Sermon Tone Analysis

The Book Of Joshua

Courage

Pr Edi Giudetti

19/3/2017

Courage; is a characteristic that is developed and not inherent.

No person is said to have been born brave.

Courage stems from a firm conviction that that which you believe is true and absolute.

Forms of courage can be witnessed even in the world today, some demonstrate it by their conviction to ideology;

Some have it encouraged by the confidence given them by those who share the same conviction,

Some show it via that safety in numbers.

Some people are considered courageous in their willingness to place themselves in harms way.

Others by simply going against the majority position.

Some courageous endeavors are well founded, and some are not.

Courage itself is not a virtue that identifies the truth of a matter, it is simply a willingness to act on ones conviction at higher costs than others are willing to pay.

This week was witnessed an example of a level of Courage in the willingness of a company to demonstrate its presumed leaning against the market driven effort by a group of people who desire to legitimize their sexual proclivities.

They used a video created by a Christian organization, they were hounded unto submission and threats of boycott for their product; as a result they recanted and apologized to the extortionists.

This is a level of courage that has a price tag that can be argued is low.

Azzam in a Kenyan bringing Bibles to Christians in Somalia, this could not be done by post, nor can it be done by any normal means, Azzam was smuggling Bibles into Somalia, in a coffin under the body of a dead man.

He traveled by boat and by truck until the destination was reached.

Many died of suffocation doing this very thing, but as no Muslim would dare be defiled by the open coffin of a dead man, it was sure to be successful…if the smuggler survived.

This level of courage has no price tag too great.

The Courage of Joshua is demonstrated in his willingness to accept God at his word to the exclusion of everything else.

MANY ARE THE TYPES that have been considered for the book of Joshua.

Some speak of the crossing of the Jordan as a type of death, and the entrance into the land of Canaan as entrance to heaven.

But we know that when the people crossed over Jordan they had to fight their way into Canaan, this is not how we gain access to heaven.

Some say that Crossing over Jordan is a picture of the New Birth and that the entrance into Canaan and the battles fought on entering is a picture of the Christian walk as he wrestles against sin and spiritual wickedness in high places.

Certainly this represents the former a little more accurately but we also understood the crossing of the Red Sea to be that baptism of death that leads to life when they crossed over, it was the coming out of Egypt and crossing the Red sea that originally pictured the New Birth.

So this afternoon we will deal only with the realities of that which occurred in the Book of Joshua and allow the applications in our lives to play their own role.

What can certainly be said however is this.

God keeps his promises and seeks courageous people to work through.

Courage to Trust in the Lord

(Jericho)

From our key text this morning we can certainly see that all that the Lord had promised aforetime to the nation, even to Abraham and to Moses, he will bring to pass.

Some people were a part of that work, others were not, nevertheless that counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.

In verse 5 the Lord said to Joshua, “5 There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Joshua was one of only two men who left Egypt and came ready to cross over Jordan.

He and Caleb were two only of the twelve men who went to spy out the land, who returned rejoicing that the Lord would give them such a land and that their nation was well able to overcome the strong nations that populated the Land for the Lord was with them.

But it was not the popular position!

Of near two million people, Joshua was one of only three others we know who was of this conviction.

And because of his stand, Joshua, the faithful minister of Moses was charged by the Lord to bring the people over Jordan and into Canaan.

But God had given instruction both as to the means and to the method.

The Means were by courage through faith.

The Method was by obedience.

Lets consider his first campaign.

Jericho

Now, just as the Lord worked through Moses, so will he work through Joshua, just as he dried up the Red sea forty years earlier, so too he dries up the Jordon.

Unlike the Red Sea, the wall of water was set up on heaps to one side of them only and not a wall of water on both sides, for he stopped the flow of water until they had clean crossed over.

(Cleary this is God lifting up his own laws of Physics to allow this event.

If we have a problem with God being in control over his own creation then we have a problem with our understanding of the God of the Bible).

They kept the Passover in Gilgal in Chapter 5:10.

The corn from heaven, known as Manna, ceased on the following day, now they were to be sustained from the fruit of their land (v12).

And as Joshua stood to behold Jericho, considering perhaps how the Lord will fight in this ‘day of battle’,

(5:13)….

there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

14 And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?

15 And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.

And Joshua did so.

Moses had seen a burning bush and heard the voice of the ‘I AM’ telling him to “put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

(Exo 3:5).

But here Joshua sees a Theophany, a pre-incarnation of whom scripture gives strong impression is The Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapter 6

Now comes the instruction for the battle to take Jericho.

The walls of Jericho were unlike the walls of other cities, they were set on a hill with a large angled footing a few meters high, on top was the first section of the wall.

Behind was another wall and then the city.

Of ancient walls, Jericho was one of the most fortified in their construction.

Joshua was given instruction;

Joshua 6:1-5

6 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once.

Thus shalt thou do six days.

4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Certainly one of the most famous accounts of action in the Old Testament.

An instruction that is not the most common tactical form of ancient warfare.

An instruction for which the battle hardened Joshua was to courageously follow.

Our first lesson to consider is this;

Gods ways are not our ways.

Take courage to trust his words.

Conventional warfare is not the way the Lord chose to deal in this battle.

Certain that the people of the City feared Israel, for they had heard of them from the other side Jordan, they heard of the end of the Egyptian army and the Red sea.

Now, this nation is here.

Now this nation is circling their City.

Joshua had courage to follow and obey the Lord, trusting his words alone.

Courage to Deny Yourself

Jos 6:16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.

17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

The city walls fell.

Archeological history shows that there was an inner and an outer city wall with about six acers of land in between where other houses were.

The outer wall includes a retaining wall for the land within; that climbs initially to four or five meters, then a 2m thick brick wall that stretches another six to eight meters high.

So from the ground where the Israelites marched they would have looked at an outer wall whose total height was between 10 to 13 meters high (About 5 story’s).

German excavations between 1907-1909 also shows that both the inner and outer walls literally seem to have tumbled down, no sign of forced entry.

The interesting consideration is that one small section of wall on the Northern side remained intact to a height of two meters.

This wall had at least one or more houses attached to it in a way that the outer defensive wall formed the back wall of the house/s.

The Bible says that Rahab (who concealed the spies in her house in chapter 2), Rahabs house was on the wall and that she would be protected when they come because she did not reveal them or their business.

God however gave Joshua a command which Joshua repeated to the people saying; 18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

The spoils of war are a tremendous temptation and, though the spoils are a just reward for war, in this case God gave a strict instruction to be obeyed concerning the ‘accursed thing’.

Without reading on I would not have a clue what the “accursed thing” is but it can be well assumed the people understood the clear instruction.

To make a long story short;

After the destruction of the City by fire (Also discovered to be true in the excavations of the city), the battle moved on to the next city called AI.

The Israelites however were forced to turn and flee from their enemies and this was a great burden to Joshua who prayed;