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Joshua’s Place In God’s Faithfulness
The Bible is a story, and Joshua is a small part of that story. This is a story that’s largely about redemption. God created, it was ruined, and he sets out to fix (or redeem) his creation. But this is also a story about extreme faithfulness. God remains faithful to people that betrayed him, he remains faithful to a nation that wouldn’t obey him, and he remains faithful to followers that fail him every day. The bit of this story found in Joshua sits at a vital juncture between God’s plan of redemption and his faithfulness. Let’s trace God’s story up to where we meet Joshua.
The Bible begins with something truly beautiful. God decided to create. He created to bring glory to himself, setting the beginning of both time and space into motion. He filled this space with existence, a beautiful universe and a spectacular world that he filled with countless other marvelous creations. As the final act of God’s creation, humanity was made in the very image of God. This image means that we were created to reflect our God within his creation, serving as his representative rulers on earth. However, we failed in our role as image bearers. Instead of ruling over creation, we listened to the deceit of the serpent and reached for something God did not yet intend for us to have. Our failure brought sin and corruption into God’s creation. But the next thing to happen is one of the greatest moments in history. God didn’t quit on us. He could have wiped the slate clean and started fresh, but he chose to remain faithful to his creation. He chose to work toward the redemption of his creation with us.
For a long time after the fall, humanity continued to forsake God. Nevertheless, God remained faithful, but he needed to answer the problem of the human condition. He did so by raising up a single man named Abram. He promised to make an extraordinary nation out of Abram’s descendants. They would get to be a major part in God’s story and his plan to fix his creation. That nation would be used by God to bless and redeem all of creation.
Unfortunately, only a few generations into God’s plan, Abraham’s people found themselves exiled and enslaved in the land of Egypt. God had been faithful in his promise to give Abraham numerous descendants. His family grew quickly in number until they outnumbered their Egyptian captors. However, Abraham’s people were still without the land God had promised to them. In his faithfulness, God had not forgotten his promises, and he rescued his people using a man named Moses. With Moses, God led his people (also known as the Israelites) out of Egypt so that they could claim the land he had promised to them.
Despite what God had already done for his people, they were unfaithful to him before they could even reach the promised land. God was angry with his people. He was angry because he continued to provide for a people that seemed to have little interest in faithfully following him. In response, God threatened to wipe them out and begin a new nation through Moses. Thankfully, there was still some faithfulness to be found within the ranks of the Israelites. On Mt. Sinai, Moses met with God and plead on behalf of the people. God was so impressed by Moses’ faithfulness that he renewed the covenant he had made with Abraham with Moses right on top of the mountain. This time God also provided Moses with instructions for what his people should look like. This was his law to the Israelites.
The story continues and it now takes a pessimistic turn. God’s people repeatedly returned to unfaithfulness during their slow journey through the desert to the promised land. Even with the law telling them exactly how God’s people should look, they continued to fail. Though God was continually faithful to them, why couldn’t God’s people get it together and live up to their calling to bless all of creation? They simply weren’t capable and never would be capable to do this alone. Once again, knowing they would never follow through, God could have abandoned his people. If we’re being honest with ourselves, this is probably the route many of us would take. God doesn’t. He chooses to remain faithful to his people despite their failures. He will provide the promised land to them, and he will provide a Savior who can bless all of creation.
This is where the book of Joshua picks up, in camps hovering on the edge of Canaan (the promised land). Moses is now dead, but God is still faithful to his people. He raised up a new leader, Joshua, and roused his people. It is time they retake their land, establishing themselves as a nation based upon God’s law, and become a faithful means of blessing to the world.
Why Should I Read The Bible This Year?
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One of the best parts of the New Year is the tradition of making a resolution. The idea behind the New Year’s resolution is that every person gets a fresh start to make a positive change in their own life. Past failures are wiped clean and anything is possible. The concept of a New Year’s resolution has been around for a long time. The Romans would make resolutions to the god Janus. The Babylonians promised their gods at the start of the New Year to return borrowed objects and pay back debts. Medieval knights would recommit themselves to chivalry every year.
Some people insist that the idea of a New Year’s resolution is silly. “Why would you be any more likely to follow through on something in January than you are in August?” However, studies have shown that almost half of the people that make a New Year’s resolution are ten times as likely to succeed than those who make resolutions at other ties of the year.
This year instead of committing to a new diet, another gym membership or a juice cleanse, would you consider resolving to read through the entire Bible?
Here are a few reasons:
The Bible is the means through which God reveals your sin to you.
Hebrews 4:12-13 ESV: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Reading the Bible, ‘storing it in your heart’, keeps you from sin.
Psalm 119:11 ESV: “I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.”
The Bible is the source of blessing and joy for followers of Christ:
Psalm 1:1-2 ESV: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked…but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
Is there a more important daily discipline for disciples of Christ than daily Bible reading? Unfortunately, it is not easy to find time to sit down with God’s word. But, this is a New Year and a new opportunity to pursue Christ-likeness through the study of God’s word.
Here is a link here to a short Q&A with Pastor John Piper in which he discusses the importance of reading through the Bible in a year along with the plan that he uses most often. I trust you will find it as helpful as I.
Additional Bible Reading Plan Apps (there are many, just two free options listed here)
ReadingPlan in the iTunes stores
Bible Reading Plan in the Google Play Store
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Resting, Stopping and Worshiping
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We don’t rest; we work.
That’s the mantra of our American lives.
Even so, the Bible has a message for us: Stop & Rest.
In 1st Samuel, Chapter 6, the Philistines sent the Ark of the Lord back to the Israelites, because God punished them for taking it and for dishonoring his name. They sent it back with two new milk cows on a new cart.
What happens next struck me rather profoundly.
“Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And when they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, they rejoiced to see it. The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there. A great stone was there. And they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was beside it, in which were the golden figures, and set them upon the great stone. And the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices on that day to the LORD. And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned that day to Ekron.” (1 Samuel 6:13-16 ESV)
The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting their crops from the land. In this culture, the harvest is something that had to be completed within a certain amount of time or the crops would rot. It was also a time of great labor for all the people. It was work.
But the presence of the Ark of God stopped the work.
How often does the joy of worshipping God, does the presence of God cause you to cease and desist everything else that you are doing?
The people of Beth-Shemesh saw the ark of God and drops their scythes to celebrate!
The joy of the Lord caused Paul to stop in the book of Romans, in the midst of his rhetoric and argument and exclaim:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
(Romans 11:33-36 ESV)
Does the greatness of God’s redemptive work cause you to stop working for yourself?
In our society, we are taught that we must always be going and doing and never stopping. But this passage teaches us that we need to learn to stop, we need to learn to worship.
Second, when they worshipped, everything they needed to worship was all provided for them.
The Philistines sent two new milk cows that had never known a yoke, and a brand new cart to carry the Ark. The people of Beth-shemesh used everything that was sent to worship the God of Moses. They chopped the wood up to sacrifice the cows, and used a huge rock in the field as the altar!
What did they bring? Not a thing.
This calls to mind the words of Augustus Toplady’s great hymn Rock of Ages
“Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling”
What God wants is our worship, not our efforts. He has provided everything we need to worship him. Rest in God’s provision.
Are you clinging to your work? To your time? To your schedule?
Or are you clinging to the Rock of Ages? To God himself? To the cross of Jesus.
Today, may you be bold and worship before (and as) you work.
Photo Credit: Emma Frances Logan Barker
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Interview with Scott Garrison
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On Sunday, April 24th, we had the privilege to hear from Scott Garrison. Scott and Laura are church planters of Redeemer Church in Indianapolis. We are really excited to join them on mission in this summer! If you missed the interview, listen here!
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Equip 1:8 Follow Up
We live in a unique and exciting time in world history. Never before has the world been so interconnected. Travel is easier than it has ever been. The internet has enabled us talk to people on the other side of the world by the click of a button. Not only do we live in exciting times, but we at Harvest Church believe we have been placed in a strategic area to reach the nations. Immigrants are flooding into our country every day with the hopes of a better life or better education. Whatever the motivations are for coming here, we know that God is bringing the nations to us.
“From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27)
We at Harvest want to love our neighbors well and show gospel-hospitality to the visitors in our land. We want to invite them not only into our cities but also into our homes, our families, and our lives.
Last Saturday, we hosted our very first Equip 1:8. It was a morning full of brainstorming different ways that we as a local body of Christ can be more intentional about loving the immigrants in our area. We were not seeking to add things on to our already busy lives, but rather we were seeking to adapt our every-day schedules in such a way that we can better love the people from all over the world that surround us.
We decided that it was time to show humility by seeking to understand the worldview of our international neighbors. We want to know and celebrate the cultures that they come from. We desire to understand the religious beliefs they hold dear, so that we can better understand where they are coming from. Perhaps we can even learn greetings in their own languages in order to show that we care and seriously desire true friendship with them. We want to open up our homes and invite them into our lives. We believe that in these ways, God can use us at Harvest to impact the nations.
As we continue to pray and think through how each of our families can best respond to the opportunity God has given us in the Greater Raleigh-Durham area, we are asking ourselves …
- What interactions do we already have with those who have come from other lands (whether it be at work, our neighborhoods, where we shop, etc.)? Are we being intentional about being a light among these peoples?
- Are we sharing our lives with the internationals in our city or are we too busy to even open up our homes for a meal with them?
As God is bringing the nations into our neighborhoods, we pray that God will find Harvest faithful with the role He has given us to play in His overarching story of redemption among every tribe, tongue, people and language.
