Hoshea or Joshua?

Hoshea or Joshua?

May 5, 2023

Ben Malone

Good morning, Church, how is everyone doing this morning? I am so excited to speak today about one of my favorite people in God’s word. Someone who when I say his name you will immediately know the typical stories. One of the most impactful people in all of God’s people that literally shaped and formed God’s people and his land.

Let us pray before we begin today:

I want you take a walk with me. We are standing on the eastern banks of the Jordan River. As we stand there and look across the river and see the “Promised Land” we can almost taste the milk and honey. We’re tired because all we have done for the last 40 years is walk in the wilderness. There is a pillar of fire above us in the sky that has guided us since leaving Egypt. Our great leader Moses is dead and now there is a young man named Joshua commanding us. Joshua cries out to rally us together to prepare for the crossing of the Jordan River even though were days away from the Passover Festival (Jos 4:19) We all stand there looking at this river overflowing its banks and wonder how are we going to cross, but we believe in Joshua so we begin to pack up camp. Then, we see the priests begin to carry the ark of the covenant through the camp headed to the overflowing river. The priests walk toward the river as if they are just going to walk across on top of the water. As soon as their feet touched the river the water that was just overflowing its banks now stood still as the night. In amazement we all stood still until our leader Joshua cries out for us to cross into the Promised Land!

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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.”

So how did Joshua get here? Who is Joshua? Who is Hoshea? How did he become trusted by millions of people?

The crossing of the Jordan river happens on Passover.

When I say the name Joshua what do you think of? I would be willing to bet that most all of you immediately relate Joshua to those famous walls of Jericho that came crumbling down at the sound of the trumpet blast. Others may hear Joshua and think of commander and chief of the Israelites or the great leader that led the Israelites in conquering God’s Promise Land. We have all read tons of children’s books that include the story of the walls of Jericho tumbling down. I don’t think I have yet to read book to my kids that this story is not highlighted in there. Just about every children’s preschool walls are decorated with a Joshua conquering Jericho. While there is nothing at all wrong with any of these things, there is another side to those stories that began well before Jericho.

Now as for myself I can remember when I first came to came to Christ and began reading God’s word. The Joshua that I just spoke of before I had never heard of. I can still remember sitting in Carlton’s office downstairs as a “brand new” believer and asking him ‘Who is Joshua?’. Carlton in all his infinite wisdom looked at me all puzzled. It was the same look a dog does when he cocks his head to the side after hearing a strange noise. You know like when you take the dog out at night and they just stare off into the dark turning their head to the side and you just stand waiting to be eaten by whatever is lurking out there in the night.

You could tell Carlton didn’t really know how to proceed. He said, “Man you know, and then he proceeded to say some part of a children’s song about the walls came tumbling down.” I sat there thinking, ok do I play along and act like I know what he is talking about or do I tell the truth. Remember I was a new believer, but I still knew that lying was not good. Also, I am not a poker player so my poker face trying to bluff is not that good. So, my blank stare gave away that I had no idea what he was talking about, yet. Just add this to another humbling moment in my walk as I learn.

I knew nothing of the great leader that most all of you recognize Joshua as. The Joshua who crossed the Jordan River to take God’s people into His Promise Land I knew nothing of.

But, not having any preconceived and engrained notions of who Joshua was allowed me to read into God’s Word and see a different Joshua than all those children’s books and stories tell about. It let me focus on who Hoshea son of Nun really was. Stripping back all the accolades and honors to see who this Hoshea was and why did God choose him.

What would you say to the Joshua that I first came to know was not a great mighty leader but was just another slave boy in Egypt? A simple boy named Hoshea born to a man named Nun living in Egypt while under slavery of Pharaoh. (1 Chronicles 7:20-27)

This is a far different Joshua than I described in the beginning today. Joshua as a boy would have witnessed his father be treated as just another Hebrew slave in the land of Egypt. Joshua watched his father labor in the Egyptian sun making bricks for Pharaoh to continue building monuments and temples to false gods. He knew all to what true slavery was and its effects on the Israelites. To wake up each and every day and have one question for God, Why? Why are we slaves? Have we always been slaves? Will I always be a slave like my father? Will my children be slaves? And to wake up and only want one thing, Freedom.

So, when this lowly shepherd man came wandering into Egypt from the wilderness of Midian proclaiming, ‘Let My People Go’ you know that Joshua’s ears perked up and began to listen. Joshua had woken up each day looking and wanting freedom and now here stood a man named Moses proclaiming freedom to Joshua and his people the Israelites. You just know that this must have sounded just as strange to the Hebrews as it did for the Egyptians. Because all either nation knew was that the Hebrews were and always have been slaves to Pharaoh. Because for the previous 400 years the Hebrews knew nothing of freedom, but only slavery.

It’s like when we are in different seasons of life that we don’t ever think we will get out of. Just being bogged down in our day-to-day grind and know nothing else but that grind. Waking up each day looking at the next day before we can even focus on the current day. Medical issues, problems at work, problems at home, kids, and a plethora of other things that we never think end while we are grinding through them. But, even our worst seasons of life can not hold a candle against Joshua and the Israelites on their best days while in slavery in Egypt.

So you know as Moses and Aaron began to proclaim freedom, and all the judgements against Egypt the Hebrews had to be thinking these guys are crazy. And scripture tells us that the Israelites even resented Moses. The Hebrews resented Moses because the more Moses proclaimed freedom the more the Egyptians mistreated them. They would demand more work out of the Hebrews every day than the day before. (Exodus 5: 6-9). Not only did they think Moses was crazy but now it was causing their already bad lives of slavery into a worse situation of double daily work load.

Joshua had to sit back and watch his already worn-out father be even more mentally and physically broken. None of us in here would enjoy seeing our fathers beaten and broken day in and day out. To look at your father sit across from you at the dinner table every night with a blank stare and a broken spirit. Everyone of us in here look up to our fathers because at one time we all have looked up to our father as our very own superhero. They were our daddies and we, their children. To me this image of a mentally and physically broken father named Nun forever had and impact on the Joshua that we are learning of.

But our God shows up and shows out! When the lowly stuttering shepherd from the wilderness of Midian named Moses begins to go before Pharaoh and all the promises, he had been proclaiming become true. Joshua began to realize just how big His God was and that hope of Freedom began look like a realistic hope. Over the next few weeks Joshua seen firsthand how powerful God is. He seen the water turned to blood, frogs fill the land, gnats and flies swarm the Egyptian homes, watched all the livestock die, boils form on all the Egyptians, then see hail rain down from heaven, locusts swarm the land and eat every remaining plant, and then to watch the great land of Egypt go into complete utter darkness. Where the only light was on God’s chosen people, Joshua and his people were essentially the light in the darkness. There is so much more there to unpack, but it will have to be another day. Joshua in amazement watched God work and that hope of freedom began to light a fire in him that could not be extinguished.

Then the judgement that forever changed the trajectory of not only Joshua, but all of the Israelites, and all of you sitting in here today. God’s final judgement against the Egyptians changed the course of history and effected Joshua in ways that he never could have imagined. When the Lord went through the land of Egypt at night and killed every first-born male of the Egyptians. I can’t help but think of the anxiousness and the fearful thoughts that went through Joshua’s mind as darkness fell that night. As he and his family had prepared the first Passover meal and sat up waiting for God’s judgement to be carried out that night. The word tells us that “there was a loud wailing throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead.” (Exodus 12:30).

That night not only solidified Joshua’s fear and confidence in God, but more importantly it showed him of God’s Grace and Mercy to His people. In that Joshua was spared by nothing he had done, but simply because of God’s love for him.

Transition

This is what empowered Joshua into the next season of life for him. He became a leader of the first Israelite army. (Exodus 17:9). Moses trusted Joshua enough to go select the men and not only select the men for battle but then lead them into battle. And ultimately be victorious in his first military campaign as Israel’s general. From this point on Joshua became Moses most trusted companion and servant.

When we live and carry ourselves with the knowledge of God’s Grace and Mercy as Joshua did people take notice. In turn we will be trusted and used by God.

From here Joshua could have easily fell into the trap of pride and boastfulness. After all he had just hand picked the army and went and defeated the Amalekites in front of all the nation. He had every right to strut around like a banny rooster for at least a few days. Right? I know myself would have had issues with falling into that trap. Just think about the mountaintop high that Joshua would have been on. Selected out of all God’s people to lead the first army assembled of the Israelites, be victorious in the eyes of all, and then to be written on a scroll for all to remember the victory. (Exodus 17:14)

Joshua however like the words of Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Joshua took the path of the humble and faithful servant of Moses, and this decision truly ‘made all the difference.’ So much so that at the Covenant Ceremony on the mountain Joshua is called Mose’s assistant and goes up the Mountain with Moses to receive the law from God. (Exodus 24:13)

I can’t even wrap my head around the mountaintop experience Joshua had there. To be in the presence of the shepherd man named Moses that he first knew in Egypt and to be in the presence of the Holy God that delivered the slave boy he once was into now a young victorious general but even more impressing than that is to be standing there as a FREE MAN. Joshua as a free man to be standing on that mountaintop with Moses receiving the law that gives him that Freedom! You want to talk about an empowering moment. If I was Joshua I would be feeling like 10 foot tall and bullet proof.

From then on Joshua was with Moses wherever he was. Through all of Moses’s meetings with God in the wilderness and even in the tabernacle, Joshua was there.

While the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they would set up camp wherever God stopped and told them to. At each campsite Moses would pitch a separate tent named “Tent of Meeting” outside the camp where Moses would speak Face to Face with God. No other Israelite was allowed in the tent besides Moses, except for one man. That one man was Joshua Son of Nun. The word tells us in (Exodus 33:11)

Could you even imagine the conversations that Joshua would have overheard while inside that tent? The knowledge and wisdom shared inside that tent is unfathomable.

I would relate it back to when I was a young man sitting on the front porch of my grandpa’s old white farm house in Petersburg listening to him and his old buddies swapping stories back and forth. Now granite some of these stories cannot ever be repeated in here this morning. Most of them I still don’t feel comfortable telling them out my garage with the boys.

But you know the hours Joshua spent listening to them must have felt like minutes going by. I picture Joshua standing there in absolute awe as God spoke to Moses face to face. As God went through His word and listening to God tell Moses to write down these words “In the Beginning I created the heavens and the earth.”

I want you to just sit and think about the power that would have on you if that was you inside that tent listening to God. To have been there in that tent as Joshua was and to hear how God spoke things into existence. For Joshua to see God’s plan first hand and how all the was from the beginning it has been orchestrated by God. That each and every story has a purpose and a bigger plan than we realize. Joshua’s faith in God may have not started in that tent, but it grew in him like a wildfire spreading across a mountainside in that tent.

So, when it came time for Moses to send the spies into the Promised Land of course he was going to send one of his most trusted assistants.

The Joshua we know was still named Hoshea at this time. It was not until at this point that Moses renames Hoshea to Joshua. (Numbers 13:8). Moses changes his name to Joshua at this moment before he crosses into the promise land. There is a whole ‘nother sermon for this moment, but for the time being just make a note of this. (Numbers 13:16) and we will circle back to this.

And we know how the story goes, the 12 spies go into the land and see that it is just as God described it as. A beautiful land flowing with milk and honey. However only Joshua and Caleb truly believe in God’s promise that the land is theirs for the taking.

It’s kind of like one of those group projects from school. You know where the dynamic of the group is off. You’ve got those few members that are your teacher’s pets and then there was the group members like myself. Who weren’t always the most helpful to the overall success or failure of the project. Thank goodness for teachers grading on a curve.

One of the aspects of Joshua’s faith that amazes me is his patience. Just think about it, he is in those meetings with Moses and God about the Promised Land, and then he gets to actually enter the promised land and see the beauty and splendor of the land, but then he has to wander in the wilderness with a bunch of stiffnecked Israelites for the next 40 years!

Those 40 years he had to wander around all the while knowing what lies on the other side of the Jordan River. How many of us would have stomped and kicked like kids do when they are throwing a temper tantrum? Be honest now, you and I both know that we in our weak selfish flesh would have cried out to God, and said save me I am faithful, but leaving the rest of our family behind. Thank goodness God’s Grace is bigger than we are.

Once again though Joshua displays to us what being a child of God means. He used those 40 years to grow and develop into the leader that God had intended him to be. But Joshua knew the importance of truly being a good and faithful servant to God. We all need to acknowledge and recognize that for us to be used by God we must be willing to serve where He puts us. Then and only then will God use you when we learn that.

The miracles that Joshua witnessed in that wilderness just further lit that fire of faith that dwelt inside him. There are to many miracles for us to even begin to count and go over that Joshua seen God provide while in that wilderness. We do know that for 40 years or 14,600 days Joshua got up each morning thinking about that promised land.

But I can tell you one thing for certain. Every morning when that sun hit his face as he would exit his tent and head to meet Moses for the day, he knew that the Freedom he had hoped for while in Egypt was now real and the Glory belonged to God. That any day wandering in the wilderness as a free man was better than being a slave in Egypt.

So, in conclusion this is the Joshua that I first knew, and ultimately come to admire. He had not even crossed into the promised land, conquered great cities, led vast military campaigns, or any of the other stories that we know and love Joshua for. Up to this point really all he has done is be a slave boy in Egypt and then a servant to Moses, but the important part is that he embraced each one because that is exactly where God placed him at that time.

These seasons of life for Joshua will allow God to take him from a Good and Faithful Servant to a Good and Faithful Leader. That will take God’s people into the same land that he had set foot on 40 years ago, that God had swore to them. Most importantly though God tells Joshua that He will be with him. (Deuteronomy 31:23) Isn’t that a beautiful promise that God will be with him, and He will be with us when we are faithful to Him.

Now Joshua’s faith did not begin in the wilderness. It began in Egypt, when he was a slave boy named Hoshea son of Nun. It began to grow as he watched God work through Moses in the judgements against Pharoah. Then it all culminating on that night of Passover. When Joshua witnessed the absolute power of God. You know Joshua could never get the sound of the cries of the Egyptian fathers searching for their sons in the night and the loud wailing of the mothers over their dead children forever rang in his ears. For Joshua to know the boys that he had seen in the streets the day before and spoke with are now lying dead in their homes. Joshua as a young boy knew the Grace of God, the Mercy of God, and also the Fear of God from this moment on. He was forever changed on this night and it stayed with him throughout his whole life. To know the Grace and Mercy of God.

That should be the same feeling we have as we sit here today towards our Hold God. To know the Grace and Mercy of God and the Pain that God must have felt as he sent his one and only son to die for each of us in here today. All so that we may be able to live in freedom for eternity with Him in heaven. That same Grace and Mercy that Joshua knew that night should be instilled in us today. So that we know and appreciate the magnitude of the Mercy that God has given us as His Children.

Prayer and Invitation