Jackman Joshua

People of God's Purpose
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4335-2377-9
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Reihe: Preaching the Word

Following closely on the heels of the Exodus story, the book of Joshua recounts the mighty acts of God as he fulfills his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is, quite profoundly, a testimony to God's faithfulness. Written by a pastor to aid pastors in their preaching, and for their churches in their reading, this accessible commentary guides readers through the history of Joshua's rise to power in Israel and God's leading of his people into their promised 'rest' in the land of Canaan. With warmth and wisdom, David Jackman ultimately points readers to the true hero of Israel's story: God himself. Part of the Preaching the Word series.

David Jackman (MA, Cambridge University) is a renowned Christian speaker and author. After fifteen years in pastoral ministry, he became the founder-director of the Cornhill Training Course in London, a ministry of the Proclamation Trust, of which he was later president. This ministry continues to encourage and equip Bible teachers around the world.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jackman, David

Leseproben

1

Overture and Beginners

JOSHUA 1:1, 2

THE BEGINNING OF THIS sixth book of the Bible is as stark as it is surprising. From Exodus onward, the last four books have been dominated by one giant human figure—Moses. For forty years he has been the constant factor, the mediator and deliverer of his people—always there, always dependable, the man who speaks face-to-face with God, “as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). It must have been almost impossible to imagine life without Moses, much as those of us who are British citizens find it hard to imagine our country without Queen Elizabeth II after her sixty wonderful years upon the throne. But “Moses my servant is dead” is the blunt beginning of this book (v. 2) and life, as always, must go on.

The words are spoken to Joshua, the son of Nun, by no means a young man at this stage, but with his real life’s work just about to open up before him. The words are spoken by the sovereign Lord, Yahweh, whose name reveals his unchanging faithfulness to his covenant promises because of his immutable character and purposes. The words are not unexpected. They are like the starting pistol to a race that Joshua has always known he would one day run and for which he has been trained and has prepared for decades. But they must have come with awesome demand and challenge, and they must surely have provoked that mixture of excited anticipation and inner panic we all know when we stand on the threshold of a major new chapter of our life experience. “Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people . . .” (v. 2).

The time has come to enter the land, to possess in reality all that their covenant Lord had promised Israel through the centuries, since first he told their father Abraham, “I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of our sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:8). This was why he brought them out of their slavery in Egypt. This was what their forty years in the desert was always anticipating. This was how the sovereign Lord would now fulfill his often repeated promises.

The pattern had been set right back at the beginning of God’s dealings with Abram, when, in Ur of the Chaldeans, he received the divine summons, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). This clear command was accompanied by no road map, no detailed schedule, no explanation of how it would all happen, but Abram had all that he really needed—the promise from the sovereign Lord that he would show him the land and then later give it to him and his family (Genesis 12:7). The command and the promise run together throughout the Bible. So it is here for Joshua. The command is to cross the River Jordan, but the promise is that God is now giving his people their promised land. Both command and promise depend upon the sovereignty of God, expressed in his wise will and achieved by his irresistible power. So it is as God’s people both believe the promises and obey the commands that they enter into the experience of fellowship with God at the deepest, relational level. The same is true for us today. Why do we so often fail to obey God’s commands? Because we do not really believe his promises. The two always go together. Faith leads to obedience. Disobedience is always rooted in distrust. We will see this lesson worked out often in the book of Joshua; it is a continuing challenge that we shall often encounter in our contemporary experience of living the Christian life.

It is significant that the designation of Moses as “the servant of the LORD” in verse 1 is matched at the end of the book (24:29) with the same title, but this time it is assigned to Joshua. The story of the book, at one level, is the story of Joshua’s progress and development from the description of him as “Moses’ assistant” (1:1) to his own epitaph as the Lord’s servant. But Joshua is not the hero of the book, as we shall see. That role is entirely occupied by the Lord himself, whom Joshua served. Nevertheless, Joshua features as the central human actor in the drama of the conquest of Canaan, and it is entirely appropriate for us to look at some of his earlier history before we delve into the details of the text.

The Apprentice

We are first introduced to Joshua in the early days of the exodus, before the nation is brought together to Sinai to receive the Law of God. Perhaps a better translation of the Hebrew word torah, translated as “law,” would be “instruction” since this stresses the relational aspect of God’s self-revelation as he reveals how his people are to live in covenant with him. Of course, this is interwoven with the binding effects and sanctions of his commands, which are not just advice but carry divine authority and inflict within them punishment for their infringement.

Just a few months out of Egypt the Israelites face an all-out assault from the Amalekites at Rephidim, where God has provided water from the rock. Without any words of introduction, Joshua is nominated by Moses to select an army and lead the battle, which he does (Exodus 17:8–10). After the great victory (“Joshua overwhelmed Amalek,” Exodus 17:13), God commands Moses to record in writing and cause it to be read to Joshua that he, the Lord, will be at war with Amalek until he will “utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14). Joshua, previously unknown, is suddenly a successful military leader, but he needs constantly to be reminded that this was God’s victory, not his, entirely dependent on Moses’ symbolic raising of his hands to the throne of Yahweh in supplication and intercession. It is interesting that at this first recorded Joshua incident the written testimony is given a central place in encouraging his faith and reminding him where power really lies. The man of action is to be dependent on the word of the Lord and on the prayers of his people.

We next meet Joshua, described as Moses’ “assistant,” in Exodus 24:13, where he accompanies the great leader as he responds to God’s call to come up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the Torah. There is nothing to indicate that Joshua was with Moses when he entered the cloud of God’s presence, but he was certainly nearer to God’s self-revelation “like a devouring fire” (Exodus 24:17) than any of his fellow Israelites. And when the protracted interview ends, it is Joshua who descends with Moses to witness the horrors of the golden calf idolatry in the camp. The young man assumes the noise of the people below to be a sign of war, but Moses knows better, and the orgy quickly becomes evident (Exodus 32:17–19). After the initial acts of judgment and the withdrawal of God’s immediate presence from the camp, it is Moses who sets up a tent outside, a prototype “tabernacle” or “tent of meeting,” where he alone can communicate with God, in personal intimacy. But the privilege of proximity again belongs to Joshua. “When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent” (Exodus 33:11). We don’t know, of course, how much Moses passed on to the young apprentice, but such closeness to the action and his awareness of God’s glory must have been enormously formative in the young warrior’s thinking.

Still Learning

The next time we meet Joshua, God has called Moses to select seventy elders, upon whom he puts his Spirit so as to enable them to share in the burden of leadership that Moses has been shouldering alone. This unique visitation of the Spirit was evidenced by their speaking God’s word (prophesying), a unique occurrence. Even though two of them had not left the camp, Eldad and Medad nevertheless prophesied as well, although so much to Joshua’s consternation that he says to Moses, “My lord Moses, stop them” (Numbers 11:28). But Moses’ response is, “Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets” (v. 29). The meekest man in all the earth demonstrates not the slightest hint of jealousy. He has no concern for his own position or authority, but only for the well-being of the people. So the young Joshua has to learn that leadership is never an exclusive privilege, that he is not to glorify Moses, giant though he is, nor is he to seek to hedge God in to his own preferred agenda. These remain essential insights for godly leadership still today.

But then comes the greatest contribution Joshua has so far made in the purposes of God for Israel, when he is selected by Moses to represent his tribe, Ephraim, as one of the twelve spies commissioned to spy out the land of Canaan (Numbers 13:1–16). Only Joshua and Caleb return with a good report, urging immediate occupation, “for we are well able to overcome . . .” (Numbers 13:30). Not only so, but they plead with the whole congregation to trust in God’s grace and favor to “bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey” (Numbers 14:8). They must not fear the Canaanites but rather trust God’s promise and his presence with them. Yet the major report of rebellious unbelief prevails, the opportunity is lost, and Israel confines herself to the tragedy of forty more years in the wilderness as that whole generation is condemned to die outside the land, except Caleb and Joshua (Numbers 14:30). A plague removes the ten spies; only Joshua and Caleb remain alive (Numbers 14:37, 38).

Eventually the years pass, and God commands...