Give Me A Blessing! Pt. 2 | Sunday, September 17, 2023

Now Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a share among the children of Judah... namely Kirjath Arba, which is Hebron... And Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak... Then she answered, "Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water." So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. (Joshua 15:13–19, paraphrased from the teaching)

God has granted every believer a promised inheritance in Christ—do you have the tenacity to take hold of it?

Where We Are in the Story

We are in the Book of Joshua, the sixth book of the Bible. Through the summer we took our usual detour and studied Daniel; before that, Nehemiah and Esther. Now we return to our normal studies. The first half of Joshua tells the story of Israel coming in to conquer the Promised Land. It is called the Promised Land because nearly 500 years before Joshua, God gave a promise to Abraham: "To you and to your descendants I am going to give this land."

That promise was conditioned on Abraham's faith. God said, "Come, follow me to a land that I will show you, and I will give you this great blessing," and Abraham did. That is why the New Testament calls Abraham the father of our faith—and the father of all who have faith and are faithful. Abraham was not always perfect, which encourages us, because all of us fall short of God's righteous standard.

It took a long time to inherit the promise. Israel spent 400 years in Egypt in bondage, then wandered 40 years in the wilderness before finally going in. The first half of Joshua is the taking of the ground. Now we enter the last half, which is the division and allotment of the land to the twelve tribes—the descendants of Jacob's twelve sons.

The Big Story: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration

All of this serves a purpose. This storyline has many specific details about specific people in specific places, but when you step back, you see God orchestrating a tapestry—a larger story of what He is doing in the world. What God does through Abraham and Israel is a micro-story showing the macro thing God is doing everywhere.

Genesis begins with creation, then immediately the fall. Why is there evil and brokenness in the world? The Bible answers: through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world, and death through sin, spreading to all creation. Not a single person—believer or not—fails to see this brokenness and wish it were different. In Romans 8, Paul says all creation is groaning for an ultimate restoration when God will restore this broken creation to what He intended.

Seven times in Genesis 1 God looks at His creation and says it is good; the last time, very good. Then Genesis 3 brings brokenness and death. Yet at that very point, God gives the first promise of His redeeming plan in Genesis 3:15. So the story moves from creation to fall to redemption to restoration. That is the big, broad story of the Bible.

Moses, Joshua, and the Coming Redeemer

The first book of the Bible ends with a coffin in Egypt—because through sin comes death. Egypt, many commentators note, pictures the whole world. The story picks up in Exodus about 400 years later, with God's people in bondage. But God's aim is redemption, so He raises up a redeemer: Moses. Moses is a picture and type of the one to come, but not the fullness of that Redeemer.

Who is the ultimate Redeemer Moses points to? Jesus. Like the answers at the back of a math book, the answer to the big questions is always Jesus. Joshua, too, points forward to this coming One, as do all the books from Genesis to Malachi and the promises of the prophets.

In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly states His purpose. In Luke 19, "I have come to seek and to save that which is lost." In Mark 10:45, "I have come to give my life a ransom for many." He bears the punishment for our sin on the cross, but He does not only save us from the punishment of sin—He saves us from the power of sin. If you are a believer, He has rescued you from God's wrath, and He is also sanctifying you so you are no longer a slave to sin. He accomplishes this not by our works but by His finished work: His last words on the cross were "It is finished."

Relationship, Not Mere Religion

Sin brought death and bondage. God sent Moses to redeem Israel from Egypt, and then brought them to Mount Sinai to enter a covenant: "I will be your God and you will be my people." They would not merely keep do's and don'ts and rituals; they would be His children with an inheritance—the Promised Land.

You may have heard Christians say Christianity is not a religion but a relationship. This faith is not just rituals and rules; you actually enter into relationship with God through Jesus Christ, becoming His sons and daughters with an inheritance, just as Israel had.

Moses represents the law—the mediator who gave God's law. Yet the representative of the law could not bring Israel into the fullness of the promised blessing; he could not bring them into the Promised Land. The picture is clear: through our own efforts and works, even keeping the law as best we can, we cannot bring about the fullness of God's blessing. We need another to bring us into it—Jesus. Joshua is a type of that. Only Joshua could bring them in. The law cannot bring one into God's promised rest.

A Story That Offends—and a Heart That Should Have Compassion

There was a time in our culture when even people who did not attend church basically knew this story. That awareness is disappearing quickly as we become an increasingly post-Christian culture. And not only is the story unknown—it stirs strife and animosity.

I saw this vividly this week. Pastor Nick clips short reels from our messages and posts them. One simple, 90-second clip about the cohesive story of the Bible—creation to fall to redemption to restoration—got almost 3,000 views in four hours, with a flood of comments: "That's not true, this is wrong, there is no cohesive story in the Bible." I was surprised by the animosity stirred up by such a simple message.

This is one reason many Christians hesitate to share—they fear offending people. But in 1 Corinthians, Paul says the gospel is an offense to those who are perishing. For the good news to make sense, a person must be confronted with the bad news of their lost, sinful condition. Call someone a sinner and they'll bristle—"How dare you?" The gospel offends, but we should not want people to die in their sin.

Moved With Compassion, Not Outrage

In Matthew 9, as Jesus went about the towns of Galilee, He saw the multitudes in their brokenness and lostness, and He was moved with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then He told His disciples, "Pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers."

That challenged me. When I see the lostness of our culture, my typical reaction is not compassion—it's anger, frustration, even outrage. Over the last eight or nine years, especially since 2020, outrage has been stirred up across the board, and even Christians have succumbed to it in ways that are not biblical. We must check ourselves against the nature of Christ. If anger and outrage are stirred up in me, that's the flesh that needs to die. Jesus said in John 15 that people will know we are His followers by our love.

If we are angered by the lost, impatient with their lostness, and unkind toward them, we do not have the heart of Christ. That is convicting—and it should be. It was compassion that stirred Jesus to send His disciples out in Matthew 10. And it is God's mercy and compassion that saved us. Second Peter 3:9 says God is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance. First Timothy 2 says God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Are we praying for the destruction of people we don't like, or praying, "God, give me Your heart of compassion for them"?

Saul of Tarsus and the Mercy of God

Consider Paul. Before he was the apostle, he was Saul, a Pharisee and persecutor of Christians. If we could go back to a prayer meeting in those early days, I doubt the church was praying for Saul's salvation—I think they were praying for God to destroy him, like the imprecatory prayers of David in the Psalms. The book of Acts tells us it took the church about fifteen years to accept Saul as one of them—a sign their prayers were probably not for his salvation. Then God saved him.

Later Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord... although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy." Mercy is not getting what we deserve. If you are a Christian today, it is because of God's mercy. Grace is unmerited, undeserved favor. We deserve God's just wrath; instead He saved us by His grace.

When I was a kid, I disliked my name, Miles—it just means 5,280 feet. When we moved to England, they jokingly called me "Kilometers." But I later learned my name is Latin in origin and means "soldier of mercy." It changed my perspective. There are many people we are connected to at work, at school, in our neighborhoods, even in our families, who deserve God's just punishment—oh, that we would be moved with compassion that they would know His mercy.

Paul says he obtained mercy "that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe." Ephesians 2 says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, has saved us." We can never tap out His mercy. We are told to come boldly before His throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness.

The Promised Lot of Your Inheritance

God desires that we would lay hold of the fullness of His blessing. Israel's experience pictures this. The blessing is given to those who take it by faith, through faithfulness. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Ephesians 2:8–10). We apprehend the blessing by faith, and that faith is evidenced by faithfulness. James says faith without works is dead—not saved by works, but our works prove our faith is genuine.

My brother Danny, here this morning, was base jumping off a bridge in Idaho this week. He straps a parachute on his back and jumps. That act proves he has faith in what he packed. His willingness to take the step proves he trusts it. So our faithfulness to follow God in obedience proves we trust Him alone for salvation.

If you took notes, this would be point four: God has granted a promised lot for your inheritance in Christ. Just as He told Israel, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon I have given to you," He says to us, "Be strong and very courageous, that you may lay hold of every blessing I have given you." God wants us to take full possession of all He has for us in Christ Jesus.

A Cautionary Tale

As we finish Joshua, I must warn you: this passage can be dry. I encourage you to read straight through the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation. Sometimes you'll hit a speed bump—Leviticus, Chronicles, the last half of Joshua—and be tempted to give up. Don't. Even in dry passages there are streams in the desert, little things God wants you to take away.

One of them is this: in the same way God had a promised blessing for Israel 3,400 years ago, He has a promised blessing for you. At the start of Joshua 13, God told the aged Joshua, "You are old, but there remains very much land yet to be possessed." Sadly, Abraham's descendants never fully took possession of what God had for them. This is both informative and a cautionary tale—informative because God has so much more for us, cautionary because we, too, are in danger of not fully apprehending it.

Why did Israel not possess the possession? There were obstacles and opponents. Sometimes they lacked trust and faith. Sometimes they were content with a small, measly portion and unwilling to take more. Sometimes they were distracted by idols. And sometimes they were simply lazy and didn't want to do the hard work—even though God said, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you." All they had to do was walk in and put down roots.

Caleb's Faith at Eighty-Five

When we left Joshua in May, the last thing I shared was Caleb taking his inheritance. Caleb was Joshua's best friend. In Numbers 13, Caleb and Joshua were two of the twelve spies Moses sent into the land. All twelve agreed it was a marvelous land flowing with milk and honey, but ten said, "There are giants in the land, there are walled cities, and they are too great for us"—and they discouraged the people, who then wandered and died in the wilderness for thirty-eight years.

But Joshua and Caleb said, "Yes, there are giants and great walled cities, but God has given them to us. They will be like bread for us." They were the only two of that entire generation permitted to enter the land, because they trusted God.

In Joshua 14, Caleb comes to Joshua and reminds him: "I was forty years old when Moses sent me to spy out the land... I wholly followed the Lord my God." Moses swore that the land Caleb's foot had trodden would be his inheritance. "And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive these forty-five years... and now I am eighty-five years old... As yet I am as strong this day as on the day Moses sent me." I don't think his body was as strong at eighty-five as at forty—but his heart and his faith were. "Now therefore, give me this mountain... It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said." May we have the heart and mindset of Caleb.

"Give Me a Blessing!"

In Joshua 15:13, Caleb is given Kirjath Arba—Hebron—at that time a stronghold of the giants. Caleb drives out the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. The very giants Israel feared forty-five years earlier, Caleb at eighty-five takes by God's power.

Then he gives a challenge: "He who attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give Achsah my daughter as a wife." Othniel, his nephew, takes it and marries Achsah. She then urges her husband to ask her father for a field, and when she comes to Caleb he says, "What do you wish?" She answers—underline this, exclamation point—"Give me a blessing! Since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water." And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

I love Caleb, I like Othniel, and I love the tenacity of Achsah. When she said, "Give me a blessing," Caleb did not say, "Be content with what you have," or "Don't be a brat, be grateful." He gave her exceedingly more than she asked. I am far from a health-wealth-and-prosperity teacher—I think that doctrine, as often taught, is abominable. Yet many Christians never fully possess what God desires for them because they lack the tenacity of Achsah to say, "God, give me a blessing."

Our Father Delights to Bless

Jesus said, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?" We have a loving Father who desires that we come and call out, "Lord, give me this blessing." And why might He bless us above all we ask or think? Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus." God loves to bless His children who ask because He gets the glory.

That is point five: Our heavenly Father delights to bless us above what we ask. The question is whether we are tenacious enough to go to Him and say, "God, bless me in this area, with this territory, with this person I'm sharing the gospel with—not for my glory, but for Your glory."

William Carey, the great-grandfather of modern missions in the 18th and 19th centuries, said, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." He had the same mindset as Othniel, Caleb, and Achsah: "God, bless me, lead me into this territory to lay hold of it."

Many of us, living in California, feel we are in enemy territory—a place that rejects the truth of Scripture. Caleb certainly was in enemy territory, surrounded by giants, but he was a man of God. Othniel was a lion-like man of God who by faith took possession and held it. We may live in a place that feels like enemy territory, but God has placed us here for such a time as this—to be a light to those in darkness, to bring the good news to the lost. God help us to be moved with compassion, not anger or outrage, for the lost people we live next door to, go to school with, and work with.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You for Your word, and I pray that You would work in me and in my brothers and sisters that we would have the eyes of Your Son Jesus, that we would see as You see, and that we would be moved this week by compassion when we interact with people who are far from You. Your heart is that none would perish; You desire that all people would be saved—even that person who ticks us off. God, move our hearts with compassion to share the good news of Your mercy and Your grace with them, the same mercy and grace we rejoice in and praise You for week in and week out. Help us to be conduits of that mercy and grace to others. We pray this today in Jesus' name, and all those who agreed said amen.