19. Joshua and Rest
19. Joshua and Rest - for Notes
19. Joshua and Rest - PP
[Note: Sadly, I though I was recording this session, but I must have done something wrong, because the recording did not take. For that reason, there will be no video of this session for the time being. I apologize for the loss, but give thanks that it will be turned to goodness in your life.]
Joshua must have met Moses soon after he returned to Egypt. There should be no reason for that interaction, for they were of very different ages and tribes. Moses always gravitated towards his family who were Levites, whereas Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim, and not even a leader.
Yet their paths crossed. Moses may have been looking for a servant and Joshua for something better than mud pits, but it’s likely that a knowing passed between them.
And so Joshua became Moses’ servant, even before they left Egypt. We could assume that he assisted Moses even in going before Pharaoh.
Confidence in Joshua. Consider the timeline. Moses stood before Pharaoh the first time on “March” 6. (We will use our name for the month, knowing that the days of the Hebrew month line up differently from ours.)
So, sometime mid-March, Joseph became Moses’ servant. A month later, they leave Egypt on the 15th of (Aziz) and cross the Red Sea on the 17th.
By “May” 25, nine weeks after they met, Moses has enough confidence in Joshua to place him in charge of the military operation against the Amalekites. Then, on “June” 6, two weeks later, Joshua goes up the mountain with Moses for forty days.
Did Not Depart. According to Reese Chronological Bible, Joshua was nineteen going on twenty.
So Moses arose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you.”
What we search for in each of these stories is the heart of God revealed through the heart of a man or a woman. So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle (Exodus 33).
Determined to Know the Lord. What I mean to say is that there was, in the heart of this young man, a determination to know the Lord, just as there was in John and Andrew even when they were sixteen.
Then, we can reasonably assume that for forty years, Joshua remained Moses’ helper and companion. Joshua would have known Moses in all his ups and downs, his strengths and weaknesses.
Joshua reminds me of a young man I knew (I know him now, but he is no longer “young”). This young man was willing and agreeable and true, absorbing everything I could teach him and going on to make me proud.
The Transfer. Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:7-8).
Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses (Deuteronomy 34:9).
This is the transfer from Moses to Joshua.
Establishing, then Building. Why was God so careful to demonstrate both to them and to us the clear transfer of His purposes from Moses to Joshua? We will see similar transfers coming up, from David to Solomon and from Elijah to Elisha. In each instance, the connection between the two is similar and profound.
The first establishes, the second builds. Moses got them out; Joshua took them in. David won the land; Solomon built God’s house. Elijah got the people’s attention; Elisha taught them the ways of the Spirit.
Jesus won all salvation; we make it known in heaven-earth.
Entering the Land of Christ. One of God’s great purposes in our lives is to cause us to understand the book of Hebrews, and especially to understand it as a whole.
Then, as we have seen, although Paul grabs anything he finds in the Old Testament and uses it for his present purposes, it is the writer of Hebrews who gives us how to truly understand the Old Testament.
One reason why God made the transfer to Joshua so prominent was the importance of the entrance into the Promised Land, in some ways, our most important picture. Christ is an abundant land filled with many dwelling places, but we must enter in and take our place.
A Gap in Thinking. And now I see something new regarding Hebrews. Look at the thinking in the mind of the writer regarding the entrance into Christ in Chapters 3 & 4 versus a different thinking in Chapter 10.
We should fear, therefore, regarding being left behind of the promise to fully enter into His rest, lest any of you should imagine you have been left out [that is, have not entered]. – Compared With – Therefore brethren, having already a free and bold proclamation of entrance into the Holiest inside the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 4:1 & 10:19).
Missing out – versus – all already entered. This is the same gap in my thinking when I look back at earlier writing.
Jeopardy, then Assurance. Moses/Hebrews 3-4/jeopardy. – then – Joshua/Hebrews 10/assurance. We should fear, therefore, regarding being left behind. – then – Full assurance of faith.
Here, then, is the verse that, I am convinced, caused the writer of Hebrews to pause after writing Chapter 4 and realize that something critical was missing.
Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan (Joshua 3:17)
God Intends to Convince Us. I would not be surprised to learn that the words “stood firm” in Joshua 3:17 became the “upon firm we stand,” repeated twice in Hebrews 3. Yet the writer of Hebrews could see the result of every individual in Israel fully entered into the Land, and thus every single believer in Jesus already fully entered into God.
Thus everything written between 4:1 and 10:19, is coming out from a deep need inside the writer to turn “let us therefore fear” into “having already a free and bold proclamation of entrance” and “full assurance of faith.”
God intends to convince us with this picture, including the story of Joshua.
A Second Timeline. We need a comparative time chart; these things were happening at the same time.
| Day | Joshua | Passover |
| Aziz 4 | Mourning for Moses ends; God tells Joshua to lead the people forward. | |
| 5-9 | Spies and moving up to the Jordan. | |
| 10 | Crossing the Jordan. – Entrance. | The Passover lamb selected. |
| 11-14 | Circumcision at Gilgal | Preparation for Passover |
| 14-15 | The Land now provides. The manna ceases. | Passover – kept “in the plains of Jericho.” – Rest. |
| 15/16 - 21 | The encircling and conquest of Jericho. | The Feast of Unleavened Bread. |
| 21 | Jericho collapses. | The second and final Sabbath of the feast. – Rest. |
The Heart of the Gospel. I am convinced that the writer of Hebrews pondered all these things deeply, and then merged completely together the metaphor of the Tabernacle – entering the Holy of Holies, together with the metaphor of entering the Promised Land, in their application to the believer.
Thus we see that the chart above presents us with the very heart and drive of the gospel. And at the center of that entrance is a man who shares the same name with Jesus.
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you… No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you (Joshua 1).
Spoken to Us. Let’s change one word and apply that same injunction to us. – Every place (inside all the fullness of God) that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you… No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Jesus, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.
Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
God, intending with full determination to demonstrate to the heirs of promise His unchangeable purpose… so that …we might possess STRONG encouragement (Hebrews 6).
Our Entrance into God. Inside every aspect of my weak humanity I POSSESS all the fullness of God.
Circumcision is the cutting away of every nuance of imagining “I-not-Christ.” And Jericho is the removal of all and any consciousness of sins. There is NO leaven in the Feast; there is NO not-Christ from the moment of Passover, that is, born again.
But the crossing of the Jordan into the land merges our experience of Passover with our experience of Tabernacles. The Jordan, the lowest place on earth, is the ENTRANCE into God, into His knowledge revealed.
Father Carries All. This is what I mean when I say – “going under with God.”
Until all the people had crossed over. – Until everything was finished. – Stand upon firm, in He humbled Himself.
The Hebrew word for “Jordan” is yardan. Translate that into German and it becomes “Jordi,” and translate that into English and it becomes “Yordy.” That doesn’t mean a thing. Except this – that in the time of Tabernacles in 2011, my Father went from “above me” to beneath of me, and I have known Him as the All-Carrying One from then until now. To know Father is to stand firm beneath of others all the way into God. – Father carries all.
The Way You Must Go! From my early twenties, this verse brought tears to my eyes every time I read it.
When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. …That you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before (Joshua 3:3-4).
You see, this is why, when, in November of 2001 I pulled a book off Lois, my sister-in-law’s, shelf titled Journey of Desire, my heart was so enflamed with FIRE that I could not but run home with that book, for I must know!
Desire for LIFE. “There is a secret set within each one of our hearts. It often goes unnoticed, we rarely can put words to it, and yet it guides us throughout the days of our lives. This secret remains hidden for the most part in our deepest selves. It is the desire for LIFE as it was meant to be. Isn’t there a life you have been searching for all your days? You may not always be aware of your search, and there are times when you seem to have abandoned looking altogether. But again and again it returns to us, this yearning that cries out for the life we prize.” – John Eldredge.
That you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. – Joshua.
Same Thing. And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites… Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.”
Now, however, we do not yet see [by outward appearance] all having been subjected. However, we see Jesus, …having been crowned with glory and honor, so that by grace coming out from God, He might eat up death for the sake of all (Hebrews 2:8-9).
Same thing. I’m telling you, it’s the same thing.
Life inside Community. And the life that we long to know is all the life of God found inside the Community of Christ. Yet we have never been this way before. Even though Joshua and Caleb had been into the land as spies, Joshua meant that they were entering LIFE beyond what he had tasted.
I do not know where any writing to learn will go when I start. It is clear that the Spirit has led us in the direction of hammering the ruling verses of Hebrews into our CONFIDENCE that God shares our lives with us and we share God’s life with Him – for the sake of others.
And out from that, confidence in God’s promise to us concerning Christian Community.
Seize Hold of Life. Therefore brethren, having already a free and bold proclamation of entrance into the Holiest inside the blood of Jesus consecrating for us a newly sacrificed as well as a living way through the veil, that is, through His flesh; and having a vast High Priest upon the house of God, let us approach [everything inside the Holiest] with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil consciousness; and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:19-22).
Everything inside the Holiest; everything inside of God; everything inside of His Church.
LIFE – Seize hold of all of it, everything you can find!
Every Single Believer. Let’s turn our hearts, now, with Joshua and the men who bore the Ark, and look at every single believer in Jesus alive upon this earth, in their own heart’s cry to enter into LIFE. A heart of compassion for every single one. A heart that bears under until the tiniest and the least have passed all the way through death and into life.
This is NOT our own hearts, yet it is. For Jesus is our hearts, and Jesus is Father sharing Hheart with us. We know because God is telling us the truth.
The love of God is shed abroad in your hearts through the Spirit Holy given to you (Romans 5:5).
Absolute Rest. Upon firm we stand (Hebrews 3:6 & 14).
The best word that describes what the Spirit of God is attempting to cause us to KNOW is rest. Rest absolutely in your ministry of going under with Father until every believer in Jesus upon this earth KNOWS that they are already connected together with God, that God their Father already shares life with them through Jesus. Know that you are already connected together with God [our ministry of reconciliation] (2 Corinthians 5).
And our absolute rest in the expectation of this Salvation of God with us stands in all against the mightiest flood of evil.
Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is “Ruth and Devotion.” For that lesson, read Joshua 2 and all of Ruth.
As you read Joshua 2, remember that we know from elsewhere that one of those two men is Salmon, who married Rahab, and their son was Boaz, who married Ruth, the great-grandmother of David. This Salmon was the leader of Judah and thus so was Boaz.
And after Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was cheerful, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain; and Ruth came softly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
Let’s Pray Together. Our focus this time is calling believers in Jesus all across this earth into their place in the knowledge of their Salvation and of life together as the Church. And the authority we possess to do this comes from our rest in the confidence of God-with-us.
“Father, we let our hearts go out over all Your people across the earth, everyone who believes in Jesus, everyone who longs to know You. Father, we recognize the compassion of Jesus towards each one filling our hearts with Your Love.
“For their sakes, but mostly for Your sake, Father, we stand upon firm in our confidence that You with us love them.
Carry Each One. “Father, we know that You are coming into our world through us and that as You appear, You are found placing Yourself beneath of each one, to carry each one all the way through the darkness and confusion and into all the life of Christ.
“Therefore, Father, we place ourselves with You and You with all-we-are for their sakes, that they might know You.
“Father, Your word says, ‘The Spirit and the Bride say come,’ therefore we say with Jesus, “Come all you who are weary and heavy laden and learn of Jesus, the only life you are, for you will find rest for your souls.
Into Salvation Revealed. “Father, we call each one who belongs to You into the land of Christ, that they might dwell together as Your Church in this present world, that they might be Your Salvation revealed.
“And Father, we ask in Jesus’ name that Your Holy Spirit go forth to fulfill all that You and we desire together. We know that we have received all that we ask.
“Father, we know that right now, Your Spirit is touching the hearts of millions in response to our confidence in You, that the way into all the life of Christ is standing wide open to them. Father, save Your people.”