06.15.2014 Joshua - A Little Background

06.15.2014 Worship from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

6-15-2014 Joshua 1 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

Father, You do love us – You have given Yourself for us. Help us to understand that. Father, open our hearts to what You have to say – Help me to speak clearly. In Your Name we pray.
Joshua 1: 1 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, 2 “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. 3 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.
It is summertime – so I get to preach on what really excites me – and I am doing the Book of Joshua – today – in the first 15 minutes, I will give background to the book – and the reason why – I think it is really cool! But as my wife says, not everyone thinks what I think is cool is really cool!
If we go into the book not knowing the background, we don’t get as much out of it. We need to hear it in its context. If we don’t – we will be unable to relate it properly to our own lives – and that has happened in Christianity to horrible consequences with the book of Joshua – and we will talk about those – the Crusades and other things.
This is about the conquest of the Land of Canaan – or how they got what is Israel. There are three main characters – God! He is the primary character – in Joshua – God is the one who does everything. He acts – it is about God’s action – not Joshua – not Israel – it is about God. It is not about Israel conquering the Canaanites – whenever they try to do it – they lose big time. Second character – Joshua. And there is a third character – and he is dead! That is Moses. But his name is mentioned 51 times!
There are 4 minor characters who play a major role in shaping the theology of the book – the lessons and the teaching. Rahab, Achan, the Gibeonites, and Phineas! We will look at each of those!
There are 4 main themes I have chosen to mention – first – the Land – 84 times! It is not about physical land – but it represents the fulfillment of God’s promise to His people. God is faithful to His promise. Second theme is obedience to the Law of Moses. With the theme of obedience is also the theme of disobedience. And with those two, we have blessing and a curse. Third – separation from the nations – this goes back to what we just finished – not being conformed to the world, but being transformed. 4th – is the theme of The Divine Warrior. There is a lot about God warring in this book. I had not thought much about this – maybe because I don’t think a lot! But in the young adult group – this has been a real struggle. It is seen as genocide. And in my old adult group – this has been a real struggle. People see God as an angry God – with divine retribution and genocide. As I have thought through this – it is not good to ignore this:
Deuteronomy 7: 1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. 5 But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Make no treaty – show no mercy –
“Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes (Deut. 20:16).
When I would study this, I would write it off as the Old Testament – hey, now we have Jesus.
Or I would spiritualize it – like, battling sin. Walls of Jericho are like the walls in my life – and Rahab became a story of evangelism…
All those things are okay – but if we ignore the literal meaning of the book in its historical context, we are reading it in an unhealthy way and we can cause a lot of harm. We must be willing to face the tough stuff that is in the Bible, because it is there.
Some say – it didn’t really happen – but if not, why is it there?
I will address this to some extent as we go along. And I have read a lot about it in my recreational reading (that is recreational reading for me!) – and I’m going to put together some videos that go more in-depth – and we will put them online.
If you have any questions – write them down and I’ll do the best I can to answer them. No matter how many books you read or how many people you talk to, you won’t always get satisfying answers. My ultimate hope is that this series will give you liberty to ask those questions. We tend to think that it is faith to ignore it – but that is not true – real faith is willing to look at what we really believe in and to ask, why is this here? – and to explore the truth. That can be a lot of fun once you begin doing it. And it builds your faith – more than you can imagine.
The story is that 200 years before Christ was born, the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek by 70 scholars (Septuagint) – it was a grueling task and they were very meticulous – Roman LXX (70) (sounds like a fancy luxury car) – often quoted by N.T. writers – it was the common translation in the time of Jesus – for most Jews scattered throughout the Roman world, it was their main Bible. Have you ever noticed, while you are reading the New Testament – there will be a direct quote from the Old Testament? Have you ever compared the two? There are probably differences. And you think – why are they different? The new translations use Hebrew translation for the Old Testament and the Greek translation in the New Testament – and there are subtle linguistic differences. And when they translated the name ‘Joshua’ in the LXX – it was Jesus. And Joshua is a TYPE of Christ. Joshua is the mediator between God and the people. Joshua leads the people to victory. Jesus leads us to ultimate victory. Joshua fulfilled the promise of God – to give the people the Land – and Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies and gave us His life.
On the road to Emmaus, it says that Jesus explained everything that pointed to Him starting at Moses and the prophets…
Joshua is a history book – told through stories – it is a narrative, for the most part. It is different from how we would write history. IN our small group, we were discussing emotional transformation – and discussing how our lives have been changed. 3 people quoted lines/scenes from movies that had an impact on their lives – Field of Dreams – a great narrative for any man who had a difficult relationship with his father… - I have one friend who watched it over and over again because of the impact it had on his life. Story can have a powerful impact on a life. Stories have power. They help us develop our identity, ideologies, and values. Joshua is written to help Israel understand who they are.
Think of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving and the impact it has on US. We are blessed – there is plenty to share – you can share in the abundance if you work hard. This is ingrained in our psyches from a young age.
What Joshua does – this group has just exited Egypt after being treated terribly for 400 years – and they had an identity complex – and it tells them this: There is one God – and it is their God. All of the plagues were related to a god in Egypt – and it was saying, “I am God, and these are not.” That is the whole conquest of Canaan as well – Yahweh is God, these are not. Think of the people in the majority of the world in the Old Testament – and there is only one people group who believed in this God. Today – a third of the world are (supposedly) Christian – whether true Christians or not, that remains to be seen.
But Joshua tells them who they are – and who they are not. It tells them they are NOT Canaanites. It tells who is included and who is not. This allows us to project on others characteristics that are different from our own. With the 70th anniversary of D-day – there is a lot being played – even recordings of Hitler blaming the Jews for their economic woes – and called them the enemy of the world. Hitler projected on them that which was not their characteristics. We projected on the Africans and the Native Americans opposite of what we were – we called them SAVAGES. Joshua throws a wrench into this and demolishes this way of thinking. We are introduced to the Canaanite - and when we are – it changes everything they thought about them.
Jesus does this with The Good Samaritan – that was an oxymoron in that day – because Jesus was showing that those who they thought could not be good were better than the rest. Joshua does this with a prostitute named Rahab.
I have 5 practical applications from this passage:
1) There is a transition from Moses’ leadership to Joshua – but the point is, God’s purposes continue – it is not about the leader – and the question becomes – Who are you following? It is so easy to follow an organization/church/preacher on the radio – but we follow Jesus – even if He leads us against what everyone else is saying. We have to be faithful to Him, because there will be times when no one else will.
Genesis 12:1-
To your descendants I will give this land…
700 years before the fulfillment of this promise – now THAT is a delay! But it shows, God has a bigger purpose in mind – He is interested in the ultimate blessing. We tend to seek earthly blessings, but God wants us to receive the ultimate blessing.
Like in Hebrews 11 – they were longing for a heavenly country – better promises than what we are offered in this world.
Yes, when we get the blessings here, great, but live for the blessings of the other world.
Joshua 1: 3 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. 4 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. 5 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. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
This is the ultimate blessing – I will not leave you or forsake you – like Paul said – whether I have a lot or little – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
The one who gets a lot of blessings is not the favored person – what is relevant is – He is with us.
I do not have a black T-shirt to be like Rick Warren – but I will channel him here – we must seek His Presence, not His Presents!
Joshua 1:6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
God gives the land – 8 times He says it – they are not earning it – He is giving it. They don’t deserve it – it is God’s grace – God’s gift to undeserving people.
Joshua is a story of the Gospel – a story of grace.
Joshua 1: 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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.”
Final practical point – because God has promised – we can be strong and courageous. Strength and courage and faith to lives the Christian life fully comes only from God’s promise and His presence – not our circumstances and not our effort. This is not about our circumstances or what we are receiving – but only His promises and presence can we live with strength and courage.