Weeks 18 and 19: Joshua and Psalms 120 – 133

Good gracious!  Do we have a lot of ground to cover since I was unable to write a blog last week?  In fact, we have made it all the way through the book of Joshua since I last posted!  With such rich spiritual implications of God’s victory in our lives with Jesus as the Commander of the LORD’s Army, the accounts of Joshua bolstered my faith in His ability to fight my battles.  Joshua himself wrapped it up perfectly in his address to the people of Israel at Shechem:

“Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”  Joshua 21:45

Did those words strike you like they did me?  Not one word has failed…all came to pass.  After 40 years of struggling through one consequence for disobedience after another, taking what seemed to be two steps forward and one step back in the wilderness, God seamlessly brought to pass the promises that had been made to Abraham way back in Genesis!  Apart from Israel’s defeat at Ai and the ill-fate of Achan’s disobedience, we witnessed what obedience to the LORD looks like.  As Joshua and the LORD’s army swept through the promised land, dispossessing its cities and devoting all things idolatrous to destruction, everything went according to plan.  The narrative read like a Sunday walk in the park compared to the constant failure and consequences that filled the pages of Exodus through Deuteronomy.

Reading the book of Joshua in its context, as the continued story of the people of Israel after their time in the wilderness, shed new light on its meaning for me.  The book of Joshua on its own is one for the movie screen, full of dramatic scenes, heroic characters, violent enemies, unexpected twists and moments of life altering decision.  But, put in its proper context, it is the faithfulness of God that stands heads above as the prominent theme.

Given that we must continue moving forward in our journey through the Bible, I will not linger too long here in Joshua.  Before we travel on, however, please allow me to highlight just a few of the passages from Joshua that spoke to my heart and challenged my thinking:

“And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.  And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land.  And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.”  Joshua 5:11-12

Perhaps this passage jumped off of the page at me because eating (I must admit!) is one of my favorite parts of living.  No one has ever had to remind me that its meal time!  I cannot help but wonder what it would have been like for the second generation of Israelites who had grown up on quail and manna and had learned to depend on it like we do running water.  And then, just like that…the manna ceased!  It was no longer the daily provision that they needed now that they had the fruit of the land to feast on.  God had provided for them in a new way, a different way, a way that He had promised that He would.

I wonder how the people responded when they got up that morning, stumbled out of their tents still half asleep with their basket in hand to go gather their daily portion of manna, only to find that there was none.  Did they panic?  Did they welcome the change?  They had tasted the delicious and abundant fruit of the land the day before.  Undoubtedly, it was more wonderful than they had even imagined.  But, it was different than what they had known for 40 years.  They were used to God being their personal caterer of divine food every morning.  Now, they had to learn how to govern for themselves their provisions of food.  The land provided more than just the daily provision.  With the abundant fruit of the land came more opportunity for delight, but more responsibility as well.

Quite honestly, I don’t know how I would have responded!  I am incredibly resistant to changes in my daily habits.  A change of scenery?  Great!  A change of leadership?  I can deal with that.  But a change of my daily habits that provide me with comfort and predictability?  Don’t mess with those unless you want to see how ugly I can be when I feel out of control.  Even when God asks me to hand over something that I have grown to depend on so He can provide something far more satisfying, my initial reaction is one of resistance and fear.

How do you respond when God ceases to provide for you in a way that you have grown familiar with in order to provide in a new and more necessary way?

“…for thus says the LORD, God of Israel, ‘There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel.  You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.’”  Joshua 7:13

This passage hit a nerve with me too!  It lingered with me for days after reading it.  What “devoted things” do I have hidden away?  What are the things that the LORD has commanded me to devote to destruction out of His protection and jealousy of my heart that I am still hording?  While I am 100% assured of the authority of Jesus’ blood over my life, have I left vulnerable ground to the enemy of my soul by clinging to the idols of my heart?

“And he (Joshua) took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.  And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us.’”  Joshua 24:26-27

The details of this stone of witness and its location sang of significance to me.  Looking back at Genesis 35, the terebinth tree that Joshua set the large stone under may well have been the very same tree that Jacob hid the foreign gods of his family under just before God changed his name from Jacob to Israel.  From the very origins of the nation of Israel, God wanted the full devotion of His people’s hearts.  Jacob hid away the lesser gods of his family under the terebinth tree at Shechem as an outward sign of their loyalty to God, but their hearts were still wrought with idolatry and sin.  As Joshua set the stone of witness under that same tree, Israel confessed loyalty to God with their mouths but would be offering themselves to foreign gods on practically the next page of our Bibles.

The point is, our hearts are not loyal to our God.  That would be the grievous end of our story if not for another stone of witness.  The large stone that was rolled over the tomb of Jesus after he was laid dead served as a witness against us.  Our sin, our unfaithfulness, our inability to keep our part of the Mosaic covenant is what killed Jesus.  The weight of our sin is what crushed Him to the point of death.  The stone was there to testify of our absolute guilt.  The stone was the very thing that the women were discussing on their way to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ dead body. “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” they asked (Mark 16:3).  The stone was the thing that would keep them from drawing near to Jesus, reminding them of just how very gone and distant He was.  But then…

“Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back – it was very large.”  Mark 16:4

The force of Jesus’ resurrected life removed the stone so the women could enter into the tomb and see that He was not there!  Death could not hold Him!  The stone could not contain Him!  Our guilty verdict was not the last word!

Where is the stone of witness against us?!  It has been rolled away!  Enter into the tomb dear traveler…go and see for yourself!  He is not there.  He is risen.  It is finished.  “Forgiven” is the last word and there remains no witness against us.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”  Psalm 103:12