Next: Promise & Rest

Introduction

Do you ever make a decision, then get anxious about the response to it? There was once a pastor who had a five-year-old daughter. The little girl noticed that every time her dad stood behind the pulpit, and was getting ready to preach, he would bow his head for a moment before he began. So, one day after the service the little girl went to her dad and asked him, “Why do you bow your head right before you preach your sermon?” “Well, honey,” the preacher answered, “I’m asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.” Perplexed, the little girl looked up at her father and asked, “Then how come He doesn’t do it?” Sometimes the truth hurts, and we don’t want to hear it.

Last week, we talked about how we get stuck. Stuck in our bad habits. Stuck in our sinful habits. Stuck doing things we know we shouldn’t be doing. Today, we see how one person leads an entire People out of being stuck and instead, leads them into the Promised Land. Last Sunday we started a new series in the book of Joshua. The book of Joshua is a book of triumph. It’s a book of moving forward as God’s People look to what is next for them. They just spent the last 40 years wandering in the Wilderness, and then sitting just outside of the Promised Land. Joshua is a story of transition. A geographical transition from the Wilderness into the Promised Land. A leadership transition as Moses has died and now God has appointed their new leader, Joshua. There’s a transition from being a wandering people to a people with a land of their own, at least, for a while. As we look at what God has next for the Israelites and for Joshua, we look at what God has next for us. What he has next for us both individually and corporately. Before we dive into our new book, here’s a map to help us get our bearings. When Joshua begins, Joshua and the Israelites are where the black circle is. They had marched up east of the Dead Sea where they sit until Joshua takes command.

Moving into the second half of Joshua 1, we come to Joshua and the people of Israel at a decision point. Here, Joshua is the one who must deliver truth to people who might not want to hear it. God has just come to Joshua and told him that he would take over for Moses, who recently passed away. Joshua is to lead the Israelites across the Jordan. This is more difficult than it would sound. Several years ago, 12 people crossed the Jordan to scout out the land. 10 reported back that the Canaanites who were in the land currently could not be defeated. 2 people, Joshua and Caleb, returned with the report that the Canaanites were powerful, but the God who was with the Israelites was even more powerful. So not surprisingly, they went with the 10. They sat, and they waited just outside of the Promised Land. Just like we do today, in our way. But now God has come to Joshua and three times had told him, “be strong and courageous.”

Today we see Joshua’s reaction to God’s word, then the reaction of the whole people as he prepares them to Cross the Jordan. As we learn from this passage, we learn to live in the conquest God has promised us, not the defeat we settle for. For a fourth time, we hear those same words, be strong and courageous. So what actions must we take to experience the fullness of God? I think we learn three different promises God has for those who follow him.

God promises his presence

Joshua’s in a tough spot here. He has experienced Israel routinely, regularly turning away from God. He saw them grow worried about Moses being gone for a long time at Mount Sinai. This led to leading them, or perhaps we should say, misleading them in the construction of the Golden Calf. Then Joshua saw them grumbling and wanting to go back to slavery in Egypt. Wanting to go back when the journey grew long and eating manna in the desert everyday grew old. He was there when they decided against going into the Promised Land. They chose to not do exactly what God wants him to lead them into. Previously they had opted to sit Just outside of the Promised Land, instead of experiencing what God has for them. Just like we often do. Now that Joshua has heard from God in the first portion of the chapter 1, he has a heavy task in front of him. Does he attempt to lead the people into the fullness God has for them? By leading them into the Promised Land. Or does he, instead, pick the easy option. Does he accept what they’ve doing all along? Seeing the promises of God in the distance, without embracing them.

Verses 10-11 show Joshua obeying what God told him to do. The verses say that, “Joshua commanded the officers of the people, “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.” A paraphrase might be, “we’re going in.” The famous preacher, Charles Spurgeon, tells the story of a certain captain who had led his troops into a very difficult position, and he knew that the next day they needed to be full of courage to win the battle. So, disguising himself, at nightfall he went around their tents and listened to their conversations until he heard one of them say, “Our captain is a very great warrior, and has won many victories, but he has this time made a mistake; for see, there are so many thousands of the enemy, and he has only so many infantry, so many cavalry, and so many guns.” The soldier made out the account and was about to sum up the scanty total when the captain, unable to bear it any longer, threw aside the curtain of the tent and said, “And how many do you count me for, sir?”—as much as to say, “I have won so many battles that you ought to know that my skill can multiply battalions by handling them.” In a similar way, “the Lord hears his servants estimating how feeble they are, and how little they can do, and how few are their helpers; and I (again, this is Spurgeon speaking), I think I hear him rebukingly say, “But how many do you count your God for? Is he never to come into your estimate? You talk of providing, and forget the God of providence; you talk of working, but forget the God who works in you to will and to do according to his own good pleasure.”

Years earlier, twelve spies were sent into the Promised Land. Ten focused on the strength and power of their enemy. The two focused on the strength and the power of Our God. Are you a part of the ten or the two? Matthew 28:20 ends with, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Live in the conquest God has promised us, not the defeat that we have accepted.

God promises rest

Any time we are studying scripture, it’s important to look at what repeats. The words and phrases that repeat are emphasized because of their importance. It’s as though the author is saying, don’t miss this! This is important! Last week we saw the refrain of be strong and courageous. This week as Joshua takes God’s words to God’s People, Joshua repeats something different as he tells the people we’re going i. What he says might not be what we expect. Verses 13-15 say “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’ Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them, until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it, the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

The Promised Land isn’t simply the place where they will inhabit once they conquer it. It is a gift from God, and it is a place of rest from God. Sin and complacency feels good in the moment, but ultimately it leads to separation from God. On the other hand, following God’s Word leads to God’s rest. This connection between the Promised Land and rest comes up again in the New Testament. The author of Hebrews says in 4:1-3 “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.” This connection between salvation and rest can be confusing. After all, being a Christian does not mean that all of our problems miraculously vanish. In Genesis 1, God created the heavens and the earth in six days. On day 7, God’s work of creation ended with rest. God created the sabbath, the day of rest for us. Jesus says in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Following the ways of God leads to renewal in God. God’s rest isn’t the kind of rest where you’re sleeping in and slacking off. It’s more along the lines of that rest you feel after a busy, but good day. It’s the rest of a job well done. Which takes us back to Joshua. God provided them a land of rest. They could only experience that rest though is they first obeyed God, followed Joshua, and did the hard work of conquering their Promised Land. In a similar way, God offers us rest. Chapter 13 of our Westminster Confession of faith explains this well when it says, “The old sinful nature retains some of its control in body, mind, and spirit. And so a continual and irreconcilable war goes on in every believer.” Waging spiritual warfare against sin results in rest and freedom from sin. Not from the temptation of sin, but from the grip that sin has on us, oftentimes it has a grip on us that we don’t even realize. Therefore, live in the conquest God has promised us, not the defeat that we have accepted.

God promises victory

So Joshua goes to the people. He reminds them of the promises and the rest of God offers in the Promised Land. The promises and the rest offered in a land they’ve been camping just outside of. So how do they respond? They respond in verses 16-18 saying, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses! Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.” God had told Joshua three times to be strong and courageous. Now, it flips to someone else. The people Joshua has been called by God to lead have not only responded to Joshua’s leader, but they have encouraged him to be strong and courageous, just as God did in the previous section.

God has already provided for us in the power of the Gospel. When we struggle with sin, God has provided victory over sin. So where do you need that victory today? God told Joshua and God tells us to be strong and courageous. He tells us to finally cross the Jordan to the Promised Land. One of the most gifted speakers in church history was John Chrysostom—the name comes from a Greek word meaning “golden tongued.” John was sent from Antioch to what was then Constantinople where he preached fearlessly in the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. His denunciation of the lavish extravagance of the rich and ruling class and his condemnation of excess infuriated many, including Empress Eudoxia who arranged for him to be exiled. When he was told of his fate, Chrysostom responded: “What can I fear? Will it be death? But you know that Christ is my life, and that I shall gain by death.” Live in the conquest God has promised us, not the defeat that we have settled for.

Conclusion

For those who cross the Jordan, God promises his presence, his rest, and his victory. The Israelites followed Joshua into the Promised Land and experienced the fullness of God. His presence through the Holy Spirit. His rest through salvation and Sabbath. His victory through Christ’s victory over sin on the Cross. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” When the Eastern nations used to trade across the desert in the olden times, there were stations built, wells sunk, and provisions stored at convenient halting places, so that the caravans might pause and take in fresh provisions. The caravans reached their journey’s end because the long way was broken up by a series of resting places. For them and for Israel in our story, it was a physical journey. For us, it’s a spiritual journey. The promises of God are resting places for us between this life and eternal life. As we journey through this desert world we will be constantly arriving, constantly receiving, first to one, and then another, and then another, and another, and so we shall find fresh provision, fresh grace, renewal stored up, so that we may not fail in this life, in this journey of Crossing the Jordan. After all, we live in the conquest God has promised us, rather than the defeat that we have settled for.