Do you ever have, you know, a big church event and key players don't show up because, you know, it was popcorn night down at the corner or something, and it's not a sin or anything?
He says, I want a bummer, man. We're so looking forward to seeing them. And that's kind of the thing that's happening, and it's not a rebuke at all, though sometimes it could be. It's up to the moment.
But he wants to not show them off, but to parade them, and rightfully so. He's saying, look, your brothers. are still with us. They're in this fight with us.
That would have been an encouragement. Today, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through Joshua chapter 1 and his message called, Orders and Allegiance. And to life, as illustrated by the baptism, the water baptism, the old you dies, and out of that is resurrected this new believer, talking about the application of the three days we cross over, we progress triumphant experience because of a triumphant savior. Now, verse 12, he says, And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke, saying, Remember the word which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, saying, Yahweh your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land. The reference here, Reuben, the Gadites, and half of Manasseh's tribe goes back to Numbers chapter 33, Israel's conquest of the territory east of Jordan. Modern day, the kingdom of Jordan, and part of it may spill into Saudi Arabia, but back then, when the Jews, before they got into the promised land, they conquered the Amorites and those of Bashan. And these three tribes said, you know what, we like this land. We don't need to go any further. This is it.
This is what we've been looking for. We pick it up in Numbers 32, just parts of it, verses 1 and 2 and verse 5, The children of Reuben and the children of Gad, and later on he'll include Manasseh, had a very great multitude of livestock. And when they saw the land of Jezir and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation saying, let this land be given to your servants as a possession, do not take us over Jordan. Oh, those words, do not take us over Jordan. Well, today you go to Israel and you're driving along the highway there that runs just west of the Jordan, you can see the Jordan, and you can see Jordan, the kingdom of, right across, and up in the north it's very beautiful, and you say, that used to be Israel's territory.
It's not anymore. Moses was not happy with this, of course. On several levels he didn't like this, but he consented on the condition that they join the conquest, and that they did.
And Moses, we have Numbers 32 verse 28, so Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel. In other words, okay, as long as they honor their promise, which would be almost, would be a long time before it happened. What if Moses refused, and said absolutely not. God promised that land, not this land. Well, they probably would have had resentment for the rest of their tribal days. It would have passed on and would have been more problems than they created a problem with their request.
Something to weigh your words before you go asking for things. I mean, sometimes God allows his people to take what is second best, because they insist on it, and to not say yes creates more problems. This is the lesser of two evils we might say. If they're not willing to take his best, and they demand second best, it's not unlike God to say, okay, take it. You've asked for it. It's yours.
I don't ever want to get there with that. Moses, he knew this was not a good idea, but he also knew, as you would know if you've led a lot of people for any length of time, you know, okay, they've locked into this. They're passionate about this. They're wrong, but they're passionate.
How do you diffuse this bomb? And that's where he was. So the lessons and numbers, the book of numbers is like a bad book of Acts. I mean, Acts you have victories, and all this action and numbers is like, oh man, it's complaining. The complaining is constant in the book of numbers.
And of course there are those that feel that their gift is not tongues or anything like that. It's complaining. I have the gift of complaining.
Watch. And they will pick anybody apart. They don't feel alive unless they are whining about something. We all whine about some things at some times, but I think most of us try to check it. Some are really good and they really don't whine much, if at all. They just go out and look for the sunny rainbow and everything is sickening.
Because I want to be like that and I can't find it. I don't mind shooting everything up first. One reason why I didn't want to be a policeman, because you had to say halt first. That gets in the way. Anyway, this Joshua, he needed the troops. We're going to get back to their decision, but he needed those troops also, but I don't think that factored too much.
But just to look at it a little bit from a logical perspective, which Joshua, I believe, was totally spiritual with this. At the death of Moses, the troops' strengths were numbered, so we have them. And Reuben had 43,730 men for war. That is more than a division. A division is three regiments. A regiment is at least 3,000 infantrymen, not counting support. So you can just do the math. A division is up to around 10,000-12,000 men. And then it becomes a core. You add divisions together, you have a huge force just in one tribe is what I'm trying to say.
That's just Reuben. Gad had 40,500. And Manasseh had 52,700. You cut that in half and you have 26,350. So the combined force of 110,580 and a half men. I just want to see you paying attention.
That was the apprentice. But anyway, the total troop strength of the nation was 634,000 plus men for war. So this is 110,000, and Joshua's going to conquer this whole land.
He's got plans for these. When we get to chapter 4, we'll find out that 40,000 of these two and a half tribes were involved in the conquest of Jericho alone. Jericho is just one city and there were many other places to go. So now we return to the application of all this. They decided that almost was good enough for them. See, this is one of the lessons we get from this because this tribe became a problem. I know what I wanted to say earlier. I came back.
I just shook my head a little bit and rattled over to the side I'm using. The first inter-Israelite confrontation under the leadership of Joshua came because of these two tribes. They meant well. They wanted to build a monument to remember that they were all part of the same people and fighting together, but word got out and made it look like it was an idol they were building. And so Joshua and the priest, they got ready for war. And then they went over and they talked it out and they felt, okay, this is a legitimate thing.
But it was so avoidable. If they had just crossed over Jordan, God had given them this territory all the way up to the Euphrates. I mean, there was land enough and Israel may have been more successful. When the kingdom of Israel emerged out of the people of Israel, you remember Samuel, we want a king. Samuel, we don't want you as our leader anymore. We want a king. We want to be like everybody else.
That's what they said. And when they became a kingdom, the first tribes to collapse under the invasion of the pagans, mainly the Assyrians, were these two and a half tribes that were east of Jordan. And so there is a gap that we discover between those who live their lives as though they want the promised land versus those who are satisfied with the unpromised land. And there are many believers. They know who the Lord is, but they're satisfied very quickly with unpromised things. And there's a greater portion for them. It will be better for them if they just stick to what God has put there on paper than trying to come up with some other things.
Eventually, that decision to be satisfied with the unpromised things, though it's problematic all the way through and a bit of an irritant, it eventually becomes a big problem. And it did for them also. Verse 14, your wives, your little ones and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan, but you shall pass before your brethren armed all your mighty men of valor and help them. So, of course, Joshua now is up to the promised land. He remembers the promise from 40 years ago. He says we need you to be part of this fight. That was your promise. Where do you stand with this now? Your wives and children, livestock, you can stay in that land, that unpromised section that you got from the Lord. You can stay there. But you, fighting men, you have to come to war.
There's nothing uncommon about it. It's a draft, an obligation to fight for your country. So only the troops of these two and a half tribes are going to cross over Jordan for war. He says, but you shall pass before your brethren. Now you can say that they're going to be the lead of the procession into the promised land, and that is probably what it means.
But I think also what it means, and probably more importantly, is Joshua wanted everybody to see that these two and a half tribes were zealous to keep their word. It would have been such a downer, right? What?
What is that? You ever have a big church event and key players don't show up because it was popcorn night down at the corner or something, and it's not a sin or anything? He says, what a bummer, man. We're so looking forward to seeing them. And that's kind of the thing that's happening, and it's not a rebuke at all, though sometimes it could be.
It's up to the moment. He wants to not show them off, but to parade them, and rightfully so. He's saying, look, your brothers are still with us.
They're in this fight with us. That would have been an encouragement and a brilliant move on Joshua's part to say, cross before your brothers, as opposed to, okay, fine, line up in the back. Verse 15, until Yahweh has given your brethren rest as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which Yahweh your God is giving them, then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, Yahweh's servant, gave you on this side of the Jordan towards the sunrise. That's to the east of the promised land. I don't know what Joshua's tone was.
Probably he was such a gentleman, he's just no hidden agenda. Me, I would have been like, yeah, fine, okay, you can take your sunrise land, trying to make sure you know how I feel, because again, it's so important that people know how I feel. Well, verse 15, until Yahweh has given your brethren rest as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which Yahweh your God is giving them, then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, I did read that. I'm reading it, you know what I'm saying to myself? I love it when Yahweh's name keeps showing up in a short section, a footprint of scripture, and so I'm not even comprehending what I'm reading.
I say, wait a minute, I just read that. Anyway, this would require faith, of course, and energy. What good is faith if there's no energy?
Well, I believe, where are you? Zeal, you know, that fire from the Lord, and the tongues of fire were on them, and you know, you got to keep fire under control to kill everybody. If not, I got more stories about fire. You know, I can't wait till my grandkids get old enough to start asking me these stories and I can comprehend what I'm saying. Right now, it's okay, I'm kind of bored with this whole thing. The first story was good, grandpa, see ya.
All right, well, and I'm sure you all, no, nobody's got better stories than me. Every inch was going to be contested, and Joshua knew it, and this goes back to part of the reason why he wanted those fighting forces. He knew this was not going to be easy, it was going to be a conquest.
God did not give him those, you know, noodles that you take to the swimming pool with you. Here you go, slaughter the Canaanites with this. This was going to be a bitter, powerful fight, and it was going to be years of fighting.
Ours is a lifetime of fighting this bitter foe, the flesh, and all of its, of course, liabilities it throws on us. And then, after they were done, they would rest, of course, from their slavery in Egypt and their wanderings in the wilderness. Then that lamb would produce the heroes of the faith, like King David and Elijah, so many heroes of our faith. Verse 16, so they answered Joshua, saying, all that you command us we will do, and whatever, wherever you send us we will go. Just as we heeded Moses and all things, so we will heed you.
Only Yahweh your God be with you, as he was with Moses. Well, it's a very beautiful, very beautiful pledge of allegiance. We've got our orders, we're going to comply. And we're going to comply with allegiance. You don't have to second guess about us, Joshua. We're not going to turn and run, we're not going to shoot you in the back or anything like that.
We are here with you. This, again, is not the same generation that fought Moses every step of the way. Moses did not have to fight the Canaanites, he had to fight the Israelites. That generation, in addition to the peoples that gave him a hard time, the great grief that Moses, and what makes Moses one of the greatest men of the Bible, that not only did he survive it, but he prevailed. He was triumphant, and that is seen in Joshua's moving them into the promised land. So we look at the Old Testament, we see the Old Testament is triumphant, and that it leads us into the New Testament. Where would we be without the Old Testament? The New Testament couldn't just show up, it would have no authority.
The prophecies give it, the life into the New Testament, so that it all comes together. You can't take one from the other, there's no diminishing. It would be like saying, which organ would you like not to have, the brain or the heart? I mean, you've got to have them both, and there's just no way around it. Some people, maybe that's not true.
Some have opted for just the heart, and got away with it. Verse 18, whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, and all that you command him shall be put to death, only be strong and of good courage. Joshua's got to be looking at the back of himself, who are they talking to? Moses was cheated from this. Why did no one come and say this to Moses?
This is beautiful. He's got to be going, thank you, Lord. This has got to just invigorate him. He's ready now. Take this land.
He's in his 90s, and he's like, yes. They're saying to him, Joshua, anybody mess with you, we kill them. Insubordination will not be tolerated. It's a capital offense to mess with Joshua. This is deep stuff.
It teaches us, the mind of God is in this. What happens if you rebel against Jesus and say, I'm not, not going to let you command me? What did they say to him? We will not let this man rule over us. And they got what they wanted. Be careful of those words.
When the other ones were saying, give us this land, don't take us into this land, do not take us over the Jordan. Just be careful of the words we say. I know I have said things, and I wish I could take those words back.
I wish I never said that. Sometimes it's a trivial thing, but it opened a sinister part of my thinking on my heart that was not fair to the other one. Maybe I didn't say it to the other one. I said it to someone else about the other one or something like that. Maybe it's about somebody I never met. Maybe it's the author of a book, or I don't like them because. And again, it goes back to, well, who cares?
Why does anybody have to know where you stand without asking? But anyhow, take this to the New Testament, John's Gospel, chapter 13, verse 20. Most assuredly I say to you, this is the Lord Jesus speaking, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.
That's called anointing, ordination, unction. This is, they were receiving Joshua. God put you here, Joshua. We've got this with you. We love the Lord. We love you.
We've got this. And when Jesus said, so this is the part of the crime, you tell people, listen, if you're in a church and you can't stand it there, don't stay there and cause trouble. You're messing with God.
Forget it. The pastor could be wrong. The pastor could be wrong. But you become even more wrong now because God will deal with him.
You won't deal with him. You're just giving grief. Hebrews 13, 17, and Hebrews brings us out three times, but we'll just take one. And I do not feel this is a self-promoting calling that I have. This is Christianity. Obey those who rule over you. And that's that operative word, rule, not as a tyrant. We covered that earlier. Those who rule over you and be submissive.
You can hear the flesh rise up like a cobra and flare out, just like a cobra ready to stretch. Submit. I'm an American. I'm free to not submit all the time. I'll submit if I like it. Well, then it's not submission any other time. Submission requires that you do it, rain or shine, in season, out of season. Of course, not to heresy. We have to grow up, don't we? Understand these things. Obey those who rule over you. Be submissive, for they watch out for your souls. What if this was just so literal?
I'm a literalist, okay? Be submissive, hand over your wallet. A pastor could just rob people. Oh, wait a minute. They do. They're called prosperity teachers. As those who must give account. That's why you get assistant pastors and associate pastors. So you delegate the judgment. God get them, not you. I've delegated that. Isn't that how it works?
What a beautiful system. Anyway, let them do so with joy and not with grief. That would be unprofitable for you. There's a short, I don't know, a documentary. I never watched it.
I saw the trailer for it. It was called The Clergy Killers. And it was a documentary on how many people just destroy the church from within. And the churches that I saw on the trailer were not churches that I would ever attend. Big denomination churches and just the governments lined up in a certain way that I think was counterproductive. But it is a problem for every church.
At some point, the devil gets in through people and tries to cause problems. It's sort of like being on a ship and it has a fire. Well, if your sailors are trained, they'll put down that fire more than likely. I mean, even consider the USS Benjamin Franklin. That aircraft carrier was kamikazed in the Pacific and it wasn't supposed to, it was supposed to sink. Everyone was amazed it didn't sink. Now, what did that have to do with what I was saying?
I'm not senile, I'm just dumb. Oh, so the devil can come in and do a lot of damage even though they don't. But if your crew is trained, they put it down as they did with the Benjamin Franklin.
And the stories of the sailors on that ship is quite amazing. Well, anyway, Hebrews 13, 17, you can obey those who rule over you. And be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account let them do so with joy and not with grief. Well, that would be unprofitable for you.
It would be unprofitable for me too. As much as we watch Israel fail in the scriptures, does the church fail more? I think every Christian should ask themselves that question. And then we should pull the 11 apostles, is it I? When Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me, they all said, is it I? They were all concerned, except Judas, of course. I close with this verse, 1 Thessalonians, because we could stay in this beautiful...
This is right up there with Ruth, you know. Your God will be my God, your people, my people. This is with Esther and, you know, if I perish, I perish.
This is with Ittai, you know, and whatsoever place my Lord goes, I will be in life or death. This is one of these beautiful speeches and we'll close with this, 1 Thessalonians 5. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.
He continues, Paul does. And to esteem them very highly in love, not cash, in love for their work's sake because of what they do. And many people in this church do this. Many people in this church, even though they may not like this or that from time to time, I get the feeling they love their pastors and because they understand that we're at war and their pastors love them back. That's been delegated to. Helps me sleep at night.
Anyway, to esteem, kidding, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And then he closes with this, Paul does, be at peace among yourselves. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua right here on Cross Reference Radio.
