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A Commission to Lead . . . or Follow? - Joshua 1:1-9

Sermon Series: Great Leader, Exceptional Follower

One of the things that can be confusing for kids as they are growing up is what the Bible is.  When I was serving as a children’s pastor I got to interact a lot with kids and the Bible.  One of the misconceptions that children have about the Bible that can change the way they read the Bible for the rest of their lives is that the Bible is primarily a book about them.  They believe the Bible is a book about the things they are to do and not do in order to be pleasing and acceptable to God.  Another misconception that children have about the Bible that can change the way they read the Bible for the rest of their lives is that the Bible is a book about heroes.  There are a lot of individuals in the Bible that have heroic type moments (although most of those same individuals have moments of great sin and failure too) – especially in the OT.  We teach our children about those heroic moments in isolated contexts and our children never learn to connect the dots and see how those stories fit together.  So instead they pick their favorite hero and try to develop in themselves the characteristics that made that individual great.  What we fail to teach our kids well and what I’m working to try to help my kids understand is that while there are many stories in the Bible they are ultimately pieced together to tell one BIG story.  There is one main story told throughout the Bible – it is a story about God and His love for His children and what God did to rescue them.  All of the stories in the Bible play a part in helping develop this greater story, so we have to work hard at understanding how they fit into that story and teach those smaller stories as part of the larger context rather than isolated stories that have no connection to one another whatsoever.  Understanding the one grand story of the Bible helps us to know who God is and what He has done for us.  It is the story that transforms and changes our lives for His glory.  And it keeps us from following worldviews that have an appearance of truth but no real truth.  The specific question then which we want to address this week is, “How does the great OT text of Joshua’s commission fit into the larger story of the Bible?”  And as we examine the text of Joshua 1:1-9 I’m going to suggest that we will see two PARTS of God’s commission to Joshua that will serve as clues to help us answer that question.

The book of Joshua begins, “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 Moses. . . 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.’”

The book of Joshua couldn’t begin with much more anticipation.  Throughout the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), God can be seen making the promise to the Israelites that they will one day possess the promise land.  The first few verses of Joshua declare that that wait is finally over.  God tells Joshua that it is time for him to take the Israelites over the Jordan and that it is time for the Israelites to take possession of their inheritance.  That would have been exciting news for both Joshua and the Israelites, and should build great anticipation for the reader.  So let’s consider in these first 5 verses of Joshua God’s plan and point out some important details contained within these verses.  God’s plan, which He reveals in the first 5 verses, is to give the Israelites their inheritance.  In verses 2-3 we can see that spelled out clearly.  God tells Joshua to take the Israelites across the Jordan into the promise land and that every place upon which their foot treads will be their inheritance.  God even roughly lays out the boundaries of the land which will become their inheritance in verse 4.  The southern border would be the wilderness, the northern border would be Lebanon, the eastern border would be the Euphrates River, and the western border would be the Mediterranean Sea.  So from the very beginning of the book of Joshua God’s plan to give His people their inheritance – the promise land – is clearly articulated to the readers. 

Before we move on to the next sequence of verses we need to point out a couple of smaller details that communicate significant truths that we see in verses 1 through 5.  In verse 2 God says, “. . . go over this Jordan . . .into the land that I am giving to them.”  Notice the verb tense here – it is the imperfect tense, which is usually future oriented.  As God is directing Joshua concerning the Israelite’s inheritance, the land is something that is not yet theirs – God says, “I am giving to them.”  The verb tense communicates that their acquisition of the land is something that is still going to take place.  Now notice how the verb tense changes in verse 3.  In verse 3 God says, “Every place that . . . your foot will tread upon I have given to you.”  The verb tense here is the perfect tense and communicates that the giving has already transpired.  It communicates that the land has already been given over.  The change in verb tenses doesn’t indicate a mistake by the author or by the scribes who copied the original letter.  The change in the verb tenses is intentional.  As one scholar put it, it’s as if the Israelites had been given legal possession of the land, they just had not taken physical possession of the land yet.  The promise land, God’s inheritance for His people, had been given over to the Israelites by God.  He had removed the protection from those who were currently dwelling in the promise land and there was no longer anything or any reason that the Israelites could not take possession of it.  The land belonged to God and He had deeded it to His people.  So in one sense, it had (past tense) been given to them.  But because the Israelites had not yet come into physical possession of the land, there was still a sense it which God was still physically giving them possession of the land.  These seem like small details, but they are significant truths which have an important impact which we will discuss more a little later on.

In verse 5 God provides Joshua with great re-assurance.  God says to Joshua, “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.”  This would have been an incredible re-assurance to Joshua.  Listen again to some of those bold promises of God: “No man shall be able to stand before you . . .” “Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you,” and “I will not leave you or forsake you.”  Any one of those three promises would have been an amazing promise of great encouragement, but all three of those promises put together would have been a huge source of encouragement for Joshua.  So in these first 5 verses of the book of Joshua the reader sees that God had a plan – to give the Israelites their inheritance – and God had made the promise that He was going to be with Joshua – making certain that these people would actually take possession of the inheritance God had promised.

Verses 6 through 9 form their own small little section in these first few verses.  We can have some certainty of this because of the use of literary bookends.  Verse 6 begins with the phrase “be strong and courageous” and verse 9 includes the same phrase, “be strong and courageous.”  Occasionally writers would employ this technique to help draw attention to particular points and/or distinguish them from other points.  In verses 6 through 9 it seems clear that Joshua is drawing attention to God’s call on his life.

Verse 6 begins, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”  God calls Joshua first to be strong and courageous.  The word ‘courageous’ is used three times in verses 6 through 9 and can mean either ‘courage’ or ‘resoluteness.’  Many scholars believe that ‘courageous’ was Joshua’s intent in verses 6 and 9 because the instructions in these verses are coupled with statements about conflict.  They believe that ‘resolute’ is the better meaning in verse 7 because God’s command in the immediate context is for Joshua to keep the law, which required resoluteness more than it did courage.  With the phrase ‘strength and courage’ repeated three times so closely together we can know for certain that this is going to be important for Joshua.  Fortunately the text of verses 6 through 9 give us an explanation on why strength and courage is going to be so important.

Notice in verse 6 who is going to be responsible for causing the Israelites to inherit the promise land.  God says to Joshua in verse 6, “you shall cause this people to inherit the land.”  Now we know that God is ultimately the One who is responsible for causing the Israelites to inherit the promise land, but He also says in verse 6 that Joshua is going to play an integral part in making sure that God’s people acquire their promised inheritance.  Don’t rush right past this and don’t pass this off as an error or a mistake.  God tells Joshua that he must be strong and courageous because he is going to cause the people to inherit the land.  God continues to expound on His call for Joshua in verses 7 and 8.  “Only be strong and very courageous (resolute), 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.”  God tells Joshua in verses 7 and 8 that he is going to need strength and courage (resoluteness) for the purpose of following.  God tells Joshua to make sure “to do according to all the law that Moses . . . commanded you.”  He tells Joshua to follow in such a way that he does not turn from Moses’ law, but that he follows just as Moses instructed.  God also tells Joshua not to let the Book of the Law depart from his mouth, but to think on it, to speak it, and “to do according to all that is written in it.”  As we examine these 9 verses this week make sure that you note that nowhere is God calling Joshua to lead.  Isn’t that amazing!  Joshua is getting ready to embark on several huge military battles.  But nowhere does God talk military strategy and exhort Joshua to lead well as a military commander.  Instead we are seeing God call Joshua to follow.  If Joshua will follow well, if he will do all that God leads him to do and all that Moses commanded him to do, then Joshua will have success and will prosper.  What will he have success in?  Finances?  Authority?  No, he will have success in his cause of leading the Israelites to inherit the promise land.  In other words, the Israelites taking possession of their inheritance is dependant upon Joshua’s obedience (i.e. his exceptional following).  The keys to Joshua’s success were not military but spiritual.

Surely the weight of such a call would be incredibly overwhelming.  To know that an entire nation is relying on you and your obedience in order to inherit their promised land would surely be a huge responsibility.  So God exhorts and encourages Joshua once more in verse 9, “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.”  God exhorts Joshua once again, as if He’s saying, “I know this feels like a huge responsibility – but be strong and courageous.”  Then He encourages Joshua by reminding him that while the responsibility may be great and heavy, there is no need to fear because God is going to be with Him through it all.

Now let’s talk about what we are to do with a passage like this.  When most of us read a passage like this we walk away thinking that we have to perform well.  Joshua 1:9 has to be one of the most well known verses in the OT.  When we read, “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” we want to take those verses and apply it to our own lives.  God wants me to be strong and courageous!  God doesn’t want me to be frightened or dismayed!  I can take on everything that comes my way because God is with me wherever I go!  And most of those statements are true.  But taking such a very self-centered approach to this text can also be very dangerous.  Too often we take verses like Joshua 1:9 and we turn them into our justification for works based salvation.  We believe in our hearts that in order for us to have the certainty of eternal life that we must be strong and courageous so that we can do the work necessary for obtaining eternal life.  We see God’s call for Joshua to keep all of His law and not to turn from it to the right or to the left and the promise which follows, that if Joshua does this that he will have success and will prosper wherever he goes, and we believe the same will ultimately be true for us.  So the temptation becomes to labor as diligently as we can to make a list of do’s and don’ts and then to strive with all of our might to make sure we perform as close to perfect as we can.  We believe that living this way is what ultimately pleases God and in living this way we can be assured that He won’t depart from us and will be with us wherever we go.  We believe that living this way will ultimately make us deserving of eternal life with God.  Unfortunately that is too often how the OT is taught.  And unfortunately there are countless numbers of people who have misunderstood passages like these and who find themselves working hard to earn a salvation they cannot earn.  So how then are we to understand this passage and what do we do with it?

Let’s begin by asking some questions that I think might help lead you to the right perspective.  (1) In Joshua the inheritance for God’s people is the promise land.  Is God’s inheritance for His people today still the promise land?  No, it isn’t.  We aren’t waiting for a time when God calls us to the Middle East to take possession of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.  So what is God’s inheritance for His people today and for the generations to come?  Many of you will probably answer ‘Heaven.’  That’s close.  But while many of God’s people are anxiously awaiting our new home in Heaven, Heaven won’t be the greatest thing that we can take possession of.  So let’s ask once again, what is God’s inheritance for His people today and for the generations to come – something of far more worth and value than even Heaven itself?  The answer is God!  God, Himself, is going to be our inheritance!  1 Peter 1:3-4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in Heaven for you. . .”  There is an inheritance for God’s people, being kept for us in Heaven, that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading – it is God, Himself.  God’s plan for His people today is still to give His people their inheritance – Himself!

(2) God says to Joshua in Joshua 1:6, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land . . .”  From the beginning of the book of Joshua it is clear that Joshua is going to be the one responsible for God’s people taking possession of their inheritance (it isn’t the people who have individual responsibility for themselves to assure that they take possession of the inheritance).  There is one individual upon whom all of the Israelite congregation is depending – Joshua.  The NT teaches the exact same thing.  Those individuals whom God has chosen for salvation are not dependent on their own works to inherit eternal life with God.  The NT teaches that everyone is dependent upon One individual to take possession of our inheritance.  Do you know who that individual is?  Jesus!  Listen to some of what Paul says in his letter to the church at Ephesus, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked . . . remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. . . For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:1-2, 12-13, 18).  I wish we had time to sit down and walk through all of Ephesians 1 and 2, but we don’t have the time to do that.  In those chapters we learn how incredibly blessed we are in Jesus, because as sinners we are completely and entirely separated from God and have no hope of drawing close to Him.  Our inheritance was completely lost.  But the incredible news of Ephesians 1 and 2 is that God sent Jesus and through Jesus we can once again have the hope of having God as our inheritance – not because of works done in our own power (Ephesians 2:8-9) like doing good things.  The hope of our inheritance is a gift to us accomplished through another individual – Jesus!

(3) God tells Joshua in Joshua 1:6-9 that he is the one who must be strong and courageous, he is the one who must not turn from God’s law, and that if he follows God’s plans well that his way will be successful and prosperous.  Did God require anything of Jesus in order for His way to be successful and prosperous?  Absolutely.  God called Jesus to the very same thing which He called Joshua to.  Jesus was to be strong and courageous and Jesus was not to turn from the Law which God had given to Moses to either the right or the left.  God didn’t send Jesus to be a great leader, He sent Him to be a perfect follower.  The mission that God sent Jesus to accomplish was an incredibly difficult and demanding one.  God sent Jesus on a mission “to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).  And in order to do that Jesus would have to be incredibly strong and very courageous.  The author of the NT book of Hebrews wrote, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins(Hebrews 9:22).  If Jesus was going to save the lost it meant that He was going to have to die for them on their behalf.  Jesus was going to have to take the sins of humanity upon Himself and shed His blood for them so that they could be paid for and that those who trust in the death of Jesus on their behalf can be purified and washed clean by His blood.  This would take great strength and courage.  In addition, Jesus would have to die without having committed any sin.  In the OT pure and spotless lambs were to be sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins.  In the same way, Jesus would have to die as a ‘pure’ and ‘spotless’ lamb.  His life could not be an exchange for and take the place of guilty sinners if He was guilty of sin Himself.  And so it is written in the NT book of 2 Corinthians, “For our sake He [God] made Him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  If He was going to take our sin and offer to us His righteousness, then He had to be perfect and without sin Himself – Jesus could not turn from following after God or turn away from His commands.

So how does the text of Joshua 1:1-9 fit into the context of the greater story of the Bible?  Joshua’s life and what God was communicating to him was a foreshadowing of what God would do through His Son, Jesus.  God had an inheritance for His people and their taking possession of that inheritance was dependent upon one individual, Joshua.  Joshua would have to be strong and courageous to carry out the mission that God would lead him on and his success was dependent upon how well he kept God’s law and followed God’s directions.  In the same way God has an even greater inheritance for His people today.  Today God’s people are awaiting eternal life in which they get to come into God’s presence and take possession of Him.  But taking possession of that inheritance is completely dependent upon One individual, Jesus.  Jesus came to earth and showed great strength and courage.  Hours before He would die on the cross we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating drops of blood because of the difficulty of the mission which was directly in front of Him.  But Jesus remained strong and courageous and went bravely to the cross on our behalf.  There He shed his perfect and innocent blood for us.  He took the sin of humanity upon Himself and died in our place so that our sins would be paid for, our guilt could be washed away, and so that we could take possession of His righteousness – which is the only way we can come into the presence of God.  So the reality for us is the same as it was for the Israelites in Joshua 1:2-3.  The inheritance of those of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord has been given to us.  Because of Jesus’ work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead it is certain and cannot be taken away.  But we are also still waiting to take possession of it.  We are waiting for that time when either our life on earth is finished or our Jesus returns.  When that time comes, then we will take full possession of our inheritance – God, Himself – and do so for all eternity.

God most certainly wants each of us to be strong and courageous in our faith.  And God most certainly wants us to follow Him exceptionally – without turning to either the right or the left.  But the greatest application of this text isn’t in what God is calling us to do for Him.  The greatest application of this text is for us to see our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We need to see in Joshua a foreshadowing of Jesus.  We need to recognize that our inheritance is completely dependent upon His perfect and righteous life which was given for us on the cross, to accomplish God’s mission of seeking and saving the lost.  We need to see the reality of the gospel in Joshua 1:1-9 and we need to let it lead us to faith in Jesus.

Small Group Questions for Discussion

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