Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 10

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 10 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Announcements / opening prayer:

The writer of Hebrews quotes Psa 8 in emphasizing the importance of the message that has come to man directly from our Lord and the apostles. This message of grace and majesty and rulership in our predestined plan has come to man only and not angels. God has established strength in the weakest of creatures.

Psa 8:1 For the choir director; on the Gittith. A Psalm of David.

O Lord, our Lord,

How majestic is Thy name in all the earth,

Who hast displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!

Psa 8:2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes [under three years old] Thou hast established strength,

Because of Thine adversaries,

To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

Psa 8:3 When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,

The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;

Psa 8:4 What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?

And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?

Psa 8:5 Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God [Elohim = angels in this context],

And dost crown him with glory and majesty!

Psa 8:6 Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands;

Thou hast put all things under his feet [by means of Christ],

In Christ, man will serve Him and with Him rule earth, heaven, and hell.

Psa 8:7 All sheep and oxen,

And also the beasts of the field,

Psa 8:8 The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

Psa 8:9 O Lord, our Lord,

How majestic is Thy name in all the earth!

The believer who neglects his predestination cannot faithfully and sincerely state verse 9 in his soul.

The result of understanding the plan of God is fear, awe, thanksgiving, and praise of the Lord and His name.

Heb 2:6 But one has testified somewhere, saying,

"What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?

Heb 2:7 "You hast made him for a little while lower than the angels; You hast crowned him with glory and honor, And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;

Again, the phrase “a little lower” is referring to our physical state in comparison to angels, yet angels were always meant to be ministering spirits to man.

Man is constantly concerned with his physical state and his prowess physically, but this has no bearing on the position that God so graciously gives. God will use infants to His glory as we saw in Psa 8.

Heb 2:16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.

While man was physically incapable of some of the things that angels could do, like fly through the heavens for instance, such things mean nothing to God who created man in His image and crowned him with glory and honor. It may be that angels were always meant to serve us and that includes Lucifer. It can only be conjectured, but this may be the key to his fall.

Eze 28:17

Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;

You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.

This passage is stated of the king of Tyre and we believe it to be also speaking of the heart of the devil. For instance:

1Ti 3:6

and not a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil [conceit or pride].

We may conjecture that Satan refused to serve a creation that “seemed” lower than him. It may be that Lucifer was willing to serve God but not another of His creation, especially such a creation as man who seemed to be lower than him. One cannot serve God and refuse His commandment to serve another. This we know as a foundational principle of the church age as well as in the OT. The first command is this, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. In the church, the question brought up by the Jews as to who is my neighbor is fully removed. We are to consider one another as more important than ourselves.

One cannot say that he will serve God while refusing to serve God's people, even the least of them. They do not serve God since it is His command to do so.

When judging the Gentiles of the earth at the Second Coming:

Mat 25:31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.

Mat 25:32 "And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep [saints] from the goats [unsaved];

Mat 25:33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

Mat 25:34 "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Mat 25:35 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

Mat 25:36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

Mat 25:37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink?

Mat 25:38 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?

Mat 25:39 'And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

Mat 25:40 "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine [Jewish believers during the Tribulation], even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

While this event takes place at the Second Coming of Christ, the virtue of serving one another in service of God is not limited to it.

Joh 21:15

Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs."

Rom 15:7

Wherefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.

Eph 4:32

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Eph 5:21

be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Php 2:3-5

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus

2Co 1:3-4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

1Jo 4:11-12

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

Mat 25:41 "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

Mat 25:42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;

Mat 25:43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

Mat 25:44 "Then they themselves also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

Mat 25:45 "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

Mat 25:46 "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

The idea, that the catalyst of Satan’s fall was the command of God to serve another creature, does not limit the fall of angels to after the creation of man. God could have told the angels that this was their purpose before He created man; that they would only serve whoever God created and Lucifer refused and was able to convince fully a third of God’s angels to refuse with him.

It is clear that when we fell we were definitely under the dominion of Satan, Heb 2:14-15; Eph 2:2.

Our status as slaves who were originally designed to be rulers was not ever to be a final status in the purpose of God. He did the unthinkable and became a man.

He Himself became a man and as a man alone, with deity set aside, He crushed the neck of Satan, and in doing so, ascended to the right hand of God thus regaining what man had given away. The plans of God will not be usurped by anyone.