THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Joshua: God's Faithful Giving Of The Promised Land To Israel

Part I: God's Leading Israel Into The Promised Land, Joshua 1:1-5:12

B. God's Teaching Joshua How To Gain A Following For His Leadership Assignment

(Joshua 1:6-8, 10-18)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

There is a great need in today's world for those who lead to gain a following to be able to achieve God's will:

(1) Daniel Henninger's article, "Captain America Won't Save Us" in The Wall Street Journal, 2/26/2015, p. A15, lamented the fact that the current administration is "the most catastrophic American presidency in over 80 years." This lack of faith in secular leaders is reflected in Pia Catton's article, "Winston Churchill Distilled for Stage" (Ibid., 2/17/2015, p. A13) that cited a Manhattan bookshop owner who said, "There has never been a stronger interest in Churchill . . . There is this sense that he was a leader and a human being that we don't see in politics anymore."

(2) The need for leaders to gain a following to fulfill God's will exists in Christian realms, too: the 2010 edition of Jason Mandryk's, Operation World lists every nation and prayer requests for its spiritual needs, and every nation where I looked, including the U. S., had a need for spiritually effective leaders! However, there are thousands of Christian schools, colleges and seminaries worldwide that supposedly train men to lead, but the need persists. We thus must get back to Scripture to see what it takes for a leader to gain the following he needs to fulfill God's calling:

Need: So we ask, "In God's view, how can a leader gain the following he needs to fulfill God's calling for him?!"

I. After God commissioned Joshua to his role as Israel's new human leader and told him to lead Israel to conquer Canaan in Joshua 1:1-9, Joshua began to function in that leadership role in Joshua 1:10-15:

A. God's commissioning of Joshua to the role of Israel's human leader in Joshua 1:1-9 was followed by Joshua's telling the officials of the people in Joshua 1:10 to call the nation to prepare to cross the Jordan in three days.

B. Crossing the Jordan would lead to war, so Joshua also sought to prepare Israel's troops for battle, Jos. 1:11-15:

1. To keep all of Israel's troops unified for conflict, Joshua reminded the warriors from the two and one-half tribes about the words of the late Moses on God's giving them settlements east of the Jordan on the condition that they crossed the river to the west to help the rest of Israel win their lands, Joshua 1:11-15.

2. Indeed, Joshua assigned them to be "shock troops" to "lead the attack," Jos. 1:14; B. K. C., O. T., p. 330.

II. However, when Joshua began to order these men, they gave him their CONDITIONS for heeding him:

A. The warriors gave Joshua a condition for heeding him that concerned his achievements, Joshua 1:16-17:

1. On the one hand, these warriors offered to obey all of Joshua's orders, going wherever he sent them, even as "shock troops," Jos. 1:16. They would heed Joshua in all things as they had heeded Moses, Jos. 1:17a.

2. However, they gave him a condition to such total obedience in Joshua 1:17b KJV as follows:

a. The Hebrew text starts the sentence, "(T)he Lord thy God be with thee " with the word raq ("only") that puts "a limitation on something previously expressed," B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 956.

b. Thus, the warriors claimed they would follow Joshua at the risk of their lives like they had followed Moses on the CONDITION that God would be with him to bless him as the Lord had blessed Moses!

B. The warriors gave Joshua a condition for heeding him that concerned his demeanor, Joshua 1:18 KJV:

1. The warriors added that if any of them rebelled against Joshua's words, he would be slain, Joshua 1:18a.

2. However, there was a condition to such total obedience as stated in Joshua 1:18b KJV (as follows):

a. The Hebrew text again uses the word raq ("only") to introduce "(B)e strong and of a good courage" in Joshua 1:18b, with "strong" translating the Hebrew word hazaq, "firm, confident" (Ibid., p. 304-305), and "good courage" translating the Hebrew word 'ames, "bold" (Ibid., p. 54-55).

b. Thus, these men expected Joshua to be confident and bold as another CONDITION for heeding him.

III. Such demands from subordinates can overwhelm a leader, but God had expected these demands and equipped Joshua to know beforehand how to fulfill them in his leadership calling, Joshua 1:6-8:

A. Back in Joshua 1:7a when God had charged Joshua to lead, God Himself had used the word, raq to tell Joshua to be confident and "very" bold, the very bearing the warriors sought from him, Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 321-322.

B. The concept that was there conditional is stated in Joshua 1:6, that Joshua might lead Israel to inherit the Promised Land, but just HOW Joshua was to SUCCEED in that effort is clarified by God in Joshua 1:7-8:

1. God had told Joshua to observe to do all the law that Moses, God's servant had told him, not turning to the right hand or to the left, that then he would succeed, the demand Israel's warriors had of him, Joshua 1:7.

2. Yet, Isaiah 8:20 and Psalm 119:105 show the world around a believer is so spiritually dark that he may not heed Scripture well enough to gain God's blessing and so succeed because he unsuspectingly adopts error.

3. So, God had given Joshua a practice to perform to avoid unsuspectingly adopting such error in Joshua 1:8:

a. The Deuteronomy 17:18-20 practice that God wanted Israel's kings perform to avoid being unknowingly led to adopt the world's debilitating errors was to make their own copy of the Law and daily read from it.

b. Conversely, Joshua as an active warrior would not have opportunity to sit in a study and copy the Law and daily read from it like Israel's later settled kings, so God called him to keep the Law by mouth: (1) the Hebrew word for "meditate" (KJV), hagah, here means to "talk to one's self, muse" (Ibid., B. D. B., p. 211). (2) Joshua was to talk out the Law's contents so that his mind and heart would always be saturated with it! (4) If he did this, God said that then ('az, used for emphasis, Ibid., p. 23; Ibid., Kittel, p. 321) he would make his way prosperous and that then ('az again for emphasis; Ibid.) he would have success!

C. God thus foreknew that when Joshua began to lead Israel's troops, they would heed him on the conditions that (1) he gave evidence in his leadership that God was blessing him and (2) that he could thus be confident and bold as their leader. Accordingly, when God had before commissioned Joshua, He used wording similar to what these men would later use to show Joshua how he could enjoy God's blessing that would give him the confidence he needed to win and to keep Israel's warriors following him -- by always musing on Scripture!

Lesson: To gain the right following to fulfill God's assignment in leadership, one must always occupy his mind and heart with Scripture, thus guard himself against even unintended error so he can always make the right decision, be blessed of God, and so be confident in a successful oversight that upright subordinates will follow!

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to be saved, John 3:16. (2) Then, may we always immerse ourselves in Scripture to make right decisions for God's blessing, for confidence in leading and influencing others!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

As a pastor, I have long made Bible study my focus in ministry versus many other pastors who focus on Church program. However, pressures to conform to what so many others do has led me at times to suffer "self doubt" on the matter, but lately, God has strongly encouraged me in line with this sermon (as follows):

(1) Last month, I gave a sermon that critiqued Sarah Young's devotional, Jesus Calling and its occultic practices, one being "automatic writing." Since then, my wife happened to check out of our Church library the book, The Seduction of Our Children, 1991, by Neil T. Anderson and Steve Russo where they told how they had surveyed 1,725 children in Christian schools and camps and found a high per cent of them were into occultic and Satanic practices, and that "35 of the students . . . had functioned as mediums for automatic writing." (Ibid., p. 34, 42-43)

Upon hearing of this from my wife, I realized that if one of these children were to read Sarah Young's popular work, Jesus Calling, and think they could commune with Christ by automatic writing as Sarah claims she did to produce her devotional, they might continue their practice in good faith only to traffic with demons to their harm!

Indeed, the authors warned of high rates of contemplating murder and suicide among such children! (Ibid., p. 34-36)

(2) Then, last Wednesday, I got a call from a Church member who had read that day's reading in Our Daily Bread, a devotional booklet we give out in our Church. The member asked me about the call in that reading that we may "simply groan" in prayer since Romans 8:26 says the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with unutterable groaning.

I knew from my studies that this verse teaches the Holy Spirit groans in praying for us, for we do not know what to pray! For us then to groan in prayer violates Romans 8:26 and is an unbiblical, Charismatic-like practice!

(3) After my conversation with my wife on The Seduction of Our Children book she had checked out of our library, I picked up the book and began to peruse it and found these words on page 37: "The second major source of demonic seduction is the iniquity of the parents passed on to the next generation . . . (Exodus 20:5,6; 34:6,7)."

That is simply not true! Ezekiel 18:1-32 presents God as explaining that every individual is responsible for his own sins! Yes, a child can be influenced to sin by what he sees his parents do, but there is no truth to the claim that a child first of all inherits his parents' sins, nor that he is is seduced to demonism by thereby inheriting them, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Exodus 20:4-6!

Since my preoccupation with Scripture has equipped me to discern and so tell you of these issues, I see them being used of God to indicate the importance of my staying immersed in His Word for YOUR benefit! This also means that ANY believer in ANY oversight position should keep himself immersed in God's Word!

May we trust in Christ for salvation. Then, may we all always immerse our minds and hearts in the contents of Scripture that God might bless us and effectively use us to impact others for His glory!