The Mission of God

10 And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, 11 “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’ ”

12 And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, 13 “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’ 14 Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them, 15 until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of

the land that the Lord your God is giving them.

Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.” 16 And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.

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! 18 Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death

. Only be strong and courageous.”

God is no bystander - it is his mission and his mission is the only mission that matters and he his always faithful to the mission. Without the faithfulness of the Lord they are just sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered. If God is not for you then he is against you. God will accomplish His mission the only question is are we in alignment with what he is doing.

A Faithful Past

Joshua is the chief character of the book that bears his name, but his story does not begin in Joshua.

It actually begins in Exodus and continues in the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy.

In fact,

Joshua appears twenty-seven times in these narratives, each time painting a picture of exemplary faithfulness.

Joshua is not a self made man - he has been shaped by time spent with Moses/ Moses was a man that God was with - a man who is writing scripture that we read to this day.

he has been shaped by his experiences years before the venture into the promised land. Wherever you are in your journey the final act of your life may be the defining act of your life. What is God preparing you for?

Joshua will never attribute the victories that he will stack up to his military genius. He will never take the credit. Not that he isn’t a military genius but that his human genius tops out and it is them only God who will give him the victory.

This isn’t really about God and Joseph teaming up/ working together. This is about a man who submits himself to God, to God’s law, to God’s word, to God’s ways, in obedience and surrender he will experience great success.

in his battles against the enemies of Israel he will always and only attribute his success to the faithfulness of His God.

The First Battle

The first appearance of Joshua in the Bible is in Exodus 17:8–16, which tells of the very first battle the tribes of Israel had after they had been led out of Egypt

by Moses and crossed the desert to Rephidim.

The battle was against the Amalekites, a semi-Semitic tribe that occupied the wide desert region between the southern borders of Palestine and Mount Sinai.

Moses gave Joshua command of the Jewish troops in this battle.

From the very first, Joshua was the leading soldier of Israel under the overall command of Moses.

The significant part of the story is the description of how the battle was actually won. and the fact that this was to be recorded in the Book of the Law for Joshua’s later remembrance and benefit.

We are told that while Joshua was leading the armies of the Lord against the Amalekites,

Moses went up on a hill overlooking the battlefield and raised his hands as a sign of God’s blessing.

As long as Moses’s hands were up, the Israelites were winning. But when he grew tired and lowered his hands, the Amalekites would begin to defeat Israel.

This became clear to Aaron and Hur, who were with Moses, so they had Moses sit on a large rock while they stood on either side of him and supported his arms.

They did this until sunset, by which time the armies of the Amalekites were overcome.

I cannot doubt that this was intended as a lesson for Joshua and that he learned it permanently and well.

God could have given them the victory without Moses’s raised arms, as he did on numerous other occasions.

In this, the first battle of Israel,

Moses’s raised arms were undoubtedly God’s way of showing that the battle is not to the swift or to the mighty but that it is the Lord’s.

It is God who gives victory.

that didn’t mean there wasn’t loss of life, that didn’t mean that every battle was won, it did mean that the victory was decisive, nobody had any doubt that the mission of the God was Israel was advancing. And God would ultimately prevail.

Joshua would always have to do his best to be an outstanding general, he would succeed at that calling only to the extent that the Lord blessed him. He would have to seek that blessing.

Mount Sinai

The second time we see Joshua is at Mount Sinai, to which Moses was called by God to receive the law.

When Moses went up the mountain, Joshua went with him, stopping partway.

He stayed at his post on the mountain during the entire forty days that Moses was meeting with God: from Exodus 24:13, where he is first mentioned,

to Exodus 32, when Moses came back down the mountain, joined Joshua, and moved to repress the rebellion that had erupted in the camp.

because Moses did not return in a timetable that was suitable for them the hardness of their hearts erupted in making gods to worship,

Joseph gets insight into just how quickly we can turn against the Lord who saves us. He gets to see just how fickle we all can be.

Exceedingly formative period in Joshua’s life.

Exodus 24:13, which mentions him specifically,

is preceded by verses telling how Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel (including Joshua) “went up [into the mountain] and saw the God of Israel.

Exodus 24:10–11 (ESV)

10 and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. 11 And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

This surprising passage seems to describe a foretaste of something like what we call the great marriage supper of the Lamb. They saw God and actually ate and drank in his presence.

If this experience was anything like Isaiah’s experience of seeing the Lord high and lifted up, which he describes in the sixth chapter of his prophecy, then

Joshua and the others must have been shaken by this inescapable revelation of God’s holiness.

This would have increased Joshua’s horror at the rampant sin later discovered in the camp when the Israelites indulged in their orgy around the golden calf.

Joshua would have learned that sin is an abomination that cannot be tolerated among those who profess to be God’s people.

he would never look at sin the same way again

Central to God's character is the quality of holiness. Yet, even so, most people are hard-pressed to define what God's holiness precisely is. Many preachers today avoid the topic altogether because people today don't quite know what to do with words like "awe" or "fear." R. C. Sproul, in this classic work, puts the holiness of God in its proper and central place in the Christian life. He paints an awe-inspiring vision of God that encourages Christian to become holy just as God is holy.

Once you encounter the holiness of God, your life will never be the same.

The Spies

The most revealing of these many references to Joshua in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy is the story of the sending of the twelve spies into the Promised Land in Numbers 13 and 14.

As far as the land itself was concerned, the reports of the twelve spies agreed: It was a land flowing with milk and honey, a good land. They even brought back a huge cluster of grapes, pomegranates, and figs as proof of the land’s fertility.

But this is where the similarity ended. Ten of the twelve spies added:

But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.

The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.… We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.… The land we explored devours those living in it.

All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim).

We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.

Numbers 13:28–29, 31–33

Of all the spies, only two, Joshua and Caleb, thought differently. Caleb said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (Num. 13:30).

The people of the land were the same, regardless of who was looking at them.

did that change the promises of God - not a chance

Joshua 1:10 for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’ ”

The difference in the reports was due solely to whether the spies

had their eyes on God, as was the case with Joshua and Caleb,

or whether they had forgotten God, which was the case with the ten others.

Some of the people of the land were giants; Caleb later asked to conquer some of them. But when the spies kept their eyes on God, the giants shrank to manageable proportions.

The two spies were right to say, “We can certainly do it.” Later on in the story they add,

“The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us” (Num. 14:7–8).

On the other hand, when the ten forgot God, the giants seemed overwhelming and they appeared to be grasshoppers in their own eyes.

The people of Israel decided to follow the majority report, forgetting God and despising his promise.

For this they had to wander in the wilderness for the next thirty-eight years, until all who were over the age of twenty at this time died.

This was a watershed moment, a tragic one.

Nevertheless, it was a great moment for Caleb and Joshua. These two stood for God and his promises, and they were still operating this way nearly forty years later, when they again stood at the border of the land.

Joshua learned that the majority is not always right.

He learned that disbelief is fatal.

He learned that the only thing that matters in the long run is trusting and obeying God.

He did obey; he was faithful to the very end.

Time to Take Possession

69-79

Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your provisions ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own.’ ”

It was because God had said, “Get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give them—to the Israelites” (Josh. 1:2), that

Joshua declared, “Get your supplies ready.

Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own” (Josh. 1:11).

This concludes a very auspicious start to Joshua’s ministry.

Where are we? Where is Joseph? Where is God? God is moving his mission forward. Either we are moving with the mission of God or we are opposing it some way or another. God does not change nor does God alter his mission. The only question is where are we in relationship to His mission?

God is with him.

The people are with him.

Plans are already afoot to cross the river, and soon they will be at Jericho,

the fortress city that guards the entry to the land of promise.

All this is guided and orchestrated by God himself.

He is the central character of this chapter,

as he is of the whole enterprise that the book will go on to describe.

We are not Joshua, and we cannot put ourselves precisely in his shoes.

But as Jesus mediates to us, his rescued people, the mind and will of the unseen Father, through his teaching we do stand in a similar position

—dependent on God’s word to lead us and called to a life of faith and obedience.

We all know what it is to need courage for an unseen future and faith in God’s promises to generate obedience to his commands.

What strikes me in this chapter is the divine urgency about it all.

The People Respond(1:16-18)

joshua 1:16-18

“And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 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! Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.””

Joshua responds to and was ready to move forward in the strength that God would provide.

Joshua told the tribes that were going to stay on the east side of the Jordan River to get ready to help their brothers secure their land. The people respond,

16“Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.

17 Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses.

18 Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words,

whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”

The people say, “We’re with you Joshua!”

As you read further into Joshua you will see that the people did go into battle and were courageous. God did fight for them in remarkable ways.

But note something else.

God had prepared to give them 300,000 square miles of land. History shows, that the people claimed only 30,000 square miles. That’s only 10% of the blessing God had in store for them.

These people started strong but lacked the endurance and perseverance to obtain all God had for them.

Please heed the warning.

We have all been people who started out fervently for the Lord but seemed to become impatient or even bored with the process.

We lacked perseverance.

If we want to overcome the obstacles of life we must dig in and be ready to follow faithfully for the rest of our lives. Like Paul we must

“I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14)

All progress in our discipleship begins by God speaking with clarity (and often persistence) through the Scriptures, commanding and promising, and then the Spirit of God applying that word of truth so relevantly and potently that we cannot escape its demand.

This is the purpose of God’s commission—a life that trusts and obeys, which is a life that he can use.[1]

Everybody Has to be In

The people as a whole have to claim the land that Yahweh is giving.

Joshua is the leader of the people and he works through the officers of the people. Ultimately, however, it is the people as a whole who have to claim the land that Yahweh is giving.

But there is an immediate problem that Joshua must face, which is that two and a half tribes (Reuben, Gad, Manasseh) have already settled in the trans-Jordan.

Although this is technically outside the boundaries of the land (and this will be an important issue in Josh. 22),

Yahweh had approved this arrangement provided they joined their kinsfolk in claiming the land that was promised;

otherwise, they could not settle in this land.

Joshua’s task here is to remind them of their previous commitment and ensure that all are settled.

That is why he needs to remind them of the previous arrangement made with Moses, by which they could build cities for their families and folds for their flocks,30

but must leave them and cross the Jordan with those who would be occupying the Promised Land.

The eastern tribes thus need to obey Yahweh’s word through Moses, though in doing so they will also have to show great faith in Yahweh that he will keep their families and possessions while the men join the rest of Israel in battle.

For Joshua, it is particularly important that all Israel participate in claiming the land that Yahweh is giving.

There is no space here for one group to decide that they already have all that they need and thus to leave the others to fend for themselves.

That Joshua has to speak this way to these tribes indicates that this is a risk he is already facing.

Rather, the demands of faithfulness on those who already have their land are even greater because of the need to leave all behind while entering the land with their compatriots.

Only when Yahweh has enabled those tribes settling across the Jordan to have rest in the land will they be able to return to the rest that he has already granted them.

It is this that the eastern tribes accept as they in turn encourage Joshua to faithfulness, for they too know that they can only find rest if Yahweh is present.

The unity of the people in the purposes of God was vital to the full enjoyment of God’s gifts.

Joshua was well aware that such unity was difficult to maintain, as is particularly evident in chapter 22, though not only there.

How Israel would move from the unity needed to claim the land to the unity needed to retain the land was a challenge that was never entirely resolved—but this does not remove the importance of this unity.

As a parallel to this we might note that when Christians are working together in the work of the gospel, it is the gospel work itself that enables us to cooperate.

especially in the early days of some work; but that cooperation becomes more difficult when the work is more settled.

Evangelical Christians seem to find it easier to separate from one another than to work together.

However, as we face more resistance to our message, especially in the West,

We need to be reminded of the importance of working together because, however much we have achieved in the past, the work continues to lie ahead of us. And for this we need to work with one another.

They are to be faithful and active until the land is conquered. Upon carrying out their assignment and after Joshua has distributed lots to the nine and a half tribes on the west side of the Jordan, then and only then will these two and a half tribes be allowed to return to their families on the east side of the Jordan.

Individualism is opposed to God’s blueprint for his people, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

All believers must take responsibility for the ministry of “one-anothering” one another.

We are to be the church of an undivided Christ and not reflect a Christ of a divided church: “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink” (1 Cor 12:13).

The consequence of a person from the two and a half tribes reneging on their commitment was death.

How does the failure of one member of the body of Christ impact the effectiveness of the church?

The people had not “fully obeyed” Moses, of course, and they would not fully obey Joshua. But that did not faze Joshua. He held on and did his duty to the very end.

Joshua would lead the people into battle knowing they would be invincible as long as God continued on their side.

People follow a leader like that because to follow him is to follow God. This is why we find the chapter closing with the words: “Then they [the people] answered Joshua, ‘Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!’ ” (Josh. 1:16–18).

So Israel here stood at a point of transition—a change from one leader to another, a change from one way of life to another. But

One thing was consistent: they were still the people of God. They still had his promises and they still needed to live in obedience to him. Their hope did not depend upon their leader, no matter how effective Joshua was. Their hope, and ours, depended upon God alone as they were obedient and committed to him. [2]

[3]

[1]Jackman, D. (2014). Joshua: People of God’s purpose (R. K. Hughes, Ed.; p. 31). Crossway. 29 Num. 32. Cf. Deut. 3:12–20. 30 Num. 32:24. [2]Firth, D. G. (2015). The Message of Joshua (A. Motyer & D. Tidball, Eds.; pp. 39–41). Inter-Varsity Press. [3]Boice, J. M. (2005). Joshua(pp. 25–26). Baker Books.

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