! You have hidden treasures in Christ ready for your use. What do you possess in the treasure house? What do you find when you search your temple?

 

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (I Corinthians 6:19-20). Have you come to the realization that the Holy Spirit lives in you? Christ Himself lives in your heart by faith. The eternal Spirit of God has made your body His home and He lives within you. The Apostle Paul expressed it when he wrote, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ . . . " (Ephesians 1:3). We are not lacking in any spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

 

There are no second class citizens in His kingdom. Then why do we go about in abject spiritual poverty? Why do we have a haunting fear that we can not be what God wants us to be? We have riches untold. We are spiritual billionaires because Christ indwells our hearts through His Spirit. Many Christians do not realize they are rich. They think and behave as though they were spiritual paupers.

 

True, we were dead in our trespasses and sins before we were made unbelievably rich by God's grace. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-7). You have been made extremely rich through the exceedingly great poverty of Christ. God did it in His grace (II Corinthians 8:9).

 

From the moment you were saved, you have had access to everything God has in store for you. You have boundless spiritual resources in Him who has made His home in your hearts. All of His wealth is available to all of us. How sad to think that He has made little difference in the daily lives of so many believers, not because they have never received the Holy Spirit, but because they have not realized they have Him living within them.

 

The same Holy Spirit who lived in the apostle Paul indwells you and me as spirit-filled believers. The same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Everything that Paul had in Christ you and I have in Christ. Nothing is lacking. We have everything in Christ Jesus.

 

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20). Paul often uses the idea of dying with Christ (Gal. 5:24; 6:14; Rom. 6:8; Col. 2:20) and burial with Christ (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12). Paul’s identification with Christ has become so complete that his separate personality is merged into that of Christ. It is the same as the vital union of the branch and the vine in John chapter 15.

 

Christ wants us to exchange our poverty and hunger for the satisfaction He gives. Instead of mourning, He gives indescribable joy. Instead of spiritual slavery, the Holy Spirit gives you freedom. He sets you free to let Christ live in you.

 

Do you appreciate who you are in Christ? Are you neglecting the resources that are yours in the Holy Spirit? Have you learned by faith how to draw upon His assets? God the Father has blessed you in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Weymouth translates, God "has crowned us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ." Could it be that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing that "heaven itself enjoys"? Knox even suggests these spiritual blessings are "higher than heaven itself." Do you need peace? Christ is our peace.

 

"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me." "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful" (John 14:1, 27).

 

Do you need contentment? It can be found only in Christ Jesus.

 

"Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst" (John 6:35).

 

Do you need spiritual power right now? That power is found in Christ.

 

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

 

Do you need wisdom, sanctification or redemption? These are found only in Christ. The apostle Paul reminds us it is "by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (I Corinthians 1:30).

 

Do you need victory over your current situation? Christ gives us victory. "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-39).

 

The apostle Paul declared from experience, "you are complete in Him (Christ)" (Colossians 2:10). To possess Jesus Christ is to possess all these spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

 

Do you think for one moment God the Father would short change His own Son? Remember our position; we are in Christ. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3, NIV). It is a completed action. He has already blessed us in Christ Jesus. There is no spiritual blessing that is not mine in Christ Jesus because Christ dwells in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Is there anything lacking? Then perhaps you are not abiding in Christ. If there is any need not provided then it tells me that I am not in God's will. He will provide everything I need if I am walking with Him. My resources in Christ are boundless.

 

Because the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts, we are never without resources. We have a never failing source of strength. The Lord Jesus who dwells in our hearts by faith can meet every need. And His supply never runs out. We have a constant "provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:19).

 

I fail to draw from Christ's presence because of my selfishness and unbelief. I must learn the most difficult lesson in the Christian life that without Him I can do nothing.

 

Major Ian Thomas writes candidly:

 

God has chosen the weak and the base and the nothing, and the things that are not, to confound the things that are, and all God demands of a man is his availability--to be what man was created to be, the human vehicle of the divine life, inhabited by God for God. That God may be Himself . . . What you are is totally irrelevant--nationality-wise, money-wise, family-wise, education-wise, personality-wise, and any other wise, if only you will recognize the principle that it is God that works in you, to will and to do His good-pleasure.

 

God takes an old clay pot and fills it with Himself that He may be glorified. We try to fill the pot with self and glory in ourselves and it will never do. We can have no confidence in self. It will mar the glory of God every time. However, when we hand Him our old pots He fills us with Himself and He gets the glory because of "the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (II Corinthians 4:7). It is Christ working in us to do His work for His glory.

 

Are you drawing upon your fortune from Christ by faith? Are you taking possession of the spiritual Promised Land? The Lord stands before us and commands us to go and take possession. All this land is yours. I have given it to you. Go in by faith and claim it as your own.

 

Rahab and the Spies

 

 

 

Joshua 2: 1-18

 

¹ Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.² The king of Jericho was told, "Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land." ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. ¹² Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."¹⁴ "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land." ¹⁵ So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. ¹⁶ Now she had said to them, "Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way." ¹⁷ The men said to her, "This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us ¹⁸ unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house.

 

 

 

"I'm so glad that God chose me before the foundation of the world, because He never would have chosen me after I was born!" wrote the famous Baptist preacher from England, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

 

The God whom we worship is the God of grace. No where is it more evident than in His Word. In Joshua chapter two we see the grace of God in action in the life of a prostitute.

 

 

 

GOD AT WORK IN JERICHO

 

Jericho was in the heart of hell.

 

The Canaanites in Jericho were pagans. The city of Jericho was established around 8000 B.C. and it is located six miles west of the Jordan on a rich oasis. Archaeologists have discovered that the city was surrounded by double walls twelve feet between them. Simple houses were built on top of the timbers laid on top and spread between the two walls. When the city was destroyed by Joshua the walls fell outward and down.

 

The inhabitants were immoral, they offered child sacrifices, priestesses served as temple prostitutes, Sodomites served as male temple prostitutes, etc. The Temples of Baal, Ashtoreth and other Canaanites were centers of vice. Baal was the principal god of the Canaanites, and his wife Ashtoreth was their goddess. She was the personification of the reproductive principle in nature. Her Babylonian name was Ishtar, Astarte her Greek name. What made Canaanite worship of Baal so appealing to Israel was it was held to be the god of the weather and fertile crops. The worship of these Canaanite gods consisted of extravagant sexual orgies in vice-centered temples. Immoral indulgence was a means of worship for the pagan Canaanites. They were also guilty of murdering their first–born children as a sacrifice to these same false gods. One archaeological find revealed a number of jars containing the remains of children and new born babes who had been sacrificed to Baal.

 

God sends spies to Rahab's house

 

God sent the spies into the heart of hell, to the house of Rahab. There is an important spiritual principle we need to lay hold of here. There are times when God will direct us to go to a place we would not normally go. That principle we need to abide by is to be "led of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit". "Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, 'Go, view the land, especially Jericho.' So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there." Rahab was a prostitute. It is possible she was also the owner of an inn. Keil and Delitzsch in their reference work refer to the Hebrew zonah as "a harlot, not an innkeeper." That would have been the best place to find out the latest gossip and tidbits of information spies are interested in. No one would have been even vaguely suspicious of men coming and going from there. Even in modern espionage, the best information is gathered at the "black tie" parties at Embassies, high brow social events, gentelmen’s clubs, and the like.

 

The New Testament references to Rahab clear up all misunderstanding or misinterpretation about the lady. Simply stated she was a prostitute! That is the only way you can translate the Greek porne. The writer of Hebrews in the chapter on the great Hall of Faith says, "By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace" (Hebrews 11:31). James 2:25 also mentions "Rahab the harlot" when referring to this same woman. We are dealing with a sinner and the God of all grace.

 

God at work in Rahab's heart.

 

God was at work in this pagan woman's life. God's grace always meets us right where we are in whatever condition we are in. God does not tell us to get our life straightened up and then He will accept us. He doesn't say clean up your act and then I will save you. God comes into our sinful lives and changes us from the inside out. God's grace is for those who need it. Sinners qualify. Self-righteous people need not apply. Remember the words of Jesus that is was the sick and infirmed in need of a physician, not those who were well.

 

The king of Jericho also had his spies around Rahab's place (vv. 2-7). The people of Jericho can see Israel off in the distance camped across the Jordan.

 

It was told the king of Jericho, saying, "Behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land." And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land." But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. It came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark, that the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them." But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan to the fords; and as soon as those who were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate.

 

The spies God sent were not interested in her "professional" services; they were interested in the Promised Land. They were on the roof, not in the bed. Verse eight, "Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof . . . " Flax stalks, three or four feet in length, were piled up on the roof to dry in the sun. They were used to weave linen. Perhaps her family made their living by agriculture. If so they had a marginal lifestyle.

 

Rahab the Spy

 

Rahab has been spying herself! She has also been hearing the rumors. The king of Jericho and the people did not want to know the LORD God. Rahab was different. She had heard about the God of Israel (vv. 9-11). Rahab's conclusion was God had given Israel the land of Canaan. Listen to the reasoning of her faith in vv. 8-12. She said to the men,

 

"I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath."

 

Rahab concludes: "the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth" (vv. 11b-12). Rahab committed her soul to the true and living God of Israel. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." God was at work in the heart of this pagan woman before the spies arrived! God strangely moved her heart. Where was God at work in Canaan? Right there in Rahab's heart. He set up His camp in the heart of a prostitute. This is a marvelous word picture of what God's grace does. There is nothing strange here. God chose Rahab! Would you have chosen her? No one is good enough for God, the way he or she is.

 

"Should any here, supposing themselves to be the children of God, imagine that there is some reason in them why they should have been chosen, let them know that as yet they are in the dark concerning the first principles of grace, and have not yet learned the gospel" (C .H. Spurgeon).

 

God had transformed this woman's heart with a growing spiritual attitude sensitive to His work in her life. "If God had painted a colored stripe on the backs of the elect I would go around lifting shirts. But since He didn't I must preach `whosoever will' and when `whosoever' believes I know he is one of the elect," C. H. Spurgeon.

 

If you have an intimate love relationship with God, He will show you where He is at work all around you. How do you know God is at work around you? Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). Rahab didn't choose to get up and go to God. He chose her. No one seeks God on his own initiative! Period! That is the great premise of the Gospel Message. When a man or a woman begins asking spiritual questions listen because you know the Holy Spirit of God is at work in that person's heart. If someone asks you spiritual questions, ask yourself what is God doing in that person's life. Give your undivided attention to that person! Listen to the Holy Spirit. He is drawing that person to Himself. God works in people's hearts to cause them to seek after Him. When they ask questions about God, or make observations about Him you know that He is at work. When men come under conviction of sin, the righteousness of God, and eternal judgment you know God is doing something in their hearts.

 

GOD CHANGING LIVES IN JERICHO

 

Just like the children of Israel, God insists that we depend wholly upon Him. He opens the doors to sinner's hearts, and He will lead us to them if we are yielded to Him. Rahab was willing to help the spies escape (vv. 4, 12-16).

 

Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." So the men said to her, "Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the Lord gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you." Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. She said to them, "Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way."

 

The word "kindness" and "kindly" is Chesed in the original Hebrew and means covenant love, loyalty or love, faithfulness (v. 12). It is a pledge of faith, faithfulness, steadfast love.

 

Saved by grace through faith

 

The scarlet rope is tied in her window (v. 18). The spies told her, "We shall be free from this oath to .you which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household" (vv. 17-18). This was probably the same rope with which they were let down the wall. Her response, "According to your words, so be it." So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window" (v. 21). The people of the land had no idea what that piece of rope was for in her window.

 

All believers are protected and sheltered from the wrath of God by God's scarlet cord that symbolizes the blood of Jesus. The world sees the cross every day and does not understand the meaning of it. There is cleaning power in the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse every sin (I John 1:7-9). Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away our sins (John 1:29, 31), and not only our sins but also the sins of the whole world. He gave Himself as a ransom for our sins, (Titus 2:14) "knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19). Romans 10:9-10 sounds like Rahab in Joshua. Paul wrote, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

 

Rahab committed her soul to the LORD. Trusting in Jesus Christ alone saves you. You confess because you already believe. How do we know she was saved by grace through faith? Rahab exhibited her faith in the LORD to save her and her family. It was demonstrated by the fact she tied the rope in the window, hid the spies, and helped them escape. It is faith in action. She acted on what she knew to be true. The scarlet rope in the window anticipates the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross to atone for the sins of the world.

 

Evidence of Rahab's salvation

 

In Hebrews 11:31 Rahab, not Joshua is the person whose faith is honored. Matthew 1:5, 6 informs us she married Salmon. She is the great-grandmother of King David! She was ancestor of Joseph, husband of Mary the mother of Jesus. Wow! What a savior! James 2:21, 25 reads: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? . . . In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?" Keep in mind the context of both Joshua chapter two and James two. Harry Ironside made this keen observation:

 

When she hid the spies, she showed that real faith that was in her heart. Her faith was manifested by her works in hiding them and sending them away safely. Whenever there is genuine faith in God it will always be accompanied by good works. We are not saved by works. Let no one make a mistake as to that. Scripture is absolutely clear that we are saved by grace alone through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." "Not of works, lest any man should boast." But on the other hand, where there is genuine faith, where people really believe God, where they truly receive His testimony, their faith will be manifested by their works, and that is what the Apostle James stresses

 

God doesn't say clean up your act and then I will save you. That is legalism. God approaches the lost sinner and begins working in his heart. God seeks the lost to save them. God is interested in sinners, not self-righteous people. Rahab is a sinner. I am a sinner. What matters is who Jesus Christ is, and what He has done for the sinner. Will I humble myself and trust in Christ alone to save me?

 

Go and sin no more!

 

Jesus was teaching in the Temple one morning when the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in the very act of adultery. The Jewish law said such a woman should be stoned to death. They wanted to know what Jesus thought. It was a set up. They wanted to trap Him. Jesus stooped down and began to write on the ground. God was writing. What would He say? They "persisted in asking Him." It was push, push push. We'll get you yet. Jesus stood up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8:7). Then He stooped down and wrote on the ground again. His listeners began and continued to go out one by one until Jesus was alone with the woman. Jesus stood up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She answered, "No one, Lord." Jesus responded, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way; from now on sin no more" (John 8:10-11).

 

That woman could also go out saying to herself, "No condemnation! Sin no more! What grace!"

 

You and I say with all our heart, "I am secure because of the scarlet thread in the window. I am secure in the precious blood of Jesus. Saved by grace!" Salvation is by grace through faith. Rahab the sinner was saved by placing the rope in the window. The rope was a symbol of her faith. It pictured the blood smeared above the door in the home of Israelites on their last night in Egypt. It is a marvelous picture of what God has done for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

 

CONFIRMATION OF GOD'S WORK

 

There are some beautiful spiritual principles in this great chapter.

 

It is a reminder of our spiritual depravity and the grace of God for all sinners. " You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

 

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^[1] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 

(Ephesians 2:1-10).

 

Who are the names of members of your family who are lost? Will you make a commitment to pray over them everyday until they are saved? Rahab was concerned about others in her family. When God shows mercy to one person in a household, it is an indication that He wants to save every member of that family. Acts 16:31 is a promise for all of us to claim. Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer and his family, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." No the family was not saved automatically when the jailer was saved. He put his faith in Christ and then one by one all the rest of the members of his family trusted in Christ. Where is God at work in your Jericho?

 

Rahab made a commitment of her life. She made a decision to side with Israel against the king of Jericho. She would have been guilty of treason in his sight if he knew what was going on. Where do you stand in your commitment to Christ? Have you sided with Him? How do you know? Do you have the security of knowing that if you were to die today you would be saved from the judgment of God? Why? There is eternal security only in the redeeming blood of the Lamb of God who gave Himself for our sins. A scarlet cord runs through the Scriptures. His blood and nothing else will save us.

 

"Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands" (v. 24a). On which side of the Jordan do you chose to live? If you know Christ as your personal Savior please do not be content with just being saved. Let's go on into a mature intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

"All the inhabitants of the land, moreover, have melted away before us" (v. 24b). That is what happens when God is at work in your heart. Are you ready to go across this Jordan and take Jericho? You are not ready if you have never come to Jesus Christ. That is where the new life begins. However, if you know Jesus as your savior let's cross the Jordan in our lives, defeat Jericho and go into Canaan and kill some giants.

 

Christina lives in a small dusty village in Brazil. Her heart was empty and she felt like society had cheated her of its joys. She longed for the excitement of the big city of Rio. One morning her mother Maria found Christina's bed empty. Maria knew immediately where her daughter had gone. She also knew immediately what she must do find her. She quickly threw some clothes in a bag, gathered up all her money, and ran out of the house. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drug-store to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janeiro. Maria knew Christina had no way to earn money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for streetwalkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture--taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. It wasn't too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home !"

 

What a glorious, marvelous, powerful word picture of how God reaches out to us through the wooing of His Holy Spirit.

 

Crossing the Jordan

 

 

 

Joshua 3

 

1 Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and he and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and they lodged there before they crossed. 2 At the end of three days the officers went through the midst of the camp; 3 and they commanded the people, saying, "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. 4 "However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before." 5 Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you." 6 And Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people. 7 Now the LORD said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. 8 "You shall, moreover, command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand {still} in the Jordan.' " 9 Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, "Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God." 10 Joshua said, "By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. 11 "Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan. 12 "Now then, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. 13 "It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, {and} the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap." 14 So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), 16 the waters which were flowing down from above stood {and} rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan

 

Joshua 4

 

1 Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, 2 "Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, 3 and command them, saying, 'Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.' " 4 So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; 5 and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. 6 "Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' 7 then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever." 8 Thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the LORD spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the lodging place and put them down there. 9 Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day.

 

10 For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the LORD had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed; 11 and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the LORD and the priests crossed before the people. 12 The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them; 13 about 40,000 equipped for war, crossed for battle before the LORD to the desert plains of Jericho. 14 On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him, just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life. 15 Now the LORD said to Joshua, 16 "Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan." 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, "Come up from the Jordan." 18 It came about when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks as before. 19 Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. 20 Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. 21 He said to the sons of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?' 22 then you shall inform your children, saying, 'Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.' 23 "For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; 24 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever."

 

Chuck Colson made a keen observation that:

 

"Western society has been obsessed with the search for self."

 

He adds, this obsession to "find ourselves" has spawned a whole set of counterfeit values; we worship fame, success, materialism, and celebrity. We want to "live for success" as we "look out for number one," and we don't mind "winning through intimidation . " But, the church is in almost as much trouble as the culture, for the church has bought into the same value system: fame, success, materialism and celebrity. We watch the leading churches and the leading Christians for our cues. We want to emulate the best-known preachers with the biggest sanctuaries and the grandest edifices. Preoccupation with these values has also perverted the church's message. . . . "We give the people what they want." This heresy is at the root of the most dangerous message preached today: the what's-in-it-for-me gospel. The "victorious Christian life" has become man's victorious life, not God's. . . . This is not just a religious adaptation of the look-out-for-number-one, winner-take-all, God helps those who help themselves gospel of our culture; it is heresy. (Charles W. Colson, Loving God. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983, pp. 13-14).

 

I am convinced there is a better way of life than this spiritual rat race that ends up on a fast road to nowhere with lots of glitter, but no substance. Where do you find an authentic intimate love relationship with God without all the glitter and carnality?

 

Our major goal in life is to know and experience God. While a senior in high school I made a commitment that I would live to the hilt of every situation I believed to be the will of God. As you know if you have gone to my testimony page in this website, I got derailed from this for many years and ended up at the end of myself, in prison with no hope or future. But then God restored my life. Now that passion of my heart is even stronger than ever before. I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. I press on daily toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Do I really want to know Him? Do I want to understand who He is and His purpose for my life? Do I want to understand how He sees my circumstances and situations in life? Do I humbly yield to Him the desires of my life?

 

The more I am around Jesus the more I want to be like Him. I want His kind of life. The more I get to know Christ the more I want to strive to be like Him. I realize there is more of the Christ-life available for me than I am appropriating. I need to go in and take possession of what God has given me in Christ. The apostle Paul is quoting the prophet Isaiah with these words of encouragement for the believer:

 

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

 

God has provided for us His kind of life. Jesus said, "I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10b).

 

Wuest expanded the translation to bring out the depth of Jesus' words: "I alone came in order that they might be possessing life, and that they might be possessing it in superabundance." The Lord God has provided everything we need to live the Christian life.

 

The book of Joshua makes an excellent analogy of knowing and experiencing God in the Christian's daily life. The crossing of the Jordan River illustrates beautifully our present inheritance in Christ. The Promised Land, is our life in Christ now, now heaven. Life in Christ is full of privileges to be enjoyed by all born again believers in this life now and in the world to come. Even the psalmist David spoke of the good things of God to be experienced in the "land of the living". Certainly speaking of life here on earth. God invites us, indeed commands us to appropriate our vital union with Christ. Am I appropriating my resources in Christ? Am I drawing from His power and strength to live Christ?

 

Many of us are facing some turbulent waters at springtime flood stages in our personal and spiritual lives. The Jordan is a picture of death, not just physical death, but death to self, death to the flesh and the dark river of judgment. The crossing is a beautiful analogy of the believer's death with Christ and the resurrection to new life in Him. "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" Why is this true Paul? "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection" (Romans 6:2-5). The moment we put our faith in Jesus as our personal Savior we have everything in Christ. The Holy Spirit invites us to come and take possession of it.

God told Joshua to go in and take the land. "Cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel" (Joshua 1:2). With God's promises come God's provisions. The land was God's gift to Israel. Verse three says, "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses" (Joshua 1:3). Stake your claim. All of the Lord Jesus is mine at conversion, but I possess only as much as I claim by faith. Great saints were great receivers. The apostle Paul was a great receiver. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him" (Ephesians 1:3-4).

 

Yeah, Joshua, you talk big talk. How are we going to do it? Yahweh said, "No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you" (Joshua 1:5).

 

How big is your God? The problem is not are you qualified, but are you willing to be used of God. It is not a position of power, but an intimate abiding relationship with the LORD. Put your own name in this promise. Claim it by faith. "Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you ____________; I will not fail you or forsake you." Let verses 6-9 sink in. "Have I not commanded you [____________]? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go" (v. 9). Go back in your spare time, reread these verses, and personalize them. Jesus said, " . . . lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." That fact is still true.

 

God's promises means God's provision. Ask the Lord for strength and encouragement in your walk with Him. He will make you strong. Obey God's message of instruction and guidance as you find it in His Word. Remind yourself often that the Lord is with you. He has promised to go before you. Surrender your life to Him. Make a once-for-all commitment of your life to Christ, and then daily give each day to Him. Follow His leading in every area of your life and you will experience Him. As you realize your identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, you enter in to a life of joy and victory as you claim your privilege as His follower. You have the Holy Spirit living within you to empower you and guide you.

 

The two spies came back from Rahab's place at Jericho and told Joshua, "Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands, and all the inhabitants of the land, moreover, have melted away before us" (v. 2:24). Joshua commanded the people to "consecrate" themselves, "for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among us" (3:5). The word (qadash) "consecrate" means to make holy or to sanctify, to be set apart. The idea is to be set apart for God's service. Here it means to consecrate yourselves, set yourselves apart for God's use. It is the responsibility of the individual to reserve himself for God. He or she is dedicated to and reserved for God's purposes.

 

God says, "consecrate" or reserve yourselves for His purposes. Get yourself ready to be with Him and walk with Him in a new adventure of Christian living. God wants us to make a once-and-for-all consecration of ourselves to Him. What infinite joy to be reserved for His eternal purposes. With that consecration to Him the Christian life becomes a daily, moment by moment walk with Him. God calls us to sanctify ourselves. He calls His people to holiness, separation from sin and walking in the Spirit. God wants consecrated, clean, empty vessels that He can pour Himself into and use for His glory. We hinder the power of God when we are defiled and full of ourselves. God is holy and He wants us to be set apart for Himself. We need to remove the barriers to God's power and fellowship and prepare our hearts to receive His grace. He invites us to come again to claim the cleansing of the precious blood of Jesus, which washes away all our uncleanness and sin. With a fresh sense of fellowship with Him, He enables us to be used of God. Is there some sin that needs to be confessed and forsaken? You know where God is at work in your heart. Please obey Him. God is not going to work in all His fullness in our lives if we are unwilling to be open to His cleansing and His leadership. However, He will do wonders in us and we will experience Him if we sanctify ourselves.

 

A very faithful believer and businessman said to me recently, the most important thing I ever learned was that God wanted us to consecrate our lives to Him in a once-for-all unreserved commitment to Him. Then begin each day asking Him to take our lives and live His life through us, to lead us, and guide us throughout the day Everyday is a new experience with Him. You can then walk moment by moment with Christ. Keep teaching that great truth to your congregation."

 

The Ark of the Covenant is mentioned fifteen times in chapters three and four of Joshua. The Ark of the Covenant symbolized God's presence with His people. God demanded that the people treat the Ark with the same respect they treated Him. It symbolized His holy presence with them, and that He was personally leading them. The nearer we live to God the greater will be our respect and reverence for Him.

 

Joshua reassured the people that the LORD would be the first to cross the Jordan and the people would follow Him. They must follow the LORD across the Jordan. He will do wonders for the people. He has demonstrated His ability to provide for them for forty years. Now He will demonstrate that they do not go in their own strength, but in His strength. They were not to run ahead of the Ark. They were to follow a half-mile behind it (3:4). The LORD wants to lead us into new experiences. We, too often, want to go dashing out ahead of Him. On the other hand, just as bad, we drag our feet and are forever making up excuses for not following. Are we walking hand in hand with Him? Where is God at work in our lives? Where is He leading? Do we expect God to work a miracle?

 

We have not been this way before. The future is always full of the unknown and filled with uncertainty. Only God knows the future. "These people possessed the Ark before. Yes, but they had not followed the Ark, but the cloud by day; and the pillar of fire by night, they would never see again. They had a new pathway to tread, with a different method of guidance. They who had waited for the moving of the cloud were now to wait for the moving of the Ark and the priests. The cloud was the provision for the wilderness. God was changing His method with them. They were to live not by a particular sign, but by the word of the Lord. They would never forget that the Ark came out of the cloud.

 

At what level are we prepared to meet God? He wants people who are committed to Him. Are we willing to consecrate ourselves and follow Him into the unknown adventure of intimate fellowship? The unknown is always scary. Jesus Christ is the true Ark of God. He is God with us. The Ark was the symbol of the Presence of Yahweh with His people. The Lord Jesus is the reality of the divine Presence with men. He is Immanuel––God with us. Christ is the reality of God with His people. The Ark of the Covenant symbolized that God had entered into a covenant with His people Israel. It was a covenant of grace. God chose them. Moreover, God has entered a covenant relationship with us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the people of Israel were to follow Yahweh into the Jordan as He opened the way before them, we believers of the Lord Jesus Christ follow Him through the dark murky swollen waters of judgment and rise with Him to sit in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. As the Shepherd, Jesus becomes the Ark that guides us. He guides and directs His chosen people. Jesus says to us, "If you love Me you will obey Me." We don't have any problem obeying Him if we love Him. We will always be at the center of God's will if we follow Him one day at a time. He has promised to never leave us, nor forsake us.

 

The Ark leading the people into the Jordan reminds us of Jesus going down into the dark waters of the wrath of God. Christ rolled away the dark waters of judgment for everyone who believes on Him for salvation.

 

The apostle Paul got to the heart of our salvation when he wrote:

 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:23-26).

 

Peter put it this way, "Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit" (1 Peter 3:18).

 

Our Savior died and we died with Him. He rose from the dead and we have been quickened together with Him. We are now seated with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. God sees every believer dead, buried and risen with Christ. Our water baptism is a witness and a testimony as to what has already occurred in our lives. It is not a means of salvation. It is a testimony of what God has already done for us.

 

Joshua tells us in 3:6 the very moment the priest's feet touched the water the Jordan dried up to allow the people to cross. The priest took up rods of gold that suspended the Ark of the Covenant and crossed over ahead of the people (v. 6). The priests came to the edge of the water and stood sill in the Jordan. The Jordan did not dry up before the priests stepped into the water. As the priests stepped into the waters, the river sixteen miles upstream at Adam piled up in a heap. They would have stood there all day waiting if they had not stepped out by faith and put their feet into the Jordan. God waited on them for 40 years in their unbelief before they were willing to cross over with Him. Do you face a cold slimy Jordan today? Here is your river of opportunity. It may be some habit, or passion, or lust, or pride, an unloving spirit, judgmental attitude, critical spirit or sensitiveness or just plain ugly selfishness. Why do you halt? Where is God at work? Why do you wait? He bids you and me to come and follow. Let's enter into some new spiritual land and conquer some spiritual giants in our lives. Joshua called out to the people of Israel,

 

"By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite. Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan. Now then, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap" (vv. 10-13).

 

The water was completely cut off and the people crossed opposite Jericho (3:16). "And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan" (v. 17). They had to get their feet wet. They had to get out into the water. Can you imagine if you were one of the priest in the lead as you took that first step? Wow what excitement! As you walk out into the water and take that first step . . Awesome! Where did the water go? Come on ya'll. Let's go!

 

How many times do we come to new experiences with God and He patiently waits for us to step out by faith? And waits and waits and waits. He waits for us to get our feet wet. We have no way of knowing how God will provide or lead or deliver us, and then when we step out by faith He does it. When we trust Him, He does it. God gives us exactly what we need when we need it. His timing is always perfect. When we obey Him, we experience Him. Don't you know those faithful priests had a powerful testimony to share about that experience in the years to come. I saw God do it! And you did, too.

 

A PLACE OF REMEMBRANCE

 

Two memorials were set up in Joshua chapter four. God told Joshua to select twelve men, one from each tribe to pickup a stone from the Jordan and carry it to the other side of the river. There they built a monument of remembrance to God's faithfulness at Gilgal (4:1-7).

 

Joshua had a second set of stones set up where the priest's feet were standing firm in the river carrying the Ark. Why did they do that? Verse six tells us it was show and tell time. The children yet to be born would ask, "What do these stone mean to you?" These stones were to become a memorial of Israel crossing Jordan in the springtime at flood season (4:21-22).

 

"For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your God forever" (vv. 23-24).

 

What a testimony! All two million of them could say, I saw God do it! For centuries to come every time they passed Gilgal they would retell the story of God doing just what He said He would do. Now three thousand years later here we are telling it again!

 

Some Abiding Principles and Practical Applications for Today

 

The crossing of the Jordan beautifully pictures our passing from one level of Christian living to another. Let's arm ourselves with our spiritual weapons and take the land God has promised us. Let's obey Him and experience Him every day. As we walk by faith, He fulfills in us what He asks us to do. It is guaranteed but it doesn't happen automatically. God was saying to Israel, "The land is already your land, now walk in it. Take it. Claim it. Possess it." The priests were obedient. They stepped out into the water, stood in the middle of the river, and waited for all the people to pass over. Unless we are willing to step out and get our feet wet, God can never open the way for us. God honors people of faith.

 

When the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, they were cut off from their old life. Those who chose to go over into the Promised Land began a new life from that day on with a new identification. At the Jordan River they were cut off from all the old pagan Egyptian life style and wilderness wandering. Israel as a nation had a new identity, new law and a new life in the land. There was no need to go back across the river. The old life style was buried under the waters of the Jordan. That old life was dead. The came up out of the Jordan to start a new life in a new land.

 

That describes our death, burial and resurrection with Christ because we have been so identified with Christ. We have been baptized into Christ meaning we have been placed into Christ and identified with Him. We have gone through what Christ went through in His death, burial and resurrection. We are so identified with Christ that He not only died for our sins, but we died with Him.

 

The apostle Paul described our new identification with Christ as being "crucified with Him," buried with Him and risen with Him. "Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11).

 

Be constantly counting upon the fact, reckoning "yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." That will revolutionize your life. That is the heart of living the Christian life. We are now identified with Christ in His death. When He died, I died. We have been buried with Him, and we have been raised to newness of life with Him. When I choose to act upon that truth, I experience Him in a new quality of life. It is the resurrection life.

 

Dead men don't sin. Sin can't touch Christ. Death can't touch Him. The sin debt has been paid in full by the sinless One. In addition, we are placed into Christ. Our identification is with Him. In other words, our old life has been cut off. We have a new identity. We are new creatures in Christ. "The old things have passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

The people of Israel had committed themselves to crossing the Jordan. When the floodwaters closed back up and returned to normal the people were cut off from the old life. Their old life in the wilderness was cut off. That was the end to it. They were now new people. It was a victory of faith.

 

We are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Now He invites us to grow in His grace. I say this humbly, I say it carefully, I have never been closer to the Lord in my life. I have never sensed a greater need to be closer to Him. I pray you will join me in this freshness. Come! Let's cross over!

 

What kind of monuments are you building? We are all building monuments. Some are to self and vainglory. Some are religious monuments to humanism. What kind of monuments are you building to God? Are they monuments to men or to God? Who is the getting the glory and the applause? I seriously doubt if God appreciates a lot of applause we supposedly offer up to Him. I rather think He would have us sit in silence and awe of Him, contemplating His glory. Yes, there is a time to clap and sing.

 

We have two powerful monuments of God's provision for every believer. They are the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. They are testimonies of what God has done for you and me. Our Savior died and we died with Him. He went down through the cold, murky waters of God's wrath and died for our transgressions and He came up out of the bonds of death. When He died we died, and when He rose form the dead, we rose from the dead. God sees every believer dead, buried and risen with Christ. Your baptism by immersion pictures what God did for you in Jesus Christ. It does not save you. It does not add one thing to your salvation. It is a memorial to God for what He has already done in you. The Lord's Supper is a memorial of Christ's death on your behalf, dying as your substitute and bearing the wrath of God in your place.

 

We must keep our focus on Jesus Christ in order to cross the "Jordans" in this life. God went before His people in the presence of the Ark and He opened a dry road across the river. He has promised not only to save us from eternal punishment, but to lead, guide, protect and provide for us. We are in a lifelong process of following Him deeper and deeper into His life. This journey has only begun when we trust Jesus as our Savior. Let's go across this Jordan and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Only Jesus is capable of leading us through the dark waters of Jordan. Let's draw our strength from Him. The Lord has promised us that He will go with us just as He was with Joshua.

 

The monuments help us to stay focused on the presence of Lord. Dr. Donald Campbell tells a story that helps us keep our eyes on the Lord and see Him deliver us through dark waters.

 

" During the Civil War, the town of Moresfield, West Virginia was on the dividing line, and seesawed back and forth between the Yankees and Confederate troops. In one old house, which still stands today, an elderly woman lived alone. One morning Yankee troops stomped up on her porch. Though at their mercy, she remained calm and invited them to be seated at her table. When breakfast was set before them, she said, "It is a custom of long standing in this house to have prayers before meals. I hope you won't mind." With that, she picked up the Bible, opened it and began to read from Psalm 27:

 

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. . . . I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. When she finished, she murmured quietly, "Let us pray." As she prayed, she heard stealthy sounds of shuffling shoes. When she ended with "Amen," she opened her eyes. The soldiers were gone! Her lack of fear had made them fearful of lingering any longer!

 

Battle for Jeicho

 

 

 

Joshua 5

 

¹ Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. ² At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again." ³ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth. ⁴ Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt-all the men of military age-died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt. ⁵ All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not. ⁶ The Israelites had moved about in the desert forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord . For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷ So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. ⁸ And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed. ⁹ Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. ¹⁰ On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. ¹¹ The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. ¹² The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan. ¹³ Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" ¹⁴ "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" ¹⁵ The commander of the Lord 's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

 

Joshua 6

 

¹ Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
² Then the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. ³ March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ⁴ Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ⁵ When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in." ⁶ So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." ⁷ And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord ." ⁸ When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord 's covenant followed them. ⁹ The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. ¹⁰ But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!" ¹¹ So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there. ¹² Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord . ¹³ The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord , while the trumpets kept sounding. ¹⁴ So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. ¹⁵ On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! ¹⁷ The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord . Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. ¹⁸ But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. ¹⁹ All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury." ²⁰ When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. ²¹ They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it-men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. ²² Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her." ²³ So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord 's house. ²⁵ But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho-and she lives among the Israelites to this day. ²⁶ At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: "Cursed before the Lord is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: "At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates." ²⁷ So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

 

The Christian life is a walk of faith. It is a daily experience of abiding in Christ. Crossing Jordan and entering the Promised Land is not dying and going to heaven. It is a beautiful analogy of appropriating by faith all of the daily provision God has made available to us in Christ Jesus. Now that you are saved at what level do you want to live the Christian life? Let's go in and take the land of Canaan, which pictures our present inheritance in Christ our Lord.

 

We have everything in Christ we need to live the Christian life. We can not conqueror sin in our lives and go on to victory with out His help. Jesus said, "You can do nothing without Me." Let's claim our possessions in Christ. Let's grow in His grace and knowledge. Let's go on to victory in our Christian life.

 

Philippians 3:8-11 is a beautiful testimony of the victory that is ours in Christ:

 

"I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:8-11).

 

The apostle Paul was not content just to be saved from the fire. He wanted abundant life.

 

Where has God been at work in your life this week? Has He given you some Jordan to cross? Has He pointed out some spiritual enemy in your personal life in which you need to take command? Have you identified some areas where you wish to grow? Let's look at some preparations for growing up spiritually.

 

Gilgal

 

PREPARATION FOR CONQUERING OUR ENEMIES

 

Circumcision was a sign of the covenant with Yahweh. It identified the man with the covenant promises of God. It was a sign of faith in what God would do in and through His people. It was for the Old Testament believer what baptism is for the New Testament believer. Baptism does not save a person. It does not even help to save him. It is only a sign, a testimony of what God has already done in the person's heart. Circumcision represented separation from the sins of the flesh, the old life in Egyptian bondage. It was simply an act of obedience and a sign that the man was a member of God's covenant nation.

 

For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Their children whom He raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them along the way. Now when they had finished circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day (Joshua 5:5-9).

 

God calls us to renounce our dependence on our present condition, march out by faith, and conquer new territory. Use the word of God and exercise self-judgment. The apostle Paul tells us we are so complete in God's sight that we lack nothing in Christ Jesus. It is because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It is the inward circumcision, not made with hands, but by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

 

You do not need the circumcision of the flesh because you have received the circumcision of the heart (Colossians 2:9-12).

 

The Christian is not subject to the Jewish legal system. It won't do him any good. Warren Wiersbe said, "Jesus Christ alone is sufficient for our every spiritual need, for all of God’s fullness is in Him. We are identified with Jesus Christ because He is the Head of the body (Col. 1:18) and we are the members of the body (1 Cor. 12:12–13)." In Christ Jesus we are full, complete, lacking nothing (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:6). What we need to do is claim our position and resources in Christ. Our old man has been crucified with Christ and we have been set free to live Christ. Where is your place of reproach? Where does God keep putting His finger in your chest and saying, "This is where we are going to work!" Do you keep pushing His hand away? Do you keep putting up "No trespassing signs" every time the Holy Spirit convicts you? What does God need to cut out of your life so you can be all that He wants you to be? It may be a sharp tongue, sarcasm, bitterness, resentment, filthy language, unclean heart, gossip, arrogant spiritual attitudes and evil habits. If it is spiritual cancer, it has to go. It has to be cut out and sometimes that means a radical approach.

 

It is a Place of Restoration

 

The Passover reminded them of God's provision. This is only the third Passover they have kept since leaving Egypt 40 years earlier. The first observance was in Egypt (Ex, 12:1-28). The second time was at Mt. Sinai (Num. 9:1-5). Now across the Jordan at Gilgal they celebrate it once again. Gilgal was the place of renewed consecration and commitment.

 

While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year (Joshua 5:10-12).

 

This was a place of renewed commitment for Israel. They had just experienced God’s deliverance across the Jordan. Make a once and for all commitment of your life to Christ and decide to walk with Him daily, moment by moment, one day at a time. It is a choice I make every day. It's based upon a commitment I made with Christ April 16, 1988, beside my bunk at the Cobb County Adult Detention Facility awaiting trial on multiple felony counts. I have not wavered on my commitment and He has not wavered in fulfilling His end of the bargain either.

 

It is a Place of New Provision

 

Joshua was out surveying Jericho and planning for his battle. Suddenly there was a dramatic, unexpected appearance of a mysterious man with a drawn sword in combat readiness. Joshua immediately went over and asked him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" (v. 13). Joshua had been waiting forty years; he was ready to fight. Joshua asked the wrong question. The man replied, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord" (v. 14). How often do we go in to God asking the wrong questions?

 

Who was this "captain of the host of the LORD"? A "host" in the Bible is an unseen army, invisible to the human eye that surrounds the throne of God. It is an angelic host. Cf. 2 Kings 6:17ff; Psalm 148:2; 103:21. Christ said twelve legions of angels were ready to defend Him.

 

Joshua immediately recognized the supernatural character of this visitor. Joshua was in the presence of God. "And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, 'What has my lord to say to his servant?'" (v. 14b). Joshua fell on his face and worshiped. The worship paid to this messenger of the LORD is directed to Yahweh Himself. Who is this person? It is sin to worship angels and men (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5-8; Revelation 19:10; 22:8, 9). The total impact of the context of the passage indicates that a superhuman person is present. He is in the presence of Deity. The commander of the army of the LORD is God Himself. Yahweh has come to lead and fight for His people. All distinctions between the messenger of the covenant and the LORD Himself evaporate.

 

Verse fifteen removes any doubt as to who this "captain of the army of Yahweh" was. "The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, 'Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so." In the Bible only things, places and people can be called holy because they are set aside for God or claimed by Him. Joshua did not have any problem with obedience. Jesus said, "If you love Me you will keep My commandments." If you love Him, you will obey Him. You don't turn 18 and no longer have a need to obey Him. It is a question of love and Joshua obeyed.

 

This is a theophany, or more correctly a Christophany. This "captain" is the angel of the covenant appearing in human form to take command of the armies of Israel. Our Joshua was under His command! Israel's deliverance comes from only one source just as our deliverance comes from only one source––God for us in Christ. This is "a preliminary manifestation of the Eternal Word of God, who, in the fullness of time, 'became flesh and dwelt among us,'" declared Alexander Maclaren. It is a preincarnate appearing of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We always find Him revealing God. In the Bible the Triune God is alone seen or manifested in Christ.

 

Yahweh had come to lead His people to victory. Yahweh is our salvation. The captain of the LORD's host is none other than the Great Captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. The angel of the covenant of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ in the New Testament. He is Immanuel––God with us. The captain's army is nothing short that the LORD Himself.

 

You cannot help but make the comparison between Moses and the burning bush that would not burn, and Joshua and the Captain of the host of the LORD. I believe it is there on purpose for the people of Israel.

 

A promise of God's personal presence always carries with it the assurance of God's personal care and provision. God is not our personal genie. The battle, Joshua is reminded, is the LORD's. We are here to serve Him in His battle for righteousness. We are here to do His will. He is not here to serve us. Christ is our victorious Savior.

 

It was a humbling experience. Most of us are too big for God to use. He has to show us who is in charge and bring us to our knees to worship. "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." Where ever God is there is holy ground. Let's humble ourselves and walk in His ways.

 

God has prepared His people with a renewed commitment through renunciation of the flesh, restoration of the Passover and a new leader. How then shall we conquer?

 

THE PLAN FOR CONQUERING JERICHO

 

Jericho had two thick walls around it with houses sitting on top of the walls like a fortress. It was fortified. It had a king and valiant warriors. It can symbolize a fortress of our carnality. What is your Jericho? Is it a weakness of temperament, or personality character? Is it a place of special guard, some hidden sin? Is it some secret sin that keeps you from doing the will of God? Is it a fortified city that is too big for you to handle by yourself? Let Jericho represent your place of failure, your fortified city of sin, indifference, materialism, faithlessness and spiritual unconcern. Jericho stood at the entrance of the valley of Jordan that ran into the interior of the Promised Land. It was the key to conquest of the land. Your Jericho is the key to invading and taking captive the whole man: body, soul and spirit–mentally, spiritually, emotionally and volitionally. If you don't take your Jericho you won't get the victory in your life.

 

The Promise of Jericho

 

"I have given Jericho into your hands" (v. 2). "The Lord said to Joshua, 'See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.'"

 

Triumphant Christian living is not automatic. We must be rightly related to Christ. Our focus must be dependent upon Him for guidance and strength. We must depend upon Him for our daily walk. If we trust our own scheming and planning, we will fail. We can not conqueror Jericho in our own strength. The key is being strong in the Lord and the power of His might. The Christian life is an exchanged life. We live it not in our own strength, but in the strength and wisdom of the Lord. We need daily wisdom and guidance to win. We get our strength from His presence and His power. Who did Jericho belong to? The LORD!

 

The Principles for Conquering Jericho

 

The only way to conquer Jericho is God's way. Hebrews 11:30, "by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. . . " The LORD was the wisdom and source of their strength.

 

You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead" (6:3-5).

 

I can hear the lieutenants saying now, "we are going to do what?" How would you like to have been on that committee? Only one way will work––God's way. You can't take Jericho any other way. Victory is not in earthly wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:26-28). Don't miss the number "seven" in this chapter. It is the symbol of completeness or perfection. Here is the perfect battle plan. Seven priests, seven trumpets, seventh day, seven times (v. 4). Imagine two million people marching around this city. No wonder the doors to Jericho were "tightly shut," and "no one went out and no one came in" (v. 1). God was at work! Not man. The ark is at the center of the activities. They were marching behind Yahweh. The Ark of the Covenant was a symbol of God's presence with them to help and give victory. Six days of obedience (6-11). Six days of walking by faith, and patiently trusting God. Six days of learning how to think God's way. Six days realizing their circumstances and destiny are in God's hands.

 

The Place of Victory

 

Whose victory was it? The LORD's.

 

Now Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went before them and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while they continued to blow the trumpets. Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp; they did so for six days. Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city (vv. 12-16).

 

You can hear the rumble of the walls falling down! "So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city" (v. 20).

 

Jericho was God's gift to Israel. It was His and He gave it to them. Jericho is God's gift to you in Christ. It is yours to take, but God will give it to you only when you fully admit that you can not take it yourself and depend upon Him. You can not live the Christian life by yourself. You can not defeat Jericho in your own power. Christ must do it. God does not want new methods and new programs; He wants new men! He wants men of faith who will be obedient to Him. The answer to Jericho is prayer. God's method is faith in Him.

 

THE PROMISE FULFILLED

 

Rahab and her family became a part of the family of God. Unashamedly she is in the lineage of the great king David and the Messiah Jesus Christ. Isn't grace beautiful! Everything in Jericho must be destroyed. What is "under ban" in your spiritual life? All that was worth keeping in Jericho was given to the LORD. Everything else was burned. How long will it take Christians to learn that truth?

 

"They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. . . They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord" (vv. 21, 24).

 

Pride and self tries to rebuild the throne. We want to return to our places of power, prestige, glory and self–pity. "Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, 'Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.'"

 

God has given us the land; let's go get it!

 

The fall of Jericho represents the power of God in the Christian's life. It is a walk of faith. Without this faith, nothing will happen. With faithful obedience to Jesus Christ, the believer can overcome any obstacle or sin in his life. Let's trust and obey. Let's take it by faith. Our deliverance depends upon one source and that is what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and His resurrection. Let's not fail to appropriate by faith the blessings and victory which is ours as children of God. How many of us out of pride, selfishness and indolence fail to gain the victory? There is a better way. Let's trust Him.

 

Salvation in Jesus Christ always precedes His call to a life of discipleship

 

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

 

¹As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ²Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸This is why itsays: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." ⁹(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? ¹⁰He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. ¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

 

 

 

If you have never trusted in Christ as your personal Savior please ask to save you. He will right now. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." God saves you by grace through faith in Christ alone.

 

Sin in the Camp

 

Joshua 7

 

¹ But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord 's anger burned against Israel. ² Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, "Go up and spy out the region." So the men went up and spied out Ai. ³ When they returned to Joshua, they said, "Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there." ⁴ So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, ⁵ who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water. ⁶ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord , remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. ⁷ And Joshua said, "Ah, Sovereign Lord , why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! ⁸ O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? ⁹ The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?" ¹⁰ The Lord said to Joshua, "Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? ¹¹ Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. ¹² That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. ¹³ "Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it. ¹⁴ " 'In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe that the Lord takes shall come forward clan by clan; the clan that the Lord takes shall come forward family by family; and the family that the Lord takes shall come forward man by man. ¹⁵ He who is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord and has done a disgraceful thing in Israel!' " ¹⁶ Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes, and Judah was taken. ¹⁷ The clans of Judah came forward, and he took the Zerahites. He had the clan of the Zerahites come forward by families, and Zimri was taken. ¹⁸ Joshua had his family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. ¹⁹ Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the Lord , the God of Israel, and give him the praise. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me." ²⁰ Achan replied, "It is true! I have sinned against the Lord , the God of Israel. This is what I have done: ²¹ When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath." ²² So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. ²³ They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord . ²⁴ Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. ²⁵ Joshua said, "Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today." Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. ²⁶ Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since.

 

 

 

^{Joshua 8}

 

¹ Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. ² You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city." ³ So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night ⁴ with these orders: "Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don't go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. ⁵ I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. ⁶ They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, 'They are running away from us as they did before.' So when we flee from them, ⁷ you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. ⁸ When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders." ⁹ Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai-but Joshua spent that night with the people. ¹⁰ Early the next morning Joshua mustered his men, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. ¹¹ The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. ¹² Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³ They had the soldiers take up their positions-all those in the camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley. ¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the desert. ¹⁶ All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. ¹⁷ Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel. ¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city." So Joshua held out his javelin toward Ai. ¹⁹ As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire. ²⁰ The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising against the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction, for the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the desert had turned back against their pursuers. ²¹ For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from the city, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. ²² The men of the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. ²³ But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. ²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the desert where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. ²⁵ Twelve thousand men and women fell that day-all the people of Ai. ²⁶ For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. ²⁷ But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. ²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. ²⁹ He hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take his body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day. ³⁰ Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord , the God of Israel, ³¹ as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses-an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. ³² There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written. ³³ All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord , facing those who carried it-the priests, who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel. ³⁴ Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law-the blessings and the curses-just as it is written in the Book of the Law. ³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.

 

 

 

Every time we experience victory in our spiritual lives should be a time for humility, prayer and renewed commitment to Christ. Every time you win a victory, it is an invitation for a full-scaled attack from the enemy of our souls. If you find yourself battered, beaten, broken and tempted on every hand, praise God for you are in the center of His will. We need to heed the apostle Paul's reminder,

 

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).

 

Why does defeat so often follow victory in the Christian life? We seem to be doing fine and suddenly we blow it. How do we deal with failure? Why do we try to go back and rebuild our Jerichos? Pride and self tries to return to the throne. We often flee back to self-indulgence in fleeting glory and pride in the old flesh. We live in a day in which society ennobles and placates to our selfish desires and arrogant pride.

 

Joshua's defeat at the city of Ai in Joshua chapters seven and eight remind us there can be no success in our Christian life as long as sin is tolerated. Sin in the life of the Christian must be dealt with on a daily basis. Sin of one member affects the blessings and fellowship of the whole body. When we sin against the body of Christ, it not only affects us, but the whole family of God. The sin of one member has an effect on the whole body. Just as if one part of the human body is broken or diseased the rest of that body is affected.

 

As we think of struggles in the Christian life, we need to remind ourselves that failures were never intended to produce condemnation, but instead to be learning experiences designed to lead us to restoration and renewed strength in the Lord. God has already made full provision for our failures in learning to live in the Spirit. God is watching in love and seeking to correct us where we need it. We need to make room for failures, and discover God's grace in time of need.

 

DISOBEDIENCE DEFINED

 

The cause of the defeat in the battle for Ai is set forth in verses 1 and 11.

 

"But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. . . . Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things."

 

The word "ban" describes everything captured as belonging to God. It was devoted to Him. He could do as He chose with the spoils. We shall see later that if Achan had waited, only a few days he could have had God's very best, instead of suffering the wages of sin. God demands absolute surrender of all carnal affection. Everything in Jericho has to be destroyed. It is interesting to observe we are told Joshua did not pray or seek the Lord's direction regarding the battle for Ai. He relied on his spies (vv. 2-3). "Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, 'Go up and spy out the land.' So the men went up and spied out Ai. They returned to Joshua and said to him, 'Do not let all the people go up; only about two or three thousand men need go up to Ai; do not make all the people toil up there, for they are few.'" This will be an easy battle. We can take them with little effort. Let's don't tire out our army with little old Ai! There seems to be over confidence in the flesh. Ai was a small town in comparison to the fortress at Jericho. He is self–dependent. He tried to take Ai in the flesh.

 

We tend to do the same thing. When will we realize the folly of making great plans and bringing them to God for His blessing? God doesn't want us to make great battle plans and ask Him to bless them. He invites us to come into His presence and listen to Him. He has the master game plan, and He wants to lead us into battle.

 

Israel's Defeat Described

 

"So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai. The men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of their men, and pursued them from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the descent, so the hearts of the people melted and became as water."

 

Not only did they experience bitter defeat but also God held the whole nation responsible. God viewed the nation as a unit. The sin of Achan affected the whole community of God. It is good to be able to deal with a subject like then when as far I know nothing bad is happening in our congregation! As far as I know, I am not in trouble with anyone. There are no "big sins" in our church body. Ai describes the dangerous effects of sin in our personal lives. It reminds us of the Christian's struggle in Romans 7:14-25.

 

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

 

 

 

Known sin in our lives is open rebellion against the LORD

 

³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:30-32

 

¹⁹Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 1 Thess. 5:19

 

One or a few believers out of fellowship with God, pursuing personal agendas, can defeat a whole congregation. There was evil in the church at Corinth. There was open immorality and the church was tolerating it, perhaps even bragging about it. It was open scandal. Paul admonished the church in

 

1 Corinthians 5:5-8,

 

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that unjudged sin contaminates the whole church.

 

"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal" (Heb. 12:15-16).

 

A certain man wanted to sell his house in Haiti for $2,000. Another man wanted to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn't afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door. After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.

 

The moral of the parable is, "If we leave the devil even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ's habitation."

 

 

 

Joshua's Dismay

 

The sin of one person in the camp caused great humility to fall upon the leadership.

 

"Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads" (v. 6).

 

Humility is described in the tearing of cloths, lying prostrate on the ground and sprinkling dust on their heads. Jesus tells us that we must do the same when we fall on our face in the present of personal failure and sin. He told His disciples,

 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matthew 5:3-4).

 

We never grow spiritually unless we realize our spiritual poverty and mourn over it. When we do, we draw our strength from Him. The "Ark of the LORD" was the symbol of God's presence with His people. Joshua humbled Himself in the sight of the LORD. Joshua prayed in verses 7-9:

 

"Alas, O Lord God, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?"

 

He is open and transparent before the LORD and the LORD does listen to Joshua pour his heart out to Him. It is good for Joshua, although he doesn't have all the facts. The LORD is so patient with us when we come into His presence. He listens to us spill out our hearts to Him. Then He helps us get the right perspective on things. He shows us the truth in the situation.

 

DIRECTIONS FROM GOD

 

God reminds Joshua that He is not faithless. The LORD is not the problem. He has demonstrated His love and care. He has redeemed His people. The problem is there is unconfessed and unrepented sin in the camp. Unconfessed sin causes defeat in our spiritual lives. Israel has sinned (v. 11-12).

 

"Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst."

 

Do you have some things under ban? In First John 2:15-16 :

 

¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.

 

John uses cosmos to describe all forces antagonistic to our spiritual lives. "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." It pictures human society organized on wrong principles and characterized by base desires, false values and egoism. We live in a pagan society with its false values and false gods. It describes our human nature apart from and in opposition to the LORD God. It is all too easy for us to have things under "ban" because of the temptations from our society.

 

Joshua was commanded to consecrate the people (v. 13). Joshua was ignorant to the hidden sin in the camp. The "devoted things" belonged to the Lord. Achan stole from God! "As long as Israel possesses the devoted things, God will consider them as devoted things" Either Israel must destroy the devoted things that it possesses, or it will be destroyed as devoted things." Israel will face defeat until the devoted things are removed. God is perpetually at war with sin. The wages of sin is death (v. 15). Disobedience has its terrible consequences.

 

"It shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel."

 

We are reminded the "wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).

 

Achan is a reminder of how serious God takes our sins. Our society may treat it lightly, but God doesn't.

 

Disclosure of Achan

 

Joshua followed God's plan for revealing the sin to the congregation of Israel in verses 16-23. Achan was forced to"fess" up.

 

"So Achan answered Joshua and said, 'Truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did . . . " (v. 20). Please observe sin's process in v. 21. "I saw," "I coveted" (desire for that which one has no right to possess), "took," "concealed." God saw it all. I think things would have been different if Achan had dealt with the sin properly. He was deceitful. He hid his sin. For the past eighteen months, we have had a glaring example in our nation of how not to deal with sin. Let's not let it be a model for us as individuals. There is only one way to deal with sin in our lives. Acknowledge it, confess it to God, clain the blood of Jesus to remove it and receive His forgiveness.

 

Death of Achan

 

Joshua gives the dreadful consequences of Achan's sin. "Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. Joshua said, 'Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.' And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. They raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor to this day." That is how serious sin is in God's sight. God hates sin wherever He finds it.

 

There is a sin unto death according to 1 John 5:16.

 

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death.

 

I seriously think it has to do with sinning against the body of Christ. God will not tolerate it any longer in the body so He removes the person. "The sin which is going towards death," the sin whose end is death; the sin which if continued in, must finish in death. How tragic when a Christian will not deal with sin in their lives and God removes them prematurely. Now I am not saying that if someone dies prematurely, or suddenly or tragically that it is a result the sin unto death. Only God knows when that happens. If I die suddenly today, don't run out of here saying Pastor Eric has committed the sin unto death! Yes, there is a sin unto death. It is serious business. All sin in the believer's life is serious. It is tragic when we don't take it seriously.

 

Probably the most glaring example in the history of the church is the sin of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11).

 

¹Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. ²With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. ³Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? ⁴Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
⁵When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. ⁶Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. ⁷About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. ⁸Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." ⁹Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." ¹⁰At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events

 

Their pride provoked the lie against the Holy Spirit. They acted as though they had given all. They played the part of the hypocrite. They lied. They pretended. It was all a sham. The judgment pictured here is exactly what happens in a believer's life when he indulges in pretense. The moment we pretend we are something we are immediately cut off the Spirit–controlled life. We become dead, unresponsive to the Holy Spirit. We put on a veil and death takes over. God wants us to be honest, open and transparent in our relationship with Him. The only solution is to confess it to God and repent. In the church at Jerusalem:

 

"A great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard of these things" (v. 11).

 

The sin of one member of a community had an effect upon the whole community and especially upon that person's family. How tragic that one person's selfishness and greed effected other people. Achan wasn't the only one who died as a result of his sin.

 

How do you handle disobedience in the Christian life?

 

It is good to begin with accepting our responsibility. If we love Him we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). We will take seriously our responsibility in living the Christian life.

 

"By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked" (1 John 2:3-6).

 

John continues, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (5:2-3).

 

Eventually we have to deal with sin in our lives. Sin must be judged. Sin must be dealt with either by 1 John 1:9:

 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

 

or 2 Corinthians 5:10:

 

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

 

As long as willful rebellion against God is tolerated in our personal lives, there can be no success in our Christian life. We have to eradicate sin in order to grow in our relationship with God. We can not receive His full blessing unless we radically deal with sin in our lives. I am not saying we will be perfect in this life, we all know there was but one who lived perfect and that was Jesus, yet I am saying we have to deal with it in our personal lives. We have to confront it and confess it and receive God's forgiveness and renew our fellowship with Him. It is essential for our Spirit–controlled walk. Only after sin has been dealt with do we have the power to win (Eph. 6:13):

 

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

 

 

 

DESTRUCTION OF AI

 

If Achan had only waited a few days he could have had God's very best! Because everything captured belonged to God, He could choose to do whatever He wanted to with the loot. At Ai He chose to give some of it to Israel (8:1–2):

 

"Now the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.'"

 

God initiated the ambush. God was responsible for Israel's victory (8:1, 18, 26). Israel's victory at Ai was no less a miracle than at Jericho. The difference in the second battle for Ai is found in verse eight. " . . . You shall do it according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you." What a hard lesson to learn. If you have been there as I have it is a hard lesson, but we must all learn it. The only way that works is God's way. We come to Him wanting Him to bless our imaginations, and ingenious plans. We want Him to bless our carnal schemes, but He will not. He can not. What a difference when we humble ourselves and fall upon our faces before Him and do it His way!

 

God gave success to Israel

 

The second time Joshua did it God's way and experienced success. Here is a summary in 8:26–29.

 

For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Israel took only the cattle and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua. So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation until this day. He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening; and at sunset Joshua gave command and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, and raised over it a great heap of stones that stands to this day.

 

DECLARATION OF FAITH IN GOD

 

What do you do when you have come into the presence of God and experienced His deliverance? The first thing Joshua and the people did was to worship the LORD God.

 

"Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal" (v. 30).

 

The offerings and sacrifices in verse thirty-one kept the truth of the atonement and propitiation before them. We worship at Calvary. The memory of our sin drives us daily to our Savior for cleansing.

 

"If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:6-10).

 

When you experience His grace, you want to worship Him!

 

Listen to God's Word

 

Joshua read the Word of God to the people. Travelers tell us the place where Israel was camped has perfect acoustics. It was a natural amphitheater. It was a time of renewal. This is the way it should be in our lives. We sin. We all sin. We fail. But what do you do when you blow it? There is grace. There is an abundance of grace for each of us. There is cleansing and renewal at God's fountain that washes away all our sins.

 

Are you going through some valley of Achor?

 

There is no reason for anyone reading this message going away feeling condemned and unclean. There is forgiveness for you today. You can claim it right now this very moment. Jesus is ready to forgive you of whatever sin you have committed. Assume your responsibility, and confess it to Him. Achan treated God as if He didn't even exist. You can not trivialize God. The thing that makes God most angry is for His people to treat Him as though He is not there. Do we tend to treat God as if He does not exist? Everyone else plunders in life, so why can't I? You and I can't because God is holy! Hidden sin in the camp spells defeat for the church. Little sins become great obstacles in God's camp. Hidden sins in the church are an open scandal in heaven. Sin in God's camp hinders God's blessings and victory in the church.

 

Achan, though an Israelite, died like the Canaanites. Achan died with the goods. Achan was a spiritual cancer in the body. Our sins affect other people's lives. They affect your spouse, your children, your family, your friends and your church. Your decisions impact your family. Parents have impact on kids. And yes children, though you may not think so your actions of rebellion and sin have a grievous effect on your parents. Galatians 6:7-8 says:

 

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."

 

If you are going to live like the Canaanites, you are going to die like the Canaanites. There was no neutral ground for Joshua. People died because of Achan's sin. What does this passage say about holiness, obedience and responsibility? Sin in our lives quenches the power of the Holy Spirit in our church.

 

God's blessings depend upon our obedience to God's Word. Sin judged leaves God free to work in His way in His church. If we judge ourselves and repent, then God will bless us and give us His victory. When God's people repent, God forgives and blesses them. We can live victoriously in our Christian life, but it depends upon our fellowship with Christ living His live through us.

 

Let me close with a word to those of us who are called upon to minister in time of spiritual crisis. The apostle Paul gives us a good balance as we think of ministering God's grace. Galatians 6:1–3 says:

 

"Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

 

No stones! No Stones! No Stones!

 

Just a lot of grace and wisdom. Those who are hurting don't need a legalist with the hammer of judgement applied to their heads. They need grace and mercy and plenty of it. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more." This message has addressed the need for those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior to keep their hearts tender toward Him. It may be that you have never come to the place of acknowledging your need of Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can put your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior right now. Confess to Him your need for Him to forgive you of your sins and believe that He died in your place on the Cross. Ask Him to be your Savior right now.

 

 

 

How to Whip the Gibeonites

 

Joshua 9

 

¹ Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things--those in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Great Sea as far as Lebanon (the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites)-- ² they came together to make war against Joshua and Israel.³ However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, ⁴ they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. ⁵ The men put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. ⁶ Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us." ⁷ The men of Israel said to the Hivites, "But perhaps you live near us. How then can we make a treaty with you?" ⁸ "We are your servants," they said to Joshua. But Joshua asked, "Who are you and where do you come from?"⁹ They answered: "Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard reports of him: all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰ and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan--Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. ¹¹ And our elders and all those living in our country said to us, `Take provisions for your journey; go and meet them and say to them, "We are your servants; make a treaty with us." ' <sup>12</sup> This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. <sup>13</sup> And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey." <sup>14</sup> The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD. <sup>15</sup> Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.<sup>16</sup> Three days after they made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbors, living near them. <sup>17</sup> So the Israelites set out and on the third day came to their cities: Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath Jearim. <sup>18</sup> But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, <sup>19</sup> but all the leaders answered, "We have given them our oath by the LORD, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. <sup>20</sup> This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them." <sup>21</sup> They continued, "Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for the entire community." So the leaders' promise to them was kept. <sup>22</sup> Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, "Why did you deceive us by saying, `We live a long way from you,' while actually you live near us? ²³ You are now under a curse: You will never cease to serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God." ²⁴ They answered Joshua, "Your servants were clearly told how the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. ²⁵ We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you."^9:2 So Joshua saved them from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. ²⁷ That day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the LORD at the place the LORD would choose. And that is what they are to this day.

 

I recently read a delightful story of an opera singer and a lover of the great music:

 

Maybe you heard about the guy who fell in love with an opera singer. He hardly knew her, since his only view of the singer was through binoculars from the third balcony. But he was convinced he could live "happily ever after" married to a voice like that. He scarcely noticed she was considerably older than he. Nor did he care that she walked with a limp. Her mezzo–soprano voice would take them through whatever might come. After a whirlwind romance and a hurry–up ceremony, they were off for their honeymoon together. She began to prepare for their first night together. As he watched, his chin dropped to his chest. She plucked out her glass eye and plopped it into a container on the nightstand. She pulled off her wig, ripped off her false eyelashes, yanked out her dentures, unstrapped her artificial leg, and smiled at him as she slipped off her glasses that hid her hearing aid. Stunned and horrified, he gasped, "For goodness sake, woman, sing, sing, SING!" (Charles R. Swindoll, Strike the Original Match).

 

There is nothing like being deceived in the things that matter the most to us. I have been caught not looking a few times, or not asking enough of the right questions. Or much to my horror I have made poor decisions because individuals whom I trusted deceived me. You have been there, too. The older I get the more I want honest, open, genuine transparency in my life and with those with whom I deal. I want transparency with God and honesty with others.

 

The book of Joshua is a vivid reminder in pictorial terms of our spiritual warfare. It shows us how deceit destroys our spiritual vitality and fellowship with God and one another.

 

The loser in a Greek wrestling contest had his eyes gouged out with resulting permanent blindness for the rest of his life. A Christian's wrestling match against the powers of darkness is no less desperate and fateful. You are wrestling with the demons of Satan! Satan knows he can never remove the child of God from the nail–pierced, resurrected hand of Christ. However, he continues to wage war against the believer. Nothing would please him more than to destroy your testimony and your witness. Satan is the master deceiver:

 

³ But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. …¹⁴ And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. (2 Corinthians 11:3, 14, 15)

 

¹² to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:12-13).

 

Our enemy is a master in the art of deceit. He delights in amazing us with power, signs, and false wonders. Satan's preferred realm of operation is our minds, our emotions, our rational being. He gains control by getting us sidetracked. He gets us off on tangents, anything that will feed the ego, and get our minds off Christ.

 

THE CONDITION OF THE PROMISED LAND

 

The Promised Land was full of giants and enemies.

 

Something has happened in the strategy of Israel's enemies in the Promised Land. Their hearts are not weak since the battle for Ai. They are no longer cowed by the Israelite forces. They have come to realize that Israel is not invincible. Now they unite themselves together against Israel. Achan's sin is Israel Achilles heel. They now realize that Israel can loose battles. "All the kings . . . gathered themselves together with one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel." There was a united effort of the enemies against Joshua.

 

The devil has his strategy. Someone said, "Satan always plays with loaded dice." It is cleverly devised and skillfully carried out. Because of one man's sin many people in Israel lost their lives. No doubt the occupation of the land was delayed because of Achan. It has even been suggested that perhaps the battle for Ai could have been Israel's last battle. Joshua Chapter nine reminds us that even "a single transgression has dynamic consequences." It did in Joshua's day; and it does in ours as well.

 

Who are some of the spiritual enemies that we do battle with each day? Use your sanctified imagination for a few moments with me and let's become aware of where Satan can defeat us.

• Caanites - merchandisers, materialism. We live in a day when we are bombarded with a constant barrage of advertisements that imply we must keep up with the Joneses. We must have the latest gimmick, toy, car, position at the job, etc. Appearance, performance and status are promoted as the answer to life. What is the latest essential toy you must have? Remember that who ever wins the most toys at the end of life is the winner, or so we are led to believe.

• Hittites - fear. We live in a day of fear and anxiety. I have spoken with several individuals who are living in absolute fear and dread since 9/11 and what with all the current talk of the coming political assassinations, suicide bombers it only compounds the problems for these folks. But I declare to you that 9/11 did not catch God by surprise, and if you go to the book of Matthew and read the 24^th chapter and if you go to the book of Luke and read the 21^st chapter you will find that Jesus addresses the day and age in which we find ourselves today. The terminal generation. That last generation when Jesus will return for His Bride! Jesus says men will be dying because their hearts failed due to terror.

• Hivites - folly. I had a pastor in Atlanta, Georgia who was a clinical psychologist who says that God has to take a stick and beat the foolishness out of us sometimes. How is it we intelligent beings can be so dumb some times? Is it any wonder that we are referred to as sheep! We find ourselves doing some of the craziest things when in our right minds we know better. We lose our sense of better judgment at the drop of a hat.

• Perizites - dwellers in insecure villages of false security. It is easy to get our eyes off Christ. There is no security in anyone else. He is sovereign in the believer's life. Jesus holds us in the palm of His hand and the Father holds Him!

• Girgashites - dwellers on clay, foul disease of the old nature. There is nothing like a carnal life style in a believer's life to destroy their fellowship with Christ and wipe out their testimony to a lost and dying world.

• Amorites – person who is bitter in spirit, pride, jealousy. "If you only knew what this person did to me and to my family?" "If you knew what he or she did to sabotage my career." "If you only knew what they did to my child." We become bitter and bent on revenge. We end up spending all our time trying to get even with those who have wronged us, until we fail to get ahead. Remember it was God who said, "Vengance is mine, saith the Lord."

• Jebusites - those who trample on others, with pride and arrogance. We will do anything to build up our perceived self-importance. Religious leaders are not immune to that temptation, either.

 

It is one thing to have to battle one or two of these enemies, but when they all gang up on you it is like a third world war. Let's remind ourselves that God is perpetually at war with sin in our lives. Neither God, nor His people can tolerate sin. Israel went into Babylonian captivity because they tolerated idolatry and finally gave in to the gods of their pagan neighbors. Yahweh is still a Man of War with sin. Our spiritual enemies that have invaded our hearts have to be exterminated. There are times when we as believers must be like cancer surgeons who must remove the malignant tumor. We have to exercise radical surgery or that spiritual cancer will eat you alive just like physical cancer silently eats away at the vital organs of the body. To compromise with Satan is courting with disaster. When we fail to apply divine strategies to our daily lives we end up defeated.

 

THE CRAFTINESS OF THE POSSESSORS OF THE LAND

 

I learned as a boy not everyone fights fair. They didn't in Joshua's day either. In fact, Joshua learned another lesson the hard way. Israel sinned without realizing it at the time. When the Gibeonites "heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they also acted craftily . . . " (vv. 3-4). They wore symbols of people living in captivity (vv. 4-5). But it was a fraud. They must have looked like desperate refugees when they arrived. They had worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and worn-out wineskins, worn-out sandals on their feet, and molded bread. Someone said, "Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear to be what they are not." That is Satan's trick. This was a deception complete with the props. They even faked piety (vv. 9-11). They succeeded for a while in making things appear to be what they were not. When their deception was discovered, it was too late. The Gibeonites were concerned with self-preservation. They sent their delegation to Joshua at his camp in Gilgal (v. 6). They had one goal in mind and that was to make a treaty with Israel (vv. 6-7). They had done their homework. They knew the gravity of the threat to their lives. God had told Israel to remove all iniquity, not make covenants with the Canaanites. God's people were caught off guard. Yes, Israel's leaders are somewhat suspicious (vv. 7-13). The looked at the evidence before them. They listen to the appeal of the Gibeonites to submit themselves to Israel without a battle. The Gibeonites appealed to Israel's pride. They flattered Joshua with his military triumphs (vv. 9-10).

 

Who wants to go into battle if you don't have to? Joshua's skepticism led to the confession by the Gibeonites of the power of God over Israel’s enemies. They knew about the great battles Israel had won. Joshua set aside caution. He was gullible. His thinking must have gone like this: "They are ready to make a covenant and become the servants of Israel. Wow! God must really be a part of this decision. He has already won the victory for us and we didn't even have to lift a finger in battle. What a marvelous God we worship!"

 

What were the instructions Joshua had received from the Lord concerning the corrupt nations of Canaan? Why did Joshua neglect God's clear word to destroy the pagan nations? Joshua failed to discern their hypocrisy because he failed to remember and obey God's Word regarding the inhabitants in Canaan.

 

The Gibeonites lied to Joshua. They lived just a three days journey from Gilgal (v. 16). However, Joshua did not discover the facts until it was too late.

 

They pretended they had come because of fear of Yahweh. The Gibeonites talk sounds a lot like Rahab in her statement of faith in chapter two. It sounds good, true to the faith. Hey, they talk our talk. They sound evangelical. They sound like one of us. Talking the talk doesn't make you a Christian. That which saves is faith in Jesus Christ. To talk the talk is one thing, walking the walk is another altogether.

 

Simeon Magus (Acts 8:9-22) had the right words, did the right things, was baptized and was a fraud.

 

⁹ Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, ¹⁰ and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This man is the divine power known as the Great Power." ¹¹ They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.¹⁴ When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵ When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money ¹⁹ and said, "Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."²⁰ Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.

 

God reads hearts and does not listen to words. Modern Gibeonites still use craftiness to gain a personal profit. How many are still trying to buy the Holy Spirit through gimmicks?

 

THE COMPROMISE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND

 

"So the men of Israel . . . did not ask for the counsel of the LORD." Lack of prayer destroys spiritual discernment. They made the same mistake in the defeat at Ai. No inquiry was made of the will of God. The Israelites relied upon their own perceptions and were deceived. They failed to ask for divine direction. They did not stop and seek wisdom from God in the matter. They did not stop and consult God. What was God's mindset towards Israel's relationship with Gibeonites? Their decision was based on a lack of judgement rather than direct rebellion or a purposeful, deliberate intention to offend God. Israel failed to inquire of God.

 

The Bible reminds us to "pray without ceasing." Seek the counsel of the Lord! We should never think of deciding without prayer. Comparatively unimportant matters just might be earth-shaking events. Everything should be the subject of prayer. "True wisdom commits small things as well as great to God's care." God guides all who seek Him. Vast consequence flow from what we often think are the most trivial of events, and events, which seem of a stupendous character, leave no trace of influence whatsoever on history. The matter seemed unimportant to Joshua. Strangely enough, this compact with Gibeon fixes the resting-place of the ark for centuries, right down to the time of David. Kirjathjearim was one of the cities of Gibeon. Submit the little things that self-will would decide. James 1:5 encourages us:

 

"If anyone of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth liberally."

 

We need His omniscient and sovereign guidance in the decisions we make. We need it not just in the big things, but even in what seems minor in the every day events of our lives. We never know which one will be a major event that will radically change our lives forever. Satan comes to us as an angel of light to trick us, enslave us, and destroy our testimony. We must stay cautious and watchful as Satan will continually try to trot out his counterfeits to fool us with.

 

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil" (Proverbs 3:5-7).

 

Beware of the tyranny of the urgent. Be wary of sidewalk decisions where you are called upon to make a quick commitment without praying it through. It is dangerous to presume upon the Lord. Always, I mean always remember the axiom that my wife and I constantly sift the events of our lives through, "the devil pushes, but the Spirit of God leads." Though somewhat cautious Joshua failed to inquire of the Lord. Israel had just returned from a mountaintop experience and had just seen God's deliverance. It is too easy to make decisions on the way things appear to us.

 

Joshua let personal biases get in the way of making his decision. He relied on his own opinions, and interpretation of the deceivers' information. He made poor choices because he did not seek God's guidance, and the result was compromise and missing the mark of God's will.

 

Joshua made a covenant with Israel's enemies

 

We can easily find ourselves making commitments with individuals and organizations that place us in positions of compromise. Our natural senses easily lead us astray. We must be careful with our reasoning, human wisdom, gimmicks of Wall Street and consumer behavior.

 

The apostle Paul admonished the believers in the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11:3.

 

"I am afraid, lest as the serpent thoroughly deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ"

 

Satan will use every means available to him to convince us that he is no threat to our spiritual life. And when we buy into it, we compromise our faith. He will do anything to make us do what Joshua did. Too many of us are like the story of a Scottish woman who wanted to go her own way. She would go to country homes to sell thread, buttons and shoes strings. When she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick into the air and go whichever way the stick pointed. One day she was seen tossing the stick into the air several times. "Why do you toss the stick several times?" someone asked. She answered, "It has pointed every time to the road going to the right, and I want to go on the road to the left. It looks smoother!" She kept throwing up the stick until it finally pointed toward the way she wanted to go. We deceive ourselves so often. Instead of going the way God wants us to go we keep throwing sticks in the air until we get our own way. And when we do Satan is there to take us his way.

 

 

 

Results of the compromise

 

There was grumbling among the people (v. 18). Joshua said to the people, "We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them" (v. 19). No wonder the people rose up in arms. They remembered God's Word! At least the tail didn't wag the dog! Had Joshua and the leaders not been men of honor and integrity they would have sought to cover their own tracks by destroying the Gibeonites. However, they honored their pledge because they had made it in the name of Yahweh. They were not willing to break their word and bring dishonor on the name of their God. Carefully observe the flaw. For the Christian God's Word says in Matthew 6:33:

 

"Seek you first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you."

 

God was not first at the conference with the Gibeonites. The loyalty to Him vanished. Many a believer since then has bent the rules and suffered the same folly. The path of deception led the Gibeonites to bondage and servitude the rest of their generations. What a difference it would have been if they had come in the spirit and attitude of Rahab.

 

When believers are not walking in the Spirit, they grumble against God and His purposes. Eph. 5:18-20 remains us when we are filled or under the control of the Holy Spirit we are "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father." Christ puts joy in your heart; Satan puts depression in it.

 

Israel compromised her covenant with God to keep her covenant with the Gibeonites. "They did not kill them" (vv. 26-27). "If we did not rate ourselves so highly, we would not be troubled with such pangs of shame." Pride got in the way.

 

THE COMMAND OF THE LORD

 

So they answered Joshua and said, "Because it was certainly told your servants that the Lord your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you; therefore we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. Now behold, we are in your hands; do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us." Thus he did to them, and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place which He would choose Joshua 9:24-27.

 

We shall discover later that not only did the Gibeonites save their necks, but since Israel is the stronger nation, these deceivers also gained protection from their enemies (10:6). Israel will have to go to war to protect the Gibeonites who are now their allies. One compromise leads to another compromise.

 

Another cruel irony to this story is the Gibeonites who hoped to gain their freedom, lost it by becoming servants to Israel. However, in a sense they were also recipients of God's grace. Joshua placed them near the Temple so they would be constantly hearing the message of redemption. God's grace works like that. For many years after this incident, there was war between the citizens of the land and the invading Israelites. Yet never once in the record of that long conquest do we hear of any Gibeonite defecting to his original side. When the Israelites would go into idolatry, years later, the Gibeonites would still be standing at the altar where God ordained the sacrifices be made for sins. They had become as convinced as Rahab of Yahweh and who He was. He still turns curses into blessings. God in His grace not only forgives but he also overrules our poor choices and brings blessing out of our sins.

 

Can you think of an occasion when God has done that in your life? He turns our moral failures, deceit and gullibility into His good. He takes the moral and spiritual failures in our lives and uses them for His honor and glory. In the process, He usually lets us suffer the natural consequences as He did with Joshua and the Gibeonites.

 

 

 

Are there Gibeonites still dwelling in your heart?

 

Is craftiness one of the methods you use to get your way in the home, office, school or social relationships? Do you act one way before the eyes of people and in an evil, crafty, sly way behind their backs? F. B. Meyer made this observation long ago:

 

"Before entering into any alliance––taking a partner in life, going into business with another, yielding assent to any proposition which involves confederation with others––be sure to ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord. He will assuredly answer by an irresistible impulse––by the voice of a friend; by a circumstance strange and unexpected; by a passage of Scripture. He will choose His own messenger; but He will send a message"

 

There is only one way to whip a Gibeonite

 

It begins with an all-out commitment of your life as a Christian to Jesus Christ. Allowing Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Master of your life. Decide to let Him be the one who is in charge. Bow in submission to Him. Right now, surrender your life to Him.

 

The second thing is to daily ask God for wisdom and yield your daily life to Him. Begin every day with a simple prayer and commitment, "Lord Jesus this is your day. I give it to you. Come, live your life through me today in everything, and every decision I make."

 

"If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).

 

Let me remind you that if you have been ambushed by a Gibeonite there is grace and forgiveness. Galatians 5:26-6:3 is good to keep in mind in moments like these:

 

"Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourselves, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

 

If you have been bushwhacked this is the place to begin. Acknowledge your ways to the Lord and confess them to Him. Renew your commitment to Christ and ask Him to take control of your life. Ask the Lord for wisdom. Ann Tyler in her novel Morgan's Passing told the story of a middle–aged Baltimore man. The novel opens with Morgan watching a puppet show on the lawn of a church on a Sunday afternoon. Not long into the puppet show a young man comes from behind the puppet stage and asks, "Is there a doctor here?" There is a long pause. After 35 or 40 seconds of silence in the audience Morgan stands up. Slowly and deliberately he approaches the young man and asks, "What is the trouble?" The puppeteer's young wife is in labor and the delivery seems imminent. Morgan puts the young couple in the back of his station wagon and sets off for John Hopkins Hospital. Halfway there the husband cries, "The baby is coming!" Morgan calm and self–assured pulls to the curb and sends the about to be father to the newsstand to buy a Sunday paper as a substitute for the towels and bed sheets. He delivers the baby. He then drives to the emergency room of the hospital, puts the mother and baby safely on a stretcher and disappears. After the excitement dies down the young couple ask for Dr. Morgan. They want to thank him. No one has ever heard of a Dr. Morgan. They are puzzled. Frustrated, they can't express their gratitude to him.

 

Several months later they are pushing their baby in a stroller and they see Dr. Morgan walking on the other side of the street. They run over and greet him, showing him the healthy baby he brought into the world. They tell him how hard they looked for him, and about the hospital's incompetence in tracking him down. Then in an unaccustomed gush of honesty, he admits to them that he is not really a doctor. In fact, he runs a hardware store. However, they needed a doctor and being a doctor in those circumstances was not all that difficult. You see it is an image thing," he explains to them. "You discern what people expect, and you fit into it. You can get by with it in all the honored professions." Morgan has been doing this in all his life. He has been impersonating doctors, lawyers, pastors, and counselors as the occasions present themselves. You can fake it! Many people do.

 

However, as we have seen in the story of the Gibeonites it will come back to haunt you. It will eat you alive. There is no place in their Christian life for deceit, deception and folly. God calls for genuine, open, honest transparency with Him and with others.

 

This message has addressed the need for those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior to keep their hearts tender toward Him. It may be that you have never come to the place of acknowledging your need of Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can put your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior right now. Confess to Him your need for Him to forgive you of your sins and believe that He died in your place on the Cross. Ask Him to be your Savior right now.

 

A DAY OF MIRACLES

 

Joshua 10

 

¹ Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and were living near them. ² He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. ³ So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish and Debir king of Eglon. ⁴ "Come up and help me attack Gibeon," he said, "because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites." ⁵ Then the five kings of the Amorites-the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon-joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. ⁶ The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: "Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us." ⁷ So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. ⁸ The Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." ⁹ After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. ¹⁰ The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. ¹¹ As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. ¹² On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon." ¹³ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. ¹⁴ There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! ¹⁵ Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal. ¹⁶ Now the five kings had fled and hidden in the cave at Makkedah. ¹⁷ When Joshua was told that the five kings had been found hiding in the cave at Makkedah, ¹⁸ he said, "Roll large rocks up to the mouth of the cave, and post some men there to guard it. ¹⁹ But don't stop! Pursue your enemies, attack them from the rear and don't let them reach their cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hand." ²⁰ So Joshua and the Israelites destroyed them completely-almost to a man-but the few who were left reached their fortified cities. ²¹ The whole army then returned safely to Joshua in the camp at Makkedah, and no one uttered a word against the Israelites. ²² Joshua said, "Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me." ²³ So they brought the five kings out of the cave-the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon. ²⁴ When they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, "Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings." So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks. ²⁵ Joshua said to them, "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight." ²⁶ Then Joshua struck and killed the kings and hung them on five trees, and they were left hanging on the trees until evening. ²⁷ At sunset Joshua gave the order and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had been hiding. At the mouth of the cave they placed large rocks, which are there to this day. ²⁸ That day Joshua took Makkedah. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. ²⁹ Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Makkedah to Libnah and attacked it. ³⁰ The Lord also gave that city and its king into Israel's hand. The city and everyone in it Joshua put to the sword. He left no survivors there. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.
³¹ Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish; he took up positions against it and attacked it. ³² The Lord handed Lachish over to Israel, and Joshua took it on the second day. The city and everyone in it he put to the sword, just as he had done to Libnah. ³³ Meanwhile, Horam king of Gezer had come up to help Lachish, but Joshua defeated him and his army-until no survivors were left. ³⁴ Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Lachish to Eglon; they took up positions against it and attacked it. ³⁵ They captured it that same day and put it to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it, just as they had done to Lachish. ³⁶ Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron and attacked it. ³⁷ They took the city and put it to the sword, together with its king, its villages and everyone in it. They left no survivors. Just as at Eglon, they totally destroyed it and everyone in it. ³⁸ Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned around and attacked Debir. ³⁹ They took the city, its king and its villages, and put them to the sword. Everyone in it they totally destroyed. They left no survivors. They did to Debir and its king as they had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron. ⁴⁰ So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord , the God of Israel, had commanded. ⁴¹ Joshua subdued them from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon. ⁴² All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the Lord , the God of Israel, fought for Israel.
⁴³ Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.

 

Have you ever noticed that many passages of Scripture use the analogy of warfare, soldiers, victorious army, etc. to describe the spiritual warfare that we are engaged in a Christians? It is no accident; we are in a life-long battle. War was declared against us the very moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. It is not a war of flesh and blood, but a war that is fought in the unseen world. It involves the world, the flesh and the devil. However, just because you can't see it doesn't mean it is not real. We are dealing with real assaults. We are involved until death in a spiritual guerilla war. It won't go away. There is no quick and easy solution. The Christian life is spiritual warfare. We are soldiers in the Army of God.

 

The apostle Paul wrote a word of encouragement to a young minister and "son" in the faith. He told Timothy to:

 

"Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses" (1 Timothy 6:12).

 

At the end of his life, just before his execution, Paul sent word to Timothy reminding him:

 

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

 

We are living in a day when Satan says to Christians you are too opinionated, too dogmatic, to repulsive with your message of the uniqueness of Christ. You must be more tolerant. You need to learn how to compromise a little here and a little there. You need to tone down your message. There are many religions all leading to the same god. Why do you emphasize passages like Acts 4:12?

 

"There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."

 

History tells us when the church has been its most tolerant that it has been the weakest. The strong church was the one that was most full of Christ and the uniqueness and exclusiveness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we are most like Christ, we are more of a threat to those who are opposed to the kingdom of God. Have you noticed lately in the media, whether print, broadcast or web, Buddah, Mohammed and all the rest are well respected but the name of "Jesus" brings an affront.

 

I think Paul may have had in mind the Israelites and their conquest of the Promised Land when he wrote Timothy these words in (2 Timothy 2:3-4).

 

:

 

"Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier"

 

How are you dong in your war against the kings of the heart? Did your warfare go well this past week? The apostle Paul admonished the church at Galatia, in Galatians 5: 16-17:

 

"Walk in the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."

 

Have you done business with the devil eye to eye, heart to heart? Here is where the war takes place:

 

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

 

It is bad enough when we have to deal with them one at a time. How about when they gang up on us? Joshua faced a whole coalition of Amorites in Joshua chapter ten.

 

THE COALITION OF THE AMORITES

 

All five of the kings described in Joshua 10:1-5 had city-states within 35-mile radius of Gibeon. These little city-states have been each other's enemies for generations. Now they have a common enemy––Israel. The king of Jerusalem, Adoni-zedak, has heard about the conquests of Israel and the treaty with Gibeon (v. 1). What made him nervous was the fact that Gibeon was "a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty" (v. 2).

 

Gibeon had acted with treason toward the other Canaanites by joining in the treaty with Israel (Joshua 9). Undoubtedly they were strongest militarily and had an powerful, well-trained army. Without Gibeon, the southern coalition was severely weakened. Gibeon was strong and influential. Their men were trained in combat and prosperous enough to arm themselves.

 

The king of Jerusalem called together the other four kings and said, "Come up to me and help me, and let us attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the sons of Israel" (v. 3-4). After they heard about the treaty with Israel, they decided to test the commitment of Israel to Gibeonites. The coalition "camped at Gibeon and fought against it" (v. 5).

 

A CALL FOR HELP

 

The Gibeonites sent an urgent plea to Joshua for help. "Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, saying, 'Do not abandon your servants; come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites that live in the hill country have assembled against us'" (v. 6). What would you have done? Remember that these are the very ones who deceived Joshua to manipulate a treaty with them. This would have been a perfect time to get ride of these deceivers. Why not just ignore their plea for help and let the coalition rid the varmints? They deserved it and besides God commanded His people to destroy all the enemy. That included the Gibeonites. It was the logical thing to do. Why not?

 

Joshua is a man of his word

 

There something called integrity. It is called eat your own hat. Joshua had given his word and he had to suffer the consequences with Israel and with God. To have compromised his word would have been to compromise his God. Joshua wanted to make Yahweh look good. Let's be careful in our rationalizations that we make sure that we make the Lord Jesus Christ look good in the eyes of His enemies. We are not told specifically that Joshua stopped and asked God for direction, but it is evident from verse eight that this time he inquired of the LORD.

 

"The Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you.'" Joshua 10: 8

 

Armed with the command and promise of the LORD, "Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him and all the valiant warriors" (v. 7).

 

THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF IS FAITHFUL

 

"So Joshua came upon them suddenly by marching all night from Gilgal" (v. 9). Joshua was faithful to the command of God. The terrain was difficult from Gilgal to Gibeon. In less than thirty miles they climbed 4,000 feet over steep rough terrain. However, they were faithful to God's command. As Christians we too, must be obedient to God's commands. "If we love Him we will obey Him," Jesus said. This is where we cannot be "tolerant" in a tolerant world. We must obey God rather than man. The devil always wants us to compromise and be tolerant. God said, "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you." To whom will we listen? Will we yield to the demands that we be tolerant and disobey God? On the other hand, will we resist the peer pressure and pursue God? The devil will come with his subtle demands, pressures, and manipulations for you to compromise the Word of God. Whom will you please? Whom will you obey? Joshua chose to obey God and His Word.

 

The apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1: 29:

 

"For this purpose (that I may present every man complete in Christ) I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me."

 

There are times when we can do nothing but wait on God to act. We are to depend upon Him and be in submission to His will. We have our responsibilities. Sometimes it is to sit patiently, listen, and wait. That is the hardest thing to do. It is imperative that we are in touch with Him and listen to His voice. In the passage before us, we see an example of how God and man cooperate to accomplish God's will. However, note carefully that it is Yahweh who gives the victory.

 

God is faithful

 

And the Lord confounded them before Israel, and He slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and pursued them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. As they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died; there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword" (vv. 10-11).

 

Be careful not to miss the emphasis Joshua makes as he describes what happened. "The LORD confounded them before Israel, and He (the LORD) slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and pursued them …and struck them . . . the LORD threw large stones (hailstones) from heaven on them . . . and they died; there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword." Who won the victory? It is one of those great miracles in the Bible. The LORD gave the victory. At the end of the day Joshua and Israel could stand back and say, "I saw God do it!" God keeps His word.

 

Joshua prayed in the heat of battle (v. 12). Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "O sun, stand still at Gibeon,And O moon in the valley of Aijalon." So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. There was no day like that before it or after it, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel (vv. 12-14).

 

Stop and let those words sink in. It is the supernatural resource of God at work on Israel's behalf. God did it. God keeps His word. God fought for Israel. You will read hundreds of views about how God did it. I do not believe these words are a poetical myth. I do not know how God did it. All I know is that one day in history God intervened on behalf of Israel and Joshua describes for us what he saw and experienced that day. On a certain day in history, this is the specific observable behavior that Joshua watched. Somehow the earth stopped its rotation, or the sun and moon actually stopped in their passage through space. Some how God prolonged daylight long enough to give Israel enough time to finish the battle victoriously. I do not know how He did it. I am willing to wait until I get to heaven and I will ask Him in one of those question and answer sessions that I truly believe that God will have for us. God intervened and fought for Israel and He gave then the victory over the Amorite coalition. That is all that counts right now. Now let me give a word of caution to a lot of urban myths that we hear in our day. We are prone in our day to try to help God out. Let me give you an example of what modern day apologetics does not need.

 

The "Missing Day" Urban Myth

 

Have NASA computers really proven Joshua's 'long day'? Has the "Missing Day" in Joshua been proven scientifically? There is a story that has been circulating for the past forty years. It usually begins by, "Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called 'myth' in the Bible is true? Mr. Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore Maryland, and a consultant in the space program . . ." NASA denies that this ever occurred, and Mr. Hill, the former president of the Curtis Engine Company of Baltimore, was involved in diesel engine operations at Goddard and was not involved with any computer operations. Unfortunately, that story is an untrue pseudo-Christian myth. As far as I can discover it is a hoax. It never happened. The story that astronomical calculations proved that a day was "missing" is over a century old. The story predates Mr. Hill’s NASA version, and goes back to Charles A. L. Totten’s "Joshua’s Long Day and the Dial of Ahaz: A Scientific Vindication" (1890).

 

In the last few decades, the myth has been embellished with NASA scientists, computers performing those calculations instead of a sundial and false scientific credibility. Unfortunately, many Christians do not first check out a story before they begin to use it in their apologetics. There isn't an ounce of truth in the story. It is fake. This type of "phoniness" does more damage to our credibility and the credibility of the Gospel than it does to establishing truth.

 

We don't need to resort to embellishments and urban myths to establish the credibility of God's Word. The "missing day found" story is simply a Christian hoax. It is an urban myth. While astronomers do indeed calculate the future orbits of space objects, I don’t know if it is even technologically possible to somehow "locate" Joshua’s missing day. Truthfully, it does not matter if we can establish it or not. God’s Word said it occurred so it did. Let’s move on. We don't have to resort to the Gibeonites deception to establish God's Word.

 

What is certain is that God did intervene and gave Joshua more daylight to finish mopping up operations. Joshua described what he saw from his perspective. As far as he was concerned "the sun stopped in the middle of the sky, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day" (v. 13). We use similar language in our day. We hear the weather scientists give us the time for the "sun set" and "sun rise" for the day. The sun does not rise and it doesn't set, but we understand what the scientists are saying. They use our language.

 

Remember that there are two miracles that took place in Joshua chapter ten. The miracle of the hailstones must have been dramatic. Heavenly artillery, "smart" bombs identified their targets and hit only Amorite soldiers, not Israelites. During the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990’s, we watched totally fixated at the "smart bombs" being delivered by the US military upon Iraq. The US military did not invent the smart bomb, God did. Not only did He invent it, He used it in victory first as well. The text tells us "there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword" (v. 11). Amazing, Joshua said, "I saw God do it!"

 

All of creation is at God's service. It is servant to the Creator. It is not the other way around. The issue is can God perform miracles. Yes, He did and He still does. If your god is too small, and can not perform miracles of this magnitude, then he is manageable and you can control him. He is then a prisoner of his own creation. However, if He really is as awesome and powerful as portrayed in this passage of Scripture then we need to bow in submission to Him. That is really the crux of it all. Since Yahweh is the Creator, He can suspend the very laws that He built into His creation. I personally would have more problems believing in a God who is held captive by His creation than by one who is unlimited in His sovereign visitations. How big is your God? Does He still suspend the laws that He put in place in nature? I am convinced He still does.

 

God answered Joshua's prayer for help. "There was no day like that before it or after it, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel. Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp to Gilgal" (vv. 14-15).

 

THE COALITION IS DEFEATED

 

The Amorites fled in panic. The five kings hide in a cave. Verses 16 through 27 describe the capture and execution of the five Amorite kings. They abandoned their troops and holed up in a cave. Joshua's soldiers rolled large stones over the mouth of the cave and kept them there until the moping–up operation was completed. At the end of the battle Joshua held a public ceremony of pulling the captured kings out of the cave and having his generals put their feet on the neck of each king before they killed them (vv. 24-27). When they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, "Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings." So they came near and put their feet on their necks. Joshua then said to them, "Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies with whom you fight." So afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees; and they hung on the trees until evening. It came about at sunset that Joshua gave a command, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves, and put large stones over the mouth of the cave, to this very day.

 

Joshua made the defeated kings lie down in the dust before him. He called the commanders of his army to come and place their feet on the necks of the five kings. The act was a symbol of victory and complete subjection. In the ceremony, Joshua pointed to the LORD who gave them the victory. The LORD is the commander of Israel. "Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for thus the LORD will do to all your enemies with whom you fight" (v. 25).

 

The conquest of the southern territory

 

In short, verses 28-39 give summary statements in which Joshua describes the conquest. There are several statements that begin with "Joshua and all Israel" to confirm the victory in each city-state. He was faithful to God's command. Joshua summarizes the conquest in vv. 40-43: Thus Joshua struck all the land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings. He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded. Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea even as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen even as far as Gibeon. Joshua captured all these kings and their lands at one time, because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. So Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal.

 

"The LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel."

 

This chapter is a reminder that if we are to win in our battle with Satan we must keep our eyes on the Lord and obey Him. He is our victory.

 

Have you celebrated any spiritual victories lately?

 

How are you doing in your fight against the coalitions of the enemy? The world, the flesh and the devil have made a coalition to destroy your testimony. Satan knows he cannot steal your eternal life. From the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ to save you, you were given eternal life. Satan can not take that away from you. But he will work hard to destroy your testimony and your fellowship with God. The world will hammer you and pressure you to conform to its mold. The sinfulness in our lives will betray us, undermine, and sabotage our spiritual victories. The devil will deceive you and cause you to compromise your Lord. You and I can not win in the battle against the spiritual coalition by ourselves. It is the Lord Jesus through His death and resurrection who gives us the victory. We can have the victory only through our union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. Just as Joshua reckoned upon God, we must reckon upon our life–union with Jesus Christ.

 

Joshua had to go up against the evil forces of the Amorite coalition. God gave him the victory. It is not self–crucifixion but our union with Christ in His death and resurrection, it is in the "same Spirit" that raised up Jesus from the grave, that is resident inside of us that lays the basis for our victory. In Jesus Christ we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In Christ we have everything. In Him we are complete. But we have to appropriate by faith those blessings.

 

The sad commentary remains. For forty years Israel wandered around in doubt and unbelief and did not conquer the land. Yet in just a few years when they obeyed the LORD God they conquered the land. It was theirs all the time.

 

What do you have hidden in your cave?

 

Do you have some kings in your life that need to be killed? Can't I just humiliate the kings or make a public symbol out of them and let well enough alone? Evil kings have to be exterminated. Victory means putting to death the enemy. These kings were all under ban. They were devoted to God's judgment. The evil kings that reign in your heart are under ban! If they are not destroyed they will rise up to try to destroy you again and again. You can't leave your kings sulking in a nice comfortable cave. You have to take them out, put your foot on their necks and kill them. All of them. That is your responsibility and mine in spiritual warfare. You have to make a commitment and you have to follow through.

 

Go back over that list we first looked at in Galatians 5:19-21. King lust bow down: immorality, impurity, and sensuality. What are you doing with old king lust? If you are having an affair don't call it love; call it what it is––lust. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." In other words, kill it! Put your foot on its head. Kill it! King of the evil spiritual world bow down: idolatry, sorcery. Put your foot on its head. Kill it! King hatred bow down: enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing. Put your foot on its head. Kill it!

 

Let's quit playing with it. Let's kill it! What is in your cave today? William Law wrote, "The heresy of all heresies is a worldly spirit."

 

How about your thought life?

 

Our "weapons of warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete" (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).

 

Confession of sin implies rejection of sin. The power of sin is broken only as we are in harmony with the cross of Jesus. The cross is an ugly thing. It is the place of execution. It is the place where we pull out the kings and nail them to the cross. The cross is no place for concealment, of hiding, or covering sin. It is the place of execution. It is the place where be break with sin, the place of exposure, where we drag out the kings and reckon them dead. God says, "cut off," "pluck out," kill it. It is our responsibility to break with sin––"let no sin therefore reign." God's way of victory is through crucifixion. Deliverance is only through death. "Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11).

 

I have been "crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

 

Jesus entered a deadly combat and died my death. No amount of struggling on my part can make that fact truer. I am a partaker of Christ, of His death and His resurrection. Christ actually lives in me. He is dead to sin and alive to God. I am to rest in Him. There is victory in your full identification with Christ. All of Christ's resources are mine. They are mine because of the believer's oneness in Christ Jesus. I am crucified with Christ. I was born, crucified––when I was born again. I am now in Christ Jesus. The Lord has given you the kings. Are you celebrating the victory?

 

Jesus will reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet

 

1 Corinthians 15:25 tells us about the ultimate victory over sin:

 

"For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet."

 

Death is the personification of the ultimate opponent of Christ. There is no question about who will win. Christ rose from the dead, and His resurrection is our guarantee. In various passages Paul tells us that we are so identified with Christ that we are now alive in Him. The victory is guaranteed.

 

Who can separate us from the love of Christ? We are engaged in a hand to hand spiritual warfare unto death. Jesus is our Victor:

 

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).

 

The victory is ours and it is time to celebrate. Only the Lord Jesus can give you the victory. God acts on behalf of His people. He has acted in the death of His Son as a substitute for our death penalty for sin, and He raised Him from the dead. His resurrection insures the victory. He now lives as the crucified Savior to make good the power and efficacy of His death.

 

Have you come to understand your identification with Christ? You are one with the Crucified in His death and resurrection. You are already crucified and risen with Christ, "dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Let us fix our eyes upon Christ. Let us reckon; believe that if we are dead with Him we shall also live with Him.

 

Tertullian wrote: "We engage in these conflicts as men whose very lives are not our own."

 

This message has addressed the need for those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior to keep their hearts tender toward Him. It may be that you have never come to the place of acknowledging your need of Jesus Christ as your Savior. You can put your trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior right now. Confess to Him your need for Him to forgive you of your sins and believe that He died in your place on the Cross. Ask Him to be your Savior right now.