Book of Joshua - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-16 (11/30/2003)

To the book of Joshua, the year is 1451

B .C.,

before Christ. It opens with the fact that Moses is dead, and God has commissioned

Joshua to bring the people into the Promised Land. Now, give me a reason for studying

Joshua to begin with. Greg, what is the

Promised Land in reality and in prophecy?

No, that's what I used to think. But it's not the future of heaven.

What is it, Bob? Well, Roger, I'm glad you're here.

The people are glad you're here because you can answer this question. What is the

Promised Land to us? John?

That's it. It's this life, the Promised Land. It belongs to the earth.

Now, Joy, why study Joshua? Well, I'm asking again.

All right, let's get into Joshua a little bit. Joshua is assured of victory over all of his enemies.

Are we assured of victory over our enemies? And exhorted to courage, encourage, and actify the people.

Joshua commands the officers to prepare the people for their passage over Jordan, 10 and 11.

The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half -tribe of Manasseh are put in mind of their engagement to pass over with their brethren.

And that's found in 12 and 15. They promise the strictest obedience and prayer for the prosperity of their leader.

Now, Bob, I find it always easy to promise that I'll be good beforehand.

Notes on the first chapter. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the

Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,

Now, I chose this book because of its explanation of how the people were to act in the land, the land of promise.

If we follow their example, we will accomplish the same thing in our land, our promised land.

Now, the original has in the first verse, instead of now, it has and.

And after the death of Moses. Even the first words in this book show it to be a continuation of the preceding and immediately connected with the narrative in the last chapter in Deuteronomy, of which

I suppose Joshua to have been the author. And that chapter to have originally made the commencement of this book.

The time referred to here must have been at the conclusion of the 30 days in which they mourned for Moses.

Second verse, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, go over this

Jordan, thou and all of this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

Don't you find it a little bit strange that all that is said about Moses is my servant is dead?

I did. I hope that he can say when

I die that my servant is dead. And the word servant is used different here than it is in the

New Testament. It's applied both to Moses and Joshua.

And we're to understand the very peculiar sense. It signifies

God's prime minister. Now, that's different than we've seen servant before.

The person by whom he issued his orders and by whom he accomplished all his purpose and designs, no person ever bore this title in the like sense but the redeemer of mankind, of whom

Moses and Joshua are a type of redeemer. Three, every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have

I given to you as I said unto Moses. Now, the sole of your foot, that is the whole land occupied by the seven

Canaanite nations. And as far as the Euphrates on the east, for this was certainly the most of the grant now made to them.

And all that was included in what is termed the promised land.

John, come pass these out, please. I found after long search a map.

And it had an overlay to it. So that's really one map over the other.

And it includes the promised land. Now, I can't see it, so no need of me looking at it.

But if you will look on the east or on the west, it is the

Mediterranean Sea. You go down the coastline until it begins to curve.

And someplace down there you draw a line straight across. Then you go up to the

Euphrates River. You find that? The Euphrates River.

Has anybody found it? Then follow that river all the way north until it almost ends.

And you'll see about 100 miles between the end of it and the Mediterranean.

Now, they have not occupied all of that. They never have occupied all of that.

300 ,000 acres or square miles. 300 ,000 square miles.

Now, it was their unfaithfulness to God that rendered the conquest so very, very difficult.

But you know, as I study, I see something else to bring this down to today.

We do not have a land to conquer, but we have his word to conquer.

I know that he intended for us to study it thoroughly.

Walk through it. We find one other place in the

Bible where God told Abraham to walk through the land. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it, in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.

Now, man fights over land. But, Roger, the real owner is not man, it's

God. Man holds the deed to a certain parcel of land, and he says,

I own it. But you know, he dies, and somebody else owns it.

And somebody else, and somebody else. I'm convinced the banks are the only ones that make any money off of it.

From the wilderness and this

Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the

Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be yours.

So the wilderness of Zion on the south, Lebanon on the north, and Lebanon in that map is out of place.

Euphrates on the east, the great sea of the Mediterranean on the west. 300 ,000 square miles was the original grant of God.

They owned that land. But the most they have ever claimed is 30 ,000 square miles.

About 10 % of it. And they didn't do very well.

They took possession of about 1 tenth of what God had given them. That's about the same amount of spiritual possessions that you and I have today.

Man's lazy. In verse 5, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Now Canaan was theirs by a divine grant.

We're in Joshua. Russell, a divine grant.

Greg, what is a divine grant? Supersedes all other grants.

Well, Joshua finds himself in a position. Not only it'll be an easy conquest, it is remarkable, however, that this courage and hope of victory were made to depend upon his firm and inflexible adherence to the law of God.

Can we expect to succeed and not obey

God? David, it'll be impossible.

Now, Bobby may succeed for a little time, but it will not last.

They were disposed to dispose all of the Canaanites In the sixth verse,

Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shall thou divide for an inheritance the land which

I swear unto their fathers to give them. Though a person of great courage and resolution, whereof he had given sufficient proof, yet that person needs the exhortations, partly because his work was great and difficult and long and in a great measure new, partly because he had a very poor opinion of himself, especially if compared with Moses.

Can't you imagine Joshua taking over when

Moses was gone? I can't. I know he did, and it's given to him, and he accepts the challenge.

But it's a tremendous responsibility to follow Moses, remembering how unusual and ungovernable the people were, even under Moses.

Well, he might very well suspect the burden of ruling them would be too heavy for his shoulders.

David, were you ever in a situation that you had to go ahead and do something, but you felt inadequate for it?

I think we've all been there. And if you committed to God and go ahead, it'll work.

Seven, only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which

Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand, to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

He says, Joshua, be strong and be very courageous.

Be strong, therefore, and play the man to the uttermost. Though God had promised him that no man should be able to stand before him, yet it was on condition that he should use all of his military skill.

Now, David explained to me how we are to approach any situation that God has for me.

That's a lesson I wish we all could learn. He does not expect you to do that which you have not had opportunity to learn.

Now, you may not have learned everything about it, and you find later that you should have paid attention when you were in high school, but you didn't.

But now you can see why. The highest and noblest courage is shown by the most faithfully discharge of duty.

The highest motive of courage. Eight.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Now, that's the secret. Let me read it again.

This book, the law, shall not depart out of thy mouth.

What's that mean, Roger? But thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

Meditate. Bob, that means to chew. Excuse me, chew the gut.

Meditate. That thou may observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous.

If we study the Bible, if we put it into practice every day,

I don't mean that you have read the Bible through or you just read some portion.

God controls that, too. But you study the Bible. If it isn't but one verse each day, you will make your way prosperous, and you'll have good success.

Now, that's good according to who, Debbie? Yes, not the neighbor next door, showing that it is not possible to govern well without the continual study of God's word.

It's impossible. This world is full of people.

Nine. Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the

Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest.

Now, Greg, is the

Lord with you wherever you go? No. We can't go someplace and say, you wait here while I go in.

No. The Holy Spirit is always with us.

You may grieve Him. You won't grieve Him away, but you may grieve Him. I commanded thee,

I whom you are obliged to obey, says the Lord, I who can carry you through everything

I set upon you. Isn't it good that God is in control?

Isn't it good that He is the one that sets things upon me?

Now, I grant you, many, many times, we just think we can't. There's no way,

Lord, that I can stand this. But if it come, you can.

I of whose faithfulness and almighty power you have had large experience.

We have all had experience. Maybe we didn't know it,

Bob, but the Lord was guiding. It is

He that places everything on us. Verse 10.

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, let's see what he said,

Passed through the host and commanded the people, saying, Prepare you victuals, for within three days you shall pass over this

Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your

God hath given you to possess it. And to the Reubenites and the

Geddites and to the half the tribe of Manassas, begged

Joshua, saying, Remember the word which Moses the servant of the

Lord commanded you, saying, The Lord your God hath given you rest and hath given you this land.

Joshua makes a public notice, makes a public statement, a public command.

He sends the officers to all of the people to all be ready and to obey.

Now, this is a little out of place. This was probably given after the spies returned, and he hasn't sent them out yet.

But he's going to. Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which

Moses gave you on this side of Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren, armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help your wives, your little ones.

Bob, why was he, why did he single them out? With these, it appears there was left behind 70 ,580 effective men to guard them and their possessions, and only 40 ,000 having passed over Jordan to assist the nine and a half tribes to conquer the land.

Fifteen, until the Lord hath given your brethren rest as he hath given you, and they also have possessed the land which the

Lord your God giveth them, then you shall return unto the land of your possession and enjoy it which

Moses the Lord's servant gave you on this side of Jordan toward the sun, toward the sun rising.

Now, they had already been given the land. Greg, what does that compare with in our life?

All right. David, you want to add something to that?

Roger, why did he not give it all to them, literally?

Yes, why didn't the people just get up and leave and they come in and take possession? I wish that's something we could all learn and learn to practice.

This life will be difficult. If it were not, we wouldn't amount to anything.

One more verse, And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, all whithersoever thou sendest us we will go.

So they acknowledged the divine mission of Joshua. Now, Joshua remembers

Moses and all the difficulty that he experienced with this people. And like I say, it's easy to promise to obey at the front end, but difficult when you're in it.

God wouldn't have intended for me to be in this. I must have made a mistake someplace.

Well, I need to quit. Now, this has been a discussion kind of one -sided, but I expect you to study and to partake in it next time.

Starting with the 17th verse, we're going to see how

God used Rahab. What a wonderful lesson that is.

Is there any questions or anything from anyone? Very big.

I can just see the people standing on one side of the Jordan, not knowing how to get over, but they expect to get over.

But all of that enthusiasm will disappear very rapidly. Anything else?