Joshua Part 14 - When It Starts To Go Wrong

Andrew Grey recommences Immanuel Church's teaching series on Joshua.

The passages are Joshua 15-17.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Let me pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would open up our eyes that we may see wonderful things in your law, and that the Lord Jesus, by his Holy Spirit, would warn us and encourage us and show us Himself. And we pray in His name. Amen. Word of introduction before I read from our Bible passage. What do you do when things start to go wrong? What do you do when things start to go wrong? We have that expression, don't we? The wheels are falling off. Or the wheels are beginning to fall off. If you love cricket as I do, you will have had that sense very early in the Ashes series against Australia. Even before day one of the first test, you knew the wheels were going to fall off. Maybe it's a project at school or at work, maybe it's a DIY. You've begun, you've got an endpoint, but you sense that things are starting to go wrong. The wheels are coming off. What about Christianly? What do you do when things are starting to go wrong? Maybe it's in individual discipleship, individual following of Jesus, or indeed a whole church. You sense that the wheel nuts of discipleship are getting loose. Maybe disaster is lying around the corner. Now, one of the ways that the Bible helps the church is by giving us examples to help us keeping on trusting Jesus and obeying Him. Sometimes the Bible gives us positive examples, a great cloud of witnesses who encourage us by their example to lay aside sin and run the Christian life with our eyes fixed on Jesus. Sometimes we have negative examples that we might not desire evil as they did. So we're back in the book of Joshua this morning. Now, just just before I read, just try and remember the story of Joshua. It's been a few weeks, hasn't it, since we've been there. It's all about how the Lord brought his special people, his covenant people, the Lord he had the people he had bound himself to, into the promised land, the land of Canaan. And you can sum up the whole of Joshua like this: Enter the land, chapters 1 to 4. They crossed over the river Jordan. Do you remember stories like the story of Rahab? Then conquer the land. That's chapters 5 to 12. Remember Jericho, bits like that. Defeat and destroy those wicked people who lived in the land. Then inherit or possess the land. Chapters 13 to 22. These lists of places that were allotted to specific tribes and clans and families. And then the end of the book. Obey the Lord and keep the land. Chapters 23 and 24. And we're picking up the story at a particular moment in the story of the Old Testament church. And we get some glorious examples of faith and obedience. But the corner in Joshua where we are now, we also get the sense that the wheels are starting to come off. And maybe it's going to get worse. And in God's goodness, these things were written down for us, for the Church of Jesus, recorded by the Holy Spirit, that through the encouragement of these words and through perseverance we might have hope. This is God's gift for us. And specifically, we will be helped to understand better the why of spiritual disaster. Why is it that wheels come off in following of Jesus? So before us today we've got, well, three chapters, Joshua's chapters 15, 16, and 17. Though we're not going to read or preach at all, I'm going to read some expert, some excerpts from it and get a sense of what God is preaching to us from these chapters. So Bibles open, please, Joshua 15. First of all, I'm going to read chapter 15, verses 1 to 6. The allotment for the tribe of the people of Judah, according to their clans, reached southward to the boundary of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin at the farthest south. And the south boundary ran from the end of the Salt Sea, from the bay that faces southward. It goes out southward of the ascent of Akrabin, passes along to Zinn, and goes up south of Kadesh Baniah, along by Hezron up to Adar, turns about to Kaka, passes along to Azmon, goes out by the brook of Egypt, and comes to its end at the sea. This shall be your south boundary. And the east boundary is the Salt Sea to the mouth of the Jordan, and the boundary on the north side runs from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan, and the boundary goes up to Beth Hoglah, and passes along north of Beth Arabah, and the boundary goes up to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben, and so on. And this is the word of the Lord to us today. Consider then God's place, God's land. We've got before us there just an excerpt from these multiple chapters of place names. They are strange to our ears. They are not as exciting as reading about the Battle of Jericho or about Achan's sin and death. Do you remember how Joshua was told by God to allot the land? And to do so by means of lots. There were lots and lots of lots. And it seemed random, but nothing is random in God's universe. And this method of distribution, it was to show that God was giving the land. The promised land was very specifically being given by God. He decided where each tribe would live, each clan, each family. Now, if you'd been in that uh gathering, so if you were in the tribe of Judah, 12 tribes, here we are, if you were a Judahite, you would have sat on the edge of your seat at this moment. Your name was attached to this land that was being delineated. You'd never had a land of your own, a home of your own. And here you would be given within these borders a place where you can live. You could farm, you could raise your kids there. So here we are, chapter 15. The land within the promised land is now going to be shared out. Judah goes first, and the borders and the rivers and the landmarks are being established. And it is precious. Literally, the boundary lines, the lines on the map. I have a beautiful inheritance. And the point here simply is this is God's gift. So for them back then, for the tribe of Judah, here is God's gift to you, a personal gift, a gift of grace. Just like for the Church of Jesus Christ, the real promised land, uh, heaven, or a renewed heavens and earth, or is a gift of grace to Christ's people. But it is also a gift that must be taken. It's a gift that must be taken. So in the Bible we read things like this, and this is Hebrews 4.11. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest. Just think about that sentence. So here is a rest, here is a heavenly home, and it's a gift of God, it's a gift of grace. It's not merited, it's not earned. That's not how people relate to the one true God. And yet, God's people, let us therefore strive to enter the rest. And that is the dynamic of the Christian life. God has given us that land. Now take it, possess it. Now we already uh saw one glorious example of someone who grasped this. Do you remember before Christmas we looked at Caleb? And the story of Caleb actually continues in this chapter. So in Joshua 15, please look on to verse 13. Let me read from Joshua 15, verse 13 to 19. According to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, he gave to Caleb, the son of Japhunnah, a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriath Abba, that is Hebron. Abba was the father of Anak. And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debiah formerly was Kiryath Sephir. And Caleb said, Whoever strikes Kiryath Sepher and captures it, to him will I give Aksa, my daughter, as wife. And Othniel, the son of Kennaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it, and he gave him Aksa, his daughter, as wife. When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field, and she got off her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you want? She said to him, Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Now you've got to love Caleb. Remember, this man is eighty-five years old, and yet, he is smashing the sons of Anak. Now these are these are giants and the descendants of giants. He is faithful and he is obedient and he is courageous and he is zealous. God has promised me something. I will take that promise, I will strive to enter that rest. And that is the kind of guy that you would actually want your daughter to marry. And so his logic is okay, if there is anyone out there who will do the same sort of thing, here's this other territory. Well, you can have my daughter Axa. And so along comes this godly man, a warrior called Othniel. And then do you notice Axa gets in on the act as well? Give me an inheritance. And I think the feel is this here is a gift, it needs to be taken. Yes, there'll be giants to be killed along the way. So give me my inheritance. Courage, faith, and obedience rolled up in the lives of these three people. Caleb, Aksa, Othniel. And we see something similar over in chapter 17. Got lots of place names, but sort of embedded in them are some little mini stories that attract our eye. So look over to chapter 17 and the start of the chapter for a minute, and I'm going to read verses one to six. Then, another tribe, allotment was made to the people of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. Two Machia, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, were allotted Gilead and Bashan, because he was a man of war. And allotments were made to the rest of the people of Manasseh by their clans, Abiazar, Helech, Azrael, Shechem, Hefer, and Shemedah. These were the male descendants of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, by their clans. Now, Zelophad, the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machiah, son of Manasseh, had no sons but only daughters. And these are the names of his daughters, Malah, Noah, Hogla, Milka, and Tirzah. They approached Eliezer the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the leaders, and said, The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with our brothers. So according to the mouth of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father. Thus there fell to Manasseh ten portions besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of the Jordan. Because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance along with his sons. The land of Gilead was allotted to the rest of the people of Manasseh. Now we meet some brilliant women in this passage here. You can see them listed in verse three. I don't know why Christian families do not give their daughters names like Malah or Hoggalah or Milka or Tirzah or even Noah. Such a shame, isn't it? These are presented to us as godly women. Now there is a backstory which sort of brings even to sharper focus their faithfulness. Years and years and years and years earlier, and you can read about it in Numbers 27, these women had gone to Moses and said, We want to preserve the name of our father. We want to preserve the name of our father. So give us the land in our own names. Now that was years before the alact the land had even been fought for. And one, uh, they'd come to the Lord and said, it wasn't an expression of faith. We want some land too. And now they come to Joshua and say, Okay, the Lord promised. Remember, the Lord promised, it's a particular promise from God for us. Now give us what has been promised. And they encourage us in a couple of ways, these women, with great faith. So when the Lord promises something, actually we may claim that promise. That's what they show to us, but also boldness. Okay, now let us take this land. By God's grace it's ours, but we will take it. So Caleb and Ko, including these five daughters of Zalopahad, another great name. And yet, and yet, when you read these chapters, and maybe you might like to actually do that at home, just read them through, you see clues everywhere that the wheels are starting to come off. There had been such a lot of faith and obedience, such a lot. You know, so much has been done in the name of the Lord, but there are hints and then more than hints that things are going wrong. And the problem is not with the land, the problem is with the people. And summed it up like this: when it comes to God's people, only a whole heart will do. Uh Caleb, he has a very significant name. Do you remember? Caleb, it means whole heart. He is Mr. Whole Heart, but not everyone was like Caleb. And as the nation as a whole went on, it became less and less like Caleb. And then when we fast forward the Bible story, there came a day when the Lord would spit his people out of the promised land. And here we can begin to trace the roots of their half-heartedness. Just look at three little snippets with me. So Bibles open. Look down firstly, 1563, the last verse of chapter 15. But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out. So the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. Look on to the very last verse of chapter 16, 16, verse 10. However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day, but have been made to do forced labor. Look into chapter 17 and verse 12. Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. Now when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out. And you know something's going wrong when you read words like but and however and yet. Now so what? So what? Well, God had commanded his people to cleanse the land. He'd given them the land as their land, but they also had a job to do in possessing it. It was a work of terrible and holy judgment, cleansing the land, because the land needed cleansing. The Canaanites, do you remember, they were a depraved culture. Things like child sacrifice, hideous immorality were just entirely normal parts of their life. And their culture had reached full depravity, full measure of sin, and now it actually needed to be cleansed. It needed to be wiped away as an expression of God's judgment and also to protect the people of Israel because the Lord knew what they were like, he knew that they would otherwise slowly turn Canaanite, because Canaanite is catching, it's like a disease. And here's where it started to go wrong. So mighty Judah, well, they cannot cleanse Jerusalem of the Jebusites. And at the time of writing, they were still there. And then the tribes of Joseph, that's Ephraim and Manasseh, they don't get rid of the Canaanites. Instead, they put them to forced labor. Are they trying to profit financially by that rather than obeying God? One pastor, he summed it up like this. He says, This is a bit like a vattle-do approach to the Christian life. That'll do. Do you understand that? Can you identify with that? I can. You know, we have done so much for the Lord, we have more or less done it. Now that'll do. Knowing the Lord, serving him, fighting sin, sharing the gospel. We've gone so far. Now that'll just do. Now it's a challenge, isn't it? The whole earth is the Lord's, not just a section of it. The whole earth is the Lord's, and he wants a holy church to take the gospel to the whole earth. And I am very challenged by that. That'll do, doesn't do. But also that'll do goes downhill. We get another window into the half heart later on in chapter 17. Pick it up at verse 14, chapter 17, and verse 14. I'll read down to the end of the chapter. Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me But one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the Lord has blessed me. And Joshua said to them, If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves, in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the country, the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you. The people of Joseph said, The hill country is not enough for us. Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Bethshean and its villages, and those in the valley of Jezreel. And then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong. Now what we read here, it's not outright rebellion, is it? It is not coming and shaking your fist at God. But you can see a bunch of people, a tribe that has gone wrong in their hearts. Now, just for a little bit of clarity, I don't know if you can see that up on the screen. Don't worry if you can't, but just if you can spot Manasseh, now Manasseh is quite easy to spot because they've got loads of land. They've actually got two big bits, one on the outside of the promised land and one on the inside. They were given a vast territory, and they were also given a bit on the inside of the land as well. The Boffins tell us this was some of the best land as well. But here is the thing: they weren't happy with it. They weren't happy with it, they were discontent. I don't know how you read verse 14. It's an interesting verse, isn't it? We have been blessed by the Lord, so why have you only given me this? They look at God's gift to them and they say, We want more. And I find that a bit of an arrow into the human heart, into my heart. I mean, if you were look back at that map, imagine being Issachar or Zebulin. You all struggle to see their patch of land because it's it's weenie in comparison. But here is what the sovereign and wise and good God who loves you has given you. Whatever the Lord ordains is right. And the challenge for the believer is to say, the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Now, Satan wants us to feel otherwise, doesn't he? God has given you lots, but you should have more. And that is a sentiment that comes straight from the third chapter of Genesis and from the mouth of hell. You know, contentment at the hands of the Lord. It is a precious and a hard jewel to find. Now, Joshua's response there is great. He says, You're a big people? Okay, go and do the hard work, clear the hill country. The response comes back, it's not enough. We want the flatlands, the plains, but we are scared of the Canaanites. You know, they've got these amazing uh weapons of war, war chariots. To which Joshua simply replies, Here is the promise of God. Same message that you're strong, they are stronger, but you will drive them out, because God has promised. Now, the same thing that we see in this quite alien situation, all of those centuries ago, we we can identify with very easily. We struggle with half-heartedness. In the New Testament, the New Testament would call it double-mindedness. You kind of want the Lord and you want something else. Or you want the Lord, but you don't want the Lord that much. And one of the ways the Bible warns us and helps us is by showing us the consequences, the results. So, what was the result? So here are the tribes of Israel, they possess the land, but still living in their midst, are Canaanites and Canaanite culture and Canaanite religion. Now, if we were to fast forward on the story of the Bible, after Joshua comes the book of Judges, and we find some of the bleakest passages in the whole Bible where God's covenant people, loved by God, blessed by God, they basically become Canaanite. And they worship like Canaanites, and they love like Canaanites. So if you read Judges chapter 2, it is depressing and terrifying. They worship idols and they marry pagans, you know, they give their sons and daughters away. Those two things they so often go together, don't they? Who you worship and who you marry. Now we've got a merciful God and a gracious God. He knows what our hearts are like, and we would be encouraged just don't go there in the first place. So if you imagine the story of Joshua into Judges as being a bit like a downward slope by the end of the book. And God in his mercy speaks to us when we're not halfway down the hill. Well, we're given here uh what is actually a blessing and a reason to trust and obey and serve wholeheartedly because we we don't want to end up there. Now, in some ways, this is this is a tricky scripture to read and hear and respond to. If we're Christian people, we will simultaneously spot half-heartedness in ourselves and also not want to be half-hearted because we do love and serve the Lord. And I think the encouragement for us here is twofold. First, when when by the power of the Holy Spirit we're enabled to be a bit like Caleb or a bit like the daughters of Zelophagad, well, the Lord loves it, and it is a work of God, it's a work of the Spirit. But we're also presented by the scriptures and in the gospel a whole-hearted Saviour. That's who we have in Jesus. He was the absolute opposite of half-hearted, you know, whole-hearted in his love for his father, in his love for his neighbour, which took him to the cross, the grave, and thence to glory. And in him, one of the wonderful things we get to look forward to if we're Christian people is a united heart. You know, I so look forward to that. I have a I have a jolly divided heart. And one day in his presence, you know, face to face with him, all of that division and double-mindedness purged away, no content, no selfish greed, a holy united heart. Well, let's bow our heads. Um I'm gonna read a verse from Psalm 86, verse 12, and that will be our prayer for us as we respond to God's word. Let's bow our heads. And so, Heavenly Father, teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth, unite my heart to fear your name. For Jesus' name's sake. Amen.