Sermon
#6 Through The Bible Series
Title: Joshua—Jesus
Saves!
Text: Joshua 1:1-11
Subject: Joshua Portraying Christ
Date: Tuesday
Evening—February 25, 2003
Tape # X-48a
Readings: Bobbie Estes
Introduction:
The Book of Joshua spans the
history of Israel from the death of Moses to the time of the judges. It is a
great monument, not to Joshua, but to the God he served. It is a declaration of
God’s great, unfailing faithfulness.
(Joshua
1:1-11) "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, (2) Moses my servant is dead;
now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the
land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. (3) Every
place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you,
as I said unto Moses. (4) 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 your coast. (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. (6) Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people
shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers
to give them. (7) 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 or to the left, that
thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. (8) 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. (9) Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage;
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with
thee whithersoever thou goest. (10) Then Joshua commanded the officers
of the people, saying, (11) Pass through the host, and command the
people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over
this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you
to possess it."
(Joshua
21:43-45) "And the LORD gave unto
Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they
possessed it, and dwelt therein. (44) And the LORD gave them rest round
about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a
man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into
their hand. (45) There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD
had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass."
(Joshua
23:14) "And, behold, this day I am
going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all
your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the
LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not
one thing hath failed thereof."
(Joshua
24:29-31) "And it came to pass
after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being
an hundred and ten years old. (30) And they buried him in the border
of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in
mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
(31) And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of
the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known
all the works of the LORD, that he had done for Israel."
By divine order Joshua
assumed the government of the children of Israel after Moses died and brought
Israel into the possession of all the land of Canaan, which God had promised in
his covenant with Abraham.
There is much debate among
men about whether these twenty-four chapters typify the believer’s entrance
into and possession of God’s salvation in this world or our entrance into and
possession of God salvation in heavenly glory. In my opinion, the debate is
meaningless. The Book of Joshua portrays both.
Many say that the Israelites
possession of Canaan cannot portray heavenly glory because they still had to
contend with and overcome their enemies in the land and that will not be true
of heavenly glory. Without question, that is true. Still, grace given on earth
is glory begun; and glory given at last is grace consummated. The two cannot be
separated. He who possesses God’s salvation here in grace shall possess God’s
salvation in glory in the world to come.
The message of this Book is
set before us in Joshua’s very name. Joshua means “Jehovah is Salvation.”
His name, in Greek, is Jesus. The message of the Book is “Jesus saves” (Matt.
1:21).
(Matthew
1:21) "And she shall bring forth a
son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from
their sins."
Proposition: Throughout this Book Joshua
stands before us as a magnificent type of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior,
as Jehovah’s righteous Servant; and, as such, he is held before us as an
example of what it is to be God’s servant in this world.
A
Type of Christ
Yes, it is important to see
in this Book the exact fulfillment of divine prophecy. And it is delightful to
see the displays Joshua sets before us of our God’s faithfulness in all things
·
He gave the land of Canaan to Israel, according to the promises he made
to their fathers.
·
We see the justice of God in punishing the Canaanites for their
idolatry and sin, after being warned repeatedly of his impending wrath.
·
How wondrous are the displays of God’s faithfulness in exercising
tender care of his people in this Book!
·
His love to the people is also displayed as the everlasting love of the
ever-faithful God. He preserved and protected the children of Israel and gave
them the good land, all of it, in spite of all their murmurings, ingratitude,
and unbelief. Joshua, at last, gave them rest!
But, the primary thing to be
seen here is that this Joshua who gave Israel rest is a type and picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who brings the Israel of God into the blessed, true sabbath
rest of faith here and of glory hereafter. We know that this is the intent of the Holy
Spirit because he tells us that Joshua was typical of our Savior (Heb. 4).
1. We have already seen that
his name, “Joshua,” marks him as a type of Christ.
2. As Joshua was servant to
Moses, Christ was made under the law, and became subject to and obedient to it
in all things.
3. As Joshua succeeded Moses,
Christ succeeded the law.
4. As Joshua gave Israel what
Moses never could, God’s promised covenant blessing, so Christ gives us what
the law never can, God’s salvation (Rom. 8:2-4; Gal. 3:23-25).
5. As Joshua was the governor
of Israel, and the commander of their armies, for which he was well qualified
with wisdom, courage, and integrity; Christ is the King of saints, the Leader
and Commander of the people. He is the Captain of our Salvation. He has fought
our battles for us and won the victory for us. And, like Joshua, our Lord Jesus
Christ is an abundantly qualified Savior. God poured out his Spirit upon him
without measure. He was bold, courageous, mighty and pure.
6. Joshua was typical of our
Savior in his deeds, too. He led Israel people through the river Jordan, as
Christ leads us through baptism and through death. As Joshua saved Rahab and her family, so Christ saves the worst and chief
of sinners. As Joshua received the Gibeonites, who
submitted to him, so the Lord Jesus Christ receives all who come to him. As
Joshua conquered the kings of the Canaanites, so Christ has conquered all our
spiritual enemies for us (sin, Satan, and the world), making us more than
conquerors in him. Joshua brought the children of Israel into the land of
Canaan, their rest, and divided it to them by lot, which Moses could not do. So
our all-glorious Christ, and he alone, brings God’s elect into the true rest,
into spiritual rest here, and eternal rest hereafter. In him and by him we
obtain God’s salvation, all the blessings of his grace, and the inheritance of
the heavenly glory.
Let’s take a very brief look
at this man, Joshua, as the servant of God, and see what we can glean from his
life for our souls’ good.
Divinely
Prepared
When God is about to do
something, he prepares a person for the work and prepares the work or place of
service for that specific person. He spent eighty years preparing Moses to do a
forty year work. Our Lord Jesus was prepared by thirty years’ experience for
the work of three. And Joshua, like our Savior, was prepared by God to be
Israel’s deliverer.
Be sure you get the hint. If
we are God’s, if we are believers, if we are born of God, we are his servants.
If the Lord God ever uses you or me for anything, he will prepare us for that
specific thing, and he will prepare us just as he did Joshua and just as he did
the Lord Jesus as a man. How? How does God prepare his servants for his
service? He has many tools that he uses for this purpose.
Suffering
The first tool by which God
prepares his own to serve him is suffering and sorrow. Joshua was born into
slavery in Egypt. He knew what it was to suffer. Israel’s bondage in was Egypt
harsh and cruel. Yet, that was part of God's preparation of Joshua for his
calling (Ex. 3:7).
(Exodus
3:7) "And the LORD said, I have
surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows."
In the kingdom of God, no
one ever rises to the place of much usefulness, but by suffering. Abasement is
the path to exaltation and sorrow is the path to service.
That was the case with
Joshua. And that was the case with the Lord Jesus (Heb. 5:8-10; 1 Pet. 1:11).
(Hebrews
5:8-10) "Though he were a Son, yet
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; (9) And being made
perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
(10) Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec."
(1
Peter 1:11) "Searching what, or
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow."
The Apostle Paul exemplifies
this for us in his own experience in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Whatever our
struggles, sorrows, limitations, and losses may be in this world, they are
according to the wise and good purpose of our heavenly Father. Suffering is
God’s method of preparing us and maturing us (1 Pet. 4:13; 5:10).
“`Tis
my happiness below
Not to live without the
cross,
But my Savior’s power to
know,
Sanctifying every loss.—
Trials must and will befall;
But with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all
–
This is happiness to me.
God in Israel sows the seeds
Of affliction, pain, and
toil.
These spring up and choke
the weeds
Which would else o’erspread the soil.
Trials make the promise
sweet.
Trials give new life to
prayer.
Trials bring me to His feet,
Lay me low, and keep me
there.
Did I meet no trials here,
No chastisements by the way,
Might I not with reason fear
I should prove a castaway?
Bastards may escape the rod;
Sunk in earthly, vain
delight;
But the true born child of
God
Must not, would not, if he
might.”
William Cowper
(1
Peter 4:13) "But rejoice, inasmuch
as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."
(1
Peter 5:10) "But the God of all
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye
have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you."
Submission
Another instrument God uses
to prepare us for his service is submission. Grace teaches all who experience
it to submit to authority. At its very core faith is surrender to the dominion
of Christ, submission to divine authority (Lk. 14:25-33). Joshua was prepared
for his place of service by learning to submit to God’s authority, the authority
he had invested in Moses.
The Son of God submitted
himself to the will of God in all things, that he might be our Savior.
·
Isaiah 50:5-7
·
Gethsemane
·
Calvary
As Israel’s divinely
appointed prophet and leader in the wilderness Moses represented God’s
authority over them in both civil and spiritual matters, much as divinely
appointed pastors do today in spiritual things (Heb. 13:7, 17) and civil
magistrates do in civil matters (Rom. 13:1-7). Joshua, following Moses' orders,
honored God, served Israel and defeated the Amalekites
(Ex. 17). In those days he was known as the servant of Moses, staying with his
master and serving him faithfully. Men may have looked upon him as Moses’ “yes
man,” but he was really, in the highest sense possible, God’s servant (Jos.
11:15).
(Joshua
11:15) "As the LORD commanded Moses
his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing
undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses."
Patience
The Lord God prepared Joshua
to be his servant and prepares us to serve him, just as he prepared our Savior
in his manhood, by causing him to learn patience. We are all terribly impatient
by nature. Therefore God fixes it so that we have to wait on him, and learn to
prefer waiting on him. It had been forty years since Joshua and Caleb had gone
in to spy out the land. For forty years Joshua walked with Israel through the
wilderness, patiently waiting for him to give them the land. Now, he takes
Israel in to possess it, after forty years of waiting in patient faith.
Blessed are those who are
taught to wait on the Lord (Ps. 27:14; 37:7, 34; Pro. 20:22; Lam. 3:26). I am
often asked (by pastors and others who feel constrained to do something to
correct what they see as a bad situation), “What should I do? How should I handle
this?” My answer is almost always, “I do not know whether I could do it or not,
but I am sure the best thing for you to do is nothing. Just wait on the Lord.
He will work it out.” For my own part, I have never yet attempted to fix a
problem that I did not make worse, or make something happen I did not soon
regret.
(Psalms
27:14) "Wait on the LORD: be of
good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the
LORD."
(Psalms
37:7) "Rest in the LORD, and wait
patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth
in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."
(Psalms
37:34) "Wait on the LORD, and keep
his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut
off, thou shalt see it."
(Proverbs 20:22) "Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but
wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee."
(Lamentations
3:26) "It is good that a
man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD."
Joshua’s
Character
What kind of man was Joshua?
In a word, he was a man of faith, a man who believed God. That is what our Lord
Jesus exemplified above all else. And that is what it takes to serve him. We
cannot serve him, except as we believe him. Yet, our believing him is ever the
result of him giving us faith and sustaining it by his grace.
Obedient
Faith
In Joshua 1:8 God said to
him—"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."
In chapter 5 before the
battle of Jericho, Joshua found himself walking alone at night in front of the
walls. There he was confronted by the pre-incarnate Christ, who identified
himself as “Captain of the host of the Lord.”
Immediately, he fell flat on his face before the Lord. Throughout the days of
his service we find Joshua praying, seeking the will of God, endeavoring to
lead Israel according to the Word of the Lord in all things. After the failure
at Ai, knowing that the failure arose from his own sinful, self-confidence, we
see him on his face again, crying out to the Lord in preparation for the second
battle. Faithful men lead God’s people by people of prayer and by his Word. So
it was with Joshua, So it was with the Lord Jesus. And so it is with God’s
servants today.
Courageous
Faith
Four times in the first
chapter The Lord commanded Joshua to be courageous. It takes courage, divinely
given courage, to walk with God and serve him.
·
Christ was a man of enormous, perfect courage!
·
We have every reason to be courageous, as we walk with God and seek to
do his will.
Illustration: Martin Luther
General Omar Bradley defined bravery this way:
"the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death."
I do not doubt that Joshua
was fearful because the Lord spoke to and said, "Be not afraid because
of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before
Israel: thou shalt hock their horses, and burn their chariots with fire."
(11:6). Yet, he did what the Lord God called him to do. He won battle after
battle.
I know that I am often
fearful as I think about facing difficulties or assuming weighty
responsibilities. I have often spoken to the Lord like David, as I endeavored
to obey that which I knew to be his will, saying, “What time I am afraid, I
will trust in thee” (Ps. 56:3).
Obedience often involves
risks and demands moral courage, particularly when that obedience involves leading
others in the name of Christ.
Joshua's courage involved
much more than just fighting Israel’s enemies, great as that was. He had to
deal with sin in the camp of Israel after Achan had
taken the cursed things of the Babylonians in chapter 7. With great courage,
the courage of faith, he commanded Israel to stop procrastinating and take
their inheritance in chapter 17.
Humble
Faith
Joshua was God’s servant,
doing God’s work, for God’s glory. As such, he was a truly humbled man.
Humility, true humility, makes a man bold and courageous. True humility is the
recognition that I am weak and helpless, nothing I myself, but I am the servant
of God. As such, I lean not upon my own wisdom, strength, and ability, but his.
And with my God nothing is impossible (Phil. 4:13).
Joshua followed God's plans,
not his own. The conquest of Canaan was not a haphazard thing. It was very
carefully planned and executed. First Joshua captured the central hill country,
dividing it in half. Then he led Israel in conquest of the southern territory,
then the northern. He conquered the cities first, then more the rural areas.
Twice he led his men in forced marches through the night to take the enemy by
surprise. All along the way, we find him engaged in prayer, seeking God’s
direction.
There were a two notable
exceptions, two instances in which Joshua acted in self-confidence. He did not
seek the Lord’s direction before Ai, or before entering into the covenant with
the Gibeonites. Both times there he failed miserably.
But even his own failures did not induce him to quit, to give up his
responsibilities, or to abandon God’s cause and his people.
When he was defeated at Ai,
he acknowledged the failure, sought the face of the Lord, and went back and won
the battle. When he was tricked into making league with the Gibeonites,
he admitted the mistake publicly, and then he made it work to the benefit of
the nation and to God's glory.
There is a very important
lesson here. A persons faithfulness is not to be judged by isolated acts, but
by the tenor of his life. Faithful men are still only men at best, and often
fail. But they do the best they can and keep going when they know they have
erred, learning from their failures. Experience is a tough teacher. It always
gives the exam first and then teaches the lesson afterward. But there is no
teacher like it. Joshua turned to the Lord in his failures, found both
forgiveness and renewed strength, and continued serving the Lord God and his
people. How gracious God is! He not only uses a crooked stick to draw a
straight line, he forgives the crooks in the stick, and gets glory to himself
in using it (1 Cor. 1:26-31).
Being the man he was, humble
before God, Joshua enlisted others, and they trusted his spiritual authority as
God’s servant. He could not have done the job without the thousands who
followed his direction. The conquest of Canaan was not the work of one man. It
was the work of all Israel, those whose names stand out in the forefront of the
battles and those who served behind the lines, unseen and unknown by most.
Throughout this brief
history, Joshua’s troops consistently obeyed his orders, not because they were
afraid of him but because they respected him and trusted him as God’s servant.
He commanded their respect and loyalty by his character. What a picture he is
of what a pastor, or leader of any kind, ought to be. They knew that he was
serving the Lord God and serving them. More than that, he stands signally
before us as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s righteous Servant, who commands
our allegiance to him by his obedience for us (2 Cor. 5:14). Like our Savior,
Joshua was a truly humble servant of God.
Selfless
Faith
Joshua’s humility made him a
selfless man. I mean by that that he was a man who served others, not himself.
He was not moved, motivated, or guided by his own interests, but by the
interests of the church and kingdom of God. True faith is a gift of God that
makes people self-denying, self-sacrificing, and self-abasing.
Joshua was concerned for
Israel. He was not simply concerned only for their present state, but for their
future. His two farewell messages (chapters 23 and 24) display this fact
clearly. Men who think only of what they can get today are not faithful
servants of God. They are opportunists. God’s servants, like Joshua, and like
the Lord Jesus of whom he was a type, lay down their lives in the services of
eternity bound souls for the glory of God. They are not takers, but givers.
They do not use people. They are used for people.
God
Honoring Faith
Being a man of faith, a man
who believed God, Joshua lived for God’s glory. He sought the glory of God
above all else. When he served Moses (served God under Moses – Numbers 11) he
was very jealous in protecting Moses’ honor and reputation, because Moses was God’s
servant. He loved and honored Moses; but his zeal in honoring Moses arose from
his love for his God and his desire to honor him.
When Israel crossed the
Jordan river, he gave glory to the Lord. He said, “Hereby ye shall know that
the living God is among you” (Jos. 3:10). Once they had crossed over the
Jordan, Joshua erected a monument of stones to the perpetual praise and honor
of God (4:1-24), “That all the people of the earth might know the hand of
the Lord, that it is mighty: that
ye might fear the Lord your God
forever.” Throughout the book of Joshua he repeatedly gave God the glory
for everything that happened. It was the Lord who fought for them, the Lord who
conquered their enemies, the Lord who gave them the land to the people. Joshua
wanted the name of the Lord to be magnified in all the earth.
Again, he was in this
representative of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior’s unceasing prayer was, “Father,
glorify thy name.” If you and I are truly God’s servants, that is the
unceasing cry of our hearts as well.
The
Message
The message of these
twenty-four chapters is very clear—“Jesus saves!” As Joshua brought Israel into
the land of Canaan and gave them rest, so the Lord Jesus Christ will save his
people (Matt. 1:21). There is a people in this world who are his people. They
are his by his own eternal, sovereign choice. They are a people to whom God has
from eternity given all the blessedness of heaven and eternal glory as a
covenant promise (Eph. 1:3). And Christ shall save them. He shall bring them
all into the possession of their inheritance, for the glory of God.
Lessons
The Book of Joshua teaches
us much about our great God, as he is revealed in the person and work of his
dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua is the central figure in this Book. But
the Book is not about Joshua, or even the greatness of his faith. It is really
about Christ and the greatness of his grace and salvation. That is the key to
understanding the things recorded in these chapters.
1. God our Father in Christ is
a covenant keeping God.
He is the Lord our God
distinctly. Yes, he is God over all, “the Lord of all the earth” (3:11);
but he is our God, the God of his people Israel, distinctly. He claims us as
his own and declares himself to be ours. He takes a personal interest in us and
keeps his covenant forever.
2. Our great God keeps his
promises.
He is always faithful to his
Word. Every promise he made to Israel in his covenant with Abraham and verified
to Isaac and Jacob (Gen. 13:15; 15:18; 26:3; 28:4, 13), he fulfilled (Jos.
21:43-45; 23:14). Those five verses alone ought to be sufficient to end all the
rantings of prophecy gurus who imagine that God has
not yet fulfilled his promises to Israel. Joshua declared, by divine
inspiration, “not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you.”
3. How gracious, merciful, and
forgiving God is!
He who forgave the harlot Rahab, saving her and her house because of the blood of
Christ (represented in the scarlet cord she hung out her window), still
forgives sinners freely through the blood of his dear Son (Eph. 1:6).
Many look upon the slaughter
of the Canaanites by the command of God as being contrary to what I have just
said about God’s free forgiveness of sin. The question is often raised, “How
can a good, gracious, forgiving God kill people and send them to hell?”
The fact is—God’s goodness,
justice, and truth demand the punishment of sin. Yet, the goodness and grace of
God is seen throughout the Book of Joshua. It was the goodness of God that
delayed his judgment for centuries before bringing Israel into the land, giving
the inhabitants of the land space for repentance. Long before Joshua conquered
Canaan, the Lord God sent Abraham into the land as a missionary. There Abraham
walked with God, worshipped him, and bore witness to him; but the Canaanites
preferred their idols to the God of Abraham.
Before Israel came over
Jordan and took Jericho, the Lord graciously sent his reputation ahead of them,
provoking fear in the Canaanites. As a result of the gospel being brought into
Canaan, by some means or other, Rahab and her family
and the entire city of Gibeon believed God.
But God’s grace is seen in
his judgment, as well. In wrath, he remembers mercy. It was the grace of God
that wiped out that hopelessly decadent, idolatrous society, so that another
generation could grow up in a land where God was worshiped and honored. Yes,
the Lord God graciously and wisely raises up entire nations and treads down
entire nations for the salvation of his elect (Isa. 43:1-7).