Joshua – Lesson 20
Do you remember what the Israelites did after they had crossed the Red Sea? They sang.
· Ex 15:14-18, The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the people of Philistia. 15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away; 16 terror and dread will fall upon them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone--until your people pass by, O LORD, until the people you bought pass by. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance--the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established. 18 The LORD will reign for ever and ever."
But notice that the older generation forgot the fact that the miracles of God struck fear in the hearts of the Canaanites. But the new generation, under Joshua was ready to proceed by faith to do as God led.
· Joshua 2:3-12, 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.
Here we see the Israelites acting on their belief, their faith in God and His promises.
· Joshua 4:1-24, When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight." 4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever." 8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant had stood. And they are there to this day. 10 Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, 11 and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. 12 The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. 13 About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war. 14 That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses. 15 Then the LORD said to Joshua, 16 "Command the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan." 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan." 18 And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before. 19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' 22 tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' 23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."
But, after five years the Israelites had not possessed all of the land that God had promised them. Why were they so slow to claim all that God had promised? Hadn’t they been given ample evidence that God was with them and that He was true to His word?
Well, before you answer, think about it. And think about us. Is the same criticism due us? Why are we so slow to appropriate the spiritual blessings that are so clearly promised to us? Why don’t we go and take what is ours by faith?
Someone has said, “What is enfolded in regeneration should be unfolded in sanctification. What is ours should become ours. What is possible should become actual. And what is potential should become potent.” The Book of Joshua is about becoming what we ought to be.
Now I want to be careful here not to mislead or to create a guilt trip in anyone’s mind. When I speak of the need for each of us to examine ourselves with respect to our faith and whether or not we can say that we are believers if there is no action on our beliefs, we need to remember that the true spiritual life is a matter of making progress. None of us has arrived.
Paul said:
· Philippians 3:7-15, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
This should also be our goal in our day-to-day experience.
Conquest and Rest
At this point a question might be asked: What could the Israelites expect as a result of their attempted conquest of Canaan? Once having crossed the Jordan and having conquered the Canaanites, they could expect to be in a place of rest. To the Israelites the place of rest was a land. To the Christian it is a person. It is Jesus in “heavenly places”.
It may sound strange to you to say that we have to fight to find rest. But remember that we are talking about spiritual warfare.
· Ephesians 1:3, 2:5-6, 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. …..2:5-6, And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
This idea of the “heavenly realms” appears five times in Ephesians. It is defined as that part of the believer’s experience that has to do with our identification with Jesus. So we are not talking about a place in heaven somewhere high up in the sky, but it deals with the believer’s spiritual experience with its conflicts, trials and victories. It is the New Testament equivalent to the land of Canaan.
To better understand this concept we need to understand two things. First, every Christian from the moment of conversion possesses all the potential of his salvation. Everything that Jesus has for us is at our disposal, either actually or potentially.
The second thing is that each Christian should by faith claim these blessings in Jesus. It is one thing to have them reserved for us, but it is quite another thing to enter into the blessings and privileges now.
When we speak of claiming these riches in Jesus, we are talking about our state or walk here on earth. It is here that by faith we claim that which is ours in Jesus.
Entering the Land
Israel’s entrance into Canaan was a very crucial step in their progress as a nation. The first five chapters of the book deal with their entrance into Canaan.
There are three steps, all of which have a typical meaning for us today.
1 It was by faith that the people entered Canaan. They lined up behind the Ark as they were told to do, and as soon as the priests entered the waters of the Jordan the waters rolled back. The spiritual blessing which this typifies must also be entered by an act of faith. There is a decision to be made as we enter this spiritual land of conquest.
2 In the second place, the land that was entered had to be fought for. God had assured Joshua that they would be victorious, but even so, they had to fight for the land. This is also true in spiritual warfare. Faith must be accompanied by effort. Faith that does not produce action is not faith. This is the reason that we are told in Ephesians:
· Ephesians 6:13-18, 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. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
This is our method of overcoming the enemy.
3 In the third place, the land which Israel entered had to be conquered and possessed. But they had to dispossess the Canaanites who were already there. As we will see later, there were battles where they did not subdue the people as God had instructed, so some of the Canaanites remained. The Israelites did not totally possess the land.
I think the application of this should be obvious to all of us. There are obstacles to spiritual victory for each of us and they must be overcome if we are to take complete possession of the spiritual blessings available to us.
· 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We are in a spiritual conflict and the weapons at our disposal are the Word of God and prayer. Some Christian will say that they cannot help what they think. But we can. The Spirit is available to us to help us overcome our improper thoughts.