Joshua

The Conquest: The Message of Joshua

Old Testament Historical Books (#1)

Mark Dever

5-11-2002

Are there reasons why things happen? Is there any other meaning to events beyond their causes? Many think there cannot be a greater meaning because that would endanger our freedoms. Here, we're looking at the nation of Israel, not the modern state, but the one formed by God’s promises to Abraham. If we can come to understand the history recorded here, we will come to understand our own history.

    In the Bible's Table of Contents, you'll see 12 historical books, Joshua through Esther, which cover about a thousand years, basically in chronological order.  In these books we begin to see God dealing with a people He has set apart for His own purposes.  This is an overview study, designed to cover an entire book in one sermon. I'll also be applying this sermon to one person individually this Sunday, Michael Lawrence, our new Associate Pastor.

    Outline of Joshua: 24 chapters.  1-12: conquest of the land of Canaan; 13-24: division of the land.  Why was it written?  It seems there was a lot to be explained in ancient Israel, and this book seems to be a way of setting the record straight, to answer questions. What we want to see is: 1) What happened in this book?  and 2) Why?

What happened in this book?  This book is in one sense about choices. 

The People's Choices

These people were doing what their parents had chosen not to do: invade the land of Canaan and destroy their enemies.  Ch. 6 is the amazing story of the taking of Jericho.  The other chapters deal with key campaigns.  This conquest was not a campaign for political control, but--we need to be clear-- it was a campaign to utterly destroy those living in the land (6:21). This is what they did to Jericho, to the southern cities, and to the northern cities.  Because of this, to many people, Joshua is one of the most difficult books in the Bible.  In an earlier series of 5 sermons, I dealt with some of the objections people often raise about this book.  The second half of the book deals with people dividing up the land they had conquered.

In doing all this the people vowed they would fear and obey God.

Have you noticed the people voiced their own understanding of their actions?  Ch 1, ch 5.  In ch. 5, they restart the practice of circumcision.  Again they are vowing they will have the Lord as their God.  At the end of ch. 8, they listen to Joshua read them all the law of Moses, a kind of reenactment of Sinai.  At the end of the book, ch. 24, Joshua led them to renew their commitment to God.  He sounds like he is trying to dissuade them from the choice, but he's just underscoring the seriousness of the choice they are making.  The people said, We will serve the Lord our God and obey Him.  For decades, that's exactly what they did.

   This comes out most clearly in ch. 22, where the eastern tribes build their own altar. At first the other tribes are alarmed, because God's worship was to be central.  But the altar was to remind them that they worshipped God alone.

    We see such faithfulness perfectly in Christ.  He followed the Father as no one else ever has.  We are called as Christians to profess our faith in Christ and to follow Him. Like the people of Israel, we publicly profess our allegiance to God.  We do this in our church covenant, in baptism, and in the Lord's Supper.

They chose also to sin.

And that sin had disastrous consequences.  There are more examples of sins of omission, failing to do what they should have done.

     One sin of commission: Achan stole things from Jericho that were supposed to be destroyed, utterly and completely, because they were dangerous.

    Sins of omission. 9:14: The people of Gibeon came in disguise and lied to the Israelites and made a treaty.  The Israelites did not inquire of the Lord--the elders didn't pray before making the treaty. This led to future problems.  More often the sin of omission occurred when, as in 13:1, the people failed to take portions of land they were supposed to take.  They cut corners.  Joshua had to urge them to get on with the process.

    You need to understand sin to understand this book, and your life.  The Bible tells us that God made us in His image, but that we rebelled against His authority in our lives.  Remember the last time you did something wrong.  Those feelings of guilt you had are just the tip of the iceberg of your recognition that you have a great mass of sin, not just against other people or yourself but against God.  This sin is the dramatic backdrop of the judgment of God against these people.  Examine yourself, your own heart. Pray that God help you see the sins of omission in your life, things you have not done, as well as your sins of commission.  Pray that He grant you the repentance unto life.  Christ who did not sin, took the punishment for the sin of those who will turn from their sin and trust in Him.

    Michael, consider the sin of failing to pray. May God never leave you alone with only your own wits to serve as a guide to us.  Pray that God give you a sensitive heart.  Your sins will affect your family and us as well.  The church's health is never enhanced by even the least member's sin, but no one's sin damages the church more than the pastor's.

God's Choices

Joshua is even more fundamentally about God's choices.  It was God who had chosen them, so God fought for them, and God gave them the land. 

  -  This is the language used in this book. Joshua exhorts them to consecrate themselves because the Lord will do amazing things among you (3:5).  The success happened 10:42 "because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel."  We know that God is going to do this because Joshua in ch. 5 encounters the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

  -  God's involvement is also made clear by all the miracles.  God sustained them in the desert by manna.  He stopped the Jordan river, made Jericho's walls fall, brought hail, caused the sun to stand still.  The Lord is said to have given them cities and even armies (ch. 21). We have a sovereign God who can act and yet we are free to choose.  The Bible clearly teaches both.  The Lord Himself hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel so that He might destroy them totally (11:20).  God presents Himself as central in this story.  It's not just a story about liberation but about the God who liberates.  It's not just a story about conquest, but it's a story about the God who conquers.  In chapter 24:2ff., he retells all of Old Testament history in a few sentences. "You did not do it with your own sword and bow."  All of the history of the Bible has God at the very center.  To understand history and our lives we must understand this.

    If you are here as a Christian you have experienced this good sovereignty of God. He has given you forgiveness of sins and has changed your heart.  You couldn't have done this in your own life.  Don't you see the hand of God in your own obedience?  Surely you don't ascribe it to your own virtue.  You obeyed God in this instance.  Why did you obey?  Be careful to see the hand of God in the small instances of your life. God acted to thwart even your very plans to sin.  Because He loved you so.  Even if you cannot see the hand of God in your calamities, can you not believe it was there? 

    Michael, so that you will be as humble as you must be in success, you must believe in the sovereign goodness of God and you must labor to see it and take note of it in your life.  So must we all.

   -  The people vowed to fear God but they could only do so because God had taken the initiative.  We must note that God commanded His people to destroy the people of the land.  That's not just a slip of the pen; it occurs elsewhere (6:17, 7:12, 8:2). It was the will of God.  It was a pronounced destruction.  The Bible is full of deep judgments, all of them foreshadowings of the final judgment on the last day, previews of the coming judgment, and all echoes of the fall of man, in which we spurned God and called down His judgment.  Every day since then has been a day of God's mercy in forestalling judgment.  He sees our sins, crying out for judgment, but He is patient. He shows mercy.  But He will not finally endure injustice but will pour out the wrath that we so richly deserve.  If we are His, Christ has taken that judgment on Himself.

    The Canaanites had spent more of God's mercy with each sin, heedless of their own conscience, worshipping the fertility cult, killing their children.  Finally God said enough, and His mercy toward them expired.  That judgment Joshua and the Israelites were part ministers of.  God commanded the Israelites to do this as He commanded them in other matters.  Now the promises He had made centuries earlier were coming to pass.

    This Abrahamic promise does not mean that this land will be eternally a special concern by God; we await a new heaven and earth.  It doesn't mean that his descendants have an inalienable right to that land; Paul redefines the new children of Abraham as children of the promise. No nation state today is an ethnic people with a special covenant with God; Israel was so only as a preparation for God's Messiah.  God's people today is an international group.

    We're not called to make war against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers; this is a real war and it is being waged even now around the world.  Are the things He calls us to do the things that conquer your heart: Christ's command to love your neighbor and to go and tell all nations?  Michael, make these your concerns and teach us to do the same.

 

   -  When the people chose to sin, God persevered with the people.  Notice all the piles of stones in the book.  Each one is a reminder of a time God did something.  Each is a reminder of redemption.  God was utterly faithful.

     Have you considered your own need for God's mercy?  Do you see your own spiritual poverty?  That's where we must all begin with God.  The Christian church is not a congregation of the self-righteous but a congregation founded on a recognition of our spiritual poverty.

 Michael, labor to make your heart soft before God, to remember times when God showed you mercy and share them with us.

The answer to the main question, "Why?" (4:24--this is a verse to memorize):

The Lord your God... did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord your God is powerful, and so that you [God's people] might fear the Lord your God.  God had acted for His own glory.  Even the raising of Joshua as a leader was for God's own glory (3:7).  Moses renamed Joshua--the Lord is salvation--another version is "Jesus".  If God blesses a minister of God's Word, you can be sure His purpose is not the glory of that minister but His own glory.  Michael, may God make you so transparent that His glory shines through you.