THROUGH THE BIBLE - Joshua 1..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. I want to speak to you about the power of faith that is nourished by or in the word of the Lord. And I want to speak to you about that topic or that thought from the Scriptures here from Chapter 17.

In Chapter 17, my dear brethren, we're going to continue to see the allocation of the land from Joshua to the people of Israel. And as we have seen, this is happening tribe by tribe. You remember that in the last couple of chapters, the first tribe that received an allotment of land was the tribe of Judah. And then last week in Chapter 16, we spoke about the tribe of Ephraim. And I wanted to speak to you about something very interesting and very important from this section of the Scriptures.

We're going to read Chapter 17, brethren, so please be with me. A couple of things that I wanted you to have in your mind as we move through this section of this book of Joshua. The first one is that we are to note and pay careful attention to the book and note that this section of the Scripture is not only about the allocation of land to each one of the tribes. That is true. That is the main point of this section of the Scriptures, given to each one of the tribes a portion of land, because now Israel has entered into the promised land and has conquered, defeated many of the kings.

But also beyond that, and besides that, it's super important, my dear brother and sister, that we will see what the author, the Holy Spirit, is trying to tell us with this now new identity of Israel, a tribal identity. And that is that there's going to be failure. The Lord has promised that the Lord is going to give them the land. He's going to drive out all the inhabitants. But we're going to see that the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of Manasseh.

And then when we get to judges more specifically, we will see that all the tribes will fail to drive out the inhabitants of the land. And this is what we're going to see also here in Chapter 17. Also, as I said to you last week, super important that we have in our minds that the identity of Israel is now changing. This nation that was under the ruling or intermediary work of Moses and also Joshua, this nation, now once they have made it into the promised land, and once they are taking now portions of the land, this nation is going to change in identity from a nation to a nation that is now seen as different tribes. So we have the tribe of Judah and Ephraim and Manasseh and all of the different tribes.

The identity of each one of those tribes is super important also for the development of the story of judges and also for 1st Samuel and then the kings. Super important that we have that in our minds. Now, when we come to Chapter 17, we find ourselves, my dear brothers and sisters, seeing the allocation of land to the people of Manasseh. Manasseh was the firstborn of Joseph. You remember that we went to Genesis chapter 48, and we saw that Ephraim and Manasseh, they were the sons of Joseph.

And something important that I also want you to have in your mind is the sovereign purpose of the Lord in allocating that land to Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to a Gentile woman, of course, through Joseph. But this woman, brethren, was the daughter of a priest of Egypt. Imagine these two children, Ephraim and Manasseh, being born under or through a mother who is the daughter of a priest of Egypt. Yet the Lord, through His sovereign decree and His sovereign ruling power, adopts Ephraim and Manasseh to Jacob, because they are sons of Joseph, not of Jacob, adopted by the decree of the Lord. And now we see them that they receive a portion of the land.

Now we're going to see here now in chapter 17, my dear brethren, Manasseh receiving a portion of the land. He is the firstborn, but he's receiving the portion of the land in second place. Why? Because Ephraim had preeminence because of the sovereign decree of the Lord. And here we're going to see the examples.

I don't know if you remember the daughters of Salafi hat that we spoke about in numbers 27 and 36. And also we are going to see the example of Ephraim, who is going to request for a bigger portion of land. I want to speak to you about the power of faith from these verses. So let us read together, paying careful attention to this allotment of the land, these 18 verses. Let us read together, each one of them paying careful attention.

This is the word of the Lord. When allotment was made to the people of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph, to Machir, or better, let me read that again. Then allotment was made to the people of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph, to Machir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, were allotted Gilead and Bashan. because he was a man of war. And allotments were made to the rest of the people of Manasseh by their clans, Abiezer, Helech, Azriel, Shechem, Hefer, and Shemida.

These were the male descendants of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, by their clans. Now, Solophehad, the son of Hephael, son of Gilead, son of Mekir, son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters. And these are the names of his daughters, Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milcah, and Tirzah. They approached Eleazar, the daughters, the daughters approached Eleazar, the high priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and the elders, and said, The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with our brothers. So according to the mouth of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their fathers.

Thus there fell to Manasseh ten portions, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of the Jordan, because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance along with his sons. The land of Gilead was allotted to the rest of the people of Manasseh. The territory of Manasseh reached from Asher to Mikmitath, which is the east of Shechem. Then the boundary goes along southward to the inhabitants of Antapua. The land of Tapua belonged to Manasseh, but the town of Tapua on the boundary of Manasseh belonged to the people of Ephraim.

Then the boundary went down to the brook Canaan. These cities to the south of the brook, among the cities of Manasseh, belong to Ephraim. Then the boundary of Manasseh goes on the north side of the brook and ends at the sea, the land to the south being Ephraim's and that to the north being Manasseh's, with the sea forming its boundary. On the north, Asher is reached, and on the east is Achar. Also, in Issachar and in Asher, Manasseh had Beshian and its villages, and Ibleam and its villages, and the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, and the inhabitants of Endor and its villages, and the inhabitants of Tanak and its villages, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages.

The third is Nafal. Yet the people..." Here, brethren, the pattern, verse 12. Keep your attention with the reading of the word, verse 12. "...

Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. Now, when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out. Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me But one lot, this is both Ephraim and Manasseh, again 14. Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am numerous people, since all along the Lord has blessed me? And Joshua said to them, If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there a clear ground for yourselves in the land of the parasites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.'

The people of Joseph said, The hill country is not enough for us, yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth Shean and its villages, and those in the valley of Jezreel. Then Joshua said, Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, you are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, but the hill country shall be yours. For though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out, this is Joshua to them, for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron and though they are strong.

Amen. This is the reading of God's Word, and what a privilege Christians have that they can have the Word of God in their hands. There are so many brothers and sisters all throughout the world that only have little pages of this book, brethren, only sections of this book, or not the book at all. Yet the Christians in the Western world have the entirety of the Bible, and yet there may be some people here who did not read their Bibles this morning. Oh, brethren.

having the Bible in our hands, we are to give ourselves entirely to the Lord so that we will know His ways, that we will know His heart. And more importantly, we will have a faith that is nourished by the word of the Lord. We see here through these chapters in the book of Joshua, my dear brother and sister, how the promise of the Lord is being fulfilled for the people of Israel. I promise that is fulfilled temporarily so that the Saints of the New Covenant, typologically speaking, will see in what happened in the Old Testament the shadows of what is to come. A greater fulfillment and a greater covenant given to the Christians, given to the people of God that are purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as the Christians read, and as the church gathers, and as we read together through these chapters, we see how the sovereign purpose of the Lord is being executed and carried about and bringing to happening by the allotment of all of these portions of land to all of these tribes. Now we have here the allotment of the portion of the land to the firstborn of Joseph, that is Manasseh. He was supposed to receive the portion of land first, being the firstborn. But as we spoke last week, Ephraim, by the hand of the Lord, not the hand of Jacob that was on his head, but the hand of the Lord, he was appointed to have preeminence over his brother. And the promise was given for these two children of these two boys, back in Genesis chapter 48, that they will be a multitude of people, both of them, Ephraim and Manasseh, they will be a multitude of peoples.

And indeed, as we have read here in chapter 17, we see that both Ephraim and Manasseh, they are a multitude of people, so many of them that the portion of land that was given to them initially is not enough. And then we find that in the end verses there in verse 15 of chapter 17, that the people will come to us Joshua, this land that you have given us is not enough. Look how many we are. We need to have more land because this is not enough for us. It is from this portion of the Scriptures, brethren, that I want to speak to you about faith.

The faith that was required of all fallen humanity from the very beginning of redemptive history. There's no other way through which we can come to terms with the Lord than by His grace and with genuine faith. From Genesis 3.15 onwards, it was required of people that they will believe on the Lord. There was no other ways for them to be saved.

And the faith that many people in the Old Testament had genuine faith so that they will be like the saints of Psalm 4 that says, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord is not only substantially the same, but it is God given by the Spirit of God to the faith that receives the person under the New Testament. Of course, the Savior has not come and the covenant has not been established, but it's the grace of the Lord, the one that saves the heart of all sinners. And that has been the same. Your faith, my dear brother, as the faith of any genuine saint in the Old and the New Testament, is meant to be a powerful faith that is rooted and nourished in the Word of the Lord. What do the scriptures say about faith?

That faith comes by hearing, and hearing The Word of God. It is the Word of God that which initiates and that which is begotten in the Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord is what produces faith in you and in all the saints that through redemptive history have been saved by the grace of the Lord. And my dear brother, my dear sister, this glorious faith is the one that empowers us To see as the Lord defines, not as the Lord sees, because the Lord does not observe things. He defines things.

He's the truth. He's the one that decrees all things. Faith is that which empowers us to see as the Lord defines. Faith is that which empowers us to comprehend as the Lord has decreed. Faith is that which empower us to have our will in alignment with the will of the Lord.

Faith is that which brings us into alignment with the heart of God. And faith is what will give us the power and the certainty of things that we have not seen and things that we're still hoping for. And in this chapter, my dear brethren, we have the example of two groups of people. First, the Daughters of Zelophehad. And I want to show you there the faith of this group of daughters.

And also, I want to show you the example of faith in the case of the people of Ephraim and the people of Manasseh. There are two things that genuine faith will be powerful unto or for. The first one we can see with example of these daughters is that genuine faith will empower us to draw near to those who are of authority. Genuine faith, my dear brother and sister, empower us to draw near to those who are of authority. Pay attention to verse four in chapter 17.

It says, the daughters of Salafat, they draw near or they approach Eliezer, the priest and Joshua, the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun and the leaders and said, The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with the brothers. So according to the mouth of the Lord, he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father. Brethren, you remember the story of the daughters of Salafat? Their father had died and he had no sons. And as you know, the inheritance of the portion of the land was only to be passed through the son.

The way that a person will preserve the inheritance is through their son. The land will pass through different generations. And that is how the name of the person who originally was the owner or the receiver of the land will be preserved through the generations of the people of Israel. And now these daughters found themselves, at least in Numbers chapter 26 and 36, 27 and 36, they find themselves that the father is dead. And also they have brothers because the father did not have sons.

What is it going to happen with the portion of land? If you remember from Numbers chapter 26 and 36, 27 and 36, Moses comes to the Lord and asks what is going to be the result for these girls, for these women. And the result is that a portion of the land is to be given to them, even though that is not the custom and that is not the way how the land is supposed to be given to the people. It's only through the son. Through these daughters, they are going to receive what they asked.

Here, chapter 17, brethren, we find that time has elapsed and passed. And not only that, but the person from whom they received the promise has already died. They received the promise from the Lord through Moses, and now they find themselves before Joshua, and the elders, and also before the priest, and they are empowered by the promise that was given to them years before this. by the Lord through Moses to come and reclaim that which belongs to them. Now, brethren, this is not a big deal for us because we know that they had received that promise.

But it happens that they are women. And according to the cultural setting and how things were happening in the people of Israel, it was very difficult, first of all, for a woman to receive inheritance, as we know it. And secondly, to come with boldness and certainty to the priest and to the elders and to the commander to reclaim something. But now they are established upon the promise that they have received from the word of the Lord through Moses. And it's with that certainty that they come to reclaim the portion of the land that belongs to their father.

And it's that boldness that brought them from the word of God closer to the priest and closer to Joshua and to the elders to say, we want to have that portion of land, my dear brother and my dear sister. If that is the case for the saints of the Old Testament, it's just that simple thought of these girls who had the promise they had received from the Lord through Moses about the inheritance that they were going to receive. How much more is the word that the saint under the new covenant has received in his heart? Move them to draw near, not to the priest, not to Joshua, not to the elders, but rather to the secret place where the one that is seated in the throne of grace can receive us and not only approach him with certainty, but also with boldness, brethren. This is the power of what the Word speaks to a person, that when a person receives the Word of the Lord, that person is enabled by the Holy Spirit to have certainty that what the Lord has said is not only true, but also that we can come and approach those who are in authority.

Not only them, but brethren, as the author of Hebrews will say in Hebrews chapter 4, that in times of need, we can approach the throne of grace and we can open our mouth to say, you have said. Your word says, your promises said to intercede, nourished and empowered on the word of the Lord. This is the promise that you have given us. This is what you have said that you will accomplish through your people. This is what you have said that you will do in me and for me and for the church and for your kingdom.

This is what you have said that you have done. This is the faith, brethren, that is empowered by the Word of God and not by simple religion of men and traditions of men that move a person just to utter sounds and repetition that comes only from the lips, but rather prayers and supplications that are rooted in a well that is filled with the words of the Lord. Not only in the intellect, but the words of God in such a way that that person, when they come to the secret place, even if it's in the private place or with the church, is moved in such a way that the mouth is open to speak according to the will of the Lord, reclaiming the promises of the Lord. Not because there's something in us, in our righteousness that we can say, Lord, do this unto us, but rather because there's someone who accomplish all things for us, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the certainty even if you see there with the people of Ephraim and Manasseh, they come to request now a bigger portion of the land.

And they are not so aware, it seems there from the text. But if you remember from Genesis chapter 48, the promise that God had given to Ephraim and to Manasseh through Jacob, it was that these people are going to be a multitude. And at times it's understood that promise they're going to be a multitude of nations. The Lord, my dear brother, had fulfilled that promise of making Ephraim and Manasseh a multitude of nations. And they had increased in number in such a way that now the portion of the land that they had received originally was not enough for them.

But now they come and ask from Joshua, saying, Look, the number of people that we have, give us a bigger portion of land. Now, my dear brother and sister, The faith that we have received by the Holy Spirit in the Word of the Lord because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. It's not only a faith that is supposed to be rooted and nourished in the Word of the Lord, and it's not only a faith that is supposed to move us to have certainty of the things that the Lord has promised, but also, my dear brother and sister, it's a faith that is supposed to empower us to action. When the people of Manasseh and Ephraim ask from Joshua, Joshua says, go and take it. because you will drive out the people of the land.

Manasseh and Ephraim say, but look, they have chariots of iron. They're sending them to the mountains. They have chariots of iron. And Joshua says to them, go and take the land because you will drive out the enemies. Now, why will Joshua say that?

Because the Lord had already given the promise that it was the Lord, the one who was going to drive out the enemies. And it was upon that promise that the people of Israel were to go and take possession of the land according to their needs and to establish their people according to the promise of the Lord. This is in the old covenant, brethren. How much more the saints of the new covenant? How much more we delight that we have about the decrease of the Lord for this world?

about the decrees of the Lord for the church and for the people of God. You don't need to be a charismatic to go and ask the Lord to take and to give the Lord will give us salvations and baptisms and people be transformed and the church abounding in love and in grace and the numbers will be added to the congregation of people that are saved. You don't need to be a charismatic to speak the language, brethren. The only thing that we need is to have a faith that is nourished by the word of the Lord and a faith that is nourished in such a way that are not only words that are uttered, but our lives that are being transformed by the abundance of that word in the heart of that person, so that we will be able together to come before the Lord and open our mouths and say, Lord, you have said that you will save. You have said that you will use your church to sanctify a city that is in darkness.

When are you going to accomplish that task, O Lord? When are you going to give us baptisms and salvation? When are you going to give us greater manifestations of your presence in our marriages, in our families, with our children? When are you going to save our children, Lord? Are you going to leave them just for the world?

Are they going to end up there? Lord, coming before him like Moses, like Joshua, like the saints, brethren, having faith, not intellectually speaking, but, brethren, having a heart that is aligned. with the will of the Father. Just read 1 John chapter 3. When a person is in alignment in his will with the will of the Lord by the presence of the Holy Spirit, then the things that are asked are given.

It says in 1 John chapter 3. That is that the heart of the person can be moved in alignment so much to the will of the person. That is not what I desire anymore. Rather, it is the desires of the Lord that have been implanted in the heart of this person because of the abundance of the heart, because of the abundance of the words of the Lord. This is what our Lord has accomplished for us, my dear brother and sister.

This is a promise given to the people of the Old Testament of Elend. Our Saviour, our Redeemer, His body, His blood, given so that the people of God now will make it into new heavens, new earth. And you know what? This is not something that is being worked out one day at a time. This is something that has already been done in the decree of the Lord.

And our king, it happens to be that he's not only seated in the throne, but he is governing all things. Time, desires and the hearts of men. We are to conquer with the one that is conqueror. We are to continue ahead with the one who has already destroyed the dead. We are to look ahead and look above with the one that is already seated in the throne, the one that has united us to him by his love, brethren.

And we are to be empowered in our faith, not only by emotions of men, but rather by this book. Because there's no other way that faith can operate, that it is supposed to operate, than other than the feeling and the nourishment and the empowerment of the word of the Lord. That our desires and our hearts and our eyes will see as the Lord Jesus Christ. And that we will be able to be like the daughters of Sulafihat, with much certainty, saying, Lord, this belongs to us. Lord, this portion of land belongs to us, please.

Manifest your mighty hand among us that we will see with joy what you do among your people. Amen. Let us pray.