God's promises are within your reach, but they may not be in your hand. Dr. Tony Evans says God provides, but it's up to us to accept. God does what he does from heaven. You grab it on earth.
This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.
Sometimes God's commands in the Old Testament can seem harsh to us, but Dr. Evans explains that even his judgments carried a purpose rooted in grace and protection. Today, we'll discover how leaving just a little bit of sin unchecked can grow into a much bigger problem, and why experiencing God's promises requires not only faith, but also decisive action on our part. Let's join Dr. Evans in the book of Joshua for today's lesson on avoiding the dangers of settling for less than what God has offered.
40 years ago. Chapter 14 tells us He says in verse 7, I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadish Barnia to spy out the land.
So he goes all the way back 40 years. And remembers when he was part of that group of 12 that went into the promised land to spy it out for Israel to go into the land God promised. You remember that 10 of the spies said that the land is exactly what God said it was. But the enemy there is too big, too great, too strong. We can't take it.
He says in verse 8, nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt. with fear.
Now notice this phrase. But I follow the Lord my God fully. Notice at the end of verse 9. You have followed the Lord my God fully. Notice the end of verse 14.
because he followed the Lord God of Israel. Foolie. 12 spies, 10 said we can't do it. Joshua and Caleb. Said, no, God said we can do this, so let's take God at his word.
The other people made the hearts of the people melt. with fear.
They created a panic. Because Those leaders did not believe God. You always want to follow people who believe God. You do not want to follow people. who make the problem bigger than God.
Now you don't ignore the problem. There were enemies there and they were huge. But he says, I wholly followed the Lord. I did not. succumb to the popular opinion of man.
One reason we do not see all that God wants us to see and experience is our fear of man. The prominence. The power The wealth. It causes us to back away from what God says, making man bigger than God. And so they trumped God by outvoting the will of God, causing the people to want to go back to Egypt.
But Caleb, along with Joshua, but Caleb stood his ground.
Now here's what grabs my attention. Verse 10, now behold, the Lord has let me live. just as he spoke these forty five years. I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me. As my strength was then, so my strength is now.
For war, and for going out and coming in.
Now then give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day. For you heard on that day the Anakim were there with great fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will be with me and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.
So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb.
Now, here's what I want you. to catch. All these other people. The ten and the rest of Israel died in the wilderness. They died in the wilderness, never seeing the promised land because of their lack of faith.
Caleb wholly followed the Lord because of. his commitment. to the Lord and to trusting him.
So what I want to point out is God preserved Caleb. For his promise Yeah. He not only preserved his life, he preserved his capacity to experience the life. That he had promised. Numbers of things may create delays.
in what you are trusting God for. In this case, the delay had nothing to do with Caleb. It had to do with the 10 spies and the people. Their unbelief created the delay for Caleb.
So, even when things are not going in a timely fashion. That you are trusting God and looking for God for, especially if you see that it is a promise of God to you for you. You hang in there and fully follow the Lord. Even when there are delays and delays that may not even be your fault. You keep going because God knows where you are, and He knows what He plans to do with your life.
Now in chapter 15. We have the territories of Judah being discussed. And of course, a lot of these chapters now are the division of the land. I'll just point out Caleb's daughter. In verses uh 18.
It came about that when she came to him, she persuaded him to ask her father for a field.
So she alighted him from the donkey and Caleb said to her, what do you want? She said, give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Nagab, Give me also springs of water.
So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their families. A big deal in the Bible is family inheritance. and passing down generationally. The favor of God.
One of the jobs of parents, in this case, Caleb and his daughter, but you'll find it all through God's economy, how God operates. was that the family would be the foundation of society. And the family would be the basis of passing down. Not only the physical, but the spiritual heritage that is to be picked up. and the favor that's benefited the children.
So, the reason that Satan is so passionate about destroying and redefining the family. Is that he wants to stop the favor of God from passing on generationally?
So the question every parent has to ask is, What am I passing down? Because the purpose of family, going all the way back to Genesis, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And then he says in Genesis chapter one. When he gave them that command, he says, and the Lord blessed them.
So he created family to be the blessing passed down.
So all this disruption that we're having in families today. It's not just, it's, yeah, it involves personalities, it involves habits, it involves a whole lot of stuff, but all of those are merely means to interfere with. the passing down of divine favor. And the Bible, gentlemen. It is the father's, not the mother's responsibility to raise the children.
In the Bible, talking about in the culture, in the Bible, it was the father, Ephesians 6: Fathers raise your children. It was the father. What do you say? But what's the mother supposed to do? One word: help.
Helpmate. She's supposed to help.
So she's supposed to fill in the gaps when you can't be there, and we can't. She's supposed to fill in the gaps. but it's your responsibility genesis 18 verse 19 I charged him to raise his children. in righteousness and justice. It was the father's responsibility to raise the children.
The wife was his helpmate.
So she filled in the gaps and she helped. But the responsibility belonged to the man.
So we should not be surprised that the enemy wants to get rid of men. because he's getting rid of the one responsible for passing on the blessing. And so your happiness, men, is not God's first concern. Your passing on the blessing is his first concern.
So you've got to change your framework.
So she went to her father. for blessing. Because as you can see, the rest of the chapter is just a delineation of the The the land. In chapter 16. They are divvying out the territory to Ephraim.
And then we have a verse at the end of this short chapter, verse 10. They're getting the promised land. The promised land is being divvied up. To the various tribes, the 12 tribes of Israel. This is Ephraim.
He says, but they did not drive out the Canaanites. who lived in Gazaire.
So the Canaanites lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day. and they became forced laborers.
Now, what I want you to do is turn to... Deuteronomy chapter 20. Verse 13. When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, about the promised land, you shall strike all the men in it with the edge of the sword. Only the women and the children and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoils, you shall take.
As a booty for yourself. and you shall use the spoil for your enemies. which the Lord your God has given you. Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby. Yeah.
Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. You shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, the Jebusite, as the Lord your God commanded you.
so that they may not teach you to do. according to all their detestable deeds. which they have done for their gods.
so that you would sin against the Lord your God. Dr. Evans will come back in just a moment to help us understand the tough realities of the Old Testament and how God's justice reveals His holy nature. First, though, I want to remind you about a great resource we're offering right now, the Kingdom Family Devotional, a book written by Dr. Evans and his son, pastor and author Jonathan Evans.
It's a 52-week journey through essential topics of the Christian faith, with daily devotionals simple enough for kids, yet deep enough to challenge the whole family to grow spiritually and closer together. We'd like to send you a copy of this devotional as our thank you gift when you make a donation to help support the ministry of the alternative. And on top of that, we'll also send you all nine of the messages from Tony's current teaching series on the book of Joshua, which include powerful lessons about trusting God's strategies to overcome life's obstacles. In addition to the digital downloads, you can also receive these messages on CD or USB flash drive, including material we haven't had time to present on the broadcast. Don't wait to take advantage of this special double offer.
Visit us today at tonyevans. org or call one eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two and let one of our friendly resource team members assist you any time of the day or night. That's one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two.
Well right now, let's get back to today's teaching with Dr. Evans. Many times when you see the Old Testament, you are seeing. Yeah. Stuff that's hard to swallow.
And that's God wiping out everybody. And from our eye, that is a very natural reaction. In the Old Testament, you have the active wrath of God. In the New Testament, you have the passive wrath of God. Let me start with the new.
The New Testament, Romans 1.18, says that the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness. And then three times in the rest of the chapter, he says, for God turned them over, God turned them over, God turned them over. I call that the passive wrath of God, where God doesn't do something directly, but where God instead allows you to have the consequence of your choice.
So if you don't choose him and you choose against him, the consequences of that decision that are just built in. The reason why there was a shift. from what you read in the Old Testament, like this destroying everybody. And the New Testament, where you have the passive wrath and not fire coming down from heaven like you saw in Sodom and Gomorrah and all of that. is because the death of Christ changed how God could relate to the world.
With the death of Christ, God reconciled the world to himself.
So now God could relate to the world apart from his active wrath.
so that men now bear the consequences of their choices, but not because fire and brimstone is falling from heaven. But in the Old Testament, Prior to the death of Jesus Christ in history, you have God's direct activity with regard to dealing with sin.
So then, he gives the reason why he said destroy everything. And he tells them that the reason that I want you to destroy everything in Deuteronomy. Is so that you won't pick up their ways. He calls them the detestable ways.
Now some of the detestable ways, I'll give you some of the hideous detestable ways, was like child sacrifice. This is some evil stuff these people were doing. And so God would judge everybody.
Now, let me tell you the grace of God in the judgment of everybody. While it's still a horrific scene, God would allow everybody to be judged because in that way, Yes. he could save a lot of people because You are held accountable to the light you had.
So, just like if a baby is born now, that baby goes to heaven because. Original sin was covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
So that baby goes to heaven.
So in even in. God wiping out whole civilizations, it guaranteed the eternal destiny of children. where if those children would have grown up in that society. and partaking of the idolatry of their parents, they would have been on the condemnation.
So instead of them being under condemnation, As terrible as it was. It provided salvation. for those who are below whatever that age of accountability was.
So there was grace even in the wrath against their detestable deeds. But the other greater concern was that they would not Pick up the detestable deeds. Of the Canaanites.
Now, the reason I'm bringing that up now. is because it says in verse 10 of Joshua chapter 16. They did not drive out the Canaanites.
Now, why does he want you to know that? because the Canaanites are going to become an ongoing problem. because he didn't want the Canaanites idolatry and the idolatrous practice to rub off on his people. When you go to the book of Judges, What you see is the Canaanites rearing their heads, bringing Israel into slavery, doing all kinds of stuff over and over and over again in the book of Judges because. A little sin tolerated long enough will grow.
Right, right, right. Like a little cancer. tolerated long enough. will infestate the whole the whole body so in letting these guys hang around for whatever reason. it was going to become an albatross around their neck.
And that's the thing about God. He sees the future. We don't.
So even though what he's talking about in the present may not make sense. Because he sees what you don't see and can't see. That's why he can be trusted because of his perfect omniscience, his perfect knowledge. Chapter 18. Then the whole congregation, verse 1, of the sons of Israel assembled themselves at Shiloh.
and set up the tent of meeting there, and the land was subdued before them. And now Joshua must orient them to a new kind of life. He sets up the tent of meeting where they would meet the God in Shiloh, and in verse 3.
So Joshua said to the sons of Israel, How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given to you? Here's what I want you to know. God gave it. You take it. Please catch that.
God gave it, you take it. God's promises are in your reach. but they may not be in your hand. In other words, You may not be experiencing it yet. because you haven't taken it yet.
Remember what he told Joshua in Joshua chapter 1? Every place on which you put your feet. He had to go get what God gave. Every now and then, God drops stuff in your lap, but that's the exception, not the rule. Most of the time, You have to lay hold on it.
Paul even told Timothy to lay hold of eternal life.
Now, Timothy was already saved. He wasn't telling him to get saved. He was saying, Grabbed This relationship with God. Go get it. Go get it.
This attitude of Receiving what God has for you. must transcend your desire. You may desire to work out. You may want to stop eating fried food. Desire Is good.
But it is insufficient unless it initiates action. You probably know people in your life who've been desiring stuff. For fifty years. and hasn't done a thing to go get it. our action that's consistent.
with God's will and God's word activates God's power. God promised this land to Abraham and his descendants. It was divvied up. God told his people, When you've disobeyed me and you walk away from me. I'm going to scatter you.
And so they became scattered in 70 AD out of the land. After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which was the ultimate rejection of God. They became scattered. Of course. The Jewish population was now operating all over the earth.
Until May 1948. In May 1948, something Just astronomical occurred. And that is, Israel became a nation again. Having all these years retained the same language. That's never happened before in history.
where a people who were not a people became a people, became a nation, and never lost their language. And so the Jewish state was reborn. May 1948. known as now the nation of Israel. And of course they are still laying claim to this land.
So all of this goes back. to the promise made to Abraham that's now being divvied out by Joshua. in the promised land over this land. Betty promised them.
Now? God is going to fulfill his promise. Upon the return of Jesus Christ, And establish Israel as the worldwide, as the capital of the world. Israel will become the capital of the world. God ultimately fulfilling his promise, and Jerusalem will become the capital of Israel, which will be the capital of the world.
Out of which he will rule as the descendant of David who has legal rights to the throne. But I just wanted to say this. While you may read this and it's not, you know, this tribe got this and this tribe got that. This was all tied to something much bigger. and that was God keeping his promise.
of granting them the land. And then we'll close with chapter 20. The cities of refuge. Then the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, designate the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you. through Moses.
That the manslayer who kills any person unintentionally without premeditation.
So that's where you get premeditated murder and manslaughter.
So these cities of refuge were set up. Within a day's journey, for you to go to for refuge until your case could be adjudicated.
So he says, and shall flee to one of these cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city. and state his case in the hearing of the elders of that city.
Okay, when you see the gates of the city in the Old Testament, that's like you and me saying city hall. The gates of the city was where the elders met to adjudicate legal cases. And they shall take him into the city into them and give him a place so that he may dwell among them.
Now, if the avenger of blood pursues him, a person who lost their loved one or relative and they coming after him. They shall not deliver the manslayer into his hand. because he struck his neighbor without premeditation and did not hate him beforehand.
So as you can see the structure and I we didn't get into all the laws The 10 commandments, everybody knows about the 10 commandments, even if they don't know them. But they're 613 statutes and ordinances, so the 10 commandments. And 613 statutes and ordinances. The statutes and ordinances were the applications of the Ten Commandments.
So God ran a whole government. offer six hundred and thirteen laws. The whole government.
Now, granted, it was an agrarian society, it was not an urban society like we have today.
So there are differences, but the point is... that he believed his principles were sufficient enough to run a society. Dr. Tony Evans, pointing us to timeless principles from God's Word, truths powerful enough to shape not only our lives, but entire communities.
Now, before I tell you what's in store for us next time, I wanted to remind you that today's lesson is part of Tony's teaching series from the Book of Joshua, a powerful collection that'll help you discover how to follow God's lead for your life, even when the odds seem impossible. As I mentioned earlier, if you make a donation in support of this ministry, we'll say thanks by sending you all nine messages in the Joshua audio series, along with a copy of the Kingdom Family Devotional, a resource designed to help your whole family grow spiritually and draw closer together through practical, engaging daily insights. Don't wait, this special double offer will only be available for a limited time. Make your request today at tonyevans.org or let one of our friendly team members assist you when you call our resource request line at 1-800-800-3222. Again, that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.
We've all heard that actions speak louder than words, and that's certainly true when it comes to loyalty. On Monday, Dr. Evans explains how loyalty to God isn't just a declaration, it's a lifestyle. I hope you'll join us for that.
