Fails Of Our Fathers (Joshua 5:1-9)

The Battle of Iwo Jima was a monumental endeavor. Over 100,000 soldiers, sailors, and marines were part of the fight. Though ultimate victory was assumed, it wasn’t going to be easy. The US forces would have no element of surprise^[1]) – the enemy knew they were coming. In fact, the Japanese garrison on the island was surprised that no attack came in the summer of 1944. Instead, the onslaught began in February of 1945. That gave the Japanese ample time to dig in and fortify their position, creating miles of underground tunnels, bunkers 75 feet deep,^[2]) and beach pillboxes whose walls were made of four foot thick, reinforced concrete.^[3]) Having that extra time to prepare led to one of the bloodiest battles in American history.

There were other troubles. Coming out of the water, Marines found that the beaches were not as they had been described by the battle planners. There were tall slopes of volcanic ash blocking their advance. And then there was also an issue of personal cargo. One historian writes:

“Marines were trained to move rapidly forward; here they could only plod. The weight and amount of equipment was a terrific hindrance and various items were rapidly discarded. First to go was the gas mask…regarded as an unnecessary trapping.”^[4])

The Book of Joshua gives us the history of the nation of Israel finally entering into their Promised Land and the battles fought there. Israel’s fighting force was huge, but that doesn’t mean the conquest would be easy. In chapter 5 we see God’s people just after they have crossed the Jordan river. They’ve established a sort of beachhead camp and now all that is left to do is start the invasion. Except, the Lord holds them back and shows them that there is an obstacle they need to deal with. There’s unnecessary weight hindering them that must be shed before they can proceed. It will mean a significant delay, they’ll lose the element of surprise, but in this passage we learn that God cares much more about our closeness with Him than any conquest we’re attempting. Our connection with Him is the most important consideration in any advance, any endeavor, any phase or arena we find ourselves in.

Joshua 5:1 – When all the Amorite kings across the Jordan to the west and all the Canaanite kings near the sea heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, they lost heart and their courage failed because of the Israelites.

Terror had gripped the hearts of the entire land from the mountains to the sea.^[5]) Joshua had sent spies to Jericho to bring back a report and they verified this fearfulness. Through Rehab the Israelites learned that the people of Canaan were in a panic. They knew God had dried up the Red Sea to allow them to cross. They knew that Kings Sihon and Og had already been destroyed with their armies.^[6]) Their courage had failed. But, at least (they thought) they’d have the natural barrier of the Jordan river. It was the time of year when the Jordan flooded, overflowing its banks. But that was no more a barrier than the Red Sea had been. Imagine the fear the scouts of Jericho and the other cities of the land would’ve felt as they watched the hosts of Israel stepping into Canaan, unhindered and months sooner than expected.

These incredible feats caused Rahab to conclude, “Your God is God in heaven above and earth below.” And she pled for mercy. She asked for her life and the lives of her family to be spared.

This opening verse is a good place to pause and address any person listening today who is not a Christian. The God of the Bible is real and He is God of heaven and earth. You may not worship Him, but that doesn’t change the fact that He is true and that He is coming. When He comes, He comes with wrath in His hand to judge the earth. The fate of those who will not believe is just like those in Canaan. You face a battle you cannot win with an unstoppable God – One who is not hindered by rivers or oceans. Human power or fortifications cannot stop the Lord’s coming. And He has promised, very clearly, that He is coming again to save His people and judge His enemies.

Zephaniah 1:18 – 18 Their silver and their gold will be unable to rescue them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete, yes, a horrifying end of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Romans 2:5-8 – 5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. 6 He will repay each one according to his works:, 7 eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness.

If you aren’t a Christian, we would plead with you today to be like Rahab. Maybe you know the story. She and her family were the only people in all Jericho who raised a white flag. She talked with the spies from Israel and said, “We see what’s coming. We believe your God is true. Please save us.” And God did. Anyone else in the city could’ve made that choice, but they wouldn’t, and so they perished. Don’t make the same mistake. Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.

Joshua 5:2 – 2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelite men again.”

Back at the camp there is a delay. Human strategists would’ve said, “We can’t wait. We need to take advantage of this momentum we have.” They had reliable intelligence that enemy morale was completely destroyed. Now was not the time to hesitate, but to rush forward to victory.

But God doesn’t care about any of that. He tells Joshua, “We’re going to be here awhile, because there is a nationwide issue we need to deal with.” All the men needed to be circumcised.

The text says “again,” but that doesn’t mean these fellows had been circumcised before. In fact, it’s explained for us in verses 4 and 5.

Joshua 5:4-5 – 4 This is the reason Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males—all the men of war—had died in the wilderness along the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out were circumcised, none of the people born in the wilderness along the way were circumcised after they had come out of Egypt.

The big question is: Why was this whole generation of men uncircumcised? Some think that, after their fathers had refused to enter the promised land 40 years earlier, God had forbidden it as a symbol that they were breakers of the covenant.^[7]) Some suggest that since they had to follow the pillar of cloud around and they never knew when it was going to move, it was impractical to carry out the procedure there in the wilderness.^[8]) Others point to the spiritual indifference of their parents’ generation,^[9]) which was demonstrated so many times in Exodus. We’re not explicitly told the reason, though disobedience is highlighted in verses 6.

But here is the important thing: After decades of wandering, after crossing the Jordan, after finally stepping foot into that land that had been the focus of God’s promise to Abraham’s descendants for hundreds and hundreds of years, God says, “Wait: We have a spiritual issue we need to address. There’s a gap in your faith that needs to be made right and nothing is more important.”

Using flint knives wasn’t something that God had required of Abraham back when circumcision was first instituted for the Hebrews. It draws our thoughts back to that moment when Moses had set off toward Egypt to be the deliverer, yet he had failed to circumcise his own son. That failure led to a strong reaction from God – God was going to kill Moses, until his wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised their boy on the spot. In both cases, the urgency and the opportunity and the significance of what God wanted to do was all secondary to faithful obedience.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary puts it this way: “Consecration must precede conquest. There was some unfinished business and it was spiritual in character. It was time for renewal.”

Spiritual renewal – faithful, obedient devotion to God – is more important than any effort we’re undertaking, even if we’re doing it for the Lord. Put together here, we have this wonderful example of how a living faith in the God of the Bible operates. God sat them down and said, “I see you believe, but your belief in My promises has to work itself out in real life obedience to Me.” They did believe. They crossed the Jordan, they were ready to receive what had been offered to them, but first, they would have to personally obey. Faithfulness is demonstrated in obedient activity. In the New Testament, James puts it this way: Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is useless.^[10])

At the same time, it wasn’t just that God wanted each of these men to do this physical thing and check a box. This was about personal devotion – personal fidelity. God wanted their hearts. This generation of Israelites had been given Deuteronomy, a re-telling of God’s Law and His intentions for them. And again and again the Lord spoke to them about their hearts and filling the heart with the Word of God and following the Lord from the heart. In Deuteronomy 30 we read:

Deuteronomy 30:6 – 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.

That’s what God wanted. The physical circumcision was the act of a faith that was rooted in the heart. It was an acknowledgement that the spiritual relationship between God and man was the most important part of everything they were doing. Everything else was secondary. Everything else could wait. And this is not just an Old Testament, tribes of Israel principle. This is still the truth for us today. Not that we are to follow the Mosaic Law – Christ fulfilled the Law. We “no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, [we] live under the freedom of God’s grace.”^[11]) But in this Joshua story we learn that the most important objective we have in life is to be in step with the Lord – to be devoted and set apart to Him, obeying what He says not just in thought but in real action.

For the New Testament believer, “circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit.”^[12]) It means to be a person submitted to the Word of God and in a personal relationship with Him. A relationship where we “worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh.”^[13])

That must come before any effort we hope to succeed in. If you want to have meaningful life success in your place in history, in your marriage, in your parenting, in your field of study, in whatever campaign you find yourself, the first consideration is heart circumcision. Because from the heart comes obedience and when we obey, God’s grace works out through our lives in powerful ways that we can not accomplish on our own.

And we can see God’s astounding grace on display in this passage. None of these men were circumcised, the one thing that had designated Hebrews as being members of a covenant with God since the time of Abraham. And yet, even though they were all outside the agreement, even though none of them were even qualified to observe the Passover, still God walked with them. For forty years! He led them and He made the way for them and He did the impossible for them because He loved them so much. When they were faithless, He remained faithful. That is the grace of God. But now they were at a turning point and they were brought to a decision: Would they submit and do what God asked even though it would be difficult and contrary to human wisdom?

Joshua 5:3 – 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelite men at Gibeath-haaraloth.

There’s no montage here of training the troops or making weapons of war. You always have that in battle movies like Shang-Chi or The Last Samurai or The Two Towers. The only thing that Joshua makes are ceremonial knives. There would be no combat practice, just long days of recovery.

Most of us can think of that image of the flag being raised at Iwo Jima. It’s an incredible image that makes us consider what it cost and what it was for and why it mattered. There’s a symbol like that here in verse 3. The name Gibeath-haaraloth means “Hill of the Foreskins.” According to the census given in Numbers, more than 600,000 men would’ve been circumcised that day.^[14]) Though somewhat grotesque, what an incredible testimony this was of their obedience and their faith – a monument to their willingness to cut away that which would put distance between them and the Lord and slow down that which He wanted to accomplish in their lives. A symbol of trust in God.

Joshua 5:6-7 – 6 For the Israelites wandered in the wilderness forty years until all the nation’s men of war who came out of Egypt had died off because they did not obey the Lord. So the Lord vowed never to let them see the land he had sworn to their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 He raised up their sons in their place; it was these Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised, since they had not been circumcised along the way.

It’s striking to see that earlier generation described as “men of war.” The Lord had wanted so much to give them the land and the victories in it. Instead of becoming the men of war God wanted them to be, they became men of complaining, men of grumbling, men of resentment and disbelief. They chose a fleshly way of living with a human mindset instead of trusting the Lord. And so, others were raised up in their place. They fought in a few battles, but they gave away the chance to become the conquest generation.

Their unwillingness to obey the Lord and trust Him resulted in a life of wandering. They ultimately made no progress. They just moved from place to place, wasting year after year of life.

God does not bless those who won’t submit to His leading. In the Proverbs we’re told that to reject God’s wisdom and His commands makes you a fool and a fool wastes any treasure he finds. God isn’t going to help us waste our lives. He wants incredible things for us, but if we refuse Him, then He will raise up others to be used in our place. This was Mordecai’s message to Esther.

Joshua 5:8-9 – 8 After the entire nation had been circumcised, they stayed where they were in the camp until they recovered. 9 The Lord then said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you.” Therefore, that place is still called Gilgal today.

This was a time before ice and Tylenol. A few medical sources I consulted put the recovery time between 10 days and 6 weeks. Not only would they lose the element of surprise and give their enemies time to fortify (which they did),^[15]) they actually became weak and vulnerable, with only God to protect them. From a military planning perspective, this was folly.

Sometimes God’s commands put us in a position like this. But we don’t have to fear being vulnerable in God’s hands. Remember: “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”^[16]) Life isn’t about strategy, it’s about trust.


Any battle strategist would’ve said, “We’ve lost our advantage. It’s going to be much harder now to win a victory because we spent all this time doing something that seems so unimportant.” But, in reality, this was the most important thing they could’ve done. One of the lessons the book of Joshua teaches us is that the only thing that could defeat Israel was Israel. If they sinned, if they forgot God, if they embraced their own wisdom instead of the Lord’s, that was the only thing that could stop what God wanted to do in and through their lives.


The same principle is spiritually for us. No weapon formed against us can succeed. Nothing in the world can overcome us. No temptation is too great for us to withstand. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. But we can fall into traps by failing to believe and obey what He has told us and where He is leading us. When we leave the camp of His grace and go far afield after our own desires and our own strategies and our own destinations, that is when we fall into defeat. When we trust God and stand in His truth, there’s nothing to fear. Because the Lord’s strength is vast and with it He prepares us for every circumstance and adversary of life.

What was the disgrace of Egypt? Bible scholars don’t agree. What’s important is that it was God who rolled it away. They weren’t earning God’s grace through circumcision. They were agreeing to receive it and demonstrating that they believed the Lord and trusted Him and wanted closeness to Him more than they wanted plunder or glory in battle or anything else. And they trusted Him enough to obey. They had seen first hand how the Lord had been faithful to their parents’ generation, yet their parents had been unfaithful. This group didn’t want to make the same mistake.

Of course, in the end, Joshua will say to them, “Hey, you’ve all seen what the Lord has done for us. But you are drifting away. Choose this day who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Again, Joshua renewed his faithful obedience to this loving and faithful God. Will we be faithful? Will we follow the Lord, setting aside anything He asks us to, trusting that He knows the best way forward? Settling that issue is the most important thing any of us could do today.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word

What a glory He sheds on our way!
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey

Home Sweet Hope (Joshua 14:6-9)

Everywhere I go people are constantly walking ahead of me in line to join with their family or friends up ahead.  They see nothing wrong with it.

Maybe you see nothing wrong with it.

I’m old school when it comes to taking cuts in a line.  It’s just wrong.

I think I might suffer from line rage.

I thought I made up the term, line rage, but it’s a real thing, being studied at MIT.

The professor overseeing the study describes a line as “a momentary involuntary imprisonment.”

He jokes, “if Moses had an eleventh commandment, it would have been, ‘Thou shalt not cut in line.'”

In some cities, you can hire people to wait in line for you.  In New York City, the going rate is $60.00 an hour – and people ‘line-up,’ as it were, to pay it.

There are exceptions to taking cuts.  In our text, Caleb takes cuts in line.

Joshua is about to begin casting lots to determine the inheritances of the tribes when Caleb breaks ranks and steps forward and asks for the portion already promised to him forty-five years earlier by Moses.

It’s one of those times I have no problem with someone taking cuts.  Caleb had already waited long enough.

One of the things that strikes you about his zeal is that even though he’s waited forty-five years, he acts like Hebron was promised to him only yesterday.  Through many discouragements, dangers, and difficulties, Caleb never lost site of God’s promise.

It’s an example, a powerful one, of biblical hope.

We use the word hope to describe things that may or may not come to pass.  The Bible presents hope as a certainty.

Let’s make a connection between Caleb’s forty-year hope and a hope of our own as believers.

The rapture is called our blessed hope:

Tit 2:13  looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

The verse is talking about the rapture, which is imminent; it could happen any moment.

I got saved in February of 1979.  That was nearly forty-years ago. No rapture… But I still have it as my blessed hope; and so do you; because God’s Word is true.

Caleb was certain he would inherit Hebron.  We want to focus on the source of his hope.

Joshua 14:6  Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: “You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea.

Forty-five years earlier the Israelites had stood on the verge of entering the Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea.  Moses sent twelve men in to spy-out the land.

Ten of the spies exaggerated the dangers and difficulties.

They claimed, for example, that the land was filled with giants when only a small percentage of the population were descended from the Anakim.

Joshua and Caleb gave a good report and urged the people to press forward and by faith conquer the land.  They were outnumbered and overruled.

Because of their unbelief, the Lord told the Israelites that the entire generation over the age of twenty would never enter the Promised Land.  The Israelites were made to wander in the wilderness for nearly forty years while that generation died.

Joshua and Caleb were the exceptions.  After the forty years they would enter the land and receive their inheritance.
It was time.

Joshua 14:7  I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.
Joshua 14:8  Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God.

He (and Joshua) stood against the fears of the other spies.  It was Caleb’s very bad, no good, terrible day.

He described the result of the bad report by saying it “made the heart of the people melt.”

Don’t be a heart-melter.  In your encounters with others, concentrate on being an encouragement to their walk.  Or, if they are not saved, an example of Jesus.

Think about others.  In fact, think more about them than yourself.  Your needs, or perceived needs, are best met by serving others.

Several times in Scripture Caleb is described, either by himself or others, as “wholly,” or as “fully” following the Lord.  Let’s talk about that for a while.

If Caleb followed, it means he never got ahead of the Lord.  Charles Spurgeon, commenting on this, said, “They who travel before the cloud will soon find other clouds lowering upon them. Those who leave the fiery pillar, and will be their own guides, shall soon be in the fire, without a guide to bring them out again.”

The emphasis on the words “fully,” and “wholly” implies you can follow haltingly; or distantly.

Israel’s first king, Saul, followed haltingly.  He was on-again, off-again, in his walking with the Lord.

The apostle Peter followed distantly – at least, he did the night he denied Jesus three times.

Are there areas in which you are hesitating?

Or where you are still afar off?

On that very bad day God gave Caleb His word:

Joshua 14:9  So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’

Caleb had gone from forty-year old warrior to forty-year wanderer in a moment’s time.

It wasn’t something that he brought on himself but it was something that resulted from the disbelief of others.

He had been despised, hated, and threatened by his peers for doing and saying what was right.

For the next four decades he would live in a culture of death watching as everyone over twenty died in the wilderness.  He knew that once the next generation entered the land he’d still need to fight – even though he’d be in his eighties by then.
Was he discouraged?  Did he get depressed?

Not at all.  He had the word that the Lord had spoken to him and it was his hope.

Discouragement is a powerful enemy to your Christian walk.  Depression is a reality even among Christians.  Both are reasons why it is important to remember that you, too, have the word which the Lord has spoken to you.

The Lord has spoken to you on at least three levels.  First, He has spoken to every believer in the precepts and principles of the Word of God, the Bible.

Your ‘land’ is wherever you find yourself.  It’s your home, your office, your school.  It’s your marriage and family, your job or career, your classes, classmates, and teachers.

God has spoken His word to you in each of those areas to tell you how to act and react.  His word should give you hope, and it will when you follow it with your whole heart.

Second, God speaks to us on what we might call a ‘personal’ level.  It is when you are reading His word and get that wonderful sense that the verse or verses are speaking directly to you.  Or someone shares a verse or verses with you that go directly to your situation and put it into its spiritual perspective.

It is possible for this to occur because God’s Word is alive and powerful.

Often when a person is seeking biblical counsel I will ask them what they’ve been reading in God’s Word or hearing taught from God’s Word.  More times than not the hope they need for what they are going through has already been spoken to them.

Third, God continues to speak to us on a ‘prophetic’ level.  The Bible is prophetic, and certainly when a verse or verses come alive in my heart it is prophetic.

You’ve probably had experiences like that at church.  Moments when you know God has brought something home to you.

In addition there are times God ‘speaks’ to you more directly.  It may be through a waking vision or a spiritual dream.  It may be through the exercise of the gift of prophecy in a meeting of saints as someone shares a word or a Scripture.

Whatever is shared must be judged against Scripture and must align with what God has already said in the Bible.  But a word of prophecy or a word of wisdom has its place in the overall scheme of the word the Lord has spoken to you.  It can be very precious and powerful.

Caleb bursts onto the scene at age eighty-five, taking cuts in line, to demand his inheritance.  You can tell that everyday for forty-five long years he lived with the hope of the word he had been given by God.  Four decades of wandering had not dampened his spiritual zeal.

If and when you find yourself discouraged or even depressed you probably need to return to the word the Lord has spoken to you.  Nothing else will give you hope.

Discover or re-discover that word from God.  It’s usually a verse or verses you will read today or tomorrow.  It might be a verse or verses you’ve noted in the margin of your Bible that were God’s encouragement to give you hope.  It might be a word of prophecy once given or still to come.

Maybe you have a life-verse to encourage you.  I don’t… Some do.

It won’t change your situation.  Things may not get better outwardly.  They may even get worse.

But the word the Lord has spoken to you will radically alter your perspective.  Inwardly you will rejoice in the Lord as you enjoy His presence in the midst of either your problems or your prosperity.

You will have the certain hope of a pilgrim wanderer on this earth headed home to your heavenly inheritance.  One day you will step forward and claim it from your Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ.

New Country For Old Men (Joshua 13v1)

The article in the NY Post was titled, Hollywood Loves its Aging Action Heroes.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Age is just a number, at least when it comes to action heroes. Grab a juice box and take a hike, Taylor Lautner.  The biggest names in action movies today are virtually identical to the 1980s and early 1990s.  Sylvester Stallone is 68.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is 67.  Liam Neeson is 62.  Wee pup Bruce Willis is 60.

The writer also made this comment: “these guys don’t mind working around all those loud gunshots; their hearing probably went years ago.”

Joshua and Caleb were the aging action heroes of the Israelites at the time of the conquest of the Promised Land.
About 45 years earlier, Joshua and Caleb had been two of the twelve spies sent in by Moses to give a report on the Promised Land.

You remember the story: Ten spies emphasized the strength of the walled cities, and the terrifying presence of giants, while Joshua and Caleb emphasized walking by faith, and believing that God had already given them the victory.

The Israelites defied God and refused to enter the Promised Land.  As a discipline, God decreed that all those above twenty years of age would die-off wandering in the wilderness over the next almost forty years.

All, that is, except for Joshua and Caleb.  God preserved them, and they entered the Promised Land along with the younger generation.

The initial conquest of the Promised Land took about seven years.  The Israeli military broke the backbone of Canaanite power in three decisive battles:

In the central region they had taken the strategic fortified city of Jericho.

In the south they had defeated a combined force at Gibeon.

In the north they had defeated a huge enemy contingent by the waters of Merom.

It was time for each tribe to receive it’s inheritance of land and to take the individual responsibility of driving out any remaining resistance.

Thus we read in verse one of Joshua thirteen,

Jos 13:1  Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the LORD said to him: “You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.

We know from the last chapter that Joshua died at the age of 110 (24:29), so he probably was at least 100 in chapter thirteen.

You might not think that 100 is very old, for a Bible character in the Old Testament.  Some of those guys had extremely long life spans.

But the phrasing God used indicates that his years of serving had left Joshua battle worn.

Another translation, the Complete Jewish Bible, translates the opening phrase “Now Joshua was old; the years had taken their toll.”

The Lord was saying, “Man, you’re tore up, Joshua!”

I’ve never been big on reunions, but I’ve been to a couple.  There are always a few guys and gals to whom the years have not been kind.  You don’t normally go up to them and say, “Man, the years have taken their toll on you.”

God was simply stating a fact.  If you’re in the battle, familiar with spiritual warfare, you’re gonna look like you were.

It’s my favorite scene from the movie, Jaws.  Chief Brody, Hooper and Quint, in the galley of their boat, the Orca, get to comparing scars.

It starts with Brody touching a recently acquired abrasion on his forehead.  Quint pulls his hair aside to show a permanent lump from being hit with a spittoon in a bar on “Saint Paddy’s Day.”

Hooper shows a scar, on his forearm, where a classmate bit him during recess.  Quint responds by showing a scar on his forearm, attributed to a wire burn.

Next, Hooper rolls up his sleeve to show the bite of a Moray eel.

Quint counters with a knife wound he received in a fight.

Hooper shows a bull shark bite on his leg; Quint, the scar from a thresher shark.

About that time, Chief Brody sheepishly checks the scar from his appendectomy.

Finally Hooper points to his heart, telling them it was broken by Mary Ellen Moffat.

Wounded and scarred isn’t how we normally think of Christians – but we should.

After His resurrection, Jesus invited Thomas to examine the scars on His glorified body.  Charles Spurgeon said,

For did he not say to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.”  I wish to draw your attention to the ample fact, that our Lord Jesus Christ, when He rose again from the dead had in His body the marks of His passion.

If He had pleased He could readily have removed them.  He rose again from the dead, and He might have erased from His body everything which could be an indication of what He had suffered and endured before He descended into the tomb.  But, no!  Instead thereof, there were the pierced hands and feet, and there was the open side.

When He steps forward, in Heaven, to take the scroll and open the seals of the Tribulation, Jesus does so as the Lamb Who was slain, bearing His scars.

Serving the Lord can take its toll on you.  I can’t help but think of the apostle Paul and the weight of the physical and emotional toll serving the Lord took on him.

He described it in his own inspired words, in his most auto-biographical letter, Second Corinthians.

2Co 11:23  … in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.

2Co 11:24  From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.

2Co 11:25  Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;

2Co 11:26  in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

2Co 11:27  in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness –

2Co 11:28  besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.

Amy Carmichael powerfully expressed this aspect of walking with Jesus in her classic poem, No Scar?

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?

Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?

While we all, as Christians, would consent to the truth that we are soldiers, we need to come to the awareness we are wounded warriors – not weekend warriors.

We are not reservists who may or may not be called into active duty.  And there is no term to our tour of duty; we are lifers in the Lord’s army.

Ideally, in our culture, we now retire around age 55.  We see retirement as a time of leisure and pleasure; a time to do what we want with our time.

Joshua was almost twice that old when God gave him maybe the most difficult task he had yet faced – the dividing of the land.  It would be followed by his needing to fight to drive-out enemies who remained in his inheritance.

As long as you are alive, there will be more work to do for the Lord, never less.  If it’s true that when we are weak, He is strong, you’d expect much more difficult spiritual tasks as you age.

It’s not by might, nor by power, but by God’s Spirit that we claim our inheritance.

Jeremiah understood this when God said to him,

Jer 12:5  “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?

Remember the movie, Top Gun?  At the end, after Maverick and Ice Man defeat the Russian MIGS, they’re told they can have any assignment they want.

In one successful dogfight, they had arrived.

Tom Cruise chose to go back to get the girl and be an instructor at Top Gun school.

He peaked in his very first combat mission, and lived off its glory for the rest of his career.

That kind of thinking has no place in our walk with the Lord.  If Joshua and Caleb were Maverick and Ice Man, they’d have gone on to Russia and wiped-out their entire air force.

Joshua’s advanced age did not excuse him from making continued spiritual progress.  He had unfinished business.

Until you die, or the church is raptured, you and I will have unfinished business with the Lord.

Ask Him, today, to show you some.  What has been left undone?  What is He leading you to do?

It was time for the Israelites to divide the land and turn loose each tribe in their inheritance to continue the conquest.

How’d they do?  There’s a report card in the sequel to Joshua, the Book of Judges.

Jdg 3:5  Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Jdg 3:6  And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.

Tribe after tribe failed to drive out their enemies, and instead they quite literally got into bed with them.

I’m not sure when it became popular to name each generation.

According to a professor at Texas A&M, “in America, there are six living generations, which are six fairly distinct groups of people. As a generalization each generation has different likes, dislikes, and attributes.”

Her list reads like this:

Born before 1927 – The Greatest Generation.

Born between 1927 and 1945 – The Silent Generation.

Born between 1946 and 1964 – The Baby Boomers.

Born between 1965 and 1980 – Generation X.

Born between 1981 and 2000 – Generation Y (or Millennials).

Born after 2001 – Generation Z (not for zombie, btw; it’s because they are too young to have characteristics, so ‘Z’ is a place-holder until they can be identified).

Some are calling the current generation, Generation Like, because of Facebook and Instagram ‘likes,’ and the trauma of not receiving ‘likes’ for your postings.

I’d call the generation that Joshua led in to the Promised Land Generation Epic Fail.

Joshua had won a decisive victory; but their enemies remained – fierce enemies, needing to be battled.

Sounds just like us, does it not?  Our Joshua, the Lord, Jesus Christ, defeated our enemies.  Speaking of the Cross at Calvary, in Colossians 2:15 we read,

Col 2:15  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

The devil and his minions were soundly defeated.  Yet until Jesus returns to earth, the devil goes on warring against us.

Israel’s tribes were to fight from a position of assured victory in order to secure their inheritance.

The Promised Land is a type, for us, of the Christian life.  With no disrespect intended toward many popular hymns, the Promised Land is not typical of Heaven, because there are enemies in it, and battles to be fought, and wounds to be earned doing so.

The question for us, today, whether we’ve been here thirty-years or thirty-minutes, is, Where am I living?

What is your spiritual address?  You have five choices.

Here is what I mean.  Warren Wiersbe, in his Joshua commentary, Be Strong, compares  four geographic locations associated with Israel to four possible spiritual ‘states’ we may occupy.  I add a fifth.

Egypt was the place of death and bondage, from which Israel was delivered.  This illustrates the salvation we have by faith in Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb.  Are you saved?  If you are not, you are living in Egypt, living according to your natural appetites, not realizing your purpose for living.  Worse, you’re final destination is Hell, separated from God, in a place of eternal conscious torment for eternity.

The Promised Land represents the Christian life as it ought to be: conflict and victory, faith and obedience, spiritual riches and rest, where we are constantly claiming more of our inheritance in Jesus.  It is cooperating with Jesus, Who promised to complete the work He has begun in you.

The Wilderness Wandering of Israel depicts believers who live in unbelief and disobedience to God.  They come to a place of decision, or crisis, and they refuse to obey the Lord.  They are delivered from Egypt, but Egypt is still in their hearts.  They meander through life as wanderers.  You’re in the wilderness if your life is mostly characterized by carnal, worldly pursuits; and if you choose to disobey the clear teachings of the Bible.

Two of the Jewish tribes, Reuben and Gad, settled on the border of the Promised Land rather than going in as God had decreed.  The land east of the Jordan River was great for their livestock – for their livelihood.  This tells me it’s possible to be a Borderland believer.  You’re content to be saved, but you want to be left alone to pursue your own best interests.  You’re not living in sin, but you are falling short in total commitment to Jesus.  You’re a Christian, but you’re not a disciple.

The fifth location is Babylon.  It was to Babylon the Jews were exiled for a time of discipline for willful rebellion.  You might be enduring a time like that, now.  If so, rejoice, knowing whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, in order to restore you.

Where am I living?  What’s my address?

It ought to be in the Promised Land, in a walk with Jesus in which I am growing more like Him everyday.

As for our thirty years… We are aging action heroes and heroines.  Thirty-years is a warm-up.

“There remains very much land yet to be possessed.”

Let’s get folks out of Egypt; and let’s stay out of the wilderness, and the borderland, and Babylon, and conquer our enemies, claiming more-and-more of our inheritance on our way home.