Remember, these are a collection of sermons or covenantal sermons that Moses gives to Israel on the plains of Moab before they go into the Promised Land under Joshua. And so let me read a few things to you in chapter 8. Listen carefully. Verse 1, the whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. So the land, remember, is a gift. It is an inheritance of the Father. It's part of the covenant promise that God has made to the patriarchs, okay? And this is the beginning of the fulfillment of it. But Moses is telling them, remember never to forget. Remember never to forget. And the historical books will show the people of God how they forgot to remember. All right, so how does the book of Deuteronomy help us to interpret and understand the former prophets and particularly Joshua and Judges? Well, because of Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy says, remember to never forget. And the historical books show how Israel forgot to remember. Very simply. And that is the key. It's a key, but I would be ready to say with the definite article, the key to understanding the historical books is what happened to Israel? How did they end up in exile? How did they lose the land again? How was paradise regained and then re-lost? They forgot to remember. And so verse 2 of chapter 8, you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And verse 3, and he humbled you and led you and let you hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone. But man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. So Moses is saying, never forget to remember the words of the Lord. And of course, we can all fast forward to the Lord Jesus, that faithful Israelite, who when he was in the wilderness, faithfully succeeded where Israel and we fail. And what did he use as his primary ammunition against the evil one? He quoted the book of Deuteronomy three times to show that he did not forget Moses' words, and that he's going to take the land. So it's very important when in Matthew 4, he says, it is written three times that we see that it's all from Deuteronomy. This is the true Israelite who hasn't forgotten, and he's faithful, and he's God in the flesh. So God goes on to show how they're to remember all of the wonderful ways that God has provided for him. And verse 6 of chapter 8, he says, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. All right, so all this is by gift, all this by promise. Verse 11, take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments. And then he goes on to say, take care lest when you have this land, you look around complacency and say, look at what I have done to possess this land. And so pride would puff you up. And then Deuteronomy 10, beloved, if you look in Deuteronomy 10, I'll read a couple of verses from that chapter. Again, we're answering the question as intro, how does the book of Deuteronomy help us to interpret and understand the former prophets generally and Joshua and Judges particularly? All right. In chapter 10, verse 12, listen carefully. Moses again says, and now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I'm commanding you today for your good? Behold, To the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your forefathers and chose their offspring above all peoples as you are this day. And then he gives them the Old Testament version of repent and believe. The Old Testament version of repent and believe, he says, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. And then look at chapter 12. Chapter 12, we're looking at how does the book of Deuteronomy particularly help us to interpret and understand, in general, the former prophets, and in particular, Joshua and Judges. And this chapter, we specifically, we very much need to understand the book of Judges. All right? This is a very key chapter of Deuteronomy in chapter 12. Listen to this. Verse 8. of chapter 12, Deuteronomy. You shall not do according to all that we're doing here today, everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. Anyone ever heard that phrase? Could y'all move up a little bit? All right. Come on. We want to be a part of this. Get your Bibles out. Turn to Deuteronomy. Yep. Come on. All right. Thank you very much. Grab your Bibles. Open your Bibles. Everybody got their Bibles open? If you don't have a Bible, I want you to get up right now and I want you to go get your Bible. All right. Please go get a Bible in the kitchen. OK? All right. Everybody ready? Got your Bible? Chapter 12 of Deuteronomy, listen very carefully, verse eight. All right, you shall not do according to all that we're doing here today, everyone doing what's right in his own eyes. Where do you hear that elsewhere in the old covenant? the book of Judges. Is it repeated in the book of Judges? It is. All right. There's so many more places we could go, but I just want you to see verse 9. Listen carefully. This is what ties here. These verses tie together both Joshua and Judges. In verse 8, everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. Verse 9, for you have not as yet come to the rest and the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. All right, so the rest and the inheritance is found in the land. All right, so again, verse 10, when you go over the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God has given you to inherit, when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so you can live in safety, then to the place the Lord your God will choose to make his name there, you shall worship and serve him. All right? All right, come on in. So how does the book of Deuteronomy then help us to interpret and understand the former prophets in general and the Joshua and Judges particularly, it's a collection of sermons to remind Israel never to forget. And what the book, the historical books do is show how Israel constantly forgot to remember. So Deuteronomy is to teach the people how that's important to remember never to forget. And the historical books show how Israel was sent into exile. They lost the promised land because they forgot to remember particularly the words of Deuteronomy. Okay. Is that clear? Any questions? Yes, sir. Yes. Let's wait and look at that when we get there. Okay. All right. Thank you for asking. Let's pray and begin our class. All right. Our Father and our God, thank you so much for your love for us. Thank you for bringing us here today. We know that your hand is guiding and governing everything that we do and say. We're thankful, Lord, for the Lord Jesus, our Savior. our great God in the flesh. We thank you that Jesus Christ is the one who's died for us and shed his blood for us. We thank you, Lord, that he's full of the Holy Spirit for whatever need we have. And we praise you that you would fill us, Lord, with your spirit this morning. We humble ourselves before your majesty and we ask you to help us to always remember to never forget the words of your scripture. And then help us, Lord, that we would in remembering them to fear you, to honor you, to serve you, to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors, ourselves. Help us today, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. OK, so I do want to say up front, just remember, there's a couple of things I just ask you to do before you come to the class, all right? And number one is pray for yourself and the class to be prepared. The second is to bring your Old Testaments with you, all right? Always bring your Old Testaments. Good. Everybody got that? And number three, all right? When you come to class, be as prepared as possible. You're going to get more out of it if you're prepared. All right? All right. So number two, if you don't have your Bibles, that's OK. All right? We all forget. But I do want you to get up right now, if you don't have a Bible, and go in the kitchen. and grab yourself a Bible that's on that shelf and then come back, all right? Because we do want to look at the word of God together. That's what the class is. It's Old Testament, all right? So thank you very much. All right, today we've looked at then the way that the book of Deuteronomy helps us to interpret and understand in general the former prophets or the covenantal history or what we call the historical books and particularly Joshua and Judges. And today our goal is to look at Joshua and Judges together Next week, Lord willing, we'll look at Samuel and Kings. Okay, and so we're going to look at Joshua in a summary form, Judges in a summary form, and then because it's so central, this idea of land, we're going to talk about that together. When we're looking at the former prophets, when we're looking at the historical books, we do always want to remember that the key to understanding them is found primarily in the book of Deuteronomy. The key to understanding them is found primarily in the book of Deuteronomy. Let me say a few things to remind us of where we are as we dive into Joshua and Judges. What would be the genre or the type of the former prophets of the covenant history we're entering into? What would be the form of the literature, primarily? Okay, yeah, it's history. Narrative, historical narrative. All right, so we can really, it's very much like the Pentateuch, right? So it's theological, covenantal, historical narrative. All right? And remember what that means to add the theological covenantal to modify historical. What does that mean, beloved? What does that mean when we put the theological covenantal before historical? Inspired by God. And it's written with a theological covenantal purpose. So, for instance, an example of that would be how the book of Judges repeats that the people were doing what's right in their own eyes. Well, why did they write it like that? Well, because Deuteronomy says that when you go into the land, you're not to do what's right in your own eyes. That's an example. So they're specifically picking up things that Moses had told them to remember and pointing out that they have forgot to remember. Okay, so that's a theological, covenantal, historical narrative. It is inspired by the Holy Spirit. All right, remember our three very important parts of the Old Covenant story that we are seeking to remember, the king, the covenant, and the tabernacle temple. the king, the covenant, and the tabernacle temple. As we go into Joshua and Judges, we want to look for where's the king, okay? When we think about Joshua and Judges, we want to ask this question as we enter into the books, as we're reading them, where's the king? Well, guess what Judges tells us. Several times at the end, there was no in Israel. Everyone did what was in their own eyes. So here you have an example of theological, covenantal, historical narrative because what's happening is it's using, lifting straight out of Deuteronomy 12, did what's right in their own eyes, and then taking Deuteronomy 17, the expectation of a king, and saying there was no king at the end of Judges. Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. So it's to suggest it is to theologically impress upon us the importance of a king. Where's the king? Covenant it continues the covenant promises over and over and Joshua and judges were told that the land is a gift The land is an inheritance. Why because the people of Israel were good people No Because they had been particularly more faithful than the nations. No Why was it a gift and an inheritance? Because God is gracious because they were chosen. Deuteronomy 7, I didn't set my affection on you and love you because you were better or more special than all the nations of the earth. Deuteronomy 7, 7 and following. But I set my affections on you and loved you because I loved you. I chose you. I chose you to make you lovable. So covenant, it's all because of covenant. It's all because of grace. It's all because of mercy. It's all because of God's promise to give this to them. And then tabernacle temple will get us closer as we're looking at Joshua and Judges. The tabernacle, if you remember, was the place where God met with his people. It was the old covenant version of Emmanuel, God with us. Have you thought about it? That it's kind of an incarnation, isn't it? because God condescended and humbled himself to live in a tent in the same thing that the people were living in, tents. And he moved about with them. He was with them. He's Emmanuel. So the tabernacle in more than one way shows that it's Jesus Christ, that it is God in the flesh in a typified form, the tabernacle. But the tabernacle also, as we're gonna look in a moment, shows us more about the land. Because what made the land special? Beloved, what made the land special? Other than it was a gift of God, of Yahweh to his people, it was an inheritance they were received, what really made the land special? Yes, Rick? Because God dwelt there. You know, God is everywhere present, right? That's what we affirm of Him. There's not one place where he's not wholly entirely present. Okay in a way that boggles our mind yet He's covenantally presence with his people in the midst of his people in a special way in the tabernacle in the land and what made the land special was God was there in the midst of his people if God removed his presence with the land be special No, not anymore There's a time when the land's special and is useful to pointing to an eternal hope of God's people living with God, and there's a time when that land will no longer be special. But the hope it points to will always be special. The eternal hope of God dwelling with his people will always be special and will always be a hope that never changes. So the redemptive historical time period of Joshua and Judges, very important, because Joshua takes place at the death of Moses. So we could say right at the end of the 1400, probably 1386 to be precise, but the time period between of Joshua through Judges would be somewhere around approximately circa 1400 BC to right around 1050 BC. So we've got a lot of time there, right? That's 350 years. And I think at this point, it's very important to understand that the Book of Judges serves as the background, or I should say the backstory to Samuel. Everybody knew that? Does everybody remember that? The book of Judges is actually going up to the time of Samuel. So what we're having in the last three chapters of Judges is in the time period right before the people have asked for Saul. So you see the point that Saul's from Benjamin, and Benjamin as if it's a place of Sodom. The Benjamites are acting like sodomite idolaters at the end of Judges. Well, then in Samuel, they're asking Samuel for a king and they have to choose him from, they want to choose him from Benjamin. Well, what kind of guy are you going to get out of Benjamin? You've already been told. You already know what kind of guy Saul is going to be. He's a Benjamite. They're filthy people at this time in redemptive history. So that's very important to understand that judge is a backstory. So here's the way to get this, you ready? In your mind, your leaders at this time would be Moses, then he dies. And Joshua picks up by saying, Moses is dead. Moses is dead. Moses is dead. And the question is, who will be the king greater than Moses? Who will be the prophet greater than Moses promised in Deuteronomy, promised by Moses? Who is the prophet he's going to send? Who is he? Who is he? All right. Joshua will be in his place for a season. And then at the end of Joshua, Joshua's dead. And at the beginning of Judges, Joshua's dead. Joshua's dead. So the second leader, the other faithful man, like Moses, is dead. So what's going to happen? The people are going to degenerate spiritually and do what's right in their own eyes. That's what the book of Judges is about. And then at the end of the book of Judges, it's going to say that there was no king in Israel. So they don't have a leader. Death has taken their two best leaders, and they're dead. But they're stuck. Well, not stuck. They're still living under or between God's promises in Deuteronomy. That He's going to send a prophet. He's going to send a king. They just got to wait. It's God's king, not their king. And so what do you have? When you get to 1 Samuel 1 and 2, you should understand that this is the time period of the judges. So when you think of Hannah's song, It's being sung as light in the darkness around them of all the deep. Israel deserves judgment. And here's this woman praying for a son. And the last of the judges is born by supernatural conception. God gives Hannah a son. His name is Samuel. Samuel is most likely the author of Judges. and the author of Samuel, at least most of it. Some people see Samuel as well as Nathan and Gad, the other two prophets, as also the authors of Samuel and Kings, all right? Or Samuel, at least, the books of Samuel. All right, so everybody follow me here? So what we're looking at here is, let's do this, you ready? The promise has been made for a prophet. The promise has been made for a king to come. And over 350 years pass And this woman's praying for a son, and God supernaturally causes her to conceive. Well, she conceives through normal means, but she's made alive in a dead womb. That's what I mean by supernatural. And she is, her womb is made alive, and she has a son, and his name is Samuel. And he is whom? Is he the one greater than Moses? At this point in redemptive history, he is. Is he the prophet there to listen to? Yes, he is. And he's the beginning of, we'll see this more in the next one, but he's the beginning of those offices of prophet, priest, and king coming together in one man. He sometimes does priestly things, he sometimes does prophetic things, and he obviously has a kingly aura as well, because the people think, well, it'd be good to make you king. Very easily could have been king. The point of Samuel is, you ready? Here it is. Here it is. This is the point of Samuel. He's the last of the judges. He's the first of the prophets. So the judges and the prophets now make a transition. The judges move in and advance into this prophetic ministry filled with the Holy Spirit. All right? So the judges were for a season. Samuel's the last of them. And then the first, the fountainhead of all the prophetic or all the prophets until whom? John the Baptist. He's the last of the Old Testament prophets. So that's the redemptive historical time period you want to remember. Judges, and Joshua, judges set us up for the prophetic ministry, the prophets. And can you see why now? The wisdom of putting this as former prophets and then latter prophets? You see the former prophets, what we call the historical books, are showing in narrative form how Israel forgot to remember. Then the latter prophets, the actual prophet ministries, beginning after Samuel, are showing the people both back what they've done wrong and pointing them forward now to the king, the prophet and priest who is to come. You see how beautiful that is in redemptive history? You see how that makes up a wonderful story? So that shows why the latter prophets, let me put it in a different way. You ready? The former prophets show them the problem and the faithfulness of God in the midst of that problem. The latter prophets tell them the solution that God will provide. And that solution is Jesus Christ. All right. Let's do a few things with Joshua now. Let's look at an introduction to Joshua. Mmm, raise your hand. What's uh, what's your summary of Joshua? Tell me what's your summary of Joshua? Come on, don't be shy. Let's go. Let's do it. What's that? Fulfillment of God's promise. We have that in chapter 21, don't we? And there's a partial fulfillment that everything that God had promised came to pass. I'll read that in just a moment, but it's I think chapter 21 verse 43. that all the things that God had promised had come to pass. That is a partial fulfillment. Listen, when it says things like that, it is true at that point in redemptive history. It's just we live on this side of the full... What else? What's another way of understanding Joshua? Yes, yes, yes, yes. OK, very good. It's a conquest, a covenantal conquest. Oh, I like that. All right. Whenever you have something, just put covenantal in front of it with a hyphen and you're good to go. All right. So covenantal conquest and it's an inheritance. All right. And beloved, as TJ just showed us, there's much in what he just said. The covenantal conquest shows the justice and the judgment of God. The inheritance shows the salvation, mercies. And you'll know this pattern and trend throughout the Bible, beloved. There's a pattern and trend throughout the Bible that every time God saves, he also judges. Every time God judges, he also saves. The Red Sea was a judgment for the Egyptians, all right, but it was a salvation for the Israelites. The cross was a salvation and a judgment. Noah's Ark was a salvation and a judgment. The preaching of the word every Sunday morning is salvation and judgment. If you fail to hear what Jesus says through the word, through the preacher, you're being judged if you fail to believe it, if you fail to trust in God. You're under God's judgment. You're called to repentance. But there's also salvation. It's a double-edged sword. It's a double-edged sword. The old preacher friend used to tell me, when you get a little shy, you know, you get a little nervous when you first start out preaching, he'd say, it's something we need to say to teachers and preachers with the authority of God given to them, is that you have to always remember you're not the one on trial. No matter what the people think, they are on trial as to whether they hear and believe. So always remember that. So it's, you know, we think as critics, you know, we come as critics sometimes, right? Because we're hard-hearted people. We should never do that. We should come with tender hearts, humbled before the Lord to hear from Him what we can. All right. But there's a lot of times where the speaker will say to himself, wow, you know, I hope that really people like this. You know, that's a temptation, right? The truth is the preacher's not on trial. The people are. So there's a salvation and judgment, and there's this continued thing. When the word is preached, there's salvation and there's judgment, and you're to always repent and believe and go the way of salvation. Amen? Everybody understand that? Double-edged sword means just that, that when the sword of the Spirit, right, is wielded, all right, there's two sides to it. So Joshua, covenantal conquest and inheritance. Excellent, excellent. How would you summarize Judges, someone? Right, I just added that. Yeah, corruption of Israel, that's a very good word. What else might you use? Yeah, corruption is fine indeed. Anyone else? The corruption of Israel? Yes, yes, yes, who said that? That's good, yeah, I agree. That's absolutely, it is a very important covenantal bridge from the judges to the Davidic covenant, from the Abrahamic Mosaic covenant to the Davidic covenant. It is, if you could put it this way, I think that might be memorable. It gets at the corruption, but it specifies it a little bit more perhaps. Let's say what, rather than being a light for the nations, Israel becomes light the nations. Instead of being a light for the Canaanites, they become essentially Canaanites in their behavior, in their action. There's always a movement toward apostasy in our hearts, beloved. Be careful for that. The book of Judges, if it teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that where sin abounds, grace supersedes. And it tells us that there's a tendency, not only in the scriptures, but in history, that the second generation of noble History tells us that. Example, seven churches of revelation. Those who are moving toward apostasy are the second and third generation of believers. These are the second and third generation of believers under Moses. So very important to remember apostasy if you're in the second and third generation of a noble and faithful covenantal family. It's easy to be canonized. It's easy to become worldly. That's what Judge Eubes tells us. Judges also tells us that God is the one who will be bring the one who will give Israel rest and Peace in his presence and will ultimately bring a king Who's able to subdue our hearts to it today? All right. Let me say a few things about That I'd like to say about Joshua and judges now and then let we'll look at the land. Okay as part of a Picture that we might want to remember. Okay, so the the former prophets here is a theological, covenantal, theological, historical narrative from the time of the conquest of the land. It is until the exile, until what will occur in the exile at the end of the former prophets in Israel. So the pattern is paradise regained and then paradise re-lost. So it's paradise regained and paradise re-lost, okay? That's the story of Israel. Paradise regained, paradise re-lost. So the former prophets deal with the history of, that's largely Israel's failure to keep the covenant. A few important chapters of Deuteronomy you might want to note are chapters 29 to 31 when reading all of the former prophets. And again, when we're reading the former prophets, we're talking about Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, okay? Though in reading them, remind yourself of Deuteronomy chapters 29 and 31. One theological historian said this very well. He said, at the end of the former prophets, what we have is the cities of Judah lie devastated by the Babylonian armies with their inhabitants either dead or in exile. And Jeremiah says that the land is now, listen, without form and void. He uses that, Jeremiah 4, verse 23 and 24, verses 23 and 24. So this is what he goes on to say, Israel, the firstborn son of God, has been disobedient, and he's been buried in an exilic graveyard. So Joshua, the primary point is the covenantal conquest and inheritance of the land. It is a canonical hinge between the Torah and the prophets. We said that already. That's worth repeating. It's a canonical hinge between the Torah, between the teaching of Moses and what we call the major and minor prophets. Okay, so the story of the conquest of the land is just the fulfillment of God's promises as he's made. And as the Israelites are marching, I want to remind you, as they are taking the land, they are also receiving it. Those are very important verbs, aren't they? Conquest implies the taking part. Okay, but they're also receiving it. It's theirs by faith Okay, so they're taking it but they're also receiving it they're taking it as an act of judgment from Yahweh as instruments of his judgment that they're receiving it as gifts of grace and All right. And that's why in the beginning of Joshua, chapter one, it says Moses is dead. Now, Joshua, lead the people. And what does he say? But in the midst of these things, you're going to be tempted to do what? To fear. And so what does he tell them? Tell him, be strong and courageous. Do not fear. Don't be in dread of them. It's the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. And so again, beloved, focus, don't miss this, on the tabernacle and temple. He appeared to you at the beginning of your conquest, at the beginning of your inheritance. Don't forget the commander of the Lord's army, the Lord Son of God at this point in redemptive history is with you. He's Emmanuel. He'll not forsake you. And remember the Holy Spirit in fire and in cloud. Don't forget, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are with you. That's what we would understand it more fully now. But the point is, when you look at the tabernacle, it's the place of worship, it's the place of service. But the reason it's worship and service is it's the place where Yahweh dwells in the flesh. So to run to the tabernacle, to remember your life was centered around the tabernacle, was to be Christ-centered, was to just focus on Christ, was to always know that God had grace in Christ for you. It was to live looking at Christ, the author and perfecter of one's faith, serving and worshiping Christ, believing in his blood. It's about Christ. Heaven, I command that you be strong and courageous. Don't be frightened. Don't be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. There's nothing really different that Jesus will say to his church and his people. All right. How about an outline? All right. Let me give you an outline just because of time. Let me give you an outline. All right, so an outline of Joshua in four parts. You ready? Preparation for entrance to the land would be chapters one through five. Preparation for entrance to the land. So there's a preparation for entrance to the land. And that preparation for entrance includes a very important part where the Israelites under Joshua, by the way, Joshua is his name, And he leads the people in a reenactment across the Red Sea. Notice that what direction do they go in to take the land? They go west. They go toward the same direction that's presented to them in the tabernacle. All right, so they go over there. So the key word in part one, chapters one through five, is passing over a cross. You hear this a lot, passing over a crossing. And so the Israelites should have got this. We've been celebrating the Passover since Moses. We know about passing over. We know what it stands for. So that was to be in their memory. All right, number two. Part two of Joshua chapters five through 12 is the conquest of land, the actual conquest of the land or the taking of the land as God has commanded. The taking here is the primary word. There's a key word that's used. Taking is used over and over. Taking is used over and over. Part three is the distribution of the land. Again, the Israelites, the 12 tribes, all of God's people in covenant with him are going to be situated, remember, around the tabernacle. That's what we learn in numbers, remember? So they have their position. And who's at the doorway? And who has the sunshine on them when the sun shines every morning? Yeah, Judah. Judah is at the doorway. Judah awakes to the sunrise, you know, to show that this is the way into the presence of God. This is the way to find forgiveness through Judah. Distribution of the land. And this is chapters 13 to 21. Chapters 13 to 21. Divide is a key word. They're dividing up the territory among the tribes. They're dividing up the inheritance as sons. And finally, number four is covenant obedience and disobedience in the land. These are the final two chapters of Joshua 22 to 24, covenant obedience and disobedience in the land. Joshua 22 to 24. And the key word here is serve. Serve as in worship Yahweh. And so this sets us up for the book of Judges. So, here's a bit of a thematic outline, if I could, without going into too much detail because of time, but with everything that I just am scratching the surface of, remember, I have some notes to send you this week that you can look more fully in, okay? So, if anything I'm about to mention here you'd like to study more, you can talk with me and we can talk about it. I can recommend books or I can give you my notes later, okay? Alright? Everybody good with that? All right, so the theme of Joshua would be something like this. For the conquest of the land, Israel is called to courage and faith, courageous faith. Israel is called to courageous faith. Another part of taking the land is knowing that the result of the inheritance will be rest. The result of the inheritance, rest, rest. Israel will rest from the inheritance, a foreshadowing of the new heavens and new earth. And then there's number three, well, you don't have to write all this down, but harem. It's a Hebrew for holy war, harem. Harem warfare is found in Joshua. And that's hard for some people to understand. But, and again, I'm scratching the surface, but it's just to say this, you ready? Israel is being appointed by God, the true God, to be an instrument of his last day judgment. And God is choosing in this time period to not only give salvation to a few believers, the kingdom of God is erupting into this time period as a last judgment. Didn't decide to pick up the sword in the name of some religion that they had made up. No, this is a high calling at this particular time in redemptive history for a particular season to be God's instruments of judgment with the sword to bring in Yahweh's wrath. We must understand that that was all of man. That was not of God. This is a particular time in redemptive history, and it passes away. Men, in our time period, especially in our time period, especially in the last days, especially since the coming of Christ, need to remember that Jesus has said, sheathe the sword. The way of conquest is through gospel presentation. It's through missions. It's through going and baptizing the nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I've commanded you, and using the sword of the Spirit. So shave your sword. If you're slapped, turn them the other cheek. Forgive. Show mercy. Lay down your life. Be crucified. It's an abomination to try to see this work at this particular time in redemptive history as something that all Christians or believers or religious folks are called to do. Yes, sir? If we don't have eschatological understanding of how to read our Bibles, we're never going to get that. We're going to read it in an isolated way. We might even overemphasize the unity so much of the priesthood in Christ. Or we might think we're just to pick up our sword and fight and think that Jerusalem is still ours or still belongs to the Jews or something crazy like that. Because we have overemphasized the unity without seeing the progressive revelation. Eschatology is everything! in interpreting the Bible. I got excited about it. But it is! Because it's all pointing to Jesus Christ as the one that God has appointed greater than Joshua, the true Joshua, who will stand as judge of the living and the dead. And so how would Jesus have said it if somebody had come up to him? I'll tell you. From Luke. I'll use Luke 13. Jesus says, you know, I'm offended by... Somebody says to Jesus, I'm offended by... That would have been his point? that it's called to say, whoa, Sodom and Gomorrah is real. God's judgment is real. It's a picture of real judgment. All right, I could say more about that, right? There's more. Oh, man, we got 15 minutes to do judging. Oh, and I'm not even finished with Joshua. All right, let's do this. You ready? Let's slow down. Everybody take a deep breath. So much good stuff. We gotta move on. Okay, let's do this. You ready? Oh, OK. Yeah, we're just going to do judges quick. So when we look at land, that's the important part, right, is the covenantal conquest of what? The land and the inheritance of the land. So let me just say a few things about the land, all right? In the land, we've been taught that the land was created. Land is a Hebrew word, eretz, sometimes spelled this way, all right? And it also is translated Ur, as in God created the heavens and the earth. But it is literally, in Genesis, God created the heavens and the land. So it's important to understand land in a redemptive historical context, because we're talking about Joshua. Conquesting, taking the land, right? And receiving the land. Okay? All right. So the earth is here. So in the Pentateuch, we heard in Genesis that the land was all created by God. Amen? All right? By the word of his power. We also heard that a portion of it was promised after the fall. So after the fall to Abraham and to his seed was promised this land or this earth. Okay, a portion of it, all right? And so when we get to Joshua and Judges, we want to remember that in the Pentateuch, we've learned that. In Numbers, we learned that the people just wandered in the wilderness. They just wandered in the wilderness. There was a wandering time. And so this has got, by God's grace, this has moved, God's faithfulness has moved the people to a place where they're now going to begin to not only take, but to receive the promise of the land. So let me just say it as clearly as I can, and I'll continue to say this as best as I can, is that the land that was created is God's. The land that's given is God's. It belongs to no one else. And it's only for taking because he's assigned them to take it. He's ordained them to take it. He's told them to take it, but it's also a gift of his. And so what does the land mean then? It means that it's a return to Eden, the original land where God dwelled. It's the original return to Eden. It's the return to the land. And so Israel is kind of like this second Adam or Israel, Adam 1.5. Because Jesus is Adam too. So Israel's, you know, Adam 1.5. So I want you to understand. Then we get to the tabernacle. And the tabernacle is the place, the ark, the throne, and the presence of God, right? Like little Eden. It's a little Eden. It's a little Eden, which means that it's a microcosm of the earth, a microcosm of the land. All right, so land is earth, and this brings us back to those three rather strange pictures, but I think it's worth remembering. Remember, there were the seas, there was the earth, and there was the skies or the heavens, and there was one, two, three, all right? And this was what was symbolized. Well, then at Sinai, this is a mountain, there was one, there was two, and there was three where God was. In the tabernacle, there was the holy of holies, there was the most holy place, I'm sorry, the most holy place or holy of holies, there was the holy place, and then there was the outer core. And so, beloved, what I want you to see is that the tabernacle is nothing but a microcosm of the land or the earth. And so the seas or the place of the abyss or the chaos is found in the outer core. Toward God, through sacrifice, we come to his most holy place where he dwells. And the tabernacle, even in Eden or even in the promised land, was a microcosm of the earth. The microcosm of God's dwelling on the earth with man. And the land was a microcosm of the earth. It was a little Eden. And so that brings us to John 1.14, and look how beautiful. The human and divine, one person in two natures. The Lord Jesus Christ comes in tabernacles among us to show us that our redemption, our conquest, our ultimate taking of the land is always found in Christ. The inheritance, the taking of it, is only going to be by Christ. That's why Joshua will fail to take the land. Israel will fail to take the land. The judges will fail to take the land. David will get the land and then lose the land. Only Jesus will actually take the land. of God's presence. So Jesus is, when the New Testament uses language of the land, it translates it to the earth and it points us to Jesus Christ. Example. You ready? Romans 4.13. Romans 4.13. In Romans 4.13, Talking about the promise of the land, verse 13, for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world, heir of the earth. Did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith in Christ. Or Psalm 13, and then finally Hebrews 11. Very important to see this. Actually, there's one other passage that's worth looking at to get In Ephesians 6, one through three, listen to what it says. Verse one. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. This is right. This is the teaching of Deuteronomy. This is the law. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and you may live long in the land. Well, the Gentiles in Ephesus didn't live in the land. What's it pointing to? It's pointing to living in Christ, living in the new heavens and new earth. What the land ultimately pointed to was heaven. Look at Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. I'll begin, I'll read verse 8 as well. Yeah, let's just read verses 8 and following, and I'll move you forward, starting in verse 8 of chapter 11. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going, verse 9, by faith he went to live in the land of promise. Verse 10, he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. And then verse 13, these all died in faith, speaking of the patriarchs, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged they were strangers and exiles on earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they're seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had an opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city." All right. So, beloved, ultimately, what the tabernacle pointed to was the dwelling of God in the land. It was a microcosm of Eden, and the land was a microcosm of the world, the earth. And both are possessed fully in Christ, who came to tabernacle in our flesh and to give us the land, which is all of new creation. And what's so beautiful about this all is that Hebrews 4 tells us very, very, very distinctly. Listen to Hebrews 4, what it tells us. You ready? The land offered rest for God's people, a spiritual rest. And Hebrews 4, verse 1 says, we'll start in chapter 3, verse 18. Speaking of the time of Joshua and Judges, the author of Hebrews says, to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? but to those who were disobedient," verse 19. So we see they were unable to enter because of unbelief. They were unable to ultimately take the land, to have conquest, to receive the gift of the land because of unbelief. And then it says, therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. And then it says at the end, verse 8, if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest is also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience, for the word of God is living and active." Sharper than any double-edged sword. So what we're taught here is that the rest that was promised in the land, and even the promise of what the land pointed forward to, is all found in Christ. And then it gives us that sword of conquest, the sword of the spirit. The sword of the spirit now is the way that we take the land in Christ. That is, the way that we make the gospel known is both a salvation and a judgment. So, that tells us that the land ultimately is Christological. It's typological, and I wish I'd have been cool enough to come up with those three words, but that's from Bruce Waltke. He's really good, and I highly recommend anything Bruce Waltke writes. What he's wanting us to see is the land is not just a piece of real estate in the Middle East, but the land pointed to Jesus Christ and a greater Joshua who would give rest to believers. The land pointed to Jesus is in earth. It's typological in that it pointed, it was a type, not only of Christ, but of the world, of the earth, Romans 4.13. And it's eschatological because it pointed to worship. Everything points to the new creation, paradise, glorious paradise, not just merely regained, extraordinarily, glorifyingly, extraordinarily, magnanimously, restored, above and beyond anything we could ever ask or imagine, the new creation. Typological because it pointed to the whole Christ ultimately. And see, if you go backwards now, beloved, you'll see how it all fits. If it's about Christ, then the tabernacle was God with the people in Christ in an old covenant promised way. It was also a microcosm of the heaven and the earth, and showed that God would one day unite the heaven and the earth, and it goes back to God being the creator of the heaven and the earth. And all this is very much, very much united throughout Scripture, which were created by the Father through the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit, which shows us the unity of all Scripture. So that when you see the tabernacle, you remember that it's kind of Christ. It's a place where the Father has given his law. It's a place where the Father receives through blood repentant sinners and gives his presence, a special presence for all believers. And it's a place where the Spirit dwells. It's a place where one can return to paradise and begin to long for the restoration of all things. Oh, another great scripture for Christological creation is longing as in birth pains for the sons of God to be revealed. All right, the canonization of Israel. All I'm going to have time to do really here is show you the pattern of judges and then close with a couple of remarks about the Lord Jesus. That sound good? All right. Remember, the Lord Jesus is the greater Joshua who gives us rest for all who believe. Remember that what will keep you out of the land, even today, is not believing God's word, okay? That is the only thing that can keep you out of the land. Everyone's welcome to come to the land, but it's only through the Lord Jesus. You can't fight for the land. You can only bow the knee to the king of the land. The land is received by faith alone, through grace alone, because of Christ alone. You can't get it any other way, whether Jew or Gentile. If you want the land, it's yours. You want to take the land, it's been taken. Look to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of faith. He's the pioneer who's gone before us, not just to take a land on earth, but to take the new heavens and new earth and be king of the new Jerusalem that's just waiting. Like in the last moments of a pregnancy, so that the heavens and the earth, the renewed heavens and the earth would be revealed to all. All right? So the book of Judges is a story of spiritual degeneration. And there's a pattern you want to see throughout Judges. The pattern is Israel gets in the land, forgets what they're to remember. And so what happens? Well, they, They rebel, they rebel. And the book of Judges shows us how that's gonna happen, doesn't it? Because in the first opening chapters, Judah and Benjamin do not take the land. They failed to take the land. And so there's a rebellion and then there's retribution. God allows the Canaanites to come upon them and oppress them. Then there's repentance. And then there's a restoration. I think on this one, yeah. So what happens here is in the retribution, God sends one of the nations to come and to oppress Israel in the land. So they don't get rest from their enemies. They don't enjoy the presence of God. He disciplines them for it. And then they cry out in repentance and God sends a judge. Now, just to say a few things about the judges, there's so many of them, but something about The last of the judges would be Samuel. The first of the judges, or the last of the judges would be Samuel. I'll send you in my notes the whole list of judges and a little bit about them and the scriptures, so you'll have that. But some people fail to understand what the judges were about, you know, because it's a translation from Latin, all right? So it's not judge in the sense that we think of a legal judge, judicial kind of language, that we should change that word. When you read judges from now on, read something like this, a deliverer-savior. a deliverer-savior. So they were little mini-saviors. They were microcosms of the Lord Jesus. And some of them, of course, were more faithful than others. But they were deliverer-saviors. And where do I get that? Look in Judges 2, 16 to 19. Let me read those verses, and then we're going to need to close. In Judges 2, 16 to 19, We get the definition, really, of the judges, what it means. Now, of course, they do lead and they govern Israel for a season, but really what they're doing, according to God's will, is that they're delivering God's people from their enemies and being like little Moseses or little Joshuas or, of course, little Jesuses. And by the way, their unfaithfulness always points forward to a faithful Christ, doesn't it? Judges 2, 16 to 19, the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. So it's a savior. Yet they did not listen to their judges for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord and they did not do so. Verse 18, whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and he saved them. I gave you a handout today to study first understanding, but basically the judges were little Christ, they were little anointed ones. We have that language of them being anointed for service or office as judge, as savior deliverers. So it was the Holy Spirit ultimately who was delivering through these judges, okay? So you take that outline, take that handout, read it. Maybe maybe it'll be useful verse 18 whenever the Lord raised up judges for them The Lord was with the judge and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning that just shows where sin abounds grace super abounds God is so kind and compassionate merciful to sinners and So the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, listen to this, they grew in complacency and they turned back and become more corrupt than their fathers. They took for granted the saving, deliverance, grace of the Lord, like we do. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. That looks a lot like us, doesn't it? Let's be honest. The book of Judges is a lot like us, right? We don't care about God's word at times, do we? Let's be straight. And we often forget it and we take it for granted. And sometimes we know it and it doesn't change our hearts or lives. Is it just for me? Is it just my temptation or everybody? We are very complacent people. Can I tell you something? I'm going to tell you something. Why they would even come to an Old Testament class At 7.30 on Friday mornings, they wouldn't pray about it. They wouldn't prepare. No, none of us would do that. Beloved, we are very close to Canaanite worldly people without Christ. We have to flee to Christ each and every day. We have to beg him for help to save us from complacency. And so, I'll end there. And I have, I think, 15 pages on Joshua and Judges that I'll send to you. I'd encourage you to read it. I think it will help you to understand. Perhaps, let's just leave it there. Maybe it'll be useful, by God's grace. But the point of Judges that I want to leave you with is even when sinners do their worst, Yahweh is always at his faith. Let me just leave that in the notes, if I could. That's where that partial fulfillment of the land is, 43. But it's in the notes. But basically, it just says that Yahweh was faithful at that point in redemptive history. Did you want to say something else? Go ahead. Not one of them had failed. So what we want to see is Jesus as the one that we take the land in and receive everything, all the blessings of God. We want to understand that even when sinners do their utmost wickedness, God is at his covenantal faithful best. And here's the admonition at the end. Let us be watchful of our propensity in Christ. He's given us a faithful. It's everything we see typified in the Old Tract. Our Father and our God, we're grateful for your love for us. We're thankful. for all of the blessings that we have in Jesus Christ. And we ask that you would save us from our apostate hearts, save us from our idolatry, save us from our complacency, Lord. We pray that we would be eager, spirit-filled, anointed, aspiring folks who would remember and take seriously the admonition that many of the Israelites fell in the wilderness taking grace for granted, taking you for granted, not living according to your commandments. And it was unbelief. It was fear that caused them ultimately not to ever enter their rest. We know that you are faithful when we are on behalf of Christ. For if we don't know of our need, then we won't look up to see you. We will make idols and Israel in her prosperity would often, she wouldn't be grateful, she'd be complacent and we can do the same. It was Israel in her adversity when she was at her best and she was looking into your word when she was trying to understand who you were and trying to remember. It's so easy for all of us to forget. Help us, O Lord, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, now come back next week. We're gonna look at Samuel and Kings. I encourage you to read On the Holy Spirit as I've handed it out, and I will encourage you to read the notes that I'll send out to you this week, okay? Thank you for coming.