The Commissioning of Joshua: The Command from Joshua, The Committment from the People

Take your Bibles, would you, and open them to the book of Joshua.

And we're going to be in chapter 1 once again. And finish up chapter 1 tonight. We started to look at this last time.

I started to say last week. It wasn't last week. Two weeks ago. We made it through the first nine verses. And now we want to finish the chapter tonight. So let me go ahead and read the larger text.

That would be from verse 1 all the way through verse 18. Or indeed the first chapter of the book of Joshua. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead.

Now therefore, rise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses.

From the wilderness of this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage.

For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

And to the Reubenites and Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke, saying, Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land.

Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan, But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them, until the Lord has given your brethren rest as he gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them.

Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise. So they answered Joshua, saying, All that you command us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.

Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you. Only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, and all that you command him shall be put to death.

Only be strong and of good courage. All right, that's the chapter. The entire chapter, chapter 1 of the book of Joshua. Now, to set this up once again, in the closing verses of Deuteronomy, remember Deuteronomy just kind of leads us right on into Joshua, and then Joshua, of course, leads us on into the book of Judges.

So there's continuity, there's unity, there's a progression here, and Joshua is very key in our understanding of that from the Pentateuch, from the first five books of the Bible, leading us on into when the people finally possessed the land, and then some of the things that began to happen after that.

And so, again, in Deuteronomy, chapter 34, verse 5, the Bible says, So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab.

You remember the story. God allowed Moses to look and to see over into the land, but he did not allow him to go into the land, and he died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.

And he, that is God, that's he with a capital H, God buried him, buried Moses, in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor, the Bible says, but no one knows his grave to this day.

All right, so it was a secret burial, secret funeral. God conducted the funeral, buried Moses, and no one knows where that grave is. It doesn't really matter anyway, does it? Because we know, by the way, Moses is not lying there asleep in the grave, is he?

Because Peter, James, and John saw Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration. Anyway, let me go on with the closing, these closing verses in Deuteronomy. And the children of Israel, the Bible says, wept for Moses.

They wept for him. They loved him. He was their great leader, their deliverer, their leader, their lawgiver. They wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days, so 30 days of mourning.

And so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. And then we have Joshua. And Joshua, the son of noon, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him.

It's kind of a passing of the torch, you know, so to speak. And so the children of Israel heeded him, Joshua, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

And then a few words are said about Moses. And then we go right on in to verse 1 of chapter 1 of the book of Joshua. And the Lord spoke to Joshua. He's not speaking to Moses anymore.

Moses is dead. He's been buried. And now God's attention turns to Joshua. And he speaks to Joshua. And he said to him, Moses, my servant, is dead.

And he's not announcing that. Joshua already knew that. But there's a transition about to take place. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore, now he's speaking to Joshua, arise, get up, go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I am giving them.

All right, so, Moses, the great leader of Israel, has died. And so the time has come for Joshua to lead, to lead God's people.

He's been prepared for that, groomed for that. And so the primary theme of Joshua chapter 1, again, is the commissioning of Joshua. Before we get into the really neat stuff, guys, about the battles, the battle of Jericho, and all those kind of things, before we get into that part, we must see the commissioning of Joshua.

And that's what this chapter is about. And I've divided the chapter into three parts, if you recall. Although the second part, I changed the name a little bit. So if you took notes last time, there'll be a little discrepancy here.

I didn't like the way, well, anyway. Three parts, the call from God. That's the first part. That's the part we looked at last week, or two weeks ago.

Second, the command from Joshua. I think I had called it the, what did I call it? Now I've even forgot what I said. All right, someone did take notes, right down here, and back here too.

I call it the challenge from Joshua, but as I've looked deeper into the text, it's really not a challenge, it's a command. In fact, the word command is right there in the passage. All right, so that's the second part.

And then the commitment from the people. So the call from God, the command from Joshua, the commitment from the people. And you can see those divisions pretty clearly in the chapter. Now, just a little bit by way of review.

Last time we considered the call from God. And this is kind of the commissioning proper here in the chapter. Verse 1, God is speaking directly to Joshua, all right?

He is commissioning Joshua. And Joshua is the one that is going to be leading God's people into the promised land. And I said that first, it is a call to claim that land.

It's been given. It's their inheritance. But they must claim it. And this call is given to Joshua as he leads the people.

So it's a call to claim the land. God said in verse 2, Go over this Jordan. That's the Jordan River. You and all this people, all the people of Israel, to where?

To the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. And he said in verse 3, Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you.

All right, so this is the first part of his commissioning. A call to claim the land as leader of Israel. The second part of it is a call to confidence in the Lord.

Again, by way of review, some of you might not have been here a couple of weeks ago, Sunday nights ago. The call to confidence in the Lord three times in these verses, these initial verses in chapter 1.

The Lord says directly to Joshua, Be strong and of good courage. Be courageous. And to be the leader of Israel, he's going to have to be that. And so this is the call to put all of his confidence in the strength of the Lord.

And so this is what we looked at a couple of weeks ago and now we're ready to consider a few more things about the commissioning, the Lord's commissioning of Joshua. First, the call.

Second, the command. The command from Joshua. Now, this too is a part of his commissioning. And it really, in a very real way, a very dynamic way, substantiates, validates that Joshua has been commissioned by the Lord because now he's able to turn to the people and command them.

And that's exactly what he does. In fact, that is the key word for the next several verses that we're going to be looking at here. Then Joshua commanded. The key word is the word commanded.

You see, Joshua is now Moses' successor. All right? That's very clear. And God had chosen him, Joshua.

Even through Moses had changed his name from Hashiach to Yeshua or Joshua. Thereby combining God's name with Joshua's original name.

And it means Jehovah is salvation. And so God has chosen him. Moses has taught him, prepared him to lead.

And we see some indication of that even in the text that we're looking at here tonight. And then Moses laid hands on him and signifying the kind of passing of the torch, the leadership from Moses now to Joshua.

And according to Deuteronomy 34.9, I read it a moment ago, the children of Israel confirmed the call. They heeded him. They obeyed him and did as the Lord commanded Moses.

That is, they obeyed Joshua just as they had been obeying Moses. To them, it was a smooth transition from Moses to Joshua.

In fact, Moses was very wise in this, in bringing Joshua alongside of him and serving with him as his advisor, as his servant in a sense.

And so, Joshua was very visible to the people. And so, it was just a very smooth changing of the guard from Moses then to Joshua.

And so now, Joshua's been called by God, commissioned by God, and now he gives commands to the people. And he gives a two-fold command to the people of Israel.

The first command is issued to all the people, all the people of Israel. The second command is issued to two and a half tribes of Israel.

Reuben, the tribe of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh. We'll get to them here in just a moment and kind of explain what that's about if you don't remember from Scripture.

And so, he gives two commands. Now, before we look at these two commands, we should also notice that in verse 10, the Bible says that Joshua commanded the officers of the people.

The officers of the people saying to the officers, pass through the camp and command the people. So he's commanding the officers to command the people.

Now, this is important. I don't know that it's necessarily important by way of any particular application, though I think we could see an application here, some very practical, very wise application.

But this is something that Joshua had learned from Moses. And, well, actually, the structure had already been put in place by Moses, and Joshua is continuing to operate according to this very wise structuring of leadership in the nation, the nation of Israel.

Israel. And, now, it's something that he learned from Moses and carried it on, but Moses also learned it. Moses learned it actually from his father-in-law, Jethro.

And maybe you remember this from Scripture. And you really have to go back to, though it's repeated a couple of times, other places in Scripture, you have to go back to Exodus. And Exodus chapter 18 and verse 12.

If you want to turn to it, you can. You don't have to go back very far. But let me just start reading with verse 12. And this, very quickly, I think, will remind you about this.

Verse 12, the Bible says, Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to the Lord. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

So, Jethro is here present. And so it was on the next day that Moses sat to judge the people. And the people stood before Moses from morning until evening.

And we get the idea that this was a daily thing. From morning until evening. So, when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, what Moses did for the people, he said, What is this thing that you are doing for the people?

He said, What are you doing here? Why do you alone sit? And all the people stand before you from morning until evening. And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

That is, this is the demand that's placed upon me. When they had have a difficulty, they come to me. And I judge between one and another, and I make known the statutes of God and his laws.

So Moses' father-in-law, this is Jethro, said to him, The thing that you do is not good. Not good, not wise, not good for you, not good for anybody.

Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. I like the way that's put. Wear yourself out, for this thing is too much for you.

You are not able to perform it by yourself. And then skip on down to verse 21, you'll see what his recommendation was. Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

You see, kind of a structure of leadership so that no one is responsible for such a vast number of people that they're not, either not able to lead effectively, or they just simply, as God's word says, wear themselves out.

And so this was great advice from Jethro to Moses, and Moses took that as a word from God. And so he organized this structure within his leadership there over the people.

And you can look in another place, as a matter of fact, and see that God not only sanctioned this, but actually I think it was coming from him through Jethro, this wisdom.

But he also, I think, passed some authority, some special leadership, kind of spiritual leadership, that he endowed, empowered these officers to have.

You can look at Numbers chapter 11, verse 16, and see that very clearly. He says, the Bible says, so the Lord said to Moses, gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them.

This is coming from that structure that had been put in place according to Jethro's advice. And bring them to the tabernacle of meeting that they may stand there with you.

Then I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take of the spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you that you may not bear it yourself alone.

And so, this is very wise, isn't it? Of course, coming from God. And so, this kind of explains why Joshua now is continuing to operate with the same kind of leadership structure that was put in place by Moses, and so he's very wise in that.

And I think it's also crucial to understanding what is going on here in Joshua chapter 1. God is delegating authority through men.

And he did that with Moses, Moses, and then Joshua, and through Joshua to the officers of the people that had been put in place to be in charge of a certain segment of people, actually to be in charge of a smaller number and yet a smaller number and yet a smaller number of people.

And God is operating his authority through Joshua, through the officers, and through the officers to the people. And so the first command is then issued to all of Israel.

Now let's get to those commands. It's a two-fold command, two-part command. First of all, it was a command for readiness. A command for readiness, and that's what we see in verses 10 through 11.

And again, this is issued to all of the people, all of the people of Israel. Look again in verses 10 and 11. Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, pass through the camp and command the people, that's what I just talked about, saying, and here's the command, prepare provisions for yourselves.

For within three days you will cross over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess. So here is the announcement that they've been waiting for.

In fact, they've been eagerly waiting to hear this, hear these words, and they've been waiting how long? Forty years. Forty years to hear these words spoken.

And now, here it has come. But they must prepare. They're going to go in and possess the land that has been given to them by God and God has given it to them as an inheritance, but they are going to have to go in and possess it and conquer it and so they must prepare some things.

And he doesn't really go into a lot of detail about what they are to prepare. In fact, it's really scant detail. In fact, it is kind of the bare essential. It's food.

Basically, it's what he's saying. Prepare provisions for yourselves. Now, do you know what the children of Israel have been been living on for 40 years?

Manna. Well, quail was in there too. But primarily manna. Now, this was manna from heaven. Do you know what manna is? Very good.

It means, what is it? Which means what? I don't have any idea what it is. We don't today either. You know, it might have been cheeseburgers from McDonald's. I don't have any idea. I doubt that.

But they were living on manna and for 40 years God had been, as it were, spoon-feeding them throughout their wilderness wanderings until they finally come to the brink of the land itself.

In fact, it's about to stop now. The manna's going to stop. The, you know, the floodgates of heaven are going to be shut and no more manna is going to be coming down.

And we already knew this was going to happen from Exodus chapter 16 verse 35. The Bible says, And the children of Israel ate manna forty years.

It must have been really good stuff by the way. I know that Israel did complain about it. Well, who was it that wrote that song about manna burgers?

Keith Green, yeah, Keith Green had that silly song. Anyway, forty years it says, until they come to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

Now, that's where they are, right? So, the manna, that's going to stop. And so, they must prepare their own food is basically what he's saying.

Now, you know, we don't have a lot of detail here, but they're going to have to get ready because they're going to go across the land and there's going to be any more manna and so they're going to have to be prepared. I mean, there aren't any armies that can go on empty stomachs and so they're going to have to take care of these things.

We don't know how they did that or what they were supposed to do about that, but this is what God is saying to them. He's commanding them, be prepared. Prepare yourself, your provision because in three days we're going to cross this river and then it's on.

We're in the land and there to conquer it. And so the children of Israel had been wandering for 40 years and they had been wandering in the wilderness and God had been, again, as it were, spoon-feeding them.

They're like little children. They're not ready. They were not ready for their inheritance, not ready to claim their land. They were not ready to possess it, ready for the battles that were going to inevitably come.

But now it is time, time to go, time to possess their promise. Now, I think there's an application here for us, for Christians today.

Remember, I said last week that the land of Canaan, the Canaan land or the promised land is not symbolic of heaven. It's symbolic of not just the saved life, but the spirit-filled life, the victorious Christian life.

It's a symbol of that. And so, if Canaan, the promised land, is the victorious Christian life, then to possess that land, in order for us to possess that land, our diet has to change.

I'm not talking about food, although maybe there is an application there concerning food, I don't know, and I'm not going to try to make one, but I'm talking about what we feed ourselves on, spiritually speaking, and as well as other things in our life.

There's got to be a diet change. Things, you know, the things we feed on must change. We must be prepared, or be prepared to diligently feast upon the Word of God.

If you're going to live the victorious Christian life, then you need meat, and you don't need to be spoon-fed.

You need to get into God's Word for yourself, and feed upon the Word of God, and begin to live out that Word. We must walk by an entirely new set of standards, and I think this is a good application from this particular passage.

In fact, Colossians chapter 3 would be a good, I think, parallel text for this. Considering the Spirit-filled life, the victorious Christian life, in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1, the Bible says, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now, now you yourselves are to put off all these things, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

And I could go on and on. I think there's an application here. Each one of us, as believers, should be moving forward to possess what God has given us, our inheritance.

And I believe in this life, on this planet, it is the victorious Christian life. And that requires a change, requires a new diet, it requires going beyond being spoon fed.

He goes over into a diligence as we search God's will for ourselves, and as we live out his word in this life, according to his grace.

Alright, so Joshua is commanding the people. First, a command for readiness. Second, a command for responsibility. A command for responsibility.

Now, this command is not issued directly to the entire nation. This command is issued to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh.

And you might remember that the people of these tribes had requested the land east of the Jordan. Not in the promised land, well, in the promised land, but east of the Jordan.

And the reason was because it was a great land to raise cattle, basically, is what they said in Numbers 32. Good land to raise their cattle and they liked the look of this land.

It was outside of the promised land, but they desired it, and we'll not go into all the details about that, but Moses granted their request.

But he did so with one proviso, remember? That they must fight alongside their brethren. In fact, matter of fact, as you look, as we're going to look a little bit later, the warriors from these tribes led the advance in a number of the campaigns, but this was the proviso, they must fight alongside their brethren until the land has been conquered, and you can read about that in Deuteronomy chapter 3, verses 12 through 20, this proviso.

Now, Joshua then is commanding them in connection with this commitment, this provision. Joshua commands them to obey their commitment.

Look at verse 13. Remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, saying, the Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land, which is, by the way, the land west of the Sea of Galilee to the north and west of the Dead Sea to the south.

Basically, if you could follow the Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea and the River Jordan, all that land east of there, not all of it, but a good portion of it, was the land that they desired.

The promised land is west on the other side of the Jordan River, remember. All right, so that's your rest. I've given that to you. And he says, your wives and your little ones and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of Jordan.

So you can leave your families there and take care of things. But, he says, all your, but you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them until the Lord has given your brethren rest as he gave you.

And they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them. then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you on this side of Jordan toward the sunrise, that is, toward the east or east of the promised land.

Now, as a side note, years later, when Israel was a divided kingdom, and you had the southern kingdom which was called Judah, and you had the northern kingdom which of course went by the name of Israel.

And so in the time of the divided kingdom, eventually the Assyrian army would invade the northern kingdom and conquer them and lead them away captive, remember?

The Assyrian army. This happened before Babylon, of course, Babylon defeated the Assyrians, and then Babylon later would go and conquer the southern kingdom, Judah, and conquer them and lead them captive.

But the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians, and guess what? Reuben, Gad, and the eastern half of the tribe of Manasseh were the first to be conquered.

Now, these tribes who settled for land outside of the promised land, I think they represent for us believers that we might call borderline Christians.

I'm serious about it. Now, I know God allowed them to possess that land, and Moses gave them permission to possess the land or to settle in the land outside of the promised land, but I think it was to teach a lesson.

These borderline Christians, I guess we're not, I'm not talking about half Christians, I'm talking about Christians who are just right on the border of where God really wants them to live as believers, this victorious Christian life, outside the promised land.

Borderline Christians are people who have trusted Jesus for salvation, but that's about as far as they've gone, and they remain kind of baby believers, baby Christians, and they'll come to church when they want to.

Tithe when they think they can afford it. Fight a battle, you know, spiritual battle every once in a while. But they're easy pushovers, and most often they just kind of play around the edges, and they refuse to put God absolutely first in their lives.

And this type of believer is usually the first to fall, to fail, in times of temptation. Kind of like Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh were the first to fall in all of Israel, all of the nation of Israel.

All right, now then, we're looking at the commissioning of Joshua, the call from the Lord, the command from Joshua, and now third and finally, the commitment from the people.

The commitment from the people. Now, Joshua, his command was twofold, but the people's commitment was threefold, a threefold commitment.

Verse 16, in verse 16, they committed themselves to a life of surrender, a life of surrender. So they answered, verse 16, so they answered Joshua.

All right, now it's time for the people to respond. God has spoken, then Joshua spoke, and now the people are going to speak in response. And so they answered Joshua saying, and get this commitment.

All that you command us, we will do. And wherever you send us, we will go. That's quite a commitment, isn't it?

I mean, think about this. This is absolute, total commitment, isn't it? Now, spiritually speaking, and I'm going to keep coming back to a spiritual application, this really is the only way to spiritual victory.

Total, absolute, no strings attached, no exceptions, no footnotes, you know, just total surrender of every area of life to the will of God and to His leadership.

That is total surrender. Now, that's what they're saying. Now, did they live up to that? No, they failed. Failed a number of times.

That's why we have the book of Judges. Judges and even beyond Judges, all throughout the Old Testament, on into the New. Nevertheless, they meant it when they said it.

And it is a reference to, or a challenge, really, to us, that we should make that same commitment to the Lord and to renew it daily.

Because it has to be renewed every day. It's not something you can just do one day and then that's just all there is. Because there's going to be the ebb and flow of our commitment to the Lord.

Because we're fallen creatures and we sin and all of that. And so we need to recommit ourselves each day and say to God, all that you command us or all that you command me, I will do.

And wherever you send me, I will go. That's the kind of commitment that each of us must have. That's the kind of commitment that's indicative of a believer who's living in the promised land.

The victorious Christian life. Verse 17, they committed themselves to a life of submission. Submission to leadership. He says, just as we heeded Moses or submitted to Moses in all things, so we will heed you.

Only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Let me ask you something. To whom were the people submitting? To Joshua?

Well, yes, but not first. To Moses, even though he's dead? Well, yes, but not first.

Their submission was to God. Notice, look at it again. Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you.

And then there's this condition. Only the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Now, I believe it is right for a congregation to follow the leadership of its pastor.

I really believe that. And there is, and we can prove it from Scripture, there is a degree of authority that's vested in the office of pastor. I don't think there's any doubt about that. A church should follow him.

But only if the Lord is with him. Because we're following, first and foremost, the Lord.

And as we see the Lord's leadership in the life of the pastor, then we follow him. And I think that's the lesson here in this kind of phase or the second part of their three-part commitment.

Then verse 18, they committed themselves to a life of separation. A life of separation. They're going to be a separated people.

And anyone who's to the contrary, well, they're just not going to make it. All right? They are committed to separation. Whoever, they said, now listen to this, whoever rebels against your command, they're speaking to Joshua.

But of course, with that condition that the Lord is with him, whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words, in all that you command him shall, what?

Be put to death. Wow. Only be strong and of good courage. So they're getting the same thing, or he's getting the same thing from them as he got from God three times.

Be strong and of good courage. Now, this is pretty strong, isn't it? I mean, this stand they're taking. Apparently, not everyone was on board with Joshua as the successor of Moses.

I mean, apparently so. Or, apparently, the people could foresee down the road, maybe even very soon, rebellion. Rebellion and disunity toward Joshua's leadership.

And since Joshua's leadership was essentially God's leadership, they saw the two as the same, rebellion against Joshua was rebellion against God.

And so, it must be severely dealt with. Now, that is exactly what they're saying. Now, what's the application? Well, the application is not that we should put to death any member of the church who does not follow the pastor.

There. Right. Yeah. Now, if we're going to do that, I'll let the elders do that. I can't. I'm not going to. Okay.

That's certainly not the application. Remember, we must see the spiritual application here in the life of the individual believer. believer. We don't go into the promised land.

That is, we don't enter into a life of victorious Christian living in groups. We do it individually. And so, we must see the application of this in regard to the individual believer.

believer. When rebellion springs up in your life as a believer, and it will and does all the time, then it must be dealt with and must be dealt with severely and radically.

And this is where we make our mistake. Because it's not just simply the things that we must do to feed our souls. Like feeding upon the word of God so that we grow in our understanding of scripture and in our spiritual growth and maturity.

It's not just simply that, but there is another side of it. We must deal radically and severely with points of rebellion that crop up, that raise the head in our lives.

Deal with it radically. And the Bible speaks to that in a number of places. In fact, I already read one reference to it. Let me read another one. Romans 8.13. Where God says, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit, that is according to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Holy Spirit, you put to death.

I like the old King James word, mortify. That means put to death. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

And so the application, I think, is pretty clear. Here are the people in their commitment to live a totally separated life from the world. And the rebellion that is indicative of it.

If that rebellion comes up within the nation, then they will be dealt with radically, put to death. Now, we're not advocating that economy, that system today.

All right. But the application to the spiritual life is valid. That is, when rebellion, when points of disobedience crop up in our lives, we must deal with it, mortify it, no matter what it takes to remove that from our lives.

And I'll go ahead and read Colossians 3.5 again, as I read it a moment ago. Therefore, here's the same word, mortify. But only in the English, it's three words. Put to death your members which are on the earth.

Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. And then this reminder, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the children or the sons of disobedience.

These are the very things that evoke the wrath of God. So why should we allow them to persist and be present and to flourish in our own lives? They must be put to death, mortified.

Take care. Thank you.