Joshua Chapters 11 – 24

Joshua Chapters 11 – 12

God is showing the children of Israel that when He says "I will take them," it is a done deal.  It does not make any difference how many there are, whether they have horses or chariots, what the odds are against you.  As long as we know that we are obedient to the Lord and we are doing what the Lord wants us to do, it does not make any difference what we are facing or who we are facing.  God promises as God spoke to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1, "I will be with you wherever you go, be of strength and face it with courage."  Why?  Because it is confidence, and it is quietness, and it is being still.  It is knowing that He is God.  He opens people's hearts.  He closes people's hearts.  He hardens people's hearts.  He gives people over to perversion.  He delivers people out of perversion.  It is God dealing with people's hearts and we cannot know what is going on.  It is just knowing Who is going on.  The Lord is at work.

Joshua Chapters 13 – 16

The thing that impresses me the most is here is this man, this faithful brother, who was faithful to do what the Lord wanted him to do from day one. And though the hearts of the children of Israel melted; and though they had to wander through the wilderness; and he had to go through all this for forty-five years, yet he remained faithful. There is Caleb.  It says, "Forty-five years ago the Lord promised through Moses to give me the land.  And here we are.  I recognize it.  This is the land which we came into that Moses promised me."  It strikes me very deep in the sense of faithfulness, for forty-five years he faithfully continued to serve the Lord.  And he says, "The Lord has kept me alive to receive the inheritance that was promised to me."

Joshua Chapters 17 – 19

Joshua was old. God says, You are old and well advanced in years, yet there remains much land to be possessed. The Lord might begin a work through us, but that work might be passed on to other people. In fact, it will be. If the Lord does not come in our lifetime whatever work we are doing will be passed on to someone else. The work that we are doing right here in this fellowship, and in this church, even in this town. If the Lord should tarry twenty years, fifty years from now, other people are going to be here and are going to be continuing on with the work. We might not see the fulfillment of our work in our lifetime. So what does the Lord require? Faithfulness. And we might get discouraged, we might get disheartened, especially when we are looking for the end result in our lifetime. The truth is it might not come. And yet, even at an old age the Lord was reminding Joshua and encouraging him to continue on.

Joshua Chapters 20 – 21

This is a section that some people find to be very boring unless you see that everything that God does - all the way from creation to the providing of His promises and the giving of His commands - express who God is. And we see the Lord in all of His dealings with man and in all of his doings.

Joshua Chapter 23

Jesus said courage is a key to faith. It is one of the things that we face. "I know I should trust the Lord, but...." And you know what that little but is that we take in consideration? Do you know the thing that we are wrestling with? It is this little thing called courage.  To be able to stand there.  And to stand in obedience to the Lord, it takes courage.