HIGHLIGHTS IN JOSHUA
Number 9
RETURNING TO OUR ROOTS
Numbers 8:30-35
=====

IN this passage before us we have an interlude in the activity of the Israelites in their campaign to take the promised land. In this interlude what does Joshua lead the children of Israel to do? He brings them back to their roots - the covenant God made with them at Sinai which was the giving of the law and the giving of sacrifice.

It is important for every Christian to be continually returning to their roots, which are embodied in these roots which God gave Israel. If we do not return to our roots continually, we shall soon find that we have broken loose from them, and have departed from the safe haven of the Gospel, to that which is no Gospel. Satan is always seeking ways to separate Christians from their roots, because he knows that if he can succeed then he has taken away safety, security and gospel peace. By this means he not only brings the individual Christian into a spiritual desert or back water, but he brings the church there also.

One of the ways Satan has found most successful is to cause believers to concentrate on some new insight or blessing so that all their energy is given to this. This new things is then perceived to be the whole of Christianity, and so our roots, the foundation of our faith, is sacrificed and sometimes even lost. Satan is also an expert in resurrecting our hold on natural religion, and in some small way infiltrating this into Gospel faith, and so destroying the Gospel by this addition. This is why we should take to heart Joshua's example of bringing the Israelites back to their roots.

Joshua shows us where are roots lie. They lie in the law and the Gospel and the Covenant of grace in Christ.

THE LAW

Let us notice two sides of the Law as expressed by the Covenant of God to Israel. There was the law on tables of stone. This was the moral law, the ten commandments. In our passage Joshua returns to this by writing this law again on tables of stone and reading them before the people. We read of this action in verse 32.

Then there is the ceremonial law. This was all the rules and regulations which God gave Israel for the carrying out of their worship and sacrifices, and the rules which guarded them as the people of God. This was mainly the provision of the sacrificial system and so really comes under the heading of sacrifice, where we will consider it in this meditation.

The Law of God embodied in the 10 commandments has a very specific place in the roots of our faith. Its place must be properly understood otherwise we shall be taken from our roots into natural religion which has no power or salvation.

The Law must be always brought to mind so that we may have a true concept of the holy character of God, and his holy demands for his creatures. The Law informs us clearly the sort of life God requires of us, and the perfection which is needed by us to be in his favour. It tells us the standard of perfection all of us must attain to if we are to have fellowship with God, and dwell in his heavenly kingdom. The law is a revelation of God high and holy, and separate from sinners. The law tells us that God can't have any contact with anything or anyone that falls short of this essential glory. The law is far reaching. It not only speaks negatively of what is unacceptable to God, but speaks positively of the reality of holiness, which his expressed in the holy love of God, which is the constant life of God.

The law is part of our roots because as it reveals all this it brings us who fail to the place where we know we are sinners, and have so fallen short of God's glory that we have no hope in ourselves of ever knowing the favour of God, and the blessings of heaven. It shows the perfection of God which we must obtain for life, and yet shows us that we have and do fall short abysmally from this glory. The laws important work is to bring us to the point where we cease to have any trust in our own merit and doings, and brings us to seek a remedy outside ourselves. This is why the law is part of our roots.

Our fatal tendency is to forget this sombre fact, that in us that is our flesh there dwells no good thing, and that there is no ability in us to achieve the holiness of God. There is a fatal tendency in us to return to our own merit as we approach God, and feel that our goodness merits some favour from him, even if it can't win our salvation. We fail to appreciate that our best actions are so tarnished by imperfection that they are still an offence to God, and have no merit in his eyes, though it is true that the Lord sees our efforts in love to serve him, and our desire to please him, and looks on them in Christ with favour. Our efforts of goodness are only lifted to God by the intercession and mediation of Christ who cleanses them, so making them fit for the presence of God.

It is only by returning to this root of the Law of God, and as in its mirror see the reflection of the utter perfection and purity of God, that we will be kept from vain glory in our own doings, and from any return to natural religion which supposes that human beings can find favour with God by their own efforts.

It is only as we return to this root of the Law of God and see God as he is, that we will hold more fast to Christ as our only hope and Saviour, in whom alone we are provided with a righteousness that is the perfection of God's character.

SACRIFICE

The other root that Joshua brought the children of Israel to was the ceremonial law of sacrifices and of instruction as to how God could be approached and his blessing known. He not only read this law to them in its entirety, but he offered sacrifices to God. By this he emphasised the truth that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

The sacrifices of the law of Moses were provided by God as a stopgap measure until the perfect sacrifice, even the death of Christ, was offered and provided. By bringing Israel back to this essential root of their faith, he reminded them, first of all, where the answer to their sin lay, and how fellowship with God is found. This root reminded them of the provision of God. Their sin could not be overlooked. Justice must be met. Their sin must be atoned for. The way God had provided was that another should suffer the penalty for their sin in their place. This truth was symbolised in the ritual of sacrifice, where the sins of the people were symbolically transferred to the animal, and then the animal died, because the wages of sin is death.

These sacrifices had to be repeated year in and year out, because it was not possible that the blood of animals could truly atone for sin. These sacrifices were an interim measure, and pointed the perfect sacrifice for sin, even Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom for all. But the returning to this root reminded the Israelites of the only place atonement and reconciliation with God could be found. It taught them that they could only trust in the sacrifice made for them, and not in themselves. It reminded them that they must never waver from this faith, and must always and continually rest in the virtue of the sacrifice for them.

We must return to this root also. We must be continually returning to the cross of Christ so that we may see the perfect sacrifice made for us, and be reminded that only in this sacrifice for us are we saved, forgiven, justified, accepted and born again. If we do not continually return to this root we shall forget that all our dependence is on Christ and his sacrifice alone, and return to some trust in something we may do. The purpose of the sacrament of Holy Communion is to bring us back to this root continually, and remind us of the one and only perfect sacrifice for sin, and remind us that faith in this sacrifice for us alone can bring us salvation. It is by the sacrifice of Christ for us that we shall stand before God in heaven throughout eternity. There will be no other grounds for our presence their in that land of bliss.

THE GRACE OF GOD

The returning to this root of the sacrifice of another for us which God has provided, reminds us of the character of God towards us - a character of infinite grace and love and mercy. There is no obligation for God to do anything for us fallen sinners. The only obligation that God has which is demanded by his holy character, is that he must judge sin in us and condemn the sinner.

Yet God in infinite mercy and love takes it upon himself to bear the consequences of our sin. When Jesus took our sins upon him, it was God bearing our sins. God did this because in his wisdom he saw that this was the only way we could be saved. Such was his love that he did not spare his only Son, but gave him up for us all. God made Jesus sin, who knew no sin, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. Knowing that we could not be trusted to provide anything acceptable for our salvation, and knowing that there was nothing we could provide, God insured by his grace that Christ won such a perfect salvation, that there was left nothing at all for us sinners to do, so securing for us absolute certainty of salvation, which we receive as a gift through faith.

There can be no greater love and grace than this. God spared no cost, no suffering, no degradation. He gave to the infinite capacity of giving. He gave without demanding any thing from us except that we receive his gift of love. So great is his grace and love towards us.

Again we need to return to the roots of our faith, the law to remind us of our hopeless state in sin, and the sacrifice of Christ whereby God has provided a full remedy for our sin, so that we live in the security of the love of God, and are filled with the wonder of his grace. There is not power in us to live acceptably before God, it is only when we are secure in the love of God because of what Christ has done for us, and we are filled with the sense of God's love in the treasure in Christ which he has given us, that we can begin to serve God in any way whatsoever. The love of Christ constrains us. We serve not for merit or acceptance or duty, for none of this is necessary because Christ has done all the meriting for us. We serve God rather out of love and gratitude for his gift of saving love.

When we return to the root of the law of God we are reminded we can do nothing to fulfil the law as we should, and so we rest only in Christ, and love him so much that our greatest desire is to please him, to dwell in his presence, to hear him speak to us in his Word and in the fellowship of the church. The most holy and devoted Christians are the ones who have so returned to their roots, that the focus of their lives is Christ and his love, and this fills their hearts.

CONCLUSION

There is no substitute for returning to our roots in faith as Joshua caused Israel to return. Our Sunday worship should continually do this, and specially as we take the bread and wine which symbolises the body and blood of Christ given for us.