Joshua – Part One

The book of Joshua is about Jesus.  In fact, the name Joshua means "Yahweh is salvation," or "the LORD is salvation." Variant forms of his name include Jehoshua, and Yeshua. It is the Hebrew name of the Greek form of "Jesus." In Numbers 13:16 his name was changed from Oshua to Jeho–shua (Numbers 13:8, 16). The Divine name was incorporated into his. Every event in the book points directly to the Christ of the New Covenant.

We first encounter the man Joshua as a successful conqueror, not slaying innocent people, but in fighting the enemies of the LORD (Exodus 17:8ff). He is a victorious conquering hero. That’s our Jesus. He is the Conqueror of conquerors. He has conquered the unconquerable. He has triumphed over sin and death.

Chapter and verse divisions in the Bible are meaningless. They are not part of the inspired word of God and they often interrupt a narrative, making it harder to put Biblical events in context. 

Nevertheless, we basically see Joshua called and commissioned as a great leader in Chapter 1. His earthly military prowess is unmatched. But it nothing compared to the prowess of Christ as He defeated Satan at the cross of Calvary! 

In Chapter 2 we read the account of Rahab, the only female (other than His mother, Mary) mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy. She is the one referred to when you hear about the Bible’s “crimson thread;” Jesus in every book of the Bible.

Chapter 3 relates to us Israel crossing of the Jordan, led by the priests. When they get to the river, they step into what they think is water, but by the time their feet get to the surface of the water, the river is divided and their feet fall on dry land. The priests stepped out in faith. God fulfilled His end of the bargain. We come to Christ by stepping out in faith. God’s New Covenant promises that when we do so, He will keep His part of His New Covenant and will give us the gift of eternal life.

The account of the crossing of the Jordan continues in chapter 4. The 12 stones are intended to remind us that God had a covenant with Israel that He kept, even when they did not keep their part (which they failed to do often). Chapter 4 concludes with Joshua’s reminder of the power of God and our need to fear Him.

Parenthetically, the word “fear” does NOT mean respect. It means “fear.” If you think you can stand before God, whose right hand, according to Isaiah 48:13, spans the heavens, without genuine fear, you have another think coming. The only way we can stand before Him without fear is to do so in Christ.

Chapter 5 deals with the circumcision of the Israelite men. To sane people, that is an awful thought! It would really incapacitate the men. Under the New Covenant, we are to have our hearts circumcised. For one steeped in damning sin, that is a painful process. First one must recognize his sin, then he must repent of it, a process that results in heart circumcision. Finally, he must trust in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary for His salvation.

We also read of the fall of Jericho in chapter 5 & 6. For most of history, the story of Jericho was considered a fable. Archaeologists gave no credence to its existence, let alone its fall. But in recent years the city’s remnants have been found and the Bible’s rendition of its fall have been vindicated. Not that the Bible needs man’s vindication, but it certainly does make archaeologists look arrogant and stupid. That’s a good thing.

Israel was given a very unusual, and militarily untenable plan to topple the walls. It is done with silence, with walking and with the sound of trumpets, accompanied by shouting. What kind of battle strategy is that? It is not the way most generals would plan an attack. That would be unimaginable.

The way God decided to attack and defeat Satan was no less unimaginable. Who would have thought that God loved us so much that He would become a man, suffer persecution, go through at least 5 illegal trials and be killed on a cross? What kind of a plan is that? It is certainly not a plan most people would imagine.

As God demonstrated at Jericho, He is not confined to our pitiful form of logic to accomplish His will. We serve a God of eternal and infinite imagination. Nature cries it out and the Bible chronicles it from beginning to end.

What a marvelous God we who have received His salvation through Christ serve!

A MATTER OF REDEMPTION

When I was a student at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, I saw a billboard that contained the message:

JESUS SAVES.

Underneath it some wag had written: 

GREEN STAMPS.

At first I thought to myself, "How crude and disrespectful! Why would anybody be so irreverent as to put that kind of graffiti on a billboard that obviously was expressing someone's faith?

Then I got to thinking about it. 

Do you remember Green Stamps? 

When you went to the grocery store or bought gasoline, the clerk would present you with a certain number of little stamps that you could lick and stick into little books. After you had collected so many books of stamps, you could take them to the S & H Green Stamp store and trade them in for merchandise.

How could those little books of stamps get you merchandise?

It turns out that participating stores placed a small "surcharge" on each product. They kept a small percentage of that "surcharge" and gave the rest to the S & H Green Stamp company, the redemption store.

In other words, you were able to obtain the merchandise because the price for the product had already been paid. You had the S & H Green Stamp book to prove it.

When I thought of that, it suddenly occurred to me, "That is exactly what Jesus has done for us. We can live eternally in the presence of God because the price for our sin had already been paid by Jesus at the cross of Calvary!"

Jesus is the source of our redemption! He saves us!

Saves us from what? 

Jesus saves us from our fear of death. To a Christian, death is not a period at the end of the sentence of our life. Death is a transition to our home! When we sing "This world is not my home, I'm just a-passin' through. My home has been laid up, somewhere beyond the blue..." we are not just saying pretty rhyming words. We are expressing one of the major meanings of our salvation! When we die, we are called to our real home.

Jesus saves us from the penalty of our sins. What we earn when we sin is eternal death. That's the paycheck for sin. It means we have offended God. He cannot so much as look at sin. When Jesus became sin for us on the cross, God turned His back on His Son! Every single person who has ever lived, who lives now or whoever will live is under the curse of sin and has no hope of salvation apart from the grace of God manifested in Christ. We deserve eternal death, but in Christ we receive eternal life as a gift from God!

Jesus saves us from becoming enamored with the trappings of this life.  He delivers us from putting family ahead of Him. He delivers us from putting work ahead of Him. He delivers us from putting entertainment ahead of Him. He delivers us from vain philosophies, from pagan mysticism, from arrogance, pride, hatred and anger. When Jesus saves us, He becomes the center of our lives. (If Jesus is not the center of your life, maybe you should determine whether or not you have really been saved)

Jesus saves us to a real, powerful, meaningful purpose to our lives. He becomes the hub around which the rest of the spokes and the rim of our lives revolve. He becomes the in-all, of all, by-all and through-all of everything we are, think and do.

When we stand before God with Jesus by our side, He sees us through Jesus' eyes. Before Him we then stand redeemed. The price for our sin has already been paid. We have the Holy Spirit to prove it!

That should be exciting enough to make even a Baptist shout, "Hallelujah!"