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Got the notion in one's head that, um, ah, that could be the thought flow, these could be the, the major climaxes on the way, and this, of course, is the half of the book. Now let's look how they, um, are related one to another. You'll see. We've already done one thing in the great, if we, if we're right in thinking, here are the objective, here is objective two, Objective number two, and this is objective number three. Three mighty great objectives that Moses commanded and Joshua carried out.
Now let's look at the some other of the features. In each of these sections, there is one major obstacle. Perhaps more, but there's certainly one major obstacle. In each of these sections, there is a major miracle. The object- the obstacle, of course, eh, i- in in this thing here, um, obstacle is Jordan.
Yeah, Jordan in Thad, moreover. And of course, the miracle. The waters of Jordan dividing. One great miracle. Now this is interesting because, you see, Israel had to do a lot of the fighting. When we come around to talk about that, there's there will be very big moral questions involved in it. Why God made them do the fighting. Could have left them down in Cadis Barnea at a three-star hotel and said, no, stay here, this is a beautiful oasis down here, gentlemen.
Uh, you stay here for a while. I've got a job of work to do, clearing out Canaan and disinfecting the place ready for your coming in. The hotel rooms are not, not, not ready yet. You see, the Canaanites have not got out. I must go and get them out, and you stay here, and when I got the whole place emptied and disinfected, I'll come for you and bring you in. That would be nice, wouldn't it? God didn't do it that way. He made the Israelites fight. There's a very big problem, uh, uh, and interesting matters attached to that, isn't there? The whole question of God's judgment on the Canaanites, big moral question, yeah? Do you see? Uh, but now, there were certain things where God intervened himself and Israel didn't have to do.
Doubtless when they fought, he gave strength to their elbows, you see, and encouraged them, but they had to do the fighting. But in each case, there were certain things that God did a miracle that Israel didn't have to do anything about at all. The splitting of the waters of Jordan was the first big miracle, dealing with the obstacle. Yes? What that is going to talk to us about, well, who knows? Eh, you see, obstacle, walls of Jericho, and the miracle.
Walls came down. That wasn't through Israel's fighting. This was something God did, without which Israel would never have conquered Jericho, of course. Obstacle. If I put here the kings, you'll know what I mean, won't you? Miracle. Sterns from heaven. Sun and moon.
And that gentleman sets us an exercise in what I call differential diagnosis. I, I stole the term from the medics, you see. Us lesser mortals are allowed to do that on times. Uh, do you see? When you have a series of things that have something in common, so they're similar, yeah? Obstacle, obstacle, obstacle, miracle, miracle, miracle. So they're things in common, obstacles and miracles. But then, if you're going to preach them, it's not the similarity that in the end is going to be the major thing. It's important to notice that there's a series of similar things.
It's going to be the differences between them that are all important. You see, I use the illustration of if a, a doctor is presented with three men that come to seek his help, and they've got sore throats, and he looks at the one, uh, and he says, trouble of you have been at the football match and shouted your head off, you see. The cure for you is to go home, shut up for a couple of days. And he looks at the other one and said, oh, ah, you've got, um, sore throat, yes, but that's laryngitis. You must have some antibiotics. They're both sore throats, the treatment's different, cause is different. Looks at the third one and says, oh, I shall have to take a biopsy. Which is the man has got cancer, and antibiotics wouldn't be any good for that.
So the three sore throats, if you're going to treat them, you must now understand the differences, the differential diagnosis, and therefore the treatment's going to be different. Three obstacles, wherein do they differ? And, uh, three miracles. Well, are they just the question, uh, just the bare fact that there was a miracle? Doesn't matter what, God did the miracle. What are the miracles, um, pertain to the context? You can see, uh, here a difference at once.
The obstacle here was the River Jordan. And from our basic lowly position we've been traveling tonight of the military, uh, thing, do you see? Uh, the Jordan was a obstacle put there by nature, wasn't put there by the Canaanites. This is a thing that that normally the sappers would have to deal with, if God hadn't done a miracle. Yeah? An obstacle put there by nature, Jordan in flood. And the danger would be if you try to take an army of some thousands across the Jordan, as you know, the Jordan Valley, and it has this scrub about this height up to your waist, a tangle of shrub, the pride of Jordan, as it would called.
Difficult for an army to march through at any time, but you get the Jordan in flood with the water over the, the, the, all this scrub and the stuff swirling around underneath, and you can't see where the brink of the river is, and you try to take an army of some, uh, thousands across it, that difficulty would be enormous. And if you thought the enemy might come out when you were trying to negotiate the river, a very serious military, uh, obstacle, you see. But it's an obstacle put there by nature, and the way God, uh, dealt with the obstacle by nature, how did the miracle occur? Well, not by God sitting up on his throne and saying waters divide, but by another method.
Hm. You'll see. The obstacle here was, of course, man-made. And you will notice in these stories, the historian has chosen to tell in detail military things, each time a different military tactic. One getting across your river. Here, how did you get into the city? For the, the Jerichoites barricaded themselves around with their walls and thought they were safe, and they wouldn't come out, so how did you get in? That was the big obstacle, and God overcame it by a miracle. And it's quite a palaver, actually, the way the miracle was performed, wasn't it?
Just this ark going around about the place. Unusual military tactics, if you see what I mean. The only city that they used that tactics, as far as we're told, they didn't do it any other place, did they? Why not? Why was it done with Jericho? Ah, you see, here Ai has told you at length. There are lots of cities all over about the place that they're just listed for you. He took this one, he took that one, he took the other one. But these two are told at great length. In Jericho, it's a question of how did you get in? Here it was, how did you get them out? Wasn't it? And they, they, uh, developed this, uh, military thing about a, a feint, as it is called, yes?
When they went up and the king came out against them, they made as though they were defeated and ran off, you see, and that drew the enemy out, and they put an ambush behind. You think that's very simple military stuff, but that in those days it was very important tactics, yes? Do you see the difference? Different tactics, even at the military level. When got within light years of expounding it, this is a military thing, understanding what's going on. Uh, uh, do you see? Uh, here, the Southern Confederacy, when they came a- against Gibeon, Joshua marched all night. Another tactic that some generals have used. The long march, when the enemy is- isn't expecting you to arrive.
Do you see? Some generals in the ancient world used that to great effect. The speed with which they moved their armies when no one was expecting them to arrive before they were ready for them, and that kind of thing. You'll see. Uh, and then the miracle was here, not in, uh, how did you defeat them, but how did you, uh, polish them up, so to speak? They all ran off. You'll see. So how did you get over the wiping up operation? And that is told you, and that is in connection with that, that the great miracle happened. Why did that great miracle of the sun and moon happen here?
Notice how the writer is recording it is very interesting militarily. And here again, these were attacking the Gibeonites, and Israel might have said, well, it's none of our business, let them attack the Gibeonites. But God told the Israelites, go and protect the Gibeonites. You see, God fought for the Gibeonites, actually. Eh, here, however, these northern kings, they don't come against one of their own cities, they come against Israel. The first lot to do that, really. So from a military point of view, you see the differences. Then, of course, in the end, we should be interested in the moral and spiritual things at stake, and then how that applies to our understanding and preaching it.
Mm. At any rate, uh, we're now sort of, it seems to me, at least I would, if I was studying it myself, I would do that kind of thing, so as to understand the stories, how they cohere from all sorts of points of view, geographically and then militarily, how they make sense and why the differences are, and then now morally, what lessons was God teaching Israel, and then how that will apply to us, how the objectives are different each time, and how the military campaign relates to the objective that is achieved.
Yeah? But I haven't told you much, have I? But this is the way I would go about it. Yes. I can't bother tonight about trying to do the rest. Is it thought that, you know, somewhere about the new moon or anywhere like that, we shall have another session on this? That is thought so, yes. But I'll be here anyway. Yes, yes. Well, a question that people could work at if they were interested is, well, if there are three major parts in this first half of the book, and they have their objectives, um, what how do, how would you think the thought flow of the second half of the book is? That would be a question to work at in the interim, wouldn't it?
Now, it may seem to some of you tedious to do this kind of stuff, but it isn't, it is basic. You'll see, to a proper, uh, understanding and then exposition. Let me tell you one thing to illustrate what I mean. Sometimes when we haven't yet seen the way the book itself is la- uh, laid out and what is the connection of thought, we can take a story and apply it, and it can seem to be quite right, and yet it's way off mark. That has been notoriously done with the story of the Gibeonites. Do you see? The, uh, Gibeonites, uh, dressed up in old clothes, moldy bread, and shoes worn out, and all this kind of palaver, you see, and came to Joshua and company and said, make a covenant with us to let us live, do you see?
And the Israelites didn't inquire of the Lord, the text says, and they thought these people came from a long way off, which is what they said they did. And so they made a covenant with them that they could live. And when they made the covenant, they found out that they weren't from a far distant country, they came from next door. When they found that out, do you see, the princes were for saying, well, let's slaughter them. And Joshua said, sorry, you've sworn an oath in the name of God, you, you mustn't slaughter them. So they had to put up with them for the next centuries. Now listen to the preachers. Israel had just come from their great success at Jericho, you see, with the help of the Lord and AI.
Well, they had a little bit of stumbling at AI, but they got over that and were triumphant now, you see, and had a great prayer meeting about this. And now they were flush with success, and they fell into that trap. They felt they could do it for themselves, and they didn't have a prayer meeting about this next thing. They didn't consult the Lord. They just went ahead. That seemed the right thing to do. And losing that sense of dependence upon the Lord, they made an agreement with these Gibeonites that they never could get out of for the rest of their lives and for many generations after that. And what a abysmal trouble that was. And the lesson is, now do be careful, particularly when you've been successful in the wars of the Lord, you're riding high, then you may forget to pray and consult the Lord and make decisions off your own bat, and they'll seem right, but in the end they'll land you in a lot of trouble, and you won't be able to get out of it, maybe for the rest of your life.
Well, that seems right, doesn't it? Except you'll have a job to make that fit into Ke- into Joshua. The first thing to notice is that, uh, when the kings attacked these Gibeonites, God fought for the Gibeonites and saved them. That raises a very big question. Did he want to save them? You see, Moses had laid it down that when they came into the land, they'd destroy all the cities, except this, the cities that were far off, they could offer them peace on certain conditions if they came out. The cities that were not at hand, they were not to offer peace, they were to s- destroy them, do you see?
Um, so these Gibeonites cheated, and they persuaded the Israelites they came from far off, and so the Israelites let them live. They really came from near at hand. They should have been slaughtered. And Israel's mistake was to swear an oath in the name of God to save them. But when the enemy came up to attack them, God fought for the Gibeonites. Now tell me this, did God really want to save them? Or did God sit up on his throne and say, now look what my stupid people Israel have gone and done. They do a lot of stupid things, but this takes the biscuit, you see. I wanted those people destroyed. I didn't want to save them.
And these stupid Israelites have gone and sworn an oath in my name to let them live, and now I can't destroy them. I shall have to save them. How would that be? Couldn't be right, really, could it? But anyway, I put it to you. The danger is that we start with a moralistic, uh, interpretation of the passage. You know, so easily we do it. What was this story about? Oh, were they right? Preach they were right and exhort people to follow them. Were they wrong? Preach people to avoid what they do. That's a moralistic interpretation. But sometimes that moralistic interpretation is not what the Holy Spirit is talking about at all.
Why is this great miracle done in order to beat the enemies that were attacking the Gibeonites? And how is that relevant? That's the kind of question we have to ask, yeah? Now, hmm. Finally, if this is a, a sketch then of Joshua, the great captain of their salvation that brought them into their inheritance, you see, we shall have to ask ultimately, what aspects of salvation do these three things stand for? Good. Does that make sense? Begin to make sense, yes? Mm-hmm.
Hmm, good. I think Gilbert's gonna make us a cup of tea. Didn't understand a thing, but I'm making you tea, okay? Does everybody like tea, or some folks like coffee? Who would like coffee?
