Joshua

We cover Joshua chapters 11–12 and consider God's faithfulness in giving rest to His people—a rest that finds its fulfillment in Christ. Canaan's armies rose against Israel with hardened hearts; later, hardened crowds would cry out for Christ's death. Israel saw the ruin that sin brought on the land; later, Christ would willingly be crushed for the sins of all His children. Israel found a temporary peace in the land—yet Christ has come, that his people may have true and lasting peace. Christ is Risen!

This Sunday we are looking at Joshua 10 and Israel's victory over the kings of the land that are arrayed against them. In our passage, the Canaanite kings attack Gibeon, Israel quickly comes to its aid (because their new treaty), and the fighting ensues. At key points through the passage, we are reminded that the battle belongs to the Lord, which is key—and I think this dynamic is sometimes hard for us to keep in balance. This is what I mean: the battle is the Lord's, meaning that God fights for us, God secures the victory, God wins the battle and deserves the glory. But Israel is still called to do the work. The fact that the battle belongs to the Lord does not mean Israel is to stay napping in their tents while the battle rages, so to speak. We usually speak of this as God using means to accomplish his ends—we have things to do in this world, and God uses us to accomplish His will. I would like us to think about how we do that as a church here at New Covenant. God is faithful to us, but are we being careful to follow in doing what we've been called to do? Are we worshipping faithfully in our homes? Are we faithfully discipling those within our church (and particularly our children, youth, and young adults)? There are many more areas this could apply to, but I find passages like this one in Joshua immensely encouraging—because we do not have to be the best teachers, or the most talented speakers, or the most gifted disciplers in order to obey God's call. What we are called to be is to be faithful. When we put our hand to the work that God has given us, we can be confident that the battle belongs to the Lord.

This week we are returning to the book of Joshua, and we will be considering the defeat of Ai. There is a theme that is quite familiar in Joshua that comes to the forefront in this passage in God's wonderful instruction to his people: "do not fear and do not be dismayed." There are many things in this world that can cause us to fear, but our encouragement is that a proper fear of the Lord dispels every other fear. This absence of fear is also not irrational on our part, it is the direct result of God's promise that he is with us.

The life of a Christian has certain highs and lows, occasional hills and valley, frequent good times and yet some challenging stretches. We are familiar with that sort of ebb-and-flow as individuals—where in some seasons we feel that we are tremendously growing spiritually, while in other stretches we feel like we have failed in every way possible. This is true at a church level too—there are times when we as a people seem to be walking faithfully and experiencing God's blessings, and other times that are quite hard to weather. This Sunday we will find Israel in one of those low spots in Joshua chapter seven. Coming fresh off their miraculous victory at Jericho, Israel makes a mess of things quite quickly and experiences a crushing defeat at Ai. They welcome sin into their camp, and destruction follows. There are few pictures that so viscerally show the destructive consequences of sin—and yet God is not done with His people! These passages are sobering concerning our sin, but they are a tremendous encouragement concerning the redemption and restoration that God extends to His people when they repent. We may at times cast ourselves into valleys, but hope is not lost.

God does not tell us things without a reason. God does not do anything without a reason, for that matter, but nothing that God instructs us to do is arbitrary. God always has a good purpose in all these things, whether we can see the reason or not! In fact, an important lesson of the Christian walk is simply trusting God in that regard: recognizing that whatever He leads us to do is best. This will be a major lesson at Jericho this Sunday: the silence, the trumpets, the marching… none of it is arbitrary. Instead, our faithful worship matters.

This Sunday we will begin a two-part look at the destruction of Jericho in Joshua 6, and we will consider the idea of the "warfare of worship." These will be some challenging passages—there is bloodshed and judgment, which is always serious. I think that is one of the reasons why the idea of "worship" is so important: because we must recognize that worship always elicits a response. In many ways, worship sets the tone (pun intended) for the whole story of the Bible. Our confessional standards affirm that worship is part and parcel of our "chief end" as men and women: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever" (WSC 1). Accordingly, the story of the Bible shows the conflict that comes from this worship. Adam and Eve listened to the serpent, and they failed in their worship and were cast from their home. Soon after, one of their sons presented deficient worship before the Lord and subsequently killed his faithful brother whose worship had been accepted. This story repeats itself on through Canaan and beyond, but the encouragement for Christians is this: God calls us to worship Him boldly and faithfully, and there is power in our worship.

This passage is strong on the fact that God is for God—God is the hero of the story, and we are to align our desires and plans with His. And in a very comforting way, this passage is also an encouraging recognition that we belong to God because of the blood of Christ. God is for God, and we belong to Him!