Next: Incomplete Victory (Joshua 23)

Introduction

What would you tell those closest to you if you only had a short time to tell them a few parting thoughts? Famous last words can be a fascination, a fitting ending of a movie, or, in the case of many Internet sites, complete fantasy. Nonetheless, there is something about the final words of a person that’s captivating. One example would be Karl Marx, who told his housekeeper, who was sitting at his bedside, “Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.” Other times, they are a mix of tragedy and comedy, such as General John Sedgwick, a Union officer killed in the Civil War at the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse 1864. As he surveyed the enemy lines, he told his aide, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” A moment later, a sniper’s bulletin didn’t hit an elephant, but they did hit him. Oftentimes, they’re impactful. As my grandfather lay in the hospital dying, his final encouragement to me was to “grow spiritually and to be prepared for every emergency.” Benedict writes in his Rule, “have the expectation of death daily before one’s eyes.” Michael Hyatt says it in a somewhat less morbid way. He simply says, “begin with the end in mind.” Do you do that? At the Cross, Christ offered seven final phrases. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives his final words as he prepares to pass the mantle of leadership to Joshua. Today, we read the final words of Joshua. As we do, we see how Joshua points to Christ.

We are getting close to the end of our journey through Joshua in the series we are simply calling Next. Over the past several months, God’s People have triumphed over their foes as they transition into a new phase of community life. We’ve seen them suffer defeat, only to bounce back and return to the mission God gave them. Joshua is the story of moving forward into the life that God has given them. As we look at the mission that God has sent Joshua and the Israelites into, we learn about what God has for us. Last week, we learned about Joshua and how he handled running into the same problem again and again again. This week, we jump ahead in the book of Joshua. Chapter 13-22 consist of Joshua giving out the conquered land to the tribes of Israel. Instead, we move to Joshua’s final two chapters of leading Israel. Next week, he renews the covenant with Israel. This week, we see how he tells them three keys to living in light of the end. As he does, we see how Christ is the final word. Joshua was a great leader, but he was imperfect. Christ however lived the perfect life, and we learn about Christ’s perfection through the imperfections of Joshua. So, how does Joshua point to Jesus Christ? How does Joshua exhort the Israelites and us to live life in light of the end? Today we see three keys to living in light of the end.

Incomplete Victory

In verses 4-5, God says through Joshua, “Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.” The Israelites have won victory after victory after victory. Nonetheless, there is still idols to false gods in the land, and down the road it will infiltrate the faith of the Isrealites. There are also enemies that continue to live near the Land God gave them. The victory of Joshua is substantial but incomplete, and complete victory is never fully experienced. The Old Testament story ends incomplete. Israel’s time in the Promised Land is never experienced in the way that it could have. God’s People were influenced by the gods that God had told them to beware of. But, the incompleteness of Isrealites victory points toward the final and complete victory over sin and the grave that Christ would bring. Joshua and the Israelites experienced partial victory. Christ offers us complete victory, because he was victorious over death.

In Foxe’s Book of the Martyrs, there’s the story of a monk named Telemachus. The Roman Empire was celebrating its temporary victory over Alaric the Goth in its usual manner, as in, watching gladiators fight to the death in the arena. Suddenly there’s an interruption. A rudely clad robed figure boldly leaped down into the arena. His name was Telemachus. Telemachus was one of the hermits who devoted themselves to a holy life of prayer and self-denial and kept themselves apart from the wicked life of Rome. Although few of the Roman citizens followed their example, most of them had great respect for these hermits, and the few who recognized Telemachus knew he had comes from the wilds of Asia on a pilgrimage to visit churches and celebrate Christmas in Rome. Without hesitating an instant, Telemachus advanced upon two gladiators who were engaged in their life-and-death struggle. Laying a hand on one of them, he sternly reproved him for shedding innocent blood, and then, turning toward the thousands of angry faces around him, called to them: "Do not repay God’s mercy in turning away the swords of your enemies by murdering each other!" Angry shouts drowned out his voice. "This is no place for preaching! On with the combat!" Pushing Telemachus aside, the two gladiators prepared to continue their combat, but Telemachus stepped between them. Enraged at the interference of an outsider with their chosen vocation, the gladiators turned on Telemachus and stabbed him to death. The crowd fell silent, shocked by the death of this holy man, but the story goes that his death had not been in vain, for from that day on, no more gladiators ever went into combat in the Colosseum.

In Christ, we are given life in light of his death. The incomplete victory of Joshua and Israelites is contrasted by Christ’s victory that happened once, but now lives on forever. In Christ, there is victory because of his death, which was also victory over death. The first key to living in light of the end is embracing the victory of Christ.

Love the Lord your God

Joshua says in verse 11, “Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.” Throughout scripture, there is a regular teaching to love the Lord your God. In the book right before Joshua, Moses tells Israel in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Moving into the New Testament, a group of scholars challenge Jesus in Matthew 22. They ask him, what is the greatest commandment? Jesus replies, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Missionaries often go into areas where no one is a Christian. The people of the area may believe in Islam or Hinduism or a local folk religion. Then, the missionaries proclaim the Gospel to them, and they come to Christ. But they attempt to believe and follow Christ while holding onto their previous beliefs. It’s almost a schizophrenic faith. Specifically, it’s known as syncretism. This is not only a problem in unreached areas of the world. It is the reason God told the Israelites to remove the Canaanites from the land. He knew that their “gods” would pull the Israelites away from the Lord. Not only did he know it would be a problem, he knew that it would ultimately happen. While Israel dwelled in the Promised Land, many would worship at the temple one day, and then go to the mountains to worship the idols and false gods of the Canaanites. It was syncretism. It happens in missionary efforts. It happened with Israel, and it happens today. Instead of it looking like wooden poles built to false gods, today it looks different. Today our idols are tangible objects that we put more value in than god. Generally they are good things that become so important that they become our God. Do you struggle with syncretism? Instead, we are called to love the Lord our God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This love then overflows into all of life.

H. H. Hobbs says, “Christian love rises above human differences to show itself in absolute loyalty to others in their need. Christian love looks on other persons through the eyes and with the heart of God. Christian love respects others as persons who are objects of God’s love.” When we love God well, we love others well. When we love God well, we love ourselves well. Erwin W. Lutzer wrote, “Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero; better to be content with poverty than to die a slave to wealth; better to have taken some risks and lost than to have done nothing and succeeded at it; better to have lost some battles than to have retreated from the war; better to have failed when serving God than to have succeeded when serving the devil. What a tragedy to climb the ladder of success, only to discover that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.” Therefore, which wall is your ladder of success leaning against? More importantly, how are you doing at loving God? The second key to living in light of the end is loving God with our all, which leads us loving others and even ourselves well.

Curses

Joshua 23:12-13 “For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.” Again, Joshua is warning the people of Israel against intermarrying with the Canaanites who are still in the land. Sin is a curse, and the wickedness of the Canaanites will bring more of that curse upon the Israelites. In a similar way today sin can feel fun in the moment and seem to not really be hurting anyone. The sin that succeeds in secrecy will ultimately gnaw away at the life we can experience in Christ. On the other hand, Paul says in Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” Christ became the curse for us that we can experience forgiveness and newness of life. Therefore, let us embrace a life of freedom from sin and walk the way of Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 5:1-2, “therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

In The God of the Towel, Jim McGuiggan writes, in 490 B.C. as Xerxes was advancing into Greece, he came to Thermopylae, a small pass in central Greece. Herodotus tells us that by the time he got there, he had something like six million troops on land and sea. Gathered there to stop the advance of the powerful Persian monarch was a mere handful of Greeks headed up by 300 Spartans led by the Spartan king Leonidas. It’s a story now immortalized in the movie, 300. When Persian troops came to check the pass, they saw 300 warriors brushing their long hair and doing calisthenics and other such things. Back they went to their master to report that some fools with weapons were playing games in the ravine. Demaratus, a Greek physician and counselor to the Persian court, assured the king they weren’t playing games—they were performing a death ritual. These men had come to die! Many an unmarried man had volunteered, but Leonidas insisted on taking with him men who had living sons. They never meant to come back! Love of Sparta motivated these men.In a similar way, Jesus Christ, the Son of God came to earth to die! In doing this, God was demonstrating his own love for us. And as he was on that Cross, dying for sin, he took on the curse of sin and death and won victory over the grave. The curse of Christ has freed us from the curse of sin and death. The third key to living in light of the end is repenting of the curse of sin that impacts our life, and yes, that includes the Christian life.

Conclusion

The first key to living in light of the end is embracing the victory of Christ. The second key to living in light of the end is loving God with our all, which leads us loving others and even ourselves well. The third key to living in light of the end is repenting of the curse of sin that impacts our life, and yes, that includes the Christian life.

Bobby Scobey tells about a law on drunken driving in Louisiana that is now one of the toughest in the nation. Getting it passed was a major victory for various groups against drunk driving. They could not have gotten it passed it if were not for the help of one particular state legislator who sponsored the bill. There is a mandatory prison sentence for anyone convicted of driving while intoxicated. Not long after the new law took effect the first person to be arrested for DUI was brought before the judge. The judge found him guilty, and the man was sentenced to prison. Who was he? The same legislator who sponsored the bill! Every person has certain sins they struggle with. Every person has idols that they are tempted to put in place of God in their life. If that state legislator had kept the words of Benedict’s Rule in his mind, the exhortation to “have the expectation of death daily before one’s eyes,” he’d be in a much better place. Here in Joshua final message to the people he has now led for decades, Joshua warns the people of Israel to beware of sin and idolatry. He tells them to love the Lord with all their being. That same warning and encouragement is important for us today as we strive to keep “the expectation of death daily before one’s eyes.” After all, in this life and the next, Christ is the final word.