ALL THE GOOD PROMISES
The True Salvation of God
Joshua 1
GRAB THEIR ATTENTION
Promises have fallen on hard times. Many of us learn the saying which Benjamin Franklin supposedly coined, “Honesty is the best policy.” When I was a child, my father modified Franklin. “Honesty is the only policy.” A man’s word and his handshake used to mean something. Now we will out reams of contractual paperwork. Then we fill out another ream to protect the paperwork we just filled out.
We are used to being lied to, misled, and deceived. The words, “disinformation,” “misinformation,” or “fake news” are at the center of our cultural conversation.
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, we now question every video we watch. Is this reality, or a “deep fake,” an AI generated fiction?
In the last 10 years we’ve seen the rise of fact-checkers; entire websites designed to catalogue inaccuracies in the news and political discourse. Of course, most of us no longer believe the fact-checkers, so we fact-check the fact-checkers.
I don’t have to tell you how indifferent we’ve become to the lies of political candidates. The joke once went that you could know when a politician is lying when you see their lips moving. I’m afraid, in many cases, that’s not far from the truth.
RAISE THE NEED, SIGNPOSTS, STATE THE DESTINATION
Promises have indeed fallen on hard times. Who can you trust? What can you believe? Truth be told, those aren’t new questions, encountered only by people living in the 21st century.
“Who can you trust,” is a question that takes us all the way back to the garden, the first woman and man, and a serpent. It’s a question that takes us to Abraham and the call to leave his home, not knowing where he was going. It takes us to Joshua 1, after Moses, the great deliverer has died, and the children of Israel stand on the banks of the Jordan River, the desert behind them, and the fortified cities of Canaan ahead.
Who can they trust? How can they face an uncertain future, entering a strange new world? And how can we do the same? As an election looms with lasting consequences for our nation. As you welcome a new child into your home or shift the direction of your career. When a once faithful friend betrays and lies about you, or you are faced with the prospect of forgiving someone who has broken your trust. Who can you trust?
When God calls us to faith-filled obedience and promises to be with us, we can rest assured that he will keep his promises. In other words, you can stake everything on the promises of God.
The text for the sermon today is Joshua 1 and can be found on page 178 of the Bibles in the pew rack.
THE TEXT:
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 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 good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
43 Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
We’ll study this passage under three headings:
1. The Command to Go
2. The Obstacles in the Way
3. The Promise of God’s Presence
1. THE COMMAND TO GO
Joshua begins with a command: arise and go over this Jordan into the land I am giving you. But that command is preceded so much. Moses has died, and centuries before his death, Jacob had died. So had Isaac. In fact, you cannot understand the command of God in Joshua 1:2 without first understanding the promise of God in Genesis 12:7
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth purposed to give an inheritance of land to Abraham and his descendants. (Gen. 12:7) Canaan was to be Israel’s home. In this home, all of their physical needs would be met; it would flow with milk and honey. All their social needs would be met; they would enjoy peace and safety. And all their spiritual needs would be met. God would be with his people at the center of their land, in the temple.
Abraham and his descendants all sojourned in Canaan, until famine drove them into Egypt, where they had become slaves for 400 years. (Genesis 46) Then God sent a deliverer, Moses, who by signs and wonders, led the children of Israel, now numbering in the millions out of captivity, across the Red Sea and to the borders Canaan. (Exodus 3-12)
12 spies went into Canaan on a reconnaissance mission and 10 came back in fear saying, the inhabitants of this land will crush us, we can’t go in. (Numbers 13) The other two, Joshua and Caleb said, “Yes, they are many and they are mighty, but God is mightier still.” In fear the children of Israel doubted the Lord and ran, and for 40 years they wandered in the desert until every faithless person from that generation perished. (Numbers 14:20-38) 700 years after the promise of land was given, the command to enter the land is received. They’re finally going home.
Going home. It’s one of the main storylines running through the entire Bible. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were home in the garden. Their needs were met, all their desires were fulfilled, but because their rejected God, they were exiled. They became sojourners. Same with Israel. And when you come to the New Testament, Christians are constantly referred to as “sojourners and exiles.” (1 Peter 2:11)
In other words, the wandering and searching for a promised land that Israel endured is analogous to this truth: all humanity is fundamentally in a state of spiritual exile. In a sense, all history after Genesis 3 is an exile. All history is an exodus. All history is sojourners looking for their home.
So, here are the children of Israel, standing on the banks of the Jordan; ready to go home. They have the good promises of God… but there will be…
2. THE OBSTACLES IN THE WAY
Joshua begins with the words, “After the death of Moses…” Take into consideration what those 5 words would have meant. Moses was the great deliverer. He had turned the Nile river to blood. He had held up his shepherd’s staff and the Red Sea parted. It was Moses who had ascended Sinai and received the 10 Commandments of God. God spoke to Moses as a man would speak to his friend. Moses is dead, and now God says, “Go into the land and take it.” What an incredible obstacle to faith.
Not only was Moses dead. He was not replaced by a young warrior. Joshua was close to 50 years old, 40 years ago when he entered Canaan as a spy, and he is now nearly 90. How can he possibly have the strength to lead this people into the unknown?
And the Jordan River isn’t an easy crossing. The word Jordan means “the descender,” because this 200-mile-long river connecting the Sea of Galilee in the North to the Dead Sea in the South runs through a 70 mile valley that is 1,300’ below sea level. How will an estimated 2.5 million people make this perilous crossing through one of the deepest valleys of the world?
Also, the manna is running out. Manna, that bread which God had daily sent miraculously from heaven while the children of Israel wandered in the desert, would now cease as they began to eat the fruit of the land. The security of miraculous daily bread is coming to an end.
And remember how they failed to trust God in the past. All of Israel rebelled against the Lord and refused to enter the land 40 years ago. Would they make the same mistake? Had they learned, in those 40 years to trust God?
Friend, as the Lord God leads you and I to faithful obedience, many obstacles stand in our path. Just this Summer, I reread Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Even though he has left behind the City of Destruction, Pilgrim faces danger and difficulty at every turn.
He’s trapped in the sinking sadness of the Slough of Despond. Mr. Worldly Wiseman tells him that following Christ will only make his life more difficult. In the Valley of Humiliation, a hideous creature named Apollyon reminds Christian of his sinful past. Vanity Fair tempts him to forget what is eternal and think only of the present. And when Christian resists the vain attractions, the people of the Fair persecute and ridicule him. He’s trapped in the dungeon of Doubt, wondering if what he has believed is even true. And finally, at the very end of the journey, the only way to enter the Celestial City is through the River of Death.
The children of Israel, Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, and even we ourselves have all known something of Paul and Barnaba’s exhortation to continue in the faith for “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:19)
If you belong to Jesus and find yourself in a particularly difficult season, surrounded by obstacles, weary, frightened, betrayed… friend, you are in the company of a great host who have sought the borders of Canaan.
Christian, “in every city, bonds and chains and afflictions abide you.” (Acts 20:23)
Everyday we are faced with a devil who hates us, a world that doesn’t understand us, and a flesh that is weak. The road to the Celestial City is full of potholes, detours, double backs, lions, and robbers.
So, if you love Jesus, yet you feel like everyday is a struggle that may swallow you whole, do not despair. If you belong to Jesus, you will without a question make it to the end of the road. You will not, no, you cannot utterly fall away. Thank God for that, confess your weakness, sin, and need, and look to Jesus in belief.
3. THE PROMISE OF GOD’S PRESENCE
Throughout the first chapter of Joshua, the Lord exhorts, encourages, and commands Joshua.
• Be strong and courageous (v. 6)
• Be careful to do according to all the law (v. 7)
• Do not turn from it to the left or to the right.
• You shall meditate on the law day and night. (v. 8)
The Lord had laid out precise commands for taking Canaan through Moses. It’s all recorded in Deuteronomy 20. He had given clear instructions on the boundaries of the land in Numbers 34. He had given his people a moral law in the 10 commandments that would keep his own people holy in Exodus 20. And they are to follow it to the letter.
And, don’t miss this. All of the Lord’s commands are bookended by the promise of his presence.
Joshua 1:5
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
Joshua 1:9
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Notice the order: I will be with you – meditate on my law – I will be with you. Friends, we cannot know the presence of God apart from knowing the Word of God.
You can look at creation and know there is a God who made it all, but creation alone will never tell you his name. You can look at the vastness of space and know that he is powerful, but you cannot experience his saving power apart from his Word.
You see, the presence of God is not some warm tingly ambiguous feeling. The presence of the Lord is his revealing Word, accompanied by his all-sustaining grace which enables us to believe and obey.
Friend, if you wish to experience God’s presence in your life, that cannot happen apart from meditation upon his Word.
This is the great promise of God’s presence. God will not ask Joshua to go anywhere that he will not go with him. The Lord will not ask for any obedience that he will not enable him, by his Spirit to accomplish.
Joshua then turns to the people and exhorts and commands them. He gives them instructions for crossing the Jordan and taking the land. The people respond with eagerness in v. 16:
All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you.
But consider their one request; their one hope: Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses!
Joshua, and the children of Israel knew that the only way they could cross the Jordan and take possession of the land was if the Lord was by their side.
Listen to what I’m about to say: God’s calling on your life is also a statement of his presence with you. I know that sounds funny but think about it. When God calls you, he’s calling you to himself.
• So, first and foremost, his call to believe in Christ, was also a promise to be with you and never leave you.
• Husbands, his call to headship in your home is his promise to guide you.
• Wives, his calling to honor your husbands is God’s promise to be near you.
• Parents, God’s calling, by which you were able to have children was also an assignment from God that comes with his special presence.
If you belong to Jesus, there is no station in life too which you are called by God, that he will not go with you. He is not going to leave you high & dry. The one who was with Moses with the staff in hand before the Red Sea, is with you.
The way may be difficult. It may be painful. God may very well ordain suffering for you. But even that can be a means of his sanctifying grace that drives you deeper into him as the only comfort for your soul.
As we will see through the rest of this book, God kept his promise. In every battle they fought, and in every square inch of land they took possession, the Lord God was present with his people. He never left them, though at times, they forsook him. He never abandoned them.
He will never leave you nor forsake you. But how can you know that? How can you know that the God who never left Joshua will never leave you? It’s because 1,500 years after the first Joshua, God sent another. The Son of God, born of a woman, was named Yeshua – Joshua. And though he meditated on God’s law day and night… though he never turned to the left or the right… yet at the end of his life he cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Why? Because he was taking the place of his people. Listen—he gave up the true promised land—so that we, though undeserving, could inherit it. He lost the presence of his Father—somehow—on the cross, so that we, though undeserving, would never be abandoned.
The greatest promise of God’s presence is Jesus Christ. He’s the true salvation of God.