Farewell to Israel’s People (Part A)

Now Abraham himself was brought up around this idolatry when he was a little baby, when he grew into his, you know, teen years and became a young adult. He was around this idolatry. He belonged to an idolatrous family at the very time that God came and revealed himself to Abraham. As Paul says, God demonstrates his love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ gave himself for us.

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. Now here's Pastor Rick with a brand new message in Joshua chapter 24 called, Farewell to Israel's People. Joshua 24, a lot of material to cover, so I'll try to not tell anything funny.

Just stay on course so we can get this done. Joshua, an ex-slave, a soldier, a judge, a leader, a prophet, but more important than all of that, a believer. And he served God to the end, which is now before us. We are now considering the last days of Joshua the man. And the dominant thought on his mind in this final speech, this farewell address to the nation, is serving, serving God.

And all that encompasses, all that goes with that, not a fragmented service, but full service by looking at his life. And among all the men in Israel, only Joshua, only his words, could close this part of Israel's history, the conquest of the land. Caleb, as great a man as he was, could not close this book up. It took a man like Joshua.

Not because Joshua is so much greater, but he was fitted for just this thing, anointed by the hands of Moses on him, by the will of God, Aaron the priest there. They're gone, but he is finishing up his life. And he is once again emphasizing to the people the need to heed. And in fact, what he says in its truth is still applicable.

It's still very much appropriate for we Christians to read and absorb as much of his instruction as we can get. But he is telling them to heed God, to not embrace the customs of the surrounding peoples. As we see the church, the apostate church again, is being built up in this world right now, in the end of the end times, the last days, or the last of the last days, which we are in now. The apostate church is being built up by absorbing the customs of the surrounding peoples and abandoning the simple truth of thus says the Lord. And Joshua is concerned that his people are going to do that very thing, and they will.

But they have time to recover and fail and recover and fail. The difference is, of course, for the apostate church, as time is running out, the clock is ticking. In this last chapter, we'll have three funerals. The living commemorating and honoring their dead. There is, of course, the death and funeral of Joshua, of Eliezer the priest, the high priest, and then the bones of Joseph.

They still have them. After all they've been through, out of Egypt, the plagues, the being chased by Pharaoh, the manna in the wilderness, the complaining of the people, all the conquest of the land, the bones of Joshua have been with them the whole time. And now we look at verse one. Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and they presented themselves before God.

Again, these are his last recorded words to the nation. And born a slave, he is going to die the leader of a nation in the promised land, the promised land of God. It wasn't easy for Joshua to get to where he is. How much struggling, how much sorrow piled up into his life, how many times was he cheated? Especially that big cheat where he and Caleb just knew they could take out the enemies of the people of God in this land promised to them. But no, the ten others disagreed, and for that he had to suffer for almost 40 years wandering around. No word, no mention of him ever becoming bitter because of it. So we get to the New Testament and we talk about loving the brethren, and often the brethren will give you every reason to not love them but to pay them back.

And yet you find you don't want to pay them back. You just want to work with what God gives you and keep pressing forward, keep pressing forward. That's what I would encourage any Christian, especially a pastor, and I would never invite a man to be a pastor. I would always try to discourage him because it's really not a calling you want to go into unless God has put you there. Well, if you're going to make it through Christianity effective, I have learned you work with what you have and you press forward. That's what God does. That's what Christ did for us. Shechem here in verse 1, 17 miles just north for Joshua from his new home, which he did not enjoy all that long.

He had some time there, but God had a greater home for him. And we covered the significance of Shechem in Joshua 20, so I'm going to pass over it in this chapter. Now, it also says at the bottom of verse 1, And they presented themselves before God, the leaders and the people here too. We'll get that in verse 2. They present themselves. This was everything. God was in everything they did.

This generation got it right. The subsequent ones will not. Our Congress does not present themselves before God. The bulk of our Congress presents themselves before Satan himself, and they think they don't. Well, just a brief review in chapter 22, his address to the two and a half tribes. Last chapter, chapter 23, the chiefs, the elders, the judges and officers. In this chapter, it is the same, but the people are also joining now.

It's not just a leaders conference. In verse 2 now, And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says Yahweh, God of Israel, Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods. So this is a state of the union address, the union being the tribes.

The tribes are united, even those two and a half on the east side of Jordan. And here he says, Thus says Yahweh, God of Israel. Fifteen times in this book of Joshua does he use that title for his God. It is Yahweh God. It is that covenant, that beautiful name, that descriptive name. Name is nature. It is the savior. It is the one that is like no other. It is the self-created one, the self-existed, existing one.

Without beginning, without end in that sense. He says, dwell on the other side of the river in old times. They dwell Abraham and Nahor and Terah.

That would be the Euphrates River, the Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, close to Babylon, which would become, of course, Chaldea. They serve other gods. He gets right to that, right to them. Just make no mistake, your ancestors were idolaters. They were not believers. It is very important that he says this.

It gives him the opportunity to emphasize the fact that they weren't so special after all. That God called them as a—this is not anti-Semitic. This is just plain fact before God. No people has anything to offer God. It is God that has something to offer the people.

And yes, he did. We'll get to Abraham in a moment. But these ancestors were addicted to idolatry. The same idolatry that the people Joshua is talking to are surrounded by. And that's why he's making this clear.

Make no mistake about it. Your ancestors fell for foreign gods, fake gods. And incidentally, that expression fake gods is not something new to this pulpit or to other men of God. We have been using that forever because that is what man-made gods are.

They're not gods at all. Well, idolatry, indigenous to the soil, in Israel, on earth. It comes with—it's like a blight. It's in the soil. Idolatry is just waiting right there for anyone to scoop it up. It is an invasive, noxious weed. And if it is not rooted out, it continues to invade.

It continues to poison. Now Abraham himself was brought up around this idolatry. When he was a little baby, when he grew into his teen years and became a young adult, he was around this idolatry. He belonged to an idolatrous family at the very time that God came and revealed himself to Abraham. As Paul says, God demonstrates his love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ gave himself for us.

And if you're waiting to get good enough to be saved, you'll never get saved. Verse 3, then I took your father Abraham, God speaking through the prophet, from the other side of the river, led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac, the son of laughter, the son of joy and surprise, that gentle man Isaac, that hard-working gentleman, gentleman by character. And having reminded them of their shameful beginnings, paganism in their life, he now moves on to how they got out of that, which was through Abraham. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river and led him throughout the land of Canaan.

With just one stroke, it seems like it happened, but it wasn't that fast, that simple. But again, no better than the surroundings people, but better off because of God, just like the church, just like Christians are today. Nothing special except in that relationship with God, God chose the Jew and that makes them a special people. God chooses the church and that makes the church special. Abraham, who did not seek God, had God revealed to him. God took Abraham because Abraham yielded and God knew that he would. Jesus said this to his disciples, you did not choose me, but I chose you, John 15, 16. That's how God does it. Believers are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, we're told in Ephesians chapter 1.

We are called the elect in Romans 8 and in Titus 1. God takes the first step in all salvation. No one drifts into salvation.

No one plots that course. It is the work of God. It is why the Holy Spirit has been given to us. You shall become witnesses of me.

Well, a witness tells what they saw and the reason why the witness is telling what they saw is so that the other person can see it too, become a believer. God elects those who receive his son. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to be sons of God.

A very simple thing, not simplistic, but simple. God cannot give a man anything, not even a nickel, not a shoelace tip, against that man's will. He's not going to jam salvation down anybody's throat, but he is going to offer it. Theologians can argue that, but that's the plain speak truth.

When Christ called me, he called me, and I managed to say yes, because I sensed his presence and his truth. And I think that's the truth with all believers. It says here in verse 2 that God led him throughout the land of Canaan. That's where Terah, his father, fell short. Genesis chapter 11 verse 31, and Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the sons of Haran, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran and dwelt there.

They didn't go far enough. They stayed around the pagans. Well, there were pagans in Canaan too, but God had a plan there on that footprint of earth. God had a plan. Abraham's obedience was immediate, and we read about it in Genesis 12. God calls him out from his family to the land of Canaan and made promises to Abraham, and Abraham acted on those promises. It says here, and gave him Isaac. No mention of Israel, Abraham's first son, because Isaac is the son of promise.

Through him, Messiah's line would be developed. And where it says, gave him Isaac, we think of, of course, that God gave us Jesus, his son. And when I think that God, his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in.

Gone across my burden bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee, how great thou art. I don't know if there's a better song in existence. There may be as good songs, but there's none better than how great thou art. Not in the form I sing it.

No, I didn't say the way I sing it, but the lyrics I use. All love has its source in God. Love flows down.

That's the ideal. It flows downward. It is supposed to flow from the parents to the children. And then from the children to their children. And then from their children to their children.

Because we get it from God. Verse 4, to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave the mountains of Sierra to possess. But Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

Well, that's a twist. Why not send Esau and his children down to Egypt to be slaves? Because they weren't into God. God, of course, used the Jews to save Egypt.

To fill his plan. When we get to Malachi in the first chapter, we hear the prophet say, Jacob, I have loved Esau, I have hated. But he's not talking about the individual men.

Not themselves. Because right here it tells us that God did not hate Esau because he blessed him. He gave him Sierra and he told the Jews, that's not for you. That's Esau.

His descendants get that. He never would have blessed and protected Esau had he hated him. When Malachi speaks of this hatred is the spirit that Esau exhibited. When given a choice between the spiritual and the natural, Esau chose the natural. And God says, I'm not about that. You know, it was for the food. I'd rather have a meal than a blessing.

Very practical, just not very spiritual. And God says, I uphold. I uphold my position. And I want you to know that I have not forgotten that Esau made the wrong choice and I don't want you to make it. But at the time of Malachi, the Jews were totally living like Esau in Jacob's name. And God to correct that said, you got it wrong.

You can have all the name you want, but you got the wrong spirit. That's why those who worship God are to worship him in spirit and in truth. Paul talked about those whose God was their belly. Verse 5 now, also I sent Moses and Aaron and plagued Egypt according to what I did among them.

Afterward, I brought you out. God not willing to send a man who's not willing to go, but he may influence that man. Two men that come to mind right away who did not want to go, Moses, Moses flat out said to God, get someone else.

Right just like that. And the other was Jonah. Jonah said, you do what you want to do.

I'm going to do what I want to do. You be God, I'll be Jonah. And God influenced Jonah to make the right decision. And Jonah was so struck by it.

In fact, he had such a difficult time. I mean, God miraculously influenced Jonah and he still goes with a grudge on him and then he waits for God to kill. He has so much hatred and racism in him, he waited for God to slaughter everyone. And God tried reasoning with Jonah and he wouldn't have it. God put more pressure on Jonah, let him feel it. And finally, Jonah writes the story so that we get it. He wrote the whole story down. Let me tell you what a fool I was in my flesh in the name of my religion. Profound story, the story of Jonah. He says God does here in verse 5, I plagued Egypt. God made it clear, I did the judging.

That was me, you don't like it, I did it. Do something about it. The humanist, the blind humanist would cry out cruelty and bypass that Pharaoh was saying kill all the newborn boys. Just like they do today. The humanist is so sensitive as they donate to murder clinics for the unborn. Get out of my face with your mock sensitivity that you're more merciful than God. Anyway, they ignore the cruelty of stubborn Pharaoh and just rail against God because it makes them feel good. Verse 6, but we're to help important before we get to verse 6. We're supposed to help them with that by pointing things out if God would give us the chance.

But some people are just irretrievable as far as we're concerned until God says otherwise. Verse 6, then I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came to the sea and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. So he says I brought you out of Egypt, don't forget. I saved you as a people, as individuals. It's a serious thing when we take our salvation for granted.

Take it lightly. Verse 7, so they cried out to Yahweh and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, covered them. And your eyes saw it, saw what I did in Egypt, and then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. So God says you, this generation, did see it. The leaders for sure, the elders for sure, some of the young ones of course did not, but many of them saw this.

Joshua was there, he saw it. Satan tries to get us to not believe what we believe. And you young Christians, he is coming your way. And when he knocks on your door, the simple response is, Lord, could you get that for me? Because he's going to tell you when your tank is full that your tank is empty.

And you should panic. And when your tank is empty, he's going to say it's full and don't worry about it. Whatever the truth is, he's going to spin it against you. And if you are gullible enough, foolish enough, lazy enough, he will have you.

You will be junior flambe for Satan. So God will say to you, what did I tell you? That's what Joshua was saying. He said they cried out to the Lord. There were the Egyptians coming behind them and God put darkness so they couldn't see you, and he put light so you could see where you were going. He delivered you from this.

Don't take it for granted. Do you remember you saw it? Okay, if you do remember it, then going forward, understand that God is with you and you're going to have to exercise faith in times of terror, especially. You can object all you want.

It will not change the reality surrounding us. So Joshua writes, God's words to them, your eyes saw it. I love that. I love when God gets personal with me in a very, I don't mean when he's chasing me, which I try to reduce. It's nice when the Lord encourages. He says, then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time, until that old unbelieving generation died off, because they saw what God did and did not value it. Oh, they believed it, that they saw the sea roll back, but they did not go any further with their belief and associate that with God and his person and his promises. Jude writes about it in the fifth chapter.

Sorry, fifth verse. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. He said, I don't want you to lose sight of these Bible lessons from the Old Testament, because they have everything to do with the New Testament, which is your life now. God destroyed them, because they mocked him. They turned against him.

They devalued his work. In verse 8 now, And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand, that you might possess their land, and I destroyed them from before you. These are victories on the east side of Jordan, believers' victories with God. Instead of God just wiping out the enemy, the Jews had to cross swords. They had to face the enemy as much as they did not want to. In my life, I know whenever I'm enjoying a season of peace, it is a season of peace. And no more. There's a season of trouble coming.

So I get my garments ready to face it. 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.