“After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister…” Joshua 1:1
Why is the book of Joshua in the Bible? Is it principally a historical account of the people of Israel being brought into the promised land, and the conquering of it? Or is there a deeper meaning, one which applies to the believer of today, as it has throughout the centuries up to this point? And lastly, how important is it?
When a lost sinner is born into the kingdom of God by the new birth, there are many great and wonderful things that become true. The first is that all sins are forgiven, blotted out, the heart and soul being cleansed by the blood of Christ. This cleansing is the first essential element of being justified before God, having peace with Him, where beforehand there had been animosity, an opposition from God because of sin and its wages. However, though there was the wrath of God that abided on the unbeliever, there was also the eternal love of God ever seeking to save him. Secondly, the perfect righteousness of Christ was attributed, or given, to the believer to be his own. For this God would accept him. Being justified, Christ became the life, love, and life of the believer and much more. It was at this point that the believer was ushered into the kingdom of God forever in Christ, being delivered from the power of darkness. (Col. 1:13) It was also at this point that the enemy of God, Satan, and the powers of darkness with him, became the believer’s enemy. The Christian, or disciple, at this point, like the Israelites of old, had crossed his Red Sea, being delivered from a tyrannical Pharaoh, and then the Jordan River, having left all that was of sin and self behind, to enter into a promised land, a land filled with the promises of God. These promises given to Israel in their day were not given just to know, but to act upon, make them their own, and live by them. God’s purpose in bringing the people of Israel into the promised land was that He should dwell among them, revealing His glory to them, and through them, to the world. God had chosen a nation to reveal His glory, His nature and ways, to all nations, eventually, to bring from Israel a Messiah, a Savior who would be Christ the Lord. What then does this have to do with Joshua, his book, and the believer today? Its significance is that it begins with the calling of God, to know Him. It then reveals the very real spiritual conflict that the believer immediately finds himself in when he is born again of the Spirit.
In Joshua’s day, there came a moment when his calling from God to succeed Moses as the leader of the people of Israel, became convincingly real. It was the moment when Joshual writes that God spoke to him. The time had come for him, like Elisha of old when he would succeed Elijah, to take up the mantle of Elijah, after he had gone to heaven, and respond in faith and obedience to God to answer that call. That day, in a very real way, Joshua crossed Jordan in his heart, never to look, or turn back. The land of promise was before him, though it be filled with adversaries. The promises were his, and the conquest also.
The believer of today is faced with the same spiritual conflict, the Red Sea being the moment when he was justified, delivered from Satan’s grasp. The crossing of the Jordan is that moment when the believer comes to see that to know Christ, and His victory, it cannot be by fleshly or worldly means. Christ has become the believer’s sanctification, and only by the Spirit of God, and Christ’s resources, in submission and faith, can the believer overcome the enemy. The certain promises of God are given to know Christ’s victory.
Dear Father, Fill us with Christ’s strength. In Jesus’ name, Amen.