Joshua

Meditating on Mt. Zion (Troy)

Grace Sensing on July 14, 2024

SERMON TEXT

Joshua 1:8

INTRODUCTION

What are the spiritual disciplines in this great religion of ours? Prayer is usually the first to come to mind. To watch God work through the vehicle of answered prayer is one of the great experiences of a believer. We should cling to it like a butterfly to a flower in the wind. Martin Luther said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” E.M. Bounds said, “Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.” Which is why the consistent charge here at Christ Church Troy has been to be spiritually disciplined about prayer. What about Bible reading? Like the Jews who gathered their manna from off the ground, we turn to the pages of scripture to have our portion for the day. And what the Lord has for us will vary: sometimes conviction, sometimes a proverb. There is chastisement and warnings. There is comfort and blessing. There is cloak and dagger, characters who prefer the shadows. And there is Jesus who teaches the inverse, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men.” John Wesley said this about daily Bible reading, “I want to know one thing—the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from heaven. He has written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God!”

A BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF MEDITATION

I would like to provide a working definition of biblical meditation. Biblical meditation is a deliberate act of contemplation where a focus is maintained on an object for a period of time. Consequently, the caliber of the meditation is determined by the virtue of the object. There is a prayer that the Psalmist makes in Psalm 19 and Psalm 104. He says, “Let the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. May my meditation be pleasing to Him.” The verse contains an implicit assertion, that what you meditate on, may not please God. When Johannes Kepler, a German scientist in the 17th century, was asked how he was able to make such incredible discoveries about planetary motion he said, “I was merely thinking God’s thoughts after him.” And that is exactly what this meditation business is all about, syncing up our minds with God’s. Now in the definition I provided, I mentioned that meditation requires an object. We’re going to see that the scope of this singular object can be broad and the time period can be of varying lengths, but the Bible does tell us what it is we should focus on when we meditate.

THE OBJECT OF OUR MEDITATION

Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Notice these four things in the verse. First, anything you say should be guided by the Bible, influenced by the Bible, filtered through the Bible, or a quotation of the Bible. Second, anything you think should be directed by the Bible, supported by the Bible, and controlled by the Bible. Third, the reason why you speak biblically and think biblically is so that you will do things that are biblical. Do you remember Luke 11? Jesus walks by and a woman in the crowd shouts to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” And His reply was, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” What good is your theological knowledge if you don’t do anything with it? James says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Paul says, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.“ And lastly, if you speak, think, and act biblically then you will have prosperity and success.

A TIME AND A PLACE

Third, let us comment on meditation regarding time and place. When it comes to time, there is no time limit restricting mediation. Psalm 1:2 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 119, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” But interestingly, there does appear to be a special connection between night time and meditation. Listen to these verses, “My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may mediate on your promise.” “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” “When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night, you have been my help.”

CONCLUSION – THE METHODOLOGY OF MEDITATION AND THE BATTLE FOR OUR MINDS

I will grant to you that perhaps no other generation in history has had to contend with more distractions than we have. Isaac did not have to deal with an algorithm that is designed from the ground up to keep you scrolling. Whether it’s social media or video games, we’ve got a problem. Jamie Griesemer, a lead game designer for Bungie asked this question, “What makes a video game addictive and can you deliberately design that? The secret of great game design is creating a repeatable gameplay loop to hook players. This loop needs to be the central activity the players engage in and it also needs to be flexible enough that it can be applied across the entire length of the game.” And so software development firms are now hiring PhD psychologists to help them perfect the timing. Achievements, treasure chests, and in-game loot are all carefully delivered to the player at the right time in the right amounts to maximize the game’s addictive property. And it’s working. In 2005, a 28-year-old man from Beijing died after playing the game World of Warcraft for several days straight. In 2015, a 24-year-old man from Shanghai played for 19 hours straight, he collapsed in an internet cafe and could not be resuscitated. In 2014, a 38-year-old man committed suicide after struggling with his addiction. This world wants to enslave your mind. Instead of carefully curating and selecting what we consume, we let the algorithm tell us what to focus on. And the future will continue to supply more and more amusements to vie for our attention. Because of this, our need for meditation has never been greater.

The Secret Sins Belong to Man (Troy)

Grace Sensing on February 11, 2024

THE TEXT:

Joshua 7

Faith and Practice: Dealing with Besetting Sin

Ben Zornes on April 30, 2017

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Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

1) CLEANING HOUSE
Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Joshua 7:12

What was the sin? Achan had stolen and deceived. What was the outcome? God was no longer supporting the armies of Israel. If we cling to any known sin, God hand is going to be against us not for us. Well, as it says in Hebrews 12:5, even God being “against” us is a blessing as His discipline is intended to remind us that we are His children and He is not willing to allow you to have your own way to your destruction.

What are some ways to keep your house clean?

2) RENEWABLE ENERGY
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2

So, connecting to the renewable energy is centered on believing what God has said and revealed about Himself. The Scriptures are there not to fill our heads simply with more “to do’s” but to better understand the goodness of God in the to do’s. In this way we begin to love the commands because they are part of the Father. Our minds are connected to the inexhaustible source of power that is available every moment of every day when we are accessing it through faith.

How is repentance connected with renewing our minds?

3) PUTTING ROCKS IN RUTS
As we renew our minds on the truth of God’s character, we can do this practically by verbalizing our thanksgiving to God in prayer, praise and proclamation. In each instance, it is equivalent to CASTING STONES INTO OUR RUTS (of faithless behavior).

What are three ways of giving thanks?

Surveying the Text: Joshua

Douglas Wilson on November 16, 2014

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Introduction

The book of Joshua is a book filled with strenuous warfare, and yet the Bible clearly teaches us that it is a book that points toward rest. How is this possible? How does this work?

The Text

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:30–31).

Summary of the Text

The book of Joshua can be divided into four major sections. The first has to do with crossing (Josh. 1-5). The second has to do with conquest (Josh. 6-12). The third section deals with how theyallocated the land that they had conquered (Josh. 13-21). The last concerns their duties of learning how to worship God as a united people in accordance with His covenant (Josh. 22-24). Let’s consider each of these in turn.

Crossing

The verb root for “cross” occurs thirty-one times in this section of Joshua (Josh. 1-5). The officers of the people cross through the camp (e.g. Josh. 1:11), or priests with the ark of the covenant crossin front of the people (Josh. 3:6), or soldiers even cross in front of YHWH (Josh. 4:13). But the great dramatic crossing, the centerpiece of all this, is obviously the crossing of the Jordan River. That miracle involved was a reenacted echo of the Red Sea crossing, and just as Rahab described their terror when they heard about the Red Sea (Josh. 2:9-10), so the inhabitants now saw the same thing happen again, right under their noses.

This was followed by the marvelous story of how God fought for them at the battle of Jericho, and how the walls fell down in a giant display of God’s sovereignty—to the deliverance of one Canaanite family, and the ensnarement of one family in Israel. Disaster for Jericho was salvation for Rahab and her family. Disaster for Jericho was disaster for Achan and his family.

Conquest

One of the words that is foolishly thrown around in discussions of the Israelite invasion of Canaan is the word genocide. This is intended to lump Israel’s behavior in with the specter of “final solutions,” where particular ethnicities are eradicated simply because of their ethnicity. But God’s judgments are always moral and ethical, not ethnic. This was a divinely-ordered, animated earthquake, a hurricane of soldiers, and it was for sin—not for racial or ethnic reasons. God had told Abraham that he could not yet possess the promised land because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full (Gen. 15:16). If God waited centuries so that His judgment of Canaan would be just, who are we to challenge Him and charge Him with injustice?

And on top of that, the family of a Canaanite harlot came out and was joined to Israel, with Rahab marrying a prince of Israel. How could the issues here be racial or ethnic then? And another family in Israel, the family of another prince was removed from Israel. The issue is faith and obedience, always. Achan was descended from Zarah (Josh. 7:1), the first born twin son of Tamar, the one who had a scarlet thread tied to his wrist at birth. And Salmon was descended from Pharez (Ruth 4:18-21), the one who pushed out ahead of his brother, and Salmon was the prince in Israel who married . . . Rahab, an ancestress of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:5). Rahab had faith, and so she was grafted in. Achan was faithless, and so he was cut out. As Paul later says in Romans 11, do not be haughty but fear. You do not support the root—the root supports you. Again, the issue is faith and obedience, not ethnicity.

Allocation

Once they had conquered the land, the task of dividing it up was obviously necessary. This was decided by lot (Num. 26:55-56; 33:54; 34:13), which is obviously a fair way to decide something like this. This also provides us with a type for understanding ministry in the new covenant. The elders in the church are told not to lord it over the flock of God, not to be lords over God’s heritage (1 Pet. 5:3). The word for heritage is allotment. This means that the world is now to be understood as Canaan—the conquest of the promised land serving as a type of our evangelistic endeavors. Their warfare was the type, our evangelism is the antitype.

Another important “allotment” occurs in the book of Joshua, as we have just discussed. Rahab the harlot was justified by faith, our text from Hebrews says, and James adds that her works were involved as justifying her faith as true faith. Please note that the actual work that accomplished this great thing was telling the pursuers of the Israelite spies that they had gone a different way than they actually did (Jas. 2:25).

Worship

Sacrifices were to be offered in the promised land only. The initial place settled on for that was Shiloh. When Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar on the wrong side of the Jordan, it was almost cause for civil war. Joshua gives his farewell speech, telling the people to remain faithful. And there Joshua made a solemn covenant with the people, that they should serve the Lord their God, and never forsake Him (Josh. 24:26-27).

We can easily lament the fickleness of God’s people in the Old Testament because they do things like this, and then we turn the page, and there they are, worshiping idols, having forgotten all that God did for them. But from the death of Joshua to the rise of Gideon we

have over two hundred years—just under the age of our nation. How easy has it been for us to forget our founding? Howdifficult is it for us to remember? And this is with our possession of libraries, and technology, and carefully kept records.

Joshua and Jesus

The name Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek name Jesus. “For if Jesus [speaking of Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day” (Heb. 4:8). Joshua was a faithful servant of God, but he could not give the people rest, even though he gave them the land. Why could he not provide them with rest?

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb. 4:1–3).

We can only enter into rest by faith, and we can only have faith in the work that was accomplished by the greater Joshua, our Lord Jesus. We can only have faith in that work in this sense after it has been accomplished. When we enter into rest by faith, we are entering into Him.

Caleb’s Inheritance (Christ Church)