Joshua and the Land That Remains

1Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Yahweh said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.

As the years go by, we grow old whether we want to or not. So there is no reason to boast of being young, and no need to grieve over being old, since every one of us is carried along on the current of time. Yet age brings its own rewards, like a bonus. The experience gathered over many years lets a person see life from a distance, and so they can stand on mature ground: not unsettled by every stroke of good fortune, and able to keep a cool head even when suffering comes that seems past bearing.

Perhaps from the moment we are born we are running toward death. The older we grow, the faster the years race ahead of us, like sand slipping through our fingers, like a giant striding off into the distance, leaving us no moment to catch our breath. Children long to grow up quickly, thinking that once they pass twenty they will be free to do whatever they like. But as their twenties and then their thirties go by, they will be disappointed to find that nothing they planned turns out the way they wanted. In their thirties and forties, even when others praise them for doing well and acknowledge what they have achieved, they feel inwardly that they have not found the direction of their lives and are floundering. The future looks uncertain, which makes them afraid, and they are not sure they are living as they should. That is because this is the age at which people think little of themselves.

By their fifties and sixties, their hard work has borne fruit. They have accomplished a great deal and live with a little more ease. Having run hard toward a clear goal, they feel a measure of self-respect. Then, glancing back one day, they find themselves like a shabby bottle washed up by the tide and rolling about on the sand. They feel this way because they cannot see much of the dreams, hopes, and passion that went into their lives. They regret the years spent living on nothing but greed. They could have lived a better life, but they feel they did not choose rightly, and that feeling makes them look small to themselves, like a little bottle before a vast sea.

In their sixties and seventies, they may feel the bewilderment of someone who comes across a painting with their own name on it that they do not remember painting. Discovering that clashing colors have been laid one over another and that far too much needs correcting, they will find themselves ashamed that this painting is their life. Look closely, and the parts they painted so confidently in their youth seem so clumsy that they long to paint them again. Yet other parts, which they had written off as failures, turn out to be beautifully done.

No one is satisfied with their own life. However boldly someone has lived, in the end they must bow before the frailty of the body and the passing of the years. The people who walked life’s road with them all depart, and they will weep in the loneliness of being left behind. There is no one who does not look back on their life with regret. You may think you could paint it well now, but if you went back to your twenties, you would paint the very same picture you are looking at now, because you would not know how to paint. So if, while you have the chance, you humble yourself and add wisdom and patience, even if it means going a little more slowly, then when the years have passed and you stand on the last hill, you will be able to see a picture of a life in harmony.

If from now on you live a little more brightly and cheerfully, then at the last moment you will be able to look at the picture and smile at how happily you lived and how much love you were given. You will also be able to teach your descendants how best to paint the picture of a life. Then your children, who are only just beginning to paint, will leave behind a picture without regret, just as you hoped.

Everyone wants to live long, but no one lives on this earth forever. If it is settled that no amount of effort will let us live forever, then how we bring our lives to a close and go home will matter a great deal. Older people, feeling time press on them, want to teach the young how to paint the picture of life well. But the young do not want to listen, because they wish to paint their own pictures as they please, just as their elders once did.

The old long to pass on experience that the years have turned into something like jewels, but the reality is that the young do not listen, because to young eyes the pictures their elders painted have already faded. Everyone will grow old, and when the time comes, each of us will let go of the cord of life and lay aside the body. No life can escape death, so whether much time remains or little, we must live without regret, because only then can we leave this world with no shame over the traces we leave behind, and go with a somewhat lighter heart. Perhaps this is why God blesses those who honor their parents. Parents who are mature in faith tell their children about the God they love and do their utmost to teach them, so that by faith they can paint a bright and beautiful picture of life. If their children live their lives serving God faithfully, those parents become blessed parents who have handed down faith as an inheritance.

When Caleb conquered Canaan at eighty-five, he showed that even in old age a person who has received God’s grace can live a splendid life. Mary and Daniel were faithful to God’s will with their whole lives while still in their teens; Jesus began his public ministry at thirty; and Abraham was called at seventy-five and left his country, his relatives, and his father’s house.

These lives show that the moment God calls us is the youngest we will ever be, and that at any age, as long as we have faith, we can fulfill the calling God has given us. In the end, because it is God himself who works, it makes no difference at all whether the one who serves him faithfully is old or young. The trouble is that our thinking grows old before our faith does. Will we wait for the end of life weighed down by the bitter sense that we can do nothing? Or will we stay young, giving ourselves fully to our calling like Abraham when he offered up Isaac? How we choose depends on how well we know God.

Joshua 13:1

1Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Yahweh said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.

Joshua had led the people of Israel alongside Moses and had learned that every battle is God’s work. Even when Moses climbed Mount Nebo at 120 and met his death, Joshua could be courageous, because he believed God’s promise. Caleb was forty when the land was spied out from Kadesh Barnea and eighty-five when he took Hebron. Considering this, Joshua must have been well on in years too. And since God called him home at 110, we know that even in his old age he was still on the battlefield. He gave his utmost to live for God the life God had given him, and he served faithfully for the sake of God’s name rather than for any wealth and glory he might enjoy. Now Israel must follow the example of Joshua and Caleb in the way they had given themselves to God.

Now Joshua, who had gladly offered up his life and served faithfully with every breath, stands on the threshold of death. As he looked at the people, his heart would have been like that of a parent who must leave their children behind and depart this world. If a parent had to go while there was still so much to do for their children, it would be agony, for they could no longer help them however much they longed to.

Though much land still remained to be conquered, Joshua had grown too old to go out to battle or to command the people. Now that he must depart this life, all he has is the aching heart of a parent who can no longer help their children. He had fought with all his strength to conquer the land of Canaan, and yet he probably regretted not fighting harder. When anyone comes to the moment of death, however well they have lived, regret remains. So we must give life our best while we have the opportunity, if only to lessen that regret.

All Joshua could do now was to entrust the people to God and pray earnestly that they would not turn away from him. God said that he himself would drive out the Canaanites, and told Joshua simply to distribute the land that had not yet been conquered. The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had already received their land before crossing the Jordan, and to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh, all the land that remained was distributed, according to the word of God.

Because Joshua had not conquered all of Canaan, he had to trust God’s promise to drive out the Canaanites and give the remaining land to the children of Israel. Only then would he be able to enter his rest with a peaceful heart. Conquering the land that remained was now the people’s task. Moses, too, did not enter Canaan himself, but when God told him to hand the work over to Joshua and come home to heaven, he did not insist that he must go and conquer it himself. Instead, he had faith that Joshua would conquer it. Of course, he was not anxious, because God was there. But this kind of faith — that the land can be conquered even without me — is the very wisdom that makes believers good.

Everyone feels they have failed when things do not go as they planned or as they insisted. So we often see older people, or people in high positions, brushing aside the opinions of those beneath them. People differ in background, knowledge, and character, which makes them hard to teach. But because someone must carry on the work after we are gone, we have to trust others and raise them up. If each insists that only their own view is right, or does nothing but contradict what those above them teach, no community will survive.

The church is no different: if its members will not give up insisting on their own way, discord will never end. Because we who make up the church differ so widely in our work in the world and in our character, we must never press our own opinions in the church. We must follow the faith of those who have gone before us and learn the word, working together so that God’s work can go on without a break.

People often fail to train others, as though they alone could do the work. But just as Moses trained Joshua, we must teach and raise up others so that anyone can do it. Pastors must teach the Scriptures so that their people can teach the word anytime, anywhere. They must also entrust church work to others so that anyone can take it on, and help them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then the church will grow, and its people will be able to hold fast to their faith in peace.

In the home too, when parents or children act as though only their own opinion is right and will not bend, conflict in the family never ends. Even when my judgment seems right, if I stop to consider once more what the other person is saying, I may realize that my own opinion has strayed from the word. So it is essential that the head of the household stand firm in faith. When the head of the family judges rightly in spiritual matters, the home can be all the more peaceful.

All the events Jesus showed his disciples were focused on their growth, because he wanted those who would preach the gospel after his ascension to have a faith that lacked nothing. Every time he performed a miracle, he asked them how they saw what had happened and how they thought it should be resolved. The disciples’ right judgment would bear directly on the salvation of others, and for that reason he always asked their opinion, so that they would learn to judge rightly.

In the same way, Joshua did his utmost to teach the people the word. He did everything he could so that they would be able to stand on their own after his death. Yet facing death and thinking of how much land remained unconquered, he must have felt sorry before God. Still, because he had taught them the word rightly and built up in them the strength to live by faith, he would have trusted that they would live according to God’s will. Love does not simply hand someone a fish. It teaches them how to catch one, and that is how we help others to stand on their own.

I once heard a recording of a believer in North Korea praying in secret. Christians there live with no pastor to guide their faith and no freedom to sing praise aloud. They keep their faith with nothing but a Bible. Perhaps the recording was made under a blanket. The prayer was whispered, pouring out a heart to God. If it truly was the prayer of a believer in North Korea, it was astonishingly biblical and sound. The voice seemed to be that of an older person, and I thought, here is someone whose faith is true.

This is the kind of faith I want for you. Today we are hearing sermons in which the word of God is diluted with too many illustrations and worldly stories. Church members who think a sermon without illustrations is somehow cheapened show an immaturity that keeps the truth from standing as truth. We must have a precious faith that stands firm on the word of Scripture alone and comes to understand God’s will through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Even if the church is persecuted in the days ahead and believers find themselves in hardship, we must have a faith that looks to God alone and follows him. To that end, pastors must teach and preach nothing but the word, and the congregation must strive to live by it.

Joshua 23:6-7

6“Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn away from it to the right hand or to the left; 7that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them;

Joshua did his utmost to make known God’s will, so that the people of Israel would have a precious faith that trusted in God alone. He urged them to live according to what was written in the book of the law, and charged them not to leave the word and live as they pleased. He did this because if they envied the prosperity of the Canaanites, they would end up leaving God and serving foreign gods. And once they believed in foreign gods, they would become fools who bow down to idols and forget all of God’s leading.

If the Israelites grew corrupt, they would not teach their children to serve God, and Israel would sink deeper still. If their descendants never came to know God, Israel would have no hope. Israel’s parents had to teach their children the word and the mighty works of God, and help them to live strong and courageous. If we want to set our children firmly in the midst of the world, we must teach them God’s word and wisdom, and a genuine faith that depends on God. Only then can they face life boldly and become children under God’s protection who lift high his name.

Hebrews 11:1-2

1Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. 2For by this, the elders obtained testimony.

Everything you see right now — not only the created world but even the events of life — is something visible that has come out of what is not seen. We can see all things with our eyes only because God’s will was created, through his word, into what can be seen. In other words, the events of your life did not happen in an instant but are the fruit of the time you have lived and the judgments and decisions you have made. Time, judgment, and decision cannot be seen, but the actions they produce can, and it is by those actions that your faith is determined.

Abel’s faith, lived out in the fear of God, is what enabled him to offer a better sacrifice than Cain and to receive testimony that he was righteous. Enoch proclaimed judgment by faith, and God prized that faith so highly that he took him up to heaven alive, just as he was. Unseen faith makes us believe that God is the living God, and causes us to hope in him as the one who rewards those who have lived by faith. Every act of faith our forefathers showed is a beautiful work wrought by a faith that cannot be seen.

Your life, too, is a work you have made with the passing years. If its path has not run straight, then it bends to the left and right because of what you decided and judged. If it runs straight, that shows you have repented and turned back at every moment along the way.

Moses’ life will be weighed through Joshua, since Moses’ devotion and faithfulness can be seen in the decisions Joshua makes. A pastor is assessed by God according to the faith by which the congregation lives, because the lives of the members reveal what word they were taught. Human beings who live and breathe in this world inevitably bear fruit, whether good or evil, so it is vitally important to know rightly and act rightly.

With little time left to him, all Joshua could do was pray, for he longed for the people to live by the commands just as he himself had lived by Moses’ commands. Joshua distributed to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh all the land they were to conquer. Now the tribes of Israel who had received their land would have to rely on God to drive out the Canaanites without Joshua. If the Israelites looked to God with Joshua’s faith, the faith that says, “If I perish, I perish,” they could conquer all the land that remained.

God is saying the same thing to you. He is telling you that even if you did not conquer all the land you wanted in your lifetime, you can come to him in peace if you trusted him to do it and raised your children in faith. We cannot accomplish everything while we live. We must simply be faithful with the time we are given, and believe in the power of God, who works to bring the unseen into the seen. You must teach your descendants and raise them up so that they live by faith. And you must not forget that prayer offered to God endures forever, so you must pray for everything that has been entrusted to you.

You must believe that the living God will answer your prayers. And you should give thanks to God, who will raise up someone so that your labor is not in vain. God will work so that your devotion is never put to shame.

May you always lift high the name of God and enjoy his peace and rest. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.