Promised Rest – Joshua 13-22

GRAB THEIR ATTENTION

I was sitting in a beach chair, looking out into the Gulf Coast, trying my best not to think about anything. We were a few weeks into our sabbatical, away from ministry, away from home and just trying to rest. A barge, carrying a large LCD billboard passed by advertising that perhaps, we beach bums could use a certain adult beverage to help us relax. 30 minutes later, the same barge, which had turned around, passed by again, now inviting us to purchase tickets to nearby theme parks that would “Make our Dreams Come True.” Another 30 minutes passed. The barge returned. Only this time, we were told to schedule a dermatology exam because we were likely getting skin cancer. I turned to Chelsea and said, “Well, I was resting.”

RAISE THE NEED, SIGNPOSTS, STATE THE DESTINATION

As we turn to the Old Testament book of Joshua, we’ll be covering a lot of ground today, but the main theme we’ll engage is the theme of rest. Chapters 13-22 could easily turn into three or four sermons, so we won’t be able to mention everything in those chapters. Here’s the headline summary of these chapters: There is a tension between God’s gift of the land to Israel and the reality that much of the land still remains in Canaanite hands. In other words: God promised to give them all the land of Canaan, which would give them rest, yet some of the land still isn’t theirs. They can’t rest yet. They’re still waiting on the promised rest of God. And I propose to you today that this theme of rest, this promise even of rest is something we are deeply in need of today, it’s something we too are waiting on, and as we consider these chapters, they will teach us about:

1. The Importance of Rest – Why do we need it?

2. The Competition for Rest – What is it that keeps us from rest?

3. The One Who Gives Us Rest – Where, or more importantly, who can give us the rest we need?

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

As I said, we cannot read all these chapters. You would be greatly benefited if you did so this week. But in order to set the stage, we’ll read three passages. One from the end of our section, another from the beginning, and then finally, a short verse from the New Testament book of Hebrews. We’ll flip around a lot today, so you’ll be helped to have a Bible out in front of you. We’ll begin in…

Joshua 21:43-45

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.

Notice what the passage says: the Lord gave them rest. All the promises came to pass. Not one word failed. But the author of Joshua creates tension on this point. Let’s turn back to…

Joshua 13:1

Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess.

Over the course of the next 7 chapters, the author highlights all of these cities and regions that the Canaanites still possess. Where there is no rest. So. On the one hand, they are promised rest, yet they don’t have it all—not completely. Not yet.  That’s the tension of the book of Joshua. And that tension becomes a theme in the New Testament as well. So, turn over to…

Hebrews 4:8, 9

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,

So, there it is. The Lord promised to give them rest, and yet, says Hebrews, the ministry of Joshua never provided the true, promised rest of God that they needed.

As we try to understand this tension, let’s begin by considering…

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF REST

Now, the theme of rest runs through the Bible. In the beginning. God made the world and rested on the 7th day. Later, when the world was broken and hurting by human sin, God raised up a man named Noah, whose name means, “Rest.” And before we can get to Joshua, we have to lay some groundwork.

As you trace God’s plans through the descendants of Abraham, you find them in Egypt. The children of Israel are enslaved for 400 years. If you read the stories in Exodus, you see their labor is hard and bitter. They are worked to death. They can never enjoy the products of their own labor. They aren’t allowed to rest or have a land of their own. God sends the deliverer, Moses to them and says, “In Egypt, you’re slaves. You work without rest. You can’t enjoy the fruit of your labor. I’m going to deliver you out of your slavery, I’ll bring you to myself and give you your own land. That’s what Joshua is all about: receiving, and taking possession of this promised land that God had given to them. God says “You will be my people. I will be your God. You’ll have your own houses, not slave quarters, your own vineyards, not Pharoah’s. You’ll be able to work and enjoy the fruit of your work.” And then God does something astounding.

On the mountain, God meets with Moses and gives him the 10 Commandments, written on stone. The commandments say things like Do Not Commit Adultery. Do not steal. Do Not Murder. And then, right in the center of the commandments is this command: Every seven days, cease working. Honor the Sabbath. Every seven days, I’m commanding you to rest. Has it ever struck you that in the 10 Laws God set at the center of human society, one of those 1o is a command to rest? Do you realize what this means? God says a society that idolizes overwork is as brutalizing as a society that encourages stealing, adultery, and murder.

Why does God make such a big deal out of Sabbath? Why did the ancient Jews, and even the Puritans make such a big deal out of rest? It’s because they knew, there is more going on in the command to rest than God simply advising us to take a nap or a vacation. This command to rest goes way beyond physical weariness. Doctors will tell you that it’s not just the amount of sleep you get that’s important. It’s the quality. There’s a deep level of sleep (REM, Rapid Eye Movement) you have to get in order to fully rest. There are levels of rest. And in the story of Israel, God is saying, “Rest isn’t just a physical need you have. It’s a spiritual need as well. Just as your body needs physical rest, there is a spiritual rest that your soul needs.” Israel comes out of slavery in Egypt, and God says, “When you get into this new land that I am giving you, I command you to cease working one day out of seven, not just because you are physical creatures who need physical rest. You have to cease your work because it will force you to put your trust in me, to trust me more than your treasure. If I don’t force you to rest, you’ll just transfer out of slavery to Pharoah’s ambition and become a slave to your own ambitions and you’ll forget me.”

There is it. 10 Commandments. God forces us to rest, not just from physical labors, but from the inner impulse to trust in our wealth, or derive our identity and our worth from our work. That is the importance of rest.

Let’s think, for a moment, about…

THE COMPETITION FOR REST

As I read earlier, from Hebrews 4, the author of Hebrews tells us that the children of Israel failed to enter the rest that God promised.

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

What does it mean that Joshua didn’t give them rest? Well, what you see in Joshua 13-22 is that even though the Lord was gracious to give his people land, they did not take it all. They did not devote all of the land to the Lord. So, we see in:

• Joshua 13:1 “yet, there was very much land to possess.”

• Joshua 13:2 “This is the land that yet remains: all the land that yet remains: all the land of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites.”

• Joshua 13:13 13 Yet the people of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maacathites, but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.

• Joshua 15:63 63 But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out, so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

So, we see that even though the land was theirs unconditionally by gift, they did not take possession of all the land. And – don’t miss this – every one of those places competed against God for the devotion of Israel. Every city tempted them away from the Lord. At the end of the book, Joshua warns the people (Joshua 23:11-13): “Be careful to love the Lord your God because you haven’t yet taken all of the land, and the people who still live there are going to tempt you away from the Lord. If you cling to them, if you embrace their gods, they will be a snare to you.” In other words, the Lord desires to have your whole heart, and every place that you do not devote to him becomes a place of competition. Every place where you leave old idols, you’ll find yourself leaving the Lord to trust in other saviors. And when that happens, you’ll become slaves again.

In fact, Joshua says in Joshua 23:13 that if Israel embraces their Gods that the Canaanites will be like: a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you. Do you see what he’s saying? Worse than losing land, you’ll become slaves again. If you go after the Canaanite gods, you’ll never rest.

Sadly, as you read Joshua 13-22 you realize that all of these places that Israel failed to devote fully to the Lord—every last one competed with their devotion to the Lord, and turned the rest of Israel against the heart of the Lord.

• Joshua 15:7 – Gigal, the place of the first Passover would eventually be condemned by the prophet Amos as a center of false worship. (Amos 4:4)

• Joshua 15:6 – The Valley of Hinnom, given to Judah would become a site of child sacrifice. (Jer. 7:31-34)

• Joshua 18:12-13 – Bethel (where Jacob saw the stairway into heaven) becomes a rival to Jerusalem when Jeroboam establishes it as a shrine with a golden calf. (1 Kings 12:28-29)

• Joshua 15:63 – Where we saw Israel left Jebusites in control of Jerusalem, later in Ezekiel 10, the prophet is told to go and look at what was happening inside God’s temple. And we read these awful words: 10 So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel.

And in Ezekiel 11, the glory of God departs from his own temple, from Jerusalem, and from the nation. Judah is invaded, and the people of Israel are carried off under whips, and perish from the ground that the Lord had given them. (Joshua 23:13)

Every place that they did not devote to the Lord, became a competition to their love of the Lord. You say, “How does this apply to me? I’m not Israel.” No, but the principle is still the same for us. Remember what I said… Within every human being, there is a spiritual restlessness, an impulse to prove ourselves. Listen! A competition to measure and justify ourselves by our work; to find our worth in our work.

Remember Chariots of Fire? The two Olympic runners, Eric Liddell and Harold Abrams. Abrams says, “I am forever in pursuit and I don’t even know what I’m chasing. In one hour’s time, I will be out there again. I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor; 4 feet wide with 10 lonely seconds to justify my existence. But will I?”

Or, listen to the words of Joanna Gaines, from her Magnolia Magazine. By the way, I don’t read the magazine, but I had to once waiting in a sonogram office with Chelsea and oddly enough, they didn’t have Guns & Ammo. Here’s Joanna:

I used to want to do everything, be everything. I typically have a pretty clear vision in my mind of how I want things done. I just felt easier to do things myself rather than try to explain what I was looking for and then have to fix it all when it invariably would end up falling short.

This may make me sound like a textbook control freak and I probably was. I thought that high level of perfectionism was serving me well all those years.

Lately though, I have felt different. It could just be because I have more on my plate than I am physically capable of accomplishing. But whatever the reason, I no longer feel the need to do it all. I couldn’t see it until recently, but this wasn’t just about the work being done “right.”

There was something more sinister hiding in my best laid plans. I realize now that I found me self-worth neatly packaged together with all that I did. In fact, the two really couldn’t be separated. I wouldn’t have admitted this back then, but I think I was scared of what I would be left with if I stopped doing. I was terrified of what I might hear if I paused long enough to listen.

What’s going on? Here is the competition of rest. She says, for years I just thought I just wanted the work done right. But now I realize that the product of my work was where I found my worth. It was a competition to prove and validate myself by my work.

Psalm 100 says:

The Lord says everything that you don’t devote to me will become a competition to me. Unless you set me apart… unless you set yourself apart for me, you’ll never have the true soul rest you need. This is why Saint Augustine famously said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” Listen… if you can’t rest. If you can’t say “no.” If you’re always overcommitted. You’re way too busy. And if you are tied to the approval of others, or your boss, or your family’s hopes…what’s going on? You’re trying to prove yourself. You’re in a competition… and…You’ll always be restless; you’ll always be weary. You’ll be a slave to your own ambitions, a slave to your own sense of inadequacy. You’ll be forever in pursuit, but not knowing what you are chasing.

We see the importance of rest, the competition of rest… finally…

3. THE ONE WHO GIVES US REST

Remember what I said at the beginning. There’s a tension in Joshua. There are all these places they haven’t taken from the Canaanites—and yet… God has promised to give them rest. And as you continue reading you realize that tension is never resolved in Joshua. It’s not resolved in Judges. And it’s not resolved in the rest of Israel’s history.

The people never devote the land entirely to God. They are ensnared by the idols of the nations. They’re carried off and made slaves in Babylon, and the rest of the Old Testament asks, “When will the people of God finally rest?” Joshua was unable to deliver the rest they needed. That’s because only foreshadowed the one who could truly bring rest. There was another Joshua to come – Jesus Christ. And when we read the life of Christ in the gospels we see that he’s the only human being in history who devoted himself fully to God. He’s the only human being who perfectly obeyed the laws and the commands and the purposes of God.

He’s constantly saying, “I’m not living for my own approval. I’m not living for my own glory.
John 6:38, Jesus says, 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own. I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” In other words, Jesus did, what Joshua couldn’t do. He devoted himself entirely to the Lord. There were no competing loves, no competing trusts in his life. Listen – he didn’t live for the approval of man. The religious leaders mocked him, and he never caved to pressure. His family didn’t believe in him, and it never moved him off his mission. He didn’t live for his own vainglory. He said, “The Son of Man didn’t come to be served, but to serve.” When you read the life of Jesus, you see that he devoted himself, he set himself completely apart to his Father in heaven.

This means, that if anyone in history deserved to rest, it was Jesus. If anyone earned the right to rest, it was Christ. And yet, in his life, he’s constantly saying, “The foxes have dens, the birds have nests, but I’ve got no place to rest my head.” And at the end of his life, devotion to the Lord does not lead him to rest. At the end of Jesus’ life, what happened? He’s chained. He’s bound. He’s made a slave, and the curse of Joshua 23 comes down on him. He’s whipped on his sides. And thorns are pressed into his eyes, and he perishes from off the earth.

But in his last breath, he cries out “It is finished.” What’s he saying? You can stop working for your worth. I have made an end to your striving. I am your worth. I am your treasure. If you have the approval of my faith in me, you have the rest that your soul needs. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You can’t find rest by coming into a promised land. You can only find it by coming into a promised person—Jesus Christ.

Lay your deadly doing down.