Sermon Book: Joshua

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 1, 1990.

About this sermon

The structure of Joshua shows the continuity of God’s deliverance, and only Joshua, an Old Testament ‘Jesus,’ brings Israel into her inheritance and rest. Ephesians 3 reveals that our true inheritance is God himself.

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Sermon transcript

Today we are reading from the book of Joshua. We start with chapter 1, and we will be reading a portion also of the 24th chapter. So this is the book of Joshua, chapter 1, beginning with verse 1, first nine verses. Hear the word of God. Now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead, now therefore rise.

Cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the great sea, toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.

No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you, and I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous. For you shall give this people possession of the land which I swear to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous to be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

And then turning over to the last chapter, chapter 24, Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and their judges and their officers, and they presented themselves before God.

And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, From ancient times, your fathers lived beyond the river, namely Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nabor, and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the river and led him through all the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir to possess it.

But Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea, and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. But when they cried out to the Lord, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians and brought the sea upon them and covered them, and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt, and you lived in the wilderness for a long time.”

And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you. And I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land when I destroyed them before you. Then Balaam, the son of Zipporah, king of Moab, rose and fought against Israel, and he sent and summoned Balaam, the son of Deor, to curse you. But I was not willing to listen to Balaam, so he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand. And you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Hivite, and the Jedusite.

Thus I gave them into your hand. Then I sent the Hornet before you, and it drove out the two kings of the Amorites before you, but not by your sword or your bow. And I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you had lived in them, you are eating of vineyards and olive yards, which you did not plant.

Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.” If and if it is agreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river, or the gods, the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Then turning over to the book of Ephesians, chapter 3, Let’s begin with verse 14. This is Ephesians 3, 14. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

We are working our way through the Old Testament, bit by bit, and we come this evening to the book of Joshua and the conquest of the land of Canaan. under Joshua’s leadership. First of all, a few things about Joshua and the storyline that we find here in this book specifically. The things that impress us are these. This book takes up where Deuteronomy left off. Deuteronomy, or the Pentateuch, or the Torah as a whole, had left us with the story incomplete.

We had not reached an appropriate end point as yet. The inheritance that had been promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remained to be possessed Children of Israel were conscious of this as Moses ascends Mount Nebo and there dies. Their eye looks across the Jordan to the Promised Land. The inheritance remains yet to be possessed.

So Joshua, in this book, carries further. The children of Israel themselves are bearing with them a testimony to the incompleteness of their circumstance and situation. Had not Joseph given command with regard to his bones? And these people now carry his bones for burial in the land.

So when we come to Joshua, to this book, it’s as if a story is completing itself. we are arriving at an appropriate end point. The emphasis for us then falls upon the continuity of the history of salvation. The continuity of the history of redemption. So that as the book of Joshua comes to a conclusion, we have a certain sense of satisfaction All is hanging together. Promises made are kept. God is faithful. We indeed, as his people, are to trust in him. There is a cohesiveness to the whole. Everything seemingly holding together because of God himself. that One who is exalted, that One who is sovereign over all the affairs of men of nations, that One who is personally active in the life and in the history of these people.

This God is, in fact, achieving His purpose, so that we look at the sweep of it from Genesis through Joshua, and we know for certain that this God is in control, and only this God is God. As things are then summing themselves up, as we come to the story of Joshua and this specific book, so we know that we have received, as it were, a down payment with regard to all of God’s purposes, every one of his intentions. Will you not read, then, Genesis to Joshua and be encouraged yourself? in the knowledge that your God is for you and with you. It has not been merely a matter that concerns Israelites during the time of Joshua. It is a matter that concerns the people of God in every generation, and specifically in our own, that time in which we ourselves live between Christ’s resurrection and his return.

Know for certain that God is working all things for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. And know for certain that as it was with these people gathered under Joshua, so it is for God’s people gathered under Jesus. Know also But this truth pertains to you in the individuality and the specific circumstances of your life. God will not fail you.

Whose then are broad considerations as we look at Joshua, ones that should impress themselves upon you and your consciousness as you reflect upon this book and its place in salvation history. But what of the storyline specifically now? The outline of the book It’s relatively simple. The first chapter has to do with the confirmation of Joshua’s call, that that one who is now endowed by God, blessed by him, for the leadership of these people, as they would enter the inheritance promised. Chapters 2 through 12 describe for us the conquest of the land.

Exciting stuff. Stirs you up when you read it. Sit down. Read it. Maybe at one sitting. Let it work on you. See how it reminds you of those things yet future. Those things yet to be realized in and through Jesus Christ. Chapters 2 through 12 then, the conquest of the land. Chapter 2, the spies. You know the story. In Jericho. Chapter 3, the crossing of the Jordan. You remember that story as well. Chapters 4 and 5, the renewal of the covenant at Gilgal. The men of Israel are circumcised, since there has been no circumcision for Israel. There is the reinstitution of the celebration of the Passover, marvelous celebration and renewal of covenant through that sacramental meal.

Chapter 6 tells us about the triumph at Jericho, when this citadel, indicative of the power and pride and arrogance of man, is disassembled by the trumpets of God. There was the humiliating defeat at Ai, you remember that story? The discovery of the sin of Achan? He judged because of it, and then victory over A.I., chapter 8. There were those ancient con-artists, the Gibeonites, who deceived the Israelites, waltzed them into a pact and a covenant so that they would not be destroyed. That in chapter 9.

Then the kings of the south array themselves. They set themselves against Joshua and his army, and they are defeated, chapter 10. Kings of the north likewise come down, and they are defeated as well. Then in chapter 12 we have a listing of those kings. that were defeated by Joshua, as Joshua then enters into the inheritance and the possession of it for the sake of the people and to the glory of God. Chapters 13 through 21, the next section in this book, and in these chapters we have recorded for us the division of the land according to the tribes.

And we might think that nothing could be more boring than to think about how these various pieces of property and real estate are parceled out to the tribes. Why spend your time meandering through these chapters? But there are some remarkable features, remarkable indeed, as you move through these chapters. For instance, there is the repeated mention of the inheritance which belonged to the tribe of Levi. You remember how it’s described? Look for instance at chapter 13, verse 33.

But to the tribe of Levi, Moses did not give an inheritance. The Lord, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he had promised to them. There is coming a day, you see, when all of God’s children will be Levites. And all of them will have as their possession God Himself. And in light of that possession, no earthly possession will matter a whit. There is the story also of Aksa. You don’t know about Aksa, maybe. A-C-H-S-A-H. The daughter of Caleb.

Chapter 15, verses 13 through 19. We’re told there of a remarkable, a remarkable thing. How this daughter of Caleb, a woman, is actually granted inheritance in the land this is a strange thing a woman who according to the customs of the time and the arrangements generally for the children of Israel had no standing when it came to inheritance but this daughter of Caleb has an inheritance were told of other women too, the daughters of Manasseh. Chapter 17, verse 6. Once more, they are mentioned with respect to inheritance. It wasn’t the ordinary custom, it wasn’t the rule, but the exception. But the exception was pointing to a yet future day when there would be neither male nor female, but all. would be won in their access to that inheritance that is promised in Christ.

Galatians 3, 28. And finally, there’s the strange case of Simeon, that we had time tonight to work on Simeon a bit, one of the principal sons of Leah, Simeon, we are told, has no ordinary inheritance. Chapter 19, verses 1 through 9. We are told, in fact, that Judah’s inheritance is so expansive that Simeon takes up his lot within the territory of Judah. If Simeon is indicative of Israel, comprehensively, in some regard, The day will come when Israel will find her proper orientation only in and through Judah and Judah’s truest son, Jesus.

So, these are remarkable features of this section. The section ends with consideration of the cities of refuge. You know about them. places to which those could flee who were guilty of a crime, but yet also liable to vengeance. They could flee there and receive help until trial could be arranged in a proper fashion. Chapter 21, Cities of the Levites. And that brings this section to an end. That is, the cities in which the Levites were to dwell, were to live. Chapter 22 stands by itself.

It describes the conflict that arose between the tribes that had decided to live on the east side of the Jordan. You remember the Reubenites, the Gadites, the half-tribe of Manasseh, They lived on the east side of the Jordan, and there was a conflict that arose between them and the tribes that lived on the west, because the tribes on the east set up an altar. The tribes in the west had thought that this altar then would conspire against the commandments of God, that there was to be one sanctuary, that all the tribes were to come here. They worked out this problem between them. The altar became a memorial, a symbol of a covenant between them, so that it would always be obvious what obligations were laid upon those tribes to the East, and the obligations then that belonged to the tribes of the West. The prerogatives, in fact, of the tribes of the West, and the sanctuary that was established there.

And then those remarkable chapters that conclude, Joshua chapters 23, And 24, the grand, the marvelous farewell, the last will and testament of this leader of God’s people, Joshua himself passing away. And finally, at the end of chapter 24, the burial of the bones of Joseph. It all comes together. But note, note, how the book begins in death and ends in death. It begins with the death of Moses and it ends in the death of Joshua and the burial of the bones of dead Joseph. The book itself then tells you that though you have arrived at an end point in the history of redemption, you have not arrived at the end point. the final point to which all of God’s redemptive purposes push. So then it is imperative that we consider Joshua in light of the totality of the history of salvation, that which we have been privileged to know and to know intimately.

Who is Joshua? Who is Joshua? Do you know what his name means? His name means Jehovah saves. Jehovah saves. Do you know of any other figure in the Bible who bears that name? Who carries the name of Joshua? Jehovah saves. In the New Testament, the name is Jesus. Joshua, then, is the Old Testament Jesus, the one who is remarkable in that according to God’s appointment, more than any figure before him, the Lord Jesus is going to shout to you from the page. You’re going to see the Lord Jesus in this figure. Joshua, then, is the Old Testament Jesus. And as such, he is that figure in whom there is affected a transition from the old to the new.

The principal figure for the old, that’s Moses. And Moses is dead. Moses has passed. Moses and the law can only bring you so far. And then you run up against the barrier of the Jordan. Moses and the law cannot bring you into the inheritance. For in the end, what the law does is condemn you. In the end, The law serves as that instrument by which you are brought to know the magnitude, the significance, and the seriousness of your sin. That does not make the law evil, does not make the law perverse.

It’s an instrument of God. It’s His tutor to bring you to an understanding of yourself and your inability. as well your liability. So Joshua is that figure given us in the Old Testament in whom there is affected that transition from the old to the new. The new has come. And that in keeping with an administration that brings you into the fullness of the promise and into the inheritance. By words? By the law? Is it by the law that the waters of the Jordan part? Is it by the law that the walls of Jericho come down? Is it by the law that the enemies are turned to flight?

By grace and by the power of God. So then this Old Testament Jesus leads this people, this ancient church, through that barrier that seems impenetrable. Death itself, if you will. And this barrier opens. And the way is made clear for them to come into possession of that inheritance promised.

But even more, Joshua is not merely that figure by whom there is a fact of this transition from old to new. He is not only that one who leads this ancient church through that barrier and into the inheritance, he is the one who is the captain over the army and leads them in battle against their foes. The battle is won, in effect, because of him, and through him the inheritance is granted. In every one of these respects, then, we see something of that one who is yet to come, that one to whom Joshua points, that one who is greater than Joshua. For is it true that Joshua will lead God’s church into her final rest? Do you remember Hebrews chapter 4, verse 8? Do you remember the commentary made with respect to the figure of Joshua there? Hebrews 4, verse 8. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day after that. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And it is only the Lord Jesus Christ that can grant us that Sabbath rest.

As great as he was, as wonderful a figure as he was, he falls short. For his story, as Moses’ story, ends in death, not resurrection. So we are pushed on, are we? Are we not? To consider that which lies beyond Joshua, which is found only in that one to whom Joshua pointed, the New Testament Joshua Jesus, who is far better. And in order to understand the significance of this figure, we are given a New Testament book that is a counterpart to the Old Testament book of Joshua. And that book is the letter to the Ephesians. What inheritance might there be for God’s children now? A piece of property in the corner of the Mediterranean world? a piece of property locally, a piece of the American dream. Now, of course, isn’t that what we want? Isn’t that what we work for? Isn’t that what we extend ourselves for?

The inheritance, so we are told in the letter to the Ephesians, is the heavenly places in which now we sit because of the work of Christ. No River Jordan of this creation, but the barrier of death itself, that traversed by Christ in his resurrection, he ascended into glory, sitting at the right hand of God to mediate over an inheritance that is eternal and will not pass away. the true inheritance spoken to us then in the epistle to the Ephesians.

Blessed be the God and Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Here is the true inheritance marked out for us That first chapter. Inheritance which is brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Chapter 1 verses 20 through 23, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And not only do we have a new and greater inheritance, We are a new people of God who serve in a new sanctuary, a new temple, which God is building for Himself as a dwelling in the Spirit.

Chapter 2. Then in chapter 3 we read about that inheritance that was given to the Levites of old, namely the inheritance of God, bequeathed upon us, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. That given to us. And there is new light shed upon the law of God, as you read from the fifth chapter on.

It is a law of liberty now, a law that is seen in light of that imitation of Christ and the power that is be found in him, a power that is mediated out of the inheritance itself, a heavenly power. so that you’re not able to look at your wife any longer as merely another figure of this creation. You must see her in light of the glory that is emanating from heaven. She is like unto the Church, the Bride of Christ, and so you must treat her. A husband, likewise, no longer just a man in this created order, but seen in the light of the Lord Himself, So he takes on the features of Christ, one no less than Christ in the marriage relationship.

What can we say about the relationship between parents and children, all placed in light of the inheritance above? For now, children must be treated as God treats his own children, as how you have seen him treat his children. And children must revere their parents, like the Lord Himself is revered by the children of God, all in light of the inheritance.

Mere external compliance will not do. Mere compliance and observance of form will not do. You’re waltzed right into the sanctuary of heaven, and every form of obedience takes on a new light. Masters, slaves, employers, employees, what can we say about it? Your labor is unto the Lord, as if you were in heaven working for Him. And how do you treat those who are under you? As the Lord Himself treats them. The light of heaven shines upon every obligation of life. The light of the true inheritance molds and shapes and reinterprets the commands, so that they are all run through the seer of Christ.

And finally, If there’s any doubt that Ephesians is the New Testament book of Joshua, look at chapter 6, verse 10. And if that language doesn’t sound familiar, then I think you might well be deaf. Finally, be strong in the Lord. Sound familiar? Sound like Joshua 1, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might.

Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the Amorites, the Jebusites, the Perizzites, the Evites, the schemes of the devil. So our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places that have set up shop in the inheritance. They’ve usurped a place for themselves there, even though they have no right to it. Therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm Well In Christ then new inheritance in Christ a new people Jew and Gentile brought together one new man serving God New Levites all of you each a Levite with God himself as your inheritance new light emanating out of the inheritance with respect to all the commands and obligations of life. You see them now in the light of Jesus Christ and new power against the ultimate enemy. Not enemies of flesh, but those that are more awesome still. Enemies in the spirit.

The delight in nothing more than overthrowing your faith, in attempting to destroy you, that you might be robbed of your inheritance. But praise be to God, you have been predestined unto glory through Jesus Christ, your captain, your Joshua. who has led you home.

Let there pass before us our God, the cross of our Savior by which our sins have been removed and we have been forgiven. Let there pass before our eyes the empty tomb. And may we see, by faith, the risen Christ. May there pass before our eyes the inheritance that is ours, to which we are already privileged.

And may we bless you, our God, for how you have mediated unto us these great blessings, as the fullness of that which you have intended. You have brought your purposes to completion. And we have been exalted, magnified, ourselves, through Christ Jesus. Participating then, in this our eternal inheritance, through Jesus our Lord. We pray our Father, that as we are mindful of you and your Son, we will be mindful of one another. May we have a patience towards each other and a kindness, a forbearance. Truly, Lord, may we walk in the Spirit and in His power. Amen.

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