JOSHUA: GOD IS SALVATION (part 1)
Aside
from being an historical account of the Israelites' conquest of Canaan, the
book of Joshua is also a beautiful allegory of the victory that is possible to
Christians who learn to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and believe His promises. Many have mistakenly taken the account to be
a type and shadow of heaven itself and the final kingdom that will be ours when
we leave this life. This cannot be true,
however, because we will certainly not have to battle giants, walled cities,
and hostile armies in the Kingdom of Heaven.
In this life, however, there are a host of things that we must overcome
in God’s strength: things like pride, lust, greed, anger, and so much more that
defines the fleshly, carnal nature. Just
as Joshua led his people to victory over a host of nations who inhabited the Promised
Land, Jesus now leads His people to victory over sin, the flesh, and the
devil. As we read through this wonderful
book, God reveals many principles to help us understand the spiritual warfare
that we all face day by day. He gives us
keys to unlock spiritual mysteries which allow us to grow as Christians into
the fullness of the stature of Christ Jesus and claim the promises that have
been given to us.
In
the Hebrew language, which the Old Testament was first written in, Joshua's
name is "Yehowshuwa"
(pronounced Yeh-ho-shoo'-ah), but in the original Greek language of the New
Testament his name is written "Iesous"
(pronounced ee-ay-sooce'). The scholars
who translated the Bible from its original languages into English translated
the OT occurrences of this name to "Joshua,"
but the NT occurrences they translated as "Jesus." They are the same name, however, just like
"Ettiene" in French is "Steven" in English, or "Juan" in Spanish is "John" in English. The meaning of the name is significant,
though. It means "Jehovah (or God) is salvation." God told Joseph "...and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for He shall save His
people from their sins." (Matthew
1:21) Like Jesus, Joshua was also a
savior to his people. He saved them from
the enemies who would prevent them from inheriting all the land of promise and
missing the true end that God had for them.
God
had originally promised the land of Canaan to the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, and
had confirmed that promise to Moses. God
even defined the borders of the land that they were to inherit in great detail
(Genesis 15:18-21; Deuteronomy 11:22-25).
To the Jews, this Promised Land represented the hope of their
salvation. They would no longer be
nomads on the earth, or worse, slaves to other nations. They would finally have a country of their
own, and be rooted permanently in their own place. The land was truly all theirs as soon as God
promised it, but they had not yet walked into it to claim it. God told them, "I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people
to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs
unto thee. I
will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the
land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little
and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and
inherit the land."
(Exodus 23:27, 29, 30). Similarly, our
spiritual progress in Christ doesn’t happen all at once. Little by little we learn to overcome the
enemies of our soul (those within us and without) by trusting in the abundant
promises of God, and in the One Who has purchased our salvation by the shedding
of His own blood. We are told that, “His [God’s] divine power hath given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the
knowledge of Him [Jesus] that hath
called us to glory and virtue: whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that
is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter1:3, 4).
Today,
God's people must seek a kingdom that is spiritual
in nature. The Apostle Paul said that it
is not based on "meat and drink"
(tangible possessions, or doctrines and laws of man), but it is focused instead
on "righteousness, and peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14:17)
Instead of conquering cities and acquiring more territory like the
Israelites did, the Christian is concerned with overcoming his old nature, and
being transformed into the image of Christ.
The hope of our salvation is to be delivered from our sins and the
carnality that has ruled our actions, and to inherit the kingdom prepared for
us by the Father. These are the giants;
these are the fortified cities and strongholds that God has promised would be
ours through Christ. The promise is, “That He would grant unto us, that we being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in
holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.” (Luke
1:74, 75). Our perfecting comes as we mature
spiritually in Christ. The more we learn
to trust in God's Word, and follow His leading, the more progress we will
make. If we choose to mind our fleshly appetites,
however, and neglect our relationship with God, we will suffer for the choices
that we make. Many of those choices,
though forgivable by God, can have irreversible consequences in the lives of
those who are affected by our poor decisions.
Repairing the damage we have caused in the lives around us may be
difficult, or even impossible. It is a
true statement that we reap what we sow in our lives. If we recognize our errors and turn from them
in heartfelt repentance, acknowledging our wrongs, God will extend mercy to
us. We must live our lives as those who
will someday give account to God for our actions on earth.
KADESH-BARNEA
Israel committed a lot of atrocious acts in the
wilderness after they were delivered out of Egypt. Even though they had witnessed firsthand the
amazing, miraculous works of God, they quickly turned away and lusted after
things that were wrong. Idolatry, sexual
immorality, envy, accusations against God Himself, and a host of other sins did
Israel commit in the wilderness. They
would have even returned to the bondage of Egypt just to be able to taste
melons, cucumbers, leeks and garlic once more!
God brought judgment on the rebellious and the disobedient, but then
freely forgave His people, and led them still toward the Promised Land. The deal breaker, though, came at a place
called Kadesh-Barnea, which means "sacred
(or holy) desert of wandering." It was there that Moses sent twelve spies into
the Promised Land to see what kind of land it was, and bring back a
report. Of the twelve, ten of them
returned with a discouraging story of strong enemy armies, walled cities, and even
giants. They could not argue with the
fact that it was indeed a good land flowing with milk and honey, but their
verdict was, "We are not able to go
up against the people, for they are stronger than we." (Numbers 13:31 NKJV) The other two who went to spy the land were
Caleb and Joshua. These two men were full
of faith to believe that what God had promised them He was more than able to
fulfill. In fact, they were ready to get
started immediately!
It had been a year since the Israelites had been
delivered from Egypt. During that time,
God had been teaching them His laws and statutes, and showing them His ways, so
that they would be a holy people prepared to inherit the land of promise. The crucible that God employed for this
purpose was the wilderness. This "sacred desert of wandering" was
precisely where God wanted His people for a time. Here they would be free, not only from the bondage of Egypt, but also from the distractions and amusements of Egypt. Israel had not done so well in many of the
lessons that God had tried to teach them, but at least they were moving along
toward the goal that He intended for them: the conquering of Canaan. Now, however, they had dug in their heels and
refused to face what they perceived were insurmountable obstacles. Even worse, they were ready to overthrow
Moses and elect someone else as their captain to lead them back to Egypt and bondage! The
result of their unbelief was that God led them back into the wilderness to
wander for 40 years until all of that generation who rebelled died without ever
entering the Promised Land. Those who
finally came back to Canaan to go in and possess the land of promise under the
leadership of Joshua were the children of those who rebelled. The only two who were still alive of those
who came out of Egypt besides Moses were Caleb and Joshua, the two who had
believed to begin with.
Faith is essential to our success as Christians. Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews, "Without faith it is impossible
to please Him [God]." (Hebrews
11:6). In the same letter, he also
issues a grave warning saying, "Beware,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing
from the living God." (Hebrews
3:12 NKJV). Without faith we will never become the people who God intends
for us to be. We will only wander
aimlessly through the wilderness of this life denying ourselves the victory and
joy that only Jesus can bring. We must
be fully persuaded that what God has promised us in Christ, He is able also to
perform (Romans 4:21). There is a word
picture in the Song of Solomon that I greatly love. I
think it best illustrates the effect of faith and the result of the wilderness
experience in the lives of God’s children.
“Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” (Song of Solomon 8:5). When we have learned to lean on Jesus, our
Beloved, through all the circumstances that life deals us, then we have learned
the lesson of the wilderness.
We can too often be just like the children of Israel when
they faced this turning point in their lives at Kadesh-Barnea. We can look at all of the good things about
the Christian walk and agree that it is a better life than we are currently
experiencing. The problem, however, is the
obstacles and barriers that we see standing in the way of enjoying such a
life. We would all march right into
Canaan if there were no trials to face or sins to overcome. If we have to face powerful foes, however, then
many of us are all for going back to Egypt.
At least there we know what to expect.
Faith is the one thing that empowers us to go forward. The thing that many don't consider is that
God is the One Who fights our battles for us.
If we trust Him with the difficulties of life, He will lead us through
each trial. Listen to Caleb and Joshua's
words to their fellow Israelites. Each
statement is an affirmation of God's ability to bring His promises to pass. They said:
·
"Let us go up at once, and
possess it."
·
"We are well able to overcome
it."
·
"If the LORD delights in us,
then He will bring us into this land and give it to us."
·
"Only do not rebel against
the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread."
·
"Their protection has
departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."
These two men had also seen the enemy's strong
warriors, their walled cities, and their giants, but they chose to believe God
rather than give into their natural fears and doubts. God spoke to Joshua three times before he led
the people against Jericho, saying, "Be
strong and courageous." Courage
isn't the absence of fear; it is doing the right thing in spite of the fear we
feel. Life can be frightening at times,
but it is then that we need to trust the Lord the most. We mustn't shrink in fear, and throw in the
towel before the battle has even begun!
We must, instead, move forward knowing that God goes before us and will
prevail on our behalf.
Psalm 103:7 says that God, "made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of
Israel." All of the time that
the Jews spent in the wilderness was meant to teach them God's ways, but all
they saw was His acts without understanding the principles and purpose behind what He did. They did not see His nature. Moses did. His relationship with God matured and
deepened as he witnessed God's dealings with His people. His faith grew with each new thing that he
experienced with God. The more we learn
to know God and allow Him to reveal His nature to us, the more we will learn to
trust that He always has our best interest at heart, whether it's abundant
blessings, or great trials. In the end, it’s
about what type of person we want to be.
We can be the one who will not face the obstacles because of fear and
rebellion, or the one ready to tackle the problems and see what God will
do. There is only one path to peace,
joy, and victory. Let us go up at once
and possess the land!
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