Going to the Promised Land

This week we look at the election of the Jews for the promised land and God's encouragement to Joshua.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hello and welcome to Path to Redemption the Podcast. My name is Daniel Arona, and just remember the simple truth. The Father loves you, Jesus loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. Once again, I hope that you've had a great week. I hope that you've had time to spend with the Lord in prayer and also in his word. Again, I cannot stress this enough. We all know that the time is quickly approaching. Just kind of seeing the things that are happening here in this world. The secularism is coming, the things that are going on with Islam, the rise of anti-Semitism. I'm sure everyone by now has heard of the events that happened in Australia during a Hanukkah celebration. Also here in the US, someone shot 20 shots into someone's house that was decorated for Hanukkah as well. Look, anti-Semitism is rising, and it's just going to continue to rise. It has to, in order for an antichrist figure to come in to play. There's a whole host of scripture to support all of that. But for us, it's important that we pray for Israel. Continue to pray for them, that they may become saved, that they may come to know that Jesus Christ is their personal savior. And and some people find that offensive when I say, oh, you know, the that the the Jewish people need to find Jesus, and that, but they really do. That's what scripture says. Um, and at the end of the day, he came and he is Jewish, uh, and he came out of that lineage and out of that people, and and they were looking for a Messiah, they were looking for someone that was going to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords, uh, but they never thought it would be this Jewish man named Jesus Christ who walked uh this earth. And and you know, they were looking for someone that was going to kick out the Romans versus the suffering savior that was going to redeem uh the world and mankind for anyone that would believe in him. And and you know, they just weren't looking for what it didn't match up with what they expected. And I think that's true for a lot of us, you know, when we believe in God for certain things, like it never seems to get answered the way that we think it is, but it always gets answered answered the way that it's supposed to be. So I think that's a pretty important lesson for us. But look, uh, as it says in Zechariah, you know, as a prophecy that two-thirds of the the Jews during the tribulation will unfortunately perish. Um, but they if we can pray and ask for a revival to break out in the Jewish people, um, that number goes goes down. The the ratio will always be there, two-thirds will always be there. That's in scripture. There's nothing we can change about that, but the number of that two-thirds certainly can as we pray for revival for them. So uh make sure we continue to do that as well. There's just a lot of things going on, particularly as as Canada looks to um remove the religious exemption to their hate speech laws, as we see just different things happening uh across the world. So make sure that we are starting to show us show ourselves approved unto God, make sure that we are talking about Jesus Christ every single time that we can and demonstrating the love uh to people that they desperately need to see, the true love that is in Jesus Christ. Also, pray for what's going on in Nicaragua. It is absolutely a tragedy um that is happening over there as the many, many, many Christians are being killed. So please, please, please pray for what's going on over there as well. Um, and then pray for us as well that we may be able to speak boldly, as Paul said, um, the gospel that all of us, all of us have been entrusted with. So we all need that, and it's important that we exhort uh one another as the day quickly approaches, as it says in the book of Hebrews. Amen. So, with that, here we are. Um, the children of Israel have gone through the wilderness, they've spent 40 years wandering, um, and now it's time to go into the promised land, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. Um, we're gonna talk about a little bit at the end of Moses' life, um, one of the things that he said, because I I want to reiterate this part about selection um and election with the Jewish people, um, because it's an important aspect of understanding uh where they fit, what their role is here. So if we can understand that, if we can see that, then then uh we can we can certainly understand why the promised land is still theirs and ultimately why the land is God's, and he can give it to whoever he wants. But before we get into that, uh just some housekeeping items. Again, all of our scripture comes from the New King James Bible. If you'd like a copy of a New King James Bible, feel free to drop me a note at path to redemptionohio at gmail.com. More than happy to get one into your hands. Um, also, my book is out. The first book of the trilogy, Iniquity. Um, it's called Iniquity of the Cross. Um, and redemption is book one uh is called Iniquity. It's out at uh Barnes of Noble, at uh it's also at um Amazon as well. If you want to look look for that, you can either search by my name or you can search by uh by the title. Um, one of the things I would say is that it's uh they're kind of have an auto-stock uh ordering type system going on right now. Um so if you can't get it or it says it's unable to ship to your uh to your location or to your to where you live, uh just give it a couple hours and it will uh come back on. So um just something to kind of be aware of. Um but again, and then finally, all of our scripture comes from the New King James Bible, as I kind of talked about before, but don't take my word for it. Make sure you study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman worthy of his hire, and make sure that you are putting in the work. I truly, truly, truly mean it. Um, you have to put in the work. Amen. All right, so with that, let's go ahead and jump in. Um, you know, we talked about the selection of Abraham when we first started, but again, I kind of really want to hammer this home here. This has everything to do with selection. So we're before Moses dies in Deuteronomy 32, 7 through 14, this is what he tells the children of Israel. He says, Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations, ask your father, and he will show you your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the place of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness. He encircled him, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye, as an eagle stirs up its nests, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord led him, and there was no foreign god with him. He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields, he made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock, curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock with fat lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats with the choicest wheat, and you drank wine, the blood of grapes. The the whole point of this here is that God selected Abraham, and then it was doubled down on with Jacob. It was a form of grace. That's not what we see. That's what we see here, right? It was about selection, and that selection does not go anywhere as it progresses. When God has called you to something, you are called. Now the issue is that many are called, but few are chosen. But in this time frame, Abraham, knowing that he was a friend of God, was clearly going to be selected. The promise went to Jacob. Now remember what Paul said, quoting Malachi in Romans 9, 10 through 13. He says, And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but of him who calls. It was said to her, the older shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Now the repentance here, now look, this is the whole point here. This election means without repentance. Okay. Jacob he loved and Esau he hated. God had already chosen Jacob out of the womb. That's exactly what he's saying here. Because the children being before they were even born, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. Now you can say that, well, that's not fair. You can say all that stuff, but guess what? None of us are God. It is God's decision on what he is going to do when he chose Jacob. And the election is without repentance, because Romans 11, 25 through 32 says, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. That blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy, for God has committed them all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all. See, the land is Israel's because of selection. Because of that, because of the selection of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now the next question is that if these people are God's portion and Jacob his inheritance, then what happened to the other nations? And this is a really important study later that maybe we'll do, but they were divided and given over to lesser gods. And I don't have time to go into it, but go and read Psalm 82, and it will show you the conduct of these lesser gods. If you really want to have a deep dive into it, there's a tremendous book by um Dr. Michael Hauser that is called The Unseen Realm. It really lays out this whole argument uh about the council of the gods. It's a really interesting read and one that I think is pretty spot on. But he gave them over and he took Israel as inheritance until his son could be resurrected after the death of his flesh, and then be put in the rightful place so that Jesus Christ could rule over all, as we see. And then when he becomes ruler over all, and then he puts death under his feet, then he will turn around and make God all in all and give all authority back to him. That is in 1 Corinthians 15. Now, so suffering that little tangent there for a second, so we understand the election of God with the Jews. We know that Moses dies on Mount Nebo because he he struck the rock rather than talk to it. Again, a message in itself, because you cannot strike Jesus Christ twice. He struck the first rock, which is a picture of Jesus, and the water flew from it, which is the washing of the water of the word. Um, but now the children of Israel stand at the Jordan River waiting to cross. And the first chapter of Joshua is a portion of scripture uh that I've really grown to appreciate more than than you'll really truly ever stand ever understand. But I'll tell you here in a few of why. But let's look at it relative to the land of Israel first. Um and it says Joshua 1, 1 through 4, it says, After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them. The children of Israel, every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I have given you. As I said to Moses, From the wilderness in this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the Great Sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. So first and foremost, Joshua was Moses' assistant. We know that. We know he lived with Moses. We know that there were times that he was in the tabernacle of meeting with Moses. He was there when Moses was talking to God face to face. He was Moses' right hand. He went up even into the mountain for 40 days. Now here he is, and he has led, and now he has to lead these people. And God uses pretty direct language here with Joshua. He says, My says, Moses, my servant, is dead. It really doesn't get more direct than that. But I understand why. And I didn't before until, but I do now. Um, when my mom died, and I've talked about her before, she was my spiritual mentor. She taught me how to flow in the spirit of the Lord and what it was to be led by the Spirit. I ran everything I thought I heard from God through her to be sure. She was always my second witness. Well, when she died, the Lord sent me to Joshua chapter one. I would begin reading, but the moment I got to Moses, my servant is dead, I shut my Bible. The last thing I wanted to read about was how Joshua's spiritual mentor had died. Because mine just did it. Not only that, but it was my mom. But you can't tell me that Moses and Joshua didn't have a special relationship. So when mom died, I kept thinking, How in the world am I going to fill her shoes and the family and all that she did? And I'm sure that Joshua had the exact same thoughts. But God had to be direct with me because he was basically saying to me, Look, I had Moses for that time, but I want you to be you. He was telling me the same thing. Like he was saying, I don't need you to be your mom, I need you to be you. And I think that's what God was telling Joshua here. Look, the past is over and done with. You're through the wilderness. It's now time to go ahead and inherit the promised land. Moses could not inherit the promised land, but Joshua could, right? And that's the whole concept here. And the first thing that God did was tell Joshua, okay, it's time to go over Jordan, you and all this people to the land I'm giving them. Every place you tread is yours. Again, this is election. They had already, they had this had been wandered by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but God had said, Look, this is yours. I'm giving it to you. I've done all the work here. All you have to do is walk it. But I want to look at one more thing. It was God's land to give. When he took it as an inheritance for himself, which we will talk about a little later when we get to Christ, he took the land. It was his to give while he gave the rest of the world over to the lesser gods. And I want to be clear about that. God Almighty is the one that dictates where who gets what land. He had chosen this land, and as we talked about before, he had given provision for the Jews, provision for Ishmael, provision for the children of Keturah, provision for Esau, provision for all of these people. But yet it's this strip of land that everyone wants because it's the promised land. But it was the promised land to the Jewish people because of their election. That is why they were selected by God as his inheritance. Now, after this, we see God comfort Joshua as he begins his quest. Joshua 1, 5 through 9 says, No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for this for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Now we looked last week at the day of provocation, and what happened? Fear came over the children of Israel. They got scared because of what they were going to face. Okay, look, that same thing faces us right now. But God tells Joshua, Be uh strong and of good courage. Be strong and of good courage. Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. We have that same exact promise today. So the land was already given over to the children of Israel. It was already theirs. Already theirs. God had already gone before them for this purpose. It was God's to give, and he's giving it to Israel, and it's Joshua who's going to divide it. And God says that no one will be able to stand before them, and that he will be with Joshua as he was with Moses. This is a this was a major comfort to me once I finally got past Moses, my servant, is dead. But this was a major comfort to me after mom. I needed to hear that. That he would be with me while I stood on my own. And I can honestly say from my life that he has been this entire time. I can tell you that right now. But I want to recap the situation here, too. There were giants in the land. Look, these giants were there 40 years earlier, and they're there now. That has not changed. It was going to be difficult to take the land, and they would have to trust God that he would cause them to inherit it. This is no different than us. Look, it's going to get really hard to be a Christian. We're seeing it in Quebec and Canada already go to a secularist government. We're seeing preachers jailed in the UK for preaching the gospel, for quoting scripture. You know, Canada again is looking to stop the protection from of religion from their hate speech laws. The question for us is the same as the children of Israel. Are we going to go into the promised land and conquer, or are we going to run when things get hard? I can't answer that for you. But you but what I do know is that the answer is the next scripture. Joshua 1, 10 through 11 says, Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, Prepare, prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross this over this Jordan to go and to possess the land which the Lord God is giving you to possess. I've said it before and I've say it, I will say it again. You've got to make sure you are spending time with the Lord. You've got to be putting in the work, doing in the work that he has called you to do, but most importantly, fostering that relationship that he's called you to be in. If you're not going to foster the relationship he's called you to be in, then it's going to be very, very, very difficult for us as we go forward here. We've got to be preparing now, just as Joshua did. It's now is the time to make sure that we are going to go with God during this coming time, no matter what happens. And I I look back to the behavior of the Israelites. They complained, they murmured about their lives rather than being thankful. That pattern of behavior does not change when things get harder. It becomes par for the course. In fact, if you cut and run now, when there's a church on every corner and there's limited persecution, yeah, people may say you're weird and that you're peculiar and all this other stuff. But when that stuff's happening, then you know, if you can't do it now, I don't know how you're gonna do it when it turns into what's going on over in Canada or in the UK. I don't know what's gonna happen. But yes, the land was Israel's, but their actions made it pass to another generation that was willing to press on when things got hard. Look, we've got to examine ourselves now. Now is the time to do that, to make sure that we are prepared for the hardship that is at our doorstep. Why? Because there are bigger battles coming. I can tell you that right now. In the next week, we're gonna talk about Jericho. But if we don't understand that, look, if you believe in Jesus Christ right now, your promised land is to be with him for all eternity, correct? It is. If you believe in him right now, then that is your promised land. But here's the thing is that you know, you can see the miracle of God. He saved you. You've been baptized, you've been risen up, he's given you, he's provided for you in all things. He provided just like he did the water from the rock and the manna in the wilderness, he provided the food and water needed that. For the Israel to get to where they wanted to go. They've got the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, where God came down and fire upon Mount Sinai to prove to them. He talked to them directly, face to face. He talked to this people out of the mountain, face to face. And yet here they were, they still didn't believe. In fact, Moses was only up on the mountain for 40 days after this. And yet here they are making a golden calf, wanting to go back to Egypt. Why? Because the pattern of behavior does not change. So my question to you is then what is your pattern of behavior? Is it one that is I'm going to go with God no matter what? Is it one of a made-up mind? Is it one that says, look, Lord, let's do this, let's walk through this, and let's figure out a way to get through it. Doesn't matter if you crawl through the trials and tribulations, but then what's important is that you get it. Or is it, you know what, I'm going to quit, I'm going to run, I'm going to go do my own thing right now for a little bit, and then I'll come back when things get hard and or when things start going sour, and there'll be joy and pleasure and sin for a season. And then when that season's over, I'll come back to him and he'll accept me back. That's a question. Like I can't answer that question for you. Only you can answer that question. The only thing I can tell you is that the land was already given to Israel and they still backed out because of fear and because they didn't want to face what was ahead of them. Please don't be like that. I'll be praying for you because I'll be praying for every listener of this podcast. But don't be like that. I'm begging you, make sure that your relationship is strong enough. That's why I say let's foster the relationship. Look, according to Jewish tradition, the Israelites went through an absolute wedding ceremony with with uh with God at Mount Sinai. And if you look at the elements of it, there absolutely were. Um, but at the end of the day, though, if they went through all of that and they still played the harlot, as we see in the book of Hosea, even though God took them into the wilderness to speak to them and to to show his um his law to them and everything else, yeah, here they are. The going gets tough, and they're gonna go ahead and turn their back on them. So that's the question I have for you, and that's the challenge I'm posing for you, right? Look, when my mom died, it got hard for me, and it got hard for me for uh a while, and there were some other things that came on at the exact same time. I lost my felt like I was without a rudder. I didn't know which way I was going, I was going in circles because so much of my relationship, and I didn't realize this at the time, but so much of my Christian relationship, my walk with Jesus Christ was tied to my mom, but it wasn't until she died that I could really come into my own relationship, who God wanted me to be. And that's a tough lesson to learn, particularly when it comes to your mom, who you don't you don't want to go, want to go away. I told her and dad repeatedly, I don't want anything they got, I just want them around. And that was the honest to God truth. And we still for me though, it's still something that I look back at and do I miss her? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, it was better that she go on to be with the Lord and to into her reward than it was for her not to. And I think about it in terms of my sister too, and you know, she she's now has a a stronger relationship with the Lord than maybe she's ever had, but it's definitely stronger because of it because she had to learn to stand on her own as well. So, you know, sometimes it's better that way, but without that experience, I could have given up, I could have talked about quitting, and I did a couple of times because I didn't understand what God was doing and taking my mom, but I didn't. I kept pushing one spiritual foot in front of the other. And it doesn't matter if you're looking at Jonah chapter two, where Jonah called out from the depths of Sheol, from the belly of the whale, or the fish, whatever you want to you want to call it. It doesn't matter, but he called out from the from the depths of hell is what the scripture says. You know, and which I truly believe that he was in this in this weird thing where he was he was dying, he was in hell, in this belly of this giant fish, you know, and now he's calling out to God, and God heard him and allowed the fish, brought him back to life, and allowed the fish to spit him out. And I think that's that's why that was the sign of Jesus Christ, because Jonah, I believe, actually died in the in the belly of the fish. But regardless, it doesn't matter how you get in the belly of the fish, it doesn't matter how you get in the shield, it doesn't matter. Here's the thing I do know is that David said, I've been young and now I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I can honestly tell you in my own life that God has always provided, always found a way, even when I screwed up royally, he has always found a way to do the right thing for me and what was needed. So look, take encouragement in that, but don't be like the children of Israel. Be of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed. Amen. So next week we are going to talk about Jericho, uh, is what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna go into these battles, into the things that that God has will do for them, um, some of the signs here, because it's pretty obvious that God went before them into Jericho, into the land of Canaan, um, to dismay all the people. So, with that, again, I hope you're getting something out of the study. But until next time, just remember the simple truth the Father loves you, Jesus loves you, and the Holy Spirit loves you. God bless the