Joshua: An Introduction

Calvary Chapel congregants. How's that alliteration? Hi, Nick. It's been a good day, has it? Let's go ahead and get started. We'll pray, and we'll get into the spirit of worship. Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for the day that we got to have. Thank you for a night of worship and study in your word. We're grateful for all that you pour out through your word, and we're grateful that we have Pastor Ryan to teach us how to study

it in the best way so that we can drink the deepest from your truth. God, we just lift up this time to you, and whatever is on our hearts and our minds, I ask that we would just turn it all over to you tonight so that we can just worship. In Jesus' name, amen.

We just want to echo that chorus tonight that we have nothing, we are nothing without you, without the saving and atoning blood of your Son, Jesus. God, we come to you tonight emptying of ourselves and asking you to fill us, fill us afresh, God, with your spirit, the power of your presence. Because we know we were made for you, to give glory to you for our whole lives. And God, I just ask that you would help us dig into your love tonight and know just how much you love us.

Overwhelm us with your love tonight, God.

God, I just ask that you would help us dig into your love tonight and know just how much you love us. We are only powerful in our weakness through you, O Father. Thank you for the gift of your Son. Thank you for what it took. We're humbled, we're amazed all at the same time, and our only response is to just live for you. I pray that each of us here tonight would do that. God,

change us with your word tonight in whatever way you need to. We open ourselves up to you, up to what you want us to hear. We know you speak mightily. You speak in a still strong voice, still small voice. So we thank you for that. Thank you for your faithfulness in bringing us your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Y'all can be seated. Good evening. Good to be back. You have to bear with me. My throat is a little, it's a little funky still. So

I'm going to have to take a lot of drinks of water and maybe pop more cough drops in my mouth, but we're going to make it. All right, open up in your Bibles to Joshua chapter one. Joshua chapter one. We won't make it very far in Joshua tonight because I want to give a good background of Joshua. So we had started quite some time back now, working our way through the Old Testament. We'd started through

Genesis, made it all the way through Deuteronomy. And today, as I was finishing doing some preparing, I thought, how long has it been since we have been in the Old Testament? And you know, it's been since December of last year. So I thought, you know, let's bring us all back up to speed. So as we get into Joshua chapter one, which by the way, I came up with a super creative title. It's

called An Introduction. As we get into Joshua, we're going to be talking about the Old Testament. So let's get into Joshua chapter one. The first thing that I want to do is I want to give us just kind of a brief survey, because I think one of the greatest things that we can understand, especially about the Old Testament, is that it really is one story of one nation through whom God would bring a Redeemer. And sometimes when we know pockets of stories, we forget the overarching

view, the view from 5,000 feet of what the entire story looks like. So if this seems elementary, it's really important for us to maintain the flow of the story of redemption. And so the story of redemption obviously began in the beginning. It began when God created the heavens and the earth, and he created Adam and Eve. And of course, he created Adam and Eve for the purpose of knowing

him. And he walked with them every day in the garden. And there was just one rule that they had to live by. Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well, of course, we know the story. The first thing that they were caused to question, and I think this is really important for us to pay attention to, the first thing that they were caused to question was God's

word. Did God say? Now, I think that that's important because every other temptation, and I didn't intend to share this, but I feel impressed by the Holy Spirit to share it. Every other temptation that we will face in our lives will always be based upon the one question, did God say? Because the number one thing that the enemy wants us to do is he wants us to

question God's word. I actually was talking to a guy today, and he said the same thing that so many people say. You know, there's just so many ways to interpret God's word. And all I could think was, no, there's not. There's the right way and the wrong way. That's it. You just really have two ways that you can interpret God's word, the right way and the wrong way, right? And obviously,

it's a little bit more complex than that. But when it comes right down to it, the thing that the enemy wants us to question is, did God say? And that's what happened. And Adam and Eve, questioned that, and they ended up giving into that question, did God say? And so, shortly after creation came the fall of man. But you know, it's always fascinating to me, and this is where it's

really important for us to know this for the story of redemption, is that when man fell, God already had a plan. God already had a plan of redemption that he was going to work out in a way that only he knew, and a plan that was so masterful that nobody could have come up with it. Only God could have designed it. And it was interesting, because when God was handing out the punishments, of course, he tells Adam, work is going to be a bummer for you. He tells Eve that childbirth is going to be

a bummer, and you and your husband are always going to have some enmity between each other. Each one of you is going to want to rule over the other. But then he came to the serpent. He said, there will always be enmity between you and the woman, and between you and her seed. You will bruise his heel, he will crush your head. And that was the very first promise of redemption. And so we know that

from that point on, God was going to work out a plan of redemption. And of course, that plan was seen even more clearly when God made coverings for Adam and Eve, because the first thing that Adam and Eve realized was that they were naked, because when they were first created, they were naked, but they were unashamed, because that nakedness was covered in the righteousness of Christ, in the righteousness of God. But when they said, their eyes were opened, and they realized that they were naked. So God mercifully made for them coverings. I believe coverings of lambskins. I actually believe that that was the first sacrifice

that we see in Scripture. And so we have that creation of the fall of man. But it was amazing to see in Genesis how the downward spiral of sin happened so quickly, because when Adam and Eve left the garden, they did exactly what God told them to do. They became fruitful and began to multiply. And two of the sons that they had, their names were Cain and Abel. We know that they were

able, offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, because his was of faith, and Cain was of works. And so God accepted Abel's sacrifice, and he did not accept Cain's. And because he did not accept Cain's sacrifice, Cain became very angry, and he murdered his brother Abel. And from that point on, throughout the rest of that chapter in the book of Genesis, you notice one theme in the genealogy that comes forth. And the one theme that you see come forth in all of the genealogy is,

he died. Because that downward spiral of sin began to take such an impressive hold upon man, because sin always has consequences. But in the midst of that downward spiral of sin, there was one little glimmer of hope at the end of such a sad chapter, where the very first murder and the terrible line of Cain comes through. And that one little glimmer of hope is that Adam and Eve conceived again, and they had another son named Seth.

And it was at that point in time that man began to call on the name of the Lord. Matter of fact, Eve named him Seth, because she says, he has given me another in place of Abel, if you will the naming substitute. And so, from that line of Seth, we then begin to follow a line down through, until we come to a guy by the name of Noah. Now, by the time Noah came along, God was going to start over with a family, but by the time Noah came along, the earth had become a place of prayer. And so, the earth had become a place of prayer.

become so corrupt, both through the outward sin that they had done, and somehow there was a spiritual corruption that had taken place within humanity that God said, my spirit will no longer strive with man. I will send a flood upon the earth. But there was one man that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The first time grace is used in this story of redemption, and his name was Noah. Noah found favor or grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so God was going to start over

with a family. He was going to start over with Noah and Mrs. Noah, and Noah's three sons, Hem, Shem, and Japheth. Now they were all descendants of that line, Seth, right? That line that was the substitute. That's important to pay attention to because that's part of the story of redemption. So it went from Adam and Eve to Seth, now down to Noah. And so God preserved Noah and his family

on the ark. And when they came off of the ark, his three sons also began to be fruitful in multiple ways. And so God was going to start over with Noah and Mrs. Noah. And so God was going to start over with Noah and Mrs. Noah. And so God was going to start over with Noah and Mrs. Noah. And so God was going to start over with Noah and Mrs. Noah. And so God was going to start over with Noah and Mrs. Noah.

But we didn't follow the line of Hem and Japheth. Instead, we followed the line of Shem. And as we followed the line of Shem, we came all the way down to a man named Terah. And Terah had a son named Abram. We began to know him as Abraham. And so while God started over with the family, he had a line of promise. And he told Abraham, I want you to go to a land that I'm going to show

you, a promised land. And he said, I want you to go to a promised land. And he said, I want you That's important for our study in Joshua. A promised land. And when you get to this land that I show you, you'll be fruitful and you'll multiply and you'll, I'll make a great nation of you. I'll bless those who bless you. I'll curse those who curse you. And through you, all the

nations of the earth shall be blessed. Well, Abraham had a lot of ups and downs in his life, but ultimately his greatest feat, the greatest miraculous aspect of his faith is that though he and his wife were barren, they were able to have a son. And that son was the child of promise. His name was Isaac. So we follow down through, we come to Isaac. And Isaac of course had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau was the man of the flesh, not the one

of the promise. Jacob was the man of the promise, although a little bit of a dirty, rotten, sneaky thief. And, and, um, so Jacob would be the one through whom the promise would come. Well, as we follow the line down through the middle of the book of Genesis, we come to Jacob and his wife. And we find that Jacob through a certain amount of shenanigans and chicanery ended up

having 12 sons. We know of them as the patriarchs. And so no, or, uh, uh, Jacob brought his 12 sons back to the promised land because God had told him, go back to the land that I have promised you the land of your fathers. And there I will take care of you. And so he goes back, but his 12 sons had some family issues. If you will. And they didn't like their youngest brother named Joseph. And so they sold their

youngest brother named Joseph into slavery. And that sin haunted those brothers for the rest of their lives until God used Joseph to not only preserve the nation of Egypt to whom he had been sold into slavery, but also to preserve the nation that would come through Jacob that we know of as the nation of Israel, he would preserve them. And so in the midst of all of this, we find that Jacob was the one who had been sold into slavery. And in the midst of this terrible famine that was going on, Joseph had been given the foresight by God to store up for just such a time as that, not only because he was going to preserve the nation of Egypt, but because he was going to preserve the nation of Israel. So Israel, Jacob and his

sons went down and lived in Egypt. Now that time that they spent in Egypt was important because we're still following the line of redemption, right? Redemption would come through the nation of Israel. Well, the only way redemption could come through the nation of Israel is if there was a nation of Israel, right? And so God sent them to Egypt to be set apart from all of the Canaanites, who are a pretty evil group of people.

And they grew into a large nation. They went down as 70 people, as we're told in the book of Exodus, but they would leave in the millions. Well, as you come to the book of Exodus, and you follow the story of redemption, the nation has grown, but a Pharaoh arose who did not know God, didn't know Joseph, and he enslaved the nation of Israel. And so God raised up a leader, a leader that would redeem them, a leader that would set them free. And that leader's name was Moses, he who was drawn out

of the water. And so God raised up this leader named Moses, and he spent the first 40 years of his life being taught all of the wisdom of God. And so God raised up this leader named Moses, he who was drawn out of the water. And so God raised up this leader named Moses, he who was drawn out the world. And he spent the next 40 years of his life learning all of the wisdom of God so that

he could begin to discern between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God. And at the age of 80, God sent him back and said, now it's time for you to go and tell Pharaoh, let my people go. That's exactly what Moses went back and did. He went back and told Pharaoh, let the people go. And of course, you know, Pharaoh said, that's a terrible idea. So Moses pronounced the 10,

plagues on the nation of Egypt. And so through those plagues, ultimately the last one being the plague of the firstborn, which is where our story of redemption picks up again. Because if you remember all of the other plagues the nation of Israel was not subject to, it wasn't until the plague of the firstborn. The plague of the firstborn was important not only for the deliverance of the nation of Israel, but as a sign of the Messiah that would come. Because they were all

told, find yourself a lamb. A lamb that is without spot and without blemish. And at twilight, kill the lamb. And take the blood of the lamb and put him on the doorpost of your home. So that when the angel of death, if you will, the angel of judgment, comes upon the world, the nation of Egypt, he will see the blood that is on the doorpost of the nation of Israel. And he will

see the blood that is on the doorpost of the nation of Israel. And he will see the blood that is on the doorpost of your home, the blood of the perfect spotless lamb, and he will pass over and you will be saved from judgment. So that's what the nation of Israel did. And so the nation of Israel in this story of redemption gets set free. And as they get set free, they go out into the wilderness. Of course

the first thing that happens is they have to cross the Red Sea. Yay! Cross the Red Sea, everything went great. And then they came to a mountain, Mount Sinai. And on Mount Sinai they would spend a year of their lives being taught by the Lord God. And they would go out into the wilderness, and they would go out into the wilderness, and they would go out into the wilderness, and they would go out

of God. That's the rest of the book of Exodus and all of the book of Leviticus. That all encapsulates a year's time frame in which God would teach them what his righteousness looks like, what his standard looks like, and how they were to worship him based upon his righteousness and their own unrighteousness. And so God would teach them that standard while they were there. And so after that

year, he would teach them the law of God. And so God would teach them the law of God. And so God said, now it's time. You've got a tabernacle. You know the law. It's time for you to travel to the promised land, right? VeggieTales taught us best. We're going to the promised land, right? Everybody's excited. We're going to the promised land. They had some ups and downs on their way, but they

come to the edge of the promised land. And they decide to do something. They decide to send in 12 spies, right? Now, we used to do this song where we'd say, 12 went down to spy on Canaan, 10 were bad, and two were good. Everybody know that song? We're not going to sing it. But that's exactly what happened. They sent in to spy. 10 of them came back and said,

the land is awesome. There's giants. We can't win. Two of them came back and said, the land is awesome. There's giants. Let's see what God does. Of course, those two guys that said that were Caleb and Joshua. And so everybody listened to the 10 bad spies, the good ones. And so God said, if you're that worried about your kids, I'll tell you what. All of you adults, and I think that we all as adults should pay attention to this.

You all as adults, you don't get to enter the land. Anyone 20 years and older will die in the wilderness. And you will wander around for 40 years, the same number of days, one year for every day that the spies spent in the land. And that's exactly what happened. They roamed the wilderness for 40 years, waiting for all of the unbelief to die off. That's the book of Numbers.

Numbering of the nation of Israel before they left Mount Sinai. Numbering of the nation of Israel when they came back to the edge of the promised land. And so in this story of redemption, they come back to the edge of the promised land. And they have a couple of victories, one over Og, king of Bashan, one over King Sihon. And so they've got a couple of victories under their belts. Of course, there was one bad moment with Balaam, right? I actually

just read that story the other day. And every time I read that story, I'm just like, son of a gun, that thing really happened. I don't know why. Every time I read that story, I'm always shocked by it. I didn't read in the King James version. That one will really get you. So anyway, son of a gun, that thing really happened. And so they lost the rest of the unbelievers while they were

there, but they finally came to the edge of the promised land and they were ready to go in. But before they could go in, Moses had to remind them exactly what God had to say. So the book of Deuteronomy is Moses and the children of Israel on the edge of the promised land being reminded about God's righteous standard. Well, of course, we come to the end of the book of Deuteronomy in this story of redemption. And the children of Israel,

not the ones that left Egypt, not the ones that were adults when they left Egypt, but the kids, the kids are ready to go in and take the land. And Moses has died. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But that's the synopsis of what brought us all the way from the beginning of our study in Genesis, all the way to where we are right here in the book of Joshua. And so what I want to do

is I just want to read the first couple of verses. Of Joshua chapter one, and we'll spend our remaining time making some comments about that. Okay, I'll make more than a few comments. Joshua chapter one, verse one says this. 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, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise,

cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving them, to the sons of Israel. So as I read those first couple of verses, and again, that's all we're going to cover for tonight. I want to take note of a few things because I think we need to remind ourselves of some characters. We need to set a little bit of a background as we get into this book and look at what the goal of it is. Now, the first thing I take note of is after the death of Moses.

Well, that brings up a good question. Who was Moses? We talked about him just a little bit. He was the one that God raised up to deliver the children of Israel. But Moses, of course, had that miraculous beginning. You see, when Moses was born in the land of Egypt, it was around the time that Pharaoh started oppressing the people, started oppressing the Jewish Israeli people. So one of the things

that they were supposed to do is they were supposed to put all of the baby boys to death. Well, of course, Moses is born. His mom just looks at that little tyke and she says, I just, I can't do it. She tried to hide him as long as she could, but you know how it is when you got little boys. They're not very quiet. So she hid him as long as she could. Eventually, she knew she couldn't

hide him any longer. She couldn't put him to death, couldn't see him put to death. So the only thing that she knew to do was to make for him a basket of bulrushes, put him in the basket, set that basket in the Nile River, and simply hope for the best. And so that's exactly what she did. She put him in that basket, sent him adrift down the Nile River. And I don't know if y'all ever

thought about how scary of a situation that was, but you know, there's large snakes in the Nile River. And I'm not talking about snakes like we have here in Kansas. I'm talking about snakes, snakes, right? Ones that can, ones that can take down like hogs and stuff like that. There's crocodiles in that river, all kinds of dangerous things in the Nile River. And she just

had to put her trust in God. And you know, as a sidebar, again, I didn't intend to say this, but as a sidebar, I think we as parents and even grandparents have to remember, ultimately all we can do is put our kids in the hands of God and know that, know that he loves them more than we can ever think about loving them. Know that he can take care of them better than we can ever think about taking care of them. That's a hard thing to do right now, right? You

know, I got a daughter that's a teenager and she's cute, right? And so I put her in God's hands and say, Lord, you have to take care of her. I got another daughter that's what we call a free spirit, right? And I just have to, to put her in God's hands and say, Lord, you have to take care of her. I can tell him the truth, but I can't make him do the right thing. I just got to trust

you. And this is exactly what Moses's mom had to do. And you know what was amazing is that not only was Moses protected, but she got to finish raising him. And you know, I think she did in that little bit of time that she had to finish nursing him. I think she told him everything she could about God's promise. Because you know, when Joseph died in the land of Egypt,

you know what the last thing he told them was, God will visit you and he will take you out of this land and he will take you back to the land that he has promised you. I think I can't prove this scripturally. I think that's what Moses's mom told him over and over again, hoping that those words would sink deeply into his heart. Of course, he ends up being raised in the palace of Pharaoh.

We know that at the age of 40, he was feeling, his oats. He was seeing one of his countrymen being mistreated, and he killed the guard that was mistreating him, and he knew that he'd been caught. So he ran into the wilderness where he received, as J. Vernon McGee calls it, his backside of the desert degree. And it was there that he learned what it really meant to be a servant. And while he had a broken calling, God used him in the

most powerful way possible. God used him with those plagues. God used him to do miraculous things. But more than anything else, he was known as a friend of God, someone that God spoke to face to face. The one problem Moses had in his life is Moses had an anger problem. And I would say that for the most part, God had tamed that anger problem in Moses. After he had tamed that anger problem, he had tamed that anger problem in Moses.

After all, throughout the book of Numbers, how many times was it the people complained, again, right? And Moses always held that business together, except for one time. You see, they were in the desert, and they needed water. It wasn't the first time they needed water. One of the earlier times, God had told him, take your staff, and I want you to strike the rock.

Water came flowing forth. But this second time, God told him, take your staff, speak to the rock, and water will come forth. And Moses grabbed that staff, only anger had taken its hold. And as anger took its hold on him, he raised that staff, and he said, how long will we put up with you? How long will we provide water for you? And he struck the rock. And water flowed forth because God is gracious, but God had to say, hey, Moses, come here a minute.

I can't let you do that. I can't let you do that. Why didn't you believe me? Why did you dishonor me in front of the people? Because of that, you're not going to be able to go into the promised land. You're not going to be able to take the people, which is why he dives on the outskirts of the promised land. He even said, Lord, please, and God said, that's enough. You're not going to go.

But may I say, there's something incredibly symbolic for us to pay attention to. Moses represents the law. The law could take them to the edge of rest, but the law could not lead them into rest. Because the law is our schoolmaster that brings us to Christ. But once we've come to Christ, the law no longer has any place in our lives. And so Moses, the servant of God, had died.

And so notice the second thing I pay attention to is this. The Lord spoke to Joshua, the son, of Nun. Well, if the book is named Joshua, who I believe is the one who also wrote the book, not only because it says in Joshua chapter 24 that Joshua wrote these things down, but also because everything about Joshua seems to be a firsthand account of everything that took place. I actually think there's probably only a couple of things Joshua didn't write down, one of them being his death, because that would be weird if he could write that down. He didn't.

I believe that the priest probably wrote that part down, but I think he wrote everything else that was in the book. But if we're going to read a book bearing the name of Joshua, it's all about what Joshua was going to do. I think that we should know a little bit about him. Joshua had been born in Egypt. As a matter of fact, he was probably in his late 30s when they left Egypt. He was a grown man who was probably

pretty well accomplished. Most historians believe that Joshua had been a warrior at some point in time and had fought in the king's army, which is what made him a little bit of a natural choice when they were in the wilderness. And the Amalekites came against him, and they had to go to battle. You remember that story? They had to go to battle against the Amalekites, and Moses stood up on top of the mountain with

his hands up. Joshua was leading the people down below, and as long as Moses' hands were up, they had victory. But as Moses' hands fell down, they were defeated. So Eliezer and Aaron stood on the sides of him and held his hands up. Remember that story? It's what made Joshua sort of a natural choice. But there's a whole lot more to it than that, because Joshua, well, let me get to that part

in just one second. He was one of two that survived the wilderness wanderings. He was 40 years old when he went in to spy out the land with Caleb. And when he went in to spy out the land, he and Caleb were the only two that came back with a good report. Therefore, God said, those two will enter the land because there's a different spirit about them. And so when it came to Joshua, he said,

time for Moses to die. Moses asked God one question. It's kind of interesting, because in Numbers chapter 27, this story takes place. And I just read this this morning. I thought it was kind of interesting, because right before Moses died, God took Moses up on top of a mountain, and he let him look out over the land of Israel, let him look out over the promised land. Even

though he couldn't enter, God graciously allowed him to look at the land. And Moses asked one thing of God, and I thought that this was kind of fascinating. Moses said, Lord, will you appoint a shepherd? They will have the same spirit that I had to shepherd the people. I think that's interesting for a couple of reasons. I think it's interesting because Moses had the heart of a

shepherd, because he knew that the people were like sheep, and they needed someone to lead them. Do you know how Moses gained the heart of a shepherd? By living in the wilderness for 40 years being a shepherd. Don't despise the day of small things, because that is God's training ground for you. But the second thing that I took note of that I found to be kind of interesting is that the

reason why Moses had such a strong desire for there to be a shepherd that would guide the people, a shepherd like him, is because he loved the people so much. You know why that's fascinating? Because what did the people constantly do? They constantly complained. Why could he not enter the land? Because the people made him so angry that he responded out of anger and frustration

instead of the patience and faith that he needed. If anybody wouldn't have cared what happened to the people, it should have been Moses. He would have been like, thank you, Jesus, that I'm not dealing with them anymore. I don't care what happens to them, because they ain't my problem no more, right? But he didn't do that. He said, Lord, provide him a shepherd, somebody that will

guide the people. And isn't it amazing how God can give us a love for the most difficult people? I bet you just pictured who you need a love for in your mind right now. I hope it wasn't me. I hope it wasn't your neighbor either. Don't look at your neighbor. It's amazing how God can give us a love for those people, because that's exactly what he had done for Moses. Even though the people were,

frustrating, God gave him such a deep love that when all was said and done, he said, but they need a shepherd, God. Will you provide them with somebody? So God provided Joshua. Now, what made Joshua qualified to lead the people? I don't think it had anything to do with his military prowess or his intelligence or any of those kinds of things. Now, I didn't glean all of these myself. A couple of them I did. Some of them I read in commentaries,

but I thought that they were kind of interesting. I think that Joshua had five qualifications, five things. Pay attention to five things that qualified him to be the one that Moses would hand off the mantle to. Number one, he had been trained by Moses. He had been trained by Moses. For some reason, early on in leaving the nation of Egypt, Moses sort of took Joshua under his wing. Matter

of fact, he even renamed him. He added to his name. His name was Hosea, and he named him Yehuah. Yeah. Anyway, he added the J to it. And so Moses had taken him under his wing and just began to train him. It was a fascinating thing. And that's part of what qualified him is because he was always with Moses. And so he had seen what a shepherd was supposed to look like. And I think

probably gleaned a little bit of what the heart of a shepherd is supposed to be like. Number two, he constantly attended the tent of testimony. Even before there was a tabernacle, Moses established a tent of testimony. And you know who was always hanging outside of the tent of testimony, we're told? Joshua. Why? Because Joshua always wanted to be where God was. And that's part of what qualified him to be that spiritual leader. Number three,

Joshua had been with Moses on Mount Sinai. Now, I think that that's fascinating for a couple of reasons. Number one, because do you remember when Moses was a shepherd? He was a shepherd. He was a You remember what happened when God gave the law to the children of Israel? You remember God spoke it to them. He spoke the 10 commandments to them. And when they heard God speak those 10 commandments,

they were like, hey, Moses, you go, we'll wait here. Tell us what he said, right? But Joshua wasn't content with that. Two people were not content to hear secondhand what God had to say, Moses and Joshua. But the other thing that I find fascinating is how long was Moses on the mountain? Do you remember? Moses was on the mountain for 40 days. Bro, have you ever thought about how boring that had to have

been for Joshua? Day 27, still on the mountain, right? His journal had to have been like day 38, still on the mountain, right? Did he make friends with the rocks, right? Was it a castaway sort of a situation? I don't know. But he was willing to wait on the Lord. And he didn't do it once, he did it, wait for it, twice, right? He'd spent time with Moses on Mount Sinai. Number four, he and Caleb had a different spirit

about them. Remember? He and Caleb had that different spirit because they had a spirit of faith. Why did they have a spirit of faith? Because he was always outside the tent of testimony, and he spent time on the mountain with Moses. And then number five, and this is really important, Joshua was always available to be trained and available to be used. He was always available to be trained, and he was available to be used. You know what I think is a

really important thing for us to pay attention to as believers in Jesus Christ? God is not looking for the most qualified person on the face of the earth. If he was, I couldn't be here. God is looking for the most available person. Are you available for whatever the Holy Spirit wants to do through you? And are you available to let the Holy Spirit train you? Because you can't

be used by God. Until you are first trained by God. And so this is Joshua. Joshua, the son of Nun. Now, Joshua's told something here. So let's pick it up again. Now, it came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Prince, we can't bypass that and not deal with a little bit

of the gravity of the situation.

Now, this has been a difficult situation to put Joshua in, and it was a difficult situation for the nation of Israel to be in. Let's first of all talk about the national implications of the fact that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had died. Everything that the nation of Israel knew about God, they had learned from Moses. Everything that the nation of Israel knew about leadership, they had learned from Moses.

Everything that the nation of Israel had learned about stability, they had learned from Moses. Everything that the nation of Israel had learned about God's provision, they had learned through Moses. Moses was their picture of God, because he had been God's representative to the people, and he died. And there can be a real concern, the hearts and the minds and the lives of people when the leader dies.

When I was up at the pastors, or the, it's not a pastors and leaders conference anymore, it's called the Bible conference now. When I was up at the Bible conference, I was talking to Charlotte Jardine. Her husband was the pastor of Calvary Chapel of Johnson County, and that church is growing. It's beautiful to see what's happening up there under the leadership of Jared.

And I said, she said, how are things going at Calvary? And I said, the Lord's really blessing us right now. And it's fun to see the growth. And it's fun for me to come up here and see the growth that goes on. And I felt the Lord minister to this, this to my heart so strongly that I could not, I couldn't get away without saying it to her. I said, but I know for us, the same is true

as it is for you. The only reason that God is blessing our church is because he is blessing us. Churches is because we had godly men that laid a foundation of godliness in the church so that when something happened and our leader was gone, nobody missed a beat because the foundation was laid. And brothers and sisters, that's just the truth. Some of you know what I'm

talking about and some of you don't, but almost, almost six years ago now, we lost our pastor to cancer. And those were hard shoes. Hard shoes to fill. And I'll talk about Joshua with this in just a minute. And I saw the looks on people's faces when I had to get up and show the video of Mark saying, hey, I'm not fighting this thing anymore. I'm going to let God take me when he's ready. And the look of shock on

everybody's faces. Because quite frankly, when that's the one you have followed for all of those years, even though he was pointing you to Jesus, he was still your pastor. And it was the same. The same was true for those people up in Johnson County. He was still their pastor. And both of those guys are still my pastors. But when the foundation of godliness is laid, you realize it was not built upon the foundation of a man.

It was built upon the foundation of the truth. And if something is built upon the foundation of the truth, then it will continue even when the leader dies. Those are the national implications. That the nation of Israel faced. But you know, Joshua faced it too. Because Moses was his mentor, right? Moses was the guy that he had spent the last 40 years with alongside him,

listening to him, gleaning from him, learning from him. And now Moses, the servant of the Lord, died. And he appointed Joshua to take over. And you can imagine how Joshua felt at that point in time, right? There's a song by this band called Waterdeep, and there's a line in it about this. And I love this line. It says, Joshua set them children down. He said, I ain't no Moses,

but I ain't no clown. And I know how that river's wide. But if you follow me, I'll take you to the other side, because we're almost home. And I remember listening to that before anything ever happened in my life, going, that's a great line. And then I took over the church, and I was like, that's a great line. Right? Because it's hard to do that. Not only do you lose one of your friends,

now you got all the responsibility. This is a difficult spot for Joshua to be in. But those 40 years he'd spent with Moses, those 40 days, 80 days, he'd spent up on the mountain. They were preparing for the day. And he said, I ain't no Moses, but I ain't no clown. I'm preparing him for just this season. And so he says, Joshua, Moses is gone. Cross the Jordan. That's what it says in the middle of verse two. Arise, cross the Jordan,

you and all this people to the land which I'm giving them to the sons of Israel. He tells them to do three things. Arise, cross the Jordan, go to the land. Why does he tell them those three things? He tells them to go to the land. Because you know what the natural thing to do when a shift like that happens in your life is to just stop. I'm not doing anything. I'm just going to stay here. After all,

the last time we tried to cross into the land, how did all the people handle it? Well, they all revolted, right? And now the guy who was patient enough and strong enough to handle all those people, now he's gone. And so God has to tell him, arise, cross the Jordan, and go to the land. I didn't bring you this far just to have you stop at the border. I brought you this far to have you go into the land. The central act of redemption

in the Old Testament is the nation of Israel being redeemed from the nation of Egypt. Everything from this point on in the Old Testament will look back to that redemption. As a matter of fact, God will, over and over and over again, even in the prophetic books, refer to himself as the God who set you free from Egypt. But God brought them out of the land of Egypt, not so that they could wander in the wilderness, not just so that they could be out of the land of Egypt. He brought them out of the land of Egypt so that they could go to the promised land.

Because that was one of the main themes of the promise of God. I will be your God, you will be my people, and this will be your land. He brought them out to bring them in. And it was necessary, and it would be necessary, that they would walk in both faith and obedience. So let's do a little application for this in our own lives, shall we? What does Joshua have to do with the New Testament,

believer? You know, the name Joshua is kind of a fascinating name. The name Joshua means Yahweh is salvation. Matter of fact, it's Yeshua, right? Now, the English translation of the Hebrew word Yahweh is salvation is Joshua. But you know, there's a Greek word as well. The Greek, the English translation of the Greek word Yahweh is salvation is Jesus. Now, that's kind of fascinating, I think. Because who was the one that could bring them into the

promised land? It wasn't Moses. He represented the law. Who would it be? It would be Yeshua. Yahweh is salvation. So who would be the one that can lead us into our promised land? Jesus. Yahweh is salvation. Now, this promised land for the believer is not heaven. We need to understand that. Crossing the Jordan is not dying and going to heaven. If the promised land is heaven, I have a question for you.

Why are there wars? We're not fighting wars when we get to heaven. Matter of fact, the book of Revelation told us all of that's going to cease, right? So what is this promised land that's being spoken of? It's a life that we can have right here and right now. Through Jesus, you can have both rest and victory, but you have to follow Yeshua. You have to walk in both faith and obedience to Yeshua. To Yahweh is salvation.

And that's what we learn from this. We are set free from sin that we can walk in victory and have rest. And it's necessary that we walk in faith and obedience. If you will, Joshua is the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament book, Ephesians. Because Joshua tells us about our rest and victory. And it's necessary that we walk in faith and obedience. Ephesians tells us about our wealth and our victory

and our possessions through the power of God. Ephesians tells us about our wealth, our victory, and our possessions that come through Christ. Kind of interesting, right? So as we approach this book of Joshua, what I want us to understand is that Joshua is not just a history book, although it is a history book. It's a book of redemption and salvation. And it's a book of

victory. victory. And so if we want to understand what it means to walk in victory, to walk in faith, to walk in rest, we need to see how Joshua fought these battles. Because Joshua fought these battles through faith and obedience. And when he walked in faith and obedience, the children of Israel had victory and they had rest. Brothers and sisters, that's what Jesus wants for us.

And so this book is really important for us to pay attention to. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the time that we've had in your word tonight. And as always, Lord, may only the things of you be what go into the minds of the people and anything of me would fall by the wayside. And so, Father, I pray that you would continue to move in our hearts and in

our lives. Father, I pray that we would continue to be drawn close to you. And Lord, may your word take its hold on us. And I pray that you would continue to move in our hearts and in our lives. May you hold on our hearts. May we not question, did God say, but may we approach your word knowing that you did. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.