“The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession”                      Deuteronomy 7:6

So close.  Reaching the border of the Promised Land, Israel refuses to enter.  Lacking the faith in the same God who demonstrated his authority and power as the one true God in Egypt, Israel now chooses to abandon His promise.  On the border of the Promised Land they fail to demonstrate their faith in God.  As long as God does all the work, nurturing them like an infant, they follow. But now, they have to demonstrate faith by their own action of crossing into the land where giants reside (Numbers 13:28). In this decision they prove their faith is not genuine, and as a result they are given the sentence of death, death in the desert.  Only after this judgement is announced by God, the people recognize their mistake and try to take the land by their own strength and are soundly defeated by the Amalekites.

Numbers 14:39-45: ³⁹ When Moses reported the Lord’s words to all the Israelites, the people were filled with grief. ⁴⁰ Then they got up early the next morning and went to the top of the range of hills. “Let’s go,” they said. “We realize that we have sinned, but now we are ready to enter the land the Lord has promised us.” ⁴¹ But Moses said, “Why are you now disobeying the Lord’s orders to return to the wilderness? It won’t work. ⁴² Do not go up into the land now. You will only be crushed by your enemies because the Lord is not with you. ⁴³ When you face the Amalekites and Canaanites in battle, you will be slaughtered. The Lord will abandon you because you have abandoned the Lord.” ⁴⁴ But the people defiantly pushed ahead toward the hill country, even though neither Moses nor the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant left the camp. ⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in those hills came down and attacked them and chased them back as far as Hormah.

Notice the similarity here to the words in (Hebrews 12:17) which describe Esau who, after losing his birthright and blessing “sought it with tears” but it was too late.  Now, as the people of Israel receive their punishment (death in the desert, without the promised inheritance or blessing) they realize their mistake and attempt to conquer the land anyway.  But, as with Esau, it is too late for the people of Israel, the decision to abandon the promise of God in the inheritance of the land along with the confidence in His power to fulfill that promise, has been made.

As Christians we sometimes fail to internalize the significance of the message God is giving us here.  We argue over “faith” and “works” righteousness, but don’t understand the two are one and the same thing and completely inseparable.  Romans 6:15-23 teaches us that we are either “slaves to sin” (following our sinful nature leading to death) or “slaves to righteousness” (following the righteous instruction of God, leading to life).  We are led to the banks of the Jordan River with the land of promise before us, with instructions to “go and conquer it”.  In this land we see giants, the giants of our own sinful desire that need to be destroyed completely.  We look into this land with either the faithful perspective of Joshua and Caleb or the fearful perspective of those who died in the desert because they only saw what they personally could not defeat.   We can conquer this land, but this is not a work we accomplish, it is all God.  “Our works” are only accomplished through “our faith”.

Fast forward 40 years.  Now it is time once again to enter the land, this time with a new generation, a generation with complete confidence in the power of God.  While Israel was captive in Egypt, the Canaanite people grew to be a wicked and sinful people that warranted their destruction before a Holy God (Genesis 15:16, Deuteronomy 9:4-6). God gives instructions to Israel’s new leader Joshua to “destroy the people of Canaan completely”.  We cannot help but shudder at the thought of God’s Holy judgment being carried out on an entire nation.  But as we have seen earlier in our study, the natural progression of man is toward sin, consistently judged and destroyed by a Holy God.  We shudder at this past event, but yet we fail to internalize the fact that our non-Christian friends and neighbors are part of that same nation as all face the judgement of a Holy God.

When we look carefully at the instructions to Joshua, we cannot help but realize these instructions come out of God’s deep love and protection for His chosen nation:

• Destroy the people of Canaan totally, make no treaty, show no mercy, do not intermarry with them—They will turn your children away from following Me to serve other gods. (7:2-4)
• Break down their alters, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire—The Lord your God has chosen you as His treasured possession. It was because He loved you that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery. (7:5-9)
• Take care to follow the commands, decrees and the laws I give to you today—The Lord will keep His covenant of love with you, he will bless you, your children, your crops, your cattle. You will be blessed more than any other people.(7:11-15)
• Do not be afraid of the people of Canaan, remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt—The Lord your God will do the same to all the people you now fear. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them. (7:17-24)
• When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you, be careful not to forget.—otherwise your heart will become proud and you will forget Him, the One who brought you out of slavery. (8:10-14)

Please notice the significance here for us.  As the nation of Israel took a step of faith and crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, fully committed to facing the battles before them, we take this same step of faith as we enter into a relationship of faith with God who fights our battles for us.  As the land was filled with wickedness that God would destroy, so there is wickedness and sin in us that needs to be destroyed.  We are to conquer it completely; failing to do so (as outlined in our passages above) leads to corruption, pride, and loss of blessings that God has in store for us.  In Deuteronomy, God tells Israel to conquer the land one battle at a time

Deuteronomy 7:17-22: ¹⁷ You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?”¹⁸ But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.¹⁹ You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. ²¹ Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. ²² The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once,

 It is the same with us; as we follow the leading of the Spirit of God in our life, we conquer the sinful land as it is revealed to us, one battle at a time, with each battle won through the power of God in our lives.

It is no coincidence that the first city in their path was powerful and fortified Jericho.  We remember when the spies were sent into the land a generation earlier, they were instructed to scout out the cities and the people to see the resistance that lies ahead in their conquest of the land.

Numbers 13:17-18:  ¹⁷ Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country. ¹⁸ See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps?

Jericho would have been one of those cities well defended.  A city viewed to those lost in the desert as an impossible task, was now there to test the nation a generation later.  The ‘battle plan’ here is so amazing with how they will conquer it only through obedience to God’s instructions simply; “march around it carrying the Ark of God” before them.  I cannot help but imagine the thoughts of both the nation of Israel (walking around the city) and the people of Jericho (trapped in the city) as this continued for seven days.  We catch a glimpse of this for the people of Jericho as Rahab describes the fear of the people to the spies in Joshua 2.

Joshua 2:8-11: ⁸ Before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. ⁹ “I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. ¹¹ No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.

No different for us, when we first “enter the land” as we choose to follow Christ, there will be opposition directly in our path, a powerful, fortified city that needs to be defeated, a city so big the ‘work’ appears overwhelming.  But we choose to attack based on a promise of victory and the battle plan of God.  We walk in obedience to His instruction, as we do, the sinful nature within us ‘melts’ with fear, the fear of imminent defeat before a Holy God.

The beauty of the victory is that we get to witness the power of God as He works, with His battle plan, the ‘work’ is accomplished through ‘faith’ in a God who promises to defeat the evil in the land, the sinfulness in our lives.  We can try as hard as we want to defeat the sin in our life by our own strength but the result will be futile.  We get the opportunity to participate in this spiritual battle, and demonstrate our faith by our actions, but make no mistake; it is the Spirit and power of God that provides victory!