- From God's perspective (the perspective of scripture), how did he view the last seven years?
- It was a success
- All the enemies were defeated
- There was rest on every side
- Every promise of God was fulfilled
- The trans-Jordan tribes lived up to their promises
- Joshua's words to the trans-Jordan tribes convey what?
- Pride in their obedience
- Reward for their accomplishment
- Warning to love God and walk in his ways with all your heart and soul
- This "love God, cling to him (new), serve with all your heart and soul" comes up repeatedly in scripture. Why the extra modifiers to serve God, and other places, to love God?
- Because you can love God or serve him without all your heart and soul
- You can go through the motions, thinking you are doing enough (not that there is any "enough"), but we think there is
- Because, the world attracts us and pulls us away from God to our own hurt
- There are good and bad things in this passage. What do you see?
- Good motives, but bad choices in both cases
- The trans-Jordan tribes should not have built an altar
- Israel should not have been so quick to want to wipe them out (although a show of force was appropriate)
- Good motives can lead to good results but do not justify bad behavior
- Even though they accomplished exactly what God intended, what do we learn here?
- There is more land to posses
- The promise to possess all the land is a future promise
- Exodus 23:29–30 (ESV) — 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.
- But there is a huge warning, which seems to indicate that the timing of the promise is conditional
- If you cling to them (versus clinging to God--previous verses)
- If you inter-marry with them
- If you associate with them (in the sense of doing what they do and believing what they believe)
- NEW PROMISE:
- God will not drive them out before you
- They shall be a snare and a trap for you --
- They shall be a whip on your sides --
- They shall be thorns in your eyes --
- What is repeated over and over in this passage, and what is the purpose?
- 17 times God says "I" did such and such
- So the history lesson is also a reminder to Israel of what fact? Israel is nothing without God
- There are four major divine acts or periods. What are they?
- The river is the Euphrates. Abraham's family is called idolaters, probably Abraham was too, but God calls him
- The Exodus is the second major event
- The third event is the victory over the Amorites on the east side of the Jordan
- The crossing of the Jordan and the victories over the Caananites
- Interestingly, he brings up the gods that Abraham's family served as well as the God's of the land they lived in now, why?
- God has proven himself faithful and real
- He is the only true God
- He is the only one worth serving
- The problem with history, is that we didn't live it, so it doesn't seem real to us. But even when we live it, we forget the great things God has done when disaster strikes. How can we avoid that trap?
- APPLICATION:
- What does Joshua's impassioned argument tell us about the Israelites?
- The very fact that Joshua has to tell them to put away foreign gods suggests that they were still worshipping foreign gods
- Maybe there were more people who rebelled at Jericho with Achan secretly, and maybe not. But I'm sure, after Achan, they threw it all away
- But since then, they have forgotten Achan and the disaster at AI
- Just like we forget what God is doing in our life
- Judges is a story of what happens when we forget
- APPLICATION: We must not slacken in our commitment to God and to the basics of walking with God
Joshua 21:43–22:6 (ESV) —
43 Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to
their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to
their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord
had given all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one word
of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had
failed; all came to pass.
22:1 At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the
half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the
servant of the Lord commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have
commanded you. 3 You have not forsaken your brothers these many
days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord
your God. 4 And now the Lord your God has given rest to your
brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land
where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on
the other side of the Jordan. 5 Only be very careful to
observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord
commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to
keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart
and with all your soul.” 6 So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they
went to their tents.
Joshua 22:10–12 (ESV) —
10 And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of
Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of
Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size. 11 And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben
and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at
the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the
side that belongs to the people of Israel.” 12 And when the
people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel
gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
Joshua 22:21–29 (ESV) —
21 Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of
Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, 22 “The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He
knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of
faith against the Lord, do not spare us today 23 for building
an altar to turn away from following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt
offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself
take vengeance. 24 No, but we did it from fear that in time to come
your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord,
the God of Israel? 25 For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between
us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the
Lord.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. 26 Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt
offering, nor for sacrifice, 27 but to be a witness between
us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the
service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices
and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to
come, “You have no portion in the Lord.” ’ 28 And we
thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come,
we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers
made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between
us and you.” ’ 29 Far be it from us that we should rebel against the
Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for
burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord
our God that stands before his tabernacle!”
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Good
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Bad
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Israel
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Concern for God's
Holiness
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Assume the worst
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Unity of purpose
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Talk first
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2 1/2 Tribes
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Concern for Faith
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Built an altar
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Unified
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Joshua 23:1–13 (ESV) —
1 A long time afterward, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from
all their surrounding enemies, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 2 Joshua summoned all Israel, its elders and heads, its judges and
officers, and said to them, “I am now old and well advanced in years. 3 And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these
nations for your sake, for it is the Lord your God who has fought for you. 4 Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes
those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut
off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. 5 The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out
of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the Lord your God
promised you. 6 Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all
that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither
to the right hand nor to the left, 7 that you may not
mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of
their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, 8 but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to
this day. 9 For the Lord has driven out before you great and
strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to
this day. 10 One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it
is the Lord your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. 11 Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. 12 For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations
remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with
them and they with you, 13 know for certain that the Lord your God will no
longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a
trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish
from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.
Joshua 24:1–13 (ESV) —
1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the
elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented
themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the
Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates,
Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. 3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him
through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.
4 And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau
the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to
Egypt. 5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt
with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out.
6 “ ‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the
sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the
Red Sea. 7 And when they cried to the Lord, he put darkness
between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them;
and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long
time. 8 Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who
lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them
into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them
before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose
and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to
curse you, 10 but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he
blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand. 11 And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of
Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And
I gave them into your hand. 12 And I sent the hornet before
you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was
not by your sword or by your bow. 13 I gave you a land
on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell
in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not
plant.’
Joshua 24:14–15 (ESV) —
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in
faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and
in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your
eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the
Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord.”
Joshua 24:19–24 (ESV) —
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord,
for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your
transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and
serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after
having done you good.” 21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will
serve the Lord.” 22 Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses
against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they
said, “We are witnesses.” 23 He said, “Then put away the
foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God
of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we
will serve, and his voice we will obey.”
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