Joshua (3/6/03)

We did a series on Christian redemption as it appears in the Old Testament. This week we were looking at Joshua.

Today, we're continuing our look at redemption in the OT. Last week, we heard from Jeremy about redemption in the life of Noah. Over the last school semester, we haven't been looking at self-redemption, but third-party redemption. God isn't about people redeeming themselves; He says no one can. God is about redeeming undeserving sinners in a sinful world because He desires to. In each of the cases we look at, the emphasis is on God giving grace to sinners.

After Noah, the next illustration of God's merciful redemption is Abraham. Abraham is a citizen of Ur, a pagan city, and he probably worshiped that city's moon-goddess. But God redeems him, without any kind of atoning action on Abraham's part, and calls him into his own service. Then we see Moses, a man who, though Jewish, is raised as an Egyptian, and certainly had no inherent righteousness, but God calls him to redeem his people from captivity.

Moses, as we know, imparts the codified law to Israel. From that point on in Jewish history, he represents the law itself. God's law is even known thereafter as "the Law of Moses." Moses delivers them from captivity, but also delivers them into forty years of wandering; it is Israel's punishment for defying God and breaking His commandments. Moses, by imparting the Law to Israel, also imparts the full measure condemnation for breaking that law. It appears as if Israel will never deserve the inheritance of the promised land.

So we come to the end of Israel's wandering; they've been out there for 40 years. Moses' life is drawing to a close, and it's time for a new leader to be chosen to take control of the nation of Israel.

And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may commission him." And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. And the Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.

And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, 'Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?' And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
-- Deuteronomy 31:14-18 (ESV)

And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, "Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you."

When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, "Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands."
-- Deuteronomy 31:23-29 (ESV)

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 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. 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. 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."
-- Joshua 1:1-9

Now, notice immediately the two very clear and distinct messages that are being sent.

First, Israel has played the harlot. She has completely turned away from God. Even wandering in the desert, being fed miraculously, and having seen and experienced all other manner of miracles, Israel still clings to idolatry. Even trudging through the desert, they have even carried with them the idols and alters of foreign gods. God is fully within His justice to strike down the entire nation.

But the second pronouncement is that Joshua, Moses' right-hand man, is to lead the Israelites into the land of milk and honey. God does not wait for Israel to put on sackcloth and ashes. He promises them good things as part of His covenant with them.

So, we have to ask; what did Israel deserve? God knows, and tells us, that even after God has given Israel all the fruits of the promised land, the Israelites will still turn away and seek false gods. God knows that the Israelites will betray Him. And yet He still gives them a land to call their own.

In establishing the law, God also established a set of rules for the covenant He had with man. The rules go like this: if you break this law, you stand in condemnation. Simple as that. Here we see God pronouncing Israel as falling short. They have not, and will not, in the past or in the future, obey God's law. They are now and forever in condemnation because of their wickedness.

God gives these people to Joshua, and tells them to rise, and enter the land of their inheritance. "You have done evil; here is the reward for having done good." Do you see the gospel in this story? It's not hidden.

Now, we're used to thinking of two different Gods in the bible. The Old Testament God is the vengeful "fire and brimstone" God of wrath, who punishes iniquity with the sword. The New Testament God is the loving God of mercy who desires that all be saved and none should perish. But how do these passages speak of God?

We have a God who must be stern with sin; He is dead serious about the evil of His children. It is intolerable. He is also dead serious about His love. It is unconditional and jealous. "You are evil. I will lead you into promised land." And so we see the unity of scripture. One God, one covenant. The rules did not change midstream. The law condemns, and God redeems by grace, just as He always has. God does not withhold the promise from Israel because they have failed to live up to the law. Rather, he offers them the promised land as a free gift of grace.

Last week, Jeremy used a phrase that is really applicable here. There was no plan B. Plan A did not fall through. God didn't look at us, say, "Ok, I had this great plan where you all earned your way into my blessing, but you messed it all up, and now I have to lower the bar for you." God never intended man to earn anything. The purpose of the law is not to provide the means of our inheritance. It is the magnifying glass that reveals our need for a savior to come and rescue us.

For forty years, the Israelites wandered under the leadership of Moses; but in the end, Moses, the bringer of the law, could not lead them in. Joshua was chosen for that, and not because all of a sudden Israel had become a good God-fearing nation. They are still rebellious.

Now, what does this mean for us? For one thing, it is the ultimate failure of legalism. Anyone looking for Moses to lead them triumphantly across the Jordan was sorely disappointed. Our hope for salvation does not lie in the law of Moses. If you try to be good enough, you will fail. You were never meant to find righteousness on your own, apart from God.

The other side of the same coin, however, is the success of accepting undeserved grace. God's redemption is the atonement for sin that we ourselves cannot make. God's covenant is that He will purify us. "You shall be holy, for I am holy" is not a rule or commandment; it's a simple statement of fact. [I may have overstated this; I don't really have the theological authority to make such an assertion on the proper interpretation of this passage. -- Brandon] When we live by grace, we understand our own unworthiness, and so put all our faith in the one who promises to give us what we ourselves cannot obtain. By faith, Joshua and the nation of Israel marched into a strange land with strong nations. They did not earn or deserve the land they took; God offered it to them freely, and they pursued His promise with zeal. If they had sought to earn the land themselves, on their own strength, they would have heeded the advice of the ten faithless spies and gotten the heck out of dodge. But as it was, they heed Joshua's call to trust in the Lord for victory.

There is, of course, the opposition to deal with. Satan wants to obstruct our receipt of grace. He convinces us to reject the promises of God because we believe we have let Him down. Satan tells us that obedience to the law was the first and best way to salvation. In failing the test of the law, we have disappointed God. We turn and run from renewal in God's arms because we feel ashamed that we were unable to earn it.

Accepting God's grace requires the humility to say, "I am a fallen wretch, and I need a savior." Our need never ends either; even having accepted the new life of Christ, we depend on God for our daily sufficiency. When I wake up in the morning, "I need a savior." When I'm dry and empty, "I need a savior." When I'm worshiping in praise, "I need a savior." Our dependency on God never ends. The heart of God's plan of redemption is that He takes our worries and debts upon Himself. And that dependency does not end at Calvary. We trust God not only with our salvation, but with every good thing, because every good thing come from the Lord.

In Joshua we see an image, a foreshadowing of the messiah to come. This is not accidental. The name we translate in English as Joshua is Yehoshua, which is Hebrew for "God is salvation." Not man, not the law, and not man's effort through the law, but God. There's another Yehoshua in the Bible, but we know him better through the Greek translation of his name, Iesou, or Jesus.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
-- Galatians 4:4-5 (ESV)

Christ was born "under the law." That's a very hierarchical image. We know that all authority in heaven and earth is given to Christ. So we see that Jesus is not only under the law, he speaks with the authority of the law.

See the parallel with our passage in Deuteronomy? Joshua is under the authority of Moses; but when Moses dies, Joshua speaks with Moses' authority himself. In our passage in Joshua, he is commanded to meditate on the law day and night. His entire rule is to be under the law.

Joshua 1:17 quotes the Israelites as stating, "Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you..." In this manner, Joshua is followed as obediently as if he had been the law incarnate. And it's no coincidence that that's exactly what Christ, who comes after Joshua, is.

So we see in the old testament that God intends for the law that condemns to death to be the very authority by which His chosen savior redeems His people. God's eternal plan is the same today as it was back then. The law can only show you the promised land and pronounce it off-limits, while Christ, the chosen savior, "God is salvation," can lead you in. This is not new in the New Testament. God is not responding to our failures by reorganizing His game-plan. Rather, his plan of salvation went off without a hitch. His children recognize their need, and cast all their hopes on Him who promises everything.

So there's no room for legalism. The idea that we can earn God's love or somehow overcome our shame by forcing Him to let us into heaven on our own merits is a fallacy. It's like standing on the bank of the Jordan and saying, "I'm not going in until Moses says I deserve it." You'll never cross.

So, what's the question that ought to appear in our heads on contemplating this? What now? Well, one question we can ask ourselves is, "How am I trusting my own ability to redeem myself?"

What areas in your life do you refuse to confess or turn over to God because you're sure you have to straighten it out first? What do you refuse accountability for because you are afraid to look weak? The Israelites were most empowered when they were the most humiliated before God. When the Israelites were proud, and full of themselves, they were always cursed and defeated. When the Israelites acknowledge their need, God tells them, just as He tells Joshua, to "be strong and very courageous." It's an invitation to victory. But it only comes with the admission that we ourselves are incapable.

It's easy to gage yourself. Just ask yourself the question, "How do I experience God's blessing? What is my role in receiving grace?" If the answer has anything to do with actions or methodologies, even if those methods are good or godly, then that's a legalistic distortion.

Reading about God, memorizing scripture and plunging into ministry are good things that are a necessary part of the Christian life, but they do not make us receptive to grace. We accept grace only when we feel we need it. So the only way to experience more of God's free redemption everyday is cry out to God, "Woe is me! I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips! I need a savior!" God delivered His hard-hearted, unrepentant people into a new land flowing with milk and honey. How much more then will He give to His children when they acknowledge their need?

Another question to ask is, what does it look like to be redeemed? How do we, in our everyday lives, grasp the inheritance we have been freely given?

For one thing, the redeemed ignores the impossible. We are told to "be strong, and very courageous," especially in the face of an insurmountable foe. The spies other than Joshua and Caleb said it was impossible to inherit the land. Nothing can stop those guys! They're eight feet tall! But the redeemed life so zealously pursues God's promises that they end up doing impossible things like converting militant Muslims or breaking out the gospel in atheist communist countries like China.

If you balk at obstacles and insurmountable mountains in your way, it's going to be kind of hard to receive God's promise. Your promised land is across a flooded river, and you gotta fight the bad guys for it. The safe alternative is to keep wandering around the desert until you die or the Egyptians take you back in.

So what's your spiritual Jordan? What do you have to get over before you can experience the goodness of God's promised riches? What keeps you firmly planted on one side of the river? Fear, doubt, complacency, unconfessed sin and pride can and will keep us from venturing into the danger and struggle involved in grasping what was promised us.