Here comes Joshua. Was he some type of a mystery man? What do we know about this Joshua prior to him writing a book? We do believe, of course, every book in the Bible seems to have some controversy as far as like who wrote it and also the time period. But I do believe that Joshua wrote this book that bears his name. There's a couple of passages in the book that you can tell were written probably right after him, maybe by one of the scribes that he would have used to pen his book. But Henry Ironside gives us kind of a good lead-in to arriving here at the book of Joshua. He states here, we have the manifestation of divine life in the book of Genesis, redemption in the book of Exodus, the entrance into the holiest, and the believer's sanctification is typically set forth in Leviticus. And then the people of God under trial in the book of Numbers and we have the government of God in Deuteronomy. So that's kind of a nice synopsis to what we find in the Pentateuch here. And then now Joshua, Joshua is going to be a link to the book of Ephesians because what we're gonna find here is there's a common theme in both Joshua and the book of Ephesians which talks about inheritance, the believer's inheritance. So now I'm gonna hope, I'm gonna try to run this clip here. This clip here is something that was presented at Emmaus Bible College and it's Old Testament survey. Pardon? Well, it's Old Testament survey. And what this classroom teacher is doing, he's going to walk through chronologically the historical events. Now he does this for the entire Old Testament. You can do it in a matter of four minutes. But I want you to pay attention as he takes us from Adam and Eve all the way up to this time of Joshua. It's very interesting how he does it. So cross your fingers. Let's hope this works. And no volume. Yep, there. You can hear it in the microphone, mate. if I can keep up with them. We'll continue here and hopefully Pierre can get that up and running. I did send a link out to this YouTube clip so you can watch it at home. It's fascinating You will get a great understanding of the Old Testament and never forget it. Dates in scripture come under a lot of scrutiny. I mentioned dates and even authors of scripture. The time of the exodus is always controversial. There's two main dates, one's an earlier date, one's a later date. I think they like to ascribe the exodus out of Egypt around 1250, but there is a better date, which puts it around 1445 BC. And if you recall, When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, they camped at Mount Sinai for about a year and a half. From there, they went on, they were supposed to go into the promised land, but of course, they sinned and God caused them to wander for 40 years. So we have 1445 BC, take off 40 plus or minus two more years for Mount Sinai. And then we finally have, after the wilderness, the 40 years in the wilderness, Joshua takes them over the Jordan into the promised land. That's gonna put your time frame here somewhere around 1400 BC. I'm sorry, 1400 BC. Okay, Joshua died at age 110, and he was about 80 years old. Ah, we got it. We lost the picture though. So we lose the sound somehow when we plug it in there. I'll go back to the drawing board. Rainbow, Tower of Babel, Scattering. Brings us to Genesis chapter 12 where we are in her with Abraham, Sarah, Tara, Lot. Can't do both? Are we? OK. Can you back it up to 18? I'll just kind of walk through it. Hopefully, I can keep up with him. But basically, what he does, you have a stage here. He's got a stage, and it's a world map. So if you look at it over here, you've got Egypt down there. Here's Israel. It's going to be right in the center. Of course, you've got Assyria up there, and you've got Babylon down here. Mediterranean's over that way. So if you can imagine, picture a map right here. So he's going to go through. We'll need the picture up on screen. Go ahead. I'll walk through. I'll speak with him. So he's going to give motions or signs that represent an event in history. So he's going to begin. OK, so he's going to start from the beginning. And we have creation, the fall. The flood. The scattering at the Tower of Babel there, okay. Now he's going over to Ur. And you got Abraham. Abraham, Lot, Sarah. They travel up to Haran, where Terah, his father, dies. And from Haran, they go to the Promised Land. Abraham has four eyes, two in his head, two in his household, Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob has 12 sons and a daughter, Dinah. The youngest son was Benjamin, the next was Joseph. Joseph was carted off into bondage in Egypt over there. Over here in the land of Canaan, there was famine, so Jacob, the whole family gets carted down to Egypt. They lived there for 400 years, and they're in bondage captivity, okay? So now, Moses brings them out, He's going to Mount Sinai here. And from Mount Sinai, they receive the law. As they leave Mount Sinai, they go to a place called Kadesh Barnea, which is where they send in 12 spies. Joshua was one of those 12 spies. 10 spies come out and say, no way, we can't go in there. Two, Joshua and Caleb, say, yes, we can do it. The nation goes with the 10 who say, forget about it. We can't do it. So God judges them. They go 40 years wandering in the desert. So they're wandering now, 40 years. After that, Moses dies, he preaches Deuteronomy, he dies, and then Joshua leads them across the Jordan River. Okay, so now, They drive a wedge in the Holy Land. They go right through the center. They go to Jericho, and then they go to the south and they conquer. This is what conquering means. And then they go to the north and conquer. And then they go back and divide the land. So we'll stop it there. I'm not gonna walk through the whole Old Testament. But what happened there was after Moses died, after Deuteronomy, Joshua takes over, and they go into Jericho in the center, And they also hit a town called Ai, which is why he goes like this and says, OK, so we take this wedge and we drive it through the middle of the land. Then they go south, conquer the south, go north, conquer the north, and then divide the land amongst the 12 tribes. So watch the clip when you get home. It's fascinating. I want to get into this book of Joshua. We will be studying this at some point here in Sunday school. We're going to get to that. Now, I could have applied a lot of titles to this introduction. We could have called this Be Strong, Be Courageous, or Be Strong and Be Courageous. There's a lot of victory in this book. There's a lot of conquest in this book. There's a lot of excitement in this book. We could also have called this blessings in the land because that's what we find in Deuteronomy. God told Moses to tell the people, when you are in the land, here's the blessings for obedience and on curses for disobedience. So when they get into the land, the obedience would lead to blessings of living in the land. But I did fall on another title here, which I liked, and that's that word inheritance. When you go through this book of Joshua, you're going to find that word inheritance. You're going to find it 49 times. in the book of Joshua. Now Webster's dictionary defines inheritance as an estate given or possessed by donation of a divine appropriation. He also defines it as the reception of an estate by hereditary right. So it is something that is given and it is a right of the recipient. You guys know that I'm very passionate here about talking about the fact that God is not done with Israel because When you go all the way back to Genesis chapter 12, and that's what Jay has been taking us to, and in fact, next week, he will be in Genesis chapter 12. And we're going to be introduced to Abraham, Abram. And later in the book of Genesis, we're going to find that God changed his name from Abram to Abraham. In Genesis 12, he's Abram, and God promised him, he said, leave your family and get out of your country and go to a land I will show you, okay? I will make you a great nation. So the intention here is that God will take him to a land that I'm going to bring you there, and when you arrive there, I'm gonna make a nation out of you, so this is going to be your land. Chapter 13, chapter 13. Now it's interesting because Abraham took Lot with him. You saw in the video that Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, which is in Babylon, and he went up to Haran, but he went there with his father and also his nephew. But if you recall, God said, leave your family behind. So when Abraham traveled down to the Promised Land, he still had Lot with him. In chapter 13, we find that Lot and Abram settle, or they separate. And so now we find that Abraham is in obedience here to what God had commanded him. And when you get to chapter 13, in verse 14, and the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes now, look from the place where you are, Northward, southward, eastward, and westward, for all the land which you see, I give to you and your descendants forever." So God promised, this is your land forever. If... I don't think I have to really go to Webster's Dictionary to find what the word forever means, but if it wasn't forever, then, I mean, if it can be taken away, then it wasn't forever. It's just like our eternal life. If we become saved and we have eternal life, if you can lose your salvation, it was not eternal. So this land that God promised to Israel is forever, and these are promises. We know that God cannot break his promises. So when we get to the book of Joshua, we are finding out that God is a keeper of his promises. Of course, you will have seen that throughout the first five books so far in scripture, in the Pentateuch, that God is a keeper of his promises. And Joshua is going to bring us fulfillment of that promise where the land will be to Abraham's descendants, therefore an inheritance. In Numbers 26, there was a census that was taken right before they go into the land. And you had a counting of all the people in all 12 tribes. And in verse 53 of Numbers 26, it said, God told Moses, to these people, all those who were in that census, the land shall be divided as an inheritance. according to the number of names. So that's our word again, inheritance. We find it in Numbers where God is fulfilling this promise where there's going to be an inheritance for his people. Another reason that I chose this title here of inheritance in the book of Joshua is that the word, the name Joshua in the Hebrew when he translated into English would be the same word that we get Jesus from the Greek. So Joshua and Jesus are the same name. One is derived from the Hebrew, one is derived from the Greek. And what we find in Joshua, Joshua was a type of Christ because what we have is we have this real person, Joshua, who typifies Jesus as the one who leads us into our inheritance. Now where do I get that from? Because in the book of Ephesians, in chapter one, and we did a Bible study here in the book of Ephesians, but Ephesians, talking to the church, In chapter one of Ephesians, verse 11, in him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. In him, verse 13, you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also Having believed, get this, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of what? Our inheritance. So Jesus leads us into our inheritance, which we have. And the book of Ephesians talks about the fact that we were raised with Christ and we are seated in the heavenlies with him. and we have all the riches. Isn't that what we read in chapter two? Even when we were dead in trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up together, made us to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse seven of chapter two in Ephesians, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. We have a rich inheritance, not just an inheritance, we have an exceedingly rich inheritance. And it is Jesus who led us there. Joshua also led his people into the promised land. Now it's a little bit different because it talks about them going into the rest. They never fully experienced the rest that we have through Jesus Christ because they were disobedient and eventually we know that Israel had rejected Jesus Christ. but we have rest in Jesus, we have our inheritance in Jesus, and Joshua led his people into their inheritance as well. Now Hebrews, and Jay also took us through the book of Hebrews, but in Hebrews chapter six, verses nine through 11, it talks about beloved We are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation. Though we speak in this manner, for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. In verse 11, continuing there, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence, the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises." So we have this incredibly rich inheritance laid out before us, and it includes the promises that are recorded here in Scripture, the promises of God toward us. through his kindness that he displaced for us, right? So the author here of Hebrews tells us to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit promises. So that is part of our inheritance, is all these promises that God has given us. And it's rich in promises, too. Staying in Hebrews, if we go backwards a little bit, verse 4, or chapter 4, in verse 8, Chapter four, verse eight of Hebrews, it says, for if Joshua, and by the way, if you have, does anyone have a King James Bible that you're reading from? If you have a King James Bible, I believe that this name Joshua here in verse eight is translated as Jesus, which is kind of confusing, but obviously it's because the names were the same. If Joshua had given them rest, meaning when Joshua led them over the Jordan into the promised land, if he had given them rest, then he would not have afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has finished, I'm sorry, has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his. What's being said here, basically in Hebrews chapter four, is that Jesus is a greater Joshua. If Joshua was perceived as bringing his people into the promised land, into that land of rest, Jesus is a greater Joshua who brings us into his rest and into this inheritance that we have. So that's what we're finding here in Hebrews. So Joshua in Hebrews, I'm sorry, Joshua in Ephesians, there is a link here that talks about this inheritance that the believers who are in Christ have. And there is a little bit of a difference though with Jesus. We don't have a battle because Jesus won that victory for us. Joshua brought the people into the land and they were continually fighting. They were always up against their enemies there. And that continued throughout their entire existence. But I'm really looking forward to further developing our study here of the book of Joshua. I was struggling between going back and forth with Zechariah and Joshua. Zechariah is another very prophetic book in the Old Testament, which I seem to have been kind of landing on these prophetic books and history books in the Old Testament. But Joshua is, like I said, it's packed with all kinds of interesting things, fascinating things. You have a lot of excitement. You have a lot of conquest. You have a lot of victory. And I really do want to go through that and develop that a little bit further as we go along. But Joshua, I mentioned, did not just suddenly appear out of nowhere. And we're going to see glimpses of him a little bit earlier. And I want to, as we do begin our study in the book of Joshua, I want to kind of flush some of that out and use that for application for us. Because we look in scripture and we see all these great leaders. And we're like, I can't possibly do such a thing. I have a hard time talking one-on-one to people about the Lord. But when you go back and look at these things, what was Moses' complaint? I don't know how to speak, don't put me in front of somebody, I'm gonna stutter, I'm gonna stumble. Listen, I can't do it. And God said, I'm gonna give you the words. So God chooses, he calls people, not the qualified. But God calls people and qualifies them. And we'll see the same thing with Joshua. Joshua just didn't appear with medals on his chest and a crown on his head and all the people fell down in front of him. We're gonna see him if you go back to the book of Exodus. In Exodus chapter 24. Now remember, in Exodus, we have, you know, Genesis is kind of a creation to a nation, okay? We have the nation of Israel. Genesis closes with the nation there in captivity, right? Exodus opens with the nation in captivity, and Moses leads them out. Now, these were slaves. This was not a military people, you know, being bound in Egypt. In Exodus 24, when Moses brings them out, we find that they are up, actually here, yeah, I'm sorry, Exodus chapter 17, we'll get to 24. In Exodus chapter 17, we find that the Israelites who have now left Egypt are traveling and they come across the people of Amalek and they go to battle. And Joshua, this is the first time that we encounter his name. If you go to verse eight, now Amalek came and fought with Israel and Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, here's our first introduction to him, choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the rock with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek. Do you remember this story? And Moses, Aaron and Herb went up to the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held up his hand with the rod of God that the Israelites prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands became heavy, so they took a stone and put the stone under him, and he sat on it, and Aaron and Hur supported his arms. So this battle's taking hours and hours and hours, and Moses' arms would tire, and he's holding the rod of God, and when his arms dropped, Amalek would prevail. Joshua probably didn't know this on the battlefield at the time, but he was told afterwards. And of course, Israel won this battle, but the thing that Joshua took from this is he learned to trust in the Lord, because it was all by the power of God. I mean, not just because Moses had his arms up, but it was dependent on God for victory. And that's what Joshua learned. So we're introduced to Joshua, and his very first lesson is trust in the power and the strength of the Lord. When you get to Exodus 24, and this is fascinating. We went through the book of Ezekiel and we saw in chapter 1 that Ezekiel had this amazing vision of God in heaven. And in Exodus 24, we have Joshua, 70 elders, and Moses up on Mount Sinai and they see a vision of God. That was something that Joshua would never forget. He would learn, he would hold on to this vision. Exodus chapter 33, that's in 24, that's verses nine through 18, you can read about that particular event. If you go to Exodus 33, when Moses came off of Mount Sinai and he would go into the tent of meeting. And this is where his hair, his beard turned white and he had this aura about him because he had seen God. Joshua was there at this tent of meeting where God would meet face to face with Moses. And Joshua would not leave that tent. He did not want to leave being in the presence of the Lord. In Numbers, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. If you go to chapter 27. Numbers 27, we are right about at the end of our 40 years of wandering. Now, Moses had already sinned. He had struck a rock twice when God told him to hit it one time. So he acted out of anger, and it was as a result, God said, Moses, you can see the promised land. I will take you up on the mountain. You can see it, but you will not go into the land. And Moses prayed that God would raise up a leader who can take God's people across the Jordan into the promised land. Moses was very concerned for his people. He says, I did not want to have my people, your people, God, without a shepherd to lead them. And God responded in verses 12 through 23 here. God rose up Joshua. We see glimpses of Joshua prior to him actually taking over here, but understand that he has been tutored by Moses now for 40 years in the wilderness. So he's no stranger to God's Word, which Moses presented to him, wrote it, it was recorded, Moses would recite it, the priests would recite it, It's not foreign to Joshua here. So Joshua has been raised and God has been with him every step of the way and given him all that he needs to be in the position which God has called him to now. And in Deuteronomy 34, and if you play that presentation from Emmaus Bible College at home, You will find that Deuteronomy, what he said when they had gotten right to the edge of the promised land, Moses preached the book of Deuteronomy and then he died. So that's the way that he explained it. So Deuteronomy was a preaching of the word, up until the time this is all that they had, the word of God, was from the mouth of Moses here. And Moses preached this summary here, if you will, in the book of Deuteronomy. And in chapter 34, verses 7 and 8, we find out Moses was 112 years old when he died. His eyes were not dim, nor his natural vigor diminished. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. Verse nine, now Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom. How did he get like that? Did he pray for wisdom before he went to bed one night and he woke up and there was dust on top of his forehead and it said wisdom? No. He gained wisdom by praying for it, experiencing the trials and the teaching that God presented him. He learned from the tutoring of Moses. He learned from the priests. He learned it by being dependent on God. So verse nine, now Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, so the children of Israel heeded him. Here's this guy who came out of nowhere. I mean, up until now, it's Moses, Moses, oh, Abram in chapter 12 of Genesis. Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses. Moses was the greatest, right? And now, they are gladly allowing themselves to be led by Joshua. And the children of Israel heeded him and did as the Lord commanded Moses. So interesting, we have Moses who passes the baton off to Joshua, and the people of Israel recognize a man of the Lord and submit it to him. Now in Joshua, we see the Lord's promise to Israel being fulfilled. Very important, okay? We have to understand God is a keeper of his promises. Land, land is what was promised to the nation of Israel. And we saw that in our study of Ezekiel, where that was confirmed that God would bring them back into the land and he will have his millennial reign in Jerusalem, in the land of Israel, with the people of Israel, in the land of Israel. So in Joshua, we see that the Lord's promise to Israel is fulfilled and they took possession of the land. In Joshua, we see the dividing up of the land between the 12 tribes, their inheritance. Each tribe had a portion of the land. And in Joshua, we also see the blessings of God when they were obedient. The Book of Leviticus and also in Deuteronomy, I believe it might be chapter 28 of Deuteronomy. Is it? Blessings and Curses, yeah. Deuteronomy 28, Blessings of Obedience and Curses on Disobedience. We're going to close here with a song, again, that Mary picked out, which is so applicable here because it's called Trust and Obey. That's a song that as a child, I think we all learn that when we're young, if we're growing up in a church, but there's something about that, trust and obey, obedience is necessary. When we submit to God, we need to be obedient as well, right? So we're gonna close with that song, but up until now, recognize that all that Israel had, as far as God's Word, is what Moses had given them. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And it's fascinating because Pierre just took us this morning back to the Tower of Babel and what came from the Tower of Babel, this is Genesis chapter 11. From the Tower of Babel, the scattering of languages And yet, all the way across the world, we have the Chinese language that knows the gospel. The gospel was apparent in the book of Genesis. It was given to Adam. When God clothed Adam and Eve, He killed an animal and clothed them with it. Scripture doesn't say what the animal was. I believe it was a lamb. But that's a representation of God covering them with His righteousness and the gospel was there. Genesis chapter 22, God made it extremely apparent in the offering of Abraham's son Isaac. So the gospel was there early on and This is what Israel had going into the promised land, was the gospel as recorded by Moses, by the word of God, to the people of God. And in Joshua, chapter 1, in verse 6 it says, be strong and of good courage, right? So be strong and have good courage. Now obviously for a believer, that's good knowledge or good information for us to have is be strong and be courageous because obviously he said, I will not leave you nor forsake you. I am with you. We have every reason to be strong in the Lord and to have great courage. But now look in verse 7, it says, In other words, you have five books here that Moses wrote to you, and God is saying, be strong and courageous to do all that. Now, in the context of that, It takes courage to do what God has instructed us to do. And we have every reason to be courageous, but obviously, He needs to be our strength to provide us that courage. But... we have to have courage to do what is right. We have to have courage to stand up to the world. We have to have courage to say that what our government is imposing on us is wrong in God's eyes. We can't be silent about these things. We need to say, this is what God's word says. And it takes courage. but we can and we should do it. And here's how we do it. Verse eight, Joshua 1, verse eight. The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. Now we think the book of the law, okay, so am I just saying that you have to go back and do the 10 commandments all the time? No, what I'm saying is that the gospel and sin and man's problem And all of this is contained in those first five books. It's there. Everything is necessary there. Of course, God went on to reveal more to us, and we have the New Testament, and we have a lot better understanding today. But in verse eight, God says, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night. Now, I've talked about that word meditate before, When people say you need to meditate on stuff, it's like, well, clear your mind and just sit there and don't let anything come on you. Well, if you clear your mind, I guarantee something will go in your mind, and it's not gonna be good stuff, okay? If you wanna meditate on something, you wanna meditate on the word of God, and that means you read it, study it, put it into practice, Share it, apply it, that's what we need to do. And God tells us, be strong and courageous in doing this. So you wanna meditate on his word, and he continues in verse nine, this is God's exhortation to Joshua. Have I not commanded you? Third time, be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid. Okay, so we have the knowledge that God has given us. We cannot be silent in these matters. Do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Okay, so be strong and of good courage. The Lord is with us as we move forward into his rest and into our full fully realized inheritance. So that's my introduction here to Joshua. That will be at a later date here to be determined. We'll pick it back up again and go further into the book. But I want to learn from Joshua who was willing to be led and trained and taught by the Lord and through the Lord's servant Moses. And we need to apply the same diligence in our lives. And of course, to take with us, you know, being strong and courageous. And we have every reason to be because we have such a rich inheritance coming. Pray with me. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your promises. Father, we can be very much like those of Israel, a stiff-necked people. Father, sometimes we are Sometimes we like to take your word and interpret it in ways in which you didn't intend it. Father, sometimes we still twist and we wanna believe something a little bit different, or we wanna go about something a little bit differently, or we want to see how far we can push things and still be accepted in your eyes. But Father, you have been very clear that you require obedience and that you require submission to you and that you are very exclusive in matters of salvation where it is only through Jesus Christ. Father, the world tells us a different story, but you have given us the light, you have removed the scales from our eyes that Muslims have fallen into, you have removed the scales that a system of works, we know that we are not saved by works, that you don't operate that way, but Lord, with all that you have taught us and given us, One more thing we need to learn and understand is to be strong and courageous. So, Father, I pray that you would empower us to be strong and courageous, to do all according to what you have said. And, Father, we're gonna sing shortly here, we're gonna sing, Trust and Obey. It's about trusting you and taking you at your word, applying it, and being obedient. Father, I ask that you would empower us and strengthen us. In Jesus' name, Amen.