03. The State of Things after the Death of Joshua

The State of Things after the Death of Joshua

"Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him." (Jude 1:1-3)

What we find in the beginning of the first chapter of the book of Judges is extremely encouraging. Two tribes, Judah and Simeon, were desirous of acquiring their inheritance and they exhibited two features that we might well covet today. First of all, they were dependent upon God - they asked the Lord what they were to do; and secondly, they fellowshipped in obtaining what they desired. Notice in verse 1, "the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?" This is the secret of true prosperity before God - there was dependence upon God. The great leader had gone, Joshua had departed. They might have thrown up their hands in despair and said, ’There is no-one to lead us, there is no-one to guide us, there is no-one to help us’, but they did not, they turned to God.

All through the Bible, when a leader dies there seems to be failure following. This was true in the apostolic day Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29-30 saying, "after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." The power, strength and direction of the apostles’ leadership was sufficient to keep at bay those evil things while they yet lived, but when they died it seemed a great barrier was removed and evil men began to work. This has always been true. In Christianity no matter how great the leader is, he pales into insignificance in relation to our great leader, our Lord Jesus Christ; the saints of God are never without a leader. We can always turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, "the Captain of [our] salvation" (Hebrews 2:10). He is always, and always will be, the head of the body, no-one can take this glory from Him. He is the great High-Priest (Hebrews 8:1), the Son over God’s house, He is the One who is always available for His people, and it has been well said that God buries His servants and carries on His work - the servants may be great, but they are not indispensable. So we can take courage. We are sad that there are not more men of God amongst us compared with days that have gone by, more men able to expound the Scriptures, able to show us the way to live and to understand the truth and we would value their help today, but they are not here, so we must go on, and the Lord Jesus has vouchsafed His presence to us to encourage us and help us in spite of all the difficulty. From this passage there is the greatest possible encouragement. Dependence upon the Lord in prayer, whether individually or collectively, and practical fellowship with each other, are means that we can use at all times to combat the evil tendencies of the day. When the Lord saw this dependency and fellowship active amongst His people "the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand" (1:4), the Lord was with them. It was not now Joshua in the forefront directing the battle, the Lord was with them; after all, it was the Lord that delivered them even when Joshua was leading. Joshua may have been in the forefront, he might have been the spokesman, the man whom God was using, but it was still the Lord who was winning the battles. It was the Lord that had helped Moses and who later helped David, and indeed helped every servant of God down through the ages. Here, there does not appear to be an outstanding man, they were simply men who were dependent, men who were willing to help one another, and the Lord delivered their enemies into their hand.

We may not do miraculous or sensational things ourselves, but from this portion we learn that when we exercise dependence upon the Lord, and when we seek to help each other, something really worthwhile can be secured in the inheritance that belongs to us. We hold on to it in a practical way and we enjoy it in a deeper fashion if this dual thing is in evidence - prayer and fellowship with each other, with those with whom we can walk, with whom we can worship, with whom we can face the problems of the day and find courage and strength. So we should keep praying, assembling together, and finding our joy in each other’s company. The inheritance which belonged to Israel was an earthly one, but they failed to secure it because of their unfaithfulness and their disobedience. We know that we too have an inheritance (we have it in Christ), and that there is a future inheritance that we shall share, and we can thank God for that. We shall share it with Him, but we also have a wide range of eternal, spiritual blessings which are secure and centred in Christ, and each one of us is responsible to God and privileged of God to enter into these things and to enjoy them now. We do not enter into the blessings simply by having the knowledge of them on our bookshelves, or even understanding them in our minds. A certain truth can be known and enjoyed in this fashion, but truths are to take hold and to govern our lives so that all can see that these things are paramount in our lives. These truths are the things which really matter, these are our inheritance, this is what we really believe, this is what we seek to lay hold of, this is what we seek to maintain, and we never can unless we express this dependence upon God, and also act in practical fellowship with each other.