Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 3.08 → restored 4.43
Use the player's Original switch to compare.How Diffio restores old speech recordings
Good to see you, gentlemen. Thank you very much for coming. It, I'm sure, will prove an enrichment to me. It's, uh, uh, through Gilbert's, uh, instrumentation that, uh, you are here. I thank him too for persuading you to come. I know not what ungodly pressures he brought to bear upon you and how he may have twisted your arm in his unprincipled manner. Uh. Marks and Spencer's vouchers. Yes, it was. To the wise. To the wise, I see that. Yes, yes, yes. So, uh, thank your wise too, and I hope they enjoy the vouchers, and uh, by whatever means you're here, you're very welcome.
I'm glad to see you. Eh... What, as I am given to understand, we are to be at in on this occasion, and if there are others, is not for me to stand here and preach. We are to work together to, uh, a- attack a book of scripture and to see if, uh, the Lord shows us, uh, the meaning of that particular book and how to come at the meaning so that we may help each other to check our understandings, to to uh uh enrich them, to be able to control them, and therefore to control our preaching.
We shall not be starting at the preaching end, the application end, but the other end. What is the book saying? It is, of course, I suppose, a legitimate thing to go to the Bible to get sermons for other people, and some men are given to that, you'll see. They read the Bible to get sermons for other people. That's, uh, that's permitted. Eh, you'll see, uh, it isn't the highest motive for reading the Bible. These are God's thoughts, and if we find in the end that they're quite unpreachable, you'll see, and irrelevant to our congregations, uh, you'll see, and we can't see how they could be made relevant, never mind if they're God's words. We try to have the, uh, the, um, good behavior to listen to God when he speaks.
We shall not be coming at it from the attitude of problems. That's another way to come to scripture. You have a problem, so you, um, you, uh, come to scripture to see where, what answers scripture may have. If you're an American, you have a problem, uh, you'll see, and you do likewise, uh, come to scripture to see who's got the answer. That's also permitted and legitimate and good, uh, but it is sometimes even better to allow God to set the topic of conversation. You'll see. Otherwise, we have a Bible study that is driven by problem solving. What we shall do in heaven in that event, I don't know, when there won't be any problems to solve, so that you won't need to consult the Lord at all, perhaps.
You see. Now, the way to grow in our concepts, in our outlooks, and begin to develop an outlook as big as eternity is sometimes to let God set the topic of conversation, whether we can see how it will be practical or not. You'll see. Don't say that outside this room, because many people, uh, hold that the only legitimate Bible study is when it's practical. Mm. As though God had made the mistake of writing a whole book, great chunks of which are unpractical. However, in that conviction that this is God's word, his inspired word, and that if he opened heaven and spoke to us, he wouldn't say anything different from what he said here, we shall try to persist.
Now, I've chosen the book of Joshua, uh, in full knowledge of the fact that, uh, uh, you are experts in it, and many of you have already preached many times, I suspect, on the book of Joshua. So that makes life a bit easy, to see, if you not know the, uh, detail of the narrative. Uh, I've chosen it because I fancy that most of you will have found, like I have often found, that while some parts of it are very preachable, other parts are a little bit more difficult, and if one is obliged to preach on them, the preaching becomes a bit arbitrary, trying to make it fit, so to speak, and drawing the appropriate lessons from it, that likewise comes a bit difficult and arbitrary, do you see?
So that here is an opportunity for us to, uh, uh, increase our understanding of the book and of its contents in their relation one to another, so that we see how each element in the narrative, uh, is related to the other elements and how between them they build, uh, a rationally put together message, do you see? And understanding that will help us to come, uh, to the way it should be expounded and applied. This is not simply a book from which we can pick here and there and make sermons.
It is the Holy Spirit's sermon, from beginning to end. And the more we see what the Holy Spirit was saying and the way he designed his sermon, the more authoritative our preaching and application will be, because we shall not be making up a sermon about Joshua, we shall be preaching Joshua, which is the Holy Spirit's own sermon. So tonight, uh, if you can bear it, eh, I shall be speaking quite at length o- on the matter on subsequent occasions, if there are any, uh, Dulce, and that's in your hands, eh, we can, uh, proceed in a more cooperative fashion.
So first of all, on the sheer history of, uh, Joshua, let me just mention in case you haven't seen it, uh, this, uh, volume by David Rohl. Some of you may have seen the, uh, uh, Channel four, I think, TV program. Here is the book, uh, that, uh, goes along with that program, and it's a general thesis. It's written by a certain David Rohl, who informs the world that he has no particular faith whatsoever, but he got tired of the approach adopted by so many, in fact, majority of scholars, that much of the Old Testament is simply myth and there's no history behind it.
Do you see? And, uh, this book is written in the conviction that a great deal of Old Testament, remember he's not a believer of anything, a great deal of the Old Testament has solid history behind it. He's an Egyptologist, and his thesis is a little bit like Velikovsky of some many years ago, that, uh, at a certain part of the Egyptian, uh, chronology, a conventional chronology has thought that the c- the pharaohs were consecutive, whereas in fact, at a s- particularly in the third period, the third middle period, uh, do you see, i- i- the third intermediate period, m- some, quite a few of the pharaohs were not consecutive, but they were contemporary.
The result of that is that it, uh, pushes things backwards, do you see, by about three hundred years. That in turn affects, uh, the question of which was the Pharaoh when, uh, the Israelites went down to Egypt, who was the Pharaoh that brought up Moses, who was the Pharaoh reigning at the time of the Exodus. It also, of course, uh, bears on the date of the conquest that is recorded in the book of, uh, Joshua. It has become common in scholarly circles, uh, these last thirty years for the archaeologists to tell the world that, uh, there is no archaeological evidence whatsoever in Canaan for the conquest.
If they say, if the story given us in Joshua were true, that Israel invaded Joshua at the head of a united army, uh, and uh, then uh, crushing the opposition in Canaan. There would have been uh, evidence of this in the strata of the particular time, you see, in history of burnt cities and what have you. And the archaeologists this last thirty years have told the world that there just isn't any evidence whatsoever. And the scholars therefore have concluded that the story given us by Joshua is simply myth, an aggrandized version of what scarcely ever happened, eh, that at the best it wasn't united armies of Israel going in, but it was a few tribes, the so-called Joseph tribes and the Judah tribes, some of which may have straggled from Egypt.
A lot of them were already in Canaan, and at various times they joined coalitions and fought their neighbors, and so forth and so on. Uh, that the Book of Judges, therefore, is more likely a description of the conquests, bits and pieces, do you see? But that the Book of Joshua is largely a sort of literary epic with no historical basis. According to the New Chronology, if it can be proved, and Rolls hold it can be proved, eh, the, uh, evidence is galore for the conquest. Because with the New Chronology, the date of the Exodus and therefore the date of the entry of Israel into Canaan is now some three hundred years earlier, bringing the conquest back from the Iron Age to the Middle Bronze Age, at which point in, in Israel there is archaeological evidence galore for the conquest and some very startling things.
I don't know if any of you have been to Israel, and if you have been to Shechem, uh, when the uh dig originally was made at Shechem and the great uh, uh buildings there were discovered, there was discovered a colossal stone lying down, of course, and the archaeologists put it back in its place on its, so to speak, pedestal, beautifully built with stone, you'll see. Uh, of course, uh, these last thirty years, the archaeologists have said, well, this is Bronze Age, and it's long before Israel ever entered Canaan. But if the new chronology is correct, this will coincide with Joshua and will be the stone, uh, that Joshua raised in the last, you have the record in the last book of Joshua as a witness to Israel, that they had made a covenant that this day they would serve the Lord.
It would be the actual stone, you see. The, when I was a youth, uh, uh, in those dim and distant days, uh, Garstang, uh, excavated at Jericho and said he'd found the walls of Jericho tumbled down, you see, and that hit the headlines. Then Kathleen Kenyon got weaving, uh, do you see, and did her great dig down the side of Jericho and announced to the world that, uh, these walls that Garstang had found had nothing to do with Joshua because they were three hundred years before Joshua's time, do you see, and that there was no evidence whatsoever at Jericho of the conquest.
If this new chronology is right, the walls are the walls that tumbled down at Joshua's time. Many a thing like that, uh, for other parts of scripture, the Exodus, and for Joseph himself and the palace that Joseph may have occupied in the Goshen area at Avaris, and perhaps even a statue of Joseph. These are all some of the interesting things. Yeah, you may be assured that if the scholars, uh, deign to take notice of Roel, they may try to ignore him. But if they take notice of him, this will be a tremendous great shindi, be fun to behold, to see, because many a textbook will have to be rewritten from the bottom upwards, you'll see.
Anyway, that is a very interesting matter, uh, about the historicity of the thing. Uh, now, uh, to put, uh, the story, let's come directly to that, shall we? Uh, put the story in its Old Testament context. Where does the book of Joshua fit in to the ongoing story of the Old Testament, and for that we take as our base Genesis fifteen and the covenant that God made with, uh, uh, Abram. And God said that, uh, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance.
But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age, and in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. And the Lord made a covenant with him, uh, on that same day, verse eighteen says, a covenant prescribed unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates, so forth and so on. So here is this basic covenant that God made with Abram, that he was going to give him the land of Canaan unto his seed, but not give him possession, actual possession of it at once.
His seed would be a stranger i- in this other land, that is in Egypt, for four hundred years they would come out and then would be brought into their promised inheritance. The ongoing story of the Old Testament is that, yes, in the time of Jacob, uh, the uh Israelites, his family went down to Egypt, as you know. They prospered under Joseph and were protected, uh, but when Joseph went and difficult conditions arose, they were oppressed, uh, sorely by some of the Egyptian pharaohs. And eventually, however, God sent Moses to bring them out.
Moses celebrated the Passover, delivered them from the wrath of the avenging angel. He brought them through the Red Sea by the power of God. He led them right across the wilderness to the borders of the Promised Land, right to the point where they were about to enter their inheritance, and then he went and died. And didn't bring them in. And if Moses had been the end of the story, it would have been, of course, a disaster. The great covenant would not have been fulfilled. You'll see in a minute how significant it was that when it came to the fulfillment of that great covenant and its great climax, the entering into their inheritance, Moses was not able to bring them in, wasn't allowed to bring them in.
The book of Joshua tells us that what Moses couldn't do, Joshua did. So, Joshua is the story, in the first place, of the great savior whom God raised up to complete his covenant and promise and bring Israel into their inheritance. Uh. So then, the m- m- major theme, perhaps, of the book of Joshua is going to be the theme of inheritance.
That, by any standards, is a vast topic in the Old Testament. But then you will remember that the term inheritance is a very widespread term in the New Testament itself. And, uh, the epistle that talks of it, many several do, but one that talks of it at great length is Galatians. So, just for the moment, getting our bearings, so to speak, let's look at Galatians. And this is chapter three of Galatians. The Epistle to the Galatians is written to, uh, tell us and teach us that justification is by faith.
But in the course of teaching us that justification is by faith and not by the law, Paul tells us of other things that are by faith and not by the law. So it's not a question simply of justification by faith, but the promises. Verse sixteen of chapter three: Now to Abram were the promises spoken, and to his seed. Verse seventeen: the covenant. And this I say, a covenant confirmed before by God. And verse eighteen, the inheritance. A reading of that argument in that paragraph to the end of chapter three will show us this tremendously important thing, that not only justification, but justification, the great promises of God to Abraham, the covenant that guarantees them, and the inheritance, eh, eh, what we get by it.
All these are by faith and not by works of the law. You see. Now, the Epistle to the Galatians was written to correct certain misunderstandings into which the Galatian believers had been misled. And Paul therefore has to fight for this basic truth of the gospel. And he summons up many, many arguments to fight for it. We gentlemen shall need to see the point of that, and we shall need to grasp those arguments. We shall need to understand, one, what the inheritance is.
I was in Egypt recently talking to our good, uh, Christian brothers and sisters in Egypt, and I spoke from this book of Joshua and talked about the inheritance at great length, and when it came to question time, they nearly felled me with the simple question, what is the inheritance? Hmm. Well, I said it's incorruptible and undefiled, and it fades not away. They said, doubtless it is that. But what is it itself? We know it won't corrupt and fade away, and it can't be defiled, but what is it?
Hmm. Wouldn't be a lot of point arguing that it is by faith if we didn't know what it was, would it? Righty ho. Now, the, uh, the passage in Galatians three from verse fifteen onwards. Let's read some of it. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one maketh it void or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed, he saith not, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Now this I say, a covenant confirmed beforehand by God. The law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterwards, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect.
For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise, but God has granted it to Abram by promise. What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come. And when the seed came, you see, uh, verse twenty four— oh, also verse twenty two: howbeit the scriptures shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Verse twenty five: but now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female. You're all one man in Christ Jesus, and if you are Christ, then are you Abraham's seed. Now notice the next word, heirs. Heirs according to the promise. This is inheritance. Heirs according to the promise. So now what I want to do just at this moment is to say a word or two about the way Paul is expounding his Old Testament.
He starts, doesn't he, in Genesis fifteen. yes? Genesis fifteen, which is the story of Abraham and the covenant to thee and to thy seed have I given this land, was the, uh, promise and elaborated in those chapters all around chapter fifteen. And they say, oh, the your seed shall inherit it, yeah? Um, so that was Genesis fifteen. It was promised to the seed.
So if we put here, promised seed was going to have this inheritance. The, uh, chapter, uh, um, sixteen in Genesis is the story of, uh, uh, Abram and Sarah, is it not? God had promised them a, a son, you see, promised them seed, and the inheritance was going to be given to Abraham and to his seed, you see. Well, at breakfast one morning, well, I don't know if it was breakfast, could have been lunch, uh, do you see?
Sarah s- uh, said to Abraham, Abraham, dear. He said, oh yes. She said, I've been thinking. He said, you really? Uh, what have you been thinking? She said, I've been thinking about this promise that God made us of a seed, you see, a child. Isn't it marvelous, said Abram. Well, I don't know about that, said Sarah. You see, I've been thinking, and uh, the fact is God's promised us a seed, but he's overlooked one or two things. First of all, I'm barren. I can't have any children, Abram, you see. And what's more, it's the Lord that shut up my womb. Oh, I hadn't thought of that, said Abram.
Yes. Mm, she said, uh, it sounds as if God's being a little bit contradictious. Well, I think, said Sarah, when God promised us that we were going to have a son, he didn't mean I'm going to give you a son just like that, you know. It was like, you know, God helps them that help themselves, Abraham. And he really means if you do your best, you know, somehow bring it about and well, but it will depend on you doing your best, you see. And I think God means us to use our own resources, she said. What resources, said Abraham? We haven't got any resources. Yes, we have, she said. We've got, um, we've got Hagar. Oh yes, I hadn't thought of that either, said Abram. So they had Ha- uh, Hagar here.
You see, Abram took Hagar, and when she, uh, saw she was pregnant, uh, Sarah made life uncomfortable for her, and she ran off into the desert, you may remember. Uh, but the angel of the Lord found her and said, my dear, this is no place for you in your condition. You must go back. So Hagar was sent back into Abram's home, and Ishmael, going to be a wild ass of a man, until you come to chapter twenty one.
If you care to notice, Genesis twenty one tells you that at long last the promised seed came. That is told us in the first paragraph of chapter twenty one. So in chapter twenty one of Genesis, promised seed comes. The very next paragraph of chapter twenty should tells you that Hagar and Ishmael were cast out.
That is in the actual record of Genesis, that is the next thing that tells us, you are told. First paragraph, promise seed comes, second paragraph, and forthwith, the very next story, there's nothing in between, uh, Hagar and Ishmael are cast out. So that you could say, couldn't you, that the angel of the Lord put Hagar and Ishmael back into Abram's home until the promised seed came. Whereupon, uh, uh, Hagar and Ishmael were cast out. Hagar and Ishmael, as you see from the story itself, even before you come to the New Testament, was Abraham and Sarah's effort by their own power and strength and wisdom to bring about the fulfillment of God's promise.
And God, of course, wouldn't have it. He came to, uh, Abraham and Sarah eventually and said, look here, when I promised to give you a son, I was promised to give you a son. Thank you, but I don't want Ishmael. He's a nice lad. I'll bless him, but I don't want him. Uh, it's, I wasn't telling you to do your best. I was telling you by a word of promise that I was going to give you a son, and I'm going to give it. And so he left them until they were pretty woppety. Uh, not only was Sarah barren, but Abram now was old, aged, and decrepit. Do you see? Left them deliberately all that while, so that when the son came, it should be seen it was a miracle of God's power, an absolute gift of God.
Yes. That is the Genesis story. Now you see what, um, uh, uh, Galatians is doing in chapter three of Galatians. This is Paul expounding Old Testament. And sometimes people think that Paul, you know, gets carried away with his ideas and indulges in typology that no genuine theologian ought to do. At least most days he oughtn't to do it. Uh, do you see? But when in Galatians three uh, Paul talks about these things, he says, now this I say, three, uh, sixteen, or fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, present I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one maketh it void or addeth thereto.
Now to Abraham were the promises spoken. If this is Genesis, you now come to Galatians. Pray observe that in Galatians three fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, we're back to Genesis fifteen once more. This isn't typology, this is history. Paul is not taking this as a type of this. This is history. It's the same history. This is the same event. We're coming back to the actual historical thing that God promised them seed, and through that seed, uh, the inheritance.
The inheritance would be to Abraham and to his seed. So here's where Galatians starts. He says that the seed is Christ. Ah. Well, is that so? What then is the law, says somebody? Now look what he says about the law. Verse nineteen: What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions until. So just like in the first run through in history, Hagar and Ishmael were in Abraham's home until the promised seed came. Now, if you start with Abraham again here, you will eventually come to Christ, who is the promised seed that God all the time had in mind when he made this promise to Abraham.
Sure, Isaac was the fulfillment of that promise. If there'd been no Isaac, there would have been no Jesus, would there? Jesus is the seed of Abraham, in the sense that Isaac was the seed of Abraham. Without the Isaac, there would have been no Jesus. But, says Paul, the ultimate thing God had in mind in this bit of history was this. And then what was the law? Well, law was added until...
And Paul draws the, uh, the, the similarity between Hagar and the law. Why does he do it? Why, what rights he to do it? Because law is the same principle as this. The law was Abraham and Se- uh, uh, Hagar and Ishmael were Abraham and Sarah doing their best to produce and bring about the fulfillment of the promise. The law, when it was misused, was the same effort. Man trying to keep the law in order to achieve the promise. It was added for the sake of transgression.
Many reasons that Paul gives why it was added. It was added to, to drive men to see that they were sinners and could never merit either salvation or justification or the inheritance by keeping the law. A very necessary lesson, therefore, but it was never meant to be more than temporary. It was added until the promised seed should come. Now he has come. This, uh, opens up the true way by which we become heirs. How do we become heirs? Galatians is a very long legal argument about it. To sum up the, the vital point, we become heirs by receiving Christ.
Look at, um, verse twenty six again, for you're all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ, there can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, no male or female. You're all one in Christ Jesus, and if you are Christ's, then you are Abram's seed and heirs according to the promise. If Christ, you see, if Christ is the seed and I'm put in him, so I'm in Christ, then I too am an heir according to the promise.
This matter of the inheritance, therefore, I need say no more at this point, uh, uh, uh, on Galatians. This matter of inheritance is exceedingly important. It goes right back to the basis of our gospel. How do we get into this great inheritance? But, of course, just as you have this kind of thing that Paul expounds in Galatians, what we shall find is, uh, with the book of Joshua as follows. Here's Abram once more. Do you see?
Promised Inheritance. It's not going to be yet, says God. Your seed will be a stranger in a land that's not theirs, and after four hundred years I'll bring them out. Okay, here comes then Master Moses. And he gets them out of Egypt, and he gets them through the Red Sea, and he gets them through the desert, and then he cannot bring them in. And the promised inheritance, promised inheritance is Joshua.
Yeah. Now you extend that. Start with Abraham again. How do we get this inheritance? Here comes the law. The law would never bring you into your inheritance. Neither Moses personally, nor the law that he promulgated cannot bring you into the inheritance. Uh, it is, of course, uh, Jesus. And gentlemen, you know Jesus is simply the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua.
So, whatever the detail turns out to be, the book of Joshua is going to be first his history, how God fulfilled the covenant to Abram at the first level, and eventually brought Abram and his, uh, the Abram's seed into their promised inheritance, not through Moses, but through Joshua. When we expand that, it's going to be how did God fulfill this promise of the inheritance to Abraham? It's not going to be through Moses, it's going to be through Jesus. So in the book of Joshua, we are dealing with the absolute fundamentals of our faith.
What do I mean by that? We shall have to be prepared to see that the book of Joshua is not simply an exhortation to us to be good Christians and to fight our way through into a deeper enjoyment of our inheritance. Well, better redefine that. The second half of Joshua is that. But the first half of Joshua is not an exhortation to us. Now, look here, you've been saved. Now struggle and get on into your inheritance. The first half of the book of Joshua is the great story of our mighty savior and deliverer, Jesus himself, who did what Moses couldn't do, who brings us into our inheritance.
In other words, Joshua is very much a gospel book. Ah. So then this will, uh, book will, will need, uh, will mean that we need to know what the New- how the New Testament interprets this question of inheritance. What is the inheritance? And then it will have us preaching, of course, what are h- how do we get into the inheritance? Yes? And how is that related to our Christian gospel? Right, if that's a brief, uh, kind of laying down the markers, let's now turn to the actual book itself and begin the hard work of making ourselves a table of contents.
So, mapping out the book. Now for its contents. There are all sorts of ways of making a, a table of contents of a book. It raises a question, an, a narrative book like, uh, Joshua, uh, how do you divide it up, you'll see? And therefore you will often find that different expositors have different ways of dividing up a book, and the question arises then in the end, well, if you analyze a book into its different parts, you divide it up, uh, how valid is your analysis, you see? And what is your analysis?
Is it your way that you invented of, um, uh, remembering the contents of Joshua so that it doesn't matter how you do it, you see. Some men, when they go for the wife's groceries, you see, and have got to get the tea, the butter, the sugar, the milk, and the cabbage, you see, try to remember it like that. Some translate it into numbers, one, two, three, four, five. and One stands for cabbage and two stands for sardines, and you see, so they do it that way, and some list them in groups, you know, the milk shop, the grocery shop, this shop. It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you remember it. Is that what an analysis of a Bible book is? Well, it very often is. Do you see?
Uh, the uh, more profitable way is to uh, list the contents, trying to see where the thread of the story is going. Is it one long, uninterrupted thread all the way through? Or is it a number of incidents that start and come to their climax, and then another incident that comes, starts and goes through it to its climax? Where do the minor climaxes come? Where do the major climaxes come? That kind of thing. So that we shall then be following the thought flow, as I would call it.
That is a very important thing because of all the matters in studying Holy Scripture, perhaps thought flow, after one has determined what the words mean, thought flow is the most important. What goes with what? What follows on? Where does the story start? Where does it finish? Determining that is very important, you'll see. So let's have a go. It's better, uh, seen at by actual doing it. So if one turns to the book of Joshua, chapter one, reads as follows: Now it came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead.
Well, what about that then? Well, now therefore, rise, go over this Jordan. That comes to the point very quickly, doesn't it? First major thing in the book of Joshua is Moses is dead, so what? Well, so what is rise and go over Jordan, Joshua. So here is God's command. Uh, and I've given you, even as I spake to Moses. I shall be with you as I was with Moses. Uh, only be strong and very courageous, verse seven, to observe, to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded, and thus, and thus, and thus, and thus. So in verse ten, Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, prepare victuals.
Why? Because this day, within three days, you are to pass over this Jordan. You can't miss the point, can you? You're now going to go over Jordan. You see. And then he has a word with the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh and reminds them of their promise that they're not to stay on the east side of Jordan. They are to go over in the vanguard and fight with their brothers, you see, and uh, uh, cross over to Jordan. And they say, yes, of course, that's what we promised Moses, and that is what we will do. So chapter one is the command, go over Jordan. Chapter two, you might think at first sight it's gone to talk about something else.
A couple of chaps that went into Jericho, spy at the land, and landed up in a harlot's, uh, house. You'll see. So, have we gone off onto some other topic? Uh, well, may have done. But when you come to the end of two and begin three, Joshua rose up early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim and came to Jordan. And now in chapter three and four, at great length and in great detail, we have the story how they actually crossed over Jordan.
As far as chapter one therefore, is concerned, chapter one announces the program, rise, go over Jordan. Chapter three and four tells you how that command was carried out. They arose and went over Jordan. So important is the crossing of Jordan that the story is told you three times over. We should go back one of these days and see why that is important. But just notice the fact at this moment, chapter three, uh, Joshua gets up early in the morning, they're going to, um, uh, cross over Jordan, and they get ready the Ark of the Covenant, and in chap- verse nine, Joshua briefs the people of what they've got to do, and when they see the Ark come to the, uh, beginning of the river, this, that, and the other, the river.
Fight against Jericho. And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all Israel passed over on dry ground until all the nation were passed clean over Jordan. You notice the very phraseology. Priest stood there until the people were over Jordan. Tremendous accomplishment. Not content with that, now the story is told you the second time. When all the nation were clean passed over Jordan, the Lord spake to Joshua about these matters of s- the stones, some taken down and put in the riverbed, and some taken from the riverbed and put on the banks on the western side of the river, do you see?
And that's what they did. Verse nine of chapter four, and Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bear the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there unto this day. For the priests which bear the Ark stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and all the people hasted and passed over. And it came to, uh, pass when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests in the presence of the people, and so forth on so and so on.
Second time the story is told and comes to its climax once. Uh, the, the people, the priests stood in the middle of Jordan until everything was done that Moses told them to do, and they passed clean over. And you might think, well, now we've heard the story, but no, that's like your friend coming back from Majorca of his holiday, isn't it? He, he tells you a long story about how he got on the plane and nearly missed it, and how 4 or five engines failed and all this, and got to Majorca and had their stick of rock and so on, and eventually they came back and say, thank the Lord, that's over now. No, no, it ain't. It has only begun. So now he starts again midway through and tells you a marvelous story and comes home on the same airplane as before.
And you think he's home now at the end, can we have coffee or something? No, no, no, no, he's still got something to tell you about the holiday, and it's about how Bertie lost his sandals in the sea, you see, and they couldn't find them, and uh, and then he's back home on the same plane as before, do you see? Three different aspects of the story, each of them coming right to the climax. You can't miss the climax, not in Joshua three and four, can you? Told you three times over, priest stood in this river until the all the people were clean passed over. Tremendous triumph that was, do you see? So, oh, here comes a third time. And the Lord, verse fifteen of chapter four, the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Command the priests that bear the Ark of the Testimony come up out of Jordan.
So that's what they did, do you see? And verse nineteen, the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the month, and so on. And when the children asked their fathers, what are these stones about, you are to tell them that Israel came over this Jordan on dry land, for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were passed over. Three times over the great climax. So in my simplicity, I want to argue that, yes, one is the command to pass over Jordan.
Chapter one, if that is. Chapter two is the story of Rahab. Then chapters three and four, the Crossing of Jordan. Told three times, coming each time up to the climax until the people were clean passed over. Now just let's notice, uh, why that is important, uh, to try and get the thought flow.
Here's the command to pass over. Here is the actual, uh, triumphant accomplishment of the command. They passed over. What's this doing? What is the point of the Rahab story? Uh, do you see the men were sent as spies. Uh, so chapter two tells us, you see they went as spies to spy out the land, in what sense? Why did you need to send spies? Forty years before then, twelve spies had been sent, and they went right through the land and came back with a report of the land, so why did they need any more spies to go? Well, you'll notice that in this story, these two spies don't go all through the land.
You're not, if they did, you're not told about it. They went into Jericho. And when they got back, they told Joshua what they had found out about Jericho. That was very important military information. Because Joshua's commander had got the armies on the east bank of of Jericho, and it was going to be a difficult enough job to get the armies across Jericho, uh, across Jordan when it was in flood. On the opposite side was a city armed to its very teeth. And if when, uh, Joshua had got the Israelites halfway across the Jordan, floundering around in the river, you know, half them swimming and this, that, and the other, um, King of Jericho decided to come out and attack them.
That would have been a very difficult. What Joshua needed to know is, what were the Jo- uh, the Jerichoites likely to do? And what they were able to tell him was that the king of Jericho was not, uh, uh, intending to come out, obviously not. The place was shut up. Jericho was straightly shot up. They were able to tell Joshua that. They were able to report on the psychological condition of the inhabitants of Jericho, that their heart has melted away. They're not thinking of attacking.
They're thinking that they'll barricade themselves into their city and, uh, thus protect themselves, and the Israelite army won't be able to get at them. That, to Joshua, was very important military information. He was practically certain that the city of Jericho wouldn't come out against him when he was leading the troops across. So we haven't got around to any spiritual lessons. We're just looking at a, a table of contents and asking, what is the thought flow between these, and what is this story doing? It's doing a lot of things, of course, but one of the things on the sheer surface of it is the intelligence report as to the state of Jericho physically and psychologically, in preparation for saying, right, now we lead the army across.
We're on the ground floor, but asking how the narrative holds together. Yes? And we do notice here, um, in the second story, this of the crossing, you know, the second time it's told, that's in chapter four. Look at the words again in verse ten. For the priests which bear the ark stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people according to all that Moses commanded Joshua. And all the people hasted in Passover.
So, um, we could write at the bottom objective number one, cross Jordan, and objective achieved as Moses commanded. Mm-hmm. That will prove now very quickly to us to be very significant.
Moses, my servant is dead, says God. Get over Jordan. This is the great objective. Get over Jordan. Moses could never do it. Joshua did. Moses commanded it. There's a thing about Moses, you know, he's good at telling you what to do. Not always good at doing it himself. That's the thing about Moses, don't say how he said it, but that is so. But what Moses couldn't do, Joshua did. And if you weren't careful, you'd start thinking in New Testament terms at that point, wouldn't you? But the law couldn't do what God has done through Christ.
First big objective then, uh, I want to say the first climax is the first objective, get across Jordan, and the first objective achieved. Tremendous triumph, the objective described three times over. It's an innocent comment to make, isn't it? But if, um, the Israelites were ever going to get, enjoy their inheritance, they'd better get over Jordan, get into it. You've heard many a preacher tell the bele- perhaps you have or haven't, I don't know.
I've heard many a believer from the book of Joshua tell folks, um, that they ought to go in and possess their possessions, yes? And strive hard and fight hard. Yeah, but you can't possess your possessions until you get into them, can you? You need to tell people first how they get in to the inheritance, and then how they can enjoy it. You'll see. So here is, um, um, objective one, and the objective one achieved. Let's look on in the narrative. There's an interesting verse at the beginning of chapter five.
It came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites which were beyond Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until they were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was a spirit in them anymore because of the children of Israel. Well, at that time the Lord gave Joshua sundry instructions. Notice, if you care, this is now chapter five. Um, it starts with a reference to the kings. Notice that. Then here come the sundry, uh, preparations that they had to make when they were f- over on the west bank of Jordan.
They didn't immediately start attacking Jericho City. There were preparations to make. First of all, two, uh, two verse nine, the circumcision. Then the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and they kept the Passover. And then in verse thirteen, there comes this great vision came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? He said, No, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship. And he said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. I'm just going to write up one word here, it's arbitrary enough, preparations. One, circumcision. Two, Passover. Three, um, captain of the Lord's hosts.
I call them preparations because they come now before the story of the taking of Jericho. Jericho occupies chapter six. Yeah? Then chapter seven to, chapter 7 to eight, from Jericho, they attempt to take Ai and are driven back because of Achan's sin. So Achan's sin has then to get dealt with, and when it is dealt with in chapter eight, they take Ai.
So, uh, notice how they are connected, these two stories. When God was sending them against Jericho, he warned them not to take any of the spoil. Jericho was to be put under a curse, a ban, a cherem. They weren't to take anything. If they took anything, they would bring the curse upon themselves. But one Shep did. He took this and, uh, came, brought Israel under the curse. They had to deal with it. They discovered it when they went from Jericho and made their first attempt on Ai. The king of Ai came out and and chased them away. From a military point of view, that was exceedingly, uh, uh, scary, for Joshua had now got the army across west side of Jordan.
Here were all these mighty great Canaanite cities, some of them very civilized, many of them heavily armed, and to be defeated by a little thing like Ai and all the other cities would hear about it. That was a potentially very serious occasion, militarily, you'll see. And, uh, Ai was dealt with, and then you had the great success at Ai. Good. But notice now in the story, look at verse thirty of chapter eight and observe how what we're to be told in verse thirty. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal.
When? Well, when, uh, the king of Ai was overcome and hanged on a tree, do you see? Uh, uh, and they raised there on a great heap of stones until this day. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal. Wow. Here they were, this is the Jordan, and they crossed over here, and here was Jericho, and Ai, who knows where, somewhere about here. When they dealt with Ai and his king, woo, went up here to the modern Nablus.
Do you see? And here was Gerizim, and here was Mount Ebal. A very interesting little bit of story, isn't it? Instead of being told from Ai they went on to another city and and and conquered that and destroyed it and went on to other cities. What we're told that when they defeated Ai, went up here through the passes, I suspect, and uh, to uh, uh, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. We're not even told that he destroyed any cities on the way or... Oh? Uh, what he did was, then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal.
You're not even told he had to journey there. Just told the bald fact. At that time, he built this altar, you'll see. As Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of unhewn stones upon which no man had lift up any iron, and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings, and he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And all Israel and their judges and officers and their, uh, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests and the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as the homeborn, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded that they should bless the people of Israel first of all, and afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the assembly of Israel and the women and the little ones and the strangers that were conversant among them. Well, that story of how Moses commanded them to do this, of course, is told you in Deuteronomy chapter twenty seven at great length. This is what they had been commanded to do. Now, when it is eventually done, you see Ai taken and Mount Gerizim, Mount Ebal, altar, you'll see hair and the ark.
And he, uh, uh, and he wrote there on verse thirty two, Writing of the blessings and cursings of the law. And several times over, as Moses commanded.
Now we have a little literary problem. Where would you make a break in the narrative? In this column, we started with God's command to Joshua, Moses is dead, get them over Jordan. We've seen why he sent the spies to Jericho to see what Jericho's state was in. Now here comes the fulfillment of the command and the tremendous, uh, climax. Three times over, the priests stood there until the people, all of them, were clean passed over Jordan. Tremendous triumph. And the priests stayed in the Jordan until everything that Moses had told them to do was done.
Now we come to this. Where is the climax of this story? Is the climax at Ai? You see, these are the preparations to go over. Here comes the captain to take charge of the fighting. Jericho is taken, but you can't end with Jericho. Why can't you end with Jericho? If you're asking where does the thought flow go, why can't you end with Jericho? Put a big line under here. Well, because here you're told that Israel were warned that the city was under a curse. They must not take anything, and if they took anything, the curse would come on them. Yeah? Well, then they went up to Ai and were defeated, and when they asked God why, God said, because somebody among you has taken of the spoil and brought the curse on Israel, and before you proceed, you must judge yourself.
So they did that, and then Ai was captured. You say, marvelous, that is the great climax then. You can't separate these two cities because the very storyline joins them. All right. So shall we put a big line under here? Say that's the climax. Well, what about this then? This is, this is, um, something else then. Should we put a big line under here? If you were preaching it, gentlemen, would you say, well, I must tonight get up to Ai. When we've got the king of Ai hanged, I shall thump the desk and say, there we are, at last we've done it. Thank the Lord, victory won. Look at old King of Ai under that heap of stones.
Marvelous. Next week we shall deal with altogether a different subject. That's what it comes to in the end, you see. Where is the thought flow? Where is the climax? At what point do you really thump the desk hard and say, now that's the end of the story? Should it be here or should it be here? So we look around and say, wait a minute, well, perhaps this does, um, uh, so this is really meant to start a new section of the book. Well, yeah, is it? Uh, let's see how the story goes on. That was chapters five, six, uh, uh seven, and and eight. do you see? And chapter nine begins.
Came to pass when all the kings... when all the kings which were beyond Jordan in the hill country, in the lowlands and on the shore of the great sea in front of the Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and Perizzite, heard here of- thereof, that they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel. Yeah. Look at this then. Look at that climax.
The priest stood in Jordan. That must have been a little bit nerve-wracking, wasn't it, with the water piled up by the sides and there were all the rest going over. There was Aunt Sally, she went across, and there was Tom and George, and they got across, and here's the Reubenites got across, and we have to keep standing here. What if these waters collapse? But they stood at the bottom of the Jordan until everything like Moses said had been done. Yeah. Look at this. Count up how many times that phrase is repeated in those full verses, as Moses said. Watch how this now takes up a similar theme. The kings here were impressed when they heard that Israel had come across Jordan.
That was a mighty thing, and the kings who heard of it were pretty alarmed. Now they hear another thing, that they're not only across Jordan, but they have taken Jericho and Ai and have proceeded right to the heart of the country, up by, uh, Shechem and Nablus, and had this great ceremony. When the kings heard of that, they thought there's time to act now. And unlike Jericho that tried to pr- to to save himself by getting behind his barricades, this lot decided to s- to mount a campaign. So from a military point of view, this begins a new section like this.
So we're collecting evidence on this matter of thought flow. It's important because it, it tells us what the writer is thinking, where the story is going, and the so what of the story. You conquered Jericho, did you really? And after a little bit of a, a contretemps, you managed to get there as well. So what? So what? You did this. And it's told you so they did that before they did anything else. That must have been some colossal objective they'd set their heart on. What is the objective? Well, now we're beginning to notice a developing pattern.
First objective, commanded by God and commanded by Moses, was to get the people of Israel across into their inheritance. And seeing that meant taking them across Jordan, that was an enormous operation and a vast triumph when they achieved it. What was the next big objective? Well, to do this that Moses commanded. What was that? Well, to establish the law of God in Canaan. It's been a long time since that had been done in Canaan. Not waiting for any other conquest. This thing burning in their hearts, this they must do.
Moses commanded them to do it. They gathered the nation up here, they build an altar, they've got the old ark, they write out the law, a summary thereof, presumably. The people are gathered, the the Levites are there, they pronounce the blessings, uh, on on on Israel. If you keep the commandment, the blessings, and as they as they recite the blessings, the crowd roars its head off. Amen. And then they pronounce the curses for those who break it, and likewise the people respond, amen. That must have been a colossal occasion. The actual establishment of the law of God in that hitherto corrupt and evil society.
Objective number two. Hmm. What is this going to be about then? Well, let's proceed and do a table of contents once more, uh, and check upon ourselves. When one is making out a table of contents once more, uh, and check upon ourselves. When one is making out a table of contents in this order, trying to to follow the thought flow, and where lies the climax, one must keep an open mind and be critical. And if you say to me, nonsense, old boy, that was the end of that thing, this is something else, well, yeah, you do. Everybody's entitled to say something, uh, do you see? And you, we must in our own, when we're studying a book, we must keep an open mind, not let it, uh, solidify like concrete too soon, do you see?
Make sure that we're getting the thought flow through. It's going to affect our understanding of the book and the way we preach it. You'll see, if this is the great climax to Jericho and Ai, then when we preach Jericho and Ai, we've got it in our mind what we're aiming at to the congregation, haven't we? We want them to get them to see that this is the objective and how the objective is achieved. You'll say, after all, gentlemen, uh, we're not justified by the law, are we? We don't get into the inheritance by keeping the law. Uh, but what the law couldn't do, God does, that the righteous demand of the law shall be fulfilled.
Wow. You could go to town preaching that, couldn't you? And what do you have to do to get the righteousness of the law fulfilled, you see? Anyway, let's start up this third passage, eh, chapter, uh, uh, nine this time. These kings, and once more you notice that they notice the kings are mentioned and their reaction because it sets the military scene. You see, this is, they're very important, those verses, they're setting the scene for you. Eh, but just as that was only a v- verse or two, so this is only a verse or two. The very, the very proportions of the narrative are patterned, you see.
Anyway, there came the Gibeonites. So this is the Gibeonites. They're the chaps who, uh, this is nine, um, deceived Israel, you may remember, and uh, Israel made a covenant with them, Josie, and they deceived Israel. So they're the Gibeonites. And when that is over, chapter ten tells us that the southern confederacy of kings joined together.
Verse ten, chapter ten. Now it came to pass when Adonizek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king. And he heard how then the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, but they feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. Wherefore Adoni- Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent unto all these other kings, verse four, come up unto me and help me, and let us smite Gibeon, for it had made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.
So now, uh, uh, uh, the kings have noted two things. Here they noted that Israel had got across Jordan. Now they're noting that the Israelites have captured Jericho and Ai, and no disaster, Gibeon has gone over. And Gibeon wasn't a tiny little village. Gibeon was a big city, like a royal city. And the southern kings, he of Jerusalem particularly, uh, has now got the wind up. If one of the big cities like Gibeon has gone over to the other side willingly, they've not been besieged. They've not been attacked. They've just gone over of their own accord and made a treaty with Israel.
Well, if a great city like Gibeon is going to do that, they do their best. They're going to stop it, of course. Makes sense, doesn't it, to have a go. And they came, as you notice, not against the Israelites. They came against the Gibeonites. You notice that, don't you? And when the southern kings formed the confederacy and came up against the Gibeonites, then God sent Joshua to fight for the Gibeonites and to drive the enemy away. God himself fought against the southern confederacy, rained down great stones from heaven on them, and they were driven away, and uh, uh, uh, uh, Joshua smote those cities, and at the end of chapter ten, o- o- get the list of the southern cities that Joshua, uh, fought against and overcame.
And not only the southern cities, but the kings of those cities. Well, notice how they're mentioned, do you see? Now, those cities, if you get out your atlas, are all in the south of the country. These were the southerns. Uh, uh, so, uh, end of chapter ten. So Joshua smote all the land, verse forty, and the hill country, and the south, and the lowlands, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but he utterly destroyed all that breathed as the Lord, the God of Israel commanded. Joshua smote them from Kadesh Barnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen even unto Gibeon.
And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel, and Joshua returned and all Israel with him unto the camp in Gilgal. So we're still down in the south. It's been the southern confederacy and their kings and all their cities. And so their attack on Gibeonite ends in failure. Joshua beats the lot of them. What next? Chapter eleven. Came to pass when Jabin, king of Hazor, heard thereof that he sent Jobab, king of- sent unto Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, and to the kings that were on the north in the hill country and in the raba south of Kinneroth, and in the lowland, in the heights of Dor on the west, to the Canaanites on the east, and all these other chaps.
And, uh, you say they went out, they and all their host with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the seashore, in multitude, with horses and chariots, very many. All these kings met together, and they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom to fight with Israel. Now you notice the difference. Here they came to fight with the Gibeonites, because they thought the Gibeonites were traitors. Now in eleven, Northern Confederacy. So from the point of view of the military operation, these two are distinct. It would be important to see that and look at it on a map to see where you are. Incidentally, if you follow Roe and you are convinced by him, uh, he will have, uh, pictures of the more recent digs at Hazor, uh, do you see, King of Hazor was reading about.
And with the new chronology and the new period, yes, he will point to you the damage and whatnot that Joshua did at Hazor. And whereas, uh, Yadin, who began the dig at Harzor some fifteen years ago, I suppose now, and in his book, uh, twenty years ago, wrote that no, Joshua's account is not right. The account in Judges is true, but there's no evidence at Harzor for any conquest by Joshua. Now, if Roe was right, Yardeen is proved wrong, and there's ample evidence of Joshua at Harzor. Harzor was an exceedingly important place, uh, and a very civilized and advanced technologically place, was Hazor up in the north with its chariots of iron and I don't know what have you, you see.
But these are the northern Confederacy. Whereas these came against Gibeon, these come against Joshua. The first cities that we're told of that actually came against the Israelites. Hitherto the Israelites attacking the Canaanite cities, uh, these are the first lot that made a confederacy deliberately to come against Israel. And the Lord said, don't worry about them. Joshua came and fought them. Uh, took Hazor, destroyed it, you see, verse ten onwards. Now listen to the chapter as it goes through. He took Hazor and smote it. Verse twelve, smote them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed them, as Moses, as the servant of the Lord, commanded.
And he took these cities, and they're spoiled, left none that breathed. Verse fifteen: as the Lord commanded Moses, his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. So more kings that were taken, you see? Look at verse twenty. They came against Israel to battle, you see? They didn't make peace. Israel took them in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses.
Ah, yes. So, cities destroyed. Plus their kings. And, uh, this was three times as the Lord commanded Moses. And as Moses commanded Joshua and company.
And I would argue that, uh, yes, we must be somewhere near the intended thought flow of the book, because you see the pattern of it arising in front of your eyes. You see, it agrees with the military circumstances. Why, as I said, the reconnoitering of, uh, Jericho comes here, because it was militarily important if you were going to cross the river and take the army across to see that they weren't going to come and attack you. Then here they take Jericho and Ai, the things are connected, you see? And you come to this, I want to say, as the climax, that is the establishment of the law up country as the, as Moses commanded, and this repeats this notion.
And when you come across here, the same thing, Gibeonites come over to Israel, that provokes the Southern Confederacy to come against the Gibeonites. And when Joshua wipes out the Southern Confederacy, the northern kings begin to hear of this, and the leading city, which Hotzor, gets a northern confederacy. They come against Joshua, and he eliminates them. It was of the Lord. It was as the Lord commanded Joshua. And with that, you come to halfway through the book. For in chapter twelve, you have list of the kings, you'll see. Uh, chapter twelve.
Now these are the kings. Now these are the kings. It's a long, long list, it's chapter twelve, uh of all the kings that got destroyed. And with that, look at thirteen, and you'll see what a very big change comes over the narrative at chapter thirteen. Now Joshua was old and well stricken in years. So I'm going to say that here comes in the book of Joshua the first half and ends here.
This is going to be something else. If that is so, we could afford, just for a moment tonight, just to look back at these three things and see what's happening. In the conquest, when Joshua brought Israel into their inheritance, there were three major objectives, commanded by Moses and actually performed by Joshua. Three objectives. Because that observation is now determining the way we understand what's going on and the way we shall preach it. If he was going to bring Israel into their inheritance, he had to achieve these three objectives.
Number one was to get them across Jordan into their inheritance. They'll never enjoy it unless they get into it. Did it as the Lord commanded Moses. When they got into their inheritance, they were to establish the law of God in Canaan. He couldn't get through up to, to, to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim unless he dealt with these two cities militarily. Then go by them, of course, and risk their coming behind him or something like that. He had to deal with them first to then be free to get up. And then here, Josie, the kings are getting alarmed.
Gibeonites defect, come over to Israel. They attack Gibeonites with their southern confederacy. Joshua eliminates them. The northerners come and get wiped out at all their cities. It was of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Joshua. The third objective was to put down all rule and authority. All the principalities and powers. Ah, I've read that somewhere else too. Mm-hmm.
So, we've looked at it at the sheer level of history. We thought of the military matters involved and how that hangs together as a military account of the conquest. But when we start thinking of the objectives, they are spiritual objectives already. Uh, it is fulfilling of what Moses commanded. But look how they're beginning to turn our mind to what the New Testament will say of our Lord and the great objectives he has. How do we get into the inheritance? Not by keeping the law, but once you are in, then the righteousness demand of the law is to be fulfilled.
What Moses couldn't do, Joshua did. What the law couldn't do, God in Christ has done in order that the righteousness of the law be fulfilled. We don't end up, uh, simply there, we end here. This is the first major climax of the book. This is the climax of the first half of the book. What? The putting down of all rule and authority. If you were preaching that and dared to use that terminology, of course your congregation might jump to conclusions, wouldn't they? When and how will our Lord put down all principalities, powers, mights, and dominions?
And when does he put down all authority? Let's have some volunteers. Look, at the cost, I have volunteer. Huh? He returns. You hold the mind that when he returns. Yes. Well, you've got a lot of scripture on your side, haven't you? When he shall put down all rule, he must reign until he's put down all rule and authority. That's at the second coming, isn't it?
Both are true, of course. What is worth observing it for now is the extent of the great gospel that Joshua is preaching to you. They were into the inheritance before all rule and authority was put down.
