Fare Well… IF | Sunday, November 12, 2023

Now it came to pass, a long time after the LORD had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age. And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them: "I am old, advanced in age... You have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the LORD your God is He who has fought for you." (Joshua 23:1–3)

When a man who has seen God fight for him says goodbye, his parting words become a map for how to fare well in this life.

The Farewell Genre of Scripture

We have come to the goodbye point of the Book of Joshua. Chapters 23 and 24 are Joshua's farewell words. How does your family say goodbye? In my family, goodbyes are practically famous—not the end of an event but an event unto itself, lasting an hour in stages. The Bible contains some famous goodbyes too, but these are not "until we meet again." They are final goodbyes, and they fall into what is called the farewell genre of Scripture.

Throughout the Bible you encounter these monologues from people who recognize they have come to the end of the road and are sharing their final words. Abraham blesses Isaac; Isaac blesses his son; Jacob blesses the twelve who became the tribes of Israel; Joseph gives his farewell. The entire Book of Deuteronomy is Moses's long farewell address. David gives his farewell and blessing to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 29. Paul addresses the Ephesian elders at Miletus in Acts 20—we visited those ruins last month—and 2 Timothy is his farewell to Timothy. And Jesus gives his great farewell conversation to his disciples in John 13 through 17.

One commentator observed that the farewell genre implies two important things: first, that older people have crucial things to teach younger ones; and second, that God's plan outlives us. In our Western culture in 2023 we don't put as much stock in age and experience as we should. We also don't like to think about the fact that life has a beginning date and an ending date. But the statistics are staggering—ten out of ten people die. Moses, the author of Psalm 90, wrote, "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." It is wise to remember that life is finite.

We Are Meaning-Seeking Creatures

Life is short, even a long one, and there is something in us that wants our lives to matter. We are meaning-seeking creatures, and as far as we can tell that is unique to the human experience. I read an article yesterday titled "Why I Am Now a Christian" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She grew up in a predominantly Muslim culture, was caught up in a radical form of Islam as a teenager, and after leaving for Europe became an atheist like so many in the Western world. What pulled her into atheism was seeing the terrorism her former culture produced—a culture that could give no viable alibi for such evil.

But now she calls herself a Christian. She writes that atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life? It had no ultimate purpose, no ultimate meaning or end. This is one of the strongest apologetic challenges to the atheistic, humanistic, naturalistic worldview held by so many of our friends, family, and neighbors—or at least the agnostic "how can we know?" version of it.

Back in the 1960s Time magazine ran the cover "God is dead," taking up Friedrich Nietzsche's parable of the madman running through the streets crying, "God is dead, and we have killed him. What shall become of us, the murderers of God?" Nietzsche predicted a century of bloodshed would follow, and that is exactly what the twentieth century delivered. Remove meaning and purpose from individuals, and the descent toward nihilism, hopelessness, and depression follows. Every person wrestles with the questions our worldview tries to answer: identity (who am I?), origin (where did I come from?), destiny (where do I go?), morality (what is right and wrong?), and the ultimate question—what is my purpose? Atheism cannot answer that affirmatively.

We Fare Well If

If we want our lives to matter, it is wise to consider the parting words of those in this farewell genre. Point one: the goodbyes of the Bible reveal that we can fare well *if* we apply the wisdom of revelation. That "if" is crucial. There are conditions that, if met, lead to human thriving—the meaning and purpose we are hardwired by our Creator to seek.

When Joshua led Israel into the promised land he was about eighty; here he is 110. They have had rest from their enemies for roughly a quarter of a century. Knowing the end of his life is near, Joshua gathers everyone—probably at Shiloh, where the Tabernacle stood—and reminds them: "The LORD your God is He who has fought for you." This land was given as an inheritance, not taken by their power or military might. They received it by God's grace.

"I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain... from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea westward. And the LORD your God will expel them from before you... and you shall possess their land, as the LORD your God promised you." (Joshua 23:4–5)

Notice in verse 4 the phrase "from the Jordan... as far as the Great Sea"—from the river to the sea. You've heard that recently. It has become the mantra of those with a strong anti-Semitic bent, of Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." World news over the last month has revealed how ill-informed people are about history. I have been to Israel five or six times, and it is one big archaeological dig from north to south—everywhere you put a shovel you find evidence that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have been there some 4,000 years. People simply don't know the history, ancient or recent, and emotions are now so high that coherent conversation is nearly impossible.

All We Possess Is a Gift of Grace

Point two: all that we possess as a possession is ultimately a gift of God's grace. Israel's conquest was miraculous. Repeatedly in Deuteronomy God told them they would dispossess nations mightier and greater than themselves. This was a people who had been slaves for 400 years and wandered in tents for four decades—no military experience, no fortifications, hardly any strength—yet they overtook stronger nations. It should not have happened by their own power. Everything they possessed was evidence of God's grace.

We must grasp this if we are to fare well. A theology of possessions and wealth has to begin here. "The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof" (Psalm 24:1). God made everything, including you, and owns it all. "Every good and perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17). In Deuteronomy 8:18, Moses says it is God "who gives you power to get wealth"—even your ability to earn is a gift. And 1 Peter 4:10 says, "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

God owns everything as Creator and gives blessings of wealth, position, and ability according to his grace. We are not the owners; we are stewards. Yet from the youngest age we act like those seagulls in Finding Nemo—"Mine, mine, mine." If you have children you don't need to be convinced we are born sinners; hand a two-year-old a toy and watch. We have to be instructed out of that. If we want fullness in this life, we grasp that God owns all, that he has blessed me according to his grace, and that I am a steward who will give an account. One mark of grasping this is a lighter hold on our possessions, revealed in a willingness to give and share.

Be Very Courageous—to Keep the Word

"Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left... You shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day." (Joshua 23:6–8)

"One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you. Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the LORD your God." (Joshua 23:10–11)

What brought Israel into the land was not military might but God fighting for them—the walls of Jericho falling, the long day of Joshua 10—a constant affirmation that they had no strength in themselves but their God was good. And why did God do it? The larger story of the Bible reveals that God called a people, the descendants of Abraham, to a place, the land of Israel, to bless them there, so that through them he might extend blessing to all peoples in all places through the descendant of Abraham, Jesus the Messiah. He blessed a people in a place to make them a blessing to all peoples through Christ. (Does he still have a future plan for Israel? I believe he does—but that's a study for another day.)

So Joshua tells them to be courageous not to build great armies or fortresses or strategic alliances. God had told them in Deuteronomy not to multiply wives—political alliances—or horses, because he wanted them to trust him, not their military. Courage meant keeping and doing all that is written in the Book of the Law, turning neither to the right hand nor the left.

These words echo what God first spoke to Joshua in chapter 1: "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law... Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night... For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." God's word to Joshua has now become Joshua's word to the people.

Success Comes Through Adherence to God's Word

Point three: success and prosperity result from meticulous adherence to and application of God's word. This was true for Israel 3,400 years ago and is true for us today. Freedom, rest, success, and prosperity are not the result of our determined strength to resist the forces of this world, but of the determined will to follow God's covenant faithfully. Victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil comes not by our strength but by our faithfulness.

"But if indeed you do go back... know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you." (Joshua 23:12–13)

Do a study on the promises of God, Old Testament and New—there are books that collect them all. So many are conditioned upon if/then requirements: if you faithfully follow God, then you will have good success; if you turn aside, then the Lord will withdraw his blessing, protection, provision, and presence. This is the blessings and cursings of Deuteronomy 28, and it forms what theologians call the deuteronomic principle, the basis for much of the Old Testament.

We will see it as a case study when we enter Judges in January. "There arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10), and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The rest of Judges—and much of the Old Testament—is story after story of defeat and failure whenever they departed from God. Paul says these things were written for our instruction, "upon whom the ends of the ages have come," so that we take heed when we think we stand, lest we fall (1 Corinthians 10:11–12). The greatest form of wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others.

"Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed." (Joshua 23:14)

Because God has been faithful to fulfill every good word as Israel followed, the reverse is equally certain: if they transgress the covenant, "then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you" (v. 16). Warren Wiersbe summarized it: obey the Lord and He will bless you and keep you in the land; disobey and He will judge you and remove you. Moses said the same in his farewell: "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil... therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live... for He is your life and the length of your days" (Deuteronomy 30:15–20).

Old Testament, but a Lasting Principle

Yes, this is old covenant, spoken to the Jewish people. You are not under the 613 commandments of the Jewish law; you are under the New Covenant. But God's word endures forever, and this principle—call it the deuteronomic principle, or sowing and reaping—runs straight into the New Testament. If this, then that.

Jesus closed the Sermon on the Mount this way: "Whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock"—the rain, floods, and winds came and it did not fall. But "everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand"—and great was its fall (Matthew 7:24–27). Do you want a life that endures life's storms? Note that the storms come to both houses. There is a teaching, veiled as Christian, that says once you become a Christian you'll be healthy, wealthy, and trouble-free—and that is a load. The promise is not no storms, but a house that stands.

In his farewell address Jesus said, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (John 13:17). The obvious question is, what should I do? The answer is in the Scriptures. Sadly, in our culture we have Bibles in every color and size, with big print and small, in every version—and they sit closed, collecting dust on our shelves. This is the Creator's manual for life, principle after principle for how we ought to live. The blessing is conditioned on the doing.

Only Jesus Is Our Hope

Point four: defeat, oppression, tyranny, and exile are the ultimate outcome of disregard and disobedience of God's word. That is the storyline of Judges, and it is an important book for our moment, which is why we'll study it next year. Sadly we are guilty of many of the same things the Bible identifies as ruinous to a people. "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." By our own efforts we have little hope of doing better than Israel did, and we are following the same script.

You might say, "But this is America—the Constitution, judeo-Christian values." I know all that. But don't kid yourself: if this, then that. Many great nations have faltered and fallen. As we head into a crazy 2024 political season, we will all be tempted to think that if we just get the right person into office, everything will be okay. That isn't going to work. Someone recently listed for me all the things our leader needs to fix the world, and I said, "Do you realize you just described the Antichrist?"

Point five: Christ alone has the power to defeat death and liberate us from the oppression and tyranny of sin. You'll have many conversations with people selling hope and change—the same old story packaged in a different suit and tie. Our only hope is Jesus Christ, because the ultimate problem is sin, and only Jesus deals with the sin that brings death.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You'd help us to hold that reality firmly in our minds, because we are all tempted to think there's hope in something else. But Jesus, You alone are our only hope. I pray that You would hold that strong in our hearts and minds, and that You would fill us with the boldness to share it with others. As we sang before I came up, Lord, help us not to be ashamed of the good news of the gospel, for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek; in the gospel Your righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "the just shall live by faith." God, give us the boldness to share that, because it is increasingly a countercultural message in 2023 and 2024 in the United States of America. Help us to be ambassadors of that message. We pray this today in Jesus' name, and all those agreed said, amen.