Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History
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Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History
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Overview
The book of Joshua brings to life real history during the crucial period of transition for the Israelites as they follow God's direction and settle in the promised land. Israel needed discipline in light of their newfound freedom. They faced the responsibility of living as a covenant people while adapting to change. Joshua describes the historic shift from the revelation of God's promises to their realization. God's care of his people becomes obvious, and their struggle with disobedience, selfishness, and fear is very human.
Francis Schaeffer's thoughts on the book of Joshua show readers the historic, spiritual, and intellectual nourishment available for the Christian life through the examples of Joshua and his fellow Israelites. In the book of Joshua, Schaeffer finds that God reveals his sorrow over human sin, as well as his gracious love for his people. This is as true for us as it was for those in Joshua's time. This study of the settling of Israel will inspire readers to see the hand of God present in all of history, including today.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781433516894 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crossway |
| Publication date: | 01/08/2004 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 607 KB |
About the Author
Francis A. Schaeffer (1912–1984) authored more than twenty books, which have been translated into several languages and have sold millions globally. He and his wife, Edith, founded the L'Abri Fellowship international study and discipleship centers. Recognized internationally for his work in Christianity and culture, Schaeffer passed away in 1984 but his influence and legacy continue worldwide.
Francis A. Schaeffer (1912–1984) authored more than twenty books, which have been translated into several languages and have sold millions globally. He and his wife, Edith, founded the L’Abri Fellowship international study and discipleship centers. Recognized internationally for his work in Christianity and culture, Schaeffer passed away in 1984 but his influence and legacy continue worldwide.
Udo W. Middelmann is president of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation. He is the author of several books, including The Innocence of God, and has been a longtime worker at Swiss L’Abri.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Joshua's Preparation
Joshua is an important book for many reasons — for the history it records and for its internal teaching. But what makes the book of Joshua overwhelmingly important is that it stands as a bridge, a link between the Pentateuch (the writings of Moses) and the rest of Scripture. It is crucial for understanding the unity the Pentateuch has with all that follows it, including the New Testament.
The story of the man Joshua begins not in the book of Joshua but in the book of Exodus. After the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea in their flight from Egypt, they came just a few days later to Rephidim (Ex. 17). There they began to murmur against God; Moses, by God's direction, smote the rock, and God provided water in a miraculous way. Almost immediately after this, the Amalekites came against the Israelites to make war with them, the first battle the Israelites had to fight during their days of march.
At this point Joshua is named for the first time: "And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek" (Ex. 17:9). So we first meet Joshua as the general of the forces of the Lord, a role that would immediately in this setting teach him a lesson — namely, that God will not tolerate the rebellion of men against himself.
The Amalekites, of course, were not included in the promise made to Abraham. They were non-Jews — Semitic, but non-Jews. The Amalekites were rebelling against the living God. This action is clearly portrayed as rebellion in Exodus 17:16: "Because the hand of Amalek is against the throne of the LORD [or, Because there is a hand against the throne of Jehovah], therefore hath the LORD sworn, the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." In other words, the war of Amalek and the Amalekites against the Israelites was not just the surrounding world making war with God's people; the war was a blow against the throne of God. The Amalekites were challenging with the sword God's rule, God's throne, God's rightful place over all the world.
Exodus 17:16 indicates that the Amalekites understood something of the fact that they were fighting not only against the Israelites, but also against the God who stood behind the Israelites. One can question how much knowledge they had, but their actions remind me of people today who understand that what they are really fighting against is at least the concept of the Judeo-Christian religion and the culture based upon it.
So Joshua is introduced to us as a general in the midst of a warfare that impressed upon him that God will not tolerate the rebellion of men against himself.
Joshua also learned another important lesson through the conflict with the Amalekites: Power is not merely the capability of the general and the sword, but power is of God. Moses sent Joshua out to fight while he himself climbed to the top of a hill with the rod of God in his hand — the same rod that he had stretched over the Red Sea until the sea had rolled back, the same rod that God had used in many of the miracles. The rod had originally been the rod of Moses, but had become the rod of God, a representation of God's power. As the rod was raised, the Israelites prevailed; as it sank, the Amalekites prevailed (Ex. 17:11). This is not to be thought of as magic. God was teaching these people a serious lesson in their first warfare, and no one was to learn it better than Joshua the general. In the midst of battle, is one to fight? Yes. To be a good general? Yes. But when everything is done, the power is to be understood as God's, not man's.
In Exodus 17:14 another note is added: "And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book...." It seems clear that a definite article is used here. There was a book of God that continued to grow, and this was the Pentateuch itself. What was written in it was what God said should be put there. Early in Joshua's life, therefore, he was in a definite way wrapped up with the book. As we shall see, this becomes exceedingly important in the book of Joshua itself.
On mount sinai
The next time we see Joshua is in Exodus 24:13: "And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God." Immediately before this, these two men had been joined by some others for a very special event: "Then up went Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink" (Ex. 24:9-11).
The leaders went partway up the mount, and they ate. Then Joshua apparently went up still farther with Moses. In this event were two strong emphases: the first upon the reality of God and the second on the glory of God. All the leaders would have perceived this as they ate before him.
The eating before God was not unique. In fact, one of the great things in Scripture is that we eat before God. This is beautiful, because eating is such a lowly activity. It is connected with our body and our bodily functions in a way that hardly anything else is, for what we eat becomes our body. Yet constantly in the Scriptures God's people are brought together to eat in his presence. For instance, the Passover, which was established in Egypt and then at Mount Sinai, was really a meal in the presence of God. So is the Lord's Supper, which took place in the New Testament and continues today. Finally, we are expressly told that at the second coming the marriage supper of the Lamb will take place, and all the redeemed, with resurrection bodies, will eat in the presence of God. Among the many things that are marvelous about this is the very reality of it — the solidness of it. It highlights the fact that the whole man was made by God and is accepted by God.
Another thing is clearly seen in God's preparation of Joshua: Joshua was reminded of the interplay between the seen and the unseen worlds. There is no vast chasm between them; the unseen world is right here. The unseen world is always immediately present, not far off. Above everything and overshadowing everything is the reality of God in his glory. It undoubtedly stood Joshua in good stead many times for him to understand that God was close at hand, that he is the God who exists and who is "here."
In Exodus 24:17 we read, "And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel." All the children of Israel saw space-time, historic manifestations on the top of Mount Sinai, so that later, after this generation had died, Moses could stand on the plain of Moab and say to those who had been little children when these manifestations occurred, "You saw! You heard!" This is the very opposite of the modern concept of the existential religious leap, for it is woven into a strong space-time fabric.
At the golden calf
Joshua is mentioned next at a very sober time, the time of the golden calf (Ex. 32). God said to Moses, "Go down quickly because even while you've been up here on the mount, the people have revolted against me!" So down came Moses and Joshua from the mountain.
As he came down, "Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, [and] he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp" (Ex. 32:17). Maybe he heard this with his general's ears, with his mind attuned to battle. But Moses responded, "It has nothing to do with war." It would have been much better if it had been war, for the problem was much more serious. "It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery," Moses said. "Neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear" (32:18). "Singing," you say. "Well, that's better than war." In this case, though, it was worse. War is not the greatest evil to come upon a people. "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath [at the foot of] the mount" (32:19).
Let us visualize Moses' response. He came down from the mountain and into the foothills — the slope at the bottom. He and Joshua saw the golden calf, and Moses immediately smashed the tablets of stone upon which God had written the Ten Commandments. These were the very tablets upon which God himself had written with his finger. God had communicated in verbal form and put his words on the tablets in the language of the people. Now Moses had destroyed them.
Imagine how the young man Joshua felt. Moses had left him and gone beyond. There had been thunder and lightning. Moses came down and had stone tablets in his hands, and on these tablets were words that could be read, words that had been placed there by God himself. Imagine the emotion! Yet when the two men came back into the camp, the people were in total rebellion. Here Joshua learned another truth: the terribleness of sin, especially among the people of God. This was sobering, and Joshua never forgot it.
The people made a god that was no god. And as soon as they had done this, there was a complete moral breakdown. The people took off their clothes and threw themselves into the same kind of sexual rite practiced by the cultures surrounding them. We can think here of the orgy in Schoenberg's opera Moses and Aaron. Though most of the rest of the opera is not true to the Scriptures, this part is. There was an orgy at the golden calf. In this case the moral breakdown was not separated from their worship, but was properly connected with it, because they were worshiping a god that was no god. As Paul points out in Romans 1, turning away from the living God always leads to moral breakdown. It has in our day. The last few generations have turned away from the living God, and now we are surrounded by a moral breakdown, including an all-prevailing sexual orgy.
In addition to having this terribleness impressed upon him, Joshua saw that merely using the name of God is not sufficient. After Aaron had made the calf, he said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (Ex. 32:4). According to tradition, the children of Israel actually placed the most holy name of God — the Tetragrammaton — on the golden calf. But merely to use the name was nothing. This was worse, much worse, than not using the name of God at all. So Joshua would have understood that merely using the name of God is not enough.
Joshua would also have seen that there is a place for godly anger. Moses broke the tablets, and God never scolded him for this, not even a little. There was good reason for Moses' anger. After he had broken the tablets of stone, Moses ground up the golden calf, put the powder upon the water, and said to Israel, "All right! This is your drinking water. Go and drink it!" — a tremendous statement of godly anger against what is sinful. We must say that the exercise of godly anger is dangerous to us because we so often mix it with egoism. But let us not forget that there is a place for godly anger. There were times when Christ, too, was angry. We can think, for example, of him driving out the moneychangers (John 2:15) and his anger at the abnormality of death before the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:33).
In the tabernacle
The fourth time we see Joshua is in Exodus 33: "And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. ... And the LORD spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle" (33:9, 11). Moses was unique. The Lord spoke with him face to face as one speaks to his friend; and in the midst of this unusual situation, the young man Joshua was being taught. Joshua was going to school; Joshua was being prepared for his future leadership. It was imperative that he learn, since the great man Moses would die, and Joshua would be left to carry on. Here, as in Exodus 24, he learned the reality of God in his glory, but with an additional note: God could and would guide. God not only exists, but he guides his people as they live in, and walk through, the world of time and space.
Prophesying in the camp
Joshua is next mentioned in an intriguing passage in Numbers: And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle. And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them! (Num. 11:24-29)
Joshua had another lesson to learn, and a very serious one: God's glory is to come first. There is a great difference between leadership and self-aggrandizement. There is to be leadership among the people of God, according to the gifts he bestows, but there is not to be glorification of oneself or other men. Joshua asked that Eldad and Medad be forbidden to prophesy because they had not come before Moses in the tabernacle; but Moses answered magnificently, "Don't envy for my sake." Maybe Moses' response is one of the reasons the Bible says that Moses was a meek man. Though Moses was such a tremendous leader, he would not tolerate Joshua's glorifying him.
The young man Joshua was learning a lesson that anybody who is ever going to be worth anything in leadership must learn. None of us learns it completely, of course, and yet we must master it if we are going to be of any use in the church of God. A leader must never confuse himself with God. When a person begins to exercise certain gifts and God brings him to a place of leadership in the church of Christ, how easy it is to take the glory. Yet this is the destruction of all true spiritual leadership.
Joshua also had to learn that a person cannot bind God with man-made rules. Joshua had a man-made rule: God really should not have placed his Spirit on the two men in the camp. This did not fit into Joshua's concept of what was good and proper. God has bound himself with rules based on his own character, which he will never break; but men (including God's leaders) must never try to bind him with their own rules. He will not keep these rules.
Spying out the land
In Numbers 13 we see more of Joshua's preparation. He was one of the twelve men God sent to spy out the promised land. Numbers 13:6 says that from the tribe of Judah Caleb was sent, and 13:8 (ASV) mentions: "of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun." In 13:16 (ASV) we find that "Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua." So this was Joshua. Hoshea means "he saves"; but Moses changed his name to Joshua, "Jehovah saves" so that Joshua would even in his name remember that it is not man who saves, but God. Jesus, of course, is the Greek form for the Hebrew name Joshua.
When the spies returned, they gave contrasting opinions. The majority advised, "No. Trying to conquer the land is too dangerous. The people are too great." But two of the spies, Caleb and Joshua, remembered who God is and reported in line with the greatness of God and his covenant promises: "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it" (Num. 13:30). Here Caleb was affirming, "It's a great land, and we will be able to conquer it because we have a great God."
The people, however, followed the ten spies. "All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night" (Num. 14:1). We can see the fiber of these two men as they spoke out and rebuked those who were following the majority report:
And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. (Num. 14:6-9)
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History"
by .
Copyright © 2004 The Francis A. Schaeffer.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
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Table of Contents
Introduction by Udo W. Middelmann, 7,
1 Joshua's Preparation, 15,
2 The Three Changeless Factors, 35,
3 The Continuity of the Covenant, 55,
4 Rahab, 79,
5 Two Kinds of Memorials, 91,
6 Jericho, Achan, and Ai, 109,
7 Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, 127,
8 The Gibeonites, 147,
9 Caleb's Faithfulness, 163,
10 East and West Of Jordan, 171,
11 The Cities of Refuge, 191,
12 Joshua's Farewell: Choose!, 209,
