Joshua Chapter 1

Encouragement To Lead & Follow

Text: Joshua 1

Introduction

Let’s refresh ourselves with God’s promise to Abraham: Genesis 12:1-3 “1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Q — Where has Joshua shown up in scripture leading up to this point? (slide)

Exodus 17:8-13 First shows up during the battle with the Amalekites while Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands.

Exodus 24:13 Joshua was Moses’ servant.

Exodus 32:17 Joshua was on the mountain when Moses received the Law

Numbers 13:8 Joshua was one of the 12 spies Moses sent into Canaan

Numbers 14:28-30, 38 Joshua along with Caleb were allowed to enter Canaan.

Numbers 27:15-23; Deut: 31:14-15; 35:9 The Lord selected Joshua as Moses’ successor.

Joshua completes what Moses began! God never leaves His work unfinished!

(slide) Here is a key thought takeaway from this series: It is God’s to give! It is ours to possess! (1:11)

(slide) This book seems to fall into two great parts: 1) Conquest of the land (1-12) & 2) Occupation of the land (12-24)

Here in Joshua’s life, the sorrow and heartache were real. The doubt and insecurity was present. Maybe even the thought of just settling for where he was and just live life short of God’s will.

However, leadership was commanded, the people were wondering, and the future Savior to be born was hanging in the balance. The stakes were high. Someone must step up and lead forward. Joshua was God’s new man.

In this life, there is always a desperate need for real leadership! God is always preparing the next leader for the works He desires to continue.

The stakes are higher than you might realize! What lays in the balance will go one way of the other depending on your answer to God’s call to leadership. It could mean the difference of life or death, success or failure, a broken heart or loving embrace.

We must ask ourselves some questions: “Will I go forward to claim God’s promises to me?” “Will I lead my family forward to claim God’s promises to us?” Will I take God’s recipe for success serious?” “Will I trust God to never forsake me on His path forward for my life?”

1) Joshua Receives His Commission From God

VERSES 1-9

A. Joshua was vulnerable to lead from the past

Illustration — Have you ever read or watched a story about a heroic leader who first had to overcome some faulty personal doubts?

All of the promises God will share will help Joshua not to live in the past and keep the mentality of being Moses’ assistant or second-lieutenant.

Many people today suffer personally, maritally, professionally, due to carry some kind of childhood insecurities into adult life.

You know good and well he had the forty-year-old memory of when his report was not believed.

Luke 9:62 “62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Philippians 3:13–14 “13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

As God begins speaking these promises to Joshua, you can visualize him coming to realize the enormous potential God had invested in him.

B. God leads with encouraging promises

a) (v3-4) God promises Joshua that they would enter the land (seen in chapters 2-5)

Once again, God reaffirms what He had already promised Abraham and Moses.

This promise means that God would enable him to lead them there.

God had already given it and they must march forward to claim it.

APP — Ephesians 1:3 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:”

APP — Hebrews 6:1 “1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,”

b) (v5) God promised victory over their enemies (seen in chapters 6-12)

However, God warned them not to compromise with the enemy or they would lose. What did they do???

Making deals with the enemy cuts you short of claiming all that God has promised you in this life.

APP — It is the same way as we enter that “new life” in Christ. To waver in our new Christian life is to miss out on God’s promises.

Q — Why would you and I ever make steps that reflect a lack of confidence in God and His commands?

Q — What is one name of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas time?

Hebrews 13:5 “5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

Romans 8:31 “31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

c) (v6) God promised Joshua that every tribe would be rewarded with a land inheritance (seen in chapters 13-22)

God’s verbal promises are as good as the culmination of them.

As the saying goes, “It like money in the bank.”

C. Joshua must go forward to claim these promises (v6-9)

a) Strength and courage is demanded

Anything less than strength and courage will bring great lose.

Even though God is sovereign, that does not substitute for our responsibility.

Quote: (Charles Spurgeon) Joshua “was not to use the promise as a couch upon which his indolence might luxuriate, but a girdle wherewith to gird up his loins for future activity.”

Quote: (Warren W.) “God’s promises are prods, not pillows.”

b) Meditation on God’s Word is required

This is how Joshua would be enable to lead with strength and courage.

This is believed to have been the entire five Books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy; aka Pentateuch)

It’s a good thing God instructed Moses to record God’s words.

Deuteronomy 31:9 “9 And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel.”

Exodus 17:14 “14 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”

Exodus 24:4, 7 “4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.... “7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.”

Numbers 33:2 “2 And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.”

Numbers 36:13 “13 These are the commandments and the judgments, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.”

Deuteronomy 31:19 “19 Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.”

It wasn’t enough to pack it around. Joshua had to spend time meditating in it.

Psalm 1:2 “2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

2) Joshua Gives Encouraging Marching Orders

VERSES 10-15

A. You shall pass over!

Can you imagine the thrill for this people to witness the confidence Joshua had in his own words?

“You will pass over”...”You will possess the land”… “The Lord will give it to you”… “The Lord will go with you.”

APP — Shouldn’t you and I have the same excitement when we read about the marching orders Jesus gives us?

2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Hebrews 12:1 “1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Romans 8:31 “31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

B. Many settled for less than God’s best

Moses had allowed these tribes to live outside the Promised Land.

Numbers 32:1–4 “1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; 2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, 3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, 4 Even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle:”

Numbers 32:16 “16 And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones:”

a) Unnecessary measures had to be taken to worship and teach their children about who they were.

They were far from the place of worship.

They had to erect a special monument to remind their children that they too were citizens of Israel.

In modern terms, you would call them “borderline believers.”

In other words, they get close to the inheritance but never claim it.

The kind of people that help from time to time but are never “all in.”

3) Encouragement is reciprocated

VERSES 16-18

(v16-17) They were not so attached to Moses that they wouldn’t give their allegiance to Joshua’s leadership.

You won’t find them asking for Joshua to defend or explain his motives or his orders.

He simply gave the direction and they followed.

This gives us great encouragement as a church to not be at odds, but co-labour together as God’s leads.

(v17) Joshua was encouraged by their commitment to pray for him.

What greater thing can you do for a leader than pray?

A leader can have all the training in the world, but without the prayers of God’s people, he will fall short from success.

(v18) The commitment was a life or death commitment.

They took very seriously his leadership and their responsibilities.

Q — How different would things look like if Christians took obedience as a matter of life or death.

This would be the only way they would possess God’s promised land for them.

(v18) They reminded Joshua of God’s Word.

“only be strong and of a good courage”

Ephesians 6:10 “10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”