The Lord who is...Holy

The first thing we read is that all the nations saw the Israelites pass through the Jordan and they are all having flashbacks. They are thinking about the Israelites passing through the Red Sea, they are thinking of the greatest nation on the planet, Egypt, getting wiped off the board by the God of Israel. And all these nations are terrified, because they know the power of the God of Israel. Then that they lost courage is a state of resentment, or to take away their breath. Has some connotations of divine power, as if they knew their gods couldn't beat the God of Israel.

At this point the easiest thing for the Israelites to do would be to go back to the old habits. Which is…start to think that they are somehow the ones who have finished this incredible feat and lose focus on God. Or they start to complain when any small thing starts to go bad. Like they don’t know where their food is coming from or they don’t have water and they lose their trust in God. But just at the moment their fathers got cocky, God calls them to his holiness. He calls them to worship Him so that they don’t make the same mistakes. This isn’t a threat from God but rather a gentle reminder of just how good He is. He reveals to them their past failures, he shows them just how much freedom there is in His calling us to be holy like He is, and brings us to His perfect holiness where can be confident that He has a good plan for us, because His very nature is good and pure and worthy of praise. That it is in his holiness that He will lead them to rest.

God’s shows them that His holiness reveals their past failures, calls them to conform to His character, and leads them to delight in His presence.

God’s holiness reveals our past failures

Behind God’s commands to the Israelites is a reminder to them of where they had failed. It says that they must be circumcised “again”. What does this mean? That the men hadn’t been circumcised and thus had not followed God’s commands. The reason they were most likely not circumcised is because their fathers had not taken seriously what God had commanded them too. In fact, this is exactly what God told them. That their fathers “had died off because they did not obey the Lord. So the Lord vowed never to let them see the land he had sworn.” That they had not been circumcised is a serious lapse in judgment or a deliberate act of disobedience against God and His covenant by Israel. Especially as they prepare to celebrate Passover where in Exodus 12:44, 48 God made clear that they were not to observe it unless everyone was circumcised. In fact, if we dig deeper this was God’s sign to Abraham that His descendents would receive the promised land. So this disobedience revealed their lack of desire to enter God’s presence at all, that they would have much rather gone back to Egypt. We see this when after they have been circumcised God says that He has “rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.”

What does this mean? What disgrace of Egypt? It obviously isn’t that Egypt had defeated them. Or that they had been disgraced by living in Egypt. Rather it is the humiliation that even after they left Egypt somehow they let the mindset of Egypt control them. That often times they would have rather go back to Egypt because they trusted Egypt to provide for them more than God. When all this is put into perspective this group of Israelites has to see where everything started to go wrong, why they have been wandering for 40 years and they have to start thinking “we need to do something different.”

God wanted them to see that nothing short of complete obedience would allow them to enter the promised land. God knew how easy it would be for them to gain confidence in themselves rather than in Him. How, if they weren’t careful, they might start to let some things slip where they should be holding tightly to their convictions. God was keeping their eyes to Him saying "don't try and take the battles into your own hands. Don't fear that the expectations are too high and you can't do it. Just trust that I can bring you the victory, unlike your fathers who refused to enter the land."

If we have been saved by Christ we have been called to recognize our failures towards God as a starting point for repentance and obedience. To understand that making excuses makes our lives more difficult not easier. When we say “that’s just who I am” or “I’m just a sinner saved by grace” when we have done something we know we shouldn’t. We are making excuses to God, what we are saying is “I don’t mind missing out on all the good things you have planned for me.”

But God’s desire for us is to have something far better. Notice the focus that God puts on the failures of the Israelites. It isn’t “you will pay for making me angry” it isn’t “I’m done with you because you can’t get it right”. It is “look at what you are missing out on.”

Many of you may know the name Chuck Colson, he was Special Counsel to President Nixon and one of the men behind the Watergate Scandal. He was sent to prison for his involvement in Watergate. But while in prison became a believer and started a prison ministry along with countless other ministries. He would say this later. “the real legacy of my life was my biggest failure -- that I was an ex-convict. My greatest humiliation -- being sent to prison -- was the beginning of God's greatest use of my life; He chose the one thing in which I could not glory for His glory.”

God’s holiness reveals to us just how sinful we are. But this is not the tragedy we often think it is. God doesn’t just leave us without a way to enjoy His good promises. Rather God reveals to us a way to comfort to His holy character, a way to get closer to Him.

God’s holiness calls us to conform to His character

The people took this reflection on the sins of their past seriously. They saw how poorly things went for their parents and they decided that they were going to live differently.

Now we already saw that there is a parallel between the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan. But this parallel goes one step deeper. 1 Corinthians 10 tells us that the Red Sea was a baptism of the people of Israel. Which means that they were supposed to come out of the Red Sea as a new people with new desires, but they decided to keep their old desires. But as the people walk through the Jordan what is on the mind of the people is that they have a second opportunity to be made new, to again be formed by godly desires. Just as, in Christ, we are called to believe in Him, and to be baptized as a symbol of our being transformed by the Gospel and to take off the patterns of this world, so were the people of Israel.

Now, between 5:1 and 5:2 there are some older manuscripts of Joshua that actually have Joshua 8:30-35

At this point in Joshua rather than in chapter 8. These give evidence that some Bibles may have the incorrect placing of this passage. One reason this may be the correct spot is because Deuteronomy 27:2-13 tells us that God told them that after they crossed the Jordan they should immediately build an altar to the Lord and to recite the law of Moses. But chapter 8 would be after they have already come through several battles, not before when they were supposed to. So we are going to read those 5 verses here as well.

“At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used. Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it. There on the stones, Joshua copied the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the Israelites. All Israel—resident alien and citizen alike—with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on either side of the ark of the Lord’s covenant facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded earlier concerning blessing the people of Israel. Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings as well as the curses—according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before the entire assembly of Israel, including the women, the dependents, and the resident aliens who lived among them.”

What we see is that they build an altar to the Lord, they recite it and they write down the commands of Moses on tablets. There is a genuine desire for God’s people to follow His commands as they prepare their hearts to enter battle. The Israelites have a sincere desire to conform to God’s holy character, to be made new.

As we have already seen, they make sure all the men have been circumcised. Which, mind you, many of them are doing as grown men. With flint knives, which are knives made out of rock, not something I would exactly call the sharpest and cleanest knife in the world. There is one other passage in the Bible where a flint knife is used, and it is in regards to circumcision as well. In Exodus 4:25. Here Moses’ wife, Zipporah keeps Moses from put to death by God because she circumcised their sons when Moses should have already done this. When does this story happen? Between the burning bush and “let my people go”. It was necessary for Moses and his family to be in obedient in order to act as the image of God toward Egypt and the people of Israel. Their fathers had not acted as God had commanded, but here Joshua learns from that mistake, as they go as God’s image bearers in Canaan they prepare themselves correctly.

Then after making the altar, reciting God’s command, and performing circumcision, they now observe Passover. They made sure to observe it on the correct day, the fourteenth day, and they eat the unleavened bread.

We see in each step that they take that they have a desire to conform to the image of God and act as He had called them to act. They are called to be holy.

We are also called to be holy in 1 Peter 1:13-21

“Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy. If you appeal to the Father who judges impartially according to each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during your time living as strangers. For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

This passage tells us how much better it is to conform to God’s image and character than it is to live things out our own way. It tells us “if you believe in the God who raised Christ from the dead and brought Him to glory then your hope should be in that God.” It tells us “you used to live in the emptiness of sin. The despair that comes after you have repeated the same mistake over and over again. The anxiety that comes when your hope comes in wealth and belongings that will pass away and rust. The exhaustion that comes with American consumerism, the fear and anger that comes when your hope is in politics....but you have been redeemed from this empty way of life, you have been baptized into Christ, and you set your hope on the grace brought in Christ as obedient children who don’t conform to the desire of your former ignorance.”

It is a message of hope when we see that God’s holiness calls us to live for something better. It may seem daunting “I can’t be holy like God.” Which is true. But... *Illustration about Zeke sitting in the sound booth and saying “I’m working”*

What comes across is not that my son knows or understands what I do. But that doesn’t stop Him from trying to conform to the image of his father. The call that Peter has for us to be holy isn’t to say “you can ever be as holy as God” but it is to say “if you believe that Christ has brought you salvation in Him than you should strive to be like Him in conduct”.

AW Pink says “Holiness consists of that internal change or renovation of our souls whereby our minds, affections and wills are brought into harmony with God.” That is to say, for us to “be holy” means that we seek to love what God loves, and we try and understand what God desires for us so that we may desire that as well. Because in this is a good truth! That God is going to give us the resources to be holy like He is holy! He doesn’t say “good luck with that”. He says “I am going to give you the Holy Spirit who will make you Holy. But God also shows us that there is something even better in being holy...

God’s holiness leads us to delight in His presence

In v. 6 God tells them that they will enter into a land flowing with milk and honey. A phrase that is only used here in the book of Joshua. This gives us the imagery of a fertile land where all their needs will be taken care of. They have no need to worry about the source of their food and the food they will have will be delightful.

What strengthens what God says here is then what it says in v. 12 that “there was no more manna” and that they “ate from the crops of the land that year.” During this passover meal they enjoyed the produce that they would be enjoying throughout their time in God’s promised land. Like when you go to get ice cream and you see all this abundance before you and you get that small spoon for a taste test of all the incredible flavors there are in front of you. There are so many good choices you hardly know how to choose. But it reminds you that you will get to select from the best when you finally pick a flavor. This food they enjoyed at passover was a reminder of the abundant blessings they would enjoy if they remained faithful to God in the promised land.

Then it says that they would no longer eat manna but now they would eat from the “crops of the land of Canaan. The word for the manna "ceasing" is the same word for sabbath rest. It is a ceasing of activity. Probably parallel here to the Garden where they just took the fruit from the tree, Adam and Eve were in that 7th day of Sabbath rest with God in the Garden. Here, the people are seeking to enter that rest as well. Because the word can also mean "completed". God was finishing His word of creating a new people so that they may rest in the promised land. The crops they did eat were not crops that they had to toil from, just like in the Garden.

And we see underneath this as well that they never “rested” with the manna, they weren’t trusting God. In fact, the manna was a constant reminder that unless God miraculously provided food for them they wouldn’t trust that He would give them food. Doesn’t that sound exhausting? This constant fear and worry? A desire for God’s undivided attention all the time?

It is like if you worked with someone and unless you stood there by them the whole time they wouldn’t know how to get the job done. What I am not saying is that got gets annoyed by our prayers and cries to him. In fact the Bible tells us that God does not get annoyed but in fact enjoys when we continue to go to Him over and over again. But how much more difficult is it for that person to complete their job if they don’t trust they have the tools and resources to complete it!

Here God is saying, “you are going to something better and trust that you will have everything you need in the land that I am giving you…rest in my holiness.”

Just as this Passover meal was a celebration and a reminder to rest in God’s holiness we are called to rest in the life that we have in Christ. Because...

Jesus saves us from our past failures, frees us in His own holiness, and delights us with His presence with us now and for eternity.

At the end of this chapter we get this interesting story. We see Joshua walking up near Jericho, presumably to start to prepare for the battle they would be facing soon. And as he walks up the hill he looks up and it says that he looked up and he was “surprised”. It is this startling image he sees in front of him. As he is still confused by this figure he asks a legitimate question...”are you for or against us?” The answer…neither. I come in the name of the Lord and His army.

Now there are many theories as to who this figure is. He comes as God’s messenger. He has a drawn sword, something that often comes with the connotation of divine judgment by God. And He tells Joshua to remove his sandals because he is standing on “holy ground” a message that reminds us of Moses when he was in the presence of God at the burning bush.

So who is this figure? Is it an angel? Is it a pre-incarnate Christ? We see in Joshua worships Him and he is prepared to listen and obey. He recognizes this person as coming with divine authority. The figure says he is standing on “holy ground” and in Joshua 6 the next words are God’s to Joshua as He is to prepare for battle.

We can’t know for certain who this figure is, but we do know that He points us to Christ. This commander of the Lord’s army shows Joshua that the holy God whom Joshua served would fight on his behalf, that he wouldn’t have to worry. That he shouldn’t be worried about the people of Jericho, he shouldn’t worry about if his men were strong enough but that what God wanted were his people to serve His holy name and to trust in no other gods. That God is willing to fight for them if they are willing to trust in Him.

Joshua is ready to obey because if this is the commander of the Lord army then He knows the army behind this figure is greater than his own. What if we thought about this in everything? Because we don’t just have access to the Lord’s army, we have access to the main treasurer of the Lord’s bank, we have an in with the main farmer to the Lord’s food supply, we get advice from the Lord’s greatest sage.

We remember what Romans 8:37-39 tells us. That “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We trust that Christ’s work has done enough that we do not need to be exhausted by constant worry and fear that God won’t be with us. In fact, each week as we gather together what we are saying is “God, I am going to rest today trusting that you will be able to provide when I rest and trusting that you will supply everything I need through all the trials and temptations of my week. We worship Christ because He is holy and worthy of worship and we worship Him because when Jesus said “it is finished” He wasn’t just saying that His task was completed but that He had ended the cycle of sin and death and delivered us from the curse!

We find joy that nothing can separate us from His love!

Jesus saves us from our past failures by dying for us, frees us in His own holiness by giving us the Spirit, and delights us with His presence with us now and for eternity by giving us access to the Father and one day returning so that we can be with Him forever. What a great truth!