Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 24. Jos 1:16-18; survey of Heb.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Crossing the Jordan - Obeying God's delegated authority, part 24. JOS 1:16-18; survey of Heb.   

 

Announcements/opening prayer:

 

 

PSA 110:1 The Lord says to my Lord:

"Sit at My right hand, Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet."

 

David, who is the type, lays his crown at the feet of the anti-type, who is Christ.

 

The psalm bears the threefold impress of the number seven, the number of God's perfection and His oath and covenant.

 

PSA 110:2 The Lord will stretch forth Thy strong scepter from Zion, saying, "Rule in the midst of Thine enemies."

 

Does the scepter ever leave the hands of Christ at God's right hand? If not then why do you fear?

 

This is a picture of the King of Zion, the Lord Jesus Christ, who still looks forward to:

 

PSA 72:8 May he also rule from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.

 

PSA 72:9 Let the nomads of the desert bow before him; And his enemies lick the dust.

 

PSA 72:10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.

 

PSA 72:11 And let all kings bow down before him, All nations serve him.

 

Meanwhile, from the right hand of God, He continues to:

 

PSA 72:12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help, The afflicted also, and him who has no helper.

 

PSA 72:13 He will have compassion on the poor and needy, And the lives of the needy he will save.

 

PSA 72:14 He will rescue their life from oppression and violence; And their blood will be precious in his sight;

 

PSA 72:15 So may he live; and may the gold of Sheba be given to him; And let them pray for him continually; Let them bless him all day long.

 

The victory has already taken place, we await our individual deliverances as well as that of the whole world, it's truly just a matter of time.

 

He is a victorious, mighty King, who however is still ruling in the midst of foes-therefore of a King such as Jesus now is, to whom God has given the victory over heathen Rome, and to whom He will subdue all his enemies when He shall again reveal Himself in the world; meanwhile He is the kingly priest and the priestly king of the people of God.

 

PSA 110:1 The Lord says to my Lord:

"Sit at My right hand, Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet."

 

PSA 110:2 The Lord will stretch forth Thy strong scepter from Zion, saying, "Rule in the midst of Thine enemies."

 

It is not here that evil is removed from the earth, as it will be at the end of history, but rather it is subjugated to Him at His second coming.

 

I wonder if we remember who said this:

 

NUM 24:17

"I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near;

A star shall come forth from Jacob,

And a scepter shall rise from Israel,

And shall crush through the forehead of Moab,

And tear down all the sons of Sheth.

 

PSA 110:3 Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn,

Thy youth are to Thee as the dew.

 

Willing volunteers who are vigorous and of a great number, like the drops of dew in the morning. They are dressed in holy array, like the priests of the OT and so they are an army of priests who are gathered, vested in white, powerful, many, and fully ready as the offspring of the dawn - the offspring of the Bright and Morning Star, who is also a Priest as well as a King.

 

This was written a thousand years before Christ and it would have been impossible at the time to know who makes up this volunteer army of the Lord, but a little over a thousand years later, it would be revealed.

 

REV 19:14

And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

 

With this being a fact of the future, are you truly worried about all things in time working out for you the way that you desire? If God can transform you into a colonel in this holy army, do you think you can entrust your soul to Him, the faithful Creator?

 

PSA 110:4 The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind,

"Thou art a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek."

 

This excludes the priesthood of Aaron.

 

He is a priest by virtue of the promise of God confirmed by an oath. The oath is not merely a pledge of the fulfillment of the promise, but also a seal of the high significance of its meaning. God the absolutely truthful One swears. This is the highest enhancement of the oracle, "The Lord said to my Lord," of which prophecy is capable.

 

AMO 6:8

The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared:

 

The priesthood is to be united with the kingship in Him who rules out of Zion, just as it was in Melchizedek, king of Salem, and that forever.

 

ZEC 6:13

"Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices."'

 

Since the Lord is both High Priest and King, His battle is not only the one of a King, one who will war to retake lost territory, but it is also the battle of a Priest, one who will war as a representative of the people to their God, one who will war as the sacrificial lamb and be the One to offer it, and so His victory will be eternal.

 

Jericho was taken with the army who were followed by the priests carrying the ark of the covenant. Now the kingship and the priesthood would be in one man.

 

PSA 110:5 The Lord is at Thy right hand;

He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.

 

The Lord is not inactive at the right hand of God. He is constantly interceding on behalf of His own and so molding and controlling history according to the will and decree of God.

 

PSA 110:6 He will judge among the nations,

He will fill them with corpses,

He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.

 

PSA 110:7 He will drink from the brook by the wayside;

Therefore He will lift up His head.

 

The drink represents the toil of the fight and He will refresh Himself in victory, but He will not sit idle upon that victory, but will rather lift up His head in victory and pursue the work of His victory.

 

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HEB 6:13 For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,

 

HEB 6:14 saying, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you."

 

HEB 6:15 And thus, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

 

HEB 6:16 For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute.

 

HEB 6:17 In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath,

 

The word of the Lord is guarantee enough but by confirming it with an oath He makes it "even more" sure and shows "the unchangeableness of His purpose."

 

Who has an unerring and complete knowledge of God but Himself and so when He promises "as He lives" it is an assurance that is impossible with anyone else.

 

Abraham and the patriarchs, even with all their faith, did not live to see the fulfillment of the promise, but the writer of Hebrews and all believers in the church age have.

 

HEB 11:39-40

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.  

 

We are the heirs of the finished work of Christ and so, in essence, the true heirs of the promise. So then, if they overcame the persecution of their faith, how much more should we?

 

We have experienced in the gospel the fulfillment of the oath which God swore to Abraham.

 

In the next verse the writer shares the fact that this encouragement is for us.

 

HEB 6:18 in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us.

 

The two immutable or unchangeable things from which this encouragement is derived are the promise of God (for it is impossible to for God to lie) and the oath by which His promise is confirmed.

 

"we who have fled for refuge"…

We are the refugees from the sinking ship of this world's order who have been given an eternal kingdom, an eternal home, an eternal order, and eternal life through the fulfillment of both the promise and the oath.

 

In context the sinking or sunken ship also represents the Law and Judaism.

 

We who have fled that sinking ship for refuge have laid hold of this very hope that has been set before us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we not have strong encouragement?

 

The sinking ship of the world order is tossed back and forth, here and there by waves and winds. It has veered off of God's course. It is lost. It believes that it finds the right course again but only later finds that it has traversed the exact same course that it was once lost upon. It fools itself into thinking that it has found the right way again, only to be pushed on to the rocky reef and crash. Soon it will sink, but for us, those who have fled that fledgling ship and found rest in the One who can walk on water, our hope, our faith that looks to the future, we have an anchor in that hope, which is steadfast and sure because in Christ who has gone before us, that hope has entered into the very presence of God in the holy of holies.