Moses Can't Get Them In, But Joshua Can

Why don't you open up to the book of Joshua. Our men have been, actually our whole church has been reading, the book of Joshua this summer, for our summer advance. I hope you have enjoyed that reading. I think it'll finish up the schedule, this week.

when I was a child, one hot Bakersfield day, much like today, but with a bit of an oaky kick, my baby brother was taking a nap, but me and my two sisters got into trouble with our stepdad for a mysterious action. someone had put ground up hamburger in the soil of all the plants around our apartment. we denied it and we were sent to our room until someone could fess up. As we got into our room, we were like, did you do it?

Did you do it? And none of us did it. And so we sat around and we finally convinced Melissa, who would have been around 3 years old at the time, to go out and confess. And, but it seemed that she wasn't very convincing and she was quickly sent back to our room.

So then Michelle agreed to go out and make a five year old confession. And so you can see the pecking order and she was not confessing either or not convincing either. Finally I went out as the sacrificial lamb and to admit that it was me. However, my stepdad thought I was lying too and sent me back to my bedroom.

I think he just wanted a break from us three kids. Finally, my mom got home from work and revealed that she had read in a magazine somewhere, this is 1970. that a bit of hamburger meat in the soil was good for the plants. And so we rejoiced, did we get released from prison?

No, we were all sent back to our room for lying. And So So my stepdad put us on restriction for lying, and we just felt that that was so unfair. when I read the story of Moses, in the Torah and leading up to the book of Joshua, it just seems so unfair. you think about it, this guy was living the life.

Yeah, he was, he had run away from the law in Egypt, but there he was a shepherd in the desert, 80 years old, and then he comes across a burning bush. He didn't ask to lead all these people out of Egypt. He didn't ask to go wander around the wilderness with a bunch of complainers. He didn't ask for all these trials and problems.

Every time you turn the page, he and Aaron are on their face before the Lord pleading that God won't wipe out Israel. And then you get right to the brink of the land. They're about ready to cross over. The goal is almost finished.

And, Moses, who's right around 120 at this point, gets a little upset, a little bent out of shape with this complaint, people complaining again, actually their children are complaining. He, hits a rock a couple of times, and God says, that's it. You ain't going in. You're out.

I don't know about you, but if I'm Moses, I'm like, what? What did I just go through for 40 years? And, and the, and the reader is meant to, to scratch their head and say, are you kidding me? if anyone has been righteous in this narrative, it's been Moses.

He's the most humble guy on the planet, even though he did pin that, right? by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But he is a faithful, faithful prophet. Why is he not allowed to go into the land, and yet the very people that had been complaining and whining get to go into the land.

What is going on and, and how are we to understand this setting and, and why does this protege go into the land? Was Joshua just a lot more faithful when we read about Joshua, are there no apparent sins in his life? As we look at the book of Joshua, I think how we answer that question really will help us understand the purpose of the book of Joshua and really in fact, how to interpret the Torah, the whole Torah, the Old Testament itself. Read with me just the first two verses of Joshua chapter 1.

I'm reading from New King James. 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' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore rise, go over this Jordan, you and all these people to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Let's pray for a moment before we get into the, the text.

Lord, we ask that you would open this text and this book up to our eyes as you have intended through Christ, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Let me just give you a little bit about the book of Joshua before we try to answer this big question, why wasn't Moses allowed to take them in? Joshua, if we're understanding it correctly, it is real history.

This is not mythology. This is real history. The exodus was around 1500 BC and they would have entered the land around 40 years after the exodus. And yet Joshua should be viewed as more than just history.

It is part of the prophetic history of Israel. It is history, yes, but biblically, it's prophecy. in it, it is a, it's a fulfillment of the prophecy made to Abraham way back in Genesis 12 that his people were gonna go in and possess a land. It's also 1/4 telling.

It's a historical sermon preached to Israel, their children, and to all the peoples of the earth, we're told in Joshua chapter 4. And it's a foretelling or foreshadowing of what is to come. There's a lot that's told, to us in the book of Joshua about what's to come down. The line, in fact, Hebrews 4:8 tells us that it's more than just about Joshua giving the people a rest because it says in verse 9, there remains therefore rest for the people of God, that the full rest wasn't given in Joshua.

So there's something very prophetic and predictive about this book. In fact, the way that the Jewish Bible is organized, we have the same exact books, it's just the way it's spoken of and ordered. The Jewish Bible is, is spoken of as the Tanak, TNK stands for the Torah, the Nevehem, and the Keuvim, and the Nevee, that's basically the prophets. So what you have is Moses, the prophets, and the writings, and Joshua is at the very beginning of what's called the Nevae or the prophets.

In fact, this is the very way that Jesus divides the book up when he's talking in Luke chapter 24 when he's speaking to the. Disciples on the road to Emmaus, then later the 12 disciples as he speaks about how all these things concerning himself in verse 44 of Luke 24, he, which were written in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. The Psalms were the first book of the writing of the Kehavi. So the very way that the Old Testament was divided up puts Joshua on the front end of the what's called the prophets and so we should think of Joshua, yes, as history, but not just as history but as prophecy or prophetic history.

Thirdly, Well, let me say this, what we see happening in the book of Joshua shows how God is active in the lives of his people to bring them toward his divinely chosen goal. You see, Joshua, Shows us it's, it's a writing about history, but it also shows us that God's not just writing a book, he's also the one that is writing the very history that the book is reporting about. He's the one that's raising up individuals, putting down individuals. He's the one that's causing things to happen.

In order to reveal things about himself, his nature, and his dealings with his people, then that gets recorded in the Nevie, first of which is the book of Joshua. So it's historical, it's prophetic, but it's also a commentary. The book of Joshua is situated, it's the very first book on the other side of what we call the Torah, the 1st 5 books of the Bible, Genesis, Exis, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And when we move into Joshua, we now see that the book of Joshua begins to illustrate how the word of Moses is going to be kept or not kept.

Luther basically says when he was writing about the book of Joshua, that that's what Joshua does. It's a commentary on the Torah. It's inspired, Chad Bird says it's an inspired and inscripturated commentary on the Torah. It functions very much like the Book of Acts does for the Gospels.

In the Gospels, we see Christ come and live his life and then he dies and he, he's Raised from the dead and then the book of Acts comes along and and begins to continue to tell the story of Christ through his people. That's the way Joshua functions, in respect to the Torah or what some call we may call the Pentateuch. And so when we come to the book of, of Joshua, we need to think of it as history, but it's prophecy and it's a commentary on the Torah. Does this make sense?

So as we have that in the back of our minds. I want us to ask 4 questions. That will help us get our minds around the book of Joshua and the first question is this, this is on your outline if you guys have it. Why wasn't Moses allowed to bring God's people into the promised land?

It's a legitimate question. It's a question that any sensible reader would ask because it seems so unfair that Moses is not allowed to go in to the land and I wanna suggest that in many ways Moses prefigures the coming Christ. But he does more than that, as we're gonna see, he prefigures the coming Christ, however, the whole Bible speaks of him as a personification of the law. He prefigures Christ, but he's a personification of the law.

Look again with me at verse one and part of verse two. 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' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. The question that would come to our minds if we weren't really familiar with the story before this verse is, why is Moses dead?

What happened? Why is this being told or remind why is Joshua being reminded? Now notice that the text tells us that, Moses, my servant, it doesn't say Moses, that rebel, Moses, that one that I have rejected. It's Moses, my servant.

He's still being called the prophetic servant, the servant of the Lord, the one that spoke to the Lord face to face, the one that's called a friend of God, even though he's dead, and even though the way he died, we, we feel bad about it, the Lord is still speaking of him as his servant. And yet he was not allowed to continue to live and to reach the goal, so to speak and and so what is the context that explains why he was not allowed to go if you guys are familiar with what happens beforehand, you don't have to turn here you can if you want, but numbers 20 we see the actual narrative that explains the, the historical reason why Moses could not go into the land.

It basically, you guys probably know the story. They get to the waters of Meriba.

This is the 2nd generation. These are the kids whose parents have all died, mostly died since the last 40 years, and the water for some reason stopped flowing for them or they went into an area where there was no water. They began to complain. These guys have never lived in Egypt, but they're talking about how great it was in Egypt even though they had never been there.

They'd only heard about it. And. Moses and Aaron, they fall on their face. They're told to do certain things.

We won't get into all the, the, the details of the story, but basically, Moses says, shall we bring water out of this rock for you, you rebels? And then he doesn't do what God asked. He didn't speak to the rock, he hits the rock, undoubtedly in anger. And then in verse 12 of Numbers 20, then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, because you You did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel.

Therefore, you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. It's a very clear connection to Moses not being allowed into the land and what happened here at the waters of Miriba. Over a few chapters, Numbers 27:14. Says, for in the wilderness of Zen, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against my command to hollow me at the waters before their eyes.

So God says you didn't hollow me and so I hallowed my own name by chastising you and, and you tried to chastise the people of God in anger that's my job, not your job. I bring water, not you, and you are called to do what I command to the tea. And so therefore, you are not allowed into the land. Now let's just restate what we said previously.

Moses was a righteous guy, relatively speaking. I wanna suggest that most of us, I'll probably say all of us, if we were to be matching righteousness, we could not hold a candlestick to Moses. This guy was righteous, he was humble, he was patient. And it's not just, again, that Moses got left out, it's looking at who gets in, the children of Israel, which don't seem to be able to hold a candlestick to Moses.

So, Moses wasn't allowed in because of his sin at Marab, but yes. However, the whole Bible seems to emphasize and speak that Moses was representing more than just himself, he was representing a system of law. In fact, the law and Moses's name is attached all over the Bible. 31 times in the Old Testament, the Old Testament law of Moses, where the law is given to or through Moses, that phrase or those types of phrases happened 31 times.

and so there's a there seems to be a prophetic message behind the narrative, that Moses becomes synonymous with the law. And you see this in the, not just in the Old Testament, well, actually, just in our very context, if you look at verse seven of, Joshua 1. When, Joshua is being encouraged, he says, only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.

And then several other times in the book of Joshua, you hear of the law of Moses, the law of Moses, the law of Moses. Then when you get to the New Testament, 15 times do you hear the law of Moses. It's not just law generally, but it's the law of Moses, like in Luke 24:14, when Jesus said to his disciples, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all these things which are written about me in the law of Moses. Acts 13:38, Paul picks up this theme, and he talks about the law of Moses, and he contrasts it with Christ.

Listen to what he says in this sermon, verse, this is Acts 13:38. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And listen to this, by him, everyone who believes is justified from all the things. Which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

And so there's a contrast between what could be done through Christ, the forgiveness that's gained through Christ, particularly forgiveness for things that could not be accomplished through the law of Moses. So did one act of disobedience keep Moses out? Apparently we know that, there was more acts of disobedience, but that's there's one act that's pointed to and and this is meant we believe to demonstrate that you can't get in the land, the promised land through the law, but only through someone else.

Moses became a living example of what one sin will do.

If Moses wasn't righteous enough to get into the land, do you think you're righteous enough? James 2:10 says that forever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, just like Moses is guilty of all. And so it should leave us with the question, if Moses can't get in. Who can?

And the person who can is Joshua. That brings us to our second question. Why wasn't Moses allowed to bring God's people into the land? Well, he does prefigure Christ in some senses, but the Bible really speaks of him as a personification of the law, and no one can get into the promised land merely through keeping the law.

Why did Joshua get to bring them into the promised land? Well, part of our answer that we're going to develop is that while Joshua is in a sense, a second Moses, we're gonna see that momentarily. He also foreshadows Jesus in this role to bring God's people where the law never could. Joshua brings us where the law never could.

Now, let's stop for a moment and let's just talk about the name Joshua. The name, the Hebrew name Yeshua. Joshua is really, it's the same name as Jesus. Jesus just comes down to us from the Greek.

Joshua comes down to us from the Hebrew. And so when Jesus' parents named him and spoke out his Jewish name, they would have said Yeshua. we typically in English speaking United States we don't typically name our kids Jesus. We've, there's this tradition that that's sacrilegious, but we have no problem naming our kids Joshua.

I named one of my kids Joshua, but really Jesus is Joshua. It's the exact same name and what that name literally means is Jehovah saves. And it's a long standing interpretive tradition from Schofield and Spurgeon and many others that Joshua, meaning Jehovah saves, is a type of Christ, who is the captain of our salvation. Spurgeon says Joshua is a type of Christ and that he leads his followers to victory over their enemies and so forth.

And so as we think about the name Joshua, we're thinking of someone who his name is not accidentally Joshua, it was by God's coordination in his prophetic history, he names him Joshua, Jehovah saves to set up something, to foreshadow something, to point to a Joshua par excellence. And so let's, let's talk about a few ways in which Joshua foreshadows Jesus. Joshua, first of all, foreshadows Jesus as the prophet, as the prophet. in, in Deuteronomy 18, we're told Moses prophesized that the Lord would raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, and you shall hear Him.

There's another prophet coming down who's gonna be like me. And he's gonna rise up from amongst your brethren, and I want you to listen to him. Well, when Moses passes off the scene, who's the most natural person to attach that title, the prophet to? It would be Joshua.

For Joshua brought the children of Israel through water just like Moses did. We see in Acts 4, I'm sorry, Joshua 4:22, there's a direct connection. Between what Joshua did bringing the people through Jordan and what Moses did in bringing the people through the Red Sea. Like Moses, Joshua spoke to the people on God's behalf.

We see this all over the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter 3, for instance. The Lord says to Joshua in verse 7, I will begin to exalt you on the side of Israel that they may know that I, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And then Joshua is the one that goes out and then begins to speak what's about ready to happen at the Jordan. Like Moses, Joshua prophesized or made predictions, for instance, that a curse would come upon anybody that tried to rebuild Jericho, and that's indeed what happened hundreds of years later recorded for us in 1 Kings 16.

And then Joshua commands the sun and the moon to stand still in the sky, while the Israelites chased down their enemies. And the text tells us in chapter 10 verse 14, that there has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. So all of these would indicate that from a, an Israeli perspective, from a Jewish perspective, clearly, Joshua is the prophet. This is the guy who's been risen up from amongst our midst, who is speaking in the place of Moses.

However, we see from the Old Testament and the New Testament that Joshua was not the ultimate prophet. He was a prophet who foreshadowed the prophet. Where do we get this from? Well, we get it all over the Old Testament, but we also get it right in the book of John, as we've been studying.

John chapter one, when people came to John the Baptist, they asked him, are you the prophet? That tells us that in the Jewish mindset they didn't think that Joshua was the ultimate prophet. They were looking for someone else. Maybe it's John the Baptist.

His response was, I am not. The woman at the well a few weeks ago, Pastor Milton was explaining to us when the Samaritan woman said, I perceive that you are a prophet, really there's no A in the, in the Greek there. I perceive that you are prophet or the prophet. And, and he says, you got it.

You're right. In the book of Acts chapter 3 verse 22, you can write this down, as, as, Peter is preaching, Moses truly said to the fathers, the Lord your God will raise up for a prophet like me from your brethren, and verse 23, it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet. shall be utterly destroyed. Verse 24, yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken have foretold these days.

Verse 26, to you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you and turning away every one of you from your sins. When Jesus fed the 5000 in the book of John chapter 6, at the, when that miracle was completed, people said, this truly is the prophet. In John 7:37 and following, when Jesus says, if anyone thirst, let him come after me, the crowd responded by saying, truly, this is the prophet. And so Joshua foreshadows Christ.

He would have clearly been thought of to be the prophet by the Jews, but the whole Bible says, no, there's another one coming. And so Joshua is a prefigurement of the prophet Jesus Christ. So it explains, one of the reasons why Joshua gets in to take the people on the land as a prefigurement of Christ is the one who takes us in. A second way that Joshua foreshadows Jesus is as the keeper of the law that's on your handout, children.

Let it be as the keeper. Of the law and we see this right in our, our context here in chapter one when Joshua is being challenged in verse seven, be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left and you are, you are to do all of the law. And that's in fact what we actually see happening is once Joshua comes across the land, comes across the Jordan, anybody wanna anybody guess you can say it out loud if you want.

What's one of the, what's the first act that Joshua participates or gets the people to participate in once they get across the Jordan? Anybody know? Circumcision, right? They get across and they circumcise because Moses, they had not circumcised anybody for 40 years, which is an odd thing when you think about that Moses was almost killed for not circumcising his own son.

But then God really makes an exception, which he actually is prone to do. There's no circumcision throughout the wandering period. But as soon as they cross the Jordan, circumcision, they have the Passover, they institute sacrifices and so Joshua goes in and begins to fulfill the law and then he comes in face to face with this commander who very much like the burning bush incident is like, take off your feet, you are on holy ground. And so Joshua becomes this foreshadow of someone who is a keeper.

Of the law. But as we move forward, we see some, some cracks in his armor, which we'll talk about later. You fast forward to Jesus, and as Pastor Milton was talking a few weeks ago, Jesus is a keeper of the law. He says in John chapter 4:34, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work.

Jesus comes to finish the work. We're gonna see in a little bit that Joshua, Old Testament, Joshua does not finish the work, but Jesus finishes the work. In fact, in John 8:29, tell me if you guys could make a statement like this. Jesus says, I always do those things that please my Father.

Can any of you say that? I always please the Father. Praise the Lord that Jesus always pleases the Father. None of us in this room can say that, but Jesus fully, completely fulfills the law.

He fulfills the ceremonial law. He is the one who fulfills the Passover. Every sacrifice points to him. He fulfills the moral law.

And then the book of John comes along and says the law was given to us through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So Joshua is a foreshadower. He's a pointer to the ultimate prophet. He is a pointer to the ultimate keeper of the law.

But thirdly, let us see, Joshua foreshadows Jesus as the conquering warrior. When we look at the book of Joshua, it can be very disturbing if you don't have the right context and if you're not reading the book of Joshua with the right glasses on to see the, the carnage and destruction that comes on the likes of Jericho and I and these other, other cities. But the, the destruction of Jericho, I and the other Canaanite cities combines with a foreshadowing of types of final judgment in Christ's return.

Yes, Joshua goes in and, and wreaks havoc on Jericho.

He brings what's called haram. That's the Hebrew word for utter destruction down in Jericho. But the flood was haram, carried out directly by God, where he saves Noah and his family through Christ. The Red Sea was haram on the Egyptian army previewed by the death of the first born with Israel being saved through blood and water.

Joshua comes through the waters of the Jordan with Israel in his wake and the commander of the Lord's army at his head, and they blow trumpets and they shout and bring judgment upon Jericho. Yet Rahab and her family being saved under the symbol of this cord or this blood. And, and Jesus slash Joshua will return with a trumpet and a shout just like at Jericho, and will bring haram upon the whole earth with his saints riding in his wake. All of these judgment scenes are a foreshadowing of Christ's return.

And so when you read about Joshua going in and taking vengeance upon Jericho, at the order of the Lord, what you should picture, what we should picture is Christ's return at the end of days when he will save us and the likes of Rahab and the likes of the Gibeonites, and we'll throw out his judgment upon all of those who would shake their fist at him and do harm and damage to his people. And so Joshua is very much a, a foreshadowing of the conquering king. Just as Joshua put his feet on the necks of his enemies, the Bible speaks of Christ appearing to destroy the works of the devil, and he's putting his enemies to open shame, Colossians 2:15, and he's looking at death and he says, Oh death, where is your victory?

And we will come in his wake.

Another way that Joshua foreshadows Jesus is as the rescue of sinners. As the rescue of sinners. there's no indication early on that in the early prophecies that anybody in in Canaan would be saved. But what actually happens when there are 2 spies sent in, notice there's 2 instead of 1212 didn't work out so well, so 2 spies are sent in.

And, and then it's Rahab that is saved and her whole family. And then later on, the tricky Gibeonites tricked their way into the covenant. They somehow they figured out that God's a covenant keeping God. If somehow we can get in on this baby, he won't break his word.

And that's exactly what happens is, is there were 7 cities or areas that were subject to God's pronounced haram. other cities outside of that region could sue for peace, but these seven were set aside by God for total destruction. And yet even in those cases there were exceptions made from this legal pronouncement. Rahab is rescued, the Gibeonites are rescued and so again we see the biblical pattern of announced divine wrath with God's default to mercy just as Jonah preached in Nineveh and yet there was mercy given, so we see the pattern in Joshua and on throughout the book of the rest of of Scripture.

And there are many surprises that we see in Joshua as with the life of Christ. the one who gets saved is a prostitute. I wanna keep this PG, but as, as the as the spies go into the land, the Bible doesn't shy away from the fact that Rahab's, vocation is, is not an upstanding vocation, and yet she and her family are the ones that are saved. It's the liars and the Gibeonites that are saved, and then sandwiched right in the middle of rehab and the Gibeonites is this family that was raised in the church, so to speak, that should have known better, who held out in confessing and repenting of sin till the bitter end when the lot fell on them.

And so part of the message that we're meant to learn is that God is very willing to go out and save sinners. But just because you grew up in the church and you've heard the gospel your whole life, doesn't mean that judgment won't fall on you unless you come under Christ. You could very much experience the same treatment as Aiken in his home schooled family, as opposed to Rahab and the Gibeonites. You need to repent and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for yourself to escape the judgment that is to come.

And you see this, so, and you see Christ picks up the same type of motif as he's associating with the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery, tax collectors and sinners and so on, and, and God is so gracious that even rehab is in the very line of Jesus Christ. Another way that Joshua foreshadows Jesus is as the victor who who divides the inheritance with his people. The victor who divides the inheritance with his people and the victor who finishes. I don't know about you, but when you get into like around chapter 1314, and on, and they start dividing up all of the land in the book of Joshua, I, my eyes start to glaze over and I start to tune out.

It just seems a little boring to me, but think about it from a Jewish perspective that for hundreds of years these people have been told that you're gonna go into this land and I'm gonna give it to you. And then if you were one of those kids that was born after the exodus, you've been walking around the desert for 40 years. Everybody's been talking about this promise that's coming, and after a while, you'd probably be like, yeah, right, I'll believe it when I see it. it's almost like us, we've been told about heaven our whole lives, but I haven't seen it yet, and it can almost feel like mythology.

But just imagine the day comes when you're across the Jordan and Joshua comes, says, 3 days and we're going. Let's get ready. You're like, what? Here it is.

We're going in. And so Joshua goes in and they begin to take the land, and God is doing crazy stuff to, to give them victory. He is, just like the horse and the riders were covered up by the sea. Josh is going in and they're going up against, chariots and horses and no problem.

Their, their little army that was untrained and unprepared is taken out tanks because God is with them. And Joshua's division of the land as an inheritance for Israel, it may seem anticlimactic to us, but to them it's the happily ever after part of the story. You would almost expect the credits to come down at the end of the book of Joshua. It's like, hey, fulfilled.

This is it. But we don't see that. But what we do see is a pointer to the ultimate inheritance that we, as we come into our inheritance, we get forgiveness of sins, we get the Holy Spirit, we get Ephesians one that talks about all these things that we Gentiles inherit that we were previously locked out of. In fact, the book of Joshua and coming out of the Torah makes a big deal about the co-equality of men and women.

I don't know if you ever noticed this, but there's a lot that's made about Zallofiad's daughters. Have you guys noticed that? 5 different times these daughters are spoken of about how they get to inherit the land, even though they're women, not men. Why does the, why does the Torah and Joshua make such a big deal about co-equality between men and women?

Well, the New Testament picks this right up, and it speaks of wives as being co-heirs of redemption with their husbands. Galatians 3:28, there's no male nor. Female differentiation when it comes to the inheritance, we stand co-equal. That is unheard of in the ancient world, and yet Jesus comes to take us all with him, and he foreshadows it through his prophet Joshua.

And so why wasn't Moses allowed to bring the people, into the promised land? It wasn't because Moses was, considered unsaved. He's called my servant. It wasn't because God didn't love Moses.

Moses, a righteous guy, made one visible mistake in Numbers 20 God says, you're out, and that was meant to be an encouragement to you and I that if a guy like Moses couldn't get in through the law, neither can you, and you're nowhere close as righteous. In fact, we are more like the children who got in after Moses than like Moses. But it's meant to point us to Joshua, and then ultimately to the ultimate Joshua, that where Moses could not take us through the law, weak as the law was through the flesh, God sent His own Son in the likeness of flesh, to bring us in.

And so, in fact, let's, yeah, I think we have time.

Let's look at Romans 8. You don't have to turn here, but Romans 8. Yeah, here we go. Romans 8:3, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.

It's like the law was weak. It doesn't mean it's bad, it's just, it could never get us there. It can remind us of sin. It can tell us that we're condemned, the law can kill us, but the law can never get us in.

All it can do is say, yeah, you're a sinner, and you deserve death. The wages of sin is death. You break one sin, you break it all. That's where we all stand with Moses, but we all get in through the Joshua, the true Joshua.

Let's ask a third question. Was Joshua successful? Was Joshua successful? our text says in chapter one that if he, does not let the law of, of the Lord depart from his mouth, he meditates in it day and night, observed to do all that is written in it, then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

And sometimes the way we teach the book of Joshua is, is something like this, hey, you go keep the law, you go listen to the word of God and keep it all and obey and meditate enough, then you're gonna be prosperous and you're gonna be successful in life. Well, let's ask this question was Joshua. A success. Well, that depends on how we define success.

If we define success, that Joshua got the job done and got the people in and everybody lasted on into perpetuity. Then Joshua was a failure. But let's, let's, let's answer, let's answer this question. Yes.

First of all, in the one sense, Joshua was a success. He did fulfill the role that he was given. He did bring the people in the land. He in Deuteronomy 11:4, we, we see that, I'm sorry, yeah, Deuteronomy 20:1, when you go out into battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots, and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And that's exactly what we see happen. When Joshua goes into the land, he begins, he begins to wage this haram warfare is even though the other side has tanks, and they don't, and they've got horses, they go in and they take out their horses. They Take out their chariots. I know we don't like to hear about the hamstringing of the horses because we love horses these days.

But in the ancients, when you think of a horse, you think of a military, a military object, something if if the other side has horses and you don't, you're in trouble. And what God does is he brings them in to take out these tanks. And so in that sense, he's successful, but we see throughout the book of Joshua, there's these notices of this foreshadowing of lack of success. You get towards the end of the book and it says things like they could not drive them out 1563.

they did not drive out the Canaanites and geezer 1610. They, they, and they start saying, well, they have chariots of iron, so we couldn't cast them out. Well, they had chariots of iron before, but now suddenly the chariots of iron aren't, are, are troublesome. And so there's these hints that things aren't going so well.

Then you get to the end of the book and the book ends with what? Death. Joshua dies and when he dies, he basically tells the people he he repeats the prophecy of the people that you are not going to be able to serve the Lord. You say you're going to, but you're not going to and exactly what happens when the book of Judges comes along?

Is it a happy ending? the wheels come off the cart and you're like, what was that all about? If it's all about, if Joshua was the prophet, if it was all about this storybook ending and the credits were supposed to come down because the Abrahamic promise had been fulfilled. Then you get to the book of Judges, it just leaves us with this sense of like, it's such a letdown.

And it's like, why does the Bible always have to do that? It's like these things happen. There's good stuff happening, and then there's these big letdowns, right? And even the good kings, you got Hezekiah, he's doing well.

He repents, he humbles himself, and then he shows the Babylonians his whole armory. It's like, what are you thinking? And then you got Jehoshaphatat. He's doing well.

He seems like he's, and then he just can't stop making alliances with the kids of Ahab. Josiah's doing OK, and then he goes into battle with, Nico, Pharaoh Nico. Every time it's like, even the best of kings and the best of people, they rise up, seem like they're doing well. Maybe this one's the prophet, maybe this one's the Messiah.

Nope, death, judgment. They fall And so, yes, he was successful in a sense. No, he was not successful in another sense, but finally, yes, Joshua played the role that he was given to foreshadow the coming Joshua. And the Joshua par excellence has been victorious and will be victorious.

And so in that sense, Joshua was a success because he pointed to the one who could keep the whole law without breaking it. He could, meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, and fulfill and love the Lord his God with all of his heart, all of his mind, all of his soul, love his neighbors self. There's only one person, folks, who's ever kept those two aspects of the law, and it's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has loved both God and man with par excellence.

And Joshua was successful in the sense that he pointed to that Christ. Let's ask a final question as we wrap up this message, and that is, what does the book of Joshua have to do with you and me? We've asked, answered the question, I think, why Moses was not allowed to go into the land. it's not because he was some bad guy, it's because he was a, a personification of the law.

Joshua gets them into the land because he was foreshadowing Christ. And Joshua was successful in a sense, but most successful in the sense that he's pointing to someone who will come later. And so what does the book of Joshua have to do with you and me? And I think it has a lot to do with you and me as we read the book of Joshua, where do we see ourselves in the story?

If we just see ourselves as the one who's, if we see ourselves as the one who's being commanded to keep the law in all of it, and that we are meditating on the law of the Lord day and night, and we are going out trying to fulfill every aspect of the law ourselves, and we think that's what's going to get us and keep us in, you're in trouble. You're gonna, you're gonna look at the book of Joshua, and you're gonna be like, what is this book about? And, and, and, and why are they killing all these people?

And why are they dividing up the land?

And, and what is all this stuff with Rahab and the Gibeonites? But as we look at the book of Joshua, if we understand Jesus Christ as the hero, as the ultimate Joshua, as we understand the historic Joshua as the prototype for the coming Joshua, then this book starts to make sense and it fits the ultimate reality of Jesus Christ. Let me give you 4 takeaways. The law has a good role to play in our lives, but it will not get you to heaven.

The law can get you up to the brink. The law can show you our sinner. The law shows you the character of God. The law shows us that, yeah, one sin is worthy of judgment.

The law kills. But it's the spirit that makes alive. And so the law has a role to play, but you will not get there by merely keeping the law. But secondly, Jesus is our Joshua.

Jesus is our Joshua. He is our prophet, our law keeper, our conquering warrior, the rescue of sinners like us. He is the victor. He is our inheritance.

Like the Levites, the Lord is our inheritance, and like Simeon, we are swallowed up into Judah. Like the Gibeonites, we get to be woodcutters and water carriers for the temple. And like Rahab, we're in the lion of Christ. Jesus is our Joshua.

Thirdly. You have a role to play within Christ's Bride. Your role Is spelled out for us on the pages of scripture. Your role is very similar.

Your role and my role is very similar to John the Baptist. One of the things that we say about our role, we should say all the time is, I am not the Christ. People come up and they're looking to you to be the Christ, you say with John the Baptist. I am not the Christ.

You point to Christ, but you are not the Christ. your role is to get yourself close to Christ and to put yourself on the back of that lion who is the victor, and we follow in his wake and his train. There's an article I'd encourage you to look it up sometime and read it by Carl Truman. It's called An Un-messianic Sense of Non Destiny.

Un-messianic sense of nond destiny, where he argues that we in our culture today, we think that somehow our life is about what God is doing in our lives as if we're the Messiah. And what he's trying to convince the church to believe is, no, you are not the Messiah, but God loves you and he cares about you, and he's put you inside of the true hero. And what he's really jazzed about is his son, and you inside of his son and what he's doing in the church corporate. And whatever happens in your life and your destiny, it could be good, it could be bad, it could be tragic, you could get all kinds of wonderful blessings in this life, or your life could be terrible and all the blessings are in the next life, but the, your destiny is connected to Christ, regardless of what you see on this planet.

And fourthly, there is a way to read our Bibles that leaves us looking at ourselves. Or accusing God of being capricious and unfair. However, there is a way that Christ would have us read our Bibles. And it's the way he speaks to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and then to his disciples after his resurrection.

When he's talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they're, they're not sure what's happened with Christ's death, and people have reported that there's been, his body is missing. And then Jesus in verse 27 says, or the text says, and beginning at Moses, that's the Torah, and all the prophets, that's beginning with the book of Joshua, he expounded to them all the scriptures, the things concerning. Himself The whole Bible is about Jesus. Moses is about Jesus.

Joshua is about Jesus. The whole Old Testament Proverbs is about Jesus is the high school to study Proverbs this this week or this year. Luke is about Jesus. Verse 44.

Jesus says to the disciples, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, and all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets. That's Joshua, beginning with Joshua, and the Psalms concerning me. And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. How does Christ open our understanding that we might comprehend the scriptures as he reminds us that the whole Bible is about him.

And so when you go to the book of Joshua, when we read books like the book of Joshua, not just Joshua, but for this morning, when you look at Joshua, what we're really looking for, it's not just a, a success manual, it's not just how to become prosperous. It's about Christ. It's about Jesus because Jesus says it's about him. And so when we begin to read the book of Joshua, we look for Jesus.

We understand that we have a God who has written all of history and every person in, in the scriptures and as, as God's raising people up and taking people down, he's orchestrating. Real history to help us understand where he's driving his people, and then it gets recorded for us on the pages of Scripture, so that we would find hope in our failures and our sins and our discomfort that our only comfort in life and in death is through our faithful savior Jesus Christ, who bled his precious blood for our sins to fully satisfy for them.

And that he has destroyed the works of the devil, and he so preserves you that not a hair of your head falls without your father's notice. And that he has sent the Holy Spirit now, Christ's Spirit, to comfort you and remind you of eternal life.

And then he so works through the gospel in your heart to make you willing and hardly willing to want to obey and live for Him. That's what the scriptures are about, and that's what the book of Joshua is about. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we'll sing to the Lord. Lord, we thank you so much for just the blessing of being able to read, the book of Joshua this summer as a congregation.

We thank you so much for placing us in a church where every week our pastor is exalting Christ and pointing us, to the victor of our faith and our conquering warrior. We thank you, Lord, for, the one who rescues sinners. We thank you for the true prophet, the one who has kept the law on our behalf. And we pray God that you would continue to help us, Lord, that You would comfort us because, Lord, that in this life in this body, there are so many things that can.

Can discomfort us. There's so many worries that we have. There are so many things that can cause us to despair, our own sins, the ways we get sinned against the circumstances of history. So help us to be reminded, Lord, that you are working all things together for our salvation.

And that as Christ has gone before us, you are taking all your people with you. We pray this in Christ's name. And all God's people said, Amen.