Strength For The Journey

[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Philippians 4:13 Joshua 6:1-14

A Key to Future Victories

Joshua 6:1-14

Israel was assured of victory over Jericho. It was the key city to the whole campaign in Canaan. Once that obstacle was removed, the armies of Israel could spread out in all directions. So it is no wonder that we find in this incident of history an abundance of spiritual lessons.

Israel herself could not retreat. They had no alternative except to go forward in victory or suffer death. The death the Israelites might have suffered would have been that of dying at the hands of their foes.

In the spiritual realm our danger is in succumbing to the Enemy because we do not apply the victory.

Humanly speaking, Jericho was so strongly fortified as to be almost incapable of being taken. It guarded all the passes to the interior of the land of Canaan. Consequently, so long as Jericho held out, the land was safe from invasion.

We find that the same experience meets us once we choose to go on in Christian warfare. Invisible forces rise up to try to stop us and will succeed unless we follow our Captain implicitly.

The enemy, Satan, will get us to consider our weaknesses, such as temperament or lack of ability or self-control, but these are the very things over which the Lord will give us victory.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 6:15-27 Hebrews 11:30 1 Thessalonians 4:16 Hebrews 12:26 1 Corinthians 15:52

A Shout of Faith

Joshua 6:15-27

According to Hebrews 11:30, the walls of Jericho fell down by faith. Some people want to attribute the collapse of the walls to an earthquake.

It makes no difference to us what means God used. Whatever He did was timed so that after Israel had passed around the city the 13th time, and when the trumpets blew and the shout was made, then the walls fell. It took place just when God said it would.

God will speak again, and this time to the whole world. Just as the shout of the Israelites preceded the judgment on Jericho, so the Lord Jesus will come for His saints, descending from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first (1 Thess. 4:16).

Then will follow the Great Tribulation, the time of awful judgment for the earth. Hebrews 12:26 prophesies of this when it says of God, "Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven."

Peter described it in 2 Peter 3 in these words: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (v. 10).

"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:52).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 7:1-12 2 Chronicles 25:2

A Wrong Time to Pray

Joshua 7:1-12

A failure to pray always makes us insensitive to sin. If we do not take time to pray, we will often not recognize sin for what it is. When we pray in the time of victory, we will not have to plead in the time of defeat.

When Joshua bowed his head in prayer following Israel's defeat, the Lord told him to get up and do something. This may sound like a contradiction to all the teaching we have had on prayer, but it is not.

God was simply telling Joshua that it was not the time to pray in the way he was praying. Israel had sinned; it was Joshua's responsibility as leader to erase this sin from Israel's life. The fault for this military reversal did not lie with God but with Israel.

How often we, like Joshua and the elders of Israel, are inclined to blame God when things go wrong. We sometimes say when reverses come that God has forsaken us.

Some people harden their hearts against God and blame Him that things are not going as they thought they should go. Yet had these individuals gone to God in the first place, they would have been directed in the proper way.

God knows from the very beginning what He is doing and why He is doing it. He knows all the underlying causes that are related to all the incidents in our lives. There is nothing hidden from Him.

"He did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart" (2 Chron. 25:2).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 7:13-26 1 John 1:9 1 Corinthians 5:7

Dealing With Sin

Joshua 7:13-26

Several steps were involved in this account that are a guide with regard to the handling of sin and the cure of it in the believer's life.

First of all, the stolen goods were brought out from hiding. Sin, whatever its nature, has to be brought into the open. The person who attempts to hide his sin cannot prosper.

In the second place, they brought Achan to Joshua, who in this case stands in the position of Christ. Our Lord is both the Saviour from sin and the Judge of sin.

In the third place, this sin of Achan's was laid before the Lord, for all sin is directed against Him. If in the process of our sin we have affected others, then they, too, should hear our confession.

Public sin should be publicly confessed. It was only after this that Achan and his family were taken and stoned to death; then their bodies and possessions were burned. It is clear from this that the family was party to the father's sin, not innocent victims of it.

God's way of curing sin among believers in our day is given in 1 John 1:9. There we read, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

The word "confess" means to "bring out into the open." We lay our sins out before the Lord and agree with Him concerning them. So we lay our sin out before the Lord completely and judge it. Thus the word "confess" also means "I agree with the Lord in this matter."

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 8:10-30 1 Corinthians 12 Psalm 37:23

New Orders and Methods

Joshua 8:10-30

With regard to the continuing effort to subdue Ai, Joshua received new orders. He was to follow a different method than what was used to bring Jericho down.

The Lord does not always do things the same way. The method followed for Jericho's capture was not repeated for any other city or fortress in Canaan. So for Ai there was a new plan.

God never changes in His character, but He does not necessarily follow the same plans in everything He does.

In our own personal lives, God has made it plain that He is not stereotyped in the way He does things. We are told in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 that God has diversities of operations.

The passage reads: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."

There is but one Holy Spirit, and He guides and plans in your life and mine and in the work of God today.

The glory belongs to the Lord and not to us. It is God who gives the strategy to retake what has been lost in our lives just as He formulated a new strategy for the capture of Ai.

The way back may seem to be hard at times. We don't like to travel that road. We don't like to face our sins. The Devil makes us ashamed, but God says the only way is to go back, as He has planned the way for us and that way only.

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way" (Ps. 37:23).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 9:1-15

Deciding Without Praying

Joshua 9:1-15

The Gibeonites wanted Israel to make a league with them, which was contrary to God's instructions. God had said all the Canaanites were to be destroyed. Unfortunately, the leaders of Israel believed the lying Gibeonites and did as they suggested.

We are no match in ourselves for Satan's subtle ways. We can defeat him only as we remember the admonition of Proverbs 3:5-7 to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and to lean not on our own understanding.

We are to acknowledge God in all our ways, and He will direct our paths. It is when we turn to Him that He gives us wisdom.

Israel's problem was that they were presumptuous, acting on the basis of their own wisdom. In our case Christ has been made unto us wisdom, but we must watch.

Be especially careful of decisions that have to be made under pressure. This is an area I have been careful about with regard to my own life, and it has paid off.

When someone comes along and tells me that I have to make a decision right now because the opportunity might be gone by tomorrow, then I am even more on the alert. That kind of argument, particularly with spiritual things involved, could be Satan's subtle way of deception.

Many persons have been led from the work of the Lord into side issues because they made decisions suddenly without consulting God.

"Seeing then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph. 5:15-17).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 9:16-27 1 Corinthians 7:12 2 Corinthians 8:21

Learning From Mistakes

Joshua 9:16-27

Once the league was made by Israel and the Gibeonites, God held Israel to it. He would not let them destroy the cities or the people. God works on this principle in other areas in our lives today.

Even when we make mistakes, we are still under obligation to carry through our part of the transactions we have entered into. Where we involve ourselves and God's Word in our testimony, we have to stick by the promise made.

Take for example the subject of marriage. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:12, "But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away."

If a mistake has been made in marriage by a believer's marrying an unsaved person, the Christian is to make the best of it and trust God for the rest. If the unsaved partner wants to continue on in the marriage, the marriage must not be broken up.

Israel and Joshua had made a mistake. This mistake drove the Israelites to prayer. The presence of the Gibeonites among them was a constant reminder of the mistake made. The mistakes at Ai and Gibeon were not made again during Joshua's lifetime.

Satan was not able to discourage the Israelites from going on in their conquest of Canaan. Neither should a mistake we have made cause us to give up. Let us confess it to God, forsake it and go ahead.

"Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men" (2 Cor. 8:21).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Ephesians 1:11 Joshua 10:1-15

God is Sovereign

Joshua 10:1-15

Whatever God did either to the sun or the earth or whatever else was involved, the result was that there was light for a period extending about the length of another day.

God, who is the God of the impossible, aided the Israelites by prolonging the daylight and by showering hailstones upon the Amorites.

Concerning that day, Joshua 10:14 says, "And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel."

Joshua knew his God. He had become acquainted with Him personally. This was especially true at the time he met the Lord as the Captain of the Lord's hosts.

Joshua's knowledge of the Lord, however, must have begun with his years in Egypt, then increased during the 40 years he spent under the tutorship of Moses in the desert.

Serving as Moses' minister, Joshua saw the mighty miracles of God and was introduced to some of the more personal aspects of God's dealing with Moses and His people

Joshua was one of the two men who dared to believe God the first time the spies were sent into Canaan. He knew that God was sovereign and accepted God's sovereignty for his own life.

When reading in the prophets for my devotions, I am constantly impressed by the presentation of God's sovereignty, His limitless might and the finality of His Word.

What He says He will do, He does. Time in no way limits Him. Do you know this God as the Bible presents Him?

"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Eph. 1:11).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 11:16-23 Joshua 1:3 2 Samuel 3:17-18 Colossians 3:1-3 Romans 8:17

Possessing an Inheritance

Joshua 11:16-23

We read in Joshua 11:23: "So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war."

The important word in this verse is "inheritance." Joshua gave Israel the land for an inheritance.

But in chapter 13:1 we see, "Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed."

This appears on the surface to be a contradiction with what chapter 11 says. God had given all the land to the Israelites, but they were responsible to go in and possess it.

They were promised, according to Joshua 1:3, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you."

We also know now that God gave them the land for an inheritance. It was divided among the tribes as is outlined for us in the Book of Joshua. Nevertheless, each tribe had to go in and possess the land in order to enjoy its benefits.

So is it with our possessions in Christ. These must be appropriated on an individual basis. The Church as a whole is blessed only as we individuals possess what is ours in Christ.

Our inheritance is in Him. In fact, He is our inheritance. A good illustration is given us in 2 Samuel 3:17,18: "Now then do it" (v. 18). See also Colossians 3:1-3.

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Rom. 8:17).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Hebrews 10:38 Joshua 21:43 Joshua 18:1-10

Failing to Appropriate

Joshua 18:1-10

Joshua 18 starts on a sad note. We read in verse 1: "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them."

The land was conquered. The hard battle for it was over. Yet we learn (v. 2), "And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance."

That means they had not gone into the land to possess it. It had been given to them, but they had not gone in to receive it. No wonder Joshua admonished them, saying, "How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you?" (v. 3).

In Joshua 21:43 we read, "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein."

The thought is that they had a home in which they could settle. The Lord gave them rest from their enemies, and "there failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass" (v. 45).

But they did not go in to possess it. They subdued the people and made them pay tribute. This was coexistence, not dispossession.

This program was a fruitful source of trouble for Israel. It is also a dangerous one for us to follow with regard to sin and the failure to appropriate our possessions in Christ.

"Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" (Heb. 10:38).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 23:1-8 Ephesians 6:10-17 Ephesians 3:12

Courageous in Godly Living

Joshua 23:1-8

To be courageous in the face of dangers confronting them was not only God's will but also His command. This is equally true with regard to us today.

We are to be courageous in godly living as we seek to live according to the Word of God. All three members of the Trinity are working in our behalf so that all we have to do is by faith accept and appropriate what has been provided.

We may face defeat at times, but we are not to dwell upon our defeat. We are to return to the Lord, confess our wrong-doing, forsake it and go on with Him. We are to forget those things that are behind. There is more land to be possessed.

A negative admonition follows. Joshua said, "That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you." There were still many pagan people remaining in Canaan, but the Israelites were not to have fellowship with them.

God's people were not to copy the heathen forms of worship but to be completely separated from them. There was to be no coexistence with the enemy.

This is also true in the Christian life. There is to be a putting off of what is evil and a putting on of the armor of God (see Eph. 6:10-17). The Israelites were to cleave to the Lord their God and put off the ways and beliefs of the Canaanites.

"In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him" (Eph. 3:12).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 23:9-13 Hebrews 12:1 1 John 5:4

The Way to Victory

Joshua 23:9-13

We learn in Joshua 23:9,10 that nothing can stand before the person who will dare to trust God. Everything is in the favor of those who trust Him. With God on their side, total victory is assured.

This is true with regard to us in our spiritual warfare. The enemies are great and more powerful than we are, but they are helpless when we go in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Admonition was added to these assurances as Joshua spoke to the people. He warned them that they must be careful how they conducted themselves and that they, above all, must love the Lord.

This positive and then negative approach would serve to alert the Israelites to their blessings and also to their dangers.

We, too, must not turn back in defeat but go forward in Christian victory. There are evil things that will entangle us and ensnare us, so we must get rid of them. These may be but little things in our lives, but the little things can destroy us.

We are warned in Hebrews 12:1 to "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."

Nothing is to be allowed to hinder us. The weights spoken of in this passage may not be sins, but they could lead to sin or at least they could hinder us.

There is a danger of losing what we have gained. We can be sure of this: Our sin will find us out.

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 23:14-16 Hebrews 6:16-20 2 Timothy 2:13

Not One Thing Has Failed

Joshua 23:14-16; Hebrews 6:16-20

Recognizing that his death was imminent, Joshua told the Israelites that he was going the way of all the earth and then reminded them, "Ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof" (Josh. 23:14).

What a faithful God! What He promised He fulfilled.

As I think back over my own life and God's dealing with us at Back to the Bible Broadcast, I too have to say that not one thing God has promised has failed. I have failed at times to appropriate what God has for me, but He has never failed.

It is this very fact that should cause us to press on with Him. He is faithful and willing, in fact eagerly desirous, to see us go on to the end in victory. So why not appropriate all things that God has provided for us?

A serious warning is also given. God was faithful in keeping His promises to the Israelites. He was faithful in blessing. He was equally faithful in judgment when that was necessary.

The same warning is needed by us. God has offered us everything in Christ. He will not fail, but if we go back in our Christian experience, we will be the losers.

To know truth and not obey it is to retrogress. God wants us to grow in the knowledge of Christ and appropriate by faith all that has been provided for us.

"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference Joshua 24:1-13 Ephesians 2:8-9 Romans 3:20-22 Acts 16:31 Romans 11:6

All of Grace

Joshua 24:1-13

In this final part of his discourse, Joshua rehearsed God's wonderful deliverances of Israel, beginning with God's calling of the people in Abraham and His protection and leading of the patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob.

Israel's deliverance from Egypt, the opening of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh's army are briefly retold.

God's protection and provision for them in the wilderness, His deliverance of them from the Amorites, from those who would have enslaved them and tried to curse them, and His bringing Israel safely into Canaan, giving them a glorious land as a gift, are recounted.

Then Joshua added that God did not give them the possessions in Canaan because they deserved them. They did not merit His gifts.

God said, "I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat."

This is true, too, with our eternal salvation. We do not merit it by good works (Eph. 2:8,9) or by keeping the Law (Rom. 3:20-22).

Salvation becomes ours only as we believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).

"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Rom. 11:6, NASB).

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[nChrist]

Author: Theodore Epp
Source: Strength for the Journey
Scripture Reference John 14:6 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Joshua 24:14-15

We Must Choose

Joshua 24:14,15;
2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Joshua admonished the people first of all to fear the Lord. This does not mean to be afraid of Him but to place reverential trust in Him. With such trust in the Lord they would follow Him with confidence. With such fear of the Lord there would be a hatred for evil.

So what he was asking the Israelites to do was to have an attitude of heart of complete trust in God. Because of this, then, they would avoid evil and walk in faith.

The second admonition was to serve the Lord. Israel was to serve Him in sincerity and in truth. After a proper attitude of heart comes the activity of the mind and the body.

To serve in truth means to serve in perfection and with stability. For us this means to serve the Lord now with a perfect heart.

We must put on the whole armor of God so that we can stand against the wiles of the Devil. We need this in order to fight the battles of the Lord successfully.

Joshua warned the Israelites, in the third place, to put away those things that God did not allow. The idolatry so characteristic of Canaan, with all its attendant evil, unbelief, carelessness and backsliding, was to be put away.

It was not a matter of following majority opinion but of finding out what God wanted and doing it. Joshua made it very plain that the Israelites had to choose whom they would serve. We, too, face the same issue.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).

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