God Prepares a Leader by Sam Reeve, 22 July 2007, Joshua 1
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Intro:
This week there has been a lot of talk about the railways in Sydney.
People are getting sick of the breakdowns, delays, etc. The premier,
Morris Iemma, has weighed in and made bold promises - that he's going
to sort out the problems with the maintenance, that if those
responsible don't perform, they will have to go, etc, etc. He's a
brave man. He obviously doesn't have a huge amount of confidence in
the people responsible for getting it right. Let's say he does get rid
of the Cityrail boss who is responsible, and then the next thing is
that your phone rings and it's Morris Iemma on the line, saying that
you have been chosen to head Cityrail, and to deliver on the promises
that he has made, that the trains will run on time, and they won't
break down. How would you feel? It would be a big call.
That's roughly the position that Joshua is in when he becomes the
leader of God's people about 3,500 years ago. God has made great
promises to them - that He will make a great nation out of them, that
He will give them a land of their own, that they will be blessed, and
that God will bless all nations through them. They are on the edge of
the Promised Land. God is fulfilling his promises given hundreds of
years back to Abraham - his family has turned into a nation of
countless people. He has been faithful to them - but they have had
trouble matching his faithfulness - their obedience has been patchy.
They have failed once to enter into the land God had for them, so have
spent 40 years wandering in a desert wasteland, as that unfaithful
generation dies off. Now they are poised to try again. It's a tense
time. Moses, their great leader has died.
1. God's servant dies v1, 2a
God does not beat around the bush. It's just starkly stated here -
Moses is dead. The fuller account is at the end of the previous book -
Deuteronomy. Note how Moses is described here. He's been a great
leader - brought the nation through very difficult times. He's stood
up to the mighty Pharaoh with incredible courage. Led the people out
of Egypt in a daring do-or-die rescue. He's single-handedly stood up
to the rebellion of the whole nation in a string of incidents. He's
boldly delivered the verdict and the punishment of God on their
rebellion, as people have suffered death for defying their Creator and
rescuer. He's uniquely had the most remarkable spiritual experiences -
been up on the mountain and spoken with God - had an amazingly close
relationship with God. Delivered the 10 commandments, as well as the
rest of the law that God gave to govern the nation's affairs. What
would you write on the gravestone of such a remarkable person?
Greatest leader of Israel 40 years? Emancipator of slaves? Miracle
worker? Great Judge? All of the above?
What God wrote here was simply: the servant of the Lord, my servant.
The defining thing about Moses what was not who he was, but who he
served. It's the same with any Christian leader, or any Christian
person, for that matter. What defines us is not who we are, but who's
we are.
· Dispensable but unique
No matter how significant our work for God, we are dispensable. There
is only one person who is indispensable in God's economy, and that's
Him. Someone has said "God buries his workers, but his work goes on".
As Jesus put it, "without me you can do nothing". If we begin thinking
of ourselves as indispensable, we need to pull ourselves up and ask
ourselves if we're not thinking of ourselves in more god-like terms
than human.
That is not to say that our contribution to God's work is not unique.
At the very end of Deuteronomy we are told that Moses was unique -
there wasn't anyone like him since. We each have our own unique
contribution to make to the church, and to God's work. But that
doesn't mean that whoever God puts in our place won't or can't or
shouldn't do it differently. Many a church has come to grief thinking
that there is only one way of doing things and serving God, and tried
to lock it in forever. The only constants are God himself, His word
and the gospel.
1. God's plan v2b-5
Simply put, God's plan for Joshua as the incoming leader is to bring
about the fulfilment of God's promises - to take the Promised Land.
God has already given it, and promises that no one will be able to
stand up against him, all the days of his life. God tells him that
wherever he treads, that will be his land. It's not boundless - God
gives him the boundaries of the land - NSEW borders. So Joshua is told
where to tread. This is the big picture plan - more is revealed and
unfolded as they go along.
The wonderful thing about this plan is that God promises that he will
be with Joshua - he will never leave him nor forsake him. Ever. What
a wonderful promise. It is the same promise that believers have from
their Lord and Saviour, as we go to do his will.
2. God's work - what people need to do it v6-9
· God's strength v6,7a
Over and over Joshua is told to be strong. He is going to need great
strength and courage for this task. The people that they are going to
battle against are more numerous, bigger and stronger than them. They
are in cities that are fortified. The Israelites are a motley bunch
who have been wandering around the desert for 40 years. They have been
travelling light - they don't have heavy military hardware or armour.
Humanly speaking their chances of pulling this off are pretty close to
zero. This is not a task for the weak or those with no courage. The
person who takes on leading these people to do this task is going to
need extraordinary strength and courage. God tells him to be strong
and very courageous.
· God's word v7b-8
Moses is told to stick to God's word - not to deflect one degree off
the path of obeying God's word - neither to the right or the left.
That is the path to success. Negatively he is told not to depart from
it (7b); positively he is told to fulfil every bit of it (v8). This is
the centre of what he needs to do - obey the word of God.
What is the book that is referred to in v8? It's referred to as the
Book of the Law. What is in it? The 10 commandments that were given to
the people at Mt Sinai? The law-code for the nation that was given to
Moses on that mountain? The modern theory that is bashed around is
that these societies were mostly oral-history cultures - stories were
told over and over again around the campfires and were passed on from
generation to generation in that way and eventually someone wrote it
all down, and in the Jews' case, hey presto, a few hundred, or perhaps
a thousand years down the track, an Old Testament pops out, which may
or may not be full of interpretations and mistakes made by those who
passed it on (like Chinese whispers), and whoever wrote it all down.
The first thing we need to do is look at the record itself. There was
something written when Moses died around 1400 BC. It's referred to
here. It didn't pop out in the 2nd C BC, as some believe. If we look
closely at the Pentateuch (1st 5 books of the bible) we see that at
various points Moses was commanded to write things down. In Ex 17:14
he is commanded to record the battle in which the Amalekites are
defeated. In Numbers 33:2, it's recorded "At the Lord's command, Moses
recorded the stages in their journey". In Deut 31, just before Moses'
death, he is there recording and writing the law. V14. "After Moses
finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to
end,". God then reveals to him a song that he is to teach the people,
and he is commanded to write that down as well.
This book of the law, that Joshua is referred to by God, is what Moses
wrote down, the first 5 books of the bible. Jesus believed that it was
written by Moses (Matt 19, where he refers to it as what Moses taught
as he talks about marriage). Obviously the bit at the end of Deut,
where Moses' death is recorded, must have been added by someone
(Joshua?) after the event. This is important to our understanding of
revelation - God revealed things to people, they wrote them down and
it was passed on to those who knew them when they were alive. Same
thing happened with the NT - Peter speaks of Paul's writings as
Scripture in the first century (2 Peter 3:15,16).
So Joshua has God's word - the revelation of God. What is he to do
with it? Meditate on it, day and night. Speak it - to be in his mouth.
Act on it. A leader of God's people has no authority to speak on their
own account. It is God's word that is to be the basis of teaching,
counselling, leading, everything. For this to happen, we must meditate
on God's word - think God's thoughts. Act on it. Why has the church in
general become so insipid in our age? Many have lost confidence in
God's word. Must be central in all we do, decide, etc. That's why it's
so important for us to dig into God's word as we work on our church
membership requirements issue, and any other issue we are grappling
with either individually or as a church.
· God's presence v9
To do God's work, God's people must know that God is with them. There
are 2 things that are the enemy of leaders of God's people. Fear and
discouragement. Fear of people responding negatively to the
leadership, or worse to God's word. Fear of persecution if we really
stand up for Christ. Discouragement - the attack that comes to all
leaders when things don't seem to be working out, when the results are
few, when people criticise and blame. Discouragement can happen just
through a lack of encouragement - it's important that we encourage one
another. But the real reason that God gives for not being fearful and
terrified and discouraged is that He is with Joshua. The presence of
God dispels the fear. We, as the disciples of Jesus, have his promise
that he is with us to the very end of the age.
These 3 things that we need to be God's people and do God's work, are
all connected. Courage and strength comes from knowing what is right
(what God wants) and doing it. Knowing and being sure of God's word
and doing it. There is nothing that will put mettle into the Christian
more than the certainty of Scripture: "thus says the Lord" and setting
about living according to it and knowing that God is with you as you
do it.
4. God's work - getting on with it v10-18
How does Joshua respond to this commissioning? He gets into it.
Springs into action.
· Teamwork v10-16
Gets his officers to work, gives them a timeframe (3 days) and tells
them to prepare. The tribes who have settled in the land on the other
side of the Jordan (because they had lots of livestock and the land
there was good for grazing) are called on to deliver on the promise
they made to Moses when they made a deal that they would help with the
conquest for the other tribes. They agree that the whole nation will
work together to bring about the fulfilment of God's promises.
· Following God's lead v17,18
They agree that they will follow Joshua as he follows God's lead. It
must have been a bit unnerving for Joshua to hear them say that they
would obey him just as they had obeyed Moses. He had witnessed their
rebellion over and over again. But Joshua is ready for a new start, as
they seem to be. He accepts their commitment as spoken.
5. The work before the rest
What are we to make of this as God's people this side of the cross of
Christ? Is this just great, exciting history that we can draw a few
moral lessons from - how to be a good leader, be courageous, etc, etc?
· Persevere Heb 4:1; 3:12,13
In Heb 4 the writer argues that the rest that Joshua finally won for
the people in the promised land wasn't achieved by all. The promise
was made, but there were some who didn't enter. The promise still
stands. He warns the Christians in the 1st Century that they don't
miss out on God's rest by having a sinful unbelieving heart as those
who missed out did. 3:12,13. If you haven't trusted in Christ do it
today. Joshua's name means "salvation". It's very similar to Jesus -
the one saves people from their sins, as the angel announced to
Joseph. As the people had to trust in the leadership of Joshua as they
entered the Promised Land, if we are to enter God's rest, enter into
his kingdom, we must trust in Jesus and his sacrificial death for us.
And we must continue to trust in Him - persevere. Not get sidetracked
into trusting ourselves, or someone of something else. Persevere in
trusting him. "We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly til
the end the confidence we had at first" (v14).
· Proclaim Matt 28:18-20
As God promised to be with Joshua, so Jesus has promised to be with us
"to the very end of the age". But that promise is given in the context
of a command - a command that begins with a statement of Jesus' rule
and authority, and goes on to encourage us, in the strength of this
risen conquering King and Saviour, to make disciples of every nation,
going to them, teaching them and baptising them in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Let's be strong and courageous as we take God at his word and go out
in the strength and power of his Spirit, let's not be terrified or
discouraged, but boldly proclaim his kingdom, and the rest that he
promises to all to trust themselves to Him.