Theological Mountain Peaks in Joshua
Joshua 1:8
Promised Land Living in Problematic World
Sermon #2
Too often believers have little use for doctrine or theology. They want the practical, the
hands-on parts of Scripture. Doctrine though is too dry and cerebral and they turn their noses
up at it. Yet in the process God’s Truth is often discarded or at the very least, contaminated by
subjectivism.
Evangelical author, Tim Stafford writes, “A pastor I know, Stephey Belynskyj, starts each
Confirmation Class with a jar full of beans. He asks his students to guess how many beans are
in the jar, and on a big pad of paper writes down their estimates. Then, next to those
estimates, he helps them make another list: their favorite songs. When the lists are complete,
he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar. The whole class looks over their guesses, to
see which estimate was closest to being right. Belynskyj then turns to the list of favorite
songs. “And which one of these is closest to being right?” he asks. The students protest that
there is no “right answer”; a person’s favorite song is purely a matter of taste.
Belynskyj, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame asks, “When you decide what
to believe in terms of your faith, is that more like guessing the number of beans, or more like
choosing your favorite song?” Always, Belynskyj says, from old as well as young, he gets the
same answer: Choosing one’s faith is more like choosing a favorite song.
Stafford then writes, “When Belynskyj told me this, it took my breath away. ‘After they say
that, do you confirm them?’ I asked him. ‘Well,’ smiled Belynskyj, ‘First I try to argue them
out of it’.”
How do you approach Scripture? Is Biblical truth for you like choosing your favorite song?
You have one preference, someone else has another? Or, is it like the number of beans in a
jar? It’s a fact, truth, an unchangeable reality.
It appears from the behavior of many believers that they feel Biblical truth is like choosing
your favorite song. That it’s a preference. It’s not. Biblical truth is not subjective. God’s Word
is not some huge smorgasbord of ideas where one can pick and choose the ones which have
personal appeal and leave unappealing ones behind.
To be sure, we may not “like” the truth of God’s Word but that does not change their reality.
One may not like the law of gravity but that does change its reality or, pardon the pun, its
impact on one’s life. And failure to accept and submit to the truths of God’s Word has great
consequences.
The Book of Joshua contains some unpopular truths. It’s not PC. Joshua wouldn’t get high
opinion poll ratings. This Book contains truths which go directly against the pluralistic,
sentimental grain of contemporary culture.
Most people who know anything about the Book of Joshua know of its battles, primarily
one battle, typified by the old spiritual Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho. Others are perhaps
familiar with two of its more well known verses; Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law
depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” or Joshua 24:15
“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we
will serve the LORD.” But there’s much more in this Book than a big battle or a couple of key
verses that make good spiritual slogans.
Over the coming weeks we’ll be doing an exegetical study of this Book, considering it
chapter by chapter. In that study though we’ll notice that this Book though has some powerful
theological truths that we’ll repeatedly see. Understanding these theological truths will assist
us in comprehending the Book and having a firmer handle on God’s Truth. This morning then
we want to look at some of the Theological Mountain Peaks in Joshua.
What we’re doing today is the difference between driving your car through an area or flying
over it in an airplane. Our exegetical study will be like driving through it. We’ll see a lot of
the details close up. But today we want to get in our theological planes and fly over the Book,
noticing primarily the great theological mountaintops of truth which jut out from this
wonderful book. What theological truths do we see in the Book of Joshua?
1. The Book of Joshua reveals truths about the Inheritance. One of John Grisham’s recent
bestsellers was The Testament. It’s a powerful book, probably his best novel yet. It opens with
the startling suicide of Troy Phelan, one of the world's richest men, a multi-billionaire,
immediately after convening a meeting of his many ex-wives and children to discuss his will.
The presumptive heirs are a greedy, despicable lot who have run through the millions he gave
them in divorce settlements and coming-of-age handovers, and fully expect that although
they've all been on bad terms with their tyrannical ex-husband and father, they will inherit the
jackpot. But Troy Phelan has one last trump card up his sleeve and, not to give away all the
surprises, leaves a final handwritten "holographic" will which gives his immense fortune to a
long-lost illegitimate daughter, a missionary living in the wilds of Brazil. The story follows
the subsequent attempts to trace down this daughter, a suspenseful adventure by Phelan's legal
executors through a snake-and alligator-infested jungle in one of the world's last great
ecological areas, and the disinherited heirs' frantic struggles to get their hands on the
inheritance through fair means or foul.
By far the most predominant theme of the Book of Joshua is the inheritance. The word
inheritance occurs 49 times in the Book. The land is virtually synonymous with the
inheritance. We find that word 80 times in the Book. Joshua is a book about the nation of
Israel entering, conquering and claiming their inheritance, the Promised Land.
God promised to give the land to Abraham, and reaffirmed the promise to Isaac, Jacob and
their descendants. In Moses’ farewell speech, he frequently mentioned the land and the
nation’s responsibility to possess it. The word land is found some 200 times in Deuteronomy
and the word possess over 50 times.
The major thrust of Joshua is the play by play account of Yahweh’s giving the promised land
to His people. This is important. They did not earn the Land, they were given the land by
God. An inheritance is not something you earn; it’s given to you.
While there are New Testament parallels, we will lose the Spirit’s intent in this Book if we
just make it symbolic of the Christian life. Some have made Canaan symbolic of heaven but
the symbolism just doesn’t work. Just consider the fact that...a) Canaan is the scene of many
battles, but there are no battles to be fought in heaven. b) The Bible teaches that nothing
which defiles can enter heaven but Israel sins grievously in Canaan. c) Heaven knows no
defeats but Israel experienced defeat in Canaan. d) In heaven there is no fear of expulsion but
the Israelites were ejected from Canaan for idolatry.
But while Canaan is not heaven, the truth of the inheritance is here. Under Joshua’s faithful
leadership, Israel leaves behind the failures and frustrations of life in the barren wilderness
and entered into her earthly inheritance.
In the parallel Ephesian letter, Paul tells us that it is through Jesus, our heavenly Joshua, that
we are led into our spiritual inheritance, Eph. 1:13-14. Some of the other parallels are exciting
for the New Testament believer as we claim our inheritance in Christ. In their inheritance,
Israel went from...
a) They went from bondage to liberty. Who but a former slave can fully appreciate
freedom? John 8:36 “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” As the Israelites were
no longer slaves in Egypt, the believer is no longer a slave to sin.
b) They went from monotony to variety. In spite of their constant complaining, God never
allowed His people to really suffer. Not once did the manna cease, the water fail, their clothes
wear out, or their feet swell during the forty years of wandering. But the monotony of life and
the sameness of diet produced murmuring and lusting after Egypt’s delicacies. Canaan though
offered a delightful fare–a land flowing with milk and honey, vines loaded with fruit. A
similar abundance and variety of spiritual fare awaits the victorious believer. When God
gives, He does so beyond measure: love that surpasses knowledge, inexpressible joy and
peace transcending all understanding.
c) They went from promise to possession. God’s promise to Abraham had gone unfulfilled
for centuries. In Joshua the promise becomes reality. So it is for the victorious believer.
Promises are turned to facts; doctrine into experience. As Jesus said, according to one’s faith,
shall be one’s experience.
d) They went from depression to joy. It was Yahweh’s intent that when His people entered
the Promised Land, that they would be a joyous people, leaving the depression of the desert
behind them. This is clearly stated in the provisions made for their annual feasts. “Rejoice
before the LORD your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name...Be joyful
at your Feast...celebrate the Feast to the LORD [Who]...will bless you in all your harvest and
in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete” (Deut. 16:11, 14, 15). Jesus
promises a similar prospect for the believer. John 15:11 “I have told you this so that My joy
may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
2. The Book of Joshua reveals truths about God’s Word. This Book reveals the
importance of the written Word of God. When Israel left Egypt, they didn’t have a Bible. But
when they enter Canaan, they have the first five books of Moses. That’s why we have the
command of Joshua 1:7-8.
Because the event of this Book take place in that period prior to a completed Canon, Joshua
had special leadings from God which we are neither normative but more important, are not
unneeded today with the completion of Scripture. But even then, the written Word was the
guide and set the limitations for determining God’s will.
Joshua functioned the same way that we as Bible-believing Christians are to function. While
God does lead in other ways, His guidance is primarily through His written Word. And it is
always within the parameters of the external, propositional truth and commands of Scripture.
Even if a person had, as Joshua did, the Urim and Thummin as well as the high priest to guide
him, this does not change his basic authority, the written Word of God. The primary leading
then as now, comes from God’s written revelation, the Bible.
A father was approached by his small son, who told him proudly, "I know
what the Bible means!" His father smiled and replied, "What do you mean, you 'know' what
the Bible means?" The son replied, "I do know!" "Okay," said his father. "So, Son, what does
the Bible mean?" That's easy, Daddy. It stands for Basic Information Before Leaving Earth.”
The Bible provides us with all the “Basic Information Before Leaving Earth” that we need.
In the Book of Joshua we observe three things emphasized about Scripture. First, the Law
was not to depart out of Joshua’s mouth. He was to talk about It. Obviously, that includes
memorizing Scripture. How else could he “talk” about It? Second, he was to meditate on the
Word day and night. It was to be ruminated on, processed through his whole being. Third, he
was to “do everything written in It.” Scripture is not theoretical, It’s to be obeyed. It’s
applicational to our historic, time-space situations.
Talk about it; think about it; do it! Perhaps it’s because we don’t talk about Scripture, think
about it, much less do It, that we fail to be spiritually “prosperous or successful.”
Joshua’s relationship to Scripture also teaches us an important lesson about how the Canon
of Scripture grew and was accepted. Joshua knew Moses, the writer of the Pentateuch
personally. He knew Moses’ strengths and weaknesses, that Moses was a sinner and made
mistakes. However, after Moses’ death Joshua accepted the Pentateuch as more than just the
writing of Moses. He accepted It as the very writing of God.
That speaks volumes about the doctrine of inspiration. Though God used flawed men to
write His Words, they are still the very words of God. They are as Timothy tells us “Godbreathed,” though God “breathes” His Word through sinful men. And they are authoritative
because they are God’s Word.
3. The Book of Joshua reveals truths about God. The word “theology” comes from two
Greek words, theos which means God; and logos which means word, speech or discourse.
Theology is simply God-talk, or more fully thoughts about God. The Book of Joshua “talks” a
lot about Who God is.
a) God is powerful. Joshua 2:8-11. Rahab knew of the power of God. In this Book Jordan’s
waters are rolled back, Jericho’s walls fall and the sun stands still. God has not changed. He’s
still powerful. Though most of us don’t have real rivers, we do have obstacles in our lives.
Our God can still roll back our rivers or knock down our walls.
b) God keeps His promises. An integral part of this Book is that God keeps His promises.
After all, they are entering the “Promised Land.” This was the land promised to Abraham and
his descendants. This Book begins with a repetition of the promise to give them the land and
that no one would be able to withstand them. These promises were fulfilled as Joshua unfolds.
God had promised the Israelites that they would inherit a land whose cities they did not build
with wells they did not dig and fields and vineyards that they did not plant. God keeps His
promises. He did it then; He still does it today.
c) God is holy. R. C. Sproul makes this insightful observation, “The Bible says that God is
holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The
Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath,
or justice, justice, justice. It does say that He is holy, holy, holy.” Because God is holy He
will not tolerate evil. That’s why when Achan disobeyed and took of the spoil from Jericho, it
cost him his life. The annihilation of the wicked Canaanites is a powerful demonstration of
the holiness of God.
There is something about holiness which scares us. That’s the way some people feel about
God. The thought of His holiness makes them want to hide. That’s an understandable
response for an unbeliever who has good reason to hide from an infinitely holy God who must
punish sin.
Sometimes though people whose sins are forgiven and who are clothed with divine
righteousness, also draw back from Him. It’s usually a result of a faulty understanding of His
holiness. Satan enjoys perverting this doctrine and using it to drive a wedge between believers
and their Lord. While God’s holiness should not scare us, it should motivate us to revere Him.
Joshua reminds us that sin is serious and that God’s holiness is not something to take lightly.
d) God is just, longsuffering and merciful. From a human perspective Joshua is a bloody
book. It’s not PC. Few of the issues raised by this Book create more difficulty than the
question of how a loving God could command the wholesale extermination of the people and
nations that inhabited the Promised Land. And there’s no easy solution to this. That’s why
some have developed a two-God view, the hateful God of the Old Testament versus the
loving God of the New Testament. John Hamlin writes, “Many readers are repelled by the
Joshua accounts of mass killings. They find the apparent hatred of foreigners offensive. A
Burmese teacher in a theological seminary reports that the OT was formerly kept away from
new Christians precisely because its portrayal of a God who not only approves but commands
the kind of violence recorded in the book of Joshua.”
This idea of a “holy war” was common for that time period. Mesha, a king of Moab,
destroyed an entire city and all of its inhabitants, devoting it to his god, Ashtar. A holy war is
not unique to Israel or Old Testament theology. Not to mention, judged by methods adopted
by civilized nations in modern warfare–napalm, poison gas, nuclear bombs–the battles in
Joshua were fairly tame and small-scale affairs in comparison.
All that being said, this act was still done at the command of God. To assist us in
understanding this we must intertwine three attributes of God: His justice, mercy and
longsuffering.
1) God’s justice. While the most common Old Testament word for just means “straight,” and
the New Testament word means “equal,” in a moral sense they both mean “right.” When we
say that God is just, we’re saying that He always does what is right, what should be done, and
that He does it consistently, without partiality or prejudice. God’s justice is the natural
expression of His holiness. If He is infinitely pure, then He must be opposed to ALL sin. That
opposition to sin must also be demonstrated in His treatment of His creatures. When we read
that God is just, we are being assured that His actions toward us are in perfect agreement with
His holy nature.
Because God is righteous and just, He has established a moral government, laid down
principles which are holy and good, and added consequences which are just and fair for
violating those principles. Furthermore, He is totally impartial in administering His
government. He does not condemn innocent people or let guilty people go free. Peter says He
is a God “who judges each man's work impartially” (1 Peter 1:17). His treatment is never
harsher than the crime demands.
Then, there is a difference between murder and justifiable killing. Murder involves
intentional, malicious hatred. Yet killing is allowed in capital punishment, self-defense or in a
just war. The Canaanites were not an innocent people. They were some of the most
debauched people in all of human history. Archaeological discoveries have revealed the
corruptness of the Canaanite nations. For example, in the Canaanite religion El was the chief
god and Baal was his son. These were “gods” who had absolutely no concept of morality. In a
poem known as “The Birth of the Gods,” El is said to have seduced two women, and horrible
sexual perversions are associated with his name. He married three of his own sisters, who also
were married to Baal. He is represented as practicing vile sex acts and influencing others to do
likewise. In the Canaanite religion, homosexuals and prostitutes, both male and female were
employed to raise money for the support of the temples. It is not an exaggeration to say that
these pagans elevated sex to the status of a god and immorality was part of their worship.
The Canaanite religion was a horribly brutal system as well. The goddess Anath is pictured
as killing humans by the thousands and wading knee-deep in blood. She cut off heads and
hands and wore them as ornaments. In this connection it also must be mentioned that the
morally depraved Canaanites also sacrificed their own babies to their gods. Funerary jars have
been found with the bodies of young children distorted by suffocation as they struggled for
life after having been buried alive as a sacrifice to Canaanite gods. Professor Kenneth Kitchen
he remarked that the “Canaanite religion appealed to the bestial and material in human
nature.”
It’s a common practice to amputate a cancerous limb to prevent the deadly disease from
spreading. The destruction of these wicked people was for the moral preservation of the
nation of Israel. The Old Testament makes this clear. When they invaded Canaan, the
Hebrews were not to allow their enemies to live. Deut. 20:17-18, “Completely destroy
them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites– as the LORD your
God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things
they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.” But why
was this so important? Among other reasons, it was through the Hebrew nation that the
Messiah was to come! The salvation of mankind ultimately was at stake. The extermination of
Canaan’s evil inhabitants was a moral surgery in order to save the life of the patient, the entire
human race. In the end though, God, because He is God, has the right to render judgment
upon evil at any time. We are not His judge, He is our’s.
2) God’s longsuffering. If after September 11th, President Bush had gone before our country
and said, “We’re going to punish Osama Bin Laden and the Al Queda network...but we’re
going to wait six hundred years to do it.” Would you have thought he’d lost his mind? Yet
that’s exactly what God did, Gen. 15:13-16. God is longsuffering. He gave these people
plenty of time to repent.
God’s judgement of the Canaanites is also a reminder to us that God keeps His promises, not
just of blessing, but also of punishment and justice. As God promised and finally judged the
Canaanites, He will finally judge the world and send the lost to eternal Hell. Joshua though
only deals with physical death. When God judges the unrepentant at the end of the age, it will
be a spiritual and eternal death.
Is this a “truth” we really believe? As I prepared this message, I was convicted and had to
confess my own lack of reaching out to my lost friends. I’ve got several lost friends in this
community. I want to see them come to Christ. Some day God is going to call me Home and
I’ve shared with Jane that I’ve got about half a dozen lost friends that I want to see come to
Christ and I’d love for them to be my pall bearers.
If we really believe in Hell, shouldn’t we be praying for the salvation of lost friends? Are
you praying for lost friends? Are you watching for opportunities to share what God has done
in your life with them?
3) God’s mercy. Yet in this Book of judgement, in this nationalistic book, God’s mercy still
finds room for non-Israelites in the Covenant community, both for Rahab and the Gibeonites.
Whenever people turn to God, He will always show mercy. How tragic that the Canaanites
instead of turning to God when they saw His power, attacked Israel all the more. If they had
just repented, God would have spared them – He always has, He always will.
Conclusion: There are many other great theological truths in this Book. I hope like me,
you’re looking forward to walking through Joshua together. When we’re done, I hope that we
each have a bigger view of God.
The Book of Joshua reveals truth about our inheritance, God’s Word and about God
Himself. Some of these truths on a human level are hard to comprehend. But whether we
believe them or not, it doesn’t change the amount of “beans in the jar.” While we may not
understand all of God’s work or ways, His justice and holiness, we need to believe and submit
to His truth. We need to live according to His Word.
The Canaanites sinned and were destroyed because they made their gods in the image of
sinful man. We’re tempted to do the same today. We are tempted to make our own standards
for ourselves based on our feelings, backgrounds or contemporary culture.
NASA had high hopes for their Mars orbiter – it would make possible some exciting new
research into the Red Planet. They were stunned when suddenly, without warning; they lost
the Mars orbiter in deep space. After the initial shock, NASA tried to determine what went
wrong. The answer was almost as alarming as losing the orbiter itself. The fatal malfunction
was the result of a tragic error in calculations. Bad math doomed the Mars craft. You see, one
set of engineers had worked with English measurements – while another set of engineers had
done their calculations by the metric system! A costly failure was the result of measuring by
two different standards.
There are still two standards out there; God’s and the world’s. Like that Mars space craft, we
are doomed for failure if we measure our lives, values and choices by the wrong standard.
Too many, Christians included, fail because they are trying to measure their choices by the
wrong standard.
Maybe God’s Truth, His standard is not comfortable or PC enough, maybe the price seems
to high. But my dear friend, God’s standard, God’s truth, is the only one that will keep your
life from being a failure. For an unbeliever, it’s the difference between eternal life and eternal
death. For the believer, it’s the difference between a failed life or a fulfilled life. Will you
believe and live by God’s Truth?