The Land and the Man Joshua

Transcript

GRS 200
5/16/2021
The Land and the Man Joshua
Genesis – Deuteronomy
Gil Rugh

Let’s look into the Word together. Like I said this morning I want look into the book of Joshua with you. A little different, from the Old Testament. We’ve done the book of Romans and we’re in Ephesians in the morning. We’ll do Joshua a little differently than we would some of the other books. We’ll be moving a little more quickly through the book of Joshua.

A very crucial book. We are at a transition point in Israel’s history. As we come to the book of Joshua we’re prepared to see God bringing to pass some of the key promises He’s made to the nation. Six hundred years earlier He entered into covenant with Abraham. Part of that promise that is foundational was a promise of land and that Abraham’s descendants would have the land of Canaan as their possession. Six hundred years have gone by, four hundred of those years spent in slavery in Egypt. Now we are ready for God to do what He promised. It’s all consistent with what God promised.

There’s ups and downs. Abraham is in the land. He brings him to the land of Canaan. Has him walk around, that’s yours. Then He tells him, for four hundred years your descendants are going to be moved out of the land, then they’re brought out of the land then they get up almost to the brink of going into the land and because of sin they have to turn around and wander for forty more years. Now we are back, they are ready to go into the land.

We talked a little bit about this, this morning. The land is a key issue for the people of Israel. In our day, so to speak, from 1940’s, 1948 Israel had a claim to the land that God had promised but the worst is yet to come for Israel but we are reminded that God keeps His Word. That’s one thing Joshua is going to be emphasizing, the book of Joshua. God keeps His promises. Time goes by but we want to remember God is true to His Word.

I want to take you back to look again at some land passages. Come back to Genesis chapter 12. As I mention, from time to time, there is a movement away in evangelicals from taking these biblical promises and prophecies literally. One of our major evangelical denominations, this past year took premillennialism out of their doctrinal statement so that they as a denomination are open to premillennial, postmillennial, there are some of those left, amillennial as though this is not important. I’ve read you articles. One leader of another denomination said eschatological parts of the bible are third level in importance. So we want to be careful not to make too much of those things. God makes it a major issue! What He has promised He must do and He will do it in His time.

The danger is with the passing of time and we don’t see the realization of what He promised we think, well, maybe it’s not going to happen. God promised the land to Israel. Now He put conditions on that. For their permanent possession there will be certain requirements. Basically, their settled faith in Him and His Word. He tells about the judgments that will come if they don’t, but it can’t change the initial promise. So I want you to have that in mind because this the background for Joshua. The conditions that God sets down the Jews don’t meet so they get kicked out the land. They get back in then they get kicked out. It’s a sad state.

Genesis 12, that’s the initial statement of the Abrahamic Covenant where God had called Abram from his country, from his land to the land of Canaan. He is to leave his country, chapter 12 verse 1 of Genesis, your relatives, your father’s house, to the land I will show you, make you a great nation, bless you and so on. Those foundational promises of the covenant. You move down in chapter 12 to verse 6, he comes into the land of Canaan, the end of verse 5, “thus they came to the land of Canaan, Abrahm passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.” This is a problem. There are a lot of Canaanites. There’s Abram, his wife Sara, but that’s hardly an army to take on the Canaanites. God appeared to Abram, verse 7, “the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “to your descendants,” your seed, talking about his physical descendants, “I will give this land.” You have that marked? That’s a promise. Abram had no reason, humanly speaking, to see that he could take possession of that land but “I will give this land to your descendants.”

Come over to chapter 13. Abram has become very rich in livestock, silver and gold, verse 2 tells us. Come on down, this is with Lot, his nephew who is with him, so there is some family with him but it is not an army of any kind. They are going to go their separate ways. Lot chooses to go toward Sodom and Gomorrah, the well-watered plain. Verse 14, “the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated,” this is chapter 13 verse 14, “now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which you see I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. You see, no matter what happens in the in-between we know what the end result is. As we talked about when we talked about prophecy, we know things that God has prophesied will happen. We don’t necessarily know all the details and the ins and outs of how He’s going to bring it to that point, but we know it will happen as He says. So here I’m going to give this land, look around, all directions as far as you can see, it will belong to your descendants. And your descendants are going to multiply so they can’t be numbered. Verse 17, “arise, walk about the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.” Let me just stop. You say, well this is so clear. What do people do? Well people who are evangelicals in the sense, they believe the bible is the word of God instead of taking these prophecies literally they say, well Jesus Christ was the true Israel. So these promises have been fulfilled in Him because everything that God promises is fulfilled in Christ so the land promise has been fulfilled in Christ. Now you might be saying, you better run that by again. I’m not sure it makes sense. I’ve been through it many times. It still doesn’t make sense to me. Jesus is the fulfillment of the land promises. Now they’ll pull out verses but we’re not going there. I just want you to follow, if you just take scripture at its face value when He tells him to walk about the land, the land that you can see, there’s not much room for thinking that He’s not talking about the land that you see and the land that you walk on. We ought to allow the bible to make the final decision.

Come over to chapter 15, in chapter 15 is where the covenant with Abraham is finally cut, it means to cut a covenant, where the animals are divided. Abram goes to sleep and God passes between the divided animals. Which means He’s taking full responsibility for the fulfillment of this covenant and all of it’s provisions. So, the failure of Abraham and his descendants cannot nullify the covenant because God says I take full responsibility for the fulfillment of all the provisions of what I have promised you. So, in chapter 15, he takes them out, verse 5, again you have the number of descendants that you won’t be able to count. This is the stars of heaven. Verse 6, “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” You see, what does Abram have except the promise of God? Sure, the land is here, but it populated by a pagan people that are far numerous than my little family. But that’s alright, your little family isn’t going to remain little. Your descendants will be uncountable. He believed the Lord, that’s what faith is. I take God at His word. I believe what God has said. God said it, I believe it, that settles it. What’s the next verse? Verse 7, And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” And Abram says, “Lord how may I know that I shall possess it?” And that leads to the covenant. Take these animals, divide them. Half of the animal on one side, the other half of the animal, then you have a path through them. Under a covenant, that’s why the Hebrew word for making a covenant is literally to cut a covenant. And you pass through these, just like we sign contracts. The two parties of the covenant walk through. As I mentioned, Abraham goes to sleep and God passes through. Which means He and He alone is responsible for this covenant and the fulfillment of all of its provisions. You come over to chapter 17, as we talked about earlier in our study of Ephesians, you have the sign of the covenant, circumcision, with the cutting of the flesh. The circumcision of the family of Abram and the instructions and it will be carried out on the male children and Abram’s descendants when they’re eight days old. What does he say in chapter 17:1, “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless.’” We just read over that, but “I am God Almighty.” He is the one who has the power to accomplish everything that He promises. This is where He changes Abram’s name to Abraham, because he’s going to be the father of a multitude. Down in verse 5, then verse 7, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to you descendants after you.” That’s why He later in the scriptures know as what? The God of Israel, because that’s the name of Abraham’s descendants. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob’s name is changed to Israel. And He is the God of Israel. What does He promise to do? He’s going to be God to you and your descendants after you, the end of verse 7. Verse 8, “And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Then they get the sign of that covenant, which is circumcision. Which tied with this covenant and now the sign of the covenant, makes them the object of Satan’s hatred though all the ages of history. More than any other nation. Satan doesn’t hate the United States of America like He hates Israel because this covenantal relationship with Israel, makes them the nation that Satan must attempt to destroy. Because if he could do that, God’s promises couldn’t be fulfilled, he would have won by defeating God. We say, well it’s foolish! Of course it is, but it’s none the less what is going on.

Come over to chapter 24 and Abraham is looking for a bride for his son, Isaac. God has fulfilled His promise, his wife Sarah, even though they are both advanced in age, they will have their own son. And as God said earlier, we won’t take the time for all these, most of you are aware of it, My covenant will be with Isaac. He promises to bless Ishmael because Abraham fathered Ishmael but it was with Hagar. He says I’ll bless Ishmael, but the covenant promises are limited to Isaac and his line. In chapter 24 he sends his servant to get a bride. Verse 6 Abraham tells the servant, beware that you do not take my son back there. See, Abraham believes God’s promises. I don’t want Isaac going back to my homeland in Ur of the Chaldeans to get a bride but you my servant are going back there. He realizes Isaac could get entangled back there. Isaac belongs in the land. Verse 7 “the Lord, the God of heaven who took me from my father’s house, from the land of my birth and who spoke to me and swore to me.” God’s word is enough but in scripture when God takes an oath He is doing it for our benefit that we realize this is, as we would say, planted in concrete. “He swore to me saying, “to your descendants I will give this land.” So I’m confident that He will send His angel before you. You will take a wife for my son from there. Not going to take her from among the Canaanites where he is. Why didn’t he just give Abraham the land of Ur of the Chaldeans? He was there. It would have been an easy thing. Save the trip. Because God picked out the land in another place and it’s important that Isaac realize its that land and he not become entangled in the wrong way, in that land. He’s not to become part of the Canaanites. Abraham is getting a wife for him from the home country, and she will come back here, you are familiar with that story.

Abraham will die. Chapter 25 talks about Abraham lives one hundred and seventy-five years. He had a second wife because his first wife, Sarah, had passed away. He has other children and he had sons with concubines as well as his second wife, Keturah, but there’s only one line that matters, Abraham, Isaac, the others are sent away. He gives them a portion of inheritance but they don’t have the covenant promise. So you have Isaac, come to chapter 26. Verse 3, now there’s a famine in the land, verse 1, there was a previous famine, this is another. Isaac went to Gehrer to Abimelech, king of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt. It’s important that they stay connected with the land. Now they are going to be moved out of the land, these descendants but they have to be firmly established there in their thinking, their understanding. This is where we belong. Isaac is told, do not go to Egypt, that would be a logical thing. Later at the end of the book of Genesis we are going to see Joseph going down to Egypt then we’re going to see Jacob and the family coming down to Egypt. But by then their homeland is somewhat fixed. They are a family of seventy, the line is somewhat established. But at this point you stay in the land, Isaac. Do not go down to Egypt. Stay in the land of which I shall tell you, sojourn in this land. I will be with you and bless you for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands and I will establish,” here we go again, “the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.” Then the multiplying of the descendants. Again, when you are there, think about it, you’ve got a rather small family and God says go out and look at the stars. Your descendants are going to be more than that. He may say, that’s hard to believe but God’s going to do it. But you see the land is key. I want you to stay in this land because this is the land that’s going to belong to you. it just gets hammered away.

Isaac’s son Jacob, come over to chapter 28. I know some of you may be thinking, I get the point, could we move on? Nope. So in chapter 28, verse 1 “So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him saying, “you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”” This is crucial. You are not to intermingle with the Canaanites. This is Israel’s land. You must maintain the distinction. You can’t corrupt it with Canaanites at this point. So you go back to the homeland again, and get a wife. “May God almighty bless you, make you fruitful. May He also give you the blessing of Abraham. To you and your descendants with you.” Why? “That you may possess the land of your sojournings which God gave to Abraham.” You see it’s building. Each generation is being reminded so the passing on of it gets strengthened. Now Jacob will go back to his homeland for a wife, not a servant going. He’s getting, again, that break with the Canaanites, the people in the land. The people in the land have to go. When Joshual comes in the instruction is now go in and wipe them all out. Here he’s going to get a wife so that, verse 4, “He may give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants that you may possess the land.” Just this repetition. This is what I promised to, God promised to Abraham. Come down to verse 13, Jacob’s ladder. The top reached to heaven, verse 12, in a dream he’s having. Verse 13 “behold the Lord stood above it and said I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac, the land in which you lie I will give it to you and to your descendants.” Then the descendants will be multiplied, and the blessings will come through their descendants. That ultimately will be realized in the Messiah.

Come over to chapter 35. This is Jacob. He’s coming back into the land and he’s reminded that God appeared to him when he was leaving the land. He’s appearing to him now that he is coming back into the land. The chapter opens up that way. Come down to verse 9, “God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram and He blessed him. God said to him “your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. So God changes his name. Thus He called him Israel. God said to him, “I am God almighty, be fruitful and multiply.” There we go again. “Kings will come for you,” verse 12, “the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. I will give the land to your descendants after you.” Same promise. Now Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob will have twelve sons from which we get the twelve tribes. The division there, a little break up, but all comes out of Jacob’s twelve tribes.


Come over to chapter 48. You’re familiar, Joseph went to Egypt. It was God’s plan now to bring the family of Jacob to Egypt. We say now they’re in a foreign land, but they are going to be in a foreign land in a special way. As I mentioned and you can read it for yourself, but the Egyptians despised the shepherds. They wouldn’t eat with shepherds and these kinds of things. Well He’s going to isolate them in their own land in Egypt. There are not going to be intermarrying with Egyptians. Joseph does but God’s intention is to keep them separate so they’ll be a distinct people. They’re going to go through some turmoil down there because the Egyptians are going to get conquered by another people called the Hiksos and the Hiksos are going to rule Egypt for a number of years, the sixteenth century. Then when Egyptians get the power again and things begin to change and become more difficult for the Hebrews. They are slaves and you have preparation for the exodus.

Look at chapter 48. Jacob now, Joseph is told his father is sick, getting ready for death. He takes his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph’s going to get a double portion here. His two sons will become part of the twelve tribal inheritance. The tribe of Levi will not get land since they are the priestly tribe. Verse 3, then Jacob said to Joseph, “God almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me. He said to me, “behold I will make you fruitful, numerous. I will make you a company of people. Note, “and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession. Now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt, before I came to Egypt are mine. So he’s claiming them to put them in the line of promise with the other physical sons he has. You see the connection? He doesn’t think, here Joseph, he’s second in command to Pharaoh, what better place. Maybe God will just give us Egypt! He wasn’t even thinking like that. It doesn’t matter that his son has the authority to rule in Egypt. Pharaoh says you’re second to me, only second to me. He gives him his seal, his ring and says, whatever you say goes. This is better than the land of Canaan anyways! If we had to deal the situation there and you’ve got the Canaanites. Joseph is already in charge here. That’ doesn’t matter. Why? Because God promised something. It was the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. So it’s just a matter of time until we leave here. You see how this is fixed in the mind of the Jewish people.

That was planning the death of Jacob. Come down to chapter 50. Joseph now is going to die. Joseph lived one hundred-ten years. He saw the third generation of his children, verse 23 of Genesis 50, then verse 24. “Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die. But God will surely take care of you,” and note this, “and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” and I want you to take an oath and promise me you won’t leave my bones in Egypt. He could have had a spectacular tomb in Egypt. He could have had a monument built. He’s not Pharaoh but he’s been an awful mighty, important man and done amazing things. He could have had a tomb of a very important, rich man in Egypt. You have to take an oath that you’ll take my bones. You see how important the land is? For us as believers today, where we are buried, part of my family is buried in New Jersey, part of it in Pennsylvania, part of it in Nebraska, it doesn’t matter. I’m looking for the rapture of the Church. Wherever those bodies are they’re going to get caught up. For the Jews the land, I don’t want my bones left here. It has to be in the land. That’s what God has promised. Joseph has not lost perspective with all he’s been through. God’s promises, God’s promises!

Come over to Deuteronomy, chapter 30. Deuteronomy is the transition book, if you will, to get us to Joshua. Literally means “the second Law.” The Law is repeated and elaborated, expanded and what goes on is to prepare the people for the death of Moses, the coming on the scene of Joshua, and the move to finally, six hundred years after the promise was given to Abraham, to now move in and take possession of the land. Abraham lived in the land as Isaac did, as Jacob did, but they never possessed that land. The Canaanites were the people. Now after being out of it for four hundred years in Egypt they have to come back. So, the book of Deuteronomy is the background and preparation. In chapter 30, chapters 29 and 30, we have what is called, and I showed on the slide, the ‘Abrahamic Covenant’ has three areas. Land, seed, and blessing. The land promise gets elaborated here as they are on the brink of going into the land. He solidifies that aspect of the covenant with a land covenant in 29 and 30. This is a covenant, he says in verse 1 of chapter 29, beside the covenant I made with them at Horeb,” Horeb is Mount Sinai. This will be a covenant that is in line. The covenant at Sinai, the Mosaic covenant is not part of the the Abrahamic covenant. That was an add-on five hundred years after the covenant with Abraham as scripture tells us.

Come into chapter 30 here and come down to verse 19. All the judgments of God and so on, “so it shall be.” Chapter 30 opens up, “when it shall be all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all the nations where the Lord has banished you, and you return to the Lord,” ultimately God reveals to Moses these are going to be an unfaithful people. They are going to get kicked out of the land, they’re going to get back in the land, but finally they end up with the land. Now they are being prepared to go into the land. Even there it’s revealed they will be unfaithful, so they won’t get to possess it with the final possession as God has promised. But here we go. They’re going to get to go into the land.

So down, great chapter if you haven’t read it, read these closing chapters, hey will be good introduction to Joshua, maybe sometime this week. Look at verse 19 of chapter 30, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.” He told them what will happen. If they obey they will get all the blessings. If they disobey then God will bring punishment. He’ll remove them from the land. They’ll be scattered. So “I have set before you blessing and curse. Choose life.” Simple decision, “choose life,” “in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” Note, “that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give it to them.” It’s here Moses, at the end of his life, this is it. There are conditions on this but it’s going to be. Moses writes about the blessing and curses but he has no doubt how it all ends. That’s why I say they know how it’s all going to transpire. He tells them, you’ll get driven out of the land, you’ll get scattered among nations, all this will happen if you don’t what? Obey. But final will be God will bring you to your knees to trusting Him, to obeying Him, and that will be the ultimate fulfillment. So, today, where is Israel? They are back in the land but they are still under the judgment of God. They are still surrounded by the nations that are determined they are going to destroy them. and as we know, the worst is yet to come as God brings His judgment. His intention as they are in rebellion against Him is not to live in peace. Every day is in danger. You get up now and turn on the news to find out what? People are sending rockets into Israel. What are we doing? What are the nations doing? Who is aligned now against nation? Is Iran working with Russia? Is Russia working with China? Are they all ganging up on Israel? What is all going on? I don’t know all the details. I can tell you where they are going. It’s not going to the kingdom just yet. It’s going to the tribulation and then to the kingdom. But Moses says here is the way it could be. Why didn’t Israel just believe? Why? People know there’s a heaven and there’s a hell, let me tell you the gospel. Just believe it. Just believe it but they won’t do it.

One more passage and we’ll be done, with this. 31:23 “then he commissioned Joshua,” see the transition here. “Then he commissioned Joshua, the son of Nun.” Now Joshua had come on the scene earlier, but he commissioned Joshua here. He tells him to “be strong and courageous.” We’ll pick that up in Joshua chapter 1, “be strong and courageous.” “For you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you.” That’s God’s promise. So this is preparation for Joshua to step up. You’ll have the song of Moses in chapter 32 and the death of Moses in chapter 34. You see verse 9 of chapter 34, “now Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, and the sons of Israel listened to him as the Lord had commanded them.” Then the conclusion there.

So all of that on the land. It took longer time than I was planning as I originally did this but I just am so troubled as I see in the Church today a movement away from literally understanding God’s promises to Israel. I can understand the confusion of the world but how many times does God have to say something in plain language, whether it’s in Hebrew or English, Greek, it’s clear. How many times would He have to say “the land” and then I open up a scholars book who claims to be an evangelical, believes in the inspiration of scripture and says, well the land promises have been fulfilled in Christ. One of the best commentaries on Romans goes to pieces when you get to Israel. He says, well the church is the new Israel. Whewwww.

So we take the time to read it in Genesis there and then you could go through all the prophets and everything. God takes an oath. It will be the way He said. So Joshua, it doesn’t matter, it was six hundred years earlier with all that went on in between, now God is going to take them into the land.

The purpose of the book of Joshua is to show that God is a God who keeps His promise. Come over to the end of the book of Joshua, chapter 21. Joshua chapter 21, look at verse 43, so now they’ve been in, they’ve conquered the land basically. Divided up, look at verse 43, “So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.” That’s what the book of Joshua is all about. What went wrong? Well, what is the challenge for all of us as believers? To be faithful, to continue faithful. Israel’s going to begin to disintegrate from within. It won’t be outside enemies it will be from within. So, we go to the book of Judges, and that’s not a pleasant book. One of the commentaries on Judges by a man named Wood, is called “The distressing Days of the Judges.” Here, with this, to show that this isn’t the final realization, because it’s a time Israel is tested. All God does, you can see here, He’s done everything He’s promised. We will walk faithfully in obedience to Him.

The book of Joshua tells you God is faithful, He keeps His word. Same kind of thing we have, we won’t take time to go there, but in 2 Peter 3, you ought to read that in connection with Judges. What does it tell, here’s what God has promised for us as believers, for the church today. Now, all these things here are going to be destroyed by fire. We ought to be a holy people, committed to Him. I keep reminding you the evangelical church is disintegrating from within. I’m not saying we’re the only church but overall, the church keeps getting weaker theologically, keeps moving further and further away from biblical truth. Well, Peter is doing the same thing, look what God has done. He’s been faithful, you be faithful. It’s not complicated, not always easy, but it’s not complicated. So, Joshua is an exhortation for that.

I want to look for the remainder of our time to what God did to prepare Joshua. He doesn’t just pop up on the scene. First time we meet Joshua is back in Exodus 17. So, why don’t you come back there? Exodus chapter 17, just going to look at what Joshua went through to be prepared to be the successor, not an equal to Moses, but the successor to Moses. In Exodus 17, this is the first battle Israel fights after they leave Egypt. And so, in Exodus 17, this is Amalek, the Amalekites, verse 8 of chapter 17, “Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua”; Joshua is a young man but he is already a man to be trusted, given responsibility. “Choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek.” Oh, great idea. Israel has come out of Egypt, they have been slaves for 400 years. They haven’t been trained to be a military. In fact when you have slaves, you want to keep any military idea out of their minds, they haven’t been trained, but Joshua, you choose the men, you’re going to go fight against Amalek. I’ll station myself on the hill with the staff of God on my hand. And this is one of the things that we find out about Josuha. Verse 10, “And Joshua did as Moses told him.” A good reminder, what is Joshua? A young man here. Moses is in charge, Joshua did what Moses told him. You know, trust God has appointed Moses and Moses has delegated responsibility to me. So, he fought against Amalek, and Moses goes up and remember he holds his hands up. And as long as he held his hands up, as Joshua and the Jews were victorious. You know, you hold your hands up for a long time, pretty soon you know, my muscles are getting, so he drops his hands. And when he drops his hands, Joshua began to lose. So, Aaron and Hur, who were with him, one each takes under his arms. And they hold Moses’s hands up. And so, Joshua is victorious. Verse 13, “So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.” Now write this in a book, verse 14, “Then the Lord said to Moses, write this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” Because when Amalek stood against the Jews, he stood against God. And the consequences of that were yet to be fully realized. They lost this battle, but they lost a lot more. Joshua learned a lesson, it says, Joshua overwhelmed Amalek, but what was clear in this? It was clear in this that the victory came from the Lord. It wasn’t that Joshua was such a brilliant military commander. Because as soon as Moses dropped his hands, Joshua was being defeated with his army. Now, a reminder he goes to war and pours himself into it, but the victory comes from the Lord. Lesson learned, going to be important in preparation for when he goes into Canaan, sometime away, quite a bit of time away, 40 years away. He’s being prepared, learning a lesson, the Lord gives that victory. Now you fight with all your strength, with all your wisdom, with all you might, but the victory has to come from the Lord.

Next time we see Joshua, we come over to chapter 24. He’s with Moses on Mount Sinai. Chapter 24 opens up, “Then He said to Moses, ‘Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance.” Then down to verse 9, “Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.” The section here, they saw God, verse 10, “They saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against” them and they saw God. God chose to manifest Himself in a visible way to them. They saw the God of Israel verse 10 says. And yet He didn’t stretch out His hand because He had invited them. They come, then you come down to verse 13, “So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. But to the elders he said, ‘wait here’” Now, Joshua is going to be given a privilege to beyond what others have. These seventy elders and Aaron and so on, went up, but now, they go so far up the mountain and only two proceed further. And it’s Moses and Joshua. Verse 13, “Moses arose with Joshua his servant and Moses went up to the mountain of God.” To the elders he said, wait for us here. And Aaron, you wait back here. So, they’re not going up to the mountain, up the mountain, they wait down. And Joshua goes on now with him. So, now he’s up on the mountain, forty days with Moses on the mountain, with God. Remarkable! What was it like? Forty days in the presence of God and you see that Joshua was being prepared. Aaron is the high priest that stands between God and the people of Israel, but Joshua is going up to spend forty days on the mountain while the Law is given to Moses. And Josuha is there. We’re not taught about what went on, what was Joshua doing? God’s giving the Law to Moses, what’s Joshua? He’s a servant of Moses, so something ready to do what Moses needed. But is he just there to observe? We’re not told. We’re not given any details in there. But he spends forty days there. Verse 18, “And Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” Is Joshua left at a little distance? We just don’t get much detail.

The next time we’re going to see him is dealing with the golden calf. Come over to chapter 32, and Moses is gone up again, and here he’s getting the instructions from God; going up on the mountain is where God is meeting with Moses. And then in chapter 32, after Moses had been up on the mountain, he takes longer coming down then they expected. So down in verse 15, Moses went down from the mountain with two tablets of the testimony, now God has inscribed on the tablets of stone, the ten commandments, and the tablets were there. Joshua is with him again on this occasion. Verse 17, “Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, ‘There is a sound of war in the camp.’” He’s been up on the mountain, but what’s been going on in the camp? You’re aware that Israel got impatient waiting, like we do when God doesn’t operate on our time schedule. We have to be careful that we get frustrated and pretty soon, we’re doing things that we shouldn’t. So, Joshua is with him, he sees the consequences of an action like Aaron was involved in. And the result of that and God’s seriousness in dealing with sin. So, Joshua must be as, you know he’s a young person, a very godly character that God would bring him into this kind of intimacy with Moses. He’s not going to be another Moses. There’s a clarity when you get to the end of Exodus that no one is like Moses. He was unique, but Joshua was his successor. That doesn’t mean he won’t be the man that God will use. He doesn’t have to be another Moses. He just has to be everything God intends him to be.

So he’s there in this situation. He would have learned something about the fierceness of God’s anger when sin is manifested. Over in chapter 33, verse 7 and following, at the tent of meeting. Moses would go into the tent and the Lord would speak to him, face to face. Down in verse 11, this in verses 7 to 11, when Moses returned to the camp in verse 11 his servant Joshua who was the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. At the tent of meeting, that’s where God would manifest His presence and Moses would come up and enter the tent, meet with God, evidently his servant waited outside. When Moses went back out into the people his servant, Joshua, remained there, outside the tent but at the tent. He is told here where he is a young man. He’s getting quite a training as a young man. That’s what we’ve already just seen. When Moses returned to the camp his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man would not depart from the tent. It’s a pretty special thing given to him, preparing him for what God has.

He’s one of those sent out into the land, Numbers chapters 13 and 14. You can come to Numbers 13 and 14. You may want to read this, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. This is the sad account of the spies going into the land and you know who one of the spies is? Of course, you do. That’s probably how we’re most familiar with Joshua because of the spies of the spies sent only two of them are believers and show their faith in God. Down in Numbers chapter 13, send out the men to spy out the land, from each of the tribes and just note something here. Verse 8, from the tribe of Ephraim Hoshea, the son of Nun. That’s Joshua. We know that because down at the end of verse 16 Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua. For some reason, Hoshea means salvation, Joshua means Jehovah is salvation so maybe Moses knew something of God’s selection of Joshua would be special. He’s one of the spies that go into the land and he comes out with a good report. Chapters 14:1-10, Israel grumbles against Moses and verse 6 of chapter 14, Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who spied out the land, they spoke to the congregation and said the land is good. If the Lord is pleased with us He will bring us into this land and give it to us. A land flowing with milk and honey. Don’t rebel against the Lord. Do not fear the people of the land. They will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them. The Lord is with us. Don’t fear them. You see something of Joshua’s character here. He’ll stand against his own people. That doesn’t mean it’s ten to two on the report. Well, I ought to adjust my report if ten of them thought it was that maybe…no, the promises of God overrule everything. I see the good in the land. I see it’s a land like God said. Of course, there’s enemy in the land but I see what God has promised. If God has promised to give us that land and I see all the good and we brought out samples, then I believe God will give us the land. Let’s go! Again, it’s not complicated. It just takes faith and Joshua is that kind of man. Down in verses 36-38 Joshua and Caleb were the only two. You know the judgment of God that comes on that occasion. Everyone over twenty years of age is going to die. This is serious judgment. Joshua is learning something. His faith is honored. Judgment comes.

We’ll leave it there and we’ll pick up because this will prepare us when we come into chapter 1. We are reminded that Joshua doesn’t just show up. There is more to it as he was trained for this more than just the spying out of the land. It is important to see something of his character because its going to take courage to do what he has to do but there was more going on. In all the things, being faithful in what God entrusts to us is what matters. All he was, was a servant to Moses. It seems like a little thing maybe, you wait at the tent, Moses is leaving but I’m leaving you Joshua at the tent. Maybe he needs to be sure there was no one who tried to access it, we don’t know. He is a person to be trusted and he does what he is expected to do, and he trusts the Lord. That developing faith from a young man prepares him for the special work he will have as we go into the book of Joshua.

Let’s have a word of prayer, then I have a couple things to visit with you about. Thank you Lord for Your word, Lord the reminders to us. it is somewhat easy to read the life of a person from history. Even in Your word, and say, yeah it’s disappointing to see people that didn’t trust you. I wonder why they didn’t, there’s no reason not to trust You. We see Joshua and we are encouraged, yes we would want to be like Joshua and I’m sure we would be. But Lord we have to be faithful in the circumstance in which You put us, in the time in which we’ve been placed with the responsibilities given to us. Then Lord we realize it’s not always easy, but it is not complicated. We are given the privilege to trust You in times when that’s all we have to hold on to. If you promised you will do it and our concern is to be faithful with the responsibilities You’ve given us. So I pray that even as we look into the book of Joshua it will be an encouragement to us, a reminder to us, and a challenge that we might be those who manifest that kind of faith as well. Thank you for this day. I pray for the rest of our discussion. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Ok, you can read, you don’t have to read the whole book if you don’t want but read Joshua 1 and 2. Get yourself oriented, maybe the end of Deuteronomy. That will just help the transition, what’s going on.

I got a question that come in by email. I appreciate that. it was asking am I going to change from the New American Standard bible I am using to the new New American Standard bible 2020 version or perhaps to the Legacy version that Master’s Seminary, John MacArthur’s church are going to produce. It’s a version of the New American Standard bible as well. I talked about bible translations not too long ago but let me just say, I don’t see any reason to change. There have been other changes made along the way. The original New American Standard bible used some of the old King James like thee and thou because they didn’t think people were ready for dropping our word “you.” it seemed maybe too familiar but then an adjustment. My concern with bible translations is generally we have so many of them and I think it seems like the more we get the less they are read. I don’t find a problem with what we have. That doesn’t mean there are places for improving. Some of the the improvements concern me. I think we should keep as clear as we can, the difference from translating and explaining or translating and teaching or what does it say and what does it mean. The looser we get in translation and this is argued, well we want to give it clear meaning. That means we want to give more interpretation to our translation. Now I realize going from one language to another involves a certain amount of interpretation and you can’t always get one exact word that means exactly the same as the other word and words have a different semantic range. They always what to lecture us on that. I went back and pulled up a document to reread on that. that means there’s a range of meanings. Our word, we always use the word run. My great-grandson, one of them, the young one today, and his nose was running. Well that’s different than say I was out running today. It has a range of meaning. In different contexts words can have a different significance. That’s true. But I think the closer we can stay and keep our translation to want does the scripture say. Then it’s the responsibility of teachers to explain it if there is something that needs to be explained. They admit that. One book I’m reading, he’s written more than one book on this subject, he says if more interpretation helps people to understand the bible let’s have more interpretation. But you see what we do? The more interpreting of the bible we have, well what if I don’t agree? Quite frankly, quite a few of the examples he gives in here I do not agree with his interpretation. He says it clarifies it. I think he has taken the bible out of the hands of the people because now all I know is what he thinks it means. So I think we need to be careful in translation. In fact he gives the point on this as far as I’m concerned. I can’t remember which of my markers is the one I want. All these little pages become more confusing for me than helps but he says the best thing, he thinks it’s really important if you really want to study the bible, to have a literal translation. But for the common people it’s more helpful to have a more dynamic translation explaining. I don’t know where in the Scripture God says it’s fine to just have a loose understanding of Scripture. Is there any other thing? We are to “be diligent to show ourselves approved to God handling accurately the word of God.” The idea is we have to explain this to people or they won’t.

This is concerning me on the new translations and I could give you examples of all the different areas that he gives. I think translate the bible. The word “man.” Part of what the New American Standard 2020 version is going to do, they are going to add instead of talking about “brothers” they are going to say brothers and sisters. You know you’ll have men and women because women feel excluded. One of his statements in here is I think it is condescending to say that we should explain to people that “man” used in the bible is used generically for men and women. Why is that condescending? In the bible, the bible used “man” to refer to both male and female. Now it didn’t always mean male and female. Sometimes it meant male as male. You have to decide in the context. He thinks it will make it much more understandable and acceptable if we use another word, human, persons. Wait! I think there may be an issue. What about Genesis? God said “let Us make man in Our image and He made them male and female.” At the beginning God established using “man” as male, as an explanation. His explanation of that is well, we don’t know. Did God speak Hebrew? Maybe God was speaking a different language and Moses wrote it down in Hebrew and that had a lot of baggage associated with it. We don’t know for sure what language God used. Now I have read that so many times I almost can quote it to you verbatim. What is he saying? Inspiration refers to the Bible as we have it recorded so the Spirit of God directed Moses to write it and said this is what God said and He used Hebrew words. Now whether God spoke in Hebrew at the creation is irrelevant. The Hebrew of Genesis 1 using “adam,” Adam, the word for man and then male and female, nobody debates. So now we are talking about maybe God used a different language and it didn’t mean the same thing. The original manuscripts, this is the bible here, not this, of this book that are inspired. So we get into this. All of a sudden now we’re trying to jiggle around language. Maybe all through the bible God uses “man.” Well, yeah, but in our society people won’t understand that. Well if we’re going to change the bible so “unbelieving, common people” as he refers to it, understand it, where are we going? I’m about tired of translations. I’m not going to say it’s a worse translation than this. I don’t know where the Legacy translations going. I saw the interview with John MacArthur and Abner Chou who is doing the leading of that. One of the things they are going to do is change, bring the Hebrew name for God over into English. The tetragrammaton, the four letters, Yhwy. We put the vowels in and as I’ve mentioned on this before, we’re not even sure. That’s fine. So you read in their bible Yhwy six thousand times they said, in the Old Testament. Won’t it be much more wonderful we’ll know the name God wants to be called by. But you know in the New Testament Yhwy is never used. Jesus never said My Father’s name is Yhwy. You know what He used? The Greek translation of that name. That’s what we have in our bibles. If He spoke Hebrew He would have used Yhwy but when it comes into our bible, the inspired version, I take it it’s recording it accurately. So I think we make a big deal. I don’t mind if we use Yhwy and then they use Jehovah and then they use Lord and they distinguish the names by all capitals and capital “L” and small “o” from the other word. These things, my concern is people aren’t reading the bible. They aren’t studying it. Every time we change it people think, oh, yeah, now I’ve got to get another bible. Do people memorize scripture like they used to? When I moved from the King James bible my scripture memory deteriorated because I had to learn that all over again. I like just to just get a bible, a good translation.

Most of it is market driven. I got on the internet and looked. What are the ten top selling English bibles? New American Standard is not one of them. That’s what it is. Our bibles aren’t selling more but people buy bibles. They don’t read them. They don’t study them, but they buy them. So we need to an updated version and then they’ll move on to the next version and the next version and the next version. That’s fine. I’ll probably die with this one. As I watched John being interviews they are going to get a new bible but he holds his bible up and said I’ve preached this. This is the word of God. But they’re going to do one and it’ll be identified with them and that’ll help, a plus for them I guess. I want to be careful. We just get into marketing it. So we have everything from the very literal to the very loose translation. Even this person admits, and with this I will close, “from what has been said, involved, it should be clear that the primary goal of a good translation must always be meaning rather than form. Although we speak about the translation debate between these two methodologies, from the perspective of linguists and international bible translators, the debate was over long ago.” So if you don’t agree, good luck. You don’t count. And I know this. He doesn’t really quote people who hold the other view although I know he knows them. it’s sort of like in our day, certain day certain views get closed out because it doesn’t agree. We are the smart ones. Linguists and international bible translators, the debate is over. So you can call it a debate but there’s no debate. But at the end he says we shouldn’t divide over this. We shouldn’t let this…if you want to be stupid, be stupid. We won’t divide over it. But he does go on to say this is not to suggest that formal equivalence versions have no place in bible study since they give the reader a view of formal structure of the Hebrew and Greek. They can be helpful. Literal versions are tools rather than translations. In other words, if you really, really want to know what it says and almost everybody in the translations say you ought to have a literal translation. That will help you to really know what it says. But if you want to know the meaning we’ve blurred translation and teaching and that’s a disaster. Then we take it out of the hands of the people who only know what they want you to know, and we know that’s what’s going on in our world. But I think it’s a serious matter when it goes on with scripture. That doesn’t mean these won’t be good translations but is see no reason, really, to change. But there will come a time when they’ll quit publishing the old because there’s not enough buyers because there’s new and you know we live in a society where new is better and everybody wants the newest and latest. So they want the translation to go out of date because it’s time to market a new translation and we’ll tell you why it’s better so replace your old with the new. I don’t see anything that it will be an improvement. I’m concerned about the gender change. I talked with this person, this author personally about my concerns about that but we had to agree to disagree over it because he didn’t think I was knowledgeable enough in the issues of translation to realize how important it was. I could read you a comment by a man who is very much a scholar and who says “I think it is important to reaffirm that both the form and the content of scripture are the very word of God, but it is true we must resist the error of simply identifying the word of God with an aggregate of letters and sounds. It is nevertheless nonsense to think you can separate them. The Word comes in words, and he is a Hebrew scholar as well as a Greek authority who is now passed away a few years ago. But he disagrees. The form is essential. We are told here that if that’s what you hold you’re left in the dust. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, what degrees you have, what writings you’ve done, you just are not part of the in group. That’s what’s happening. To be accepted as a scholar you can’t approach the bible literally. That’s sad.

Alright, let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for Your word. Lord we are blessed with an abundance of copies of Your word but Lord we are responsible to know the Word, to study it, to handle it accurately so You approve us as those handling Your word. May we be disciplined in our study. Lord may we be faithful and remain true. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.