Boundaries and Grace (Part B)

There's still a lot of carnality to time, or do you have to fight for it many times? This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.

Today Pastor Rick will continue his study called Boundaries and Grace as he teaches through Joshua chapter 15. So here we have a man saying, I'll die for her. I'll risk my life for her. If she's going to be my wife, I'll take the city. That's what's going on.

There's no way to get around that. He knows he can die in this sally, this attack of the city. Pharaoh. Pharaoh wanted Abraham's wife. The king of Gera, the Philistine king, later on we read Genesis 20 verse 2. Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister. And Abimelech, king of Gera, sent and took her. Because he said, that's your sister? Okay, I'll have her. Abraham was afraid if he said, it's my wife. He said, okay, I'll still have her.

I'll just have to kill you. So what I'm trying to bring out here is this dynamic, this fact in life that is going to be good or it's going to be bad. And we're going to have to work at it no matter who we are. Isaac also, with another king of Gera, Genesis 26 verses 6 and 7. So Isaac dwelt in Gera. And the men of the place asked about his wife and he said, she is my sister. For he was afraid to say, my wife, lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah because she is beautiful to behold. Now beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. You may look in the mirror and say to yourself, I'm not handsome, I'm not beautiful, but someone is a lid for every pot. Someone else is going to come along and say, oh yeah, you are. Many times, if you're fortunate enough, someone will see deeper than what's on the outside anyway.

That's what we want. So Caleb offers his daughter to the man who was most valiant. Again, Caleb said, he who attacks Kirjeth safer and takes it, to him I give Axah my daughter as wife.

Proverbs 3.15, we know this one, she is more precious than rubies and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. Othniel was thinking that. He was probably saying, yes, I thought Caleb would never make such an offer.

How many cities have we already conquered? He never said anything like this, finally. So, he risked his life for her and she is going to of course have him as husband and move forward very quickly with plans for her new family. Next thing we read in verse 17 is Othniel took it. Verse 17, Othniel, the son of Canaz, the brother of Caleb, took it and he gave him, Axah, his daughter as wife. I'm not reluctant or hesitant to say, though I can't get it out, Abigail is my favorite female character in the Bible.

I just understand her, but I like Axah a lot. The easy ones of course, you know, this Martha and Mary, Mary of course stands out, you know, Mary has chosen that which will not be taken from her, you can't top that. Verse 17, so Othniel, the son of Canaz, the brother of Caleb, took it and he gave him, Axah, his daughter. Now, the question is by some and you may have it in your study Bible, they might not give you a good answer.

A lot of the hard ones, they just skip over. You can't blame them because sometimes it takes too much, but this is Caleb's nephew, his brother was Canaz and so Othniel is the son of Canaz, the brother of Caleb and that's not out of line because he's a kinsman and he would word it that way, but they had the records, they knew who he was. Caleb's father was Jephunneh and this is all drawn out in other verses. So if this is his cousin, Othniel is marrying Axah who is actually his cousin. Marriage was permitted for them, but it was not permitted for a mother, stepmother, sister, granddaughter, stepsister, aunt, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, stepdaughter or granddaughter. Those were your prohibitions, the boundaries set. And so if any of you had that question about this because maybe again your study Bibles have brought it up, that's the short answer and it really isn't a long one. That's the answer. It's okay.

It's permitted by the law. So where it says Othniel took it, of course it's an emphatic read. I don't know how the writer intended it to be, but when I'm reading it, if I put myself as I'm Othniel the hero, I don't just read it and Rick took it. He took it.

There's energy in that, otherwise it's prose, but poetry can be very rewarding. And as I mentioned he'll later be a judge in Israel. But he says here, and he gave him Axah his daughter and such was life in the ancient world and we have no indication that she or any other women in that time period had any problems with these things. They were often times treated as a prize. They grew up thinking that maybe one day it will work out, I get the right guy. Before some of us browbeat them, we read fairy tales that have these very stories in it and many of us, not me, they're kind of like what you would call chick flicks.

But I've noticed that my daughters and my wife, they watch this. What's his name? Darcy, something like that? Yeah. Some of you late. I'm glad none of you guys says, yeah, yeah, Darcy.

That's my man. Okay. I mean, the differences between men and women, they're okay.

Men and women, they're okay. Anyway, verse 18. Now it was so when she came to him that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. So she just mounted from her donkey and Caleb said to her, what do you wish? Now it's getting, this is the part I really like in this story. Believe it or not, the whole thing with Othniel taking the city, I like that, but that's not what stands out.

It's the tender part that gets me. And she had to get her husband's permission. She could not ask her father for this now because she was under the authority of Othniel and he grants it.

And she probably went something like this. You know, Pat's got this property with these springs. It is to die for, which you almost did for me. Ask him for it. I'm not asking him. He might be old, but he still has a sword.

No. Othniel's a tough guy. He's just not, that's not right. That's your dad. You ask him. I'm not going to go ask him. And so before he finishes his sentence, she's in front of dad.

Where'd you go? And there she is asking for the land. And I think it's just a sweet part of the story because later we'll read of Zeolophad, his daughters. He had no sons and they spoke up. They wanted land. Everybody's getting inheritance. We don't have anything and they will get an inheritance for it. And so, actually that was Moses. Anyway, coming back to this, fog in the pulpit, mist in the pulpit, fog in the pew.

But that's a minor one, so I'm willing to give it up. But anyway, Uxaw, had she not spoke up, if she didn't come up to the front and say, hey, I want this land, she wouldn't have gotten it. So she dismounted from her donkey, verse 18, and Caleb said to her, what do you wish? And he knows what's happening. He knows that she is now married to Othniel. And he sees her coming over. She dismounts off a donkey.

And the donkey's probably not a very big donkey, one of those low riders. And I think it reveals a tender relationship between Oxaw and this rough dad, when he has to be rough, Caleb. This is his sweetheart daughter, and he's very interested in what she wants. Verse 19, she answered, give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the south, give me also springs of water. So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. You got to love this story. How do you not love this?

She answered, give me a blessing. This section is the boundaries and grace. Within the boundaries of Caleb, there is grace because he makes it happen. He doesn't have to.

He could be, no, I'm saving that for somebody or for me. I like that land. Your mother wanted that.

He doesn't do any of that. It's a choice piece of land. No begging, no haggling. The only thing we have here is an exchange between a father and his daughter and love and big love. And if you read it in your devotional time, it's even sweeter than listening to me talk about it. It reads as though she was very happy with her new husband and her father's love. That's how the story reads.

And I find it very touching. Now, verse 20, this was the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah, according to their families. In verse 25, we see listed Kiriath. Judas Iscariot was likely from that Kiriath there in Judah's territory.

If anyone wants me to read verses 26 to 36, raise your hand outside in the parking lot. Verse 38 now, we come to Jochthiel. And that demonstrates that there were amendments to the text, not corruptions. See, in the Bible, you do have other generations coming along and editing, but they're not corrupting. And here, if this Jochthiel is the same one as found in 2 Kings, where King Amaziah renames the place, well, then obviously the writer has gone back and said, and he's going to do that with Jabez. He keeps saying it's Jerusalem.

Well, that won't happen until David's time. It's hundreds of years away from these events. And so, again, those interpolations, they're acceptable because they do no corruption to the text.

They actually explain it for us. And that is the work of the Holy Spirit just as much as everything else in the Scripture is. So I guess the best we could say is if many of these sites that we're looking at, we don't know where they are. Archaeologists have not been able to identify them.

And so if they were able to identify them, as they do as time goes on, and they went back and updated their maps, nobody would say, that's a corruption. I've got an old King James Bible, which is the only Bible anybody can read, even if you're French. You have to read the old King James version. So there's madness in that thinking.

Anyway, because it doesn't work, you just block out everybody. And the King James, it's an ambitious translation, but there are many problems with it. You have to face it.

Nothing you can do about that. They all have problems. But I like the source of the King James and the majority text over other translations for the New Testament. The Old Testament is pretty much consistent.

Anyhow, we're now at verse 63. For the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And at the time that Joshua's events took place, it was not named Jerusalem.

As I mentioned, that will not happen until David comes along. The Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah, could not drive out. The Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. When I was a new pastor and I would read commentaries on these things, I thought that the commentators were right on in their condemnation of Israel for not casting out these peoples as they were ordered to.

And I have re-evaluated my view and we'll get some of it in a little bit. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were the Jebusites, were descendants of a man named Canaan. They were his third son of Canaan. And you get that in Genesis, I think it's Genesis 10.

Melchizedek, of course, was a very early king of this same area. He was a believer in the true God. And in Joshua's day, again, this is updated. But it seems that the Jews dealt with the Jebusites at least three times before David came along.

Now, this is important if you look at it this way. You are the promised land and you have to get out those things that must be purged. The things of the flesh, the sinful nature. And you fight these things and you beat many of them.

But they're just those that you cannot seem to dislodge. And so we get to see it here in the lives of the people of God in history as what we are experiencing as individuals. I've never met a Christian who had completely purged himself of the flesh. And neither have you. And neither will you.

And neither has anyone else. Christ is the only one that had complete mastery over the carnal nature that we have to deal with. It was not even in him. And his temptation in the wilderness was to demonstrate that he was not just a prophet. He was not somebody else. He was God the Son. Satan never saw anything like it until that time.

And so, looking at this story, we know that in war armies are constantly changing tactics, adjusting them, regrouping, falling back, and attacking again. And we have no reason to doubt that that was not happening in the days of Joshua. Joshua came to the city of Jabez. He overtook it.

He burned it to the ground. Many of the troops got away from him and they came back. So we'll read some of this in Joshua chapter 10. We read that Joshua killed the king of Jabez, of Jerusalem.

But Judges updates the story. Judges 1 verse 8. Now the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it.

They struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. Then Judges verse 21 of chapter 1. But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem. So the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

Because they wouldn't leave. The Benjamites even tried to get him out. Joshua got him out. The Benjamites tried to get him out.

Could not do it. It's not until David comes along, 2 Samuel chapter 5. Now David said on that day, whoever climbs up by the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites, the lame and the blind who are hated by David's soul, he shall be chief of the captain.

I have to pause there. When David came to the city of Jabez to conquer it, they said, You know what, our lame and our blind, they can't defend the city against you, David. You can't get in here.

We're impregnable. And so David throws that zinger in. He says, Oh yeah? So he says to his troops, whoever defeats the Jebusites, you know, the lame ones, the blind ones, the ones they said, whoever goes and takes those guys out. Now David doesn't offer, he doesn't have a daughter to give, but he offers that person to be chief captain.

Therefore, they say, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. Then David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from the milo and inward. So David claimed the city and he developed the area and fortified the area. But my point is that in Joshua's day, judges in the days of Samuel, the Jebusites were still in what would one day be Jerusalem.

David conquers it. It's like that with our flesh. We go these long stretches of period with these things that we just have to fight all the time. Maybe you're just impatient with people. Maybe you've got, you're jealous. Maybe you're just, you know, the kind of person that drops a line on you and turns their back and walks away before you can go ahead and squeeze their nose. You know, they say some little snarky thing like, you know, that's an ugly tie. And they walk away real quick. And you can't, you know, you know, it's a baseball or something.

Ding them. Well, maybe you're the one that does that. Maybe you shoot zingers at people and cheap shots, whatever it is.

I can't use anything that I do because I don't do anything wrong. And so I have to try to help you figure out why you're messed up. That's so goofy. It's not true.

But it's, you know, it makes for funny talking, I guess. This co-existent, this co-existence with the Jebusites and everybody else who they couldn't get out was outside of the commandment. This is important because if we don't get this, then Satan will just trash us. Deuteronomy 20, verse 16 through 18. But the cities of the peoples, which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain. But you shall utterly destroy them, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against Yahweh your God. So you see in that mandate, God says there's no treaties.

You have to take them completely out. But the Jews never did. And we are told by God, you be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. But we just can't get there. But the fight, what if the Jews said, you know, we can't get them out, let's just stop. Well, then they would have been defeated and wiped out.

So they did take steps to constantly try to do this. Saul tried to get the Philistines out. David dealt with them again. And that's what our lives look like within the borders, within the territory that we've been given. Joshua 13, 1, God said to Joshua, there remains very much land to be possessed.

And he says the same thing to each one of us. There's still a lot of carnality to take out of you. And you may say, like what? Well, like patience with others, like the gifts of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Do you love everyone? How about joy?

How's that joy doing? Is it with you all the time? Or do you have to fight for it many times? Peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ, who belong to Him, have crucified the flesh with His passions and desires every single day. It's not a one-time event. Jesus even said it in Luke chapter 9. Then He said to them, if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross every day. Every day there's a dying process.

Paul said, I die daily. It's war. Crucify the flesh means daily and continued confrontation from within. So we put a map up on the screen, and we showed you the allotted territories. You know, here's Reuben and his menasser and Reuben and Gad, and here over here is this tribe. And we put them in different colors. And then we take off the names of the tribes and we put the gifts of the Spirit in their place.

His long-suffering, his love, his joy, peace, kindness. You know how many Christians, I can tell you as a pastor how many Christians fail in kindness. That's like the worst one. How many Christians think that they can be snide, snarky, mean and unkind if their feelings are hurt just a little bit? You didn't like their kid enough in front of them or some dumb thing. I've seen it. I've dealt with it. And there are times people leave the church and say, that was not a kind family.

The kids might have been great, but the parents weren't kind. Or sail the way around sometimes. Either way, it's a fight. It's a war. So you understand that and you don't look down on them.

You do wave, goodbye, but you don't look down on them. I mean, there's relief. I mean, come on. I mean, anybody, if you got something that's bothering you and it's no longer bothering you, that's called relief.

So if you can't find a solution, then sometimes that is the solution for that locality. Anyway, Israel's warriors went to Persia land and they never did. And that's why the verse I'm about to read means so much to us. Because the book of Joshua is a book of war. It is war against those things that are vile.

Baby burning is at the top of the list. Jude chapter 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, that is the Lord, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. How does he do that? How is he going to present me faultless when I die with all my faults? What kind of spiritual bulldozer does he have?

Well, he uses sort of an irrigation hydraulic system, not with water, with blood. The pure blood of the lamb washes it out. This is grace. So when Caleb, when God gives them the land, it's grace.

He could have gave it to somebody else. When Caleb gives his daughter Aqsa to the upper and the lower springs, he only asks for one, he gives them both. That's grace. When God says, I can present you faultless, that is grace. Hopefully, in our fight to purge out personal sin, we also cast in some love for other people who may not be as far along as we'd like them to be in a particular area. And don't be surprised when you come across abrasive Christians that grate on you.

Just give them time and try to avoid them. Let's pray. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. You can learn about this ministry by visiting our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll also be able to listen to more teachings from Pastor Rick as well as subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified every time we post a new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast store. Or just follow the links you'll find at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from God's word with Pastor Rick, right here on Cross Reference Radio.