Study inJoshua

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EquippedFor Battle

Chap 1v7-18

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IntroductionIsrael were poised to enter into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua, who not only received promises from God, but commands which, if followed, would ensure their success. Now there is a parallel between the Israelites possessing their physical inheritance and the Christian possessing his spiritual inheritance. In neither case can the journey be thought ofas a Sunday school outing.

We are reminded in the N.T. that it is ‘through much tribulation’ Acts 14.v22 that we enter the kingdom of God. There are battles to be fought as we step forward in faith. And the lessons that Israel learned are recorded for our benefit.

With this in mind we concentrate our attention on the commands that God gave to Joshua.

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Joshua’s Armoury: The Word of GodThe first command concerns equipment. A criticism levelled against the U.K. government in recent years has been a failure to adequately provide the troops in the field with the necessary equipment. Could such a criticism be levelled against God? What equipment did he provide for his commander? It was neither a battalion of centurion tanks nor a key to a missile silo Jordan River. Instead God draws Joshua’s attention to a book! cf. v7ff. Not many commanders today would be impressed with such a gift! But this equipment if used properly would ensure the success of Joshua’s mission. We miss the whole point of the book of Joshua if we fail to recognise the spiritual nature and significance of this campaign and hence the place of spiritual weapons.

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Joshua’s Armoury: The Word of GodThe church has often used the wrong weapons in her attempt to advance the kingdom. Paul reminds the Corinthians, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" 2Cor 10.4. What carnal weapons might we use? Think of the great harm done by the crusades when some were wrongly convinced that the cause of Christ could be advanced by the sword! Today others think we should try to win the world by adapting our message to suit its attitudes and values. Others foolishly believe, “If we preach faith in Jesus without repentance from sin, then more people will be drawn to the church”. These are all examples of the use of carnal weapons!

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Joshua’s Armoury: The Word of GodNow what makes this book such a formidable weapon? First, because it forms a line of communication between the high command and the army on the field. Communication in battle is vital, without it the soldiers effectiveness is greatly reduced. Moses enjoyed 'face to face' communication with God cf. Ex.33.11, but Joshua is told to discover God’s will in this book. Today, some people want to discard the Bible in favour of finding some direct revelation from God! Some of these so-called revelations even contradict the clear teaching of scripture - what does that suggest?... Let God to speak through his word!

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Joshua’s Armoury: The Word of GodSecondly, this book provides a strategy for overcoming every attack of the enemy. The Reformers vision was to make a copy of the scriptures available to every man in their own mother tongue.

Listen to the Archbishop Cramner "If we possess the Holy Scriptures we have the remedy for every [spiritual] disease. Beset as we are with tribulations and temptations, where can we find arms to overcome them? In Scripture”

I hope you believe that a knowledge of scripture is the best defence against every attack of the enemy! It is described by Paul as “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. Eph 6.17

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Joshua’s Training: Meditate on the Word

How was Joshua to use this weapon? First, he is commanded not to ‘allow the law to depart from his mouth’ v8. He was to communicate biblical truths to his people. There is application for all who are called along with Joshua to learn God's word, digest it, and live it, be they ministers, elders, Sunday school staff, or those whose task is to gossip the gospel. This is how believers are strengthened and encouraged and unbelievers are challenged.

Not that such communication is limited to the words we speak? No! Paul reminds the Corinthians, You yourselves are our letter… known and read by everyone 2 Cor. 3v2. Implying that the transformed life of the Christian is communicating the very truths found in scripture because these truths have been built into the believers lives.

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Joshua’s Training: Meditate on the Word

Secondly, there is little value in being given a weapon from the high command if it is not used properly. Alexander McLaren writes:“Not only is there courage needed for the application of the principles of conduct which God has given us, but you will never have them handy for swift application unless, in many a quiet hour of silent, solitary patient meditation you have become familiar with them. The recruit that has to learn on the battle-field how to use his rifle has a good chance of being dead before he has learned the mysteries of firing… The actual battle-field is no place to learn drill. If a soldier …cannot get his sword out in a moment, he will probably draw it too late”.

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Joshua’s Training: Meditate on the Word

Clearly it is extremely important to know how to handle God’s word. Joshua wasn't told to hang it around his neck like a magic talisman. The reason some people keep a Bible in their homes is that they superstitiously believe that its presence will keep them safe. They have been watching too many Dracula films. Joshua was told to ‘meditate’ on scripture v8.

A car bumper sticker encourages meditation as the path to transcendence! It is important to be able to distinguish between eastern meditation and what scripture teaches about meditation. Eastern techniques encourage the emptying of your mind, while adopting an attitude of passivity.

This approach is unhealthy and dangerous.

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Joshua’s Training: Meditate on the Word

Biblical meditation involves chewing over the text of scripture in order to master the principles of thought, guidance and action, which are required for spiritual service. Scripture is to be digested and built into the fabric of our lives.

A missionary was asked how best a young person could prepare themselves for Christian service. He replied, "If you do nothing else absorb your Bible and make it a part of you".

The Psalmist puts it this way in Ps.1. “Blessed is the man… whose delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night”. Such a man will soon know what God is like and how God wants him to behave.

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Joshua’s Training: Meditate on the Word

This meditation was to be continuous this is the force of the expression 'day and night’ in v8 When our exposure to scripture is irregular, error readily creeps in, memory becomes rusty and our behaviour sub-Christian.

Recognising this A. W. Tozer wrote: "Whatever keeps me from my Bible is my enemy. Whatever engages my attention when I should be meditating upon God and things eternal does injury to my soul." Satan’s stratagem is not always to put things into our minds, but to keep things out. Do we regularly allow our minds to feed on God’s word? If not then we cannot expect to grow in faith.

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Joshua’s Orders: Obedience to the Word

Of course meditation is not presented as an end in itself. Its purpose is to aid obedience. The opposite of ‘spiritual ignorance’ isn't ‘knowledge’ but ‘obedience’. Putting what we have read and meditated upon into practice.

After his baptism Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. He responded repeatedly saying, “It is written… it is written...” Matt.4v4-10. All of the quotations that Jesus used come from the book of Deuteronomy.

The implication is obvious. It is thought that Jesus hadbeen meditating upon that book. Its principles had been absorbed into his life. So that when temptation came, Jesus triumphed!

That is to be our pattern!

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Joshua’s Orders: Obedience to the Word

Joshua was to be ‘careful to do everything written in the law’. It was not a selective obedience to which he had been called. Nor was he was not to demand an obedience from others that he refused to build into his own life. Only if Joshua bound himself absolutely to God's written word would he become an effective leader, gain success in battle and bring Israel to her God-appointed goal.

Does much of our failure in temptation and our disobedience to God not often stem from a failure to meditate upon and put into practice the precious truths that are found in God's word?

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The Command to the PeopleHaving received his orders, Joshua set about communicating God's command. First, note the immediate implementation of God's plans v10ff. Joshua didn’t hang around. Someone has said ‘good intentions are no substitute for obedience’. There is a place for waiting upon God but once his will is known we should be up and doing.

During the three day wait mentioned in v11 while the army was being provisioned it would have become clear that the Jordan River they were supposed to cross was in spate. They faced a humanly impossible task! They would either think they were going nowhere fast or, if they were going to move into the land of promise, then God himself would need to deal with the major obstacle confronting them.

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The Command to the PeopleSecondly, we see Joshua exercising prudent leadership. Joshua was going to need the service of every able bodied man. Under Moses leadership it had been agreed that 21/2 tribes would be allowed to settle on the east bank of the Jordan but only on condition that they released their fighting men to help the other tribes secure their land on the west bank.

They were not to think of settling for deck chair living while their brethren struggled on the other side of the Jordan. In v12-15 they are reminded of their agreement and of the significant fact that the work of God is one work.

Similarly, if we are Christians we are part of a worldwide church and have a responsibility to our brethren overseas.

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The Command to the PeopleIn this ‘one work’ we do share one another’s burdens. And the place where we do that more than any other is surely in the place of prayer. When Jesus faced his greatest conflict in Gethsemane he longed for such prayer support but his disciples fell asleep. He asked them, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” Matt. 26v40. Did they take this rebuke to heart? Did it fill them with shame?

Are we praying for the worldwide church, for the persecuted and battling church or have we hired out a deckchair. Do we need to hear Jesus ask, “Could you not watch with me one hour?”

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The Command to the PeopleFinally, the people's response to Joshua was not one of grumbling. They didn't ask, "Who does he think he is?" A new spirit had entered this people which could only have come from God. They were of one heart! There was a new enthusiasm for the work which found them saying v16 "Whatever you have commanded us we will do and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we fully obeyed Moses so we will obey you."

Can you imagine how encouraged Joshua must have been? And particularly so when they in turn seek to strengthen their new leader who is all too conscious of his weakness and the enormity of the task before him, "Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses… only be strong and courageous".

Every Christian leader needs that kind of encouragement!

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ConclusionTo be a Christian is to be an enlisted man or woman in Christ’s army. Desertion is not an option. Someone has written, "Now to be a deserter is not to leave this army, celestial regulations make no provision for the discharge of personnel but to evade your responsibility to Jesus your commanding officer."

We don’t want to do that! Surely as we face the challenge of seeing the kingdom of God established on earth beginning in our own hearts we will want to respond with the same eager obedience that we find in our passage.

God has placed the great weapon of scripture in our hands. As we meditate upon it, digest it and obey it what might God yet do through our lives.

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