Evening Sermon

September 30, 2007

WHAT MESSAGE DOES MY LORD HAVE FOR HIS SERVANT?

Text

"Your God is too small." That is the title of a book by J.B. Phillips that sits on my shelf, and its obvious message has always intrigued me. Phillips identifies several of the common views of God, and shows how each of them is inadequate.

One of those views he terms the "god in a box." He writes that many people, and many churches, "seem to have captured and tamed and trained to their own liking something that is really far too big ever to be forced into little man-made boxes with neat labels upon them." He criticizes those who act as if they have a "corner in God, or shut him up in their particular box." He writes, in fact, that many churches become those boxes, defining God in their own traditions and understandings. To a Roman Catholic, God is a Roman Catholic. To a Baptist, God is a baptist. And to a Presbyterian, God is a Presbyterian.

Our view of who God is, and our understanding of what God is like, is far too often, too small. And the result is that God plays a relatively small role in our daily lives.

The lesson that Joshua learned at Gilgal, just before he was to conquer Jericho, was that God cannot be put into a box. The lesson that God was to teach Joshua and the Israelites, and the lesson he still must teach us continually today, is that our view of God may well be too small.

At Gilgal, Joshua learned that his God was a great God. As we will study next week, it is God who fights, and wins, the battle of Jericho. And he does it in a foolish way. We saw the foolishness of God's instructions last week, when he ordered all the men to be circumcised, effectively disabling them from any military service for at least three days. In our text today, Joshua meets the Lord, and presumably is told the exact battle plans. The whole army will march around the city and then on the seventh day, on the seventh trip around, shout out loud. What kind of a battle plan is that?

God teaches Joshua not to believe in a small and limited God, but rather in a God whose sovereign and absolute power calls for a response of worship.

So the first lesson of these verses seems obvious.

I. GOD PROVIDES FOR THE NEEDS OF HIS COVENANT PEOPLE. v.10-12

Remember, the covenant with Israel has, in effect, been suspended for the 40 years in the desert. God's people have wandered, under his discipline. But now that covenant is renewed, with the covenant of sign of circumcision again being restored, and here, with the covenant meal of the Passover being observed. God is again identifying his covenant people, and in a very specific way is providing for their needs. And there are, first of all,

A. Physical provisions. v.11-12

He provides for their food. The promised land is a land flowing with milk and honey. It is not a desert, not a wilderness. It is home. And so God provides for his people from the increase of the land. Produce, unleavened bread, and roasted grain.

After 40 years of manna cakes and manna casseroles, that food must have been a welcome change. He is now providing for their physical needs with natural means, quite a change for the miraculous provision of that manna the previous 40 years. But the result is the same. The people had something to eat.

And the lesson of the manna was completed. What was that lesson? Deut.8:3 "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. 4 "Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 "You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you. 6 "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him."

God provides for our physical needs to prove to us that we need much more than food to survive. Our sustenance comes from spiritual food. And the warning is obvious:

Deut.8:7 "For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 "a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 "a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 "When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. 11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 "lest--when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 "and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 "when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 "who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 "who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end-- 17 "then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' 18 "And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

That is an appropriate warning for us, too! God has certainly put us in a land where food is not scarce. God has certainly put us in a land where we can eat and be satisfied, where we can build nice houses and live comfortably, and obtain a significant amount of wealth and security.

And what must we remember? "Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." And so, God also provides his people with,

B. Spiritual provisions. That is represented by the passover celebration. Now that the people have been circumcised, they can enjoy the passover. And what is the meaning of the passover?

Exod. 12:26 "And it shall be, when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' 27 "that you shall say, 'It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.'" So the people bowed their heads and worshiped."

The meaning of the passover is redemption. The Lord redeemed his people, he brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He spared their lives and they escaped his judgement by displaying the blood of the passover lamb.

The meaning for us is obvious. Christ is our passover lamb. 1Cor. 5:7 "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us."

1Pet. 1:18 "...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

And Christ himself directly changed the passover to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Whenever we receive the Lord's Supper, we celebrate the fact that in Christ, God has provided for our spiritual needs.

Jesus himself took the bread of the passover meal, gave it to his disciples, and said, Luke 22:19 "And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

He did the same thing with the passover cup of wine. Luke 22:20 "Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."

God provides for the needs of his covenant people. Both physical needs and spiritual needs. And what Jesus, and Moses, tell us is not to concern ourselves with those physical needs, as we are so prone to do. "Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."

So how much do you feed on bread? Three times a day, plus a couple snacks? Now the question is, how much do you feed on the word of God? Do you see the point? Our bodies quite naturally crave food with consistent regularity. Every few hours, even, several times a day. So should be the desires for the spiritual food which nourishes and sustains our souls!

Jesus has said, don't concern yourself with the physical needs. I will provide for them. Instead, concern yourself with true righteousness and faithful obedience. His exact words: Matt. 6:31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

If worry about your physical needs consumes you, then your god is too small.

After Joshua and the people celebrated the passover, there was another significant event. Joshua met a man, a man he had never met before. v.13

The man was a military commander, with his great sword drawn and ready for battle. And the presence of this man shows us that,

II.GOD PROVIDES LEADERSHIP FOR HIS COVENANT PEOPLE. This man wasn't just any man. He wasn't just any commander. He was, in fact, the commander of the Lord's army.

v.14a The word host means army. And this man commanded all the Lord's army.

And who is that commander? Well, the commander of the Lord's army is the Lord! And this appearance to Joshua was an appearance of God himself, one of several OT appearances of God in the form of a man. Very likely this was Jesus Christ himself, appearing as a man before he physically became a man born of the virgin Mary.

God himself provides leadership for his people, and without that leadership, his people are doomed. For,

A. God commands all the powers of heaven. v.14

What is the army, or the host, of the Lord? Nothing less than all the angels and all the powers of heaven itself. God sovereignly commands all the spiritual forces of heaven, and those powers are far superior to any earthly power.

An army of men with swords is no match for an army of angels. And yet those armies of men think they are so strong and mighty!

Ps. 2:1 "Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us." 4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision. 5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: 6 "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."

Who is that King? Who is the commander of the Lord's army? Who is the King of Glory? It is Jesus Christ, seated on the throne of God in heaven. And He commands all the powers of heaven.

And so Peter preached to the crowds on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

Let me say one additional thing about that.

B. God is a commander, not a sponsor. v.13 Natural question, very understandable. Which side are you one?

Notice the response, fascinating answer: v.14 Neither. The commander of the Lord's army said I am on neither side. What does that mean? In my own words, it means that God is a commander, not a sponsor.

When I was growing up, the most important activities our family centered upon American Legion baseball. I didn't know that the American Legion was a veterans group. I thought it was a baseball team. We had other teams, the Jaycees, the Rotary, the Kiwanis, the Lions, the VFW, and the Elks. Those were all baseball teams. They were sponsors. Along with more local sponsors like West End Hotel. Arco. Hooper Handling.

As boy, those weren't local businesses to me. They were baseball teams. Sponsors. They gave their name to a team, and they gave that team some financial support. And one of the ways that our view of God is too small is when we view him as a sponsor instead of a commander.

The captain of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "I'm not on either side. I am the commander." He said to Joshua, "I am not your sponsor." Thus it was not for Joshua to claim the allegiance of God for his cause, however right it was, but rather for God to claim Joshua.

That is an important lesson for us. Christians have a tendency to marshall God for their programs rather than simply follow him wherever he leads. God is not a party leader for a particular point of view.

God is not Roman Catholic, nor is he protestant. He is not a Baptist nor a Methodist. God is not a Presbyterian, least of all an Orthodox Presbyterian. In the affairs of politics, God is not a republican, fighting to defeat all democratic candidates for public office in the United States. Nor is he a democrat. God is not a conservative, or a fundamentalist, or a liberal.

God is not a celestial sponsor whose name we can attach to any of our crusades. It is not our job to make sure that God is on our side. It is our job to make sure that we are on God's side. I hope that you catch that important difference. Repeat.

v.13 Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?" 14 So He said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."

So don't ever put God in a box you have created for him. Don't label God with labels that you create for our own benefit. God is far greater than any definition we could possibly give him, he is greater than our minds can possibly conceive.

How can you avoid putting God in a box? Study the Scriptures. Learn what God is like from the Bible. Learn what God says about himself. And if you want to use any label, use the label "biblical." Strive to be biblical in your knowledge and understanding of God. What does the Bible say about him? Search the Scriptures for God's own self-definition.

Well, if God is our commander and not just our sponsor, what exactly does he want from us? An unqualified commitment.

III. GOD REQUIRES AN UNQUALIFIED COMMITMENT FROM HIS COVENANT PEOPLE. Joshua immediately recognized that he was in the presence of a superior officer, though he may not have immediately know that it was God himself. But he fell upon his face. He humbled himself and submitted himself.

The question he asked, and the answer he received, show us what God really wants from us. And it is actually pretty simple. We tend to make things more difficult than they are. What does God want? A commitment. A commitment in the form of,

A. Unreserved obedience. v.14 "What does my Lord say to His servant?" What message does my Lord have for his servant?

That is exactly how God wants you to respond to every situation, every decision, every aspect of your life. God wants you to come to him, stand before him, confident of your forgiveness in Christ, and say, "What message do you have for me today?"

As Christians, we can have a tendency to go to the Bible with our own ideas, trying to find something to support those ideas. And that is the wrong approach. Completely backwards. The evidence of that approach is the inability to distinguish between what is actually biblical and what is merely traditional. It is much to easy to go to the Bible in an effort to justify our traditions. It is much more difficult to go to the Bible in order to examine all of our traditions.

We need to go to the Bible and be willing to say, "God, what will you teach me today." And, when you find something in the Bible that is different from how you are living, you need to change!

We believe that the Scriptures are the infallible word of God, written without error under the inspiration of the holy spirit. Therefore, every time you open the Bible, say to God, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" And then, listen.

That is unreserved obedience. Even if is means changing what you believe or how you act.

What answer did Joshua receive to his question? v.15

The meaning of that is that God requires from us, first and foremost, the commitment of,

B. Unhesitating worship. Why the command to take off his sandals? In an eastern custom, shoes or sandals are used only as a protection from dirt. I doubt that culture could understand the American fascinations with shoes, and especially with things that were called sneakers when I was a child. Now they sell for over $100, multiple hundreds of dollars sometimes, and are advertised as aggressively as new automobiles. Our culture puts high value on all types of shoes. The eastern culture uses them to keep the dirt off their feet.

And so, when you walk into a home, it is customary to take off your shoes, because you don't want to contaminate the home with dirt. Of course, that is still a good idea in our culture, especially if your shoes are dirty. But what God is telling Joshua is this: "When you are in my presence, you must respect and honor me. And taking off your sandals is one way of honoring me."

God is saying to Joshua, "When you meet with me, you are on holy ground, and you must not profane that holy ground. You must not defile my presence with the dirt of this world." "You must not get my presence dirty with the common things of this world."

God had told Moses the same thing at the burning bush. Exod. 3:2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." 4 So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."

What is the meaning for us? When we meet with God, we are on holy ground. And the purpose of our worship is to honor and glorify the Lord God Almighty.

What the Lord desires from his people more than anything else is their worship! That is the single answer that the Lord gives to Joshua's questions. What the Lord desires from you more than anything else is your worship.

What is worship? Not entertainment, coming to church to be a spectator. Worship is not Sunday School. Worship is meeting with God. And you must understand just how significant that is.

What we do in worship is not an issue of tradition, it is an issue of biblical conviction. What we do together on Sunday morning is to offer to God the sacrifice of worship. We offer to him our praise, our prayers, our singing, our time, our money, our commitment, and our attention. And we listen to him. We listen to him speak.

And if you really want to listen to the Lord, then you need to take off your sandals and recognize that you are on holy ground. This isn't just any other common activity. This isn't something you should do lightly, or without thought.

We don't worship for our own benefit. We don't worship in order to get something out of it. We worship for God's benefit. My main concern in preparing for worship and leading worship is not your own enjoyment. The main concern is God's enjoyment. And when we meet with him, you must take off your sandals for we stand on holy ground.

What does that mean? First of all, make the commitment to be here, as you are tonight. And prepare yourself to be here. What you do Saturday night affects your ability to worship on Sunday. What you do Sunday morning certainly affects it. Prepare, by prayer and Bible reading. Prepare by worshipping God privately. Organize your schedule so that you can do that. Then think about what you are doing. Always think about every aspect of the worship service. Don't just go through the motions. Whether it's reading or singing, listening or praying, think about what you are doing so that you can participate with all of your heart and soul.

Joshua is about to experience the greatest experience of his life. This is the climax. This is the top of the mountain. It doesn't get any better. He is about to conquer the great and mighty city of Jericho. But first, he must stand on holy ground and worship the Lord of hosts.

Such a good question: "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"

Listen again to God's answer: "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy."

Fully Searchable
Bible