In
The Story we find Israel facing an overwhelming challenge. After 600 years from
God’s promise to Abraham to make him a great nation, the children of Israel are
ready to advance into the Promised Land. But there is a big problem. There are
wicked people already living in the land and among those people are some
literal giants. It would be like putting Danny DeVito (5’ tall) up against Wilt
“the Stilt” Chamberlain (7’ 1” tall).
The children of Israel are under a new leader, Joshua, and they are at
Kadesh-Barnea where 40 years earlier they took a major wrong turn.
40
years ago, 10 spies
returned with the report that Canaan was a fine land, good crops and all, but
the people were giants and compared to them, the spies looked like
grasshoppers. At that, the people shied away and God sent them into the
wilderness for 40 years. Now, they have returned to the same place, on
the verge of the Promised Land. The land hadn’t changed. The giants
weren’t any smaller. But, now they were going to enter.
Under
Joshua, God tells the new generation to take the land. Joshua is told 4 times
by God to “be strong and courageous.” Now is the time for courage!
Joshua
1:1-5
“1 After the death of Moses the Lord’s servant, the Lord spoke to
Joshua son of Nun, who had served Moses: 2 “Moses My servant is
dead. Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I
am giving the Israelites. 3 I have given you every place where
the sole of your foot treads, just as I promised Moses. 4 Your
territory will be from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great Euphrates
River—all the land of the Hittites—and west to the Mediterranean Sea. 5 No
one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. I will be with you,
just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or forsake you.”
God would
give the people every place they stepped foot. As god was with Moses, so His
promise was to be with the people of Israel. God had made this promise 600
years ago to Abraham, He gave it to Moses, He promised to be with the people of
Israel as they made their escape out of Egypt. He promised to supply them with
all their needs and did so through the 40 years of wondering. God gave them
food, water, and their clothes never wore out. Now they are to enter into the
land God had promised them.
There are
three things that God tells Joshua the people need to be successful.
Joshua 1:8
“8 This book of instruction must not depart from your
mouth; you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe
everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you
do.”
The people of
God need to follow His commandments. The people of Israel said they would
follow all that God commanded; God was letting them know that doing just that
was a necessity if they are going to succeed. They needed to be a people of The
Book, they needed to be in the Word of God.
When they
strayed from The Word of God things turned bad.
Joshua 7:1
“7 The Israelites, however, were
unfaithful regarding the things set apart for destruction. Achan son of Carmi,
son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set
apart, and the Lord’s anger burned against the Israelites.”
All the people were not faithful and it had a negative impact on all
the nation. Achan took what was Gods which resulted in God pulling His blessing
from the Nation of Israel. This sin separated the people of Israel from God.
When they went to war with Ai, they suffered a major defeat. The
people were afraid, they questioned what they were doing, all because one man
sinned against God. The people repented, cleansed themselves, and punished
Achan for his sins. Then God was with them as they went and crushed Ai.
Joshua then read the entire book of the law to the people.
Joshua 8:34-35
“34 Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of
the law—the blessings as well as the curses—according to all that 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 before the entire assembly of Israel,
including the women, the little children, and the foreigners who were with
them.”
The first
thing that the people of Israel needed to be successful was to be people of the
Book. When they strayed from the commands they suffered, when the returned to
the Words of God they were blessed.
We need this
to! Today, more than ever we need to be reading our Bibles. Every day we walk
this world we come into contact with people living in lifestyles that are
ungodly. We have our beliefs challenged by friends, families, and the things we
read and watch. To counter the things and people of the world, we need to KNOW
God’s Word. We need to KNOW the Word of God so that we can protect our own
minds and to counter the false beliefs and teachings of others. God wanted His
people to be People of the Book to be successful, we need to KNOW God’s Word.
The second
thing that they need to do to be successful was to be people of prayer.
God has told
them, “Talk to Me before you go to battle. I will be in front.” God’s number
one goal is to live with His creation and part of that is being in
communication with us. The people of Israel had the Ark of the Covenant with
them. They had recent reminders of seeing the pillars of fire and smoke, they
sacrificed animals to the Lord to cleanse them from their sins. God lived with
them and He wanted to talk to them. When they spoke to God and followed Him,
they had 100% success.
God wants to
hear from us also. He knows what we need, He knows what is best, so if we
follow His will we will be taken care of. God Loves you and will guide your
correctly, but He wants to hear from you. Make sure you are speaking to God and
following His lead.
The third
thing the Lord said the people of Israel need to be successful was to identify
with god. In Joshua 5 we find that all the males needed to be circumcised. The
people of Israel who left Egypt had been circumcised but while wondering in the
wilderness none of the children had been. This was one way for people to see
that the people of Israel were God’s people. So, before the people of Israel
marched on the city of Jericho the men of Israel were circumcised according to
God’s will. They were now seen as set apart or different from those in the
world.
God wants the
same thing from us. Not the act of circumcision, but the being seen as
belonging to him. God wants people to know that we are His children. In our
terms, if we say we are a Christian people should be able to tell that we live
our life different than others. We should not be hanging out at the bar,
gambling, cursing, and so much more. We need to live our lives differently than
the world. People at work should be able to tell you are a Christian, not by
something you have sitting on your desk but by your actions.
To be
successful the Nation of Israel and us today need to be in the Word, Talk to
God, and be people who are seen as God’s children.
As we read
through the book of Joshua we see that God is working. When the Nation is
following God as they are supposed to miracles are performed. We see the
damming up of the Jordan River which allowed the Nation of Israel to cross on
dry land. When they follow God’s battle plan of Jericho the wall crumbles
miraculously and the city is taken. Even as the Nation of Israel enters the
Promised Land, miracles are being performed.
The battles
rage on. The Nation of Israel takes on cities in the north and cities in the
south. All along the south they defeat 5 kings, take the cities, and honor God.
Along the north they defeated14 kings as the Lord guided them.
Joshua 11:23
“So Joshua
took the entire land, in keeping with all that the Lord told Moses. Joshua then
gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. After
this, the land had rest from war.”
Joshua led
the people of Israel and conquered all that the Lord had told Moses. Chapters
13 to 21 go on to tell us that not all of the land was conquered at this time,
but God was with the Nation of Israel.
Joshua 13:1
“13 Joshua was now old, getting on
in years, and the Lord said to him, “You have become old, getting on in years, but a great
deal of the land remains to be possessed.”
Joshua 13 6b-7
“I will drive them out before the Israelites, only distribute the
land as an inheritance for Israel, as I have commanded you. 7 Therefore,
divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of
Manasseh.”
Joshua and
the Nation of Israel did what God wanted them to do. God took it from there and
gave them all the land that was promised to Abraham over 600 years earlier.
We need to
remember this! When we are called by God to do something, we can only do what
we are humanly capable of. Sometimes that really seems like nothing, but God
can take what little we can do and turn it into something miraculous. When we
serve our amazing God, we are His tool to accomplish something amazing. Nothing
anyone of can do actually adds souls to the kingdom of God. Our willingness to
be used by God allows Him to use us to share with someone at the right time
that allows the Holy Spirit to win that soul. We cannot do it on our own, but
God uses our faithfulness to change lives.
So why did
God want the nation of Israel to take the Promised Land?
God wanted to
reclaim the land from the wickedness of the people inhabiting it. God told
Abraham this very thing some 600 years earlier.
Genesis 15:16
“16 In the fourth generation they will return here,
for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
The people
who inhabited the Promised Land before the people of Israel were wicked.
Deuteronomy
12:31
“31 You must not do the same to the Lord your God, because they practice every detestable thing, which the Lord hates, for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in
the fire to their gods.”
God did not
want these things to rub off on the people of Israel.
Deuteronomy
20:16-18
“16 However, you must not let any living thing
survive among the cities of these people the Lord your God is
giving you as an inheritance. 17 You must completely destroy
them—the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they won’t
teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and you sin
against the Lord your God.”
As mentioned
earlier God wanted His people to be different from the world. He did not want
them or their children to get caught up in these wicked behaviors.
More
importantly than reclaiming the Promised Land from its wicked inhabitants, God
wanted the Nation of Israel and all the other nations to know that He Is God!
God told
Abraham that all of the nations of the world would be blessed through the
nation that God builds. That blessing starts with people knowing who God is and
grows with people understanding that God wants to be in a relationship with
them.
God created
the Nation of Israel so that they could be His messengers. It is through this
Nation that He makes himself known to all the world.
Even today,
people are God’s tool to make Him known among the people of the world. We have
a responsibility to God to share His good news, to share His message, to share
His love. We need to start right here in this building and let it spread out to
this town of Clark and continue to the rest of the world.
Read the
Word, Talk to God, stand apart as a Christ follower, and be God’s tool to reach
others.
Thanks for reading and God Bless!
Robert
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