And Moses spake unto the Lord, saying,
Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,
who may go out before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in;
that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd.And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thy hand upon him;
and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight.
And thou shalt put of thine honor upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey.
And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.And Moses did as the Lord commanded him: and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation;
and he laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge, as the Lord spake by Moses.
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Now it came to pass after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,
Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it, as I spake unto Moses.
From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.Be strong and of good courage; for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate thereon day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee for Thy precious Word. We now just look to Thee, to Thy Spirit, to breathe again upon Thy Word and make it living and operative in our lives. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
We have been considering, for some time, the various aspects of a Christian. First of all, we know that we are all children of God. As children of God, we need to grow up into maturity, because this is the will of God.
Through the eight persons in the Book of Genesis, we find how God worked in the lives of these persons until He got the man of His own heart. We believe that this is what God is doing even today.
Next, we find that we are not only God’s children, but we are also God’s servants. Every child of God is called to serve Him. We used Moses as our example. Moses was faithful in all God’s house, and God expects every one of us to be faithful in His own house.
But we know that the Christian life is more than just being children or servants. There is another aspect of the Christian life: the aspect of a soldier of Jesus Christ. Every believer is a soldier of Jesus Christ.
We remember how Paul exhorted Timothy to endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We use Joshua as our example because, so far as we know, Joshua is the first soldier that we find in the Word of God.
As you read the life of Joshua, you will find that his life can be very clearly divided into two periods. During the first period, we find how he was trained—how he became a soldier of the Lord.
From the first mention of his name in Exodus 17, when Moses chose him to lead the children of Israel to fight against Amalek, to the time when he was chosen to be the leader of the army of the Lord after Moses passed away, we may say this was the first period. Probably it covered eighty years, or perhaps a little more. We do not know, but at least probably eighty years.
During those years, Joshua learned the nature of the war. He learned the secret of spiritual strength by abiding in the Lord. He learned to put his full confidence in the Lord, as when Moses sent him to spy out the land.
Then we find a second period in his life. This period began when he was chosen to succeed Moses, as we find in Numbers 27, and continued until he led the children of Israel into Canaan, divided the land among them, and went to be with the Lord. That roughly covered thirty years.
During the first period, Joshua was a soldier of the Lord. During the second period, he was a soldier’s soldier, because he was to be the leader of the army of the Lord.
We cannot be a soldier’s soldier until we become a soldier first. In other words, we have to learn how to fight a good fight ourselves before we will be commissioned to help our brothers and sisters in this spiritual conflict.
This morning, we will concentrate on the second part, because we covered the first part last time: Joshua as a soldier’s soldier.
We would like to consider this subject in three parts:
Chosen, commission, and combat.
In Numbers 27, God was going to take Moses to Himself. So Moses prayed, “Lord, set a man over the congregation, who may lead them out and lead them in, that the assembly of the Lord be not as sheep that have no shepherd.”
And God said, “Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and thou shalt lay thy hand upon him.”
Joshua had been Moses’ attendant for forty years. He was a warrior, and you find that he interpreted everything in terms of war.
You remember when Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, Joshua was also on the mountain. When God told Moses that the people on the plain had sinned, Moses came down with Joshua. Before they reached the plain, they heard the noise below, and immediately Joshua said, “It must be war.” To Joshua, who was a warrior, everything was war. But Moses said, “No, it is not war.”
He was a soldier in heart. In Numbers 11, when Moses felt that the burden of carrying the people was too great for him, God said, “Gather seventy of the elders, and I will take of the Spirit that is upon thee and put it upon them.”
Even among the seventy elders, there were two who did not come when summoned by Moses. They stayed in their tents—Eldad and Medad—but the Spirit of God fell upon them nonetheless.
When Joshua, Moses’ attendant, heard about that, he was jealous for Moses. He said, “My lord Moses, forbid them.” But Moses said, “Art thou jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!”
So Joshua was under the training of Moses for forty years. He was trained to be more objective instead of being very subjective in all his interpretations. He learned to have his heart broadened and widened instead of remaining narrow. He was trained not to trust in himself, but to trust in the Lord.
Here, after forty years of training under Moses, he was ready. God chose him to be Moses’ successor.
The reason why he was chosen was that God said, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit.”
Brothers and sisters, this is a most unusual expression in the Old Testament. As we know, in the Old Testament the Spirit of God sometimes came upon certain people to empower them to do certain things. But the Spirit did not dwell permanently in a person as He does in the New Testament.
The Holy Spirit came into this world on the Day of Pentecost. So in Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit had not yet come in this New Testament sense. He empowered certain people to do certain things for God, but the power of the Spirit of God came upon them.
Yet here we find this special expression: Joshua, the son of Nun, “in whom is the spirit.” There are only a few such exceptions in the Old Testament. Probably David is another one. But even David prayed, “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” The Spirit might be in him, but the Spirit might leave him too.
Not like us in New Testament times under grace. When the Spirit of God comes to dwell in us, He is there forever. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We may grieve Him, and we may quench Him, but we cannot drive Him away. Thank God for that.
Joshua had learned through the years to obey the Spirit of God to such an extent that he was literally under the rule of the Spirit. He was that kind of person, and that kind of person is fit to be a soldier’s soldier.
Moses prayed not only for someone who would lead the people out to fight, but for a shepherd also. A leader is not only one who leads the people into battle; a leader is also one who shepherds the people.
Joshua, no doubt, was a soldier. But probably it took him forty years under the training of Moses to become a shepherd.
Oftentimes, when we think of a soldier, we think of someone aggressive, strong, perhaps even hard and unreasonable. When we think of a shepherd, we think of someone gentle and tender, because if a shepherd becomes too strong or harsh, his sheep cannot live.
So we may think that a soldier and a shepherd are contradictory. But no. According to the Word of God, one who is to be a leader among God’s people must, on the one hand, be a soldier and, on the other hand, be a shepherd.
Towards the enemy, you have to be aggressive and strong. Towards the flock, you have to be gentle and tender. But in gentleness there is strength. Gentleness is not weakness; it is strength.
Joshua, having the Spirit in him, was chosen to be the leader of the children of Israel. He not only had the power of God with him, but he had the spirit of love in him. Only that kind of person can be chosen as a leader.
God’s people today need leaders. But before anybody can be chosen as a leader, first of all, he has to learn to be under the rule of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says, “Be filled with the Spirit,” in Ephesians 5. It is a commandment. To be filled with the Holy Spirit simply means to be ruled by the Holy Spirit. It is more than receiving the power of the Holy Spirit upon you so that you may do something for God. You have to let the Holy Spirit fill you, rule over your life, and fill you with His love, so that you may be a shepherd and leader among God’s people.
How we need leaders among God’s people today. But you cannot lead until you learn first yourself. So may the Lord raise up many leaders among His own people.
In Deuteronomy 34, Moses died. After Moses died, God commissioned Joshua to the work that God had called him to do.
In Joshua 1, God said to Joshua, “Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.”
First of all, God gave Joshua a charge. What was the charge? The charge was, “Arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, into the land which I give unto them.”
What was Joshua commissioned by God to do? He was commissioned to do one thing: to possess the possession.
God had promised Abraham and his descendants the land of Canaan hundreds of years before. But now the time had come for the children of Israel to possess their possession.
To possess their possession was not simply to walk in. It was to walk in, but it was more than walking in, because at that time there were seven tribes living in the promised land. The land was occupied.
Therefore, the commission Joshua received was to possess the possession of God. In order to possess the possession, he had to fight the fight. He had to lead the people to fight against the seven tribes of Canaan, to dislodge them and destroy them, in order that he might possess God’s promised land.
In a sense, true spiritual conflict is over this issue of possessing our possession.
When the children of Israel first came out of Egypt into the wilderness, Amalek came and fought with them. Fighting against Amalek is a type of our fighting against the flesh. After we are delivered and saved, the first battle we have to fight is the battle with our flesh—either our flesh or the flesh in other people.
But this is not the real spiritual battle. It is only a prelude, a preparation for the real battle. When the Spirit wars against the flesh, and the flesh wars against the Spirit, that is preliminary. You are not in the real battle yet.
It is only after you have crossed the Jordan, after the flesh has been dealt with, that you really enter into the battle. The battle is not against flesh and blood. The battle is against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
That is the real battle. Real spiritual battle is not with flesh and blood. Real spiritual battle is not even fighting against our own flesh. Real spiritual battle is not merely overcoming the world. These are only preliminaries, only preparations.
The real spiritual battle is in the heavenlies. It is with principalities, powers, the power of darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. But what is the battle for? It is for possessing our possession.
God has promised to give us Canaan, but the enemy has tried to occupy it and has occupied it. We are to dislodge them, drive them out, and destroy them, so that we may possess our possession. This is the real issue.
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus—Ephesians 1:3. Thanks be unto God, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
Our Canaan is Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. The land of Canaan is a land flowing with milk and honey; it is a land of barley and wheat, pomegranates and grapes, mountains and rivers, iron and copper. Our Canaan, Christ, is unsearchably rich.
God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. In other words, God has already blessed us with Christ. We have Christ, we are in Christ, and we are to possess our possessions—that is, we are to enjoy everything that Christ is to us.
But in order to possess our possession, we will engage in spiritual battle. Why? Because our enemy tries every means to hinder us from possessing our possession.
Our enemy will raise strongholds, like Jericho—strongholds of the mind—in order to hinder us from entering into the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. This is what the real battle is: it is in the heavenlies, to possess our possession.
This charge was not only given to Joshua. For Joshua, it was a physical matter, but this charge is given to us today. Every one of us is charged to go over Jordan and possess the land that God has given to us.
It would be very unfortunate if we forgot this charge. It would be very wrong if we were like the two and a half tribes of the children of Israel. They were content with the land east of the River Jordan, and they did not want to inherit their inheritance in Canaan.
There are many believers today who seem content just to come out of Egypt. “Oh, if only we can escape death, if only we can go to heaven, that is enough for us.” Thank God, that is a great deal; but so far as God is concerned, it is very little.
Other Christians seem quite content just to live in the wilderness. Even though they go round and round and round, they think the manna is enough for them. They are content to live a life according to the flesh.
There are some people on the verge of entering into the promised land, but they refuse to go over the River Jordan. In other words, they refuse to die. They refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ so that they may be identified with His resurrection.
Very many believers are content with the little that God has given them, not knowing that God’s will is that we may possess Him as He has possessed us. He wants us to have Christ in all His fullness, not merely to know Christ a little bit here and a little bit there.
So the charge to all of us is: arise, go over Jordan, and take the land. May the Spirit of the Lord inspire us to rise up in our spirit.
Remember, you have to go over Jordan first. Jordan in Scripture speaks of death. But it is co-death. It is not merely that you die; it is co-death.
When the children of Israel passed through the Jordan, they passed through with the ark. The ark represents Christ. In other words, it means that in Christ, and with Christ, we died, that we may live in Christ unto God.
We have to accept this co-death with Christ. Thank God, Christ not only died for us, but He also took us with Him into His death.
Paul could say, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).
If we do not see that we have died with Christ, and therefore are now alive unto God in Christ, we are still on the other side. We may have some struggle, but it is mostly struggle against our flesh. We have not really entered into the purpose of God, real spiritual battle, or possessing our possession.
The first thing to do is arise, go over Jordan, and take the land. This is the charge.
Thank God, God not only gave Joshua a charge, but He also gave him a promise:
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it.
There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life:
as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee;
I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
We not only have a charge to fulfill, but we have a promise. God has promised us that if only we put our foot down, it will be ours. God has promised us that none will be able to stand before us.
No matter how strong our enemy is, he is a defeated foe. He cannot stand before us. Why? Because God is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We have this wonderful promise.
We are able to fulfill our charge because we have been given this precious promise. All we need to do is put our foot down. That means taking a stand of faith.
If you take a stand of faith, you will find the enemy will be routed, because the enemy has already been overcome by our Christ on Calvary’s cross. He is with us.
Then we find the exhortation: “Be strong and courageous.” This is repeated three times: “Be strong and of good courage”; “Be strong and very courageous”; “Be strong and of good courage.”
Remember, brothers and sisters, God has not given us a spirit of cowardice. God has given us a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. It behoves us, therefore, to be strong and very courageous.
Why must we be strong? We must be strong because we are to cause the people to inherit the land. We must be strong because we have a great commission to fulfill.
If we are weak, then we will not enter into the promised land. We will not be able to fulfill our commission. So we must be strong in our spirit.
May our spirit rise up, strengthened by the Spirit of God, that we may want everything that God has given to us. Do not be so weak in your spirit as to be content with the very little that you already have. Be strong in your spirit.
There is a motto that our dear brother Watchman Nee had: “I want nothing for myself, but I want everything for God.”
Do not reverse that order: “I want everything for myself, but nothing for God.” Or, “Something for myself, something for God.” That is not good enough. We must not be ambitious for ourselves, but we must be ambitious for God.
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul said that whether in life or death, he was ambitious to be well-pleasing unto God. Christians need to be ambitious.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we might have been ambitious for ourselves. But after we believe in the Lord Jesus, thank God, He takes that ambition away. We are no longer ambitious for ourselves, but He has given us a holy ambition.
That holy ambition is that we want to have everything for God. That is our ambition. Let not our spirit be weak, but let our spirit be strong, because we want to possess everything that God has promised to us.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul said: “That I may lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12).
Paul was not content with all the experiences he had, all the truth he had received, or all the works he had done. Even when he wrote the letter to the Philippians, he was in advanced age, and yet he said, “Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize.”
That is very ambitious—strong in the spirit. We cannot afford to be negative. We cannot afford to be passive. We have to be strong and courageous. Courage is a positive attitude.
Even though in ourselves we have nothing and can do nothing, with Him all things are possible. This is something very much lacking among God’s people. God’s people are too negative and too passive. We need to be strong in our spirit and very courageous.
Why? Because we have the Word of God. God commanded Joshua that he must be strong and very courageous so that he might take heed to do all the commandments of God. He was not to turn to the right or to the left. He was to meditate upon the Word, and the Word was not to depart from his mouth.
If he kept all that was written, then he would prosper and have good success. Brothers and sisters, we have the Word of God.
The Word of God—we shall meditate on it day and night. The Word of God—we should not allow it to depart from our mouth. The Word of God—we should take heed to do it. We should not turn from it to the right or to the left, but follow the Word of God as it is written.
If we do that, none can stand before us. This is our strength. We must be strong and very courageous.
The problem with many Christians today, and the reason they are so weak, is that they do not have the Word. They do not meditate on the Word, and they do not keep the Word. When we deviate from the Word, of course we are weak and exposed to the enemy.
But if we are standing on the Word of God, the enemy cannot stand against us. Be strong and very courageous. Be strong and courageous.
God said, “Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Wherever we go, the Lord goes with us. Why? Because we go in His way.
Do not think that if you go against God’s way, He will go with you. He will not go with you. But because you have the Word of God and follow the Word of God, you have the assurance that He goes with you.
No matter how rough the path is, no matter how difficult the circumstances are, and no matter how strong the enemies are, the Lord says, “I go with you.” If God is for us, who can be against us?
In this spiritual battle, there is no place for cowards. If we fear before we enter into the battle, God says, “Anyone who is afraid, go home.”
You need to be strong and very courageous—strong in spirit, strong in heart, strong in faith. Not hard, but strong. There is a great difference there. Sometimes people try to be strong, but actually they try to be hard.
To be strong is to be strong in the Lord. Paul’s word to Timothy is, “Be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).
Do not look at yourself. Do not look at your environment. Look at Him, and you will be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength.
Of course, the whole Book of Joshua—at least the first part—is a book of combat: war after war, battle after battle.
There is one book in the New Testament that is equivalent to Joshua in the Old Testament, and that is the Book of Ephesians. Ephesians is equivalent to Joshua because Ephesians is a battle epistle, as Joshua is a book of war.
You remember the little booklet written by Watchman Nee, Sit, Walk, Stand. That booklet shows us what the Letter to the Ephesians is about. We need to sit with Christ in the heavenlies; then we need to walk according to the power of the Holy Spirit; then we are able to stand before the enemy.
To stand does not mean merely to be passive. If you read Ephesians 6, you find that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies.
Paul says, “Withstand,” and, “Stand.” We are not only to stand in the Lord against the enemy and withstand all the assaults of the enemy; we are also to stand after having accomplished all things.
After you have carried through and executed the purpose of God, then you stand. We need to stand against the enemy, not only to withstand him, but to stand in the sense of overcoming him and executing the purpose of God.
That is Ephesians, and we find the same thing in Joshua. Joshua led the people across the River Jordan, and then the battle began.
When you read Joshua from chapter 1 to perhaps chapter 12, it may seem as if the battles came rapidly and were fought in a few days. But actually, these battles were fought over a few years.
What we would like to consider is this: when Joshua fought the battle, what were the secrets of his victories? It is not merely a matter of fighting. What is the sense of fighting if you do not win? If you fight, you want to win.
I will mention three things:
The ark has much to do with the battle. Why? Because the battle was not merely between Joshua and the children of Israel and the seven tribes of Canaan.
Outwardly, it was Joshua with the children of Israel fighting against the seven tribes of Canaan. But actually, the battle was before God—between God and the gods of the Canaanites. That was the real battle.
On the earth, Joshua and the people were fighting against the seven tribes of Canaan. But in the heavenlies, God was fighting against Satan. That was the real battle.
In order to win the battle down here, we have to know how to win the battle up there. It is foolishness if we merely fight the battle down here and forget the battle above.
In order to fight the battle there and here, the ark occupies a central place. The ark not only led the children of Israel over the River Jordan, but it also led in the first battle.
The first battle is a typical case; it illustrates the battles that followed. The first battle was over the city of Jericho. Jericho was a great city. Its walls were very high, and it was shut up and well guarded.
How were they going to fight against that great city? God commanded Joshua: the ark must lead the fight.
The ark was to go around the city once a day, and on the seventh day seven times. Part of the army of Israel went ahead of the ark, and part followed the ark. Priests with seven trumpets blew as they marched around the city.
Nobody said a word—not even a murmur. Only the trumpet sounded before the ark. In other words, they proclaimed the ark.
As the ark was proclaimed once each day, and seven times on the seventh day, then they shouted once and the wall fell. That was how the battle was fought.
We know that the ark is a type of Christ. In this spiritual battle, it is not you and I who can fight the fight. As a matter of fact, our Christ, our Lord, has already fought and won the battle.
We must hold Him before us. As they crossed the River Jordan, there had to be two thousand cubits’ distance between the people of Israel and the ark. The ark went ahead, because if they got too close, they might lose sight of it. With that distance, they could always keep the ark in view.
Brothers and sisters, we must always keep Christ in view. Look unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Do not look at yourselves. Do not look at the enemy. Do not look at the environment. Do not look at other people.
The only way we can win the victory is to keep our eyes on the Lord. No matter how tall the wall is, do not look at the wall. No matter how strong the enemy is, do not look at the enemy. No matter how weak you are, do not look at yourself. Look at Him.
Keep Him in view. Proclaim Him. Declare Him. Declare His victory. As we exhibit Christ, uplift Him, proclaim Him, and claim His victory, the enemy is defeated.
Our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross has already won the victory. He has crushed the enemy’s head. He has taken His enemies as spoil and exhibited them publicly to their shame.
This battle is not to fight to victory. This battle is to fight from victory.
With the enemy, we are to exhibit Christ and claim the victory of Christ, and the victory is yours.
Whenever the children of Israel failed to consult the ark, they were deceived. Whenever they did not inquire of the Lord, they were defeated. But when they kept the ark in view and inquired before the ark of God, the victory was theirs.
Joshua, in chapter 5, drew near to the city of Jericho. As a general, he was trying to plan his strategy. He was viewing the great city of Jericho, the tall walls, and the stronghold there.
As he was planning how to defeat the enemy and enter the city, suddenly a man appeared before him—a man with a sword drawn out, not in its sheath.
Joshua went to him and said, “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” With Joshua, it was either for or against: “Are you for us, or are you against us?”
Strangely, the man said, “Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” Immediately Joshua fell on his face and said, “What saith my lord unto his servant?” The man said, “Put off thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.”
In this spiritual warfare, we not only need to keep Christ in view, but we must also always let Him lead the fight.
Oftentimes, we go out to fight and plan our strategy. We only ask Him to help us. We say, “Are You for us? Will You help us?” We have it all mapped out. We have all trained. We think we know how to do it, but then we say, “Lord, do help us, that we may succeed.”
The Lord says, “No, I am not coming just to help you. I am coming to lead you.” The problem with us is that we ask for His help, but we do not let Him lead. That is our problem.
His sword is drawn out. In other words, He is ready to fight. He is ready to lead. Let Him lead.
What is our place? Take off our shoes, because we are on holy ground. In the old days, only the children in the family wore shoes; slaves were always barefoot.
You are standing before the Captain of the Lord’s host. Therefore, take off your shoes. You are just a servant. It is not for you to plan; it is for Him to speak. It is for you to listen, for Him to lead, and for you to follow.
Do not question; follow Him. That is our position. Let Him be the leader. Outwardly, Joshua was a soldier’s soldier, but actually he was only an agent. The real Captain is the Lord Himself. Let Him lead in every battle.
Thirdly, we come to Joshua 8. After they overcame Jericho, one among them sinned against God. He took the things that were forbidden.
Not only that, but the children of Israel did not inquire at the ark. Joshua sent spies to spy out Ai, and it was a small city. The spies came back and said, “It is a very small city in comparison with Jericho. We took Jericho, so what is Ai? Just send a few people and take it.”
So they sent two or three thousand people, thinking they would take it, but they were defeated.
After they repented, after the sin was dealt with, and after they returned to the ark, God said, “Now I give that city to you.”
God told Joshua to send an ambush. They were to go into the fight, pretend to be defeated, draw the people of Ai out, and then the ambush would come up and burn the city.
As Joshua pretended to retreat, and the people of Ai came against him, the ambush was waiting. Joshua stretched out the javelin in his hand. As Joshua stretched out his javelin, the ambush came out, entered the city, and burned the city.
The armies came from both sides, and the Bible says that Joshua did not draw back the javelin until the enemy was completely destroyed.
What does the javelin represent spiritually? It is the javelin of faith.
In Exodus 17, when Joshua was fighting with Amalek, Moses was on the hill raising his hands. When his hands were raised, Joshua conquered. When Moses became tired and his hands came down, Joshua was defeated. The battle was not decided down below, but up there.
There is another occasion in 2 Kings 13. King Joash came to Elisha, who was very sick. Elisha told the king to take arrows and strike the ground. The king struck three times and stopped. Elisha was angry and said that he should have struck five or six times; then Syria would have been completely defeated. Since he had struck only three times, Syria would be defeated only three times.
Is that not strange? Fighting against Syria, and yet striking the ground with arrows? What does it mean? It all means the same thing: the battle is decided in the heavenlies.
Here Joshua stretched out the javelin, and the enemy was defeated. The javelin is the javelin of faith.
This is the same thing that we find in Mark 11:22–23:
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea;
and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass;
he shall have it.
This is faith. “Have faith in God.” In a literal translation, it says, “Have the faith of God.” What is the faith of God? It is to say to this mountain, “Be thou taken up and cast into the sea,” and not doubt in the heart, but believe that what is said will take place.
In other words, Joshua stretched out the javelin over the city of Ai and said, “Destroy,” and the city was destroyed. That is faith.
How we need to take this attitude of faith over our enemies. Oftentimes, we need to stand in faith and declare, “I stand with the Lord here, and here, and here, and you, enemy, have to go.”
As we speak the stand of faith, the mountain moves into the sea and disappears. It is a matter of faith.
In this spiritual warfare, brothers and sisters:
As we stand and take the stand of faith, we find that the enemy is defeated. May the Lord help us so that in this spiritual battle we may overcome all our enemies.
But that is not the purpose. The purpose is possessing our possession—that is, to possess Christ and to be possessed by Christ.
Our heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast called us into the battle. But it is the battle of the Lord.
We praise and thank Thee that it does not depend upon us to win the battle, because Thou hast already overcome Thine enemies. Thou hast called us to stand with Thee against the enemy, that we may possess our possession, even possess Thee in the fullest measure, because it is Thy good pleasure to give Thyself fully to us.
Oh, our Father, we do pray that these words may not be just words, but may Thy Holy Spirit make them living and operative in our lives. May Thou have all the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.