Promise Geography

May 18, 2014

Joshua:  Turning Obedience Into Blessing

Joshua 15:  Promise Geography                           NOT EDITED

SIS—The promises of God result in real blessings in this world, as well as in eternity.

If you have been paying attention over the last few months as we have been studying Joshua you will have noticed three important themes, or Bible doctrines, that God has woven in and out of nearly every chapter—the sovereignty of God, the promises of God, and the power of obedience.  These three dynamic doctrines serve as the pillars that hold up the entire structure of the Bible.  These three dynamic doctrines interact to create what we call in general, salvation.  The interaction looks something like this:  God’s sovereignty guarantees God’s promises based upon man’s obedience.  When we know what God has promised and we trust that God is indeed able and willing to fulfill those promises, God turns the promises into reality based upon our obedience.

Now, the way the Book of Joshua expresses the interaction of sovereignty, promise and obedience is through what one scholar refers to as “Promise Geography.”  Chapters 14 through 19 contain many hard-to-pronounce names of places many of us cannot even locate on a map.  This could obscure a very important lesson.  Though we may not be able to locate the geographical lands God promised and delivered to Israel, those place were indeed real places.  We would say they were “real estate.”

God’s promises are important because it is the primary means through which God relates to His people.  The Bible in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 11 gives a synopsis of the importance of the entire O.T.  The basic lesson we are to receive from the O.T., according to Hebrews, is that “faith in God is the foundation for our relationship with Yahweh.”  The Bible says it like this:  “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).  And, of course, if we fail to please God we fail to appropriate His blessings in our lives.

Faith means “to obey God in anticipation of God fulfilling His promises.”  There are two great heresies that have splintered off from this great truth.  One, the prosperity gospel which teaches that  “the singular reason we obey God is to get more!  Second, the heresy that teaches, “we should never think of God’s promises but obey out of a blind sense of duty.”  Neither of these two extremes is correct and should be shunned as sheer heresy. 

We should not let these heresies rob us of a great truth in the Bible.  God does reward faithfulness.  He is a “rewarder.”  The Bible says,

^{Heb 11   6} Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.

My point in this message is to show the connection between “obedience and real estate based upon the promises of God,” or “Promise Geography.

Joshua  and the entire Bible teaches us “that obedience brings blessing.”  There was a man who got lost in the desert. After wandering around for a long time his throat became very dry, about that time he saw a little shack in the distance.  He made his way over to the shack and found a water pump with a small jug of water and a note. The note read: "pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it, if you do this you will get all the water you need". Now the man had a choice to make, if he trusted the note and poured the water in and it worked he would have all the water he needed. If it didn’t work he would still be thirsty and he might die. Or he could choose to drink the water in the jug and get immediate satisfaction, but it might not be enough and he still might die. After thinking about it the man decided to risk it. He poured the entire jug into the pump and began to work the handle, at first nothing happened and he got a little scared but he kept going and water started coming out. So much water came out he drank all he wanted, took a shower, and filled all the containers he could find. Because he was willing to give up momentary satisfaction, he got all the water he needed. Now the note also said: after you have finished, please refill the jug for the next traveller.” The man refilled the jug and added to the note: “ Please prime the pump, believe me it works”!

We have the same choice to make, do we hold on to what we have because we don’t believe there are better things in store for us, and settle for immediate satisfaction? Or do we trust God and give up all that we have to get what God has promised us? I think the choice is obvious. God’s promises are many and exacting.  Let’s read a verse in Joshua 15 to give us a sense of “Promise Geography.”

READ JOSHUA 15:1

Here’s three aspects of Promise Geography that will encourage us to appropriate God’s promises through obedience.

1.  The Details of God’s Promises (1-12)

Several times we have read portions of Joshua that had exacting detail including very obscure place with difficult to pronounce names.  For most of us I might as well been reading from Harry Potter with characters like Voldermort or Albus Dumbledore.  Why all the exacting detail in Joshua?  You could draw a map of the territories given to each tribe simply from the information given.  Let me give you an example of the exacting detail that begins in chapter 15 and continues for the next four chapters:

² Their southern border began at the tip of the Dead Sea on the south bay  ³ and went south of the Ascent of Akrabbim,  proceeded to Zin, ascended to the south of Kadesh-barnea, passed Hezron, ascended to Addar, and turned to Karka. ⁴ It proceeded to Azmon and to the Brook of Egypt and  so the border ended at the Mediterranean Sea. This is your  southern border.

The rest of this chapter (and continuing through chapter 19) follows this same, exacting description of the geographical boundaries of Israel’s blessing.  This same exacting detail applies to all Twelve Tribes of Israel until you have a geographical map of the Nation of Israel.  [SHOW MAP].

I’ll ask the question again:  why all the exacting detail in this chapter and the ones following?  There is a saying in business in regard to “grand proposals” that sound so good when someone is promoting them but often stumble when the proposal is implemented.  Business strategists often quip:  “The Devil is in the details!”  So often this proves true in business.  Yet, in regard to God’s promises the opposite plays out.  Far from the details being “devilish,” the details of the fulfillment of God’s promises engender encouragement, hope, and boldness in the lives of His children.  One scholar, from whom I borrowed the idea of “Promise Geography,” stated the matter like this:

“Joshua 15 is simply one of the buds on the tree of God’s promise in Genesis 12 and Genesis 15.  The land long ago had been promised to Abraham . . . here we see part of the concrete fulfillment.  The reader must remember that both this chapter and the following ones describe in detail God’s fulfillment of His promise. . . That means that every town name and border point pulsates with excitement!”

The detailed nature of these chapters serves to strengthen our trust in God and to enflame our enthusiasm for God’s work.  Each time we move forward in obedience God fulfills more of His promise, and the more we experience the blessed promises of God the more we want to be obedient.  So, rather than the “devil being in the details,” a follower of God sees “delight in the details.”  The detailed, exacting nature of the Bible, especially in regard to the fulfillment of God’s prophetic promises prods us to greater obedience that leads to even greater blessing.  Hope is in the details of God’s promises.  The details breed trust; trust breeds hope; and hope breeds excitement.

Two little girls were talking on the schoolyard.  One little girl said she had ten pennies.  The other little girl looked at her friends hand and counted only five pennies.  The second little girl said, “You only have five pennies.”  With a smile from ear to ear the first little girl explained, “No, I have ten pennies.  I have five here in my hand and my father said he’d give me five more tonight.  So, I have ten!”  When the source of a promise is trustworthy, the promise is as sure as if it had already happened.  When we see over and over and over again in the Word of God how God fulfilled every promise in exacting detail it builds our trust in Him and our excitement about where God will lead us tomorrow.

Let’s look more closely at the EFFECTS of God’s Promises on the faith of God’s followers.

2.  The EFFECTS of God’s Promises (13-19)

God’s promises breed a vigorous and infectious faith.  Last week in chapter 12 we were reintroduced to Caleb, the Mad Dog of Obedience and hero of Numbers 13.  We are now going to look at God’s fulfillment of His promise to Caleb in more detail and see how Caleb’s faith had a great influence on the faith of others.

¹⁶and Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Achsah as a wife to the one who strikes down and captures Kiriath-sepher.” ¹⁷ So Othniel  son of Caleb’s brother, Kenaz, captured it, and Caleb gave his daughter Achsah to him as a wife.  ¹⁸ When she arrived, she persuaded Othniel to ask her father for a field. As she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you want?” ¹⁹ She replied, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me the springs of water also.” So he gave her the upper and lower springs.

As you recall from last week, Caleb did not want a conquered portion of the land as his inheritance but wanted the giant-filled hill country.  Caleb had the faith of a conqueror.  Consequently, Caleb wanted to pass on that “conqueror gene” to his sons and grandsons.  So, Caleb offered to give his daughter to the one who would conquer Kiriath-sepher.  That man turned out to be, Othniel, the son of Caleb’s brother.  This created a “cousin marriage,” assuring that Caleb’s conquering faith would continue through his bloodline.  Cousin marriage was common in the ancient Middle East, and is still somewhat common today.  Only about half the states in the U.S. prohibit the marriage of first cousins.

After the death of Joshua, Israel would be ruled by a series of judges for about 350 years, until the time of the kings beginning with Saul.  The very first judge chosen to rule over Israel was none other than, Othniel, the son-in-law of Caleb.  Othniel oversaw a period of peace for Israel that lasted 40 years (Jdgs. 3). 

Not only was Othniel infected with the enthusiastic, even brash faith of Caleb, but Caleb’s daughter also had the “give-me-a-mountain gene” of her father.  It was not enough just to receive a field in the Negev, Achsah wanted the water rights also!

Enthusiastic faith is vigorous and infectious.  The more we spend time around people who love God and follow him with “mad dog obedience,” the more we want to cast caution to the wind and do great things for God.  The EFFECTS of seeing God’s promises fulfilled in the lives of others is that it breeds enthusiastic, risk-taking faith in others.  One scholar reminds us of the EFFECTS of fulfilled promises:  “See how the God who promises a secure inheritance enables a clan to obtain it when they are willing to risk obedience to his promise” (Davis).

What would happen if we at First Baptist Church became a clan so hyped up on the promises of God that we would risk anything and everything to see those promises come true?  A promise is just an idea until it becomes a possession.

Years ago railroads were pushing across the frontiers of North America.  Great peril befell the brave men who worked their way through Native American lands.  Many times the railroad would go to war with the Indians.  At other times, they would seek to establish treaties to progress through Native American lands.  The Canadian Pacific Railroad struck one such treaty with Chief Crowfoot of the Blackfoot Indians.  In return for the right of passage through Blackfoot land from Medicine Hat to Calgary, the railroad gave Crowfoot a lifetime railroad pass.  Crowfoot put the pass in a leather pouch and wore it around his neck for the rest of his life.  No record exists showing that Crowfoot ever used that pass to go anywhere on the railroad. 

It is not enough to know the promises of God—we must act enthusiastically and vigorously on those promises or, as I said, “they are merely ideas and not possessions.”  But, promises acted upon vigorously and enthusiastically have great EFFECTS.  Vigorous faith in God’s promises breeds even greater acts of faith, both in ourself and in others.

Promises not claimed by vigorous faith have no effects or results.  They are just ideas.  But, when acted upon, promises become possessions.  Vigorous faith acting upon the promises of God turns theology into geography!

3.  The REALISM of God’s Promises (20-63)

I was heard someone say, and it has been over 40 years ago now, that “most Christians are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good!”  That statement has stuck with me over the years.  I have a great problem with “theology” that does not result in transformed lives.  Some people call this, “dead orthodoxy.”  I liken this kind of “dead theology” to a person on a set of railroad tracks.  These tracks are leading in the right direction, that is, the person is on the right tracks.  But, if that person’s theology doesn’t get moving, sooner or later a train is going to come and that person’s theology becomes a “dead theology!”

God never intended for His promises to remain “ideas,” no matter how lofty those ideas may be.  If I don’t understand anything else in Joshua (especially chapters 14-19), I understand this:  “God intends for us to turn His promises into ‘real’ estate!”

Nothing is more secure than “real estate.”  Most of the really rich—if not all—have substantial holdings in real estate because real estate is a substantial investment.  As someone has said, “They aren’t making any more real estate.”  Here’s why I say over and over again that “Christianity is not a religion in the sense we usually think about religion.”  Christianity is a movement—a movement to expand real estate.  Christianity is not so much about what we “think, or believe” as it is about what we “do” (James 2:18).

I’m sure most of you have heard of “multiple listings” in regard to real estate.  This a list of all (or most) of the properties available for sale in a given locale.  Well, verses 20 through 60 are a “multiple listing” properties no longer in escrow but now one hundred percent in ownership by the People of God. 

Verse 32—29 cities; verse 36—14 cities; verse 41—16 cities; verse 43 9 cities; verse 51—11 cities; verse 57—10 cities; verse 59—6 cities; verse 60—2 cities; verse 62—6 cities.

According to my calculator that is 103 cities mentioned.  That’s a lot of real estate, and it doesn’t even include some associate towns and villages (44-47).  That’s the REALISM of Promise Geography.  God’s promises result in tangible, real assets.  In other words, “Christianity is not primarily interested in getting us into heaven, but getting us INTO THE WORLD!”  Heaven will come soon enough but there is some real work to do here in the real world that will result in real blessings!

Once again I must turn to a great scholar who has become somewhat of a friend through my study of Joshua.  He puts the matter like this:  “The God of the Bible tends to be concrete, his gifts tangible and visible. The inheritance He bequeaths is not an idea but boundaries, not thoughts but towns: in a word, real estate.”

God has always been this way.  For centuries He interacted with Israel in concrete, tangible ways.  The awful fact of sin was played out in daily sacrifices over centuries showing that “the wages of sin is death.”  The Altar in the Temple was encrusted with the dried blood of a thousand sacrifices.  Flies danced upon the blood that would puddle around slaughtered sacrifices.  Sin could be smelled in the urine and droppings of sheep, cattle and oxen waiting to be sacrificed. The whole of Israel’s worship system was established by God as a “visual, tangible, sensual” object lesson of the awfulness of sin.  And, it was not enough. 

So, what did God do to finally communicate the “reality of sin” and the “reality of salvation?”  God put on flesh.  God stepped out of the idea in man’s head and stepped into the reality of man’s world.  God became a “real man.”  God walked on real earth.  He slept with His head on real stones.  He ate real food.  And, He died a real death on a real cross.  He rose again from a real tomb to show that salvation was . . . REAL!  Christianity is NOT an idea—it is a reality!  Christianity is not a philosophy—it is a reality!  Christianity does not retreat into spirituality, but marches enthusiastically and vigorously into reality! 

I can’t help it, but someone else said it so well I simply must repeat it:  “We must realize that even enjoying the grand act of the kingdom of God will not mean floating as a beeping soul in some sort of spiritual ether but walking around with a resurrection body in new heavens and a new earth.”

One of the most comforting truths to me is that there will be an “earthiness to heaven.”  Therefore, we would be wise to rediscover in the here and now the earthiness of God.  This is the invigorating spirit behind our present vision in church we call, “Taking It To The Streets.”  The power of Christianity is not measured by what happens in church on Sunday, near as much as it is measured about what happens in the marketplace Monday through Saturday!  The proof of Christian faith is not cherished doctrine but changed lives!

True Christianity, according to Joshua especially, can be measured geographically, as well as theologically.  I think of how the Lord set up the model prayer:

^{Mat. 6    9} “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

I think too often we gloss over that phrase, “on earth.”  According to The ten volume set titled, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, the word translated, “earth” in the original Greek means,  “land, in the geographical sense.” True, Biblical Christianity is as much geographical as it is theological, and maybe moreso.  The whole idea of the Great Commission is to “go into all the world.”  That is not an idea, that is an action.  It is not enough to simply make a statement, we must make a difference by trusting God’s promises enough to act upon them with vigorous obedience.

I remember reading about a man that learned what it means to trust the promises of God.  He was travelling down a narrow path not paying much attention to where he was going.  Suddenly, he slipped over the edge of a cliff.  As he fell, he grabbed for a branch that was jutting out from the cliff. The branch held his weight but there he was stuck on the side of a cliff with a long fall awaiting him when his grip gave out.  He did what most people do when confronted with an insurmountable challenge.  He cried out for help:  “Anybody up there?”  A voice called back, “Yes, I’m here.”  A bit surprised the man cried out again, “Who’s up there.”  The voice called back, “It me, the Lord.”  In desperation the man, who had not been very spiritual up to now, cried out, “Lord, please help me!”  The voice called back, “Do you trust me?”  The man replied, “I trust you completely, Lord.”  The voice shouted, “Let go of the branch, I promise I will catch you.”  The man skeptically asked, “What did you say?”  The voice shouted again, “Let go of the branch.  I promise I will catch you.”  After a long pause, the man said despairingly, “Is anybody else up there?”

Promise Geography teaches us that the promises of God result in real blessings in this world, as well as in eternity.   We must simply trust God enough to act upon the promises he has given us.  Promise Geography as we see here in Joshua 15 demonstrates that real faith makes a real difference in the real world and leads to real blessings both now and forever.

We need to hook our wagon to God’s Book of Promises and begin living in a way that makes a real difference in the real world and brings us a life of real blessings.

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