HIGHLIGHTS IN JOSHUA
Number 14
THE BLESSING OF OBEDIENCE
Joshua 14:5-9
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"So the Israelites divided the land, just as the Lord commanded Moses."
Joshua 14:5
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OUR SUBJECT in this sermon, illustrated in verses 5-9 of chapter 14 of Joshua, is that of obedience to God. This was the mainstay of the Israelites activity in this part of their history, and this is the reason that during this time they knew the success and blessing of the Lord.

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE

The last phrase of our text is the sort of statement which is repeated frequently in Joshua. It expressed the way the people of Israel lived. It is because they lived like this that they knew such blessing from God; and the promises of God, which were the realisation of his will for Israel, were fulfilled.

There is a great danger amongst Christians to view this obedience in the wrong way. It is something we find natural to our fallen nature. Because we are born under the old Adamic covenant of works and this is impressed on our old nature, the tendency is to look on obedience as meriting God's blessing. We imagine that blessing is the reward we earn for obeying God. This could not be further from the truth. The blessings of God are the promises which issue out of his will for his people. They can't be bought because obedience under the Adamic covenant was our duty which gained no merit. The truth is that we human beings cannot earn anything from God. Earning from God could only come from doing over and above our duty. As our duty is complete obedience and totally faithful and committed service, there is nothing we can do that is over and above our duty. Adam would have received eternal life if he had not broken his probation, but it would not have been earned. It would still have been God's grace that gave it. In fact as Christians we know or should know, if we have the real thing, that our acceptance and life comes always and only as a gift of God's grace. The same is true of all the blessings of God. It is true that disobedience brings upon us the loss of blessing and often positive punishment or for the Christian chastisement. This is because by disobedience we have moved out of the will of God, and so out of the orbit of blessing which is only found in the perfect will of God. Blessing can't be bought.

The blessings of Israel in this book of Joshua were not the reward of the their obedience. Obedience is not a work they performed which earned God's favour and forgiveness. Obedience, rather, is the expression of faith in the grace and mercy of God, whereby the soul puts confidence in the saving grace of God, and because of this there is the confidence of the blessing of complete surrender to the Lord in true obedience. Obedience is faith in the perfect will of God as being where true happiness and blessing lies, and thus the following of that will. It is product of saving faith, and follows from it. Obedience is the expression of thanksgiving and love for the love and grace towards us. Obedience is always the best way because it means we live in the will of God for us.

THE WAY OF OBEDIENCE

Our text tells us that Israel divided the land just as the Lord commanded Moses. Thus they followed the will of God as expressed through Moses. This is our example to follow.

The way of obedience commences with faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. The reason is that without faith in God we will have no confidence in God and no love for God, and so obedience will not be attractive. Faith is that human response which perceives God's grace and love in Christ, receives it with empty hands, and thus has an assurance of God's good will towards us. Faith sees in the grace and love of God such power and wisdom that there is confidence in God's way and will. Faith causes the soul to be able to rest with confidence in God and his will as being the best and only safe way to live.

From faith comes the desire to know the will of God and then to follow that will. This is obedience. God does not give arbitrary commands which have no real purpose. God has a sovereign plan and purpose which issues out of his great wisdom and goodness. This purpose is that which brings fulfillment to life and the ultimate goal of life, which is to glorify God forever. Thus obedience is following the will of God with joy, because it is the way of life.

Obedience is to be in the will of God, and thus in the good purpose of God for our lives. Because obedience is fulfilling the will of God it brings the blessing of God. Obedience, being in the will of God, sees the fulfillment of the promises of God. The blessing is not the reward of effort, but the result of doing the perfect will of God which is blessing for the people of God.

Thus obedience is the only safe and best way to live. It is only in obedience that life will progress as it should. Obedience to God is the only way that we can know true joy and contentment. Obedience to God is the only way that life can be a success. We are not meriting blessing we are simply receiving blessing by living in the will of God for ourselves and the world. It is because the world is not living in the will of God that all the sorrow, pain and failure is known in the world.

OBEDIENCE ILLUSTRATED

In verse 8 we read of Caleb and how he illustrates the true nature of obedience. He was one of the twelve spies who were sent out by Moses to assess the promised land when the Israelites first reached the promised land in the days of Moses. You will remember the story. These twelve spies went through the land of Palestine, and they saw it was a land rich and full of potential, but ten of the spies saw how strong and well fortified the cities were in the land. They felt that the people of the land were too strong for the Israelites, and came back with this gloomy picture to Moses and the people of Israel. Caleb tells us that these ten spies made the peoples hearts melt with fear. It was only Caleb and Joshua who believed God, and although they saw the strength Israel would have to fight against, they were still confident that God would give Israel the victory, because God had promised that he would. The words of Caleb in verse 9 are "I, however, followed the Lord my God whole-heartedly". The people believed the ten spies and disobediently declared that it was impossible to invade the land. The result was that God made the Israelites wander another 40 years in the wilderness, until all the people who had been disobedient were dead.

Caleb and Joshua survived and were allowed to enter the promised land. Caleb even though now he was an old man, he still was given by God the vigour of a young man.

Caleb and Joshua illustrated the nature of true obedience. They followed God whole-heartedly. It is plain from the narrative that this meant that they believed God and his word. Their faith was strong in God's promises, and his goodwill and grace towards Israel and to them, and that they believed that all things were possible through the strength and power of God with them. There is no possibility of obedience that is right obedience without faith. Obedience without faith is the obedience which is given for reward, not out of love or a true desire to please God. This wrong obedience is not done with a full heart, but because there is coercion. It may not be confessed as such, for the best of this obedience does not obey so much to avoid punishment, though that concept is there, but rather to win favour and reward. Such obedience gains very little because it is done without faith. Such obedience always fails because it places on the soul the necessity of perfect obedience without any failure. This is the covenant of works which if Adam could not keep in his state of positive holiness, however can we fallen sinners ever keep it.

The obedience that Caleb showed was based not on merit or reward but on love. He believed God, and from this grew a love for God for his gracious promise of life and salvation. He believed in God who loved him and showed grace and mercy to him, and so he obeyed this God out of thanksgiving and gratitude. Faith knew that God could do all things, but faith in God as gracious laid hold of the fact that God was going to do great things for his people whom he loved. So Christians who have true obedience obey because of faith. We have believed God concerning his promise in Christ. We rest by faith in the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to us, by which we are eternally just in God's eyes, and so can never be condemned. We believe that in Christ God sees no sin in us, because we are covered in the garment of the righteousness Jesus won for us. So we are amazed at the love of God towards us, demonstrated in this complete gift of saving grace. Love rises in our hearts as our hearts melt in love for such loving from God. We believe that God having done this infinitely great thing to save us, will not fail to do all the lesser things in order to keep us in his will and safe in this world and forever. Such wisdom seen in the salvation we have received, we believe is the wisdom engaged on our behalf, so we give ourselves in loving trust to the Saviour to serve and obey. Not from any compulsion but from love and trust. This is Christian obedience. It is not done for reward but out of a grateful heart.

OBEDIENCE BRINGS BLESSING

Although obedience is not done for reward, it does in fact bring its own reward. Obedience is being in the will of God, and so we know the blessing of God which is in the purpose of his will. This we see in the case of Caleb.

It was the purpose of God and his promise that all the tribes of Israel would have an inheritance in the land of promise. So Caleb knew that he and his people had such an inheritance. Moses had affirmed this when he had been faithful after the spying expedition. Caleb now claims the promise of God's grace. He believed that the promise not only gave him the land as an inheritance but that this gift of God's grace included all the means by which he and his people would possess it from the people who lived there before him.

Thus there is sure blessing from true obedience. It is not because we are paid by God for being good in obeying, but it is because obedience means we are in the will of God for us, which brings us into the blessed purposes of God for us, whatever they may be. What we know is that that purpose of blessing is always good.

This is seen so clearly in our salvation. The command or invitation of the Lord is to believe in the Lord Jesus and we will be saved. Saved means that we are forgiven, accounted righteous before God for Christ's sake forever, receiving adoption in the family of God, and a sure place in heaven. These blessings are not the reward of faith. Faith has not merited them. Simply faith has placed us in the purpose of God and the will of God. Thus the blessings of God become ours, though they are bestowed from pure grace.

CONCLUSION

It is so important to grasp clearly this understanding of what obedience to God is and what it involves. If we don't obedience will become, as it is ordinarily conceived in secular society, as obeying orders simply to remain out of trouble or win a reward. The ways of God and the wisdom of God is different to the world. If we understand obedience as the world understands it we will have fallen from grace.