IN THE DAY OF A NEW BEGINNING

Dr.  W.  A.  Criswell

Joshua 1:1-9

1-7-87    7:30 p.m.

 

 

The title of the message tonight is In The Day Of A New Beginning.  And we have read the background text, coming to the Jordan River after forty years of wondering in the Sinaitic desert.  And the day has come for them to enter into the land promised to their fathers.  There are two things to remember that God says here in the text.  The first is this: that the Bible, the indwelling Word of God, is to be their strength and their success.  In the eighth verse, the Lord said:

 

This book of the law—this book—shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to the things written therein; for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success.

[Joshua 1:8]

 

This book, this Word of God, is to be their strength and their success.  It is a wondrous and a marvelous thing how a man with God's Book in his hand and the Word of the Lord in his heart is almost invincible.  The power of God is in His Word.  Weaklings do exploits, when they have the sword of God's Word in their hands.  Nobodies, non-entities, broken reeds, arrows that a babe could snap in two, accomplish wonders and marvels when we follow the Word of the Lord.

In my first pastorate out of the seminary, I was in my twenties, in my middle twenties, and I was pastor in a college town.  Naturally, in the congregation were many learned professors.  They were doctors of every kind of a degree offered by the university systems.  And I was asked as a youth, “How did you feel standing up there in that pulpit with all of those learned professors seated in front of you?”  I replied, "When I stand up there with the Word of God in my hand and in my heart and in my mouth, there's no Ph.D., there's no Litt.D., there's no any kind of a “D.”  out there that has in his heart or in his life anything comparable to the power that I have in my hand and in my heart.”

Oh, dear, when you stand on the Word of God, your feet may tremble, but the power of the Lord in your hand is invincible!  And that's what God said to Joshua.  “When you go into the land, this book is not to depart out of your mouth.  Meditating in it day and night, it will be thy prosperity and thy success.”  [Joshua 1:8]  Then he said one other thing to him as he entered in: their victory was not to be of them, but of God.  As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”  [Joshua 1: 5]  Then the ninth verse: “For the Lord, thy God, is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”  It is to be all of God and not of us.

 

O the bitter shame and sorrow

That a time could ever be

When I let the Savior's pity

Plead in vain

And proudly answered,

“All of self and none of Thee.”

 

Yet He found me.

I beheld Him bleeding

On the cursed tree.

Heard Him pray,

"Forgive them, Father.”

And my wistful heart said faintly,

“Some of self and some of Thee.”

 

Day by day His tender mercy

Healing, helping, full and free,

Sweet and strong

And, ah, so patient

Brought me lower.

Then I whispered,

“Less of self and more of Thee.”

 

Higher than the highest heaven,

Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, Thy love at last

Has conquered.

Grant me now my supplication:

None of self and all of Thee.

[Theodore Monod, “O The Bitter Shame and Sorrow”]

 

It's of God, depending on the Lord.

When I was in my first pastorate, I belonged to an association, a Baptist association, in which Norman—the University of Oklahoma and the city of Norman was a part.  I was the pastor in the county seat of Grady County.  And Dr.  Hallock, Preacher Hallock, was the pastor in Union County, where Norman was the county seat.  He was a good deal older than I, and had already been in his pastorate seventeen years when I began my pastorate. 

Preacher Hallock had more inabilities than any preacher that I had ever seen who was in a prominent place.  He didn't look the part.  He didn't appear to be the part.  He was just disadvantaged.  And, yet, he had an incomparable work there in that university city, and remained there as pastor of the church 48 years, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Norman, Oklahoma—for 48 years.  I loved the guy.  He was just one of the dearest, godliest, holiest, sanctified men I had known in my life.  I was never in his presence that I didn't feel like a heathen and an infidel and a prodigal.  He was just so close to the Lord, it was marvelous just to be near him.

Well, I asked him, "How do you do when you are criticized and the church isn't friendly to you and you have enemies and they want to do things that hurt you and displease you?  What do you do?"

Well, he said, "I have a Bible verse that I hold dear to my heart, and I repeat it to myself all of the time.  And God comforts me and strengthens me."

Well, I said, "What is that Bible verse?  I'd like to know it."

He said, "It is Isaiah 54:17: ‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee, thou shalt condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.’"  And in that strength God was with him.  He continued his ministry there through all those years and years and years.  It is a wonderful thing, I am saying.  It is a glorious thing what God can do with a man whose heart is in His hand, and whose Word is in his soul.  That's what God said to Joshua: “You take Me with you, and I'll fight your battles for you.  And you take this Word as your sword and you'll never cease to prosper and to find success.”

Now, Joshua; there are some of the most marvelous things about him, and we're going to look at him just for a moment, in his appearances through the story of the people of the Lord.  His first appearance was at Rephidim.  That's a Hebrew word that means "the plains.”  He first appears there at a campsite before they had come to Mount Sinai.  They were just out of Egypt, and before they reached that holy mountain, they were camping in a place called Rephidim.  And there, you remember, Moses struck the rock and water flowed out.

And in that place of Rephidim, they were accosted by and challenged by the Amalekites.  And the young captain who leads the forces of God is named Joshua.  That's the first time we see him, the first time we meet him.  He is the captain of the armies of God as they are assailed by and attacked by the Amalekites.

Well, in the battle—and I'm so sorry you can't see that.  In my study, this looks big, but here it looks so small—I don't know whether you can see it or not.  This is a beautiful sculptured piece, a beautiful thing by a brilliant and capable young artist in Israel, in Jerusalem, named Jacob Heller.  He's very famous in that part of the world, and one of our families that was visiting in the Holy Land brought that sculptured piece back to me.  And it's in my study, over there where the pastor has his office. 

If you can see it, Moses is holding up his hands, and on one side of him is Aaron, and on the other side of him is Hur.  And, you remember the story when I mentioned those two men.   In the battle, as long as Moses held up his hands, praying to God, Israel prevailed.  But when his hands became weary and he was tired and he had to lower his hands because of weakness, then the Amalekites prevailed.  So, what happened was Aaron got on one side of him and Hur on the side of Moses and held up his hands, and held them up until Joshua defeated the Amalekites.  That's one of the most beautiful symbols that I could think for in all of the Word of God: holding up your hands—as long as your hands are held up before the Lord, God gives the victory.

 And Joshua is the leader of the armies down there in the plain, fighting Amalekites.  Now, there's something about him that appears here.  In that wilderness through which the children of God were wandering—in that wilderness they were constantly attacked.  The savage sun beat on them.  The savage stones were all around them.  Have you ever been to Mount Sinai?  That is the most desolate and rugged and forsaken spot on the earth.  There's not anything in the moon or the stars that is so barren as is that Sinaitic desert.  They were there and the sun beating on them, and stones all around them and savage beasts who attacked and more savage men to confront them.

Consequently, many of the people—the wilderness journeys of those people—many of them became bitter.  Many of them became disillusioned.  Many of them were complaining.  And they were saying, “O Lord, we remember the onions and the leeks and the garlic back in Egypt.  Would God that we had stayed in Egypt as slaves and died there!”

That's those people, but not Joshua.  Committed as he was, leading the army as he was, never discouraged as he was, if you will look closely at that man Joshua, there's only one time in his whole life, in that long ministry before God—with Moses and after Moses died—there's only one time that he fell down before the Lord in just absolute discouragement.  And that was when the men of Israel were defeated at Ai.  And that was because there was the sin of Achan in the camp.  That's the only time you'll find Joshua before God, just crushed.  But other than that, he never complained. 

The second time Joshua appears, he's accompanying Moses into the top of the Mount.  That Mount Sinai is absolutely one of the most impressive things in all this world.  It's so barren.  It's so empty.  It's so sterile.  It's so pointed.  It's so rough.  And Aaron and his two boys, Nadab and Abihu, with the seventy elders, when they went up toward the mount, they were left behind.  And Joshua alone accompanied Moses into the glory for forty days up there.

Oh, what a marvelous privilege to that young minister and that young captain!  When they came down from the mount after the forty days, you remember, they heard a noise in the camp.  And Joshua was a soldier and his reaction was as a soldier would react.

“Moses,” he says, “there is war in the camp.  We are being attacked.”  His reaction was militarily.

Moses said, “Joshua, my son, that's not war.  That's not the shouting of victory.  That's singing, the noise of singing I hear.”  And when they came near, there the people were, naked, dancing around a golden calf.  Not Joshua.  His consecration and devotion to Jehovah God never wavered and was never diluted.

The third appearance of this Joshua in the story is in Exodus 33:11.  Moses has gone up to the top of the mount to receive the new tables of stone, but no longer is Aaron complacent and compliant and accommodating.  No longer is Aaron down there in the camp.

Isn't it an amazing thing?  It is Joshua who is there, entrusted with the people of the Lord.  Isn't that an unusual thing?  Not Aaron, not the seventy elders, not Abihu, not any of them.  It's Joshua.  And Moses is up there talking to God, and Joshua is down there responsible before the Lord that the people are true and faithful to Him.

The fourth appearance is in Numbers 11.  Moses sends for the seventy elders and all but two respond: Eldad and Medad.  And Joshua reacted as a soldier would react: Insubordination and disobedience was not to be tolerated.  Moses, as you know, said, “Joshua, we just thank God for however His providences may work among the people and, if Eldad and Medad don't come, that's between them and God.”

Oh, dear!  I just think of that—talk about that to myself—you don't how many times.  Lord, Lord, great God, why don't our people respond?  Why don't they rise?  Why don't they march?  Why don't they listen?  Why don't they follow?  Why don't they obey?  Now, Pastor, that's between them and God.  That's not between you and them.  It's between God and them.  What you do and how you obey and how you follow, that's between you and the Lord.  I can pray, and I can encourage, and I can make appeal, and I can ask, but the verdict and the response is with the people.  I am not to be in any wise judgmental or condemnatory.  I'm just not.  That was Moses and Joshua; “You leave them alone.  We'll ask God's blessings upon them, whether they come or whether they don't.”

His fifth appearance, before the beautiful passage that you just read—his fifth appearance is in Numbers 13:14.  I just can hardly believe that, in the providences of God, there were men of such faith as Joshua and Caleb.  They were of the spies that sought out the land.  Now, these people are coming out of slavery, and they had been in shackles and in chains, under the whip.  They'd been that for hundreds of years.  They had the mentality of slaves. 

And when they sought out the land, there were great, walled cities in it.  And there were giants in it, men over nine feet tall.  And when they came back, they gave an honest report: “We've never seen cities like that.”  They never had walled cities in Egypt, and they never had any giants in Egypt like that.

And those people were warriors from their conception; they were soldiers.  And they came back and said, “Those walled cities, how could we storm them with our bare hands?  And those giants of Anak, we are grasshoppers in their sight: insects.”  And when the report was made, the people wept and lamented: “God has brought us here to confront walled cities and great giants with swords and shields.  And here we are, with our bare hands.”  It was a lamentation at Kadesh-barnea. 

Well, it just moves my heart to think about those two men, Joshua and Caleb.  What is a walled city compared to the great, mighty Jehovah God, and what are giants compared to the Lord?  God hath promised.  He is with us.  Let's march.  And the people refused to believe, and they turned back, and every one of them died in the wilderness, except two: Joshua and Caleb.  Lord, what a wonderful thing to be like that.  God is with us and He is invincible and omnipotent.

May I close with just this final word, which is, actually, the reason for the message tonight?  Do you know what Joshua's name is in Greek?  Any of you kids know?  What is Joshua's name in Greek?  Anybody?  Doug, what you teaching these kids?  What?  Joshua's name in Greek is Jesus, Jesus.  In the first chapter of Matthew, the angel says: “You're to call his name Jesus.”  That's the Greek.  Writing in Greek, Iesous, Jesus.  Had he spoken in Hebrew, the angel would have said, “You're to call his name Joshua,” Joshua, which means Savior.  “Call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”

And what a wonderful thing: Joshua is a type of the conquering Christ.  And I think of our Lord in those terms when I turn to the Apocalypse, and John is on his face before the Lord—the brightness, and the glory, and the iridescence of that marvelous, risen Savior, walking in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.  And He says the seven lampstands are His churches.  The seven represents the full number of His churches.  And the apostle John falls at His feet as dead.  The vision was more than a human heart could contain or receive.  And the story says that the Lord put His right hand upon him. 

Do you notice these little details in the Bible?  The Lord put His right hand upon him.  I don't know how many times, I suppose, the Lord had done that in the days of His flesh, put His right hand upon John: put His right hand upon him, talking to him, encouraging him, teaching him, commissioning him.  Put His right hand upon him, and said to him: “Don't you be afraid.  I am the Alpha and the Omega.  I began this history.  I'll end it.  I am Alpha and Omega, and all of these days are in My hands, all of them.”  Every providence of life, ultimately, is in God's hands.  “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end … I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of hell and of death.”  [Revelation 1:18]  The conquering Christ.  Lord, how encouraged we are to be in our work and in our lives!  Joshua, Jesus, Savior, our Lord.

Now, we're going to stand in a moment and sing us a hymn, sing us a song.  And, as we sing the song, someone here tonight, to give himself to that conquering Christ, that Lord who’s able to forgive our sins and to save us to Himself in heaven.  A family, put your life in the circle of our dear church, or to answer some call of the Spirit in your heart.  In this moment, when we sing our hymn of appeal, on the first note of the first stanza, a welcome awaits you.  Our people will love you.  It'll be a benediction just to have you close by: a prayer partner, a fellow pilgrim, a servant, loving the Lord Jesus.  Welcome.  I'll be standing right here.  You come and stand by me.  God bless you, as you answer with your life, while we stand and while we sing.