Hebrews 11: Jericho
David Works
James/Hebrews 11 - New Year • Sermon • Submitted
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In Hebrews 11: we've gone through the section with Moses, the second longest section next to the one dealing with the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Joseph. In this section we are dealing with Moses and his faith, or the expression of bible doctrine resident in his soul, beginning with the faith of his parents to save him (to deliver him) during the time when pharaoh was seeking to kill all the young boys in the land to devastate the Hebrews - but God turned that very curse back on Egypt 80 years later. He whom God delivered, would end up being the deliverer used to deliver God’s people.
In verse 24, Moses by the word of God dwelling within him refused to be identified with the royal household the pharaoh. Having the greatest training on the planet: academic, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, history - he was informed in his soul to join the people of God instead. His worldview was established.
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,
Then in verse 26 Moses refused to stay with the riches of Egypt, preferring the reproach of Christ. This means he moved from an earth-centric view to an eternity-centric view. He would now make decisions based on eternity, not this present world. His frame of reference was changed.
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
Verse 27 is the third example – based on doctrine in his soul Moses left Egypt because he didn’t fear the anger of the king. He now had identified with the Hebrew people, he had next moved into an eternity centric view of things, as a result - the Pharoah was not even a factor in his leaving Egypt - instead he looked to the person of God. He had become God oriented. His frame of reference was now God Focused - nothing else intruded into his decision process.
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.
Then in the fourth example we see that by the doctrine residing in his soul Moses kept the Passover.
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
Moses was now the instrument of Jehovah in communicating Jehovah’s word and Jehovah’s power. He is no ordinary God of the Egyptian pantheon - it turns out that this Jehovah is the God of creation - His is absolute power. Unencumbered. He is The God Almighty. He Who IS.
Through the plagues - Jehovah judged all of the man made and demonic expressions of false deity. And in doing so, plague by plague, Jehovah whittled the civilization of Egypt down to nothing. Slice. Slice. Slice. Woven throughout they Egyptian culture was a tapestry of idolatry, demonism, and humanism placed in substitution of the true and living God. And where that tapestry of evil touched that society - death and destruction was the result. Therefore Jehovah destroyed this mockery, and devastated all who bound themselves to it.
In the final plague - we learn that God has established the ultimate picture of salvation through Christ, expressed in the lamb of the Passover. That lamb was punished by death, taking the judgement of sin, that the judgement due for sin was paid. This was no exemption. The judgement did not skip over them - but rather their judgement was taken by the lamb. The lamb was an expression of the person of Christ Himself. The only and true living sacrifice for the sins of mankind. What this lamb pictured - Christ did.
An interesting clarification is given us in v.28: he, Moses, kept the passover, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch THEM. THEM is the rest of the Hebrews, the children of Israel, dwelling in the land of Egypt.
The New Bible Commentary 11:1–40 A Celebration of Faith
Moses’ faith was an essential element in God’s saving plan for his people.
We will encounter this concept again in the next verse. The idea here is that the word of God operating was resident in Moses, would be the word of God that would deliver these people. Moses would write the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. He would do it with the very Hebrew Consonental Alphabet that Jehovah led the sons of Joseph to develop. Which we have shown you via Dr. Douglass Petrovich’s lectures and material. This “FAITH” or dependence upon biblical truth was at work in Moses now at the point of the Passover.
In one sense we could say that Moses was the example, which the Hebrews would need to emulate to be successful. Just as Christ is our example which we emulate - in dependence upon the filling of the word, and dependence upon the work of God the Holy Spirit.
In the Fifth example, by faith Moses passed through the Red Sea.
By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.
Again do you see what happened? The children of Israel did indeed latch onto the confidence that comes from scripture
In the New Bible Commentary, edited by DA Carson, we read that
The faith of the Israelites, as they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land, was inspired by the promises of God that Moses brought to them
The promise was in Exodus 14:13-14
And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Moses expressed that new direct promise from God. Which promise was built on the previous promises of God - that Israel would be released to their new land after 430 years. That the tribes of Israel would dwell in the promised land. That God was leading the children of Israel from Egypt to go to the land of promise. There is one promise on top of another promise. There are strata of doctrine (the truth aspect of God’s revelation), and strata of promises (the practical and personal aspect of God’s revelation). This latest revelation of God - that he was going to perform a work of deliverance for all of the Children of Israel, has a strong and easy to follow context.
It will be a new thing that God does - but the context of promises it stands is not a surprise to those with doctrine circulating in their soul!!
Now we’re going to have a few more examples; but the writer runs through them very quickly. He's going talk about Jericho, Rehab, talk about judges in verse 32. But the whole point of this is that we can follow them in trusting God. This is all about relying on God’s divine revelation - scripture, as the resources of your life - to set you on a course from here to eternity.
Before we step into Hebrews 11:30 and following. I want to take a step back.
For those who haven’t been able to join us on our James 2:/Hebrews 11: journey on Wednesday nights, I want to bring something forward from Hebrews 11:22, the passage that immediately preceded our passages on Moses.
By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.
Our expanded translation was: “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Joseph, when he was in the process of dying, recalled to mind about the Exodus of the sons of Israel; and gave orders concerning his bones.”
Now the reason Joseph gave orders concerning his bones follows: Joseph is a man who refused to be buried in Egypt. He knew that he was refusing one of the greatest funerals to ever have been had in Egypt but he realized that his body should be in a certain spot because it would be meaningful to the next 400 years of generations.
Joseph wasn’t insisting on going home to Canaan to be buried, rather he was insisting for them to wait for 400 years so that future Hebrews in prosperity, in indentured servitude (which is selling yourself to labor for someone in exchange for money or benefits) or future Hebrews in outright slavery would go to that coffin and they would see, and say “here are the bones of Joseph who said, “Do not bury me here, bury me in the land.” And they would say that one day they were going to take this coffin and leave Egypt.”
Now how often do you find yourself doing that. Sitting around waiting on a Coffin which will lead you to a land of promise
God has provided it for us, it is a part of His plan, it is a part of His will. They would say to their son, “Son , we have a promise. When the clock has counted down, we will leave this place. Then we will be born into freedom by the grace of God and it will be so startling and so unusual that no one will ever doubt the origin of the Jewish nation.”
There was no Jewish nation when Abraham crossed the Euphrates and entered Canaan, and there was no Jewish nation when the patriarchs lived. Four hundred and thirty years after the death of Joseph a nation would be born out of slavery. They actually lived in their own region above the mouth of the Nile River. The great population of people came into existence in slavery, which means that people can live normal lives under abnormal circumstances if they have Bible doctrine in their souls.
The nation was born on the day of the Passover. There was no nation when Joseph died but Joseph in his great application of doctrine saw this future promised nation. He saw the slavery coming up, he saw the problems, and he knew that the people would need encouragement. That coffin was the Bible of the Jewish people for 400 years. Therefore the commandment concerning his bones was more important than anything he did in his lifetime. The unburied coffin of Joseph became a teaching aid for the next four hundred years of these children of Israel, the Hebrews.
This is without parallel in History.
What about the Pyramids you might ask? What about them - they were built as monuments. And there they sit! They have not moved. What promise did they convey? When you die your are dead? When you make your monument really, really big - no one can move it? People will care about your Pyramid, but not so much about you?
There is no promise attached to the Pyramids in relation to history. All effort was given to make this wonder of the world. But … it … is … all … here. And it will all be removed at the recreation of the earth and heavens, and possibly at the reconfiguration of the planet when the world is returned to a large single continent, a Pangaea, and Jerusalem become the height of the continent, and the temple mount the high place in Jerusalem.++++++++++
The saga of the bones of Joseph
1. The bones of Joseph left Egypt in the great exodus. When Moses assembled the people and they were ready to move out at the beginning of their great trek to Canaan, as we read in Exodus 13:19
Exodus 13:19 (NKJV)
And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he (Joseph) had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, “God will surely provide for you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”
Moses was the man of doctrine who kept the promise. That the unburied coffin of Joseph moved out with the people and was always at the front of the column for forty years was a reminder of the dynamics of Bible doctrine in the soul of one person. In fact, their only responsibility was to follow the colours. They followed the coffin. Why was it a coffin to them? Because they were reversionists. They were hearers only, who rejected the doctrine. They did not examine the details or specificity of the promises, but panned them over. But in effect that coffin was their guidon, the national colours. To follow the coffin means to take in doctrine, day in and day out.
2. The bones of Joseph were forty years in the desert with Israel, carried by reversionists. They followed the coffin overtly but they did not follow the coffin spiritually. They didn’t follow it in the sense of taking in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day. They had the greatest Bible teacher but they didn’t listen to his teaching and they revolted against his wonderful leadership, for Moses was a humble man under God with the most dynamic system of leadership the world has ever seen.
3. The bones of Joseph crossed the Jordan with the next generation under Joshua. The coffin was carried dry shod across the Jordan river, held up by the grace of God.
4. The bones of Joseph were finally buried 470 years after he made his speech — Joshua 24:32. Again, we have the principle of resurrection. Joseph in resurrection wanted to stand by his grandfather and his father. And in the resurrection which will occur at the second advent there will be a resurrection of regenerate Jews. There will be four generations of believers on the earth — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph — who claimed paragraph SG2, who made the transition from time to eternity by dying grace, and who claimed paragraph SG3.
Summary
1. There are two areas of doctrine which are emphasized by Joseph in his dying moments. The first is national eschatology, the future of Israel under the Abrahamic and Palestinian covenants. Secondly, the personal eschatology: the future of Joseph in resurrection body claiming paragraph SG3.
2. Joseph, therefore, is a classic example of a believer who seized and held the high ground, enjoyed paragraph SG2, had something better in the PCS of dying grace, and had something better than the best in his surpassing grace paragraph of eternity.
3. Joseph’s supergrace blessings included promotion to Prime Minister of Egypt, social and sexual prosperity with his right woman, great leadership dynamics, one of the finest and smartest policy-makers to ever control a nation. Economic and materialistic prosperity came to Egypt through his policies. The inheritance of the double portion of Israel is a part of SG3, sharing the happiness of God, His occupation with Christ, his lack of bitterness and reaction toward his brothers and others who maligned him.
4. Joseph made the transfer from time to eternity by means of dying grace. He not only had a great death but he had one of the most dynamic deaths in history. Very few deaths influence history for four hundred years after that death. His did.
5. Not only did Joseph anticipate his own resurrection but he is included in the salute and embrace principle of the aorist middle participle of a)sfazomai which we studied in verse 13, and in Phillipians.
6. In other words, Joseph has in the future a glorious SG3 paragraph — surpassing grace, blessings and rewards forever and ever. These blessings will glorify God for all eternity. What more can you say about anyone in that he glorified God in time, he glorified God even more in dying, and he glorifies God to the maximum forever and ever.
Sunday December 12, 2021
We're continuing our tour through Hebrew 11 moving into the next little section. The last section that we've dealt with for a number of weeks (several lessons) was on functioning bible doctrine in the life of Moses - one example of the functioning bible doctrine of his parents, the other examples of functioning bible doctrine in the life of Moses and in the life of the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea.
Last week, we caught up on some of the details of Joseph, and the command to carry his bones to the promised land to be buried on family purchased land, based on the functioning bible doctrine in the soul of Joseph.
This was important to connect some potential gaps in our knowledge to aid us in processing the biblical situation of logistically moving Israel from Egypt to the promised land, and recognizing what was signified by being lead by the bones of Joseph. In other words, as the bones of Joseph lead the Israelites, after their salvation from Egypt - so the key to believers in the church age who have been delivered from bondage to sin and death, is to be lead by the word of God.
The bones lead Israel. The word of God is to lead us. Of course this only works as bible doctrine is functioning in the soul. The word of God is to lead and direct our soul.
Before we pick back up with the rest of the discussion, I want to pick up another item, that is relevant that I jumped over, for the purpose of flow of the study, that is pertinent to our understanding of how things fit together. Since we have a gap between vs. 29 and vs. 30 of Hebrews 11:, I want to insert it here. It will take a portion of our first hour, and then we will be back on track working through vs. 30. So we will be addressing from vs. 28, the doctrine of the feasts. Hebrews 11:28
By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
Now we have addressed the doctrine of the feasts most recently from the Jewish perspective. But I want to address it now, more from a doctrinal perspective with a slightly different emphasis.
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The doctrine of the feasts
1. Definition. The word “feast”, like the Passover, is derived from the Hebrew noun CHAG. The word is taken from a verb which means to jump for joy, to jump when you are happy, to celebrate. The feast was designated as commemorations and celebrations of God’s grace.
A feast, then, is the celebration of the grace of God. They were tests of resident doctrine in the soul, like the Lord’s table or the Eucharist is to us. The commemorated grace blessings derived from doctrine resident in the soul.
So we have to call them Grace Orientation Commemoratives.
2. The feasts related to the first advent. There are four of them that were related to the first advent and the first one is the Passover. The Passover occurred on Friday, April 24, (Or Tishri 14) 1446 BC. You might notice that this date varies from that of some of the DTS dates, and is the more scholarly date, derived from the work of Dr. Petrovich, and Dr. Young, which we have reviewed, and which I have given you some documentation on.
See the Passover reviewed in Exodus 12:1-14; Leviticus 23:5. It portrays the work of Jesus Christ on the cross with special emphasis on redemption. It also portrays one other principle. It portrays freedom from slavery, the beginning of a nation. All nations begin at the point they attain their freedom. Therefore it recognizes the principle of freedom in life. But it also recognizes something else.
The Passover is not the only feast and by virtue of the fact there were other feasts it is a reminder that no one enjoys freedom unless he is in God’s plan of grace. One must have capacity for freedom and this comes from functioning Bible doctrine in the soul. The Passover is the first of the feasts, it has a dual connotation: freedom and the beginning of a nation. It also connotes at the same time the beginning of God’s plan. God’s plan begins at the cross. Grace always begins at the point of salvation.
The second of the first advent feasts was the feast of unleavened bread. It occurred immediately following Passover— 15-21 of Tishri, a week-long feast. It portrays phase two or living grace. It portrays the concept of everything that God has to do to keep a believer alive in the devil’s world. It means that only God keeps any of us alive. Living grace means that God keeps us alive, we do not earn it or deserve it or work for it. The feast of unleavened bread is described in Leviticus 23:6-18 and in 1 Corinthians 5:8. Jesus Christ is called the Bread of Life and that is not always a salvation title but a title of sustaining us in this life. We are here and we are what we are by the grace of God. That is living grace, it means that we are here and alive because of who and what God is and because of His grace. The Bread of Life means something else. Bread means food, food sustains life. When Christ is called the Bread of Life it means he is the sustainer of our life on this earth, and we are alive by courtesy of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Unleavened bread is also a picture of the hypostatic union, Jesus Christ as the God-Man and the one who is qualified to be and became the only saviour.
The next feast is called the Firstfruits. The Firstfruits always occurred the first Sunday after the Passover and therefore it was in the feast of unleavened bread. Leviticus 23:9-14 portrays it. It is described in its significance in 1 Corinthians 15:20,23.
It represents the resurrection. it also, then, becomes a picture of surpassing grace or paragraph SG3, all that the believer will have by way of reward in eternity. The Sunday of the feast of the firstfruits was a reminder of a principle, that only in time can you acquire paragraph SG2, dying grace, and paragraph SG3; they cannot be acquired in eternity. They can only be attained by persistent, consistent, never-give-up, stubborn, hard-headed, I’ll-never-change-my-mind, all the way pursuing and then clinging to the mature life, the SuperGrace life. God gives you one day at a time to take in Bible doctrine. Whatever else you do that day it is that which is foremost and important, and it is that point which is tested every day. Every day creates a free will issue: Will I take in doctrine or will I not? For those who say yes every day to doctrine, they follow the colours to the high ground to their paragraph SG2, they are on the road to glory, and they acquire paragraph SG3 forever and ever and ever.
Sunday, by the way, has always been the first day of the week because more important than anything else in life is Bible doctrine. So the firstfruits was a sign of the resurrection, a picture of the possibility of attaining SG3, and therefore it becomes another picture of the glory road.
The fourth feast was the feast of Pentecost, a one-day feast which occurred fifty days after the Passover. It always occurred in the first week of June. Leviticus 23:15-21. It represents a number of things. It represents the beginning of the fifth cycle of discipline or the time of Israel’s dispersion. It represents also the beginning of the Church Age and the calling out of the royal family of God. It also represents the fact that no adversity in life is too great for the believer on the high ground. There is no disaster, no adversity, no trial, no heartache, no problem in life too great for doctrine in your soul. That is the only place where doctrine copes with problems. If doctrine is not in your soul it doesn’t cope. The only doctrine that you can use for disaster is the doctrine resident in your soul. So in the days of blessing, the easy days, you accumulate doctrine for the disaster days. When you do this the disaster days become easy days and golden days just like all of the other days. So this is the concept of Pentecost and these four feasts are related to the first advent of Christ.
3. Next we have the big gap, an elapse of time where there are no feasts. The big gap is the elapse of time between Pentecost and the feast of the Trumpets. That is a four-month elapse of time. Again, it represents the calling out of the royal family, the time of the Church Age. Remember that the Age of Israel was interrupted by the cross, resurrection, ascension and session of Christ. The Church Age is simply an insertion. Then the Age of Israel is continued with the Tribulation. In other words, the doctrine of intercalation, the principle of the big gap or the elapse of four months without a feast.
a) Intercalation means insertion. The Jewish dispensation was interrupted by the strategical victory of Christ, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session.
b) A new dispensation was inserted called the Church Age.
c) Intercalation is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.
d) The Church Age as intercalated is a mystery, not known to the Old Testament writers — Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1-6; Colossians 1:25,26.
e) Doctrines pertaining to the Church Age are not found in the Old Testament. Where the Church Age information would have occurred in the Old Testament there is a parenthesis.
f) Doctrine pertinent to the Church Age is intercalated by the New Testament epistles.
g) The Old Testament reveals doctrine up through the session of Christ, then skips the Church Age and reveals the Tribulation, second advent and Millennium.
4. The second advent feasts. There are three 2nd Advent feasts.
The first of these is the feast of the Trumpets — Leviticus 23:23-25. This represents the termination of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel and the regathering of Israel and the establishment of them as a nation. The fact that Israel will be regathered at the end of the Tribulation and at the second advent is taught in Isaiah 5:26-30; 10:19-23; 11:11-16; 14:1-3; 60:4-6; Joel 2:16ff; Zechariah 10:6-12. So the feast of the Trumpets is a regathering type of thing. In other words, it is a time when old friends meet under perfect conditions. Therefore it represents in another beautiful way to the supergrace believer the social prosperity of having true friends and great friends and having something worthwhile for all eternity. The Trumpets is a reminder that we will get together in eternity, even if not on earth.
The next feast is the feast of atonement — Leviticus 23:26-32; Hebrews 9:24-28; Romans 3:23-26. It represents the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel. These are given to the born-again Jews of the past dispensation. The eternally saved of Israel will have the land and the covenants forever under Jesus Christ, and this is a reminder of paragraph SG3.
The next feast is the Tabernacles. This is blessing on earth; the atonement is blessing in eternity. The Tabernacles: Leviticus 23:33-43; Zechariah 14:9, 16. It is a picture of the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a reminder of what Jesus Christ will produce on the earth — the prefect environment because Satan is bound and demons are removed from the earth, as per Revelation 20; the optimum spirituality which will exist in the concept of Isaiah 65:24 or Joel 2:28,29; or Israel restored as a nation, the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants, the objectivity in administration of justice, the perfect environment, creation is loosened from the power of sin, the animal life loses its ferocity.
5. The feast of Hanukkah, 25 December through 1 January. This is where we got the idea of celebrating Christmas. Christ was not born on 25 December, 25 December was when the temple was cleansed from all of the pig’s blood of Antiochus Epiphanes and the human blood of all the people he sacrificed. Hanukkah is the independent celebration of Israel. It was first celebrated on 25 December 164 BC when the temple was cleansed from the corruption of Antiochus Epiphanes. It meant freedom through military victory. Military victory always is the basis for providing human freedom.
6. The relationship to the agricultural economy of the ancient world. All of these feasts also had an economic connotation.
a) The Passover was held during the time of the latter rains or the barley harvest and was a reminder of the importance of free enterprise.
b) The feast of the firstfruits was held during the wheat harvest and it was a reminder that God has provided through free enterprise, the only basis for sustaining a nation.
c) Pentecost was the time when the early figs were ripened, a reminder to the Jews always that under free enterprise there is opportunity for new business, and that it must be done by following diligent laws of economy in establishment.
d) During the four months between Pentecost and the Trumpets there was the great olive, fig, and date harvest, depicting the principle that even the delicacies of life all come from free enterprise.
e) The Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles were observed during the early rains and the time of sowing, a reminder that as a nation sows against divine institutions they are destroyed, as they sow by the utilization of the divine institutions they survive and become great. All great nations have been founded on the basis of the laws of divine establishment. These three feasts were related to the sowing time of the agricultural economy of Israel.
f) The feasts were related to the practical everyday living of the Jews, and a principle emerges: Bible doctrine has practical and temporal applications as well as spiritual blessing. Bible doctrine is the producer of common sense.
g) We have the Sabbath month as a feast. This is called Tishri. This was the seventh month, equivalent to the last half of September and the first half of October. The Sabbath month was a special month is all Jewish history. The Jews had a thirty-day month, a twelve-month year. So to compensate for this they had to have a leap year in which they added a month. On leap year they had 13 months in the year. The seventh month or Tishri had seven feasts. The first day of the month they had the feast of the Trumpets and the feast of the New Moon. On the third day of the month they had a special commemoration for the murder of Gedaliah. On the seventh day of the month they had the fast for the golden calf incident. The tenth day of the month was the feast of Atonement. Then on 15-21 of the seventh month the feast of the Tabernacles. On the 22nd day the solemn assembly and prayer for rain, and on the 23rd day they celebrated the dedication of the first temple.
“By means of doctrine resident in the soul he executed the Passover with the result that it became a permanent institution.”
It was Moses who under the teaching of God set up the original seven feasts in Israel. Leviticus 23 is the chapter and that chapter was written by Moses himself. All of the original grace commemoratives were set up by Moses. In other words, the whole structure of holidays was set up by Moses at the beginning of the Jewish nation. Other holidays came along, but the structure of holidays is grace, doctrine resident in the soul. The holidays are only meaningful to those who have doctrine resident in the soul. A vacation is based upon capacity for life, capacity for life is based upon maximum doctrine in the soul.
END SUNDAY DECEMBER 12, 2021
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SUNDAY FEBRUARY 02, 2022
Starting the Year with Jericho!
In Hebrews 11, we have continued the study on faith. Now faith always has an object. If there is no object, then there is no faith. Also, if the object is not true, then what you have faith in is of no value. If you have faith in a lie - then you believe a lie. Good for you!! One of the marks of maturity is to discern what is true. Why is this important? Because discernment can differentiate between the truthful and the lie. It is pertinent to us because we desire to have fellowship with God. Fellowship with God occurs as you walk in the light, according to 1 John 1:5-6
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
There is a parallel which you must see - truth leads us to discernment, which leads us to confession that we might turn from sin to walking in the fellowship of the light. In the light we practice the truth, and grow in the truth.
Let me restate this: Truth or doctrine leads us to correct spirituality; and real spirituality will lead us back to orientation for truth. Put another way - if we choose to live in the divine dynasphere, the power system of God, that system is composed of the Word of God, and the fellowship of God the holy Spirit. The divine dynasphere will always lead us to stay in the divine dynasphere. That is God’s plan for us in time.
James tells us there is the opportunity to be a hearer only of doctrine, of truth, of God’s word. This means you have heard the word of God, or doctrine, but you have NOT placed trust in it, you have not relied upon it, you have not chose to view your world through doctrine, as opposed to through human viewpoint or perspective. James tells us that is not being a doer, but a hearer only of the word.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
The hearer-only of the word, is the one who chooses to NOT live his life by faith, trust, reliance on God. James 2:14-26 and Hebrews 11, both go about demonstrating for us what it means to be a doer of the word, or to exercise faith. This is the instance of being filled with the word of God; also called in scripture, filled with the word of Christ. It has been called bible doctrine resident in the soul, and I am suggesting that we call it living based on doctrine in our soul, or reliance on bible doctrine in the soul, or LIVING Bible Doctrine in the soul, or what I think is the clearest - functioning bible doctrine in the soul.
James 2:21-26 and Hebrews 11 go through to show us how reliance on bible doctrine looks. What this functioning bible doctrine in the soul looks like.
We have reviewed the Patriarchs, the Bones of Joseph, and the faith acts of Moses.
And now in Hebrews 11:30 we have moved from the Exodus event to the conquest of Canaan. Now, let’s use this as an opportunity to think our way through the Old Testament, and fill the gap between Moses and the Jericho event.
If you're wanting to think your way through Genesis you can do it simply - just remember 4 by 4.
We have 4 events and we have 4 people in Genesis. The four events are what? Creation, Fall, Flood, Tower of Babel.
The four people are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. So if you can remember those 8 things you’ve worked your way through Genesis.
Then when you come to Exodus we have the birth and the story of Moses.
We have the call of Moses and the 10 plagues.
We have the departure (the rescue, redemption, the Exodus) through the Red Sea.
We have the Israelites going to Mt Sinai where they are given the Law. The whole second half of Exodus has to do with explicating the Mosaic Law in terms of the ritual primarily.
There is other civil law that’s there; but primarily it’s focused on the laws of sacrifices and the construction of the Tabernacle.
So that takes us through Exodus.
The last event historically is when they are on Mount Sinai. Moses gets the Law. Then Moses brings it down to the people; and then we have the explanation of what’s in the Law in the book of Leviticus.
The next major event that occurs of course is described in Numbers:
when they depart Sinai, go to Kadesh Barnea;
and God instructs Moses to send 12 spies into the land that He has promised to give them to see the nature of what they will be up against when God takes them in to destroy the Canaanites.
They misunderstand the order. It's one of the classic examples in Scripture of the misinterpretation of Scripture. The results are never good when you misunderstand scripture - and they completely misunderstood. God didn’t say, “See if you can do it.” He said to go spy out the land. It’s a recon trip to see what it’s like, what the layout of the land is. The purpose isn’t to see if they can do it; the purpose is to understand the layout of the land so that as God takes them in they will have an understanding of what's there. I am sometimes flabbergasted in this day of availability of good bible study tools, solid hermeneutical (interpretation) principles, and the shoulders of many faithful men to stand upon when it comes to the art and science of biblical interpretation at how often people go astray, and ignore the intent of the meaning of scripture based on the context.
These scouts failed to understand. Ten of the spies come back and instead of saying “well the wine country is to the south, and the dairy pastures are to the west,” they whine and cry and say that it can't be done. They can’t face these Canaanites because they've got too many cities, fortified cities (walled cities). The people are too numerous, and there are giants in the land.
I think it is important, so I will make this connection now. There is a parallel in scripture between the Passover, Exodus, and the Entrance into the land, and the Salvation and spiritual life of the believer. The one is the picture of the other.
Now watch this - Only two (Caleb and Joshua) are exercising faith and trust in the Word. Now that's interesting. Neither Caleb nor Joshua ends up in Hebrews 11 which I thought was just an observation in terms of who's there. The writer of Hebrews is hitting certain high points; but that event of scouting out the land is not one of the points that he focuses on.
I want to expand on that, then I will come back to what is focused on in the Hebrews 11 text. Here is what I want to expand on:
God simply had the 12 scouts go in to scout the land that had been promised to them, which they were going to take and hold and dwell in, according to the promise of Abraham. He did not yet say how it was going to happen - just that it was going to happen. And TEN of the scouts freaked out: this is impossible - they said! We cannot do this . We will be overwhelmed. They looked at the circumstances. They made calculations based on their belief, which belief did not trust God.
The thing is - they were right , from a human viewpoint perspective. But the other two scouts saw it from a a Divine Viewpoint perspective - WE can DO this, they said! … with God’ on our side!
This was true of their situation. Viewing the land of Canaan, should be truly impossible to the one who was living in human viewpoint.
So too - we that are looking to live the life of fulfillment with God, what we know as the Spiritual Life, should be completely overwhelmed if we understand the situation rightly. It is impossible to achieve Spiritual life and living, if we are functioning in human viewpoint. The calling of God cannot be met by man's effort. All who have tried have failed. All who try to stand on their own righteousness have been judged deficient, and fallen short. All who have thought that they had the power by the sheer exertion of their will, have come up wanting, incapable, and have failed - their effort could not carry them beyond the human domain into the spiritual domain. Willpower falls far short - it cannot carry anyone into the spiritual domain.
You see, the Spiritual life is achieved only be grace, and that grace is unveiled as the spiritual man latches onto the biblical truth, and relies upon what God says instead of what he himself can do, or what she herself can do.
Another way to think of this is that anything that an unbeliever can do, cannot be the spiritual life. If you do not believe that the work of Christ in paying for your sin, was necessary to bring you eternal life, and that you must rely on His work, for yourself personally, as a substitute for the punishment of sin that was due to you, then you are eternally lost. You are not spiritual, and nothing you can do can be pleasing to God. The only way to be pleasing to God, is to rely upon the payment of sin on your behalf by christ. What we call the atoning work, the substitutionary work of Christ for us. If you believe in what Christ did, to change your acceptance before God - then God sees that and will instantly save you and change you. You will be born again. You will be a new creature.
Unbelievers can do many things. They can be nice. Many of the nicest people I know are unbelievers. Unbelievers can be moral. I know many moral individuals who are not believers in God, or in the substitutionary work of Christ. They are not pleasing to God. They can do nothing to please God. They cannot live the spiritual life.
For the Believer - anything that an unbeliever can do that you can do, cannot be pleasing to God. You can be nice too. In and of itself, this is not pleasing to God, and is not being spiritual. You can be moral. This is not pleasing to God, and is not being spiritual. Ok - that is like a bomb explosion in many scenarios. People are taught that their obligation and the mark of their spirituality is their morality! Not so! It isn't. Now living the spiritual life will result in morality. But living the moral life does not result in spirituality.
You can only please God when you live the protocol plan of God for spirituality for born again believers. That plan involves living in spirituality by grace, achieved through faith! We believe God. We believe what God says and teaches. We learn to believe the word of God. We learn to trust the teaching of the word of God. We learn categories of truth. We build on the foundation of Christ and achieve a structure of truth that rises in our soul. We become mature in Christ based on a mature observance of God's word, growing in our personal apprehension of the spiritual life based on grace.
An unbeliever cannot achieve fellowship with God. An unbeliever cannot be empowered by God. An unbeliever cannot live under the guidance and influence of the Word of God joined to the Spirit of God in the Soul. An unbeliever cannot achieve spirituality. At all. They can achieve a lie. They can be deceived into thinking they have spirituality. It isn't true. Your intelligence cannot be a substitute for spirituality. Some think that their common sense can replace spirituality - it just does not work. There are those who think that they have spiritual sensitivity.
Tal Brooke, author of the Lord of the Air, a book about his life with Sai Baba, the major religious figure in India for some 50 years. In the end, he was saved by Christ, escaped the cult, followed by many millions in India, and came back to be President of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project (http://www.scp-inc.org/)
Your growth then, and your achievement of every step into spiritual growth demands the same thing - fellowship with God, submission to the teaching, the lines and tenets of truth, that scripture provides, which make the wise spiritually strong, mature and powerful in this world of darkness.
Back to our comparison - the spiritual life is impossible to those who only have human viewpoint. But to those who have divine viewpoint, who realize that they will occupy and achieve the needed spiritual life through the power and provision of their God - they can achieve the spiritual life. They can trounce spiritual giants in their life. They can overcome the fortified cities which are impossible to overcome. We will see this in historic reality as Israel is guided by God, and we will see this as a picture of what God can do in the life of the believer who seeks to live by God's viewpoint.
Back to Hebrews 11:30 What our writer does not focus on is the Exodus generation that has died off after the forty years of faithless living in the wilderness or on the new generation (the generation that is born to the Exodus generation)when it is on the verge of entering the land; and God gives them orders on how to enter the land and how to defeat the particular cities that are there. But this is a divine viewpoint functioning generation.
So that's the next event that the writer of Hebrews comes to in Hebrews 11:30-31 .
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.
We actually have two 2 events which are connected – they deal with the conquest of Jericho. One has to do with the obedience to divine viewpoint (the faith, or functioning bible doctrine) of the Israelites in their following the orders of God and how they were to take Jericho. Then the other has to do with the amazing divine viewpoint (the faith, or functioning bible doctrine in the soul) of Rahab who is the Gentile the prostitute who is inside of this city in the pagan environment there and her response to God. So we have these two different events that come out of the first six chapters of the book of Joshua.
So we want to take a little time to understand the background there and to understand the focus of this particular section. Now as we have gone through and as we have proceeded through Hebrews 11, the focus goes back to developing the idea in the first two verses.
NKJ Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
We have reviewed faith already today. From another perspective It is a conviction. Faith is a conviction. It is an understanding of revelation. It is functioning bible doctrine in the soul. The object of faith is always in something that is revealed - in this case promises, teaching, instruction, prophecy. Functioning bible doctrine in the soul always takes the promise and is convinced that it's true even though there may not be any empirically available evidence of its fulfillment. Because God is the promisor. That has particular bearing not only in the life of those to whom the writer of Hebrews is speaking but also to us because often we don't see God fulfill certain promises in our lives the way we think they ought to be fulfilled. We don't understand how for example all things work together for good. We don't see necessarily see that in our lives. We just know that even when we go through difficult times; we know that God is working all things together for good in terms of His plan. So we have to trust Him even though we don't see (have that empirical evidence) of that fulfillment. We are limited in viewpoint. We can chose our view, therefore - the human view, or the divine view.
Then the writer begins to give examples starting with creation going through the period before the Noahic Flood focusing then on Noah, then on Abraham, and then Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph ( the patriarchs), and then on Moses showing that they in many cases did not see the evidence of the fulfillment of those promises that God had given to them So we focus on what faith is and the role of faith in the conquest of the land and by application the role of faith in the spiritual life of the believer.
Several things I want to cover just by way of introduction here. First of all we have to be reminded that for the last series of examples that we've looked at in Hebrews 11 - the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the faith of Moses - all of these ultimately went back to specific revelation, or reveleatory promise, that God had made to Abraham with reference to the Abrahamic Covenant. He had promised that He would give him a land and that this was first laid out in Genesis 12:7 when God promised that “to your descendants I will give this land.”
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Then Abraham responded in faith and built an altar to the Lord and worshipped Him there at Bethel.
Then in Genesis 15:18-21 this is incorporated within the Abrahamic Covenant. God makes a covenant with him and says in verse 18:
On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:
“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
So this is just a broad sweeping description of the boundaries. The Euphrates actually is to northeast of Israel - and then the River of Egypt to the southwest. So it covers this broad sweep. It's not as detailed as it is in some subsequent passages. But all of that land (which would today incorporate Lebanon) – it would incorporate what is both the West Bank as well as Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, much of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on up into Syria. All of that area would be part of the land that God promised to Abraham.
The second point that we should be reminded of is that the land promised was reiterated to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Several more times God restated this promise to Abraham that He was giving this land to Abraham and to his seed forever. This is a permanent promise from God. It's not based on any condition. The giving of the land is not based on any condition. Now what we’ll learn is that the enjoyment of the land, the enjoyment of the blessing of the land, the benefits of the land, the actual possession and ownership of the land will be dependent upon their obedience. If they're not obedient they’ll be kicked out of the land; but the title deed for the land is still theirs. That's the permanence of it.
God doesn't say, “Okay. Finally you've been disobedience so much that I'm taking this land away from you; and it's not yours anymore.”
So it is still theirs. So the land promise is reiterated to Abraham, again to Isaac two or three times, to Jacob two or three times; but none of them ever saw that promise fulfilled.
Hebrews 11:9-10 makes that point.
NKJ Hebrews 11:9 By faith he, that is Abraham dwelt
By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
NKJ Hebrews 11:10
for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
So he’s looking forward to that promise; but the point that (the application really) that the writer of Hebrews is making to these Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah is that as they're tempted to give up and to go back into the Judaism of that time (1st century Judaism) and to just give up on everything; he is saying that they're going to be difficult times. We can’t grow weary. We can't give up no matter what the obstacles may be, no matter what the temptations or testing may be. We have to learn to hang in there, to endure in obedience just as these examples of the Old Testament patriarchs did. They never saw the fulfillment of the promise; but they kept their focus. It was more real to them than if it had a physical empirical presence.
Now third (finally) in the book of Joshua, the promise begins to be fulfilled. The nation is now on the border of the land that God has promised them. They're beginning to get specific direction from God as to how they are to cross the Jordan River, how they are to go into the land, what the order of march should be among the tribes. God is not just giving them general instructions (go into the land); but He is telling them generally what they are to do and specifically the methods that they are to use in getting there.
That I think is it is important. God does not always go into that much detail; but at times and in particular cases and situations God - we not only have broad general promises, but we have specific statements in Scripture as to how we are to do certain things. In other situations and in other areas of application, we might just have broad general promises. You see both of those take place in the book of Joshua.
So in the book of Joshua, the promise begins to be fulfilled. Now think with me before we go any further, think with me in terms of the history of Israel - how the nation as a corporate entity is to depict the Christian life. Remember they are in slavery in Egypt. Then God redeems them at the Passover. There is the sacrificial lamb that covers the house so that when the blood is applied when God comes to bring death to the firstborn; there's no death to the house of those who have the blood applied.
That is a picture of our individual salvation - that when we put our faith in Christ and the death of Christ on the cross in our place is applied to us, then spiritual death is reversed and we’re regenerate.
So the Passover meal itself depicts salvation.
Now the nation is redeemed at that point. So what happens after that redemption is not a picture of redemption anymore because that's over with. That’s accomplished. That was that singular event. What happens from that point on is in the history of Israel is to depict sanctification in the life of the believer. It depicts the life now of obedience. See they’re saved as it were at the Exodus. They're identified at the Red Sea as we pointed out previously, with the faith of Moses so that that's comparable to our position in Christ. They in a sense have their position through their identification with Moses.
Then now that they are a redeemed people the issue at Mount Sinai is - how are a redeemed sanctified people adopted as God’s firstborn son supposed to live? How do they live? So from that point on the doctrine (the application) is in the direction of sanctification.
So when we look at Joshua, the promise begins to get fulfilled and the examples that we see in all the events after Sinai really relate to sanctification.
So we'll look at some background to the book of Joshua just to get a little bit of the fly over. The book of Joshua (there's a good picture for you so you can remember that) - it's about conquest. That is the single one word you can use to remember what is going on in Joshua. It is about a battle. It is a tremendous picture of the believer’s battle (the fight we all are engaged in) in terms of spiritual warfare - the physical warfare of Israel against the Canaanites is analogous to the fight that every believer has against the paganism that is in his own soul.
So first of all the background to the book – the title of the book Joshua comes from the central character in the book who is Joshua. His name is the same name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jeshua which is related to salvation. He is the one who will bring the people into the land.
Second point (the first point was title named for the central person in the book) - the second point has to do with authorship. We don't know who wrote Joshua. We know that sections of it were probably written by Joshua. Other sections were not written by Joshua, for example the parts written after his death. It’s very likely that he wrote large sections of it due to the use of the first person singular pronoun at places. It's clear that an eyewitness wrote it because of the first person plural that’s used in places: “we” and “us” along with detailed descriptions that would only be known to somebody who was present at the time of these events.
Furthermore in Joshua 6:25 there is the comment related to Rahab that “she lives even to this day.” So Rahab is still alive at the writing of Joshua and the Jebusites are still in control of Jerusalem. So this means that written before David defeated the Jebusites and conquered Jerusalem as part of his kingdom. So several times the writer notes something and then says “to this day.” So we have - we don't know who the human author was; but it is clearly authored by God the Holy Spirit who writes through someone who has the gift of prophet.
Then we have the date of the book or the dates and the time period covered in the book from approximately – it was probably written (concluded, finished) by 1380 BC. The events covered the period from 1406 BC when they entered the land to 1380 BC.
The purpose is to demonstrate God's faithfulness to His promises in fulfilling the promise He made to the patriarchs and Moses to give the land to Israel by holy war. So God has made that promise. So when we take that and we plug it into what we're reading in Hebrews 11, once again both of these examples of faith that we looked at (faith in conquering Jericho, the faith of Rehab) ultimately go back to the promise that God has given them the land.
One of the things is quite striking in the dialogue that the two spies have when they first meet Rahab is that she already knows that God has given the land to the Israelites. She has heard all of the stories about how God delivered them from Israel and so have all the Canaanites. And they've been scared to death for forty years. They were more afraid of the Israelite's forty years earlier when the spies came in to the land than the spies were afraid of the Canaanites. But they didn't know it. When the Canaanites had heard all of these stories (and they probably had been exaggerated and developed about how all of the plagues of how God had defeated the armies of - the great magnificent armies and chariots of pharaoh) so the Canaanites were already operating in tremendous fear expecting to be completely defeated. So the purpose of this book is to demonstrate the faithfulness of God to His promise as well as to demonstrate the people's faith in God in fulfilling the promise which fits right in with the theme of Hebrews 11.
Fifth point by way of introduction to Joshua is that in the Hebrew Bible it’s the first of the former prophets.
The Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections: the Torah (which means instruction. That’s the first five books – what we call the Pentateuch. Torah means law. In one sense it also means instruction. So you have the first five books of the Torah.) The second division is the Prophets. You have two subdivisions. You have the early prophets (or the former prophets) and the latter prophets. The former prophets are Joshua, Judges (and Ruth is considered part of Judges in the Hebrew canon), Samuel, Kings. These are part of the prophets. Now we think of those in the English Bible - we put them (classify them) as historical books. But it's not just history. It is a prophetically edited history showing what God is doing in light of the promises in Deuteronomy, the blessings and the curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-30 so that they are written by prophets and those early books are showing the outworking of God’s promises for blessing and promises of judgment in those historical books.
So Joshua is the first one. So that tells us something about Joshua. It's not simply a historical narrative on how God gave the land to Israel. It is to be interpreted within the framework of theology that we get coming out of Deuteronomy. Now, we’ve talked about how the Jews will finally turn back to God at the end of the tribulation period and when they are corporately saved as a nation. If we go back all the way to Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28-30 we will locate the basis for that event in the future in what God promised and predicted in those blessing and cursing passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. So Joshua then if we think of it not as history but we think of it as God showing the outworking of what He stated in Deuteronomy and in the promises in the Torah then we have an understanding of why this is important and how then we can take these events and put them within a grid that overlays the spiritual life of the Church Age believer giving us a framework for application.
That’s why the Old Testament is important. It gives us a pattern, an analogy. Often we call that typology. It’s translated “example”, for example in 1 Corinthians 10:1-3 . These things happened to them as an example for us.
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food,
we are nothing, if we are not people who look for examples. But when God shows them to us, we so often go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that doesn’t apply to me.” So we often don't learn very much from example. But that's what it’s there for – to teach us. So it helps us structure that understanding which I’ll talk about in the next point.
So the 6th point deals for the structure (the outline) of the book. The first five chapters deal with God bringing the nation to enter the land of Canaan - crossing into Jordan. When they first enter the land, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant lead them across the Jordan which is just a raging torrent at that time.
That took a tremendous act of faith. Now that's an example of what we will focus on - how faith ( functioning bible doctrine in the soul) works. We often think of faith as being opposed to works; but that's because this word “work” (and we also use the word “doing”) are words that have broader meanings. When we think of works we may talk about works of faith as opposed to works. And it is if we’re understanding works to be something we do that’s supposed to impress God or bring merit to us because of what we do. But faith always involves doing something RELATED to faith. Sometimes it's something that's more intellectual; sometimes it's something that’s more overt. But when God told the Israelites that this is how you’re going to cross into the land. The priests are going to go first carrying the Ark of the Covenant. They're going to carry it on the poles by which it should be carried because “if you don't trust Me then you are going to carry it and touch the Ark and you’re going to die instantly.” So trust involves doing the instructions (following the instructions.) If the bible doctrine is not in the soul - there is going to be a big issue. Bible doctrine instructs and informs. It must be in the soul.
We move to Joshua 3:9-13
So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.”
They are to step off. They come to this steep bank there of the Jordan. I don’t know if you've ever been around a river that is flowing very rapidly or is at flood stage; but you realize the danger that is there as this water is rushing passed you recognizing that if you fall into that then the current is such that you can easily be swept away and easily be drowned. The water isn’t going to stop.
It wasn’t like the situation at the Red Sea where Moses held up his staff and the Red Sea parted and then they went forward. At this event, God told them that the priests are to step into the river and when their feet actually hit ground the water will have stopped. So as their feet hit the ground, the water is splitting just under their feet so that when their feet hit something solid it’s dry ground. They're trusting God and doing something than ran completely contrary to what their eyes and their brain was telling them they should do. That's when faith in the Word of God is more real - what God says is more real to us than what are our experience (what our senses) tell us. So that must have been quite a challenge for them to take that step into the Jordan. But that is a picture of the kind of faith rest action that's part of the spiritual life.
So God led him to enter the land of Canaan, the first five chapters. Then starting in chapter 5 verse 13 through 12:24 we have the beginnings of the conquest of the land. In 5:13 the Angel of the Lord as the commander of the armies of the Lord (the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ) begins to address Joshua giving him instructions on how they are to take Jericho which just has some of the most unusual military tactics that we've ever seen. That covers the period to 12:24.
Let’s read Josh 5:13
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”
Then from the 13th chapter through the end of the book - it's basically real estate deeds where God is dividing the land and giving the borders for all the different tribes and how that will be apportioned.
The 7th point we need to understand in relation to Joshua has to do with what the book is teaching us - how we should read Joshua so that we understand it's more than just describing what God did some 4,000 years ago or 3,500 years ago. But it has a teaching emphasis in relationship to experiential sanctification. So we have to understand a little bit about what that term means. I’ve got about five or six points on the experiential sanctification in understanding that meaning.
Now the word sanctification is a word that’s used to describe the believer’s position in relationship to God. The word sanctification comes from two word groups -one in Hebrew and one in Greek.
The Hebrew word is qadash – qdsh. The “sh” is one consonant (one symbol) in the Hebrew alphabet – qadash. The root meaning there is to be set apart to the service of a deity. It isn't the idea of holy with the sense of purity as we’ve seen in some passages. The masculine participle of that word is the term used for the male prostitutes that functioned in Baal worship. That's certainly not a morally pure endeavor. So the root meaning of qadash or holy means set apart or consecrated to the service of God. So, sanctification describes the believer as one who is set part of the service of God.
But it has two senses. The first sense has to do with positional sanctification and the second is experiential sanctification. Now if we think of the history of Israel as being a pattern for the individual spiritual life of the believer; then the covenant with Abraham is a picture of positional sanctification.
God called out Abraham and He said, “ In your seed all nations shall be blessed.”
They have a new position. In Abraham they are set apart from all the other nations on the earth to serve God in a special way - that is going to be through the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that all nations will be blessed first and foremost through salvation that will come through the Messiah that will come through that line. Secondly, because it is through the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the Scriptures (the Word of God) are going to be revealed to man. So they are the custodians of the Word of God.
So they are positionally set apart in Abraham based on an unconditional or permanent covenant that can’t ever be changed. That's a picture of eternal security for us - is that that same kind of agreement that God made with Abraham - is the foundation for our relationship with God. Positionally we can’t ever lose that identification with Christ where we;re set apart to the service of God.
However as we go through day-to-day life, we are often disobedient. We are often self absorbed. We are always or often operating on our sin nature. At those times we are not living as one who is set apart to God. We are living on the basis of our own lusts and our own sin nature and we have to learn to say “no” to the sin nature and “yes” to the Word of God. That is a process of spiritual growth that we refer to as experiential sanctification where we’re learning to live in the service of God experientially through the application of the Word of God.
So positional sanctification describes the believer’s position before God which can’t be lost (can’t be changed) and that Old Testament type relates to Abraham.
Then experiential sanctification is going to relate to the application of specific commands and promises that God has made in relationship to how we’re to serve Him.
So in terms of Israel, they’re positionally set apart when they crossed the Red Sea. At Sinai they learn how they are to serve God in terms of day-to-day obedience. So the Mosaic Law then becomes a pattern for sanctification; and it is the basis for the experiential sanctification for the Old Testament believer in Israel.
So in the whole Doctrine of Sanctification from the Old Testament, we see that the land is promised to Abraham. It’s given to Israel on a permanent basis; but the actual benefit and enjoyment and blessing of the land is theirs only if they are obedient to God - only if they are applying the law.
God said, “If you disobey the law; then I will remove you from the land and you won't enjoy its blessings.”
Now in the same way by analogy the believer is given a certain number of blessings and privileges in Christ. We have all the spiritual assets we have in Christ. We are blessed with an infinite number of blessings. God has given us everything related to life and godliness. We have the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. We’re empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have the completed the canon of Scripture. All these things are ours positionally in Christ. But they only become ours experientially as we learn the Word and then as we apply it on a day-to-day basis.
One of the metaphors that the Scripture uses to teach how we grow spiritually is the metaphor of warfare. We see this in passages such as 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.
NKJ 2 Corinthians 10:4
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
These are strongholds of thought that are deeply entrenched in our mind (in our thinking.) These weapons of warfare are for the purpose of casting down arguments.
NKJ 2 Corinthians 10:5
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
Now these participles that we have there (pulling down stronghold, casting down arguments and bringing every thought into captivity) deal with the progress of our spiritual growth. It is a process where we learn the Word and we apply the Word. As we apply the Word, we’re doing certain things.
There's that terrible word. All of a sudden it’s legalism. No, that’s not what legalism is. Legalism is when you say you have to do something in order to get God’s merit - that He blesses you because you do certain things whereas obedience to the Word is not done from that motive. It is the application of faith.
That’s what James talks about when he talks about “don't be a hearer only, but also be a doer.” Now that phraseology is often lost on us because of the familiarity with the terms. But James is saying, don't be a listener – don’t just take notes. Don’t’ just fill up your doctrinal notebook with all these doctrines; but apply it so that when the Scripture says that you are to speak the truth in love, that you speak the truth in love. You don't speak the truth in a way that is intended to be harmful or destructive or vindictive towards somebody else where you’re just trying to lash out at them.
When the Scriptures talk about how we are to be honest and how we are to be continuously in prayer - all of these things are things we are to do.
So when the Scripture says to pray without ceasing then what that means is I don't just write that down in my Bible, but it means that I need to discipline my life and arrange my time schedule so that I have consistent patterns of prayer in my life. So we're not just listeners. We’re doing.
Then in James 2, James changed the terminology from “hearing and doing” to “faith and works.” Faith is comparable to hearing. When we hear God's Word, we say, “Okay, I believe that’s true.” Well, if we believe it's true; then we're going to do what it says to do or in other words we're going to perform whatever it is that we are commanded to perform. We're going to do the works in that sense, not in a meritorious sense which is the problem that the Pharisees had. The problem that the Judiazers had is that they thought that their works (what they did) is what gave them meritorious standing before God rather than that it was a result of a meritorious standing before God.
So let me give you a couple of examples to try to help us think our way through this.
Colossians says:
NKJ Colossians 2:6
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
Now how did you receive Christ? We receive Christ by faith. But that faith was in a particular promise of God. Now how are we to walk? In the same way Colossians says we are to walk in the same way that we first became a believer – trusting in Him. Now some people have taken that and abused it by going into a quasi-mysticism where there's really no object to the faith. It's just faith. You just somehow have faith. It becomes a faith in faith. Then that gets real fuzzy because it picks up a lot of ideas that come out of paganism. For example you have various mind control cults that came out of the New Age movement and then if I just think it then I can make it happen. And I need to get involved in things such as creative visualization where I can control my reality by the things that I think. This is all part of Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking and Robert Schuler’s Power of Possibility Thinking and all of that lead into what became known as a positive confession of the health and wealth name-it-and-claim-it movement that was part of the charismatic movement. It is an abuse of faith because the faith in Scripture is not a faith in faith. It’s not faith in and of itself that is significant; it’s the correct object of faith, the bible doctrine of God, the knowledge of the character of God, the familiarity and ucorrect understanding of the promises of god that is significant..
So let’s look. The first example I have is in relationship to justification, in relationship to phase one salvation. When Paul and Silas were arrested in Philippi and put into the jail there which wasn’t very large; they were singing hymns to God. An angel came and the shackles came off. They didn't leave. When the jailor discovered this he came running in to see what happened. They were still sitting there; but he was scared to death because the penalty in the Roman Empire for someone who was on guard duty was – if the prisoner escaped (if anything happened) they would lose their life. So he is panicky; but he has also been hearing their testimony and their hymn singing.
So he says to them. “What must I do to be saved?”, in Acts 16:30
And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Their answer is given as believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ll be saved – you and your household.
So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
Now another verse that connects to that is the verse that we have in Romans 4:3 that relates to justification. As Paul is explaining the great Doctrine of Justification by Faith in Romans 4 he goes to the example of Abraham from Abraham in Genesis 15:7.
NKJ Genesis 15:7
Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
So Abraham believes some promise from God. It's not just he believed in God; but he believed God. God told him something, and he believed it. There was content (a promise) to what he had believed. In Acts 16:31- the key word that we want to hone in on is that word believe. It is an aorist active imperative which indicates that it is a priority statement that they are calling upon the Philippian jailer who at that moment to trust in Jesus Christ.
Now remember they've been singing hymns, and they've been talking for some time. This isn’t all that he knew. There’s not really enough content in that verse to give you the gospel. But there's enough content in the context for them to have understood what that meant. This is the conclusion of what Paul and Silas had communicated to him in terms of what Jesus Christ had done for him. So there's a command to believe. So what’s the response? The response it that the individual has an option whether to accept what has been said as true and trust and rely on it is true - or not.
Now there's nothing to do in terms of any other action or any other overt behavior in relationship to justification. It is simply affirming (assenting to) a truth that Jesus Christ died for me and I am trusting exclusively upon Him for salvation so that the object is the work of Christ on the cross. So faith always has an object and that object is expressed as a promise or as a description of what Christ did on the cross. So in this case there's not an external action that must be taken. It's not that he has to believe and go be baptized, or believe and go joint the church or believe and give half his money to God. He simply believes or trusts in what Christ did on the cross and the result is that he's saved. He’s justified.
Now the second example that I want to use is related not to the gospel (justification issue) but is related to understanding faith as it operates in the believer’s life after salvation in terms of what we’re studying in Hebrews 11 as well as what was happening in Joshua. This takes us to one of the great illustrations of faith in the gospels which is when Peter was walking on the water. This is covered in Matthew 14:29-31 .
Now Jesus had already walked out to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. So they could see that it could be done and they knew the Sea of Galilee better than anyone. They knew that He was not walking on stones. There's not a sandbar there. That's the view that liberals will come up with because their presupposition is miracles really can’t happen. So we have to explain how this really took place in a naturalistic manner.”
So Jesus walked out there. Now Peter wants to do it. Peter is so enthusiastic.
“Lord that’s great. I want to do it.”
So Jesus says to him in verse 29:
NKJ Matthew 14:29
So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
Then he saw the wind. He heard the wind. He saw the wind picking up and the waves, The wind became boisterous and he became afraid. He began to sink.
NKJ Matthew 14:30
But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
NKJ Matthew 14:31
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
This indicates Peter had walked some distance from the boat out to where Jesus was. It wasn't just one or two steps and then he took his eyes off the Lord. But he had gone some distance. Now he’s 20-30 feet from the boat. He's getting close to Jesus and he's seeing the waves come up. So Jesus stuck out his hand, caught him and said to him (and this is where we understand what the lesson is).
and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
That’s the focal point of this episode. That is the teaching point - is on faith.
Now Peter is not having some sort of a close encounter with his naval on the boat. He's not going through some sort of altered state of consciousness like a Hindu or Buddhist in terms of generating some sort of mystical faith power that is faith in faith. It has been an object and the object is the Lord Jesus Christ and His command. The command is expressed in verse 29 – come.
Interestingly it's the same grammatical structure that we have in Acts 16:31. It’s an aorist active imperative.
He says, “Come.”
So Peter gets out of the boat and he begins to walk. He's trusting in Christ; but the trust is coupled with doing something specific. That is - he can't just sit there in the boat with his doctrinal notebook and understand that “Okay, this is how I'm supposed to use the faith rest drill. I just finished reading the book. There are a lot of great promises there. Isn't that wonderful! Let’s close in prayer and go home.”
He's got to get out of the boat and start walking on the water. He's got to put what he believed, what he says he believed (what he learned) and he has to now apply it and implement it. That’s another good word for doing it - not in a meritorious sense. He has to get out of the boat and start walking on the water and initially things are smooth; but then things start to get a little tough.
The water gets rough and the wind comes up and the waves come up. All of a sudden Peter becomes distracted by what's happening around him. He gets his eyes off of the promise and on to the problems which is what happens to us from a regular basis where we get our eyes off of our relationship with the Lord and onto the details of life and what can go wrong and how this can’t work and why Jesus really doesn't take care of me in times of testing and difficulty. We get our focus completely off the Lord. Jesus uses this to illustrate the whole principle that faith in certain instances related to certain mandates involves a specific action that is directly related to the mandate.
So the Lord’s statement at the end there tells us that this whole episode it is all about faith. So this is again what James is talking about when he says that we are not to just listen to the Word; but that we are to do it. It is faith plus works. It’s all related to what is occurring in the believers’ growth process after salvation. This is functioning bible doctrine in the soul. The circumstances we are surrounded by are not to be the object of our trust - there is no functioning faith in that. We have no FUNCTIONING bible doctrine in our soul, when we take our eyes off of the doctrine, or the character of the Lord, of the promise that communicates doctrinal faithfulness.
Now the same thing is true in the spiritual combat that the believer enters into in the Church Age. We're in a battle and the Lord has described how we are to fight the battle, what the tools are in the battle, what our weapons are and how we are to achieve victory not in our own power but in the power of what God has given us utilizing the promises and principles that God has described in the Scripture.
So we do need to take that whole model of spiritual combat and lay that over what is happening in Joshua to understand how this faith principle operates in terms of combat.
In Joshua you have the Israelites who are on the edge of the land. They are now in a position to go into the area of blessing that God has promised them (the land) and to enjoy what God has given them. But in order to live in the land they have to apply what God revealed to them on Mount Sinai. They have to implement the law because God told them at the end of the law that if they didn’t implement it right then God would eventually kick them out of the land. There would be a whole series of various disciplinary procedures and eventually if they were rebellious (if they were disobedient) God would remove them from the land completely. So the physical holy war that they are engaged when they enter the land is analogous to the spiritual warfare that we're engaged in.
When you first became a believer you had a land (a territory) to conquer. That territory you need to conquer was between your ears. It's in our thinking. We are to learn to think as Christ thinks. We are to take every thought captive for Christ; and we are not to be conformed to the thinking of the world but to be transformed by the renewing our mind. So your mind was under the control of the Canaanites. Your mind was thinking according to pagan human viewpoint thinking; and there were certain strongholds of thought processes and habits of thinking (bad habits in life whatever they were) sinful procedures (we all have these things). Now we have to start engaging the enemy at these different strongholds on the basis of the promises and the procedures that the Scriptures proscribe for us.
Sometimes we just have broad general promises related to faith and trust. In other areas we not only have broad general promises, but there are specific commands and prohibitions in the Scripture as to what we are supposed to do in order to evict that pagan thought from our head.
So holy war depicts the battle. The holy physical holy war of the Old Testament depicts the spiritual battle in the soul and the basic method of operation is on the basis of faith. But it's not faith as an autonomous or independent mystical power. It is faith or belief in the promise of God, the procedures He outlines and in the power of God the Holy Spirit. Those three things go together - the promises, the procedures and the power of God the Holy Spirit. They work together. You can’t have one of those without the other. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the Word of God. It’s the Holy Spirit that takes the Word of God and puts it into our life. It is through the Word of God the Holy Spirit leads, guides and directs us.
So when we entered into this focal point on these two events that the writer of Hebrews brings to our attention here - the defeat of Jericho, the conquest of Jericho and the behavior of Rahab who's inside the fortress. Then we come to understand that this has great application for us and the spiritual life as part of the faith rest drill.
We'll begin with that next time when we look at how God commissions Joshua because in that commissioning God gives him again - reiterates one more time for him the promise of the land. Now He's promised us all kinds of blessings in the spiritual life. God reiterates the general promise of the land in the first chapter. But then the first place they come to is going to be Jericho.
He says, “This is how you take care of Jericho. You're going to walk around the city one time a day for 6 days and nobody is going to make a sound. Then on the 7th days you are going to walk around seven times and then blow the ram’s horn and the walls are going to come down. But then the next city they have to attach is Ai. They do it a different way. Each problem we face in the spiritual life demands a different solution, different procedures.
So we have broad promises and we have specific promises and each area involves different areas of application and different doctrines. That's why we have the problem solving devices. We have personal love for God and we have impersonal love for all mankind or unconditional love. We have occupation with Christ. We have doctrinal orientation, grace orientation. All these different things are different ways (strategies, tactics) that God has given us for dealing with the enemy that lies between our ears. So if you want to have victory in the spiritual life we have to understand faith because that is foundational. The faith rest drill is foundational to everything else.
