Trust Christ!

Recall that in Joshua, Chapter 3, the Lord parts the Jordan and, in Chapter 4 the people memorialize the Lord’s provision as they see the dramatic unfolding of the promise. In Chapter 5 we see Joshua and the nation on the Canaan side of the River Jordan. We also are told that the kings of Canaan heard about the parting of the Jordan and were in great fear. We also learn that the Lord’s commands Joshua to circumcise the ‘sons of Israel.’

Though the text says, ‘circumcise the sons of Israel a second time’ it is not to be understood that they were already circumcised and were to be again circumcised. Obviously, from the rest of the passage, it becomes clear that their fathers, that rebellious generation, had not been circumcising their children during those years in the desert. Though it may have been inconvenient to circumcise their infant babies during their wanderings in the desert was certainly not a valid excuse since we know that the Lord does not command that which is harmful. No, the blame for not obeying the command to circumcise is properly put at the feet of that unfaithful generation.

Indeed, that older generation, though possessing all the marks of God’s covenant people, ‘… did not obey the voice of the LORD’ (verse 6). In 2 Corinthians 10, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul speaks of this generation, “I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food,all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ., with most of them God was not pleased.” And in addition, the Apostle warns us that, “… these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”

The point for us to consider is that though we may exhibit all the external signs of being a ‘Christian’ and hold membership among God’s flock, we may, at the same time, have no relationship with the Shepherd. We may live in God’s country but hate His rule. We can be fluent in ‘religious’ talk and scrupulously avoid all foul language; we may be able to explain correctly deep theological concepts; our lives may be praiseworthy examples of purity; yet not know Jesus Christ. This was apparently the situation with that original generation who the Lord, “would not let them see the land that the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give to us ...’ (verse 6). Note that that the first generation, who were formerly slaves in Egypt rescued by the Lord according to His covenant with Abraham, remained under the care and provision of God even though they showed no evidence of being God’s people. We may observe the same today as unbelieving church members gain some measure of ‘common’ grace, because of their association with the people of God, even though they do not have a relationship with Christ and do not share in the promise.

In contrast, the generation that had not been circumcised according to the Law, the Lord ‘raised up …’ (verse 7) a people to inherit the Promise! They had apparently been given ‘new natures’ that would enable them to love and obey their God (Deuteronomy 30:6). Both generations, those who rebelled in the desert, and those who stood on the far side of Jordan awaiting circumcision, deserved God’s judgment and eternal wrath. God was (and is!) merciful, according to the secret council of will, to save a great many—but not by, ‘the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1:12).

We may also consider that the Lord shows his steadfast love for his people – God promised to bring his people to the land – God always honors his promises. Though the first generation fell by unbelief, and therefore lost the right to inherit the land, God’s purpose was not thwarted. God doesn’t need a ‘plan-B’ in case people fail to cooperate. Men may fail to gain the benefits of the covenant by unbelief, but human unbelief may never negate the promise. Indeed, we may fail to gain the benefits of the covenant by our own unbelief - even as believers we often live with the consequences of our failure to trust and obey! Even so, the Lord sustains his people and if we are truly trusting in Christ alone, even our disobedience will not void his promise to us. Though we rest in the promises of God we also take care to examine ourselves to be sure we are truly trusting in Christ.

There is also another thing to consider here. That is though we may have unbelieving parents or parents who did not raise us in obedience to the commandments, we may still, by the mercy of God, become inheritors of the promise. This second generation, though their parents were condemned because of their unbelief, were ‘raised up’ (verse 7) by God as inheritors of his Promise. Though their parents did not have them circumcised in obedience to God’s Law, they did not inevitably fall into the sins of their fathers. This is a great assurance since many of us had ungodly parents, and many of us have been ungodly parents to our children. By God’s grace we may find hope in either one of these situations.

Puritan John Brown of Haddington (1780’s) wrote on this passage,

“the sins of the parents often, in a fearful manner, bereave their children of the seals of God’s covenant, or their happy virtue: but his mercy can remove the reproach and plague in his time. And by circumcision of their hearts, by feasting them on the flesh and blood of his Son, by giving them foretastes of the heavenly joys, and manifestations of himself as their leader and protector, he must prepare his people for their spiritual warfare such then as would courageously fight his battles should first solemnly devote themselves to him, and act faith upon him, in the use of his sacraments. But let us use the gospel manna while we have it; the time is at hand when it shall be no more offered …”

As to the actual circumcision we wonder why, as these folks were now on the ‘enemy’ side of the Jordan River, the Lord would choose to have them circumcised in such an unsecure location. Surely, the fighting men would have been incapacitated for at least a few days during their recovery. It is not reasonable to assume the surrounding Canaanites might take this opportunity to attack this ‘undefended invader’? Why not perform the surgery in the ‘safety’ of the opposite side of the Jordan before entering hostile territory? Or perhaps why not wait till after they had eliminated all enemy forces? Why not take the advantage of the high spirits of the people and attack the Canaanites now that their Kings were in such fear and trembling (verse 1)? Though the text doesn’t give a reason is it possible that the Lord is again demonstrating his preeminence in this situation? – He promised to protect them and this event is another reminder that they are to be confident in the Lord, and not to rely on strength of arms. Again the New Testament brings some clarity:

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh …” (2 Corinthians 10:4)

This, of course, is a re-occurring theme in the book of Joshua – God provides and protects – God’s people are to watch, and observe, and obey. In an age of pragmatism where we are urged to use whatever method seems likely to be successful this passage is a reminder that we need to trust the Lord and His commands rather than our own reasoning. We are often in a hurry to get results and move forward but our view, distorted by our self-imposed deadlines; our desire to please people; a desire to please our own egos; even our sincere desires to see the church and the gospel expand - may not be the Lord’s way. As we see from this section of the book of Joshua, the Lord does all things in His time and in His way. It does not appear that Joshua and the people were acting out of pragmatism or self-willed presumption! What we do see in this narrative is a people prepared to thoughtfully obey the commands of the Lord. May we also always trust and obey our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ!

Next month we will look at the ending of the Lord’s provision of manna and the amazing appearance of the magnificent Commander of the Lord’s Army!

Robin

Joshua Chapter Two

Beautiful Grace

Last month we looked at Joshua chapter 1 and the importance of looking to the Book of the Law. This month I want to look at the narrative in Chapter 2. This chapter relates the encounter between the two spies and the harlot Rahab. I find it interesting because the Book of Joshua is mainly about the Lord’s commissioning of Joshua and the possession of the Promised Land by the Israelites. So why did the author of Joshua include this interlude about a pagan prostitute?

We want to recognize the reality of who Rahab was – the Hebrew word used in verse one is, zonah, which means harlot or prostitute. Whether she was a ‘sacred’ prostitute serving in one of the Canaanite fertility shrines or just a common harlot is not really important – according to the Commandments she was a sinner. Now it is easy to get distracted at this point – she also lies to the Jericho police when questioned about the spies. We can spend a whole lot of energy debating whether it is right, in some circumstances, to lie. But the writer is apparently not concerned about debating her status as a harlot or her lies.

As a side note, we need to remember the difference between what the Bible records and what the Bible approves. Here, as in many other places, the Bible neither approves nor disapproves of Rahab’s occupation or her lies to the authorities. The biblical writer ignores these ethical implications because there is a more important point to be made. As we read the Bible we need to remember to distinguish between what the Bible records and what the Bible requires. The Bible reports that Jacob had four wives; it is hardly encouraging us to do the same.

Chapter 2 is organized as a classic story – verse 1 sets up the story by telling us that the spies were sent by Joshua to get some intel about what might be the best way to attack the city. Verse 2 and 3 presents the antagonist who threatens the spies and Joshua’s plans. Verses 4 through 7 we are told of her deception in sending the police on a wild goose chase. This would make a great movie! All the elements of drama are brought into play and we are now sitting on the edge of our seats wondering how it will all work out! The divinely inspired author has brought us to the point of maximum interest and here he relates the main point – God’s beautiful grace to undeserving sinners.

First, Rahab tells us that she knows about the Lord. Isn’t it true that biblical faith comes by obtaining some measure of information? Verse 10 she says, “we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.” This is the normal way of coming to faith – we must know at least something about the object of our faith. And we really cannot grow without learning more about the one who we trust. This is one of the ways we recognize genuine faith: believers need and want to know more about the one we are trusting in for salvation. Faith is not just some warm and fuzzy feeling about God: if it is a real faith it will result in a desire to know more about God. Rahab knew something about God and that was enough for her to see her desperate need.

Now the pagan harlot makes the great confession in verse 11: “for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.“ She acknowledges the ultimate sovereignty of God. This, by the way, was the same conclusion the Israelites were to confess as recorded in Deuteronomy 4:39.

Confessing her belief in God she then confesses her need for His mercy. In verses 12-13 she makes her plea for mercy. And this is the way of true, saving faith; she not only has an intellectual knowledge of God but also a realization of her dreadful predicament as an object of God’s wrath. She sees her desperate need to escape the coming wrath of God. Not merely trusting in the knowledge she gained about God, she recognized her desperate need. Saving faith is always like this – knowing some truth about God and recognizing that we need to run to Him for refuge. Today we have the Law, to tell us about God, and God’s grace, expressed in the marvelous gospel, to deliver us from the consequence of our breaking that same Law. What might cause her (and us) to expect mercy from such a God as this? Only the merciful work of grace in her heart caused her to turn to God in faith!

The result of Rahab’s faith is that she was saved. She was saved from destruction when the Israelites attacked the city and we learn from the New Testament that she was saved from eternal destruction. Furthermore, she was named in the Great Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11:31), and so honored as to be a direct ancestress of Jesus the Messiah (Matthew 1:5).

But would she be welcome in the church today? After all, isn’t the church for respectable, clean, middle class folks? Rahab’s past did not bother the writers of the New Testament and apparently she was welcomed into the Old Testament church in Israel – Joshua 6:25 tells us that, “Rahab the prostitute … Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day”. Though we may not approve of the actions of sinners we must remember that there is no distinction between sinners saved by the Grace of God in Christ Jesus - we are brothers and sisters with the same testimony - we are great sinners but Christ is a great Savior!

So truly, God’s grace is beautiful. We may wonder why Rahab was apparently the only one in the city of Jericho to be saved … we may wonder why so many in that city made such a dreadful choice to rebel and fight against the Lord … we do not know these things but we do know that today is the day of salvation and we all have to make a choice: shall we flee to the world for protection with its strong walls, or shall we flee to the God who is “in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” We see from this chapter that there are none too sinful or outcast to be saved. We look not to our selves but to only see our need for Him, and our need to trust in Christ. Flee to Christ!.

Robin

I want to credit the commentary by Dale R. Davis, No Falling Words, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, which I found helpful in writing this article.

I recommend this book to any who may wish to dive into the book of Joshua!

Joshua Chapter One

“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.”

Let’s look at the book of Joshua. The book starts with the death of the great Moses. Moses was that faithful leader of the Israelites as they were delivered by God from slavery in Egypt. He led the people through the waters and through the desert. Moses delivered God’s law, the Ten Commandments, to the people and instructed them in all the ways of the Lord. Formerly slaves but now a nation with a legal system for judging disputes and leadership charged with leading them into the Promise Land; all this because of the man that God chose – the man Moses! With the death of Moses there must have been a great temptation to despair – who would lead them to that land of milk and honey?

Unless you have lost a parent you may not understand the empty, fearful feeling that comes when someone you trust is gone. Perhaps some have experienced the desertion of one you formerly called a trusted friend – a beloved pastor perhaps, or even the death or divorce of a spouse. The unthinkable had happened to the Israelites – Moses was the beloved leader a whole generation had looked to for leadership; and now he was gone. We know that Moses was a type of Christ and we also know that in those days after the crucifixion, when the Lord Jesus was in the grave, the disciples had a similar experience of loss and abandonment - but not for long! Like the disciples, we have a great shepherd that lives forever and is forever faithful.

Because the Lord works by means, He had prepared another to take Moses’ place -the man Joshua. My first point is that God will never leave his people without an under- shepherd. We may trust the LORD to provide this shepherd. It might come from an unlikely source, Joshua was best known as a man of warfare, but until Christ returns, the Lord will always provide a shepherd with the necessary gifts.

God will provide a shepherd but will we recognize the shepherd when the Lord brings him? The second point to be observed is that true shepherds, called by the Lord, will follow the same command that was given to Joshua – verse 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.” God’s shepherd will do all that is written in the Book of the Law. The shepherd that doesn’t do all that is written in the Book of the Law would be the false shepherds that the Scripture warns us about. Consider this: a flock that either doesn’t know the Book of the Law or doesn’t trust in the sufficiency of the Book of the Law will easily fall prey to false shepherds. And we see the people’s responsibility reflected in the contract that the Israelites made with Joshua in verse 17; “Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses!” They were faithful followers because they knew and trusted the word of the Lord and followed Joshua trusting that he would walk with God as Moses had walked with God. I don’t think this statement was unqualified: they were saying, ‘if you follow the Lord like Moses followed the Lord, we will follow you!’ The applications here are many: one application being, if you are a young woman hoping to married one day, your search for a partner will include the above question, that is, is this young man a suitable mate who will ‘do all that is written in the Book of the Law’? If you are an unmarried man, are you one who sincerely desires to ‘do all that is written in the Book of the Law’? Likewise, are you the man that a young lady might say, ‘the LORD your God is with you …’ because of your obedience to His law? Space won’t allow me to make more applications to this so I will leave you to ponder on your own ...

Granted, no man will perfectly do all that is written in the Book of the Law. It is the essence of the gospel - Christ is the only one who perfectly obeyed all that is written in the Book of the Law – indeed, that is what saves us; Christ’s obedience to all that the Father commanded and Christ’s sacrificial death dealing with His people’s sins, once for all. Joshua and Moses were saved also by faith in the perfect life and atoning death of the Christ to come – they were not saved by perfect obedience to the Law! But we also say that holy living is important – we ought to obey all of God’s law and we can see evidence of true regeneration by the quality of the lives that we live. On the other hand, the false shepherd will deny the importance of the Book of the Law in our personal holiness. False shepherds will teach a legalistic view of the Law or may teach that the Law is not relevant. Legalism teaches that we obey the Law to be ‘saved’ and the opposite view teaches that obedience to the Law of God is unimportant.

A third point to be made in this chapter is the question of where did Joshua come from? Did he just appear from nowhere? We see in Numbers 11:28 that he was Moses assistant from ‘his youth.’ Joshua was a faithful man for many years before being called into the position of assistant. We first hear from Joshua in Exodus 17:8 when Moses chooses him to lead a war party against the Amalekites at Rephidim. Do you suppose Moses first task for Joshua was this extremely important and difficult task of leading a war party? Probably not. Indeed, we see from the wisdom books that the one who is trusted with little may be trusted with much. Even Jesus implies this in the parable of the talents; the one who invests the little he has been given and makes it greater will be entrusted with even more. But the one who has little and miserly keeps it will lose what he has. Undoubtedly Joshua was given a series of ‘small’ tasks and faithfully performed those tasks prior to the larger tasks to come.

Many hope for greatness but are unwilling to labor at the ‘small’ tasks. We know that one of those things recovered in the Reformation was the value of work. The medieval church believed that only the clergy did work that was ‘holy’ or truly valuable in God’s sight. The reformers taught rightly that all work was holy work and ought to be done, ‘to the Lord.’ Not only was the preacher doing meaningful work but also the farmer and the maid. Our hope is that a reformational (biblical) view of work will cause Christians to be the best of workers even when the task may be ‘small’ or tedious, or even a task that the world might call insignificant. And if God calls you to faithfully spend your whole life doing nothing but those ‘small’ things, at the end of your days, can you really say that you are a failure?

The application here is clear: are you a person who is willing to do the ‘small’ things to the Glory of God? Or are you too busy dreaming of those ‘great’ things that you might do if given the chance. We believe that the church is the one who chooses its own leadership – men recognized for their faithfulness in seeing what needs to be done and doing it in obedience to the revealed will (the scriptures) of God. True, understanding and agreeing with the doctrines taught in the Bible is essential, but knowledge without holiness, which includes a holy ‘busyness’, is the proper consequence of holding right doctrine. I say ‘holy busyness’ because I am not sure there is such a thing as holiness exhibited in passivity where one does nothing but sit in a corner! I know, on the other hand, that there is an un-holy busyness where lots of bad things happen. What I am trying to say is that if you believe and profess all the right doctrine but live with no concern for your obedience to the Lord’s commands, your faith is counterfeit.

The fourth and final point I want to make is that when the Lord called Joshua to this great task of leading the Israelites into the Promise land he did not find it necessary to give, ‘new revelation.’ The Lord did speak to Joshua but he merely re-stated the promises previously given. The same promise that he gave to Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph - the promise that they would inherit ‘the land.’ The great tragedy of our times is to live in a culture where the modern church vainly searches for ‘new revelations’ of God’s promises. Has He not graciously made those promises clear in the scriptures? The new covenant is not a national promise about inheriting ‘the land’ but about that much greater inheritance: life eternal in fellowship with Christ! And with the promise of salvation we also have God’s self-revelation about how we ought to live and worship in obedience. Yet we seem driven to find new and different ways to ‘obey’ according to our imaginations. Pray that we might always find satisfaction in living life in obedience to that great, ‘Book of the Law.’