Scripture focus: Joshua 1:10-11
Disclaimer: Please forgive any typographical, grammatical, and/or content errors in the following notes. They are not meant to be an exact transcription, but rather a helpful guide for those who appreciate the written word along with the spoken word. If you have any questions on what was taught, feel free to reach out on our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Introduction
It was 1983 – LA Raiders vs. Washington Redskins – one of the greatest regular season NFL games of all time and both teams were top in their division. John Riggins, a bruiser and beast of a player for the Redskins was a difficult force with which to contend; as well as their offensive running back Joe “Lightning” Washington. The Raiders, including middle linebacker, Matt Millen, struggled to contain the dual powers and they lost the game. The Redskins had prepared better for that game and knew how to exploit the Raiders weaknesses.
There is value in preparation and many times our endeavors rise and fall on the time we take to prepare. However, there is a danger to preparing in our own strength and we can overthink things, therefore there is a healthy balance to preparation through God’s grace and that’s the theme we’ll be looking at in this teaching and the next.
Context
What has happened leading up to this point in Joshua? The context of the wandering years:
Exodus
2 month timespan:
- God, now known to Moses by the covenantal name, “I Am,” tasks Moses with leading Israelites out of 400 year Egyptian captivity.
- Plagues, Passover, Red Sea crossing and immediate complaints about food. Manna is provided. More complaints about water. Moses strikes rock and water is provided.
- Victorious battle with the Amalekites. Joshua first appears in Scripture as commander.
- Israelites arrive and set camp at Mt. Sinai (aka Mt. Horeb).
10 month timespan:
- Moses receives tablets, idolatry in the camp, Levites are named priests, Moses goes back up Mt. Sinai, renewal of covenant.
Leviticus
Laws of purity, behavior, etc.
Numbers
12 month timespan:
- Celebration of Passover at Sinai exactly 1 year after the first.
- God through the pillars of cloud and fire leads them northward from Sinai to Kadesh Barnea (southwest border of Promised Land) with about 20 stops. Israelites continue their traveling complaints along the way. God continues to provide as well as bring judgment through plague.
- 40 days are spent spying the Promised Land. Only Caleb and Joshua give a good report. The 10 faithless spies die and the Israelites rebel. Consequences are threefold: 1) plague, 2) Amalekites and Canaanites victorious in battle versus the Israelites, 3) must wander for 40 years until the unfaithful generation dies.
40 year timespan:
- Northeast Arabian desert wanderings. No record of exact locations with dates given, but at some point in the 40 years Korah’s rebellion takes place, judgment is given, some laws and duties for priests are given, and a sabbath breaker is executed.
End of 40 years:
- Miriam dies.
- Israelites need water, Moses strikes the same rock when instructed by God to speak to it. Moses will now not enter the Promised Land.
- Israelites must journey east and north to cross into the Promised Land via the Jordan now.
- Aaron dies and Eleazar is named high priest.
- Israelites rebel again and commit idolatry by mixing with the surrounding people. Judgment of snakes. Cure of the bronze snake lifted up points to Jesus.
- New census taken.
- Defeat of 5 kings.
- Tribes of Manasseh, Reuben, and Gad request the land they just conquered. Moses grants them the land, but they must still fight to conquer the Promised Land over the Jordan.
- Camp at Moab (present day country of Jordan).
Deuteronomy
- Moses preaches a sermon that focuses on the Israelites’ history, God’s covenant, and the curses and blessings. Sermon in a nutshell – this is what happened to your parents, don’t make the same mistakes, this is what God expects, and the result will be a blessing or a curse from the Lord.
- Moses is led up a mountain, shown the Promised Land, and dies.
- Joshua is now the leader.
Joshua
- Israelites camped at Shittim – 6 miles from the Jordan River crossing.
Today’s Biblical Text
Joshua 1:10-11 – And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, “Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’”
- Immediate Response
- Verse 10 starts out with And/Then/So depending on translation. This does not occur in the Hebrew text, which begins simply with “Joshua commanded…” The and/then/so is added in English to convey the Hebrew sense of immediacy.
- Delayed obedience is disobedience. Hesitation and delay often lead to reluctance and an opening for the enemy to foment the reasons and rationalizations for our disobedience. Like a cold swimming pool – if we just dip our toe in and feel the water, we’ll convince ourselves we shouldn’t go in. We need to jump right in! This is the obedience that brings blessing. Psalm 119:57-60 says, “The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.”
- Deuteronomy 1:2 lets us know it was only an eleven day journey from Mt. Sinai to Kadesh Barnea that took 40+ years because of fear and lack of trust in the Lord.
- Procrastinators beware! Putting off what the Lord wants you to do leaves you open to attack. James 4:17 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” Praise God the curse of disobedience and the eternal consequence of sin is dealt with on the cross of Christ!
II. Prepare…
- In Hebrew, ‘prepare’ means to firm up and secure, to make something settled so it will endure the hardship to come. Prepare with the expectation that there will be trouble and the worst will come.
- Proverbs 24:27 says, “Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.” Once again, in the Hebrew mindset one must get everything ready and then build – not working throughout the process or in stages.
III. Count the Cost
- Luke 14:28-30 says, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”
- Are you a starter and not a finisher? There is a fine line between faith and foolishness. Sometimes the Lord will clearly direct us and tell us to go and other times the Lord will tell us to take our time and prepare. We need to wisely discern whether to immediately go or intensely plan. Usually a primary indicator between a stewardship exercise that will involve intense planning (e.g. Noah’s Ark) or quick movement of faith will be the sense of timing and immediacy.
- When given a task, the two dangers we can fall into are 1) complacency – I’m comfortable where I am, and 2) cost – I’m not willing to pay the cost/sacrifice as much as will be needed for this project. The wandering Israelites always got comfortable when they settled and were tempted to sin and then the Lord moved them and they complained about the cost. The analogy scripture gives of this complacency is Proverbs 26:11: “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”
B. Here’s a beautiful thing – when Jesus talks about counting the cost he’s talking about the cost he already paid on the cross. The beautiful thing about preparing for the worst and which gives us a prepared mindset about what we will face is knowing that Jesus already paid the cost, he has already prepared the way, he has already died that we may live. To a Christian, there is nothing that can take away our life with Christ and therefore anything that I face in this world pales in comparison to the eternal weight of glory we look forward to!
IV. …Your Provisions
- In Hebrew, ‘provisions’ means food. God’s provision of manna is going to stop, but God doesn’t tell them it’s going to stop. So often God doesn’t tell us the reason why, but He gives us instructions on how to prepare in faith and trust for the next step. In the Greek translation, ‘prepare’ denotes a specific task, not generally being prepared and we will look at this kind of preparation deeper in the next teaching.
- In regards to provisions/food – What are you feeding yourself spiritually? What is going into your soul through your eyes and ears? We are responsible to spiritually feed ourselves and then feed others. Children (and even some adults) need to have food prepared for them so they will have healthy sustenance. This is true for our children spiritually in discipleship relationships. Commentator Dan Robinson gives a great illustration often seen in churches – The person who says, “Pastor, I’m just not being fed right now,” indicates either that they don’t know how to feed themselves or they don’t have the responsibility to find community that can feed them. Please recognize if you’re hearing that from someone we should come around them and teach them!
- See Hebrews 5:12-14 – For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
- Bottom line with our provisions/food – Are we practicing discipleship? It’s not just about greedily packing and consuming so we’re full. This will lead to prideful and theological self-righteousness. It’s about turning and feeding others as well. Prepare and feast on the sweet nectar of encouragement from community, the bread of life and the living water of Jesus.
- This is illustrated by a man journeying through a long desert who makes camp to rest and eat. He has three dates remaining in his bag. He breaks out the first date and sees by the firelight that there’s a worm inside so he throws it away. He gets out the second date and sees that this one has a worm as well so he throws it into the fire to burn. He takes out his last remaining date, puts out the fire, and eats it. We don’t prepare well and we’re left with garbage food that we continue to eat anyway because it’s all we know and it’s all we got. Are we eating the garbage of the world or are we taking the time to pursue the Lord whatever may come?
V. Preparation Heartcheck
- Sometimes we don’t count the cost and we’re unable to complete the task because of lack of planning. Sometimes we know the task we should do but we’re trying to do it in our own strength and this ends in failure. Sometimes we focus on the task so intently that we don’t take care of ourselves and we become malnourished emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, or relationally. Sometimes we count the cost and we don’t like the sacrifice so we complain and don’t move forward and the worst is when the consequences of our disobedience are brought to bear.
- So if you find yourself knowing what you’re called to do, yet unable to do it, what we need to ask ourselves is “What is preventing me from walking in obedience?” Start at the top and investigate down: How confident am I in who my God is and what he has done? Do I really believe that he is who he says he is, that he will provide all things, that he will protect and lead and guide and be my hope and my rock and my foundation? Do I believe I have eternal security in God because of what he has done for me, because I have submitted to him by faith? Have I taken the time to obediently prepare and marshall my resources and get rid of the garbage in my life so I can accomplish the task that the Lord is calling me to? If we can affirmatively answer these questions we will have victory and blessing. Note that victory and blessing is defined differently than the world.
Conclusion
It was 1983 – LA Raiders vs. the Washington Redskins – Super Bowl 18. Raiders linebacker Matt Millen was determined not to be defeated this time. He watched every single game that the Redskins played that year and found a chink in the armour. The Redskins offensive lineman, Russ Grimm, would give a small tell every time they ran an important play. Now Millen was able to break the line and stop the bruiser John Riggins. The Redskins compensated for this loss and brought in Joe “Lightning” Washington thinking Millen would not be able to keep up. The Raiders’ coach agreed and Millen was quite upset to be taken out of the game to be replaced by Jack Squirek, who rarely ever played but was fast. Squirek was able to beat his opponent, intercepting the ball to run it back for a touchdown and ultimate Raiders win of 38-9.
Preparation makes a difference! Sometimes it’s going to require sacrifice – you may even be taken out of the game – but you need to trust the Lord. Do your part, your due diligence, feed yourself good food so that you are ready with whatever may come. That is Hebrew preparation!