FOLLOW THE LEADER
JOSHUA - THE ADVENTURE AND VICTORY OF FAITH
by Doug Goins
Every so often, if you're an athletic coach, a teacher, or a leader
in ministry, you come across a young person who shows great promise. A coach
detects unusual coordination combined with a strong will, and they picture
a future All-American, perhaps a future Olympic gold-medalist. So the work
of training begins. A teacher spots a gifted student, and they see the promise
of a valedictorian, a Phi Beta Kappa, a Ph.D., or, perhaps of even greater
significance, somebody who just has a powerful hunger for truth.
Every so often as a pastor I spot a young person who has a great heart for
spiritual ministry, who has leadership potential. I get really excited,
and I have to hold myself back so as not to overwhelm them with my optimism.
God deserves our best in serving him, and when I see one of those people,
it kind of makes my juices flow. But I want them to hear God's call. I want
to encourage them, not push them. I want them to respond to the Lord, not
to me. I want them to fulfill the potential that he has placed within them---so
I hope and pray that they will sense God's leading, respond in obedient
submission, and be willing to grow into leadership.
I'm thankful, in all of that, that God is not an elitist. He doesn't single
out certain outstanding individuals as special. He really does see promise
in each one of us, and he is in the business of helping us discover the
area of leadership to which he is calling us at home, school, in our
neighborhoods,
on our jobs, in our church.
Joshua is one of the most fascinating books of the Bible. On one level it
relates the historical account of an ancient Hebrew leader and the people
God called him to lead into the promised land. But on another level it's
a personal story of promise, of the great expectations that God has for
each one of us. God calls each of us to enter the land, to claim a life
of adventure lived by faith, experiencing spiritual victory.
In the previous message we looked at Joshua 1:1-9, where God personally
called Joshua to leadership. There God encouraged Joshua with irrevocable
promises about his leadership and the future. God also encouraged him through
the written word of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, that
Moses had completed. Finally, God encouraged Joshua through a direct command
that contained within it the confidence that Joshua would become everything
that God wanted him to be.
Applying that message to us today, it is as if God takes on the qualities
of a perceptive coach or teacher or pastor, and gets excited about what
we will become if we use the gifts he has given us. The powerful, faithful
Jehovah God is calling us into spiritual leadership, and at the same time
he is promising to make us what he wants us to be. He is committed to us;
it's an absolute certainty. In Joshua 1:9 God said in conclusion, "Have
I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither
be dismayed; for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Now in 1:10-15 Joshua is going to turn and speak to the people. In 1:16-18,
the people are going to respond to Joshua's leadership and speak their own
words of encouragement back to their leader. Let's look at verses 10-11
as we hear a spiritual leader's encouraging command to the officers of the
people:
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, "Pass
through the camp, and command the people, 'Prepare your provisions; for
within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to take possession
of the land which the LORD your God gives you to
possess.'"
The words "Then Joshua commanded" speak of Joshua's immediate
response to God's command. Once he knows what God wants, he does it. Spiritual
leadership is sensitive to what God wants, and it lives in obedience to
God. Joshua doesn't equivocate, nor does he procrastinate, saying, "Well,
it's been forty years. What's another month or two?"
Joshua calls together the leaders of the nation to give them a command,
not to ask their advice. This is significant. Moses had organized the leaders
of the nation. Back in Deuteronomy 1:15 in his farewell address to the nation,
Moses said to the people, "So I took the heads of your tribes, wise
and experienced men, and appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands,
and of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers for your tribes."
Moses organized the nation this way so that he could communicate quickly
with the people through the officers. But here Joshua assembles the leaders
to give them God's orders. There are times when spiritual leaders must consult
with the people they lead, whether it's in the home arena, Christian ministry
or service, or the life of the church, and build consensus. But this isn't
one of those times. God has spoken, his will is very clear, and the nation
must be ready to obey.
Remember, forty years before at Kadesh-Barnea in an event recorded in Numbers
13, the nation knew the will of God, but they refused to obey it. Why did
they refuse? Because they made a choice to believe the report of the ten
spies instead of believing God's command to enter the land and possess it,
to obey by faith. If they had listened to Joshua and Caleb's minority report,
they would have spared themselves those difficult years of wandering in
the wilderness.
There is a place in Christian service for godly counsel. But a committee
report is no substitute for the clear command of God. Recalling the elders'
meetings I've sat in here at PBC over the past seventeen years, I remember
how the elders have wrestled with complicated, difficult decisions. Ed Woodhall
reminded me last week of the corporate desire always to find the mind of
the Lord. And so often in the middle of all the deliberations, one man would
stop us and say, "We need to hear from the Lord. We need to know his
will for the church."
In verse 11 are powerful words of confident faith on Joshua's part. He tells
the people to prepare food, for in three days they will have to cross the
Jordan. I would have expected Joshua to say something like "Let's organize
focus groups and discuss river crossings," or "Let's get the pontoon
guys out and get the bridges built," or "Let's build boats to
get across the river." That is because when he tells the people,
"We're
going to cross this river some time in the next three days," they are
going to say, "There's no way!" This river in the spring run-off
is a mile-wide raging torrent. It would look like the Mississippi River
looks today. (The Jordan River is now a muddy, brown, boring trickle---not
much to look at.) Joshua doesn't tell them how it's going to happen, or
try to second-guess God and work things out on his own, because he knows
that the God who opened the Red Sea can also open the Jordan River. He and
Caleb were there; they walked through on dry land. They know the same God
is leading the nation now who led the nation then.
It's interesting that even though Joshua trusts God for a miracle, he still
talks about practicalities and logistics. He has to prepare the people for
everyday necessities of life. In modern armies we have a quartermaster corps
to see to it that the soldiers have food and other provisions, but here
Israel doesn't have a quartermaster corps. For forty years each family has
depended on the supernatural provision of manna every morning, and the manna
is still falling. It's going to stop after Israel enters the land. Joshua
5:10-12 describes this change from depending on the Lord for provision to
providing for themselves physically: "While the people of Israel were
encamped in Gilgal they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month
at evening in the plains of Jericho. And on the morrow after the Passover,
on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes
and parched grain. And the manna ceased on the morrow, when they ate of
the produce of the land; and the people of Israel had manna no more, but
ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year."
What Joshua is telling the people now before they have crossed the river
is that it is important for them to change their mindset, to plan for physical
sustenance to keep up their strength, to start thinking about living off
the land.
They are about to begin a seven-year series of battles for possession of
their promised land. Again, notice in verse 11 Joshua's words of faith and
encouragement: "...You are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take
possession of the land which the LORD God gives you to possess." Joshua
said something similar forty years earlier when he came back from spying
out the land with the report, "Yes, we can do it. Let's cross over."
But that generation of leaders wouldn't listen. Now that old generation
is dead and a new generation is ready to believe God to conquer the land.
We've got to be careful that we not think stereotypically about older people
and younger people, old generations and new generations. Often we see old
generations as being risk-aversive and young people as being risk-takers
and adventurers. I know that as I get older, there is more danger that I'm
going to become set in my ways. I could become at PBC, in the words of my
dad, a "sanctified obstructionist," saying, "No, no we can't
do that." But it doesn't have to be that way. The reality here is that
Caleb and Joshua are the oldest men in the camp, probably in their eighties
at this time. And yet they are enthusiastic about trusting God and entering
the land. It's not a matter of age, but of faith.
Confident faith comes from meditating on the word of God. We saw in Joshua
1:8 what God said to Joshua about where strength, confidence, and success
come from: "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth,
but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do
according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way
prosperous [effective], and then you shall have good success." The
apostle Paul states the same truth in Romans 10:17: "... faith comes
from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."
I am so thankful for all of the senior saints who are like Joshua and who
have been a part of my life and ministry, encouraging me to trust the Lord,
trust the Scriptures, and move forward in obedience to the Lord. One such
man in my life most recently is Ray Miller. Ray had a full career in the
army as a specialist in Middle Eastern affairs. He retired from the military
as a NATO general. He spent fifteen years in retirement on the board of
directors for Open Doors with Brother Andrew, and traveled all around the
world smuggling Bibles in and out of countries and giving leadership in
that organization. Now, in his middle-seventies, Ray is still active in
correspondence, studying and teaching. Ray was instrumental in a recent
invitation to our pastoral staff to go to Pakistan to minister. Being granted
visas for that Islamic republic has been difficult. I asked Ray just a few
weeks ago, "Shall we pursue this? Or is it more trouble than it's
worth?"
Ray said, "You've got to trust the Lord. You've got to keep walking
through the doors." Here is an older saint telling the younger ones
to trust the Lord and follow him. Spiritual leaders never stop providing
spiritual encouragement.
In verses 12-15 Joshua will focus on the leadership of two and a half tribes
in Israel. These verses are parenthetical. He turns from all the leaders
of the people and speaks to a special group of people within the nation.
There are three tribes represented in this section: Reuben, Gad, and the
half-tribe Manasseh. Moses granted a request that they made months earlier
to stake their claim on the east side of the Jordan River, to not enter
into the promised land in Canaan. Manasseh asked for all the land east of
the Sea of Galilee to the north, in what was called Bashan. Gad asked for
everything east of the Jordan River, in what was called Gilead. Reuben asked
for the land of Moab, which was east of the Dead Sea in the south. Moses
granted the requests. What Joshua does now in verses 12-15 is review briefly
Moses' instructions and warnings to those two and a half tribes (see Numbers
21, 32; Deuteronomy 3):
And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of
Manasseh Joshua said, "Remember the word which Moses the servant of
the LORD commanded you, saying, 'The LORD your God is providing you a place
of rest, and will give you this land.' Your wives, your little ones, and
your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan;
but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brethren
and shall help them, until the LORD gives rest to your brethren as well
as to you, and they also take possession of the land which the LORD your
God is giving them; then you shall return to the land of your possession,
and shall possess it, the land which Moses the servant of the LORD gave
you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise."
There are two geographical areas contrasted in these verses. First there
is the land of Canaan across the Jordan to the west, the promised land.
Twice it is called the place that the Lord gives them and twice a place
of rest. Remember how desperately Moses wanted to cross the Jordan and enter
the land of Canaan, and wasn't allowed to do it because of sin in his life.
Look again at chapter 1, verse 2: "...Therefore arise, go over this
Jordan, you and all this people [all twelve tribes], into the land which
I am giving to them, to the people of Israel." God's desire is for
them to enter into the land of Canaan.
The contrasting land is that to the east of the Jordan, the lands of Bashan
and Gilead and Moab. Twice these are called "the land which Moses gave
you"---not the land that God gave them. Historically, you'll find that
it was a concession on Moses' part to allow the two and a half tribes to
live outside the promised land. In Numbers 32 Moses saw the request from
these two and a half tribes as sinful rebellion. He said that it would be
discouraging to the rest of the tribes. But their idea was to participate
by sending soldiers to fight along with the other tribes in the conquest
and possession of the land. So Moses agreed with their request. It's clear
in Numbers 32 that the two and a half tribes were driven by self-interest.
They liked this area of Bashan and Gilead and Moab because it was fertile
and lush, and they were already there. It says at one point that it was
a wonderful place for cattle, with lots of grazing land. Apparently, their
first concern was making a living and not entering into abundant spiritual
life. They would rather have had large flocks and herds than live with their
brothers and sisters in the inheritance that God gave them.
In contrast to the concern of the two and a half tribes is Joshua's concern.
He cares about unity and about the common good of the nation. He urges these
tribes to keep the promises they made because he wants to guard against
any estrangement among the people. He is concerned that Israel be a united
people both in conquering the land and in worshiping the Lord.
To jump ahead a bit, the two and a half tribes will keep their promise to
help conquer the land, but they won't be whole-hearted in their participation.
They will have 136,000 fighting men available for battle, and in verse 14
Joshua asks them to send all their fighting men to fight on the other side
of the river. But only 40,000 men will actually cross the Jordan to fight
in the promised land, while the rest of the soldiers will stay home to protect
the women and children and flocks and the cities they have already captured
earlier in these areas. When the spoils of war are divided up in Joshua
22, we'll see that the 40,000 soldiers take home enough spoils for the 96,000
soldiers who stayed behind to guard their families and flocks.
The choice of the two and a half tribes not to live in Canaan will continue
to cause problems for Israel throughout her national history. These tribes
will be far from the place of national worship. We're going to see in Joshua
22 that in erecting a special monument to remind their children that they
are citizens of Israel, they almost cause a civil war in the nation. Throughout
the period of the Judges they have an uneasy relationship with the tribes
in Canaan. And the later history of the monarchy will demonstrate the
consequences
that result from their being cut off from the rest of Israel by the Jordan
River, and from being exposed to their enemies through lack of natural
boundaries.
They will be the first tribes swept away in the Assyrian invasions of Israel.
For us today, Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe Manasseh represent many borderline
believers---people who have a relationship with Christ, who get close to
the full, joyful inheritance, who experience some spiritual victory in their
lives, but who are determined to go back to the perceived comfort across
the Jordan. The land to the east of the Jordan is really still the wilderness.
It's a place of indulgence to people for whom the quality of material life
is more important than life eternal.
I have lived in my own life as a borderline believer. In that period personal
safety and security were paramount. I looked good religiously, even successful.
I was willing to help my brothers and sisters, even serve the Lord for a
time (usually a time of my own determination). I had high degrees of
self-absorption
and self-consciousness in my life. The issues of my needs and my rights
were central. It was a period of great introspection for me.
That issue of introspection is addressed in the book of Judges. I told you
these tribes will have an uneasy relationship with the rest later on. In
Judges 4 and 5 Deborah, the great judge of Israel, calls all the tribes
to war against Jabin, the Canaanite king, and General Sisera, with his nine
hundred chariots of iron. But not all the tribes respond. There is a great
victory song by Deborah and Barak at the end of the account. Listen to these
words about the tribes east of the Jordan:
"Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds,
to hear the piping for the flocks?
Among the clans of Reuben
there were great searchings of heart.
Gilead [Gad] stayed beyond the Jordan...."
That phrase used twice, "searchings of heart," speaks of self-focus,
self-examination, self-direction. That is what living in the wilderness
is all about: functioning on our own, trusting our own resources, wandering
around as Christians yet resisting Jesus' full and complete control of our
lives, living in old comfort zones, controlled by old habit patterns, meandering
through life without enjoying the fullness of what God has designed for
us, being just Christian enough to be miserable, still living with anger
and fear and bitterness, with the idolatry of materialism, with
self-protectiveness
as we rebel in some area of our life. But we don't have to live that way.
In the words of Hebrews 12:1, we can throw off everything that hinders us,
the sin that so easily entangles.
The officers of the people who have been listening to Joshua's command for
preparation, and also to his aside to the two and a half tribes, respond
enthusiastically in verses 16-18. Verse 16 gives the response primarily
of the leaders of the other nine and a half tribes, because the response
of these people is so whole-hearted, so unconditional, in contrast to the
half-heartedness of those borderline tribes. There are four ways that the
people of Israel encourage Joshua, their leader. He is trying to follow
the Lord, and they are willing to follow the Lord through him. The first
thing they do in verses 16-17 is assure Joshua of their complete obedience:
And they answered Joshua, "All that you have commanded
us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses
in all things, so we will obey you...."
These officers have no personal agenda. They ask for no concessions to benefit
them personally. They trust God, speaking through Joshua. They know the
commands aren't Joshua's, but the Lord's. They know that "wherever"
they are to go is God's territory, Canaan, and that he will lead them into
battle.
Imagine what a powerful force we in our own church could be if we had the
same confidence in following our risen Lord Jesus. The men of Promise Keepers,
who met this weekend in our area, were given that sort of wonderful challenge
in their days together. But too often we're like the three men who talk
with Jesus in Luke 9:57-62. They all talk about following him, but each
of them puts something personal ahead of that:
"And as they were going along the road, someone said
to Him, 'I will follow You wherever You go.' And Jesus said to him, 'The
foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay His head.' And He said to another, 'Follow Me.' But he
said, 'Permit me first to go and bury my father.' But He said to him, 'Allow
the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere
the kingdom of God.' And another also said, 'I will follow You, Lord; but
first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.' But Jesus said to him,
'No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for
the kingdom of God.'"
In a George MacDonald novel, The Marquis of Lossie, one of the characters
says, "I find the doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing
about His plan!" That is the attitude Joshua's officers display. They
are not so attached to Moses that they can't submit to Joshua's spiritual
leadership. God appointed both Moses and Joshua, and to disobey the servant
is to disobey the ultimate Master. Joshua doesn't have to explain or defend
his orders. He simply gives them, and the men obey.
I was struck that this same attitude of submission is shown in two of the
prayer requests in today's bulletin: "Pray that I can leave a tough
work situation soon for a better job; pray that God will be glorified in
this whole process." "Lord, give us a clear, strong call into
fields already ripe for harvest." Both of those people are saying,
"Lord, wherever you lead we'll follow"---in job searches or in
penetrating the community with ministry.
The people promise submission to Joshua, and that is tremendously encouraging
to a leader. The second way they encourage Joshua in verse 17 is by praying
for him:
...Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with
Moses!
The best thing we can do for people who lead us is to pray for them every
single day, and ask God to be with them in their responsibilities of leadership.
Joshua spent eighty-five years being prepared for this responsibility by
the Lord. He is fully trained, with vast experience, but that is no guarantee
of success. None of us can succeed to the glory of God in the spiritual
leadership God calls us to at home, in our neighborhoods, at school, in
the workplace, in our communities, or in our church, apart from prayer.
In the writings of Corrie Ten Boom is this great question: "Is prayer
your steering wheel or your spare tire?" It especially applies to those
in places of leadership. We're going to see in chapters 7 and 9 of Joshua
that when Joshua doesn't stop to ask God's direction, he fails miserably,
and so will we.
The third way the people encourage Joshua in the first part of verse 18
is take Joshua's leadership and their responsibilities with life-and-death
seriousness. Verse 18:
Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your
words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death.
In Joshua 7 we will find a man named Achan who doesn't take God's orders
through Joshua seriously, and he and his entire family are executed as a
consequence. Remember the very pointed question that Jesus asked: "And
why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke
6:46.) If we as God's people today saw obedience to Christ as a matter of
life and death, if we lived our Christianity with intensity, it would make
a huge difference in our ministry to a lost world.
There would be no credibility issue anymore in terms of our "walking
our talk." But I think too often we obey the Lord's loving commands
if we feel like it, if it's convenient, and if we can get something out
of it. If he had had soldiers like that, Joshua would never have conquered
the promised land. And the affirmation here is, "No, we won't be like
that. It's a matter of life and death for us."
The last line of verse 18 shows the fourth way they encourage their leader.
They remind him of the word of God that he has heard before:
Only be strong and of good courage.
Joshua first heard these words when Moses sent him into Canaan with the
other men to spy out the land. It was one of the words of encouragement
that Moses spoke to all the spies. Moses repeated the words to Joshua forty
years later when he installed him as his successor. Both times these words
were written down in the book of the law that Moses wrote. And Joshua was
commanded to read that book, to meditate on it day and night (see 1:8).
Four times in these eighteen verses of chapter one we have found these words.
Three times God says them to Joshua, and now the people turn around and
say them to their leader.
If we are to conquer enemies, our own struggles with fleshly rebellion and
sin, our own resistance to what God wants, the enemies out there that oppose
us, the world system, and satanic evil itself; and if we're going to claim
our inheritance in Christ, we must have courage and strength. Ephesians
6:10-11, 17-18 tells us the source of that kind of courage and strength:
"...Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on
the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes
of the devil...And take...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with
this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all
the saints...." We're called to warfare, but not in our own strength,
not based on our own courage, and not in isolation. We live in community,
so we are to pray for one another and with one another, to encourage one
another.
I was privileged to be raised by parents who followed the Lord and who still
follow the Lord with enthusiastic consistency. In our society this is
increasingly
rare because of the tragic disintegration of family life, which is the fabric
of our society. My folks are consistent in their obedience to who God is
and what God wants from them. They are consistent in prayer. They still
live their Christian life with intensity, zeal, and enthusiasm. My folks
are still confident of the Scriptures. In their middle seventies, they're
both giving spiritual leadership in all kinds of arenas including the lives
of all of their children and grandchildren. Their home is still a place
of hospitality and spiritual life. They are active in their neighborhood.
They are both involved in hospital ministry, and they are very active in
their church. My folks still lead people to Christ. They give away their
financial resources with generosity, unconditionally. My parents both still
teach the Bible in all kinds of settings. My folks have never retired from
the call to follow their leader.
We are called to follow our leader, in the words of that great verse in
Hebrews 12, "...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith...." That is the call of this passage---to trust the God
who calls, who speaks, who reveals himself, who says, "Follow me."
Catalog No. 4456
Joshua 1:10-18
Third Message
Doug Goins
October 1, 1995
Copyright (C) 1995 Discovery Publishing, a ministry of Peninsula Bible Church.
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