Lesson for August 26, 2020
Knowing the Bible
Lesson 15
The Book of Joshua
The book of Joshua covers a period of approximately twenty-six years from the time Israel entered the Promised Land until the death of Joshua. Chapters 1 –12 of Joshua cover the period of Israel’s conquest of the land. Chapters 13-21 of Joshua cover the allotment of land to the twelve tribes of Israel. Chapter 22 records the discord among the tribes. Chapters 22 – 24 records the farewell message of Joshua and his death.
In Joshua 2:1-24 we have a story of the spies who were sent into the land (specifically the city of Jericho) to investigate and report what they found. We also have the story of Rahab who found favor in the sight of God because of her faithfulness. She is listed in Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 with such men as Abraham, as a person of great faith. James 2:24 refers to being justified before people, not God. We know how we are justified before God and that is through faith alone in Christ alone. So, this is an obvious reference to being justified before men.
Remember, God had instructed Joshua to form an army of young men and be prepared to fight, if necessary, once they entered the land. After crossing the Jordan River, which they did on dry land as God performed another miracle of parting the Red Sea for them, their enemies were very fearful of them. This, however, did not stop Israel’s enemies from wanting to defeat them. We must also remember that the nations within the land of Canaan were corrupt societies who had rejected the true God and were worshipping pagan gods. God did not want the nation of Israel to become infiltrated with these pagans and their anti-God ideas. With this in mind, we read about the fall of Jericho to the Israelites when they followed God’s instructions. Joshua 6:1-27 tells the story of how God instructed them to pass around the city every day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. The priests were to carry the Ark of the Covenant and seven trumpets. On the seventh pass around the city on the seventh day they were to blow the horns and all the people were to shout. When the children of Israel did as God instructed, the walls of the city came crashing down and they were able to enter the city and defeat the enemy.
The remaining chapters of Joshua describe various battles as the Israelites conquered their enemies throughout the land of Canaan. There are also several chapters devoted to the parceling of the land to the various tribes. The priestly tribe of Levi did not receive an allotment of land, but each tribe was to designate a portion of their land for the priests to raise their livestock.
Joshua 24:31 tells us that the nation of Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who were appointed overseers of each tribe. The reason they served the Lord is they had known of all the miraculous works that God had done on behalf of the nation.
One of the lessons that we are taught in the book of Joshua is that God fights our battles for us. We see this in Joshua 5:13-15 where the Lord Jesus Christ appears to Joshua, which we call in theology a theophany. A theophany is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. We see a lot of these in the Old Testament. In this appearance, Christ appears as the Captain of the Host meaning He will lead the army into battle. Another story in the book of Exodus reinforces the fact that God always fights on our behalf, as one of His names indicates.
Jehovah-Nissi means the Lord our banner. This means that Jesus Christ goes before us as standard bearer for us to follow. Jesus Christ is the unique Person of the universe. He is the only Person in history to be both fully God and fully man. The term for this unique union is derived from the Greek word hupostatis meaning essence. In the case of Christ, it is both divine and human essence in one Person forever. He is the God-Man. (Exodus 17:8-16; Hebrews 1:3)
Christ was born of a virgin and without a sin nature. He is superior to man because He is God. He is superior to sinful humanity because He is sinless. Even though His two natures are united in one Person, they retain their separate identities. The attributes of one do not belong to the other. Deity remains deity and humanity remains humanity. Because of this unique union, Christ is the perfect mediator between God and man. Christ is also our Prototype (banner), in that He lived an impeccable (sinless) life under the control of God the Holy Spirit. (I Timothy 2:5) Having no sin of His own to pay for, He was uniquely qualified to pay for the sin of the entire human race.
Jesus, as a man, is seated at the right hand of the Father at this very moment. Deity is omnipresent and does not sit; only His humanity sits. And it is His humanity that will return to earth at the Second Coming. Theologically we say that Jesus is undiminished deity and true humanity in one Person forever. He is undiminished deity in that He is as much God as the Father and the Holy Spirit in essence, attributes and character. He is true humanity in that He possesses a body, a soul and a spirit. (Acts 5:31; Hebrews 1:3, 4:15,10:5; I Peter 2:24; Matthew 26:38; Mark 2:8; Luke 23:46; I John 3:3)
Jehovah-Nissi means that Jesus Christ always goes before us to lead us into the spiritual battle. When the cares of Satan’s world system close in on us, it is Jesus Christ Who is there to see us through. Psalms 37:25 says that God will not forsake us. In Hebrews 13:5 God said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The further you advance in your Christian life, the more intense will be the “darts” that come your way through satanic influence. This is why you must become strong in your faith and advance to spiritual maturity as rapidly as possible. You must be prepared to protect yourself. The attacks may come in the form of rejection by your family, your friends or your co-workers (people testing). The attacks may come from this world system (system testing), which Satan controls. Or the attacks may come from either personal or national disasters (disaster testing). The bottom line is you must be ready to withstand these attacks and come out victorious.
James 2:14-26 gives us both the doctrine of divine production and a Biblical illustration from the Old Testament. James uses Rahab from the book of Joshua as an illustration of how divine production demonstrates your inner faith. This is the story about the spies sent to check out Jericho before God gave it into the hands of the Israelites. The king of Jericho attempted to capture the spies, but Rahab hid them and helped them escape. Therefore, Rahab and her household were spared when the city of Jericho was destroyed. Rahab was showing her faith by her outward deeds.
James 2:24-25
“You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”
How do we show the world our faith? This is the question that is answered in James 2. The answer, of course, is by divine production. Divine production begins with Divine Viewpoint Thinking, which leads to right action. The world cannot see your thinking. It can, however, see the results of your thinking. Therefore, if we are to be testimonies for Jesus Christ, people must see the character of Jesus Christ in our attitudes and actions.
This is exactly how James begins this section in verse 14. “What advantage does it bring a believer in Jesus Christ, though a person say that he has faith, without accompanying deeds? Can faith deliver him?” Deliver him from what, is the question? In context, verses 1-13, the deliverance is from being a respecter of persons, from being judgmental and from showing no mercy. Therefore, what we have is application of our faith. “Faith” can be the body of doctrine that we believe or it can be the act of believing. In either case, we are talking about applying what you learn. True deliverance from sin (mental or overt) is found by applying what you learn.
The next verse we must consider is verse 17, which says, “even so faith if it hath not works is dead, being alone.” There are several types of death in the Bible. This death is a reference to the temporal death of the believer (to whom it is addressed). Dead can actually mean useless or vain. This is the meaning in this context. The believer who fails to apply what he has learned is temporarily dead or not producing divine good. He is useless!
What James is obviously trying to teach us is that learning and believing the Word of God is not enough. There must also be application for the Word to do us any good. There must be a demonstration that your faith is real for it to bring forth divine good (gold, silver, precious stones). Without a good testimony before the world of your Christian faith, you’ll have a difficult time getting a person to give you a hearing regarding the Gospel. Good works can be overt or invisible. Thinking divine viewpoint is a divine good work but can’t be seen. James just happens to use overt divine good works to illustrate his point.
You are the best Christian someone knows and it is true. You and I represent Jesus Christ here on earth. It is rather amazing, when you think about it, that we have been left with the task of presenting Jesus Christ to the World. Why didn’t God choose angels or use donkeys or burning bushes like in the Old Testament? I believe the explanation is that when an unbeliever sees the change in the life of a believer, it is a better testimony for Christ than a burning bush, a talking donkey or even an angel.
This entire concept of demonstrating your faith is what we have studied as the Faith-Rest Technique. It is taking our faith and mixing it with the promises of God. This is what Rahab did. She first believed God and then acted upon her faith. This was the spiritual life of the believer in the Old Testament. Only on occasion and for special purposes was the Holy Spirit given to people in the Old Testament. They did not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit like we do to empower them to live their spiritual lives.
The last verse we want to consider is James 2:26, “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” This verse uses the analogy of the body without the spirit to illustrate “faith without works is dead.” The spirit of man is given only to believers and is the means by which we learn and apply doctrine. The Holy Spirit teaches the human spirit and without the human spirit man is unable to understand and apply spiritual things. The body can learn Bible doctrine academically but cannot understand it and apply it apart from the human spirit. In the same manner, faith cannot be applied without divine production (good works). Our conclusion, therefore, is that a man is indeed justified by works, but not before God, only before man. If you want to be a walking illustration of faith in Christ, you must apply what you learn or your faith is useless.
Joshua understood the meaning of Jehovah-Nissi and applied the principle perfectly and was able to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Remember, these were the younger generation who had observed the failure of their parents and grandparents, as a nation, to be faithful and grateful to God for delivering them from slavery in Egypt. For their faithfulness to God, they were allowed to go into the Promised Land and not the older generation, which included Moses.
Joshua 23:1-8
“Now it came about after many days, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side, and Joshua was old, advanced in years, that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and their heads and their judges and their officers, and said to them, “I am old, advanced in years. And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has been fighting for you. See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off, from the Jordan even to the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun. The Lord your God, He will thrust them out from before you and drive them from before you; and you will possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you. Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.”