Joshua 3 Part 1

Intro

Joshua is one of the most fascinating books of the Bible. On one level it relates the historical account of an ancient Hebrew leader and the people God called him to lead into a Promised Land. But on another level it’s a personal story of promise and of the great expectations that God has for each one of us. God calls each of us to enter the land, to claim a life of adventure lived by faith, experiencing spiritual victory.

I want us to consider Joshua 3 under the following three headings: –

1. Where are they (the Israelites) now?
2. Where are they (the Israelites) going?
3. How are they (the Israelites) going to get there?

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

The Israelites are still in the wilderness where they have been for 40 years wandering around, living off the provisions that God has Mercifully provided for them in the form of quails and manna. They are in this place because of disobedience. Remember, forty years before at Kadesh-Barnea in an event recorded in Numbers 13 & 14, this nation had heard and knew the will of God, but they refused to obey it. Why did they refuse? Because they made a choice to believe the report of ten spies instead of believing and obeying, by faith, God’s command to enter the land and possess it. If they had listened to Joshua and Caleb’s minority report, they would have spared themselves those difficult years of wandering in the wilderness. But wait, we are beginning to see a change, how that God wanted to finish with the Israelites but was persuaded by Moses to persevere Numbers 14:13-20, (Oh for godly leaders like Moses people who are prepared to intercede on behalf of us all) God listened but gave the command that all of that generation should die in the wilderness and would not posses the inheritance that God had promised, save for two men Joshua and Caleb, of whom it says in Numbers 14:24 NKJV “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and he has followed Me fully. I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it”.

Just by way of a little explanation, the word “different” can also be translated “another” and the word “spirit” refers to wind or breath, the equivalent Greek word is used by Luke in Acts 2:2. Also God “breathed” life into mankind and they became living souls, this breath is the breath of God breathed into all who will receive the life changing breath or Spirit of God, Jesus refers to it as “another comforter”. Notice, in Acts 2:2, that it was the sound of a rushing mighty wind from heaven and when it is from heaven it fully fills the whole house, just as Caleb was fully filled because he fully or whole heartily followed the Lord. This verse implies that Caleb was filled with the Spirit of God, his experience of the Holy, divine being, was different to those around him. In the same way our experience of the divine will be different yet we are filed with the same Spirit that demands that we wholly follow the Lord.

We are beginning to see that this passage in Joshua is not just about a group of people who are preparing to move forward it is also about individual people catching the vision of the power of God by Faith which in turn spreads to the rest of the camp and we find that the whole camp have a common goal, a goal to move forward to posses all that God has got for them. We associate this passage with land and possessions but it is in fact far more than that, it is about a people group finding their freedom in God, a freedom that was promised by Jehovah generations before. This same promise is available today by and through the same breath that breathed life into mankind at the outset of creation. We live by God in us. We have another Spirit.

So we see that God is a God of Mercy in that He goes on giving even when we fail. His Grace is something we don’t deserve we are given new life because God loves us. His Mercies are new every morning because God’s heart is a giving heart and He will give and give and give again out of the abundance of His love for us. In order for us to work out this Spirit breathed life God requires obedience, an obedience that is rooted in faith by grace and through mercy. We will never realise the full potential of our inheritance, a transforme way of living, if we refuse to stay on familiar ground. Faith requires action James 2:20 “You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing?”.

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