Just Do It

Joshua 1:7-18

The third piece of the three-fold strategy to Victory to the Kingdom: obedience.

God is going to require Joshua and Israel’s careful obedience, both to His Way as expressed in the Law, and to his specific orders with regard to the conquest. He invites meditating on His Word, which may provide understanding of they Why in time… but careful obedience is required for success.

That is going to be difficult when they don’t understand the why and don’t agree with the how.

We obey His Word, His Will, His Way. No Why.

It boils down to this: do we trust that His Way is better always?

Obey First

I have strong-willed, independently-minded, creative and thoughtful children. It is super annoying.

Multiple times a week I have this experience. I shout a very straightforward command: “Mack Pack, shoes on, in the car, let’s go.”

If it is a normal place we are going, all I have to deal with is “where are my shoes!? I didn’t eat my breakfast yet!? And why now!?”

But God give me strength and courage if I haven’t fully explained where we are going. Now it’s a negotiation. “Where are we going?” “Why now?”

So I have a rule. Obey first. I am sometimes open to negotiation… but only if you have already started obeying what I first asked you to do. I am sometimes open to explaining why… but only if you’re already in the process of doing what I asked you to do!

Obedience Training

So I have a little game called obedience training. I throw a baseball at their head. But it’s okay, because as I throw it, I yell “Duck!”

What happens if they obey? They are fine.

What happens if they ask “What? Why?” They get hit in the face with a baseball!

“That’s why you obey first!”

But I do have a lot of sympathy for them… because I am the same way.

When my boss tells me to do something, I press in for why. I want to understand why they want that feature in the software… so I can tell him it’s a terrible idea. OR I can show them how it already does that.

Even when it comes to the things of God, I want to understand “why”. Why did God give that law? Why did God command me to do life this way? Why did God lead me down this road?

I find it incredibly difficult to obey when I don’t understand the “why”. What is that in me?

Why is that so stinking hard? Why is that so hard for us humans to obey? Especially when we don’t understand the why and the whole story behind it!

Be Careful to Obey

God has commanded the people of Israel to conquer the Promised Land, and he has commanded Joshua to lead them. There are three major keys to success, three themes in this opening chapter that will carry through Joshua.

There is this third thread, the third leg of the tripod.

God is always with you.

Be strong and courageous.

Be careful to obey

7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

The third pillar of success: be careful to obey

Not just “obey”. Be careful to obey. There is effort there. There is detail there.

Success is dependent upon their obedience to God’s law. To God’s will and God’s way.

Is success dependent on their understanding the “why”? No. They are to meditate on the law, and I believe in that they may come to understand the why, the character of God, the goodness of God that gives rise to each of these commands… but the purpose of understanding why is to feed right back into obedience. Verse 8 “you shall meditate on it day and night… so that you may be careful do to.”

The focus here is on the Book of the Law, the Torah, the five books that precede Joshua. But more commands from God are coming and this focus on obedience will only continue as it comes down to the details of the invasion, God directing each step of this process.

Success is dependent upon their obedience to God’s will and God’s way. It will take strength and courage for them to obey. They will be able to obey and they will be successful because God is with them… but their obedience to God’s Word is required and necessary.

In order to be successful, they have to be obedient to God’s Will and God’s Way as expressed in God’s Word.

Now on the surface, that is obvious. If they do anything that is not God’s Will, that is not God’s Way, they are doing it the wrong way, since God’s way is by definition “right”.

And doing things the wrong way will never achieve the greatest success. It may be partially successful, it may have the appearance of success, God may be creative and create beauty from the ashes…

But doing it the wrong way will never achieve the greatest success.

In fact, that is why God’s Will and God’s Way are what they are: they define the best way. They are a roadmap to successful life with Him and in His universe. It isn’t arbitrary.

So it seems obvious that doing it God’s way is right. When does it become non-obvious?

When God’s Way != My Way. God’s Will != My Will. Now we have a crisis.

The example of the Eastern Tribes

12 And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, 13 “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.’ 14 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, 15 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.”

Joshua, in leadership position now, he is leading the people in conquest. 9 of the tribes are hungry for battle. They are eager. They don’t have land yet, they don’t have an inheritance yet.

But the Israelites have already conquered some land east of the Jordan river, in what is modern day Jordan. In fact they have already conquered the whole area up and down the Jordan river on the Eastern side, the desert side. And that land has been given to the tribes of Reuben down South, Gad in the central area, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

They already have their reward. It is unclear what their level of obligation is to Joshua. His leadership is untested. It is unknown. And here is Joshua commanding them to leave their women and children and go on a seven-year conquest against superior and entrenched forces.

That’s a big ask… and Joshua is unabashedly commanding!

They come through in spades. They have learned something about obedience and trust in their years in the desert. There appears to be no hesitation:

16 And they answered Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 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! 18 Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

They choose to obey Joshua as they would obey Moses as they would obey God. They choose, rightly, to submit to God appointed authority.

God’s kingdom victory is a family affair.

The Eastern Tribes of Israel obey and follow Joshua, even when they don’t directly benefit.

The example of the “ban”

What about when you really don’t understand God’s will and God’s way. Or you think you understand… but you don’t agree. You don’t like it.

You hear God’s plan… and that just sounds like a bad plan! It’s not common sense, it doesn’t make logical sense or even, it OFFENDS your sense of ethics and morality!

There is an aspect to this conquering of the Promised Land that is really hard to understand and agree with.

From the perspective of the Canaanites, this is a foreign invasion of nomadic people from the Eastern Desert. These religious zealots believe they have a RIGHT to land they and their fathers have lived and cultivated for generations. These people are INSANE.

And it gets worse, because what their God has commanded them to carry out is a complete and total genocide.

For a moment, drop all the reasons you have learned that this is “okay”. Hear it as the barbaric, gruesome, command. This is some Game of Thrones stuff here, this is brutality, this is ethnic cleansing.

Deuteronomy 7:1-7

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3 Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. 5 But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. 6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Put yourself in their shoes. Now we are bringing with us all sorts of cultural and moral preconditions and assumptions. Our first-world twenty-first century living has seen nothing like the daily realities of life and war that they took as given…

But this just sounds brutal. And awful. This doesn’t sound like love and grace. Carefully nurturing and planting His people. This sounds like what it is: absolute genocide.

I’m not going to resolve this tension this week. This is God’s way and God’s will.

Are you willing to just obey without question? Are you willing to obey before you understand the why?

For whatever mix of reasons, some of which we will see, The Israelites did not fully obey this command of God.

They were not careful to obey this command… and that had spiraling consequences through history.

Would I be able to obey it? I always transport myself into the story, and I think, if I had been there… would I have been able to obey where they didn’t? I would have so many questions. I would want to understand why.

I would be so full of questions about why and why not another way, and second guessing, I don’t think I would be careful to obey! Why not? And why did the Israelites fail over and over?

I think it comes down to this: do I trust that God’s way is better? Do I trust that its right, do I trust that it will work, do I trust that it is simply and always BETTER than my way?

Understanding is optional. Obeying is not. And if I really do trust that God’s way is better, won’t I , can’t I just obey and trust. Trust and obey.

When Obeying Is Hard

Do you trust that God’s Way is better?

Obeying and Forgiveness

What does this have to do with you? You are, after all, covered in the blood of Jesus and all of your sins, past, present, and future are forgiven! You can go disobeying God all you want!

May it never be! Bad idea!

Yes, you are forever free from guilt and shame… but that isn’t the only reason to listen to God about how to live life!

It turns out that the God of the Universe who created life actually has an opinion and some insight into how to live successfully and joyfully and, oh by the way, successfully pursue the mission to which he has called and commanded you!

God’s Will is Right. God’s Way is Best. Even when we don’t understand the why.

God’s Way is Better.

I want to obey God NOT because I am terrified of the consequences of failure… but because I want the best success.

I want to run into God’s more-preferable future.

And I may not know all the details: but I know it isn’t down a road that God has put a huge sign up saying NOT THIS WAY!

You may not understand why. I don’t understand all of God’s laws.

Understanding is optional. Do we trust God enough to obey, because God’s way is Better. Always.

God’s General Will - The Law

We face this when it comes to obeying God’s law. God carved 10 of his laws in stone with his fingers… that marks them as pretty stinking important.

You might not like some of them. Our cultural really doesn’t like that “adultery” bit, especially when applied to all non-married people. Any consenting adults are encouraged in every way to sexual activity. What’s the harm? Do you believe that?

Most single Christians do. Young adults under 30 who identify as evangelicals are almost as sexually active as their non-Christian peers. This isn’t about guilt and shame or feeling bad… it is about trusting God with what is truly good in you and good for you in your life!

Without understanding how or why, can you trust that God’s Way is Always Better!

God’s Specific Will – Your Journey

Maybe your challenge isn’t what God wrote down in His law but what God told you to do!

We question God’s will when it comes down to what we believe God has us doing. Especially when it gets hard, especially when it goes wrong, especially when we are to the end our strength and courage.

Is God’s way the best way? Yes.

Trust and Obey

Do you trust God? Do you believe that He loves you? That He wants what is best for you… and always has. He has already given you the measure of His love. He sent His son to die for you: nobody loves you that much.

And if He loves you that much… you can trust that every Word from His mouth is always a word of love, always the Way of love.

We obey… because we trust… and we trust because He loves us…

So let’s be careful to obey. To trust and obey. For there’s no other way…

Of course every other way leads off the rails, off the trail, to the left or the right, into something lesser and “wronger”…

So let’s be careful to obey everything he has commanded us.

The three pillars of Joshua:

The Triforce of Joshua (Courage, Wisdom and Strength)

Be careful to obey: His Way is better always.

Be strong and courageous: it’s going to be hard and scary.

But you can trust, and you can obey, and you can be strong and courageous… because He will always be with you.