Yesterday we looked at the idea of circumcision as an initiatory sacrament for Israel. There is an initiatory sacrament for the Christian church as well; however our initial sacrament is not circumcision, but baptism. And in baptism, especially in the baptism of children, we have a remnant of what t
Now it's worth thinking about these two acts of consecration. Circumcision was the sacrament that had been given to Abraham so many years before. It was the mark of being a member of the covenant people, and it was accompanied by the promises of God. In this particular covenant, it was a case of God
I suppose we ought to spend just a little bit of time thinking how terrifying this crossing of the Jordan must have been for the Amorite and Canaanite kings. They had been afraid beforehand, of course, because here was this vast host out there across the Jordan. But as these kings looked at the nati
This week we are continuing our study in the third episode of Joshua, which is the crossing of the Jordan River. We learned last week that this third episode has three parts. The first part was the crossing of the Jordan itself, with the Ark of the Covenant going before the people. The second piece
Now where does that leave us? The point I want to make is the one I have already been alluding to, namely, that we all need memorials like this in our lives. The people of Israel needed their memorials, and they needed other memorials besides this one. In 1 Samuel 7:12 we’re told of the prophet Samu
Now I need to acknowledge that there’s a bit of a technical problem at this point. It's perfectly evident from any reading of this chapter that the twelve men chosen by the people were to each lift up a stone from the Jordan, carry it up, and then place it upon the bank. These were then arranged int
Last week, when we looked at chapter 3 and the crossing itself, we saw that the most important element in that crossing is the emphasis found there upon the Ark of the Covenant. The ark symbolized the presence of God. It has not been mentioned in Joshua until now, but suddenly in these chapters conn
Rudyard Kipling was the poet laureate of England in his lifetime. And on one occasion, he had the duty that poet-laureates have of writing a poem for a state occasion. This particular poem he wrote has in it the couplet:Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,Lest we forget—lest we forget!I’m told that t
You can ask, "Where is the God of Moses—the God who operated so powerfully in Moses' day, the God of miracles, the God of redemption, the God who brought His people out of slavery?" "Where is the God of Joshua, the God of conquest who led His people into the Promised Land?" "Where is the God of Eli
The third thing that was kept before the eyes of the people was His justice. This God was a God of judgment. You see, the picture of that ark with God symbolically dwelling between the wings of the cherubim over the ark, which contained the law of God, is a picture of judgment because here is portra
The second lesson is that the God who goes before us is the same God who has gone before His people at all times. That, too, was symbolized by the ark. He is the God of the exodus who had brought judgment upon the Egyptians, and who had parted the Red Sea, and who had led the people out with a stron
The thing that is the most prominent, especially in chapters 3 and 4, is the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. Now we haven’t seen the Ark of the Covenant up to this point, but suddenly here it is as the focal point of the narrative. And it is mentioned again and again. It’s mentioned nine times
I’m sure you can think of some day in your life for which you waited a long, long time. And then, eventually it came. It may have been Christmas, a birthday, perhaps a birth of a child, or something else. Your anticipation grew as the event got closer. Imagine the intensity of the Israelites’ antici
I started out by saying that this is a story of God’s mercy, which indeed it is. When the spies arranged to save her life, they said that she was to tie a scarlet cord in her window. That was to mark the house, such that no one would touch it when the Israelites came. It was a powerful symbol of her
Thus, with all her liabilities, she did have one great thing going for her: she had heard about the true God. And when she begins to speak to the spies in the heart of the story, which is really her testimony, this is what she talks about. She says, “I know that the Lord has given this land to you a
Continuing the idea from yesterday’s study, isn't it striking that in this story of judgment, the first thing is not of judgment, but of an act of mercy as God reaches out to save this pagan woman. It should direct our attention to the mercy of God, in Rahab’s case and in other cases as well.Continu
Rahab’s story is set in the midst of a greater story, and this greater story is that of the conquest of the land. And, moreover, it’s entwined with another story which is also part of that greater story, and that is the story of the sending of the spies. Now Joshua had been commissioned, and he stoo
It would be a miracle greater than the Jewish crossing of the Jordan or the falling down of the walls of Jericho if Rahab, the Amorite prostitute, knew Latin. This was because Latin didn’t come to Palestine until the Roman conquest, which was about 1000 years after the days in which she lived. But i
The final thing I want to say is that Christian leaders must also demonstrate genuine faith in God. Joshua was preeminently a man of faith. God told Joshua, “This is the land and I’m going to give it to you.” Joshua believed God, so when he went into the land with the other spies and searched it out
There’s a third thing I want to mention, and that is that a person who would be a leader must know, and have, and study, and meditate upon God’s objective revelation. It’s important to say that because that subjective and specific call must always be evaluated by, and at times, corrected by, the obj
Secondly, Joshua received a specific call, which we find in Joshua 1. Now when we talk about a call, we have to say that there is a sense in which all of us at all times as Christians have a general call. None of us is left to do nothing. We are all called to be disciples of Jesus Christ.We’re all c
The third thing that is impressive about the early life in the faithful past of Joshua concerns the earlier incident where Moses sent the spies into the Promised Land. There were twelve of them on that occasion. They went in, and their job was to search out the land from north to south and from east
There are two main sections to the first chapter of Joshua. The first part, in verses 1 through 9, contains an account of Joshua’s commissioning by God. The second part, verses 10-18, tells us how Joshua assumed command of the people and began to make preparations for the invasion of the Promised La
Yesterday we looked at the first two elements of Joshua’s commission. Today we look at the last two, and also conclude our study of Joshua 1:1-9. The third thing Joshua was told to do was to meditate upon them, also in verse 8: “Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everythin
