JOSHUA - CHAPTER 23
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2000 James Melough
23:1.
“And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto
Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in
age.”
The
“long time” emphasizes that Joshua had had many years to enjoy the fruits of his
seven-year campaign that had left the Canaanites subdued, and their inheritance made
available to Israel; but he was, after all, only a man, and like all men, must die.
It is very different with “the man Christ Jesus” whom he typifies.
He lives in “the power of an endless life,” Heb 7:16, to enjoy for
ever the results of “the travail of his soul,” that mighty victory won at Calvary
that has left the foe defeated, and has secured an eternal inheritance for His own.
23:2.
“And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their
heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and
stricken in age:”
Whatever
other lessons may be involved in Joshua’s summoning all Israel, and their elders,
heads, judges, and officers, one is clear: every believer is responsible as an
individual. As Achan’s disobedience
brought death to thirty-six other Israelites, so does the conduct of each believer,
from the youngest to the oldest, have an effect for good or ill upon the local
assembly, and therefore, on the Church world-wide.
It behooves each one of us to walk in obedience before God.
23:3.
“And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these
nations because of you; for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you.”
Joshua
might well have reminded them of his own exploits, but true servant that he was, he
ascribed all the glory to God, realizing that it was Divine grace alone that had
bestowed upon him the honor and privilege of leading God’s people into the land.
It would be well for each of us as we seek to exercise the gift God has given,
to remember that we are the recipients of the same grace, and have nothing to boast
of in ourselves. The gift given us could
have been given to another, as could also the task God has assigned each one of us.
Were we more conscious of what a privilege it is to be permitted to serve,
God’s work would be better done. When
tempted to envy another’s gift, to despise the task allotted us, to view God’s
work as drudgery, we should remember that the recompense of faithful service is an
imperishable crown, in regard to which we are exhorted, “Behold, I come quickly:
hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown,” Re 3:11. When tempted to despise the task God has given us, we ought to
remember that amongst the exploits of David’s mighty men there is recorded, for our
encouragement, the fact that Shammah simply stood in the midst of a patch of lentils,
defending it from the Philistines, and slaying them, and because he did “the Lord
wrought a great victory,” 2 Sa 23:11-12. It
is significant that very frequently in Scripture, food is used symbolically of the
written Word, so that Shammah’s defence of that lentil patch translates into
encouragement to us to hold fast the teaching of the written Word, and to allow
nothing to diminish its value to us. Every
believer has been given at least one spiritual gift, and is responsible to use that
gift for the upbuilding of Christ’s Church. No
gift is to be considered inferior.
As
they were to look back and remember all that God had done for them, so are we to look
back to Calvary and survey a greater deliverance, a mightier victory, for there we
see ourselves delivered from death, as Christ by dying in our stead “spoiled
principalities and powers making a shew of them openly, triumphing over them,” Col
2:15. The Lord fights for us as He did
for Israel, and because He does, Paul reminds us that “In all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us,” Ro 8:37.
23:4.
“Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an
inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off,
even unto the great sea westward.”
The
reference to their inheritance having been divided unto them by lot, reminds us that
God has also assigned each one of us his “lot” in life, perfect love and perfect
wisdom having combined in the appointment of that lot. That should encourage us to accept with thankfulness what God has
assigned us, and as each tribe was to enjoy its literal lot, so are we to enjoy, and
use for God’s glory, the circumstances He has ordained for each one of us.
The
Canaanites hadn’t been exterminated during the seven- year campaign under Joshua,
but had been left for gradual expulsion, so that the land wouldn’t become desolate,
and so that the wild beasts wouldn’t multiply against Israel, see Ex 23:29-30, but
the warning had also been given that if Israel didn’t expel the Canaanites, those
allowed to remain would be “pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and
shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell,” Nu 33:55.
And sadly, we turn to Jg 2:21-23, and read that the disobedience of the people
in the days of the Judges had so provoked the Lord to anger that He declared “I
also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua
left when he died: that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the
way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out hastily;
neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.”
As
has been noted in earlier studies, the evils represented by those nations include the
lusts of the old nature, and it is folly to refuse to admit that the blight upon the
professing church today is because we, like Israel, have failed to “drive out”
the enemy, so that they have become pricks in our eyes, and thorns in our sides, and
have cut us off from blessing. One of
the most powerful of our foes is the old nature within us.
It
is instructive to note that only two boundaries are mentioned, the Jordan and “the
great sea westward (the Mediterranean),” i.e., the breadth of the land, though it
is equally instructive to note that it wasn’t the whole breadth, for that ran from
the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, see Dt 11:24.
In
Scripture breadth speaks of the quality of life, as length does of
duration of life. The lesson here
therefore, has to do with the quality of our lives, and significantly the boundary
mentioned is the Jordan, the river that speaks of death.
The lesson couldn’t be clearer. It
is only as we are willing to die to the things of this world, that we will be able to
live lives to God’s glory, and walk in the enjoyment of all that has been made ours
through the Lord’s death.
Nor
should we miss the meaning of the other boundary, for the sea is the Biblical symbol
of earth’s rebellious, unconverted masses, see Isa 57:20.
We are not to live as men who belong to that world, but as those whose
citizenship is in heaven, Php 3:20, our only concern with the great sea of humanity
being to bring them the Gospel.
It
must be confessed, however, that we have been as delinquent in the one as in the
other. We have neither crucified the
flesh, Ga 5:24, nor have we warned sinners of their need to trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ as Savior.
The
west speaks of the end of life, and of approach to God, for it is His will that the
end of life should see men pass from earth into His presence to enjoy eternal
blessing. This reference to the western
boundary of their inheritance therefore, is also to be seen as a warning to live our
lives in view of that moment when we finish our earthly course, and pass into heaven
where we must all stand at the judgment seat of Christ to render an account of our
stewardship, 2 Co 5:10.
The
fact that the nations are spoken of as though they had already been cut off, reminds
us that even then God had in mind the day, still future, when the rebellious nations will
be cut off, and an Israel, redeemed and obedient, will enjoy millennial Canaan, as
the redeemed and obedient remnant of the nations out of the Tribulation will enjoy
the rest of the milennial earth. We who
are the heirs of a better covenant will then be enjoying eternal spiritual blessings
in heaven.
23:5.
“And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them
from out of your sight: and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath
promised unto you.”
That
this was not an unconditional promise is made clear by the verses which follow.
Scripture is unequivocal: God will not bless disobedience; and Israel’s
history is the sorry record of blessing forfeited by rebellion.
That history has proved, sadly, to be but the prewritten history of the
professing church, she being more culpable by reason of having Israel’s history to
warn her against such folly.
It’s
being emphasized that God Himself would expel the enemy is not to be understood as
implying that the Israelites would have nothing to do with that work.
What is being taught is that God’s power would be made available to them as
His instruments for the expulsion of the Canaanites, but they themselves must do the
work. They must take what God was setting before them, for they would
possess only that upon which their feet trod, Jsh 1:3.
The same principle applies to the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged
today as we wrestle against the principalities and powers mentioned in Ep 6:12.
We have but to be obedient to have that same Divine power made available to
us, but we will have only as much blessing as we are willing to claim.
“...
and drive them out of your sight” precludes any thought of Israel’s sparing any
of the enemy, or of making any peace covenants with them. The Canaanites were to be exterminated completely from the land,
and the lesson God would teach us is that every activity of the flesh, which the
Canaanites represent, is to be put out of our lives completely.
There can be no compromise between the flesh and the spirit.
“...
and ye shall possess their land.” In
spite of the fact that Joshua had potentially subdued the whole land, the sad truth
remains that Israel, by her disobedience, failed to live in the enjoyment of that
work and promise. She never fully
possessed the land, nor will she until that soon coming day when, converted, and
having learned through the Tribulation judgments, the folly of disobedience, she
enters millennial Canaan to enjoy its blessings for a thousand years, those
blessings to be superseded by the eternal blessings of the new earth, Re 21:1.
As
has been noted already, however, that victory won by Joshua is but a figure of the
greater victory won by the true Joshua at Calvary; and Israel’s failure to enter
fully into the enjoyment of what was made available to them through Joshua’s work,
simply foreshadows our own failure to enter fully into the enjoyment of all that has
been made available to us through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“...
as the Lord your God hath promised unto you.”
Israel’s disobedience has long delayed the fulfillment of that promise, but
nothing, neither Israel’s rebellion nor ours, can hinder the eventual fulfillment
of all God’s promises.
23:6.
“Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in
the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or
to the left.”
Joshua
was given a similar command in 1:7, but it is interesting to note that the Hebrew
word used there isn’t the same as the one used here.
To Joshua the command was literally be alert: be steadfastly minded;
but here to Israel it is fasten upon: seize: bind: restrain: conquer.
In Joshua’s case the emphasis was upon the need of alertness to discern the
Lord’s mind and will, and of steadfastness in doing that will; but here the
emphasis is upon the need to lay hold of what has been made available.
This latter command applied also to Joshua, of course, and the former need of
sensitivity to the Divine will applied also to Israel.
The two are not mutually exclusive, but complementary, and are as necessary
today as then. The lesson may be stated
briefly: be alert to discern the Lord’s will, and let nothing hinder the doing of
that will.
“...
to the right hand or the left” is more than just a figure of speech, for as the
right hand speaks of power so does the left hand speak of dependence or weakness.
This continues to emphasize the lesson just considered.
The warning relative to the right hand is against disobedience resulting from
going beyond God’s will; that of the left hand, against a coming short of His will. We are to beware not only of sins of commission, but also of sins
of omission.
23:7.
“That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither
make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve
them, nor bow yourselves unto them:”
As
noted already, among the foes represented by the Canaanites are the lusts of the
flesh, so that God’s forbidding Israel to have any business with them translates
into His command to us to have nothing to do with anything that is related to the old
nature. The enjoined separation was
absolute, and specifically excluded even the mention of the names of the Canaanite
gods. We will miss the lesson, however,
if we fail to realize that the counterparts of those gods are with us today, and are
none the less real though intangible. Some
of them are money, education, pleasure, ease, etc., and any question as to the degree
of worship offered them, not just by the men of the world, but by professed
believers, is too apparent to be missed. It
is her adulation of these things that has brought the professing church to her
present sorry state.
23:8.
“But cleave unto the Lord your God, as ye have done unto this day.”
Cleave
conveys the thought of “clinging to by following closely,” and reminds us of
Paul’s injunction to the Ephesian saints, “Be ye therefore followers of God,”
Eph 5:1, and of his exhortation to the Corinthian believers, “... be ye followers
of me,” 1 Co 4:16, that plea being made only because he followed Christ, as
declared in 1 Co 11:1 “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”
Joshua
could add the commendation “as ye have done unto this day,” but that happy state,
anticipative of the obedience that marked the believers of the early Apostolic age,
was of equally brief duration, for we read in Jg 2:10-12 “And also all that
generation (Joshua’s) were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another
generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done
for Israel. And the children of Israel
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: and they forsook the Lord God
of their fathers ... and followed other gods ....”
Those
obedient elders of Joshua’s generation are types of the Apostles, and as it was
with the one so also was it with the other. The
Apostolic age hadn’t ended before the evidences of departure began to manifest
themselves, and as it was with Israel so has it been with the professing church: the
apostasy has deepened, until no scripturally instructed man can fail to see that the
anarchy which marked the end of the era of the Judges is but the OT foreshadowing of
the anarchy that prevails in the professing church today.
23:9.
“For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong: but
as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you unto this day.”
They
were reminded that it was the Lord, and not themselves, who had overcome the opposing
nations, for though their hands had wielded the weapons, it was God Who had empowered
them. That same power is available to us
today, but only as the Holy Spirit resides within us ungrieved and unquenched.
The counterpart of the great and strong nations who had fought against Israel,
are the unseen, but none the less powerful spiritual foes that would attempt to keep
us out of the enjoyment of all that Christ’s death has made available to us.
And as it was then so also is it today. No
foe can stand against the obedient believer.
23:10.
“One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that
fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.”
This
has been written as much for our encouragement as for theirs, for whether in that age
or the present, God is not dependent on the number of instruments available: His
power is the same whether put forth through one man or a thousand: note, for example,
His use of Gideon’s three hundred, Jg 7. It is folly to be looking to men, even to godly men, for help in
our spiritual warfare. Our eyes are to
be upon God alone. If He chooses to use
others with us, well; but if He chooses to send any one of us alone, we are to be no
less confident than if He gave us a thousand companions.
If He is with us it matters not who forsakes us or who confronts us.
23:11.
“Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your
God.”
This
declares the necessity of obedience, for it is the Lord Himself Who has declared,
“If ye love me, keep my commandments .... He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me .... If a man love me, he will keep my words .... He
that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings ....” Jn 14:15-24.
Our
love for the Lord is declared, not by our words, but by our deeds. Obedience alone measures love for Him, but since obedience is an
imperative of the victorious Christian life, we learn that His power is available to
us in direct proportion to the measure of our love for Him.
Small wonder, then, that so little of His power is manifest in our midst
today. He is made to share our love with
a world that crucified Him, and that hates Him as much now as then.
23:12.
“Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these
nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go
in unto them, and they to you:”
23:13.
“Know for certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of
these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and
scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good
land which the Lord your God hath given you.”
As
noted already, the Canaanites represent not only the evil spiritual forces arrayed
against us, but also the lusts of the old nature still in us, so that this warning to
Israel translates into warning to us not to indulge those lusts in any way.
The flesh is reckoned by God to have been crucified, Ga 5:24, and we are
responsible to keep it in the place of death where He reckons it to be.
It is not to be permitted any activity in our lives.
With
the passing of Joshua’s generation apostasy quickly set in, and God’s threat was
executed. He ceased to drive out the
enemy, with the result that during the ensuing era of the Judges Israel was more
often than not in bondage to the Canaanites and the Philistines, languishing under
their tyranny when she might have been enjoying God’s blessing.
When
we indulge the lusts of the flesh we too make ourselves bondslaves of those lusts,
with the result that our disobedience cuts us off from God’s power and blessing,
and we too languish under a spiritual tyranny as great as that suffered by Israel
literally long ago, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to
obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience
unto righteousness?” Ro 6:16.
“...
but they shall be snares and traps unto you.”
These things are the symbols of bondage, and point, not only to what would
result from Israel’s disobedience, but also from ours.
That the professing church is in such bondage today is painfully apparent.
“...
and scourges in your sides.” Scourging
speaks of chastisement, so that the warning being given here is that chastisement,
and not blessing, will be the lot of the disobedient believer.
“...
and thorns in your eyes.” Every
Biblical reference to literal blindness points to a corresponding spiritual state
during this present Church age; but it is to be noted that the threatened blindness
wasn’t to be simply the gradual painless diminution of sight, but that which would
be accompanied by a spiritual state corresponding to the physical pain caused by a
thorn in the eye. Nor should we fail to
note that thorns are the Biblical symbol of sin, see, for example, Ge 3:18.
Pain and suffering, physical or emotional, or both, are the inevitable results
of disobedience on the part of a believer.
The
disobedience which destroys the ability to discern spiritual truth, results in there
being added to deliberate sin, that committed unwittingly, so that our offenses are
compounded, and the final result is that we experience suffering rather than peace
and blessing.
“...
until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.”
The Babylonian captivity was the ultimate result of their disobedience, and
though spiritually blind eyes fail to discern it, the professing church lies today in
a corresponding spiritual bondage, for Babylon represents the great harlot church
that will be left on earth for judgment in the Tribulation, after the true Church has
been caught up to heaven. Only the
spiritually blind fail to see that that evil system rules over God’s people today. Even in the assemblies where the outward form is still preserved,
the sad truth is that the power and the glory have departed.
The Babylonian rules. Effective
Gospel preaching has become a rare thing, and the true evangelist has all but
disappeared from the scene. It is the
same also with teaching and shepherding. True
believers languish for lack of spiritual food and drink in the midst of a famine more
terrible than any experienced by Israel literally.
Like the evangelist, those capable of expounding God’s Word for the
instruction and upbuilding of God’s people have become a rare breed.
And as for men who have true shepherd hearts, men willing to give themselves
to the care and feeding of God’s
sheep, who can find them? Those
assemblies fortunate enough to have such elders should never cease to thank God for
them.
As
Israel’s disobedience resulted in her being carried far from Canaan’s milk and
honey, so has that of the professing church resulted in her being carried far from
the spiritual equivalents.
23:14.
“And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in
all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good
things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you,
and not one thing hath failed thereof.”
Joshua,
near the end of life’s journey, bore testimony to the faithfulness of God relative
to all His promises to Israel, and he challenged them to deny it.
That challenge extends also to us, and surely the testimony of every honest
heart must be to God’s faithfulness in spite of much unfaithfulness on our part.
While our failures are beyond number, there isn’t one point in which He has
proved unfaithful in His care for us. We
must all acknowledge that He has done for us “exceeding abundantly above all that
we could ask or think,” Eph 3:20.
23:15.
“Therefore it shall come to pass that as all good things are come upon you,
which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil
things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God
hath given you.”
God’s
blessings to Israel were not unconditional, nor are they to us. Their obedience was required, for an unchangeable principle is
that God will not bless disobedience, and the reason is obvious: it would be to
impugn His Own holiness, for it would be tantamount to condoning sin, something He
will not do.
This,
however, does not imply that their obedience was perfect.
Far from it. The Biblical record
bears eloquent testimony to their many failures; but that same record makes it clear
that God distinguishes between the sins of the man in whose heart there is faith, and
those of the man in whose heart that faith is lacking.
But
why should there be such distinction? The
believer’s sins - past, present, and future - have all been forgiven, those
committed after conversion being attributed to the old man whom God reckons to have
been crucified with Christ. The sins of
the believer are accidental, never deliberately practiced.
In
the case of the unbeliever none of his sins have been forgiven, and, lacking the new
nature obtained only by the new birth, he sins deliberately, for that is the
character of the only nature he has: the Adamic nature with which he was born, his
crowning sin being that of refusal to accept God’s remedy, that is, to trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.
It
is to be noted, however, that even sin committed by the believer cuts off blessing,
and brings chastisement, unless confessed, repented of, and forsaken.
Joshua
and the majority of the men of his generation had faith in their hearts, so that in
spite of their failures, they walked in the enjoyment of blessing.
The threatened judgment therefore would be executed against the faithless
generation that would succeed them, of whom we read in Jgs 2:10-14 “... and there
arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which
he had done for Israel. And the children
of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: and they forsook the
Lord God of their fathers .... And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel
....”
As
noted many times, Israel’s history is but the symbolic prewritten history of the
professing church, the parallel being apparent to all but spiritually blind eyes.
The Lord Jesus Christ the Captain of our salvation fulfills the type of
Joshua, while believers of the Apostolic age correspond to the men of Joshua’s
generation, the succeeding generations of Christendom likewise corresponding to those
which succeeded Joshua’s, and with the same evil results.
And as there was always within the professing but unbelieving mass of Israel a
small believing remnant, so has it been in regard to professing but apostate
Christendom. That godly remnant in
Israel did not escape the evils that fell upon the rebellious mass of the nation, nor
has the believing remnant within the apostate church escaped the evils resulting from
her rebellion, but in the case of Israel and the Church, those few believers have
been supported by the faith which believes God’s assurance that death is but the
doorway through which they pass into the enjoyment of eternal blessing.
23:16.
“When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he
commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them;
then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly
from off the good land which he hath given you.”
The
faithfulness of God in blessing their obedience was itself the guarantee that He
would be equally faithful in visiting their disobedience with judgment.
That same principle applies no less today, and as the halcyon days of Joshua
gave place to the turbulent era of the Judges, during which “every man did that
which was right in his own eyes,” so has it been in the experience of the
professing church. The early Apostolic
age, which saw such blessing poured out on an obedient Church, has given place to
centuries which are all too accurately portrayed in the years of the Judges, of
strife and division, spiritual famine, disease, and anarchy, the idolatrous worship
of money, pleasure, education, etc., the knowledge of God largely lost, and every man
doing what is right in his own eyes.
The
judgment that saw a disobedient Israel brought under the tyranny of Saul (type of the
coming beast ruler), and delivered into the hands of the Philistines, is but a
foreshadowing of that which is about to overtake an apostate church.
The hope of the true Church, the believing remnant in the midst of the
apostate mass, is of the Lord’s return to the air to catch her up to heaven,
from which she will return with Him as He fulfills the type of David and Solomon,
whose reigns followed that of Saul, and returns to the earth to begin His
glorious millennial reign.
[Joshua
24]