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Joshua: A Role Model

Published October 7, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Joshua, Moses, obedience to god, Role models, Will of God

Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have our “role models.” When we were children, our very first role models were probably our parents. As we grew, and our circle of acquaintances expanded, people like teachers, a neighbor we admired, the cop on the beat, or even the garbage man became role models. Even our peers – our best friends or the “cool kids” at school took on the the role of role model. As adults, we still have role models, although we wouldn’t dare call them that. People we admire; who have achieved some notoriety; who have become successful; these are all people who have the potential of becoming role models. A role model is somebody, for whatever reason, we think is special and posseses the qualities we wish we had or that we are trying to cultivate in our own lives. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that, by the way, but we need to make sure the person we are trying to emulate is worthy of emulation. After all, a guy like Adolph Hitler had astounding political success, but he’s probably not the best role model for anybody!

In Christian circles, there are all kinds of excellent role models. We can think of people the apostle Paul, or just about any of the apostles for that matter. In church history there are people like Luther and Calvin, Arminius and Augustine, or any of the great martyrs – role models all. But there is a character in the Old Testament who is a role model of the highest character: Joshua, successor to Moses, whose life and character give us a striking illustration of how a mere mortal may receive and enjoy the promised blessings of God. It was Joshua, not Moses, who led the Israelites into the Canaan, which itself represents the very best promise of God. In fact, of Canaan we read this in the New Testament:

“That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” (Hebrews 3:10, 11 NIV)

Canaan is representative of God’s rest; not a rest of ease and relaxation, but a rest of hardship, warfare and victory, at least as far as the Israelites were concerned. Entering God’s rest for the rest of us is simply this: Entering fully and purposefully into the plans and purposes of God, quietly and deliberately resting in Him alone to accomplish His plans and purposes for you. Not all believers seem able to do that. Joshua was able to, and so should we. If you’re a believer who has problems “entering God’s rest”; if you find it difficult discerning, accepting, and entering into God’s plans, then hopefully this look at Joshua will help. He is a most compelling role model.

Have faith in the promises of God!

“Now that my disciple is dead, you are the new leader of Israel. Lead my people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. I say to you what I said to Moses: ‘Wherever you go will be part of the land of Israel…” (Joshua 1:2, 3 TLB)

For some four decades, Moses had led the people of Israel round and round and round the desert until almost all of that sinful, rebellious generation had died. None of them would be allowed to enter the Promised Land. All during that time, God spoke to Moses and through Moses. Joshua, a little younger than he, was witness to the remarkable relationship God had with Moses. Then the day came when this leader of the Hebrews died and it was time for Joshua to take over. He knew the day would come; it was not a surprise when the Lord commissioned him to assume the mantle of leadership. And yet, what a daunting task it must have seemed. As was the custom, there was a national period of mourning that lasted 30 days, and when that time was up, it was time to move on. You may be sure Joshua felt the loss of Moses down to the very core of his being. They were more than friends. The two had traveled far together – from Egypt to the cusp of the Promised Land. Through all the ups and downs of those 40 years of traveling in the desert. By now, Joshua wasn’t a young man. But the work of God never stops – it must never be allowed to stop. God’s servants come and go, but the work remains; it is the one constant; it always presses on regardless of circumstances and feelings.

God appointed Joshua to be Moses’ successor, but Joshua was not to forget his predecessor. In fact, God reminded him of three big things concerning Moses. First, it was to Moses and Moses alone that God gave the promise of Canaan. Second, God was always with Moses as he led the people of Israel. In other words, Moses didn’t do the job using his own strength and knowledge. And third, the law given to the people by God through Moses was to continue in the Promised Land.

Joshua was a man of faith. In some ways, he had more faith than Moses did. Yet Joshua needed a role model: Moses. Moses was given by God to be a sort of inspiration to Joshua. And as Moses had faith in the promises of God, so must Joshua. Yes, God had given His people Canaan by His Word, but they had to actually enter in, fight for it, and plant the foot of faith upon that Word of the Lord.

Christians have the Word of God, too, operating in their lives. And we must be like Joshua: Ready to seize it, and put it to work. We must be like Peter: Ready to take that step of faith as God leads us to. Like all the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11, our faith will be tested; it’s to precious not to be. Joshua is the perfect role model in this regard.

Be dedicated to God’s will!

But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury. (Joshua 6:18, 19 NIV)

We all know the story of how the Hebrews took the city of Jericho upon entering Canaan. Day after day, the people of Jericho were warned. They were called upon to consider the living God of the Israelites. They witnessed His people. But God’s patience does have an end. On the seventh day, mercy and grace came to an end and judgment took their place. The wages of sin fell upon Jericho and its godless inhabitants.

To this, we cheer! We want to see sin come to an end and sinners get their just deserts. And yet, at what cost? Joshua and his people were the instruments of judgment. When the walls came down by a divine act, it was time for God’s people to do some of the work; it was time for them to “get their hands dirty.”

Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house. (Joshua 6:24 NIV)

Could you do that? If it was God’s will for you to “burn the whole city and everything in it,” including children, the elderly, dogs and cats, could you? Such obedience demands total dedication and consecration to His will. For the tenderhearted reading this, it would do well to recall the words of the psalmist:

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it… (Psalm 24:1 NIV)

By faith, we know this. And by the same faith we know that God can’t and doesn’t ignore evil especially where that evil may touch His people. Joseph Sizoo, one-time pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington DC, once wrote:

Whatever contaminates the life and religion of the people, leading to inevitable compromise, was to be utterly destroyed. Sin is desperately contagious; it cannot go unpunished.

In a similar vein, Marcus Dodds observed:

One would suppose that when we have been taught by the sacrifice of Christ the value God sets upon holiness in us, we should be found living in fear of contagion from the evil of the world, and counting ourselves of some value.

The point is this: Joshua was up to the task of carrying out God’s will both for the people of Israel, but also for the people of Jericho. And he performed the assignment; he carried out God’s will. He was dedicated to it and he was consecrated to His God. He’s our role model. It’s unlikely in the extreme any of us will ever be called upon to do what Joshua was called upon to do, but in his dedication and consecration, he should serve as our role model.

Fellowship with God

To Joshua, God made this promise:

No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Joshua 1:5 NIV)

The promises of God to any one of His people are just as reliable as they were to His own Son, and God’s presence should be to us just as real and abiding. Joshua believed without exception this promise from God, so much so, he was able to stand up and declare:

Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. (Joshua 3:9, 10 NIV)

For his whole life, Joshua knew God was with him and he knew God had been working. Even on his deathbed, this man’s dying testimony was this:

One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. (Joshua 23:10 NIV)

What a role model. Here was a highly successful leader of men and armies, yet he knew any victory he experienced was due to God’s presence. He never forgot what God had told him. For the Christian, it’s tempting to forget about God when we don’t think we need Him. But the simple fact is, God made the same promise to us that He made to Joshua, and like Joshua we should never forget it and we should live like we believe it.

A life that honors God

Finally, the thing about Joshua that is so powerful is that his whole life was one long testimony for God. But he also left a legacy; a living legacy for future generations:

And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God. ” (Joshua 4:20 – 24 NIV)

He was mindful of how he lived and was concerned about what the up-and-coming generations would think as far as God was concerned. These stones are like works of faith; good works performed for the glory God; works that would outlive the one who performed them.

You and I who claim to be followers and disciples of Jesus Christ, should take the time to study the life and career of Moses’ successor, Joshua. He is an excellent role model for young and old alike.

WHO IS THE WRETCHED MAN?

Published January 2, 2012 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: exercise authority, mr hyde, new believer, obedience to god, romans 7, slave master

Mr Hyde, the way some people view Paul's wretched man in Romans 7

Chapter 7 of Romans is directly related to something Paul wrote back in chapter 6:

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

The verses in between 6:14 and 7:1 dealt with a possible objection to that statement:

Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? (6:15)

In answer to that, Paul used the slave-master analogy. As far as Paul was concerned, a Christian, unlike any other person on earth, should be able to not sin because his life is now lived under simple obedience to God’s will. The Christian is now a slave of righteousness whereas he used to be slave of sin. Only the person who has been set free from sin can serve God in obedience.

In chapter 7, Paul uses another analogy to make essentially the same point before moving on to new ideas.

1. Dead to the law: a second illustration, 7:1—6

Paul taught that Christians have died not only to sin, but also to the Law. Both the sin and the Law exercise authority over a person only as long as that person is alive. That makes sense; it’s obvious. When somebody dies, they no longer have a relationship with anything one Earth, including the Law. Now, when a person becomes a Christian, obviously they don’t physically die. So how are we set free sin and the the Law? We are made “new creations” in Jesus Christ—we are considered to be dead to sin and the Law by God, just as Jesus died physically to sin and the Law. This simply means that a Christian is no longer obligated to sin and the Law’s claim on the person is canceled. In a sense, as far as the Law is concerned, the new believer has become a “spiritual corpse.”

To illustrate that principle, Paul turns from the slave-master analogy to a new analogy: marriage. A married woman is legally bound to her husband only so long as he alive. When he dies, she is set free from that covenant, and therefore free to marry again. But if she jumps the gun and lives with another man while her husband is alive, she has not only sinned but has broken the Law.

It’s an imperfect analogy, and as John Knox observed, it’s “awkward and confused.” It’s always tricky to read too much into any analogy, whether it’s found in the Bible or heard from a pulpit. However, it seems Paul’s reasoning goes like this: As long as we (the husband) live in the flesh, we (the wife) are completely governed by the Law. In other words, the death of the husband is the death of “our old self” in Christ. When we died with Christ (described in Romans 6), we were set free from the Law, illustrated by the wife (our new self) being free to marry again. Paul is not teaching about marriage, but about being free from the Law, just as he had done previously using the master-slave analogy.

The “awkward” and “confused” illustration is really a very simple way to sum up the whole issue of the Christian’s relationship to the Law and to sin, to Christ and to holiness.

2. What good is the Law? 7:7—13

Once again, a new question is raised:

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? (7:7)

It would be easy for some of Paul’s readers to get that impression, so now Paul is going to deal with the Law. His answer is very emphatic: the Law is most definitely NOT sin! However, there is a relationship between the Law and sin, which is explained in verses 7—11. In a sentence, the Law showed Paul what sin was. That sounds good, and while Paul declares the Law to be a good thing, it did produce a major problem in him: it seemed stirred up a desire to sin. This isn’t a fault of the Law, it illustrates the sneaky nature of temptation, which goes right back to the Garden of Eden;

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4, 5)

Eve was faced with a law from God; a commandment; a prohibition. Because human nature naturally rebels against God, when the desire was stirred up within her, she rebelled against what God wanted and did what she wanted to do. As every parent knows, often the word “don’t” is really a challenge to “do” as far as the child is concerned. That’s not a fault of the parent, it’s the “fault” of the child.

Just like a parent informs a child what is right and wrong, so the Law defines sin and it makes one aware of it. Of course, sin exists without the Law; we are all familiar with the old saying, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Sin literally takes advantage of the Law to tempt a person to do evil. This is the gist of verse 13:

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

Paul paints a particularly nasty picture of sin. Not only can it do its work successfully on its own, but it can also use something good, the Law, to accomplish it’s nefarious end.

3. The futility of the Law, 7:14—25

The letter takes a dramatic and personal turn at this point. Up till now, Paul has used the slave-master and marriage illustrations to explain the relation between the Law and sin and the believer. Now he uses a third illustration: himself. This might well be the most powerful illustration to prove his point for every believer can relate. Ovid understood Paul’s problem:

My reason this, my passion that, persuades. I see the right, and approve it too; I hate the wrong, and yet the pursue.

English poet Francis Quarles confessed to having the same problem:

I like, dislike, lament for what I could not; I do, undo; yet still do what I should not, And, at the selfsame instant, will the thing I would not.

We get a sense of the frustration Paul must have felt as he wrote verses 18—20:

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

“I” and “me” are two words that need to understood if the meaning of this passage is to understood. It seems as though Paul is aware of “two selves” within fighting against each other. One self, “I,” or “self,” wants to do what is good, but the other “self” chooses to do what is not good. This first “self” is identified in verses 22 and 23:

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. (verse 22)

I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind… (verse 23)

The other “self” is identified as “my sinful nature,” in verse 18, and it always wants to do the things that run contrary to the first “self.”

Is it possible that Christians have these “two selves” warring against each other? Is Paul suggesting believers somehow have a black dog and a white dog battling each other with themselves for dominion? Do Christians have something in common with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? The answer is found inverse 20:

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Here is a conundrum: Romans 6:6 tells us that our “old nature,” that is, our “sinful nature,” is dead:

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…

Key to understanding these warring personalities is the phrase “sin living in me.” Can a Christian have sin dwelling in them? NO! This indwelling of sin is in contrast to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which Paul will discuss in chapter 8. Our earthly nature is (or was) riddled with sin and, unfortunately, often dominates (or dominated) the side of us that truly wants (or wanted) to do what was right. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit at our conversion, our earthly nature was slain. Prior to that, when we were indwelt by sin, we were subject to death. What Paul is describing in these verses is not Paul, the redeemed man, but Paul, the fallen man; a man, who is always rebelling against God. Remember, Paul is using himself as an illustration of the relationship that the Law and sin have to man. As an unredeemed, fallen man, no matter how much Paul wanted to do good; no matter how much Paul loved God’s Law, he found that there was another law at work, one that bound him to commit the sin and forsake the Law. This “other law” is merely the law that bound a wife to her husband and a slave to his master.

Note verse 24:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

The “body” in this verse refers to Paul’s old self; his sinful nature. Even though Paul is writing is the present tense, he is actually referring to himself before he became a believer. We know that Paul must be writing about his past because of what he wrote in 8:9—

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.

The “wretched man,” then is NOT Paul the Christian, but Paul the man of the flesh, being controlled by his sinful nature. The wretched man can NEVER be the Christian; the wretched man is the fallen, sinful man who is forced to sin even when he’d rather obey God’s law.

Wesley sums up Romans 7 in a most effective way:

The character here assumed is that of a man, first ignorant of the Law, then under it, and sincerely, but ineffectually, striving to serve God. To have spoken this of himself, or any true believer, would have been foreign to the whole scope of the discourse; nay, utterly contrary thereto, as well as to what is expressly asserted.

In a sense, Romans 7 is sort of like the book of Ecclesiastes. The Teacher of that Old Testament book knows God but he wrote his book as though he did not—he viewed life from the standpoint of the natural man; the man who did not know God so as to expose the vanity of a life with God in it.

The value of Romans 7 is beyond measure. It dispels the popular, unbiblical idea that human nature is basically good. Human nature cannot be basically good for it is enslaved to evil. This chapter also does away with the myth that holiness can be achieved by obeying either the Law of Moses or any other law. No matter how determined a person may be to do good and live good, they will be powerless to do so apart from the grace of God.

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Posts Tagged 'obedience to god'

Joshua: A Role Model

WHO IS THE WRETCHED MAN?

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