Question

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1. Read verses 1-5. How is Moses called? And Joshua? Think about the situation of Joshua and that of the Israelites. What was God’s mission and direction for Joshua and all his people? What promise did God give him? 2. Read verses 6-9. What was God’s repeated command to Joshua? What must he do to be prosperous and successful? 3. Read verses 10-15. What did he say to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh? How were they to help their brothers? 4. Read verses 16-18. How did the people respond to Joshua’s order? How did they encourage Joshua?

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• 1COR14-2018N.docx

Message

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Thank God for blessing our John’s gospel study abundantly. Thank and praise God for giving us his one and only Son in love. His name is Jesus. Our job is to believe in him and love him and serve him. This is the life that is true and eternal. Now we begin the study of the book of Joshua. The name Joshua in Greek is Jesus. What a connection! The study of the book of Jesus and then the book of Joshua. Yet, it must be clear that Jesus is the Son of God and Joshua, son of Nun, a human. Jesus is altogether beautiful, beautiful from every side. Joshua is known as a solider, General. Through the study of Joshua, we particularly want to learn Joshua’s fighting and conquering spirit. As he conquered and took possession of God’s promised land, Canaan, so we want to conquer our mission field. We also want to live a life of faith and victory in this world while marching toward the kingdom of God. May God grant us the words of Joshua as his living words. In today’s passage, God establishes General Joshua as Moses’ successor. God commissions him with the task of crossing the Jordan river into the land of Canaan and assures him with victory and success by giving instructions. May we renew our mission, God’s given task and learn how to be victorious and successful. First, “Get ready to cross the Jordan into the land” (1-4). Look at verse 1. “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide.” The book of Joshua starts with the words, “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD.” Moses seemed to be too great a servant of God for the Israelites to even think of his death. They couldn’t imagine their lives without him. They probably hoped for Moses to come back to life as they mourned for him thirty days. The great life of Moses was lingering in their eyes, though he was dead: fatalistic babyhood, mysterious rescue by Pharaoh’s daughter, forty years of palace education, the forty years of wilderness training, and then forty years of leading God’s people that was characterized by deliverance of the Israelites from the 430 years of bondage of Pharaoh king of Egypt, their glorious Exodus, crossing the Rea Sea, receiving God’s law at Mount Sinai, and the forty years of desert life with God’s provision of manna and his presence through the pillar of cloud and fire. Now fact was fact that Moses was dead. However, the history of God continues, because God is the initiator and driver of the wheel of history, and finisher. Now God is raising another servant, Joshua, who had been Moses’ aide. No one thought of such a thing, but God was doing it. God’s word came to Joshua. Look at verse 2. “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land...” Here “get ready” originally means, “arise” (NASB’s translation). This was God’s calling word to Joshua, “Arise and get ready.” This calling of God seemed too sudden and overwhelming to Joshua with no consideration of his human situation. But God’s timing and his way of working are always perfect and he is preparing the man Joshua as Moses’ successor for the ongoing work of God. In God’s help Joshua had to rise from his sorrow and despair and move on. God said, “…Get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.” Here God told Joshua what his mission was, that is, to cross the Jordan into the land of God’s promise. Moses’ mission was to deliver the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt and lead them to the entrance to the promised land. Now Joshua’s mission and his role in God’s history are very clear and distinctive: leading God’s people into the land of Canaan. This land has a long history, going back to Abraham. When Abraham was called by God and came to Canaan, God said to him, “To your offspring I will give this land” (Ge. 12:7). Abraham buried his wife in the small site of the land (Ge 23:19). God’s promise of the land was inherited to Isaac (Ge 26:3) and then to Jacob (Ge 28:13). Then 70 members of Jacob’s family went down to Egypt (Ge 46:27), because God had sent Joseph there ahead of them, who became a ruler in Egypt. At the time of going to Egypt, God said to Jacob, “…I will surely bring you back again” (Ge 46:27). Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all their wives were buried in the land of Canaan. When Joseph was about to die in Egypt, he said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” After 430 years in Egypt, the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous. Then God liberated them from the bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt with his might power. The people received God’s training in the desert for forty years because of their unbelief, and God has been leading them into the land of Canaan. Now they were standing at the new milestone in God’s history. Joshua and all his people should ready to cross the Jordan River into the land God was about to give them. God’s people must have a clear sense of history and, and know where they are standing. In today’s passage the word land is written repeatedly, with the words, “I am about to give” (2), “I swore to their forefathers to give them” (6), “the LORD your God is giving you for your own” (11), “Moses gave you east of Jordan,” (14) or “the LORD your God is giving them” (15). And God said in verses 3,4, “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west” (Dt 11:24). This land was the land God had promised to give and the land on which the nation Israel God had promised would be established. Land is essential for nation’s formation and history-making. As for Christians, the land is our mission field. God’s people must have a clear sense of mission and mission field. We must know the place where God put me for his work and have a constant sense of mission to conquer the land with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Second, “Be strong and courageous” (5-9). Look at verse 5. “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” God knew that the task of crossing the Jordan into the land was not an easy one. God did not just load the heavy cross on Joshua’s shoulder. God gave Joshua a personal promise that all the days of his life he would be unbeatable with no enemy to stand against him, because God would be with him. What a promise! God said, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.” When God was with Moses, even Pharaoh, the king of Egypt was not able to stand against Moses. God assured being with Joshua, by saying, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” The invisible, almighty God would truly be with Joshua. We must remember that we have an amazing promise of the risen Christ being with us: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” It is God’s quadruple assurance of being with us. To Joshua God’s being with him seemed to be enough for his success in the battle. But it was not enough to God. God commanded him, “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.” God promised that he would be with Joshua. But Joshua himself needed a clear direction to be strong and courageous in order to lead God’s people. This is God’s word of command: “Be strong and courageous.” God’s command helps us to set a right direction in life. God does not want his people to be weak and cowardly, but strong and courageous. From time to time we wonder why God puts us in hard situations and why our enemies are so strong. It is because God wants his children to be strong and courageous. Again, God said to Joshua, “Be strong and very courageous.” This is God’s unwavering direction. Then how can one be strong and courageous? Look at verse 7b. “Be careful to do all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.” These words teach us that obedience to God and God’s law makes one courageous and strong, and successful. Human courage has limitation and runs out in the matter of time. True courage comes from obedience to God. In obedience to God’s law one should not turn from it to the right or to the left. Moses could be courageous to stand against king Pharaoh again and again when he obeyed God’s command, “Go to Pharaoh…confront Pharaoh and say to him…” Jesus’ disciples were poor country people. But when they obeyed God, they could stand courageously before Sanhedrin. The disciples said to them, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God” (Acts 4:19). We remember our Lord Jesus’ obedience to God. When he was obedient to God, he was undaunted to the point of being crucified for God’s children. God continued to say in verse 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.” Obedience to God’s law is more than one’s own decision. It requires more than one’s will power. It needs spiritual power that comes from meditating on the word of God. When one meditates on God’s word again and again, he can draw strength from it to obey the word. Meditating on God’s word is the source of all strength and wisdom. God did not teach Joshua brilliant military strategies for the success in the coming battles. God told him to meditate on the Book of God’s law day and night so that he might be careful to do everything written it. Then he would be prosperous and successful. Meditation on God’s law seemed to be more irrelevant to the fighting general. But to God it is most relevant not only to the general Joshua but to all people of all strata. Meditating on God’s word is a most important, inner personal spiritual battle; it is a spiritual secret to gain strength and courage to obey God’s word in detail and be prosperous and successful. Meditating on God’s word in the Bible is the key to all success and prosperity. 2 Timothy 3:15,16 says, “and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” John Hulley studied about intelligent design. Especially he studied about Nobel Prize recipients and wrote a book, “Comets, Jews and Christians.” In the book he analyzed the Nobel Prize recipients and found out that among them 64% were from protestant background, 22%, Jewish background, 12%, Catholic, 1.9%, Greek orthodox, and 0.9%, Buddhism. The characteristics of the protestant and Jews are their belief in the absolute authority of the Bible. The Jews were all from protestant countries, not from Moslem or communist countries. If the number of protestant, the Jews and Catholics who believe the absolute authority of the Bible are combined, then 98% of the Nobel Prize recipients are from them. It shows how the Bible influences the development of the brain. It is really good to form the godly habit of reading and meditating on the word of God. If anyone forms the divine habit of meditating on the word of God, he or she can be strong and courageous and prosperous and successful. Look at verse 9. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your god will be with you wherever you go.” Again, “Be strong and courageous,” is God’s command. It should never be comprised at any circumstances. Wherever Joshua went, he would meet different people and different enemies. But the same LORD God would be with him through his words written in the Book of the Law. Joshua would have enough reason and source to be strong and courageous. We are here because God has commanded us to pioneer University of Toronto. Does this command of God still stand? “Have I not commanded you?” The bottom line of our life is our personal obedience to God’s word and direction. May God help us to obey God’s command of U of T campus pioneering all the more and be strong and courageous pioneers and Bible teaches for them. Let’s remember the meditating on God’s word diligently is the source of power for our spiritual life and mission. May we give our whole hearts, especially to our weekly Bible study, the study of the book of Joshua this time that we can be victorious and conquering soldiers of Christ for our mission land. Third, “You are to help your brothers” (10-18). Accepting God’s command and direction, Joshua ordered to the officers of the people, “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.” Joshua planted the sense of assured victory and the spirit of readiness in the hearts of the officers of the people. But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribes of Manasseh, Joshua said, “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.’ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan to ward the sunrise.” Joshua reminded the three and half tribes who received their inheritance east of Jordan of Moses’ command. Joshua obeyed God and did what was right. He helped the three and half tribes in the right way. It is easy to say, “You may take rest.” But it is not easy to say, “All your fighting men must fight for your brothers.” Then they obeyed Joshua and were willing to do anything. This chapter is really a beautiful chapter of obedience: Joshua obeyed God and the people obeyed Joshua. They encouraged their leader, saying, “Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses…Only be strong and courageous.” Now the whole people of God were ready to cross the Jordan and conquer the promise land of Canaan, having Joshua as their leader. In today’s passage we learned how God established Joshua as the successor of Moses. God made his mission clear and granted him an ambiguous direction to be strong and courageous through the obedience to the law of God. Let’s remember that meditating on the word of God and obedience to it is the source of power for the strength and courage and prosperity and success in life. With this power we can conquer our mission field of U of T and Canada.

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