Joshua 1:10-18 (spiritual leadership)
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Tonight were gonna continue our study in the book of Joshua, were gonna finish chapter one as we look at verses 10-18, and of course remember what the book of Joshua the great theme of Joshua it is CONQUERING CANAAN. It’s occupying a place of promise.
It becomes a type and a picture of living a victorious life, of overcoming strongholds. Were gonna discover even in the 2nd chapter as we look at Rahab about what happens when a place is under judgment, and a person is involved in new found sin when they make the choice by faith to repent and turn to God how God will take them and use them in the most remarkable way.
So tonight we continue our study on Joshua and spiritual leadership in
Let’s pray
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people: “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you will be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit.’ ”
Joshua said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: “Remember what Moses the Lord’s servant commanded you when he said, ‘The Lord your God will give you rest, and He will give you this land.’ Your wives, young children, and livestock may remain in the land Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But your fighting men must cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers and help them until the Lord gives your brothers rest, as He has given you, and they too possess the land the Lord your God is giving them. You may then return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of what Moses the Lord’s servant gave you on the east side of the Jordan.”
They answered Joshua, “Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go. We will obey you, just as we obeyed Moses in everything. And may the Lord your God be with you, as He was with Moses. Anyone who rebels against your order and does not obey your words in all that you command him, will be put to death. Above all, be strong and courageous!”
Joshua 1:10
Now remember in the book of Joshua we’ve already learned about the commission to Joshua. that’s remember he was told he was given if you will a plan of success, later were going to move from the commission of Joshua, to the conquest of the land in chapters 6-12 and theres gonna be a portioning of the inheritance or a dividing of the land.
The book will end with a final exhortation to live FULL lives FREE LIVES, to live full and free in the land that has been promised to God’s people. We would be smart to remember that Moses lead the people out of Egypt through the Red sea, leaving behind a life of slavery and bondage.
Joshua is going to lead the people through the Jordan and give the people a new beginning and a new life. you know some people have said the book of Joshua is like the book of Ephesians.
The reason why is bc the first three chapters on ephesians tells us about belief, and the last 3 chapters tell us about behavior, and here in the book of Joshua, Joshua is going to lead the people through the Jordan and give the people a new life and a new beginning and it becomes a type or picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
You were in bondage and enslaved to sin but then by the grace of God you were freed by the sacrifice of Jesus. Moses lead the people through a rough time of wandering through the wilderness. Joshua is going to lead God’s people through the promised land, laying claim to the inheritance. He is going to be given repeated victory over the enemy.
“Moses lead Israel out of bondage, but it was Joshua who took them into blessing. Moses took them through the Red Sea. Joshua takes them over the Jordan. Moses is a symbol of deliverance, and Joshua the emblem of victory. Its one thing to be redeemed from Egypt (the world) but quite another thing to be victorious over the world. Joshua teaches us the lesson that faith is “the victory that overcomes the world” Norman Giesler
In other words there’s a kind of a victory, where you overcome the world. Theres a kind of a victory where you overcome the persistence of sin. Theres a kind of victory where you no longer have to give in, so god has spoken to Joshua in 1-9 and now Joshua is speaking to the people in 10-15 and in 16-to the end the people will speak back to Joshua.
the reason why this is important is because it is a picture of spiritual leadership. In what way?
Here in these verses we have the very first act of obedience. He doesn’t question God he simply relays the message. These words are very practical and everyone is supposed to be involved. They need food prepared for the crossing because in 3 days they will enter the land and possess it.
in a perfect world leaders here from God, and those leaders pass on that information to the people, and the people hear the word of God and respond to the word of God. Then communicate the word of God and they believe it and obey it, and speak it.
He says guess what get ready to move in to your new residence because in 3 days were going to take what God has given to us. I think about those three days and I think about the sacrifice of Jesus until the time of a resurrection from the dead.
Jesus Himself is going to serve as the sacrifice and He is going to come back to life. so Joshua has a message he gives a message to Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. Joshua remembers the tribes promises to assit the remaining 9 1/2 tribes.
This is whats happening, Here is Joshua’s message. In three days be prepared to move in to your new residence.
Now this is not going to make sense to you unless you have some familiarity with what was going on in Exodus and leviticus and deuteronomy. which we will get to in just a minute.
In other words God speaks to Joshua in verse 9 Joshua speaks to the people in 10-15, and then the people speak back to Joshua.
Spiritual leadership requires a leader, that makes sense to you right? Who is going to here from God and who is going to depend upon the Lord. So for a leader to hear from the Lord, and then depend upon the Lord and then communicate the instructions this becomes again a picture of JEsus.
Remember our Lord Jesus says “MY FATHER SENT ME EVERYTHING MY FATHER HAS SAID TO ME I AM GOING TO SAY TO YOU.
Joshua simply told the people what God told Him. That becomes the best kind of a leader the one who will tell what God is saying about any given situation.
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, “Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’ ”
Joshua 1:10-
The time has come, the promise was made to Abraham the promise is made to Isaac and Jacob the promise repeated to Moses. The promise repeated to Joshua and now its time for the promises to come true and for you to posses what God has promised you.
Joshua is going to prepare the people. he commands the leaders or officers to secure food and provision, in 3 days were gonna cross the Jordan. IN 3 days were gonna posess the land.
And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh Joshua spoke, saying,
“Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land.’
Now the three tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh had chosen to live on the east side of the river. Now you may not know about that, but when Joseph was in Egypt he recieved a double portion because of his submission and obedience.
Jacob took the two children born during captivity and gave them equal standing and equal right, as a full inheritance.
Numbers 32:16-
Then they approached him and said, “We want to build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our dependents. But we will arm ourselves and be ready to go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them into their place. Meanwhile, our dependents will remain in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until each of the Israelites has taken possession of his inheritance.
So the tribes asked permission from Moses to stay on the East side of the Jordan. Moses said help me understand what your saying, are you saying that you wanna stay here until your brothers go across and do all of the fighting, are you trying to discourage the rest of the children of Israel from going across to the land that the Lord is giving them?
the two tribes gave their solemn promise that they were going to fully support the other 9 1/2 other tribes. Now imagine they are coming right up to the place that they are about to occupy, so in one sense these tribes become a picture of WORLDLY BELIEVERS who have a deep and rich spiritual heritage but they never fully experience the abundant spiritual life and the rest that can only be found within the borders of God’s inheritance.
Let me say it this way.
Imagine you have friends and family who say I want all of the benefits of being a Chirstian. I want forgiveness of sin, I want to go to Heaven, and I dont wanna go to Hell but I also dont wanna go to church, and I dont wanna read my Bible, and I dont wanna go to Sunday School, you know I want all of the benefits of Christianity BUT I dont wanna be a fanatic.
I dont wanna be one of those Christians who 24/7 thinks about God, and thinks about Jesus and lives for JEsus everyday. We want to be close to CHristians and CHristianity but NOT TOO CLOSE
Joshua holds them accountable for their promise that they made to Moses and the Lord. In other words they begged them and said you know what we dont want to go into the land we dont wanna put our kids in harms way, when it comes time to go into the land WE WILL HELP YOU OCCUPY THE LAND and now Joshua is saying “now I am going to hold you accountable for that promise.
It could be that there are people like this in your life. Look mom, look dad, look brother, look sister. I aint gonna be mean or rude about CHristianity, I’ll go to thanksgiving and CHristmas and we will pray together, and when it comes time to raise the kids we will raise em right...
So Joshua gives them instructions:
Your wives, young children, and livestock may remain in the land Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But your fighting men must cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers and help them
Joshua 1:14
Joshua says were gonna keep our word but you are gonna keep your word.
until the Lord gives your brothers rest, as He has given you, and they too possess the land the Lord your God is giving them. You may then return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of what Moses the Lord’s servant gave you on the east side of the Jordan.”
In other words the side of the Jordan which faces the sunrise is the east side of the Jordan, the place they are going to occupy is the west side of the Jordan. There are several things you should know:
Joshua emphasizes REST
its going to become a very important word for the rest of our study of the book of Joshua.
The Hebrew word for rest is SHAKAT now there are many great themes in the book of Joshua one of the great themes in the book is remember ENTERING THE PROMISED LAND, GODS PROMISES ARE A GREAT THEME, COVENANT, OBEDIENCE, PURITY IN WORSHIP, GODLY LEADERSHIP, BUT SO IS THIS ISSUE OF REST.
Going into the land is going to lead to God’s rest. Now I am going to say that the inheritance of the land, possessing the land, and the rest in the land. Become a picture of the gifts and the callings that are given to us in Christ.
Joshua says:
“Remember what Moses the Lord’s servant commanded you when he said, ‘The Lord your God will give you rest, and He will give you this land.’
until the Lord gives your brothers rest, as He has given you, and they too possess the land the Lord your God is giving them. You may then return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of what Moses the Lord’s servant gave you on the east side of the Jordan.”
In other words there are going to be people who are satisfied in the place that God has assigned to them, and so He is reminding of them of that. For the Israelites this rest meant that they would have secure borders.
heres a question: Can a country have true rest without secure borders?
Especially if the enemy is constantly harrassing them, or declaring war against them. So to them there was a physical meaning to the word rest. Secure borders peace from enemies, success and prosperity, trade, economic well being.
Rest means the ability of the people to go about their daily lives living in peace able to experience freedom. Imagine your an Israeli living right now in Israel and you are surrounded by 300 million arabs to the North South East and West. Imagine that there is this constant struggle to destroy you.
Now imagine that within the border there are people blowing themselves up and killing your children. Imagine they are launching 1,000… 2,000,..... 3,000 rockets a month.
Imagine your house imagine the person next to you, and all of the other neighbors surrounding you hate your guts and everytime they see you they glare at you and they say you know what I just wish you would move.
At what point would you start feeling insecure?
So it makes sense to you, secure the borders and live in a place where you can live a full and productive life.
Later we find the land itself will experience a rest from war, but the Bible allows us not only to think about the physical rest which is important in the context. But also the spiritual rest. So the writer of Hebrews later is going to use the example of Joshua to talk about the kind of rest, that the Christian is invited to enter into.
We rest in our deliverance from sin, we have peace of mind and heart. There is a rest because there is purpose and meaning and fulfillment and satisfaction in our life. But think for a moment about your life prior to coming to Christ.
The emptiness the darkness, the loneliness, wondering whether or not life was meaningful or significant. WHAT IS REAL?
So no wonder we quote
Matthew 11
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
You never learn how important that passage is until you’ve lived a life of restlessness, agitation, pain, difficulty, drama, conflict.
In the OT the Lord promised his people
And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
God has taken you from a place of constant agitation to peace! Christ has made us for Himself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Christ alone!
So CHristian if you are walking in a life filled with agitation, drama, conflict, restlessness, then we have to ask ourselves the question, have I begun to walk into the promise of rest for my soul?
This doesn’t mean that were not saved although it could mean this. But if you are saved without a doubt and these things mark your life then you need to relaize that the things you are running to in your life are empty wcisterns that can hold no water and this is the reason you are restless all the time because you are not finding peace and rest in your Savior!
Finding peace and finding rest has been an ongoing problem for humanity for a long time.
talk about the theme of rest for the Christian. For the CHristian Jesus is our rest. The CHristian just doesnt have a Sabbath day”
We have a Sabbath God, we have a Sabbath Savior, this is the argument that the writer of Hebrews gives when He says:
OUR REST ISNT IN THE DAY WE GO TO CHURCH, OUR TRUE REST IS FOUND IN JESUS
We have a full and final rest.
Hebrews mentions repeatedly the wicked and rebellios generation of Israel whos rebelliousness prevented them from entering into God’s rest!
The reason this is so important to understand is because: is it possible that you have been delivered out of Egypt out of your sin but you have a lifetime of wilderness wanderings as you gripe and complain about the difficulty and you constantly struggle with submission and obedience to the Lord....
The offer of rest was rejected by that generation and so God will make the offer to a new generation. But it is an offer that has to be recieved by each succedding generation.
I want you to think about the time frame
How long did the children of Israel wander in the wilderness- 40 years
From to it’s all going to take place over the course of about 24-25 years. So the timeframe from this first chapter to the time of the last chapter of believing and obeying and entering and occupying the land… they arent going to occupy the land in a week or a day, or a month or even a year.
It’s gonna take time.
But each generation including our own, is gonna be given the same offer...
Will you believe god by faith and occupy the place of promise that has been offered to you through Jesus Christ. Every single generation is gonna be given the same offer. Will you walk with JEsus, will you walk in His love, will you rest in HIs grace and mercy.
Will you walk with Him? What will you choose?
In the end its the Lord Himself who provides a place of peace and the place of rest.
ARE YOU RESTING IN JESUS?
Are you filled with agitation, pain, darkness, or are you resting in Jesus? Have you given your conscience a rest, do you live in constant fear of judgement?
Romans
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Do you live in a constant fear of death, remember the psalmist wrote
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Have you experienced REST from the shadow of death?
Have you experienced rest from the gripping power of sin?
Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.
If you haven’t found rest just yet I would encourage you to seek the Lord harder than you have ever sought after Him before. There is a rest available for the Christian.
For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:
“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
So the people respond
So they answered Joshua, saying, “All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.
Remember what Joshua has done: They are at the edge of the JOrdan river and he needs to hear from God, and God speaks. So he repeats what He has heard from God to the people, and how do they respond?
the people respond with loyalty and allegiance that was intended to boost the confidence of Joshua and affirm HIs call and his ability to lead the people.
Nothing will affirm and boost the confidence of your pastoral staff than for you to find the men and women in leadership and tell them you know when you tell me what God says from His word I trust you and I am going to actually do it.
When you pray for me, when you encourage me, when you call me, and tell me that you heard a word from the Lord and you are going to walk in its truth NOTHING will bless the heart of a pastor more.
Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you, as He was with Moses.
I want you to think about what you just read, 3 times between 1-9 the Lord repeated to Joshua
BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS, BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS, ONLY BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS
Now think about this for a moment:
The people said we have heard you and trust you to lead us oh and by the way BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS
Do you understand whats happening?
the people have the same vision and the same purpose and the same plan that God has already revealed to Joshua!
THAT MEANS REAL BUSINESS can be done
Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, in all that you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage.”
Prise GOd for people who are willing to listen to God’s leaders, honor God’s leaders, and then pray for themselves for a vision and direction that is consistent with what GOd has revealed.
Now remember one of the great themes of this book is obedience to the commands of God.
Now think about what the people are saying: WE WANNA BE OBEDIENT TO THE LORD
We also wanna be obedient to God’s word
We wanna be obedient to you just as we were obedient to Moses, now thats a red flag right there because were the people always obedient to Moses? NO
were they always obedient to Gods word?
Is it possible that well meaning people could say I wanna obey God and I wanna obey Gods leader but sometimes there are setbacks.... yes
But it is important to remember
That one of the important themes of this book is obedience to Gods word.
the law of Moses is going to be mentioned 8 times, and each time its gonna be mentioned it is going to be mentioned under the context and the idea of hearing the law and obeying the law.
either Joshua or the people are commanded to keep it
Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
22,24,8,
The point possession, occupation, victor in the land is GOING TO BE CONNECTED WITH OBEDIENCE TO GODS WORD
This is smoething that should always be put in the back of your mind:
success and victory and the promises of God are always gonna be linked back to obedience to the word of God.
Oh and by the way Israel is gonna do fine until they disobey, thats what were going to see in this book.
In the book of Joshua we see obedience to god’s command, and obedience to Joshuas command and when they follow the command of God when they folllow the commands of Joshua down to the tinyest detail.
They are gonna be fine
How old was Joshua when this happened? about 38-40 years old.
Heres whats interesting in our text, and I believe it is important to understand this, there is no division among the people. There arent two groups that say hey you know what we submitted to the leadership of Moses but we will not listen to you. No they are united to work as a team. They are united to follow God’s command and trust the leadership God gave them.
They didn’t divide
We will obey you, just as we obeyed Moses in everything. And may the Lord your God be with you, as He was with Moses.
In what way was God with Moses?
Did the true and living God appear to Moses did He speak to MOses yes IS GOD TRULY WITH JOSHUA?
YES WAS THE LIVING GOD TRULY WITH THE PEOPLE YES
WAS THIS GOD TRULY WITH JESUS?
YES HE IS JESUS
Hebrews 11:23-
By faith, after Moses was born, he was hidden by his parents for three months, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they didn’t fear the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin. For he considered the reproach because of the Messiah to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since his attention was on the reward.
By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king’s anger, for Moses persevered as one who sees Him who is invisible.
In the NT Moses was mentioned as being able to say three things
NO TO EGYPT, NO TO SLAVERY, NO TO THE OPPRESSION
Moses models what it means to run away from sin and choose faith. Joshua will turn away from sin and choose faith.
will you turn away from sin and choose faith?
will you rest in the promises won for you by the blood of Jesus?