Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Be Strong and Courageous, part 2. Jos 1:1-15.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Be Strong and Courageous, part 2. JOS 1:1-15.   

 

Announcements / opening prayer:

 

 

JOS 1:1 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,

 

JOS 1:2 "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them [I have given], to the sons of Israel.

 

JOS 1:3 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

 

JOS 1:4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory.

 

Only TLJC, at His second coming, would fully conquer all the land that God promised to Abraham and his seed.

 

JOS 1:5 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; I will not fail you or forsake you.

 

God gives the victory while they fight. We fight the good fight of faith, but the victory is the Lord's because, as with Moses and Joshua, "I will be with you."

 

JOS 1:6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

 

JOS 1:7 Only be strong and very courageous; 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.

 

Is God still with us when we remove ourselves from His plan? He is, but in a position of opposition rather than fellowship, i.e. opposition instead of apposition.

 

Apposition: to walk with.

Opposition: to stand against.

How should the believer position himself in reference to God?

 

The believer's position in Christ is secure forever, yet his priorities and decisions can place him in ap-position or op-position.

 

If Joshua is to be strong and courageous on the battlefield then he must be strong and very courageous to do according to all the Law.

 

To turn from it to the right or the left is to change our locality from standing with God to God standing opposed to us.

 

Divine gift has a human corollary, the call to obedience. The gifts - divine presence and providence, the word of Moses [Torah], the land, and the people.

 

Each member of the church has been given incredible gifts that God has intended for us to put into practice in our daily lives. They are not to be stored on a shelf, gathering dust from disuse. We are to employ the gifts from God into our lives, every day and in every circumstance or place. Spirituality isn't restricted to the walls of the church, but rather is a way of life. The church is the training arena for life which is the Olympic game.

 

ROM 6:12-13

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

EPH 4:1-3

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

EPH 5:1-2

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

 

EPH 6:11

 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

 

Some, unfortunately, have interpreted this to mean that following God guarantees financial security or avoids all loss and suffering. This is a false application for an obvious reason. Israel is a picture of the believer's soul. She is not the believer's soul. Israel lived under the Law which is but a shadow of the real things to come, which real things have been given into the hands of the church, and more specifically, the individual believer in the church. We are not fighting a physical battle but always a spiritual one and in that battle there will be the loss of the material and physical, but never the loss of the spiritual walk if we remain in fellowship and do not take a stand against God. The real battle, as Christ revealed fully, is a spiritual battle. The error of some in the church age is to apply the physical battles of Israel to the spiritual battle of the church age believer.

 

We must rightly divide the word of truth and see the truth rather than, as is far more popular, to only see what we want to see.

 

JOS 1:8 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 success.