Joshua a Capable Commander - Joshua Series Part 1 - Justin Wadel

Be strong and courageous. Do not be cowardly. Do not be fearful. For the Lord your God is with you in all things, wherever you go.

I have a question. I'm curious, and this is for the children as well, but if you were to choose one of the great heroes of the Old Testament, I'm going to say Old Testament, one of the great men and women who you would like to pattern your life after, who would you choose? I'm just curious. Anybody want to—you don't have to say why. Just call out a name if there's someone you can think of. I know there's a lot of them.

Enoch. Enoch? Nice. I wonder why.

Joseph. Joseph. Okay. I would say Moses. Uh-huh. We got some good aspires there.

Good choices. I was expecting to hear Joseph. I expected maybe Daniel. For the ladies, maybe Ruth or someone like that. And there's, like I said, lots of examples, lots of people to choose from, and people who did many great things, people who were faithful, who stood alone many times for what they knew was right. Well, I've just decided to do something a little bit different, and I'm going to tackle an Old Testament book study.

And the book I've chosen is appropriately named after its central figure. And this man is great in many ways. He's great in his own right, but he's also great because he, in many ways, becomes a figure of Jesus himself.

And the man that we are going to be looking at is Joshua, who we know is in the book of Joshua. And one of the reasons, like I said, that I chose this book is because of the heavy dose of types and shadows of Christ in the church. And it's all through this book. And I didn't even realize until—I haven't even dug in too far yet, but I didn't realize how much is there.

And when you start comparing the life of Joshua with the life of Jesus, it's actually very amazing.

But the other reason I chose this, like I said in the beginning, is because of the person and character of Joshua himself.

Obviously, Joshua was chosen for a very important mission, a very special mission, but he didn't just get to that point automatically. Like we were talking about this morning, Joshua did a lot of character building to get to that point. And his life is very inspiring. And we're going to be digging into that in just a little bit. Most of my message will be focused on him. So just a short introduction on the book of Joshua.

Who wrote the book? Well, that's fairly self-explanatory. Traditionally, it has been ascribed to Joshua, whose original name, which is Hosea, means salvation. So Joshua is not the original name of this man that we're going to be looking at. And we'll be talking about that a little bit later.

All right. When was it written? The date, although the initial writing was done after entering Canaan, likely the work as it comes down to us from 6th century BC sources.

Major theme: God is faithful to fulfill his promise to the children of Israel, and he's faithful to fulfill his promise to us. The Israelites will conquer and inherit the land of promise through, one, obedience to God's law and his commands, and two, Joshua's leadership and God's intervention.

The failures are the result of Israel's disobedience. So just keep that in mind. That's a major theme of this book, just along with many of the other co-themes, maybe you could say.

Background: Under Joshua's leadership and command, the Israelites are poised to enter the promised land from the east side of the Jordan River. So the east side, there you can see the Jordan River, which runs between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. And you see Jericho, the little green dot. Well, just east of Jericho, on the other side, somewhere in that area, and I don't have that pinpointed, was where they were camped at, kind of at the start here of our series, getting ready to cross the Jordan River and encounter Jericho.

Upon entering the land, as you can see here on the map, they would meet Canaanites and Amorites who had settled there some 500 years previously and had an established system of city-states. The geography the Israelites would encounter consisted of both rugged, barren mountains and fertile farmland.

The pagan religion of the Canaanites consisted of numerous gods and goddesses, which had the potential of becoming a snare to the Israelites, and God was very aware of that, which is one of the reasons why Joshua had the command to pretty much wipe out the population of Canaan.

All right. So let's just go ahead. We're going to read Joshua 1, the chapter, and then, like I said, I'm going to kind of focus and zoom in a little bit on Joshua's life. So Joshua chapter 1, after the death of Moses, the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, saying, "Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise, you and all this people, and cross over Jordan into the land I will give them.

Every place on which you tread with your feet, I will give it to you, as I said to Moses. Your territory shall be the desert in Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates River, and from the setting of the sun to the farthest sea.

No man shall be able to oppose you all the days of your life. And as I was with Moses, thus I will be also with you. I will not forsake you nor disregard you." And just imagine hearing those words from God. Imagine Joshua hearing those words.

"Be strong and courageous, for you will divide this land which I swore to your fathers to give them. Be strong, therefore, and courageous to guard yourself and to do as Moses, my servant, commanded you. Then you will not turn away from them, to the right nor to the left. In this way, you will have understanding in whatever you do.

The book of this law shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may have the understanding to do all the things written therein. Then you will both prosper, make your ways prosperous, and have understanding.

Behold, I have commanded you." All right. Here it is again. Third time God's telling Joshua this. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be cowardly or fearful, for the Lord your God is with you in all things wherever you go." So Joshua didn't have a choice. He's commanded. God's commanding him to be strong and courageous. I like that. "Then Joshua commanded the scribes of the people, saying, 'Enter the midst of the people's camp and command the people, saying, Prepare the supply of food. For yet three days you shall cross this Jordan and enter the land to possess what the Lord God of your fathers will give you.' Then to Ruth and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh Joshua said, 'Remember the word of the Lord which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The Lord your God has caused you to rest and has given you this land.'" So just for a little background on that, these Ruth and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had chosen to make their territory or their kind of home on the east side of the Jordan River, but they had agreed to go over and help conquer the land of Canaan first and then come back to get their inheritance.

So that's kind of what this is about. And Joshua is reminding of this, that they have agreed to come and help conquer the land before they go back to rest. "Your wives, your children, and your cattle shall dwell in the land he has given you, but you shall cross over well armed before your brethren, everyone who is strong, and you shall fight by their side until the Lord your God has caused your brethren to rest and you as well. And they have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God has given them. Then each of you shall depart to his inheritance which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan eastward."

Then they answered Joshua and said, "We will do all you command us to do, and we will go everywhere you send us. We will heed you as we heeded Moses. Only let the Lord our God be with you as he was with Moses. But whatever man disobeys you and does not heed your words as you command him, let him die. But you be strong and courageous."

That's the beginning of Joshua, the book of Joshua. But what about Joshua himself? Who was Joshua?

What is it about this man that is so special, so noteworthy? The name Joshua, which means the Lord of salvation or Yahweh helps, is Yeshua in Hebrew, Yesus in Greek, and Jesus in English.

Sorry, I was going to put that up there first. So we have kind of these three ways of saying that name, Yeshua, Yesus, which was Greek, and Jesus in English. And this is important to kind of understand. So just imagine if we were here reading Greek, we would be reading this name, Yesus.

Okay? Now, Yesus does not just mean Joshua. It also means Jesus, same word in Greek. So if you're reading the New Testament in Greek, you would also be seeing Yesus whenever it's talking about Jesus, the Son of God.

So these two names, there's no distinction between Joshua and Jesus as far as their names, except in English. We have made that distinction. We have Joshua and Jesus. So this could also be we could also say that this is Jesus, the Son of Nun.

And if you want to do an interesting exercise, read through the book of Joshua, and instead of saying Joshua, say Jesus every time that his name comes up. And it's actually very eye-opening. It's actually kind of creepy, but it's a good exercise.

So again, if you're reading or writing Greek, there's no distinction. Same name. They are the same name, pronounced the same. So if we could be reading this whole book and using the name Jesus instead of Joshua. Joshua's original name was Hosea or Hosea, but Moses changed his name to Joshua. And that was in Numbers 13:16. We will go there later.

And this name change doesn't seem to be accidental or coincidental. In fact, it more than likely is prophetic, for it made Joshua a type of Jesus Christ.

So our first encounter with Joshua is in Exodus 17, where Moses chooses Joshua to command an army. So we have Joshua's name kind of popping up here and there, even before the book of Joshua. He was just one of those men who was there. He was ready. He was a man likely to get chosen when there was a job to be done.

So I'm just going to go ahead and read those verses here in Exodus 17:8 to 16.

And obviously, Joshua would have been a young man at this time. "Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, 'Choose for yourself some mighty men and go out and set the army in array against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.'

So Joshua did as Moses said to him and set the army in array against Amalek." Already becomes a commander here. "Then Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

Now Moses' hands became heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, one on the other, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun."

I think we should all be able to get the picture there. "So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Now Moses built an altar and called its name, 'The Lord my refuge.' For with a secret hand, the Lord wars with Amalek from generation to generation."

It's interesting to note that although Joshua is given the credit for defeating Amalek, he obviously had divine help from God through Moses. And I'm going to say in the same way, just to draw a comparison, as we face our battles, our spiritual battles, as we face the battles that we were talking about in Sunday school, we need divine help from God and help from our brothers. But like Joshua, we also need to put on the weapons of our warfare and fight and suffer.

And this picture of Moses with his hands held up by his two brothers, I believe, is a picture of the cross. And we have Joshua actually engaging in a battle and fighting in a battle. And we know that it took Moses and Joshua in this picture to conquer Amalek, to conquer the enemy, whereas Jesus himself hung on the cross alone and fought the battle against the enemy.

Just a very interesting comparison there.

So I also wanted to read some more verses that just kind of go along with this. In Exodus 33:7 to 11, just moving on in Joshua's life, here's the next time we see him. "Moses then took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of testimony.

Thus it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of testimony, which was outside the camp."

So it was whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, which was outside the camp, all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he went into the temple. But you can kind of see them keeping their distance. They're watching Moses go into this tent. It's an interesting thing to think about. They're kind of standing back watching this, just standing there at their tent door.

"Now it came to pass when Moses entered the tabernacle that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and God talked to Moses.

All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped each man at his tent door. Thus the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Then he would return to the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle."

Interesting thing to think about. And I don't know if this tabernacle was kind of closed off to most of the people. I don't know if they would have had the opportunity themselves to come and get close to God's presence. It doesn't say that. Moses was there.

And it seemed like everyone wanted to keep their distance, except for Joshua. There he was, right there in the tabernacle.

Joshua, at this point in his life, had no idea of the tremendous responsibility that God was going to place on his shoulders of leading the children of Israel into the promised land. But somehow he understood what he needed most at this point in his life: influence or learning, in his case, serving a great man like Moses, getting that kind of influence from someone like Moses, and preparation, spending time where God's presence was, spending time preparing his heart, preparing his life.

Never underestimate the power of good influence and good preparation. Rarely do I hear regrets about too much preparation or too much learning through good influence. It's almost always the other way around. The regrets are, "I wish I would have prepared more. I wish I would have spent time listening to that person, learning, getting that kind of influence that I needed."

And Joshua here is choosing the best thing for the greater good by serving and seeking. And we just see that. We see this servant. He's called here a servant. He was called an assistant. Now he's called a servant.

And his whole, it seems like his desire is just to latch on to Moses. He just wants to be with Moses. He knows that Moses is a great man of God. And he said, "I'm going to stick around this guy. I'm going to watch him. I'm going to learn from him."

And then he also knew that the tabernacle where God's presence came down, that's where he wanted to be. David said in Psalm 26:4, "One thing I ask from the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold the delights of the Lord, and visit his temple." And this is where Joshua wanted to be.

Joshua had responsibility. Joshua wasn't just sitting around doing nothing, but he knew that he wanted to be wherever God's work was going on, wherever God's presence was. That's where he wanted to be.

What is that one thing that we seek the most? Moving on in Joshua's life, we come to Numbers 13. And here Moses is choosing 12 men, one from every tribe, to go spy out the land of Canaan. And we have this is they call him Hosea here, the son of Nun, chosen from the tribe of Ephraim. And it's here that Moses changed Hosea's name to Joshua or Jesus.

Here's what the early church historian Eusebius had to say about this.

"Moses was inspired by the divine Spirit to foresee clearly the name of Jesus. And he deemed this name worthy of special honor. Till it was made known to Moses, it had never been on man's lips before. He bestowed the name of Jesus on him, first of all, and only on him." Now you'll notice he's using the word Jesus.

I'm pretty sure he would have been writing in the Greek language.

"He bestowed the name of Jesus on him, first of all, and only on him, who he knew would succeed in type and symbol after his death to the supreme command. His successor had not previously been called Jesus, but his parents had called him Hosea.

Moses called him Jesus, giving him that name as if it were a mark of great distinction, far greater than a kingly diadem. For of a truth, Jesus, the son of Naveh or Nave, Nun, himself bore the image of our Savior, who after Moses and that typical service which Moses transmitted, succeeded to the headship of a pure and true religion."

So now usually it was God giving out the name changes. I think we could remember a few of those. We remember a God changing Abram to Abraham. He changed Sarai or Sarai to Sarah. He changed Jacob's name to Israel. And usually this was at critical moments in their life, moments where they had to make a critical choice or pass a test or something like that. And so the fact that Moses changes Joshua's name or Hosea's name to Joshua is unusual. But I think this is also a critical moment in Joshua's life, being chosen to be one of the 12 spies. It may not seem that unusual. It may not seem that critical. And it's just kind of mentioned.

But I feel like this is a critical moment in his life, a test of his faith and loyalty. Anyway, we know the story. The 12 spies go spy out the land. They go into Canaan. They go in. They see the big grapes and the way that the fruit and everything was growing. They see the people there. And when they come back, only Joshua and Caleb, who was one of the spies, gave a good report. And then they risked their lives to stand up against the other 10 spies who were overcome by fear and unbelief.

But in the end, God intervened. And we read this. "Now the men Moses sent to spy out the land, and who when they returned murmured against him to the congregation by bringing an evil report of the land. Those very men who spoke evil words against the land died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of the men who went to spy out the land."

So Joshua passed the test. He lived up to his name. He passed the test. And his faith stayed strong. And he was ready for the next step.

Numbers 27:12 to 23. "Now the Lord said to Moses, 'Go up into the mountain beyond the Jordan and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for possession.'" Well, we'll keep going here. "Then you shall see it and be added to your people, even you, as Aaron, your brother, was added on Mount Hor because you transgressed my word in the desert of sin when the congregation was failing to sanctify me. You did not sanctify me before them." Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation." So Moses is hearing God telling him that he's passing off the scene.

And so Moses is saying, "Well, we need somebody to succeed me. We need somebody. We need a leader who will go in and out before their face and lead them out and bring them in. Then the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd." Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Take Joshua, the son of Nun, with you, a man who has the spirit in himself, and put your hand on him. And stand him before Eliezer, the priest, and give orders to him before all the congregation and give orders concerning him before them. You shall then give some of your glory to him that the children of Israel may obey him.

So he shall stand before Eliezer, the priest, and they shall inquire before the Lord for him by the judgment of the Orem. At his word, they shall go out, and at his word, they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel in one accord, even all the congregation.

So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. And taking Joshua, he stood him before Eliezer, the priest, and before all the congregation. Then he put his hands on him and appointed him as the Lord commanded Moses." So Joshua is now chosen to be the successor to Moses and the new shepherd of Israel.

And I think there's just a couple of important things to note here.

Moses isn't dead yet. All right. Moses is still alive.

I don't know exactly how long after this that he died. But I think it's important to note that even though Joshua became the new leader of Israel here, he actually served alongside Moses up until Moses' death. So there was actually a kind of a dual leadership going on here for a while. So God didn't wait until Moses died and then appoint Joshua. He gave Joshua the opportunity to be trained by Moses by working with him as a co-leader and sharing responsibility.

I think we can learn something from that. And I'm sure that Joshua greatly benefited from that experience. But here's the other thing, just kind of a type here of Jesus.

Jesus also shared and does share the glory of his Father. We have here God had told Moses that, "You shall then give some of your glory to him that the children of Israel may obey him." And we have God the Father shares his glory with Jesus, the Son. And they work together.

They share the same glory. And God gives that to Jesus. And they share that. And they work together perfectly. And I see this in Joshua and Moses. I see Moses sharing his glory. Moses was a great leader. He had been a leader for how long? He had brought the people out of Egypt. Moses had done all the hard work. He had just totally put himself out for these people. And here he knows he's going to pass off the scene. And Joshua comes along, and he shares his glory with him. And they work together. And I think that's a picture of Jesus, of the Son and the Father working together.

And I think just learning something from the fact that we—I think we rarely become great leaders without learning from other great leaders and learning from great leaders around us, putting ourselves in that place where we can learn from another leader until we're ready to step out a little more on our own. I think that's a great picture. And I think it's something we can all do, whatever place we find ourselves in life, that we can find someone to learn from, to attach ourselves to, and to learn how to lead.

So now we come to the end of Deuteronomy, the very last chapter before the book of Joshua. And it reads in chapter 34, "Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, and all the land of Naphtali, and all the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, and the desert, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees as far as Zoar.

Then the Lord said to Moses, 'This is the land I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your seed. I show it to your eyes, but you shall not go in there.'" So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab by the word of the Lord.

Then he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-Peor, but no one knows his grave to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eyes were not dim, nor his natural vigor diminished.

Then the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab at the Jordan near Jericho 30 days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. Now Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of understanding, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the sons of Israel heeded him and did as the Lord commanded Moses.

Now there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face in all the signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh, before all his servants, and in all the land, and by all these great wonders and the mighty hand which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

So now it's finally happened. Moses is gone, one of the greatest leaders of all time. And we just kind of saw his obituary there a little bit. I mean, just a great man. And Joshua is left to take his place, a great responsibility. I can't imagine.

I can't imagine that feeling of having Moses leave, and he's left there with this great responsibility to bring this great group of people into Canaan.

And we see here that Joshua was full of the spirit of understanding. And obviously, this could mean that he was full of God's spirit, which I think he was, but also that his training and preparation had brought him to the place where he fully understood what he was about in the mission that he was supposed to fulfill. And we get that same picture in Jesus when he started his ministry, and he comes up out of the Jordan River, and he goes through the temptations. And it's just like you could tell Jesus fully understood. He was full of the spirit. He fully understood what he was about and what he was supposed to do and the mission that he had.

And we see this same kind of spirit in Joshua. Moses, the lawgiver, could not bring Israel into the promised land, which shows that the law of Moses cannot save the people. But Joshua, or Jesus, was able to bring them in. And in this, he was a type of Jesus Christ who brings his own into heaven through grace.

Joshua is now commanded to cross over the Jordan River and to conquer Canaan.

Huge responsibility. I don't think we even quite understand the enormity of the task that was in front of him. But along with that, he is also commanded to be strong and courageous. Do not be cowardly or fearful, for the Lord your God is with you in all things wherever you go. And I'm going to leave that command with all of us, whatever we're ready to face, whatever mission is in front of us, whatever responsibility we have. And sometimes just daily life seems like a big responsibility.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be cowardly. Do not be fearful, for the Lord your God is with you in all things wherever you go.