HIGHLIGHTS IN JOSHUA
Number 20
THREE ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Joshua 23:1-11
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THESE verses present us with three aspects of the life of Israel outlined by Joshua in his address to them. These mirror the three aspects of the Christian life which are the core of our faith and life. In this farewell address Joshua feels it is important to bring these aspects of life before the people. He feels they are important for the safety of the people so that they do not waver from their allegiance to God. It is the same for us and this is why we need to listen to what Joshua is saying and see how it relates to the situation of the Christian in this world.

YOU HAVE SEEN

In verse three Joshua says 'You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done' for you. He is speaking of the way God had led the Israelites and given them victory over their enemies and honoured his promises concerning the inheritance of the promised land. Joshua reminds them of this because it was important that the powerful and gracious action of God in deliverance of them in the past, which they had seen and knew to be true, should be their confidence for the future. It would give them the desire to remain faithful to the Lord, and have confidence that the Lord would keep them and continue to deliver them. This was the foundation of their faith.

This is the first aspect of the Christian life which is important to always have in the forefront of our minds. We have seen what the Lord has done for us. Although we must always live in the present and go forward and not be living on past experiences, it is still important to review the evidence we have seen of God's work in our lives in salvation. We have seen things God has done for us. These things are the foundation of our life as Christians. We need to always keep this we have seen before our vision. Let us do so now.

We have seen and received the salvation of our God. God has delivered us from our enemies of sin, Satan, death and hell. We have seen Christ as our mighty Saviour and deliverer who has taken on these enemies in our place and defeated them all completely for us. We have seen him as our sin bearer suffering the justice of God against our sin, and dying and suffering hell for us, and in the process exhausting these penalties completely so that we have been saved eternally from them. We have seen Satan defeated by this work on our behalf, and compelled to give up his claim upon us, so that we are no more in his realm, kingdom and authority.

On the positive side we have beheld the wondrous garment of righteousness Jesus has worked for us, and we see the beauty of our person clothed in this holy garment. In this righteousness we have found all fear taken away, and have experienced the ability to draw near to God, knowing that with this righteousness on there is no condemnation for us. Together with this, having had the sentence of death removed from us through his dying in our place, we have experienced resurrection to new life, so that we are created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness. We have seen the smile of God and his love for us as our Father, for we have experienced the adoption of sons and daughters, and we cry Abba, Father. We have seen through all this that we possess eternal life, and sin and death have no more dominion over us.

Just as Israel could look back on their experiences and know they had seen the salvation of their God, so can we. They saw the enemy routed and defeated, and the land of promise in their possession. We too see the enemy routed and know ourselves to be inheritors of the Kingdom of God. We have seen everything the Lord God has done for us, and this has been sealed to us by the indwelling Spirit of God and the many ways God has guided and led us through life, and brought us safely on our way to glory.

We read that 'it was the Lord your God who fought for you'. The salvation which the Israelites had seen was because of God and his power and wisdom. Even though they had fought and gone forward, the victory was solely due to the power of God and his work on their behalf. Their puny strength would have achieved nothing as is seen at those times the Israelites forsook God. This too we must see clearly. Our salvation is solely the work of God. We contribute nothing to it for it is all by gift of grace. His is the power and so his is the glory. We can't attribute any part of salvation to our own strength.

It is important to have this salvation constantly in our view, and the wondrous grace, mercy and love of God which is bestowed upon us in this salvation. We are strong as we live in this salvation and hold it fast by faith.

REMEMBER

Joshua then in verse 4 urges the Israelites to remember all that God has promised them, which he has constantly told them. They have been given their inheritance, but they need to be able to hold on to it, because the enemy was still in their midst, and though subdued and cowed, may at any time rise up and engulf them. They needed to remember the promise - the Lord your God will drive them out of your way. He will push them out before you and you will possess the land, as the Lord you God promised you.

The Israelites were never left on their own and unprotected. God was still with them as their God, and he pledged that he would stand by them, and the same power that he exerted for the initial salvation would continue with them to give victory until the whole inheritance became theirs fully. This was God's promise to them. Joshua knew that the people needed to constantly remember this promise of God, so that they may never give up or forsake the Lord

The believer is saved eternally through Christ and his work for us. We possess eternal life. However, while we are in this life, we have not yet entered into the fulness of our redemption. We still are subject to temptation; and Satan, though he can't possess us, does harass us. We still have to express ourselves through this sinful earthly flesh, which is not redeemed and is a constant source of trouble to us, until the fulness of redemption comes when this body will die and be forever severed from us, and we are given in replacement a new holy immortal resurrection body like Christ's resurrection body. Thus the enemy is still around us, and we have to contend with the weakness of the flesh, in the moral and the physical realm.

Remember the promise of God. I will never leave you or forsake you. I am with you until the end of the age. The Israelites possessed the promised land by the power of God and they lived in it safely also through the power of God. This is the saints assurance. Jesus told his disciples that none would pluck them out of his hand. The Bible assures us that God has loved us with an everlasting love which will never let us go.

We need to remember therefore this fact of the eternal presence of God for us. He has begun a good work in us and will continue it to the day of Jesus Christ. God's Spirit dwells within us and is our strength and companionship. Though we are weak and frail, we need to remember that Christ's salvation is complete.

Firstly he died for all our sins, those of the past and those we will still commit in the future. His satisfaction for sin covers all our sins, past and future, and so we never cease to be justified in God's sight by faith in the Saviour.

Secondly we need to remember that we are now the subjects of the kingdom of God, and God exercises his power and protection to keep us.

Thirdly we need to remember that God's electing love is from eternity to eternity, and so he will keep us in his care for eternity. Thus our perseverance to heaven is assured, not by our efforts but by the power of God working for us.

Fourthly we need to remember that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell within us, and he is our strength and our continued power to walk with Jesus and persevere in his service unto glory.

The Lord has promised to keep us and overcome all our enemies in our pilgrimage to heaven. It is the remembrance of this promised truth that sustains us. We know that in his strength we shall never fail or be lost.

BE CAREFUL

The third aspect of the Christian's life is presented to us in verses 6 to 11. We are indeed saved, and God has promised to drive out all our enemies before us, but this does not mean we can be idle and lax. We are called to action, so that the power of God may never be withdrawn from us.

Israel was called to be careful to obey God (v6), to hold fast to God (v8), and to love the Lord their God (v11). The need for this urging by Joshua is seen in the sad dereliction of the people of Israel throughout their history in these very things, and the disaster it brought. It is true that the nation of Israel was not made up of the true spiritual Israel, and so this dereliction meant for the nation disastrous punishment. The Christian saint is born again and elect of God, and cannot be lost. However dereliction in these duties to obey, to hold fast to and to love God, will mean disaster in our spiritual walk, and we shall know the chastisement of the Lord, and withdrawal of the blessings of his comfort and joy.

We need to enquire seriously as to what it means to obey God, to hold fast to God and to love God. It seems on the surface to be plain and simple, and in one sense it is, but when we get down to the practicalities of this activity, it is not so easy. We know we must keep from sin, but we find we fail so often. We know we must follow the leading of the Lord, but this is not always so clear as we would like.

In fact this activity is exemplified in Christ, and this is where we must seek to understand and to emulate. Jesus speaks of his relationship with the Father in John 5:16 and the following verses to the end of the chapter. Jesus says in verse 17 "My Father is at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working". Then again in verse 19 Jesus says "the Son can do nothing of himself; he can only do what he sees the Father doing, because what the Father does the Son does". The truth behind these words is the oneness which existed between the Father and the Son, so that the Father and the Son are one, and think and act as one.

The way to obedience, holding fast and loving God, is to be one with the Father and the Son as deeply as we can. We must therefore dwell in God as much as possible by seeking the Lord in his Word, in prayer, in worship and fellowship on the positive side; and we must seek to starve ourselves of all that hinders this communion, however good it may be. By seeking to dwell in God in this way, we grow to know God, and so love God more and more. We shall find God's thoughts become our thoughts and our desires. We must desire to have no other will than the will of God. We shall find we will grow, by this spiritual activity, to love the way of God, and hate the way of the world. As we go deeper into God by this seeking him, we shall find that his word and direction to us become clearer and we shall more easily perceive his way and direction in our lives and in the life of the church. In a word, God's thoughts will become our thoughts and his will our only desire.

If we simply seek to obey, or to hold fast to God, or seek to love God, we shall fail. These activities grow in us as we seek to dwell in God, and his new creation becomes dominant in our thoughts, feelings and actions. We seek to dwell in God and let him dwell in us, and then obedience and love will become our natural breath. We shall want to obey and love will fill our hearts for God.

CONCLUSION

The Christian life is holding these three aspects always in right proportions before us. We must never forget the truth of our salvation and of what God has done for us in Christ, which is our salvation alone. We must remember that salvation places us in the family and kingdom of God, and we are the subjects of the Lord. We remember then his promise that he will keep us in his love forever. Finally we must always seek to dwell in God so that obedience to God, holding fast to God, and loving God, become our natural breathe and desire of our lives. Thus we shall be Christlike and glorify God.