Iron Chariots (Part B)

When we pray, we have to guard that we don't see God as our servant. We have to remember that He is God and we are His servants. And yet, yet He's open to us this line of communication by which we can go to God and talk to Him and itemize the things we want and we need, our concerns, He hears every word.

And when He doesn't answer, He expects this from us, that we continue in the faith. 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. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Book of Joshua, Chapter 7. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his message called Iron Chariots as he teaches through Joshua, Chapter 17. Before the Egyptians turned on the Jews, the Jews were very plugged in because of Joseph. And Moses, he learned so much in the universities of Egypt. He likely distinguished himself also on the battlefield.

How did Joshua learn his military strategies, be able to fight the Amalekites? Well, there was an Egyptian influence there. Well, this man also likely fought in the interest of Egypt long before the Jews were pulled out.

And the people were very proud of this. And this warlike spirit continued into his prosperity, his descendants, and they are assigned Gilead and Bashan, these large tracts that are to the north, and Gad and Reuben are to the south. Now, the major enemies of the Jews almost always come from the north. I mean, there was Egypt to the south and Ethiopia, which was a long trek for them. But throughout their history, the north was the gate by which the enemies would roll into the promised land. And so God places Manasseh, who has this link to military power, to the north, sort of a buffer.

But both or all three of the tribes that settled to the west of Jordan, they were the first to fall to the Assyrian centuries later. So the Gilead we've mentioned here in verse one, Gilead and Bashan, both on the east side of Jordan and not the promised land itself, that he was a man of war, a man of organized struggle and suffering. That's what war really is. Not a man of battles, but a man of war, long drawn out and awful. Verse two now, he speaks of, for the children of Abiezer, that is the hometown of Gideon. Any of you looking to go to the homecoming of Gideon? Good luck with that.

That flopped. Verse three, but Zelophead, Zelophead, the son of Hephir, the son of Gilead, the son of Makar, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. Verse four now, and they came before Eliezer the priest, before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the ruler, saying, Yahweh commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers. Therefore, according to the commandment of Yahweh, he gave them an inheritance among their father's brothers. Well, this is a civil matter, but it is a civil matter, and in God's kingdom everything's a spiritual matter. And so it's a civil matter, yet Eliezer the priest is there to oversee it because it's no way to separate. If you're in God's kingdom, you really can't separate the two.

It just helps channel who's going to handle it and what are the codes, laws, and ordinances surrounding the matter. And so Eliezer the priest is there, and of course in Joshua, and so the story goes back to the book of Numbers. The inheritance went to the men, and the daughters of Zelophead come along and say, well, my dad doesn't have any sons, so do we miss out?

Does his name sort of just evaporate from the history books? He gets no land? And Moses said, you know, that's a good point, takes it to the Lord. The Lord says, no, those girls get the land. And so here they are now in the Promised Land, because of course in the wilderness was nothing to inherit, and they come and they make their claim. If they did not speak up, they would have gotten nothing. So God makes provision for the daughters.

He takes care of things, the right way. And 10 shares fell to Manasseh, verse 5, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side of Jordan, because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance among his sons, and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead. And so there's just that note. Doesn't mean a lot to us, but as you go through the Bible, we tend to want to know what every single thing means.

What's that space mean between the R and the E? Because the rabbis are known to say that when Messiah comes, he will interpret not only the sentences, but the lines between them. And that's just, of course, a glorious hyperbole.

Or to say it this way, God will just tell us everything we need to know. Verse 8, Manasseh had the land of Tapuah, but Tapuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim. I just don't get to say Tapuah, and I figured I'd say it twice at least.

I think we'll get it again. But verse 9, and the border descended to the brook Canaan, southward to the brook. These cities of Ephraim are among the cities of Manasseh. Now we pause there.

So there we go again. Manasseh's got cities, Ephraim has cities in Manasseh. They're woven together. Continues in verse 9, the border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook, and it ended at the sea. Verse 10, Manasseh's territory was adjoining Asher on the north, and Issachar on the east. Verse 11, and Issachar and Asher, Manasseh had Bethshean and its towns, Abilim and its towns, the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, the inhabitants of Endor and its towns, the inhabitants of Tanakh and its towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and, of course, its towns, three hilly regions. So we got a lot of cities here and towns, I should say, that are worth commenting on in this territory allotted to Manasseh.

Where do we begin? Well, we start with Bethshean. Bethshean, the Jews said, if the Garden of Eden was in Israel, it was in Bethshean. It was such a lush and beautiful place, which means that the Canaanites felt the same way about it. Well, not the Eden part, but that it was a place worth fighting for. And not only that, was it such a prolific land producing, of course, the harvest of fruits and vegetables and whatever other things you could grow on the side that were useful. Trade routes. To this day, you can go to Bethshean and the Gentiles, of course, put a city there.

Psychopolis, I think it is. Anyway, the ruins of the Gentile city is there. You can see how they heated up the water for the baths and the, you know, the streets are there and they had places where you could charge up your iPhone and just thought, well, OK, that's a bit much. But anyway, it's the ruins are there and it's very impressive.

Well, it's impressive for about 10 minutes and then you're kind of bored. So at least I was. So Bethshean, it's a big deal. Iblium also. Now there's a movie, The Kingdom of Heaven, which is about crusaders there. And the landlord or the star of the movie was given Iblium, well, another trade route.

And that's the crusaders would, of course, be very interested in the trade routes as anybody else would be. Endor of the Witcher, Endor was Saul, the fool king, the man with no redeeming feature. Not only was he head and shoulders taller than everyone else, he was head and shoulders dumber than anybody else spiritually. Just again, a character you read. We'll be going to Samuel. I look forward to talking about Saul. I don't like him so much. It's like a chance to gossip legally. It's like, no, it's OK.

It's in the Bible. Go ahead. Rag on him. I don't like him. He's a murderer and nut. Anyhow, I'm sorry. I always do that. Certain things set me off.

Corinth, Saul, Balaam, Cain. There's a few of them. And you should have some, too. What do you just know? I'm just happy. None of these things get me emotional.

Well, they get me emotional when I read about them. Well, Megiddo, of course, the Valley of Megiddo, Armageddon will be fought there. I mentioned Bethsheim. Now, verse 12, and yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land. Well, the flesh is determined to dwell in us. And it just makes – it's one of the types in the Bible that you don't have to work for. It's just handed to you. You say, yep, yep, that's – I can see the type.

It's a perfect match. So the Canaanite presence always sought to keep the promises of God from being fulfilled, just like our carnal nature. We're born with it.

We're saddled with this nature. And the righteous fight it to the death. They – it causes struggle, just as it did here in Israel. It interferes with righteous living. So the lesson of the – again, the Book of Joshua is not purging the land of the Canaanite. It is making sure we don't abandon the fight. That's where the victory is. Otherwise, none of us could come to the communion table.

None of us would be good for anything. It's the perseverance that means very much. And John – and, of course, his third letter is that magnificent verse in 1 John 5, verse 13, where he says, these things I have written to you that you may believe in the name of the Son of God and that you may know that you have eternal life – and here it comes – and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Well, why would he put that there? Was it just because there are these spiritual influences in the Gnostics? That's why he put it there? Well, that's part of it, but that's not all of it.

Paul said, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. So there are other influences than just doctrinal or heretics or heretical teachings. There are other things that weigh on us. You just get fatigued. You just battle fatigue. And we don't have the right.

So when Paul writes to Timothy, he says, you've been a good soldier. Continue to fight. Don't get entangled in the world. It's so easy to become entangled. As citizens in a country where we can be involved in politics through votes and other activities, the caution looms over our heads. Don't be entangled.

Don't get so involved with these things that you lose your first love. That was Ephesus. Ephesus got so into Christian work that they left Christ out.

They were no longer loving him first. He became sort of, well, in prayer. When we pray, we have to guard that we don't see God as our servant. We have to remember that he is God and we are his servants. And yet, yet he's open to us, this line of communication by which we can go to God and talk to him and itemize the things we want and we need, our concerns.

He hears every word. And when he doesn't answer, he expects this from us, that we continue in the faith. Blessed are those who are not offended because of me. By that he is saying, there'll be blessings on you if you can handle how I do or do not do, if you can take it.

And verse 13, and it happened when the children of Israel grew strong that they put the Canaanites to forced labor but did not utterly drive them out. As I mentioned, these types and symbols, sometimes God will double up on one to get that concept over to us. For example, to speak of the priesthood of Christ, we have Melchizedek, who has no beginning.

He's just there as though he has always existed. And then we have Aaron, our own. We get to watch Aaron with his priestly garb. Again, one of my favorite, talk about, you know, the negative characters in the scripture that get my emotion. Well, Aaron, the thought of sort of just walking down the street or the dirt in the wilderness.

And there's Aaron in his priestly garb, bejeweled, the hat, the ephod, the rod, and boom, what an experience that would have been. What do you say you just gather it away? You know, you see me coming, better step aside.

A lot of men didn't, a lot of men, there you go, number nine coal. Anyway, there's another one that's like that. It's John the Baptist, right?

Kind of broad at the shoulders and narrow at the hip, and everybody knew you didn't give any to big John. There you go. All right, let's sing it. That'll, okay. It's not funny. All right, let's go back to this.

So, yeah, the striking characters. Well, I know for a fact as a Christian in the workplace or the community, if you're passionately in love with the Lord and you're working not to be, you know, the Christian that's the kook at the workplace, nobody, oh, here they come. You can either be the Christian kook or you can be the sheriff. You can be the one that, you know, and you drive down 360 and you see the deputy on the side, you check that speedometer after you hit your brakes, and you just because he's, you know, you have that respect. You know, there's a song about speeding past them since I blew by you. I'm going back one day, come what may, to blew by you. All right, anyway. I've been waiting to use that since I left New York, and I kind of fumbled it.

I didn't set it up and it flopped. Well, anyway, in the workplace, you were supposed to be somewhat of a striking figure. People are reminded that there is God, there is a justice, there is an accountability, there is a love that is being offered to them, and this shows up, I think, at least in my experiences in the workplaces, when someone has something to do with a funeral, they go looking for the man of God. If it strikes a chord with them and they want to ask for verses, they want to ask, you know, what happens, and they ask not all, every single one of them, but there are those that do, because you are a striking figure.

And anyway, Melchizedek and Aaron typify the priestly work of Christ. Well, Canaan, the wilderness and Canaan, they typify our experience in this life. The wilderness experience which gives, which gives us nothing.

We get nothing from it. You're lost or saved. If you're in the wilderness, there's really nothing there. Now, there are other types of wilderness experiences, such as David had, but I'm talking about the wilderness of the Exodus Jews. Together, the wilderness and Canaan portray our pilgrimage. Peter called us pilgrims, passing through. Pilgrims have a destination. They're traveling, but they have a destination and it involves worship.

That's the keenest idea of a pilgrimage. And when Israel crossed the Red Sea, it symbolized the death of the old life when they came out of Egypt, you know, the Egyptians in back, the deep blue sea in front, and they crossed that, that Red Sea, Yom Suph, the Sea of Reeds, and it symbolized the old life of slavery in Egypt was now gone behind them. But when Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered into Canaan, it meant the end of the wasted life, the wilderness life. Now there were possessions to lay hold on. There was a meaning, a meaningfulness given to their life.

And that's what Paul said. Your labor is not for nothing, because you'll feel like it is. You'll feel like you do, you know, you got to get to church, you do, you know, when Chris and I were praying, he prayed about, you know, that things wouldn't get old and routine. Routine does not have to become monotonous is the word he used. Routine and monotony are not necessarily the same thing. Monotony is beginning to mess with your head.

Routine is you have to have it, and you can make both of them work if you are aware of these things. If you say, okay, it's not just me, this is how it is, and so I'll, you know, I'll just plow through it. We talked about the force march that Joshua made from Gilgal to Gibeon, and if you've, most of you have not been on a force march. It's to, you know, heavy gear and an endless walk.

And it's one foot in front of the other. And if you don't do that, you will drop. And you don't want to drop. You don't want anybody to see you faint.

You don't want to faint in public or anywhere else. And so, life is very much that way. The Christian life at times, it's a force march.

It's the routine, but it's worth it. You've come out of the wilderness. You've crossed into the promised land. There's fighting there, but there are also possessions there.

In verse 14, then the children of Joseph spoke to Joshua saying, why have you given us only one lot and one share to inherit since we are a great people and as much as Yahweh has blessed us until now? Well, they're really, it is a complaint, but they're not complaining. At least it doesn't come across that way when I read it. They have a need, a want. They don't agree with something, but it's not with a bad attitude.

You know, many times complainers want to make you feel small and they feel big. That's not how this reads. But this is both Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph. Manasseh was the elder, but Ephraim, of course, got the greater blessing. And they considered themselves separate, but yet still one tribe.

One lot here means the combined territories between the two tribes on the west of Jordan and on the east side of Jordan. As I mentioned, Joseph, he received a double portion of his father's inheritance and his sons became the fathers of Jewish tribes, tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, and they received their separate tribal territory. Judah, she received the right to rule. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, according to the prophecies in Genesis 49. And of course, the Messiah would come, the King of Kings would come out of Judah. But here are these two tribes that have this huge inheritance, this double blessing, and they've got a problem with it. The problem is not with the blessing, with Joshua, other tribes had to fight for their territory too. And so what we're getting here is a contrast, not intentionally of Judah and Manasseh and Ephraim and Joshua, they're not intentionally making this contract, but the Holy Spirit is making this contrast, between Caleb. Caleb who says, I'm an old man, but I can take that land.

And he goes up and he takes it, I'll be quoting him in a little bit. And so they come and they're dissatisfied. And the lesson, of course, that we need to get is dissatisfaction with God's arrangements can quickly get out of control, and it's up to us to check it and not let it tail wag the dog.

We can quickly lust for what someone else has, covet, because we're not satisfied with what we have. And again, the fight is on. It would go through these seasons in life. He says, since we are a great people and as much as Yahweh has blessed us until now, in the bottom of verse 14, so they consider themselves distinguished. They admit God had blessed them, that they were large, and they needed a large amount of territory. In verse 15, the story continues, so Joshua answered them, if you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear a place for yourself there in the land of the Pezorites and the giants, since the mountains of Ephraim are too confined for you. So Joshua is magnificent. Oh, you're a great people.

Okay, I'll take that. He turns it on them, but not against them. He's not trying to be facetious and hurt them. He's just saying, you said it, and I'm going to hold you accountable to your own words, because they are right. You spoke the truth. God has blessed you.

You are a great people. So He accepts their observation of themselves. Sometimes you do that with someone and they get very upset with you.

You accept their own observation and you hold them to it and they don't want to hear it after that. You're not supposed to say that. You said you were great.

Then you should expect to prevail because that accompanies greatness. He said there's plenty of unoccupied territory within the limits of your borders. You want more land? I'm telling you, take the land you have. Ephraim was discontent and so was Manasseh with their portion.

Dan could have stand up and said, you know what, I don't, look, we don't have anything. We've got a backyard here compared to, Simeon got even less. Simeon got a circle, an oval within Judah, and eventually that was absorbed by Judah too. So what did it matter to the individual?

Not at all. It didn't matter one bit to each individual. They had their land to work and they could have just been happy with that. Joshua's answer, it reveals his greatness, his compassion, his statesmanship. You know, statesmen properly administered, statesmanship is trying to achieve the best answer without bias, maintaining your interests at the same time as opposed to one-upmanship, always trying to take advantage of the other person. And Joshua, of course, he is, he's a consummate leader in this. He is an Ephraimite, incidentally. And it shows that he understood the weaknesses of the tribes, but he also understood their strengths. He also understood how they might become strong if they just applied themselves. You know, you meet somebody and they have fancy names, I don't know how fancy it is, but underachiever. That means there's potential to do better, but it's not being achieved. And we all have some of that. It takes a lot of energy to keep running at full speed.

You've got to learn how to pace yourself, not save yourself, pace yourself. 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.