Joshua 1:1-4

Joshua's Commission.

This passage may be viewed under two main aspects:

As these points of view suggest two perfectly distinct and independent lines of thought, it is obvious that they are better fitted for two separate discourses than for being combined in one.

I. JOSHUA AS THE TYPE OF GOD 'S MINISTERS .

1. After the death of Moses, the task devolves upon his minister. So after the death of Christ, the task of conquering the world devolved upon His apostles, His "ministers." They who waited on Christ during His human life, who were with Him in His temptations, were the men appointed to carry on His work when He had gone hence.

2. By the express command of God. So the apostles not only had Christ's commission, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" ( Mark 16:15 ; 28:19), and "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you" ( John 20:21 ), but they were bidden to wait till the time was fixed ( Acts 1:4 ), and the Spirit poured out upon them from on high ( Acts 2:4 ). Hence we learn that no work, however high and holy, should be undertaken without the express intimation that it is God's pleasure we should attempt it; that no motives, however pure, will justify us in putting our hand to the ark ( 2 Samuel 6:6 , 2 Samuel 6:7 ) unless we are ordained by God to touch it. And if we ask how we are to know when we are so ordained, the answer—is

(a) by seeking counsel of God;

(b) by scrutinising carefully the purity of our own motives, lest we may have mistaken pride or self interest for the voice of God.

That intimation will be given in various ways. We know not how (see note on Joshua 5:1 ) Joshua was stirred up by God. But men are marked out for special tasks in three ways:

3. The command is based upon Moses' death. So all the work of God's ministers derives its energy from the death of Christ. It was the one all sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world that was the salt of the Apostles' mission. It is that same atonement which gives power to their successors now.

4. The work is of God, but the ministers are human. God might have performed His work without the intervention of means. But He has chosen to act through human instrumentality. Thus he magnifies His greatness even more than if He had done the work Himself. For human infirmities sorely mar the work of God. And yet that work goes on, and even human infirmity is overruled to God's glory ( 1 Corinthians 2:4 , 1 Corinthians 2:5 ; 2 Corinthians 4:7 ; 2 Corinthians 12:9 ). So it was with Joshua's error in judgment regarding the Gibeonites ( Joshua 9:14 ), and so it often is with our own.

5. Difficulties often present themselves, insuperable but by the hand of God. "Go over this Jordan." But how? The river was full to overflowing, the passage dangerous; in fact, for the whole multitude, in the face of the enemy, impossible. Yet the hand of God was stretched out, the river dried up, and what would have been a task of the greatest peril to themselves was instead a source of terror to their adversaries. So at the outset of great spiritual undertakings we are often confronted with difficulties far beyond our power to overcome. But "God showeth his voice," and they "melt away."

6. The result, possession of the promised land. The land promised to the Israelites was a limited space, but the spiritual Israel has the promise of the whole earth (see Genesis 12:3 ; Psalms 2:8 ; Isaiah 11:9 ; Daniel 2:35 , etc).

II. JOSHUA AS THE TYPE OF CHRIST .

1. After the death of Moses. The law could never give us our inheritance ( Hebrews 7:19 ); therefore Moses must die and Joshua arise. Again: the law was crucified together with Christ ( Romans 6:6 , Romans 6:10 ; Romans 7:4 ; Galatians 2:19 ; Galatians 5:24 ; Ephesians 2:15 , Ephesians 2:16 ; Colossians 2:14 ; also 2 Corinthians 3:14 in the Greek). As long as the law existed, man could only dwell in the wilderness, be dead in trespasses and sins, wander about without power to enter the promised land. He was continually confronted with a standard of holiness utterly beyond his strength to reach. But when Moses— i.e; the law—is dead, the true Jesus arises and leads His people into their inheritance, giving them the power to fulfil a law which He has written within.

2. Joshua was Moses' minister. So Christ was "made under the law" ( Galatians 4:4 ), and was bound, by His Father's will, to keep it. By His obedience alone was His sacrifice made acceptable to His Father. The law could but condemn us for being "weak through the flesh" ( Romans 8:3 ); we could not fulfil its precepts. But Christ condemned sin

3. Jordan must be crossed; i.e; Jesus must die. As our representative, He dies once for all to sin, and His death translates us into a new life. Henceforth, by virtue of His atonement, "sin has no more dominion over us," and we are, under His leadership, to destroy its empire forever. And we must follow Him through Jordan; that is, we too must die to sin and rise again unto righteousness. The river which divides our old condition from the new, which separates the wilderness from the promised land, is an eternal boundary between our condition by nature and our condition by grace. The waters of Jordan are likened by some to the waters of baptism, whereby we are "baptized into Christ's death;" and by others to the moment of conversion, when, by the power of God alone, we are changed from wanderers and outcasts into the covenant people of God.

4. The land must be conquered. It was a wicked land; a land the sins of whose inhabitants contaminated it by their example; a land which called for condign chastisement from on high. The land with which Christians have to do is either

In the first case it is the duty of the Church, in the second of the individual, in each case under Christ as a leader, to wage unceasing warfare against evil, in whatever forms it may be found. The character of that warfare will be indicated later. At present it will be sufficient to remark that the nature of the warfare itself is not changed, though its conditions are. The servants of God are eternally pledged to root out evil without compromise, and without mercy.

5. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. Every blessing was to be obtained there. Not only food, but delights. It is called emphatically "the good land" ( Deuteronomy 3:25 ; Deuteronomy 4:22 ). It contained every good thing man could desire ( Deuteronomy 8:7-9 ). So the steadfast determination to follow Christ, to him who is resolved to do so, insures us every blessing we need—the supply of our wants, means of defence against our enemies, and the means, moreover, of happiness and enjoyment—provided always that we do not cease the combat until all our enemies be destroyed.

HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE