Gooding, David: 7 - Understanding Joshua

And now you will not need me to remind you that this is the last of the present academic terms series of talks. I have much enjoyed being invited to come along, and my colleagues who organize these sessions invite me because they realize that associating with younger men and women helps to keep the old boy still alive, at least, and breathing. It was also judged appropriate that as this is the last session of this last day, we should conclude with a short message. And so they asked me to do it. I think that is because I am notorious for preaching very short sermons. I take the opportunity now to suggest one or two thoughts about the book of Joshua. For this moment, for this morning, we talked of Deuteronomy. Now let us look for a brief moment or two in one of the, to one of the salient points of the next book, which is the book of Joshua. So that, um, we may begin by reading in Joshua, chapter four. And we shall start there, verse nine of Joshua four. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bear the Ark of the Covenant stood. And they are there until this day. For the priests which bear the Ark stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the people hasted and passed over. Then let us select some verses from chapter eight. Joshua chapter eight and verse thirty. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal. As Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stone upon which no man had lift up any iron. And they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. Verse thirty three. And all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests, the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as the homeborn, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded, that they should bless the people of Israel first of all. Verse thirty five, there was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them. And finally, in chapter uh eleven, Verse twelve, And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take and smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. Verse fourteen, and all the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves, but every human being they smote with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, neither left they any that breathed. And the Lord commanded Moses, his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. Verse twenty. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses. Moses, be it said, was very good at commanding people. He wasn't quite so good at getting people to do what he commanded. In fact, as we thought this morning, he was not, in the end, allowed to take the children of Israel across the Jordan into the Promised Land. And though he besought God more than once to lift the ban and to allow him to enter, yet God remained resolute, and no, and Moses was not allowed to enter. It was Joshua that was appointed in Moses' place that led them across Jordan and into the Promised Land and became their commander in chief while they subdued the land. In the light of the passages that we have read, I want to suggest to you that one of the main themes of the book of Joshua is this: what Moses couldn't do, that Joshua. You perhaps inquire, why wasn't Moses allowed to take the Israelites into the land? And one of the reasons is this, that on one occasion in the wilderness, when God told him to speak to the rock and the waters would come forth to assuage the thirst of the Israelites, he lost his temper, and instead of speaking to the rock, struck it, and struck it, if you please, not with the rod of God's judgment, but with Aaron's rod, sign of his priesthood. It was God's intention that Moses and Aaron should take the rod of their priesthood with the people in such desperate straits, famished with thirst, their little ones and their cattle, and speak to the rock, and by their intercessions, the God who had appointed them would listen to them and bring them water for their asking out of the rock. Instead of which, as I say, Moses lost his temper. Didn't speak to the rock, but smote it. And turning to the people, he said, now hear, you lot of rebels. Must we bring you water out of this rock? Oh dear. He certainly got overburdened with his responsibilities, hadn't he? It wasn't he that was going to bring them water out of the rock. It was God that was going to do it. The seriousness of the thing was that he misrepresented the character of God, and did it for people who were at the end of their tether in the sufferings that had come upon them. Moses was not allowed, therefore, to take the people across Jordan and to lead them in their conquests. What Moses couldn't do, that Chri- that Joshua did. And if you ask why Moses couldn't do it, well, I could shorten the answer by using technical terms. He was weak through the flesh, you see. Wasn't he now a poor old boy, like us in the end? What Moses couldn't do, in that he was weak through the flesh. Joshua did. But that starts a whole rabbit running in my brain. For it seems to me there is a verse in the New Testament very much like that verse. It is found in Romans chapter eight. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Having listened this morning... to the book of Deuteronomy, maybe you gathered the impression that the book, though in spite of God, is rather severe. Then I hasten to tell you, Moses was good at commanding. He wasn't good at helping people to carry out the command. But what Moses couldn't do, Joshua did. And though I have a lovely message to tell you, what the law couldn't do, spite of our most valiant efforts to keep it. Christ does for us. Glorious gospel message, is it not? God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, didn't excuse our sin, but condemned our sin, but bore our penalty, that we might receive God's Holy Spirit and find in him the power to begin to do and to behave as we should. It is sometimes suggested to us that the first half of Joshua, at least, is to tell us how Joshua took Israel into their inheritance and how the Israelites had to fight for it. One notable victory is recorded. They surrounded, um, Jericho. And do you know what? They adopted very curious tactics. They surrounded the city once every day, the procession being led by the, the ark carried by the Levites. I don't know what the Jerichoites thought, do you? She looked over the wall. Odd. Wonder what they're going to do now. Well, they didn't do anything that day, nor did they do anything for six days. Curious. On the seventh day, they surrounded the city seven times, then blew upon their trumpets, and if you please, the walls fell down. So, how does that help us? Well, there are those who say that that represents a believer struggling against his besetting sin. Now, I don't expect you to answer publicly. This is a rhetorical question, but have you got a besetting sin? You know, one of those sins that you tried to master and thought you had, and then it occurs again. So this is a recipe, is it? For overcoming your besetting sin. What, to walk round the sin once at least every day? And then on the last day to walk round seven times and blow a few trumpets, and the besetting sin will disappear. Well, as far as mine go, I could wish that that were true. Hasn't proved true. It arises, it seems to me, because of a slight misunderstanding of what the first half of Joshua is about anyway. Joshua was commander in chief. When he led the Israelites across Jor- uh, Jordan, he established a place called Gilgal as the army headquarters and as the headquarters of the people, and made no attempt whatsoever to let the Israelites enter their inheritance. They had to maintain themselves as his army, as he led them round the country in various expeditions, and they took this city, and they took that city, and they took the other city. They put the inhabitants to death, and particularly the rulers of those cities. Never once did they try to settle down in those cities. That would have been perilous in the extreme. For Joshua, as he led the troops in and they conquered this city, to let a division of the army settle down there and another settle over here. By the time they got up north to the country, they wouldn't have any army left. They made no attempt to do it. The first half of the book of Joshua is not making it, uh, uh, uh, uh, leading Israel into their inheritance. It is clearing out the enemy and making it possible, practically possible, for Israel eventually to enter their inheritance. Even so, that would itself demand further fighting. But when I hear that, I rejoice. Because, uh, Joshua made it possible for Israel to eventually enter their inheritance, for you couldn't enter into this or that city until you got into the land, could you? And you couldn't enter into that, this and that city until you had, uh, destroyed the authorities and the kings and the rulers and the principalities and the powers and the dominions. The first half of Joshua is that glorious story, how that Joshua made it possible for Israel not only to enter into their promised land, but in the end, after many long years of fighting, to enter into their individual inheritances. And I'm tempted to say a lot of things more, but I promised, and I want to keep my reputation as preaching short sermons. And uh, so I say no more, except to observe that Joshua will tell us what Moses couldn't do that Christ has done. And I leave you with the image of the Jerichoites looking over their wall. Hm. What are they doing? They'll never come in here. What's that funny thing they've got at the front? Ark, did somebody call it? Hm. They'll never come in here. But the ark was the ark that had come through Jordan and up the other side. There were no walls in any of the cities of Canaan that would keep the ark of God out if he decided to come in. And what a message we have for this world, haven't we? God can't invade us. We don't believe in him. But wait a minute. He's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained, of which he has given assurance to everyone, in that he has raised him from the dead. Our blessed Lord has been through his Jordan, come out the other side. This world won't keep him out when he decides to return and execute the judgments of Of God. God. And having said that, now I'm authorized by the organizers of this conference to say half a dozen sentences more. Our unconverted friends, and some of our converted ones as well, find Joshua a very difficult book. For therein we read from time to time that Joshua not only took a city, that is, he captured it, but he destroyed everything in it that breathed. Breathed. Men, women, and children. And many people reading it say to themselves, how could that story possibly be inspired of God? Isn't this religion all over? And we can't trust it. The thought of God commanding soldiers to kill innocent babes. How can you possibly believe that's of God? So says the world. But I notice the world isn't altogether consistent when it comes to slaughtering babies. The last count I heard was, I think, forty million babes who could have survived outside the womb being killed. Mothers have the right to do it, they say. Really? One of the reasons God has against the Canaanites is that they made their children pass through the fire. That is, they sacrificed them to the gods. God stopped it by executing them. In the religions of that ancient world, sexual rights were part of the religious service. I remember being in Greece some years ago in Corinth, in Acrocorinth, and the Greek guide got us in the ancient marketplace, the agora of Acrocorinth, and And behind behind her her was the large mountain that stands by ancient Corinth. And at one stage in her talk, she said to us, now see there, she said, pointing to the mountain. There used to be a temple on that spot with ten thousand priestesses, open to all comers. And then she added, I think the Apostle Paul had a difficult time in Corinth. I separated myself from the party for a moment and got behind an ancient monument and praised God for the courage of a man like Paul who dared to go into such a fashionable but sinful city and preach the gospel. If the results of sexual unfaithfulness has been the spread of and many children have been left fatherless and motherless, and have contracted the disease. What would you have God to do with an ancient city and a country that practiced this thing quite liberally. How would you stop it if you were God? At least, before I proceed further. We thought it good, so the organizers tell me they thought it good. That g- next year, when we come to them, if we come there and haven't gone off to glory, we should discuss at length the question of the judgments of God, and whether there is such a thing. There is certainly final salvation, is there not? But is there such a thing as a final judgment? We need to know what scripture says, don't we? And to seek God's help. In coming responsibly to a balanced understanding of what scripture says on this immeasurably important topic. There is a heaven. It will be eternal. Is there a hell? And will that be eternal? So, by God's grace, among all the other things that the organizers decide to do, I am allowed to say that they will put on some talks and lectures and time to think and discussions about this immeasurably important topic. And may God bless you all.