We're in the book of Joshua in the first chapter I'll begin reading in verse 10 in the balance of the chapter. And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, prepare your provisions for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. And to the Rubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, remember the word that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you say, the Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land. Your wives, your little ones and your livestock shall remain in the land that Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you. And they also take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and shall possess it. The land that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise. And the answer, Joshua, all that you have commanded us, we will do. And whatever, wherever you send us, we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses and all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses, whoever rebelled against your commandments and disobeyed your words, whatever you command him shall be put to death, only be strong and courageous. The Word of the Lord, you may be seated. Everything the Lord does for His people, He does it by grace, and they receive it by faith. That's just the way it always works. The Lord delivered His people out of Egypt. He preserved them in the desert with the manna and the quail and the water and the protection of the heat by day by a cloud and the cold of night by a pillar of fire. He went before them. And now He is giving them the land that He promised to Abraham. God had promised in His covenant to Abraham to give him, to give them all of this land. But now the Lord is keeping His promises, although several centuries have passed. But now they are indeed a great nation. Now they are indeed a nation with a name, a reputation and identity. They are the Lord's people. They are the exclusive, they worship an exclusive God, Yahweh, Jehovah God. And they are now coming into the land that God gave them. You'll notice in this particular first chapter that the Word give occurs about ten times. There's no mistake about it. God is giving them the land. And that's what the Word grace is in the Bible substantially. And in the Greek, the chorus, the root idea is a gift, grace, gift. God's giving the people the land. But it's interesting that in order to possess the land, they are going to need to wage war. They're going to have to do battle. They're going to have to arise. They're going to have to trust the Lord. They're going to have to walk by faith and not by sight. They're going to need to depend upon the Lord in every circumstance. They're going to have to face down enemies. They're going to have to deal with their own insecurities and their own failures and their own sin. God is going to go before them and fight for them. But there is involved on their part a lot of work, a lot of prayer, a lot of faith, a lot of waiting, a lot of trusting, a lot of depending and a whole lot, a whole lot of determination to see it through. That's the way the Christian life is. It's interesting when we read an ancient text like this and I subscribe to the theory, the viewpoint that I think has the preponderance of evidence. And that is that these events are recorded pretty close to the time in which they have recently occurred. I take a very conservative view toward the authorship of Scripture and I believe that we have here a record of contemporaneous events recorded as they occurred and then put together very quickly into a very meaningful form. When we come to interpret any ancient text like this, we always in the more conservative side of evangelical Christianity insists upon what we call the grammatical, historical, theological, pastoral method of interpretation. Now my Sunday school class members can doze off at this point because they've heard this rant for 10 and a half years, but some of you haven't heard it before and maybe you need to kind of help yourself with a little bit of perspective and so I offer it to you. Critical, historical, theological, pastoral or practical or personal. Grammatical means that we pay attention to the literature, the grammar, the words, the senate structure, the literary form, the symbols and figures of speech and all of those things that come under the category of grammatical considerations and we take the Bible literally in the sense that it is inspired verbally and so we take very seriously the words. We saw a little of that last week but we also taken a consideration the historical times, the things that happened before and during and the milieu and the context of what's going on and the larger context always is that great sweep of salvation history whereas God started out with something in Genesis and He's going to conclude it somehow in Revelation. There is a sweep, a historical sweep through the scriptures and we need to interpret each piece of literature, each genre of literature according to that historical perspective. Also theological, the Bible is not a book of fairy tales and myths, it's not authored by Uncle Remus or Walt Disney. It is instead a very serious and sober book that purports to disclose to us the character of God, his ways, his person, what he does, how he thinks, how he operates, what he accomplishes, what he desires and what he forbids and what he encourages and what he punishes. It is a theological book and so we must always be asking ourselves in almost every passage of scripture, what is this telling us about God? What is it telling us about God's relationship to man? What is it telling us about man's condition in grace or in sin or in glory and so forth? So we interpret the Bible grammatically, historically, theologically and then practically or pastoral or personally. The Bible is not written just in order that we might understand its words, are the flow of history or even the theological concepts and proposition stated therein. Ultimately the Bible is given to us for our edification, it is for correction, for reproof, for instruction and righteousness for doctrine, it is for the building up of the soul, it is the very man of that we feed upon and so when we come to the scriptures we must be observant as to what is in the text that might be personally valuable and helpful to us and find it there. And it is in this fourth factor of interpretation that the book of Joshua has been treated in two broadly two different ways throughout Christian history. One is to look at the entering into the Canaan land as the entering into the final and ultimate way of the promise and that is the possession of the land ultimately and Canaan they say in this scheme of interpretation is a symbol of heaven and when you reach Canaan you have arrived and that passing over the Jordan is death, death is Jordan and when you pass over the Jordan river you pass into the eternal state into heaven, into the eternal bliss and the ultimate fulfillment of the rest that God promised his people and that is probably a very strong view in fact it is reflected in that hymn that we will see here in just a moment as we close. When I tread the verge of Jordan bid my fears cease. You see death of death and hell's destruction lead me safe to Canaan's side, that verse that stands to talks about moving into heaven and by the way when we can have my funeral here one of these years or days you are going to sing that song. That is a great welch tune and guide me over how great Jehovah is perhaps my favorite hymn when you sing that part that when I tread the verge of Jordan I want you to shed a little tear but I want it to be a tear of happiness and joy because at that point I am going to be right there with the songwriter and right there with these interpreters who see that as moving into heaven. However another school of interpretation says that no no no a more careful reading of the Bible tells us that Canaan is the great symbol of the Christian life that God delivered his people and rescued his people from Egypt's bondage which is God bringing us from death to life bringing us from darkness to light quickening us and bringing us forth and then after he has saved us after he has rescued us after he has brought us out of our sin he then gives us the revelation of his character and that is what the law is. The law at Sinai and the wilderness is the transcript of the character of God God identifies himself as a God of compassion and mercy and slow to anger and extending mercy to generation after generation after generation and in order for you to know what pleases him and what is an abomination in his side in order for you to know the way that you should walk he has disclosed himself and unfolded and revealed himself in his majestic law and in the sacrificial system and in the tabernacle and in all of those things that they received in the wilderness. And then you begin the Christian life as you come to the verge of Jordan and the passing over Jordan is the moving in to living of the Christian life, a life that will require all the things I mentioned a moment ago, faith, courage, waiting on the Lord, struggling, perseverance, all of those things that characterize the living of the Christian life and that's what you see but even in that we have been given the hope that it too is the gift of God. That is that our justification is not only by grace it is the gift of God but so is our sanctification because it is God who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure so the Christian life is a life that is reflected by this particular journey that God's people are now taking and it involves two things it involves a war, a battle, a slug, a struggle, a challenge, an uphill climb, a river to cross, a valley to inhabit but it also involves rest, there is a sense in which having come to Christ and having all of these things be stowed upon us by grace we have received a rest but the New Testament tells us that Joshua did not give his people the rest of the allotment in the inheritance, the settlement in Canaan that that waits to Christ and it is Christ invitation that says to us coming to me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke I eat the law take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am lowly in heart and you shall find rest to your souls and then ultimately we discover that when we do in fact cross the Jordan and enter into the eternal rest it is all it is all that God has promised it to be there has not one word failed of all the good promises that God made to his people is that helpful I hope it is because I spent most my time on it to see how we approach it because now when we come to see the practical and the pastoral and the personal side of this of this ancient text it will be very meaningful with us when we when we see the battles and the struggles and the things that we do they're immediately applicable to great spiritual varieties and great spiritual exercises in the lives of each and every one of us it's not a dry historical dead text but neither is it fanciful or mythical but it is instead sound doctrine that can be set forth on those two schools of thought I tend to follow the second one I'm comforted to know that my senior pastor also has that view so we won't have any problems in interpreting differently he sees as I do the Canaan experience of Joshua and the people as they go in first to conquer the land and then by allotment to settle the land we're going to see lesson after lesson of spiritual truth and we see a couple right here in the text before as we start off he says in three days get ready to go there's a lot of things that happen interestingly in the Bible on the third day and you see several of them here in the early chapters of Joshua on the third day now that's not the third day they're going to cross the Jordan there's some other things that happen in fact there's a couple of intervening third days spying out the land for example and a few other things and getting up to the Jordan is going to take another third day period of time but he wants them to know that we're not going to do it next year we're not going to do it five years down the road it's not even an activity of next month or next week it's an activity that is eminent that which is eminent and that which is immediate is upon us tell the officers to go through the camp and tell everybody get we're getting ready to move we're going to now take possession it's been about a 40 year wait and now it's a three day wait makes all the difference in the world when we move into the Christian life it is an immediate venture it is something that is thrust upon us it's kind of whether we're ready or not whether we like it or not we're engaged in the warfare and in the battle and in the quest that is the Christian life then it's interesting that here in this text from the very outset Joshua speaks to the to the tribes that stayed over on the east side of the Jordan if you studied your map of Canaan I hope you'll kind of look at your map a little as we go through this study and the maps in the back of your study bibles we'll we'll show you the route of the Exodus and the and the entry into the land the southern campaign the northern campaign the taking of the central part of the of the territory there but you'll you'll notice that when they reach the plains of Moab and then moved on up to the Jordan Valley just before they entered and of course Moses died and left them right there on the precipice of going into the land Moses gave by a lot that he gave three tribes a large portion of the land that had been that they had they were sitting on at the time that they were already occupying and he gave them of course to Ruben who was the first born of Israel and Gad who was born of one of the handmaidens of Israel's wives and the half tribe of Manasseh half the tribe of Manasseh by the way was that one of the children of Joseph and so Manasseh was going to receive a portion on either side of the land that was his compensation Ephraim received the blessing you remember back in in the letter chapters of the book of Genesis when he came time to bless Joseph brought his two little boys Ephraim and Manasseh up there to the lap of the crippled and ailing and failing Jacob Israel and Israel put the blessing on them and one more time as so often happens in scripture the younger one got the blessing but Manasseh now is going to receive a compensation he's going to get to Pazeth both sides of the Jordan so half tribe stays behind but it's interesting thing Joshua says now Moses gave you this land and in effect you already have yours you really can just stay right here you're already possessing your portion of the land you're getting the the land east of the Jordan but he says we need you to go with us and cross the Jordan and go in so the other nine and a half tribes can conquer and possess theirs and it's interesting the word that you used here he says Moses gave you this beyond the Jordan but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brothers and shall help them until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you there's a lot here for one thing there were probably about a hundred and ten men of valor fighting man in these three tribes if you go back into Deuteronomy and Numbers as they begin to number the fighting man these these tribes had about that many fighting men about a hundred and ten it was necessary to leave about seventy thousand of them behind to protect what they already had and then forty thousand men of these two and a half tribes would join with Israel and pass over the Jordan to go into conquer the land on the other side of the Jordan now they're doing this on behalf of their brothers and by the way that's the way the Christian life works it's a brotherhood some of us have to help others of us the inheritance belongs to all therefore the work must be done by all it is a brotherhood that moves forward in serving Christ there are very few lone wolves lone rangers and lone scouts it is the brotherhood the group the fellowship has to remain but it's interesting that he says here that they should go Passover armed before your brothers this is a technical term which basically sets forth a military alignment they were not just to go with them but they were to lead the attack it is interesting that those that already had their inheritance are now going to lead the attack for their brethren ye who are mature ye who have already received ye who are standing ye who are strong you've got to help the others and help the weak in the Christian life it's a matter of those who are a little further down the road to reach down and reach back and turn back and help others and bring them along and so the the mighty men of valor of these two and a half tribes were going to be the vanguard of the military expedition as they cross the Jordan and go over into the land then when the work is done Joshua says you can go back home where the land is there by the way they left about 70,000 men back on the east side of the Jordan to protect the women and the livestock and the cities and the territory that they had already had every once in a while God calls on some people to just stand by the stuff some people can go to the mission field and can go forward and be in the vanguard and make the ultimate sacrifice but it's just a much service in the kingdom to stay back and stand by the stuff and protect and to nurture and encourage to stay with the weak and the feeble and the suffering to stay with those that can't necessarily go forward at the pace that the army must move we serve either way and then the final thing I want to point out about this text is those last few verses with the people said to Joshua and you know if we think of Joshua in many ways as a type of Christ and we should that's another way to understand this book is to see many features of the life and ministry of Joshua as being typological or prophetic of the ministry of Christ so if you think by the way they have the same names as we pointed out last week Joshua as the Old Testament version of the word Jesus the name Jesus in the New Testament but if you just listen to this now and think of yourself swearing allegiance vowing and committing dedicated and consecrating yourself personally to your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ let's put these words in our mouths and let's address them to our Savior all that you have commanded us we will do wherever you send us we will go we will obey you only may the Lord God be with you as he was with Moses only be strong and courageous and listen to this whoever rebels against your commandments and disobey your words whatever you have commanded him he shall be put to death are you sold out dedicated completely committed to your commander in this quest