So we're coming this morning to the book of Joshua, just continuing on a systematic survey of the various books of the Bible. And so Joshua is that first book right after the Pentateuch that we've been dealing with this longer section, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, you will remember that the children of Israel are just on the very verge of crossing over the Jordan River. They are about to go into the promised land. And so we come to the book of Joshua that gives us many of the details of the children of Israel conquering that land. And then the end of the book is really tied up with a lot of the instructions as to how the land was divided and who got what pieces and where everybody lived. But the title of the book for this one is relatively obvious. It comes from Joshua's name. The Hebrew of the word Joshua would translate in a literal way, Jehovah saves, or it could be translated as a Jewish name. a request of exclamation, save Jehovah, as a plea. The name could be translated either way, but Jehovah saves. The Greek form of Joshua's name is Jesus. And so you will find even in, I believe it's Hebrews chapter four, the word Jesus is used there, not referring to Jesus Christ, it speaks of if Jesus had given them rest in the wilderness, but it speaks of its meaning Joshua. And so that's just the Greek translation or the transliteration of that name. Joshua was the instrument that God used to fulfill His Old Testament promises. And so you remember back when we were dealing in the book of Genesis, we said when we came to Genesis chapter 12, we were at the tallest mountain that we had gotten to so far. And it really becomes the tall mountain of the Old Testament. And from that tall peak, we can see all the way to the peak of the cross. And there are ups and downs, hills, valleys, and mountain peaks along the way. But that promise in Genesis 12 to Abraham was that God was going to bring his people into a land. a land flowing with milk and honey, that through that promise and through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed, etc. And so Joshua really gives us the fulfillment of that promise that God gave to his people. Up to this point, the promise is being fulfilled and that the people are, if you will, gradually inching closer to the land until we come to the very end of the book of Deuteronomy. They're at the Jordan River. Some of the tribes go ahead and cross and become and begin to become settled on the other side. But Joshua is the bringing of the people into this land. And we'll see later on a glorious day in the nation of Israel, the very last day that manna was provided. That was huge. That was the day that they began to eat of the fruit of that land. And they had obviously partaken of some of that before they crossed over, but the manor was finished. the drought, if you will, of the wilderness wanderings was over. And now God had brought them into the promise that he had made. We looked in the book of Deuteronomy, part of that promise, Moses said to the people, you're gonna live in houses you didn't build. You're gonna eat from vineyards you didn't plant. You're gonna enjoy the fruits of somebody else's labor when I bring you into this place. And when you're brought in there, Remember and don't forget the Lord. And so that was our dominant theme through the book of Deuteronomy. And so just as Joshua was that instrument that brought about the promises in the Old Testament, the greater Joshua, Jesus, was that instrument that God used to fulfill his promise of redemption, the ultimate fulfillment of Genesis 12, and also the fulfillment of that other mountain peak in Genesis 3.15, the promise of a seed that would come and destroy the head of the serpent. Many people identify Joshua as the author. You might find it strange to believe that there are even some good conservative people that don't identify Joshua as the author just because the book bears his name does not necessarily mandate that he is the person that put pen to paper to write the book of Joshua. Although most, I believe, at least from my survey, most conservative authors would identify Joshua as the author of the book. For one of the reasons is, as you read the book, it seems to be a book written during Joshua's lifetime. There are first-hand accounts Joshua seems to be the natural author of the book. There's a phrase that's used 14 times in the book of Joshua, unto this day. So if you look at Joshua chapter 6 verse 25, I actually left that quoted in your notes there in the middle of that third larger paragraph on the front page. It says, and Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and all that she had, and she dwelleth, so that's present tense, she dwells right now in Israel even unto this day. because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And so if this was written after Joshua was long dead, well, if Joshua was long dead, then Rahab's long dead, and to communicate that Rahab dwelleth in Israel even unto this day doesn't seem to make a lot of sense if it was written way after Joshua was dead. Now those even conservative people that say Joshua's not the author, the dwelleth in Israel unto this day, they just say that all that's referring to is Rahab's descendants. So if you look at the verse, this is not unreasonable to come to this conclusion. Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had, and she dwelleth, that being a reference to her descendants. Now, that's not the natural reading of the language, mind you, but it's not an unreasonable conclusion to come to, especially when you understand from the context that sometimes when we read in the genealogies, so-and-so begat so-and-so and somebody begat so-and-so, and it says so-and-so was the father of so-and-so, well, There are cases where when it says he was the father of this other guy, well, he actually was his grandfather, but it uses the term father. And so sometimes the genealogical tracings are not quite so literal as we would use and anticipate that language. And so it's not an unreasonable conclusion. If you read a commentary on Joshua and they say that Joshua didn't write it, don't immediately look for matches and burn the thing. Keep reading. There might be a good, reasonable explanation. But as I read the literature, I understand Joshua is the person that wrote that. Now, you come to the end of the book, and Joshua dies. Well, somebody else wrote that part. That's OK. We dealt with that already when we looked at the book of Deuteronomy, when Moses is dead. Somebody wrote something after Moses died. Now, we're OK, even from a conservative perspective, we're OK with that. Editors, I use that word loosely, but we're okay with that. Several writers have been mentioned all the way up until the time of Ezra. Now, Ezra was after the Babylonian captivity. Now, to me, that doesn't seem reasonable. Most would point the finger at Samuel as being the person that would have compiled and organized some of this. But we do know from the New Testament that whoever it was He was a person that was in that category of holy men of God that were moved by the Holy Ghost, whoever it was. It was a holy man of God moved by the Holy Ghost. I'm also okay, and I think we should understand it from this perspective, we're also okay that Moses and Joshua wrote prophetically of their death, And they could very well have recorded all of those by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We're okay with that, too. But we're not diving into liberal territory when we say that someone else came along after the fact. wrote the end, the last page, as it were, of after Joshua died, really closing out the book. But turn with me to Deuteronomy 34. I know we're studying Joshua, but we've done this several times looking at the different books, and I just want you to see how it flows depending on how your Bible's laid out. You may have to turn a page But if you look at Deuteronomy 34, let's just start reading in verse number seven as a natural place to pick up. And the point that I'm making here, we're gonna read the end of Deuteronomy and then we're gonna go right into Joshua without stopping. And you'll see that the book of Joshua picks up where Deuteronomy leaves off. We've seen that when Genesis ended, Exodus was like literally the next natural sentence to write. When Exodus finishes, Numbers, or Leviticus, is the next thought, the next thing on the page. And so we'll see that here too, Deuteronomy 34, 7. And Moses was 120 years old when he died. And his eye was not dim, nor his natural face abated. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom. And Moses had laid his hands upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. And all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land and in all that mighty hand and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel. Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. And so if you didn't have headings in your Bible, and if Joshua 1.1 was instead Deuteronomy 34.13, you wouldn't know any difference. It just flows right through, showing the cohesive nature of the word of God for one thing, and the testimony of what God has communicated about the history of redemption. And so we learn in the end of the book of Deuteronomy, we're told earlier in the book of Deuteronomy that Joshua is next. But Joshua was God's chosen instrument to take the place of Moses as the leader of this great nation of people. Now, one thing is interesting when you begin to look at Joshua and how he's presented in the book, he is more often than not presented to us and mentioned to us in the shadow of Moses. He is often referred to as Moses' servant, or as it's translated in Joshua 1.1, he's called Moses' minister. 10 times in the book of Joshua, he's referred to as Joshua the son of Nun. We read at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, he's referred to as Joshua the son of Nun. Now let's grant this, Joshua was a pretty common name, and so which Joshua are you talking about? Joshua the son of Nun, but think about it in this way as well. Moses had a father, But Moses is not presented to us in scripture as Moses the son of. And Abraham had a father. And Abraham is not presented to us over and over in the scriptures as Abraham the son of so and so. I think there's something of a humility that is communicated to us here in the mention of Joshua's name so often connected with his father instead of him standing alone, as it were. He was a servant of the Lord. Now, it's obvious he was a servant of the Lord. Moses was a servant of the Lord. But so often when Moses is identified, he's identified as Moses, the servant of the Lord. And we're told that over and over and over. But Joshua is never called that until the very last page of the book. And so it's not until you get to the very end, Joshua chapter 24 and verse 29, when actually Joshua is dead at this point, before Joshua is ever referred to as the servant of the Lord. So Joshua 24, 29, and it came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died being 110 years old. That's the first time he's ever called the servant of the Lord. Although it's obvious through his entire ministry, even when he was under Moses, the captain of the army, he was the one that was fighting there against Amalek and Aaron and Hur were holding up Moses' hand and it was Joshua down there leading the battle, leading the troops. He was obviously serving the Lord. He was a servant of the Lord. But he's not called that until after he dies. He's normally either referred to as Moses' helper or nun's son, son of nun. But the fact that the Lord raised up Joshua to replace Moses, I believe does teach us something quite instructive, an important lesson. And so I put a rather lengthy quotation there in your notes at the bottom of page two from John Calvin on this particular point. I will read this to you, what John Calvin says. about this, I actually found it quite encouraging. And as I was reading it, I immediately stopped and got it down and I sent it over to Moses Don in Liberia and thought it would be an encouragement to him. As I read it, the first thing I thought about of the Lord raising up a replacement, the Lord raising up the next person to take on the job. But John Calvin says this, He says, this suggests the very useful reflection, that while men are cut off by death and fail in the middle of their career, the faithfulness of God never fails. You see, Moses died, nobody ever dies an untimely death, you understand the sovereignty of God, but Moses' eye was not dimmed, his strength was not abated. Moses had disobeyed the Lord, and he was cut off. The Lord took Moses because of his disobedience before the children of Israel went into the land. And so he was cut off by death. He failed in the middle of his career, but the faithfulness of God never fails. On the death of Moses, a sad change seemed impending. The people were left like a body with its head lopped off. while thus in danger of dispersion, not only did the truth of God prove itself to be immortal, but it was shown in the person of Joshua as in a bright mirror, that when God takes away those whom he has adorned with special gifts, he has others in readiness to supply their place. and that though he is pleased for a time to give excellent gifts to some, his mighty power is not tied down to them. But he is able, as often as seemeth to him good, to find fit successors, nay, to raise up from the very stones persons qualified to perform illustrious deeds." Now, John Calvin wrote that many, many years ago, But it's a reflection on Moses is off the scene, but the promise is not dead. The promise of God was not dependent on one human being. The promise of God being fulfilled was not on Moses' shoulders. Was Moses a great man? Absolutely, 100%. But was Moses necessary? to the fulfillment of God's promise? And the answer is absolutely not, because God fulfills his promise, not men. And really a quite encouraging truth that the weight of the performing of the work of God does not rest on the shoulders of any one man. God always has his servants. Now we serve as faithfully as we can possibly serve in the moment, in the time that God gives us to serve him. And we serve him heartily as unto the Lord with all of our might, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and all the rest of it. But the burden of fulfilling what God has called That weight is not so much on our shoulders as it is on the Lord's to bring about his promise. The Lord always has his servants in, what does he say, readiness of supply to raise up those for him. Now, we get into a division of the book, top of page three here. The book divides pretty nicely into three main sections. I've not, on any of these studies, labored to go through an outline and deal with the book in that way. We're really looking at some of the major themes. But if we look at how the book of Joshua divides, it's pretty conveniently divided into these three sections, two longer ones and then a short one there at the very end. The first 12 chapters are about all the battles. and really the details of how the land is conquered and the process and how armies are defeated. Then chapter 13 to 21 deals with dividing that land up. And Judah went first, they got the larger portion and then all the tribes and who got what place and all those divisions. And then the very end is something of a description of life in that promised land, what it was like. Now, one of the dominant themes that we see in the book of Joshua is actually somewhat similar to what we saw in the book of Deuteronomy. One of the dominant themes is that God will not bless his covenant people unless they remain faithful and obedient to his commandments. Now, this is really what Moses preached in Deuteronomy. Remember the Lord, don't forget him. That was our main theme, remember the Lord and don't forget Him. And the implication is, if you forget the Lord, there will be consequences to that. Now, we saw in the book of Numbers, similar things. We saw God being faithful to His promise, even when His people were unfaithful. And so it's in the book of Numbers that we see the rebellion of Korah and God destroyed them. We see Moses' disobedience and God punished him. We see over and over various rebellions and punishments, but yet the promise is not lost. God is still going to fulfill his promise. When we come to the book of Joshua and we come to same song, different verse, if you will, of this theme, God is faithful. God is also righteous. God is also just. God will punish iniquity. He will punish sin. He will deal with that. And you remember, we took something of a theme in Deuteronomy, to be happy in Jesus, you trust and obey, to play off the song that we sing often. Well, we see that played out in real life, really, in the book of Judges. God is a faithful covenant-keeping God, but He's also righteous in His dealings, and obedience is necessary. And so we can go through six for you examples here. So one, let's turn to Joshua chapter 4. We're not gonna get all that terribly far into the book, but just to illustrate some of these things, Joshua chapter four, we have here a memorial of stones after crossing the Jordan. So Joshua four verse 19, and the people came up out of Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those 12 stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. Now, history, background here, they were commanded before they went over that a representative from each tribe was to pick up a stone from the riverbed as they went across. And so you end up with 12 of them. which they took out of Jordan to Joshua, Pitch, and Gilgal. Verse 21, and he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you. until you were passed over as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone over. And all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you might fear the Lord your God forever. And so what Joshua is telling the people is that in generations to come, You're going to be taking a walk along the riverside, and you're going to see this monument of stones, and your children are going to ask, Daddy, why are these stones stacked up this way? And I want you to remember they're here for a memorial to you to remember what God had promised and how God delivered the children of Israel, delivered your forefathers out of the wilderness into this good land. It is a monument of God's faithfulness to his promise. He always will keep that promise. And so that's the very end of chapter four. Now we come to chapter five, and after crossing the Jordan, there is a covenant renewal that the Lord brought to the people, and a covenant renewal of bringing them into this greater blessing. And they celebrated the first Passover in the new land. The Lord took away the manna. So look at verse 12. This is what I mentioned just a moment ago. Chapter five and verse 12. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manna anymore, but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year." Now, that was a glorious blessing and a glorious truth of how the Lord had fulfilled this great promise. I think I skipped one. I did. I skipped verse 5. I missed that transition. Sorry. The end of chapter 4, the children of Israel have crossed over Jordan. The renewal of this covenant is a renewal of the covenant of circumcision. That's what I'm meaning to say in verse 5 of chapter 5. Now, all the people that came out, so came out of Egypt, were circumcised. But all the people that were born in the wilderness, by the way, as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised." And then skip down to verse 8, and it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people that they abode in their places in the camp till they were whole, And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you, wherefore the name of this place is called Gilgal unto this day. It was after that, after that renewal of that covenant. And those that had not been circumcised in the wilderness through that wandering period, now were circumcised healed to a point of wholeness, then it's when God had them celebrate that first Passover and the manna was finished. And it was really the final stamp that God had delivered them to the place he had promised and provided for them in that place he had promised. The manna was finished and they were eating of the land of the promised land from then on. And it's in that same context, if you look at the end of Joshua chapter five, it's in that same context of the renewal of that covenant. the eating that first Passover in the new land, the man of being gone, that the Lord reveals himself to Joshua as the true leader of the nation. Verse 13, and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, are thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, what sayeth my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoes from off thy foot for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. And so you'll see, let me make sure I did this right in my notes. Yes, so you'll see in my notes on page four, the very last there, that when I quote this, captain of the host of the Lord, I changed the C to a capital C. That's on purpose. I think in the scriptures it should be capitalized, captain of the Lord's host. Joshua falls on his face and did worship, and the captain of the Lord's host did not tell him not to worship. We have angels in scripture that people fall down before in a prostrate way of worship. And the angel says, don't worship me, stop. This person does not forbid it, does not stop them. What we have here, and most identify this as a pre-incarnate appearing of Christ to Joshua as the captain of the Lord's host, the captain of God's armies, the one who is in charge and the real leader of the nation. But we come on to develop something of this theme more, we get to chapter six and we have Rahab's faith that is honored as she is the one who is spared in Jericho, she and her father's house, nobody else is spared. Joshua six and verse 25, Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and all that she had. And we looked at this verse earlier, dwelleth in Israel unto this day. But there we see Rahab's faith honored for her trust in God, her faithfulness to the God of Israel. She had heard somewhere along the way of this God Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who delivered the children of Israel out of the land. I had a conversation just recently, it was, I don't, Lydia, who was I talking to about Joshua and Rahab and when Rahab was saved? Were you in that conversation? I forget who I was talking to. But we were discussing when was Rahab converted? Was Rahab converted when those spies arrived or had Rahab already been converted at the news of Israel's God And she believed in Jehovah. She had heard enough of this nation of Israel, this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and these people that had been redeemed by a mighty hand. And was she a believer already? The spies arrived. The Lord, by His Spirit, gave her discernment to understand who they were, what was happening. She hid them, protected them. Her faith was honored and she was saved at the end. The Bible doesn't address it, obviously. But at some point, she was regenerate. At some point, the deadness of her heart was taken away The other people in Jericho did not have that revelation of the knowledge of God, but Rahab did. There was some understanding in her heart of who this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was, but her faith was honored. A fourth example here is Achan's disobedience at Jericho. Quite an interesting episode where the justice of God is executed against the entire nation because of one man's sin. A guy saw a garment and some gold and silver coveted that directly disobeyed God's commandment to not take of any of those things that had been set apart, devoted for the Lord service. He took it, thought he'd never be found out, was found out. and the children of Israel go to defeat Ai right on the hills of Jericho, a relatively easy task in the grand scheme of things. And they were chased with their tail between their legs and 36 Israelites died in the process of it. And Joshua rends his clothes and asks, what in the world just happened here? And the Lord said, there's sin in the camp. You have to obey me or I'm not gonna bless you. There was sin that had to be dealt with. The lot was cast, eventually falls on Achan, and you know the aftermath of that story. Achan and all that he owned was destroyed. Quite a contrast. Rahab and all that she had was saved at faith and repentance. Achan and all that he had was destroyed at rebellion and seeking to cover his sin. It's quite a contrast between these two characters right there in that story, but it supports this theme. If you want the blessing of God, obey God's commandments. It really is that simple. If you want the blessing of God, obey God's commandments. We come to chapter eight. There's another renewal of this covenant at Mount Ebal, chapter eight, verses 30 to 35. And then the last thing we'll deal with, we're out of time already, is the disobedience of the children of Israel with the Gibeonites. They did not seek the Lord's advice. They did not seek counsel from the Lord. These Gibeonites came with a lie. that they were from some far country, they got all their moldy bread, they got all their old shoes, they dressed up, they put on this ruse, and they come and they present a falsehood to Joshua and the people of Israel, and they fall for it because they did not ask counsel from the Lord. And they entered into a league in the book of Deuteronomy, God had already told them. Don't enter into a league with anybody from this land. Don't do it. This land is yours. You're supposed to go in there and you're supposed to wipe the slate clean. They were supposed to kill every single person there. They didn't, they disobeyed, they entered into this league. And we will, as we go through later books of the Old Testament, the Gibeonites will pop their ugly head up over and over and over again. And we'll see for generation after generation, after generation, after generation, the Gibeonites continue to give the children of Israel problems. Had they only been faithful and obeyed the Lord from the beginning, these problems generations later would have never even been a thing. But we see God demanding faithfulness to his law, obedience to his law, in order to receive the blessing of God. That major thing so we'll stop there. We're out of time here, but we'll stop there at the end of the notes and Really the end of what we need to discuss here. I will not be here next Sunday we will be in Alabama as a family and And then I will not be here the next Sunday after that. So the next two Sundays, I'll be gone. Alabama one, and then Logan Elder from our church in Orlando, he's on our mission board. He and I are going down to, Where are we going? Jamaica. Thank you. I need to look at my schedule. We're going to Jamaica for an update trip and just seek to be an encouragement to Richard. Richard goes into public schools often. I've never had an opportunity to go with him to those. He normally doesn't go on Friday, but he's organizing a couple of the schools to be able to go into for Bible clubs and things like that. Pray for him in that. His nickname is Uncle Richard. And he really works as a school counselor. The teachers and administration of the school bring to him the rebellious kids, and he has opportunity to minister to them, often one-on-one, and deal with them, even in a public school context, and no restrictions at all on him of what he can do as far as sharing the gospel and such. So do pray for him in that. But I appreciate your prayers for our trip down there. But let's close in prayer now. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this book of Joshua and the survey we've been able to do. We pray that you would give us a greater desire for faithfulness. We see very clearly in the scriptures that you bless obedience to your law. We know that in the gospel and we know in the whole context of the scripture that We're not earning anything from you. This is not our merit in that sense. But our obedience is out of a heart of great thankfulness for what you have done. But we also obey from that sense of the fear that you have placed in our heart. We do not want to do anything that would hurt a relationship that we have with you. We do not want to go contrary to the laws that you have commanded us. And so we pray that you would make us to be a faithful people. We pray for more consistency in our faithfulness and also spiritualized to to see the bumps in the road and the things that we need to avoid along the way. So we pray for your help. Pray that you'll bless us in the service to follow. And we ask in Jesus name. Amen.