Risks vs. Rewards

August 3, 2014
Joshua: Turning Obedience Into Blessing
Joshua 24:  “Risk vs. Rewards”                            NOTES NOT EDITED

SIS –  Retaining God’s blessings on your life will require taking significant risks.

The Book of Joshua chronicles the Israelites campaign to possess the land promised to Abraham centuries before.  Joshua follows the time in the Wilderness when the Israelites voted NOT to obey God and enter the Promised Land (Numbers 13).  The result was a “forty-year period” of wandering in the wilderness.  Joshua leads a whole new generation into the new experience of God’s blessing.  Chapters 1-21 record the conquest and division of the land.  Chapters 22-24 are a postscript of sorts that gives the Israelites instructions on how to “retain the blessings of God on their lives.”  Chapter 22 speaks of passionate, sincere worship to Almighty God.  Chapter 23 speaks of and enduring faith in God’s promises and power demonstrated by a conscientious obedience.  Chapter 24 will now speak of the “risk” that will be required to not only retain the blessings of God, but actually continually add to them.

Worship, faithfulness, and risk-taking together give us the pattern for holy living that will guarantee God’s Hand of blessing upon our individual lives, our families, our church, and even our communities.

Insurance companies employ a whole army of experts called “risk managers” who work in concert with actuaries to reduce the companies risk as much as possible.  For an insurance company more risk means potentially less profit.  Zero risk would be ideal.  The practice of insurance companies in regard to risk runs diametrically to how risk works in the rest of the world.  For most of the world, the greater the risk, the greater is the potential for gain, or profit.  One common cliché in business training is:  “Profit is the reward one gets for the risks one takes.” Therefore, the greater the risk, the greater the reward.  This works the same way in regard to spiritual matters. Great spiritual gains for the Kingdom of God involve great personal and collective risks for the people of God.  Joshua 24 will give us an overview of the relationship between “risk and rewards” as it applies to the prosperity of God’s people in both retaining His blessings, and gaining even more.

Risk always involves a level of fear because risk inherently involves a level of danger. Our self-preservation instinct makes it unnatural to choose a path one knows ahead of time will involve risk and danger. Faithful obedience to God involves such a choice that may bring great danger—and therefore, we may be reluctant to make such choices. But, just as risk always involves fear it also involves reward--this is especially true in regard to Kingdom risk-taking. Read Hebrews 11. This chapter has been called, “God’s Roll Call of Faith.” In every instance, the person or persons, described as having great faith took great risks. Joshua 24 concludes the chronicle of God’s fulfilled promise to the Israelites as they settle into their new land. That blessing, however, did not come without great risks, and will not be retained without taking further risks. Jesus did not die to make us comfortable—He died to make us holy. To be holy means to “be set aside for God’s use.” Holy service will often require heavy risks. Don’t settle for the “wilderness of status quo.”

I remember a quote by Charles Swindoll I read over 27 years ago. This is a great gem that reflects so much of what the Scriptures teach. “Running scared invariably blows up in one’s face. All who fly risk crashing. All who drive risk colliding. All who run risk falling. All who walk risk stumbling. All who live risk SOMETHING!”

In Joshua 24, the Great General of Israel recounts the risks God’s people had taken resulting in possessing the Promised Land.  Let’s read about the risk involved in Kingdom living from Joshua 24.

READING:  JOSHUA 24:1-13

Before we examine three elements of risk in our passage we must understand the “type” of literature represented by chapter 24.  This passage reflects what scholars refer to as a “covenant renewal ceremony,” similar to a ceremony renewing ones’ marriage vows.  The literary form bears much resemblance to an ancient Hittite treaty, or covenant.  Joshua calls the people together for a “reviewing and renewing of their covenant with Yahweh.  Like all contracts, treaties, and covenants, each party entering the covenant has responsibilities.  This particular type of Hittite covenant (suzerainty) is not one between two equals but between one party of great power and a lesser party—of course Yahweh being the greater party and we, His people, being the lesser party.  Retaining God’s blessing on our lives is never in question in regard to God doing His part.  Joshua is calling the people together to remind them that they must continue to do their part in order to continue to have God’s favor upon their lives.  This did, and does, always involve a measure of risk and potential loss.  To face this potential danger and risk, we would do well to heed the words in the journal of a young man martyred while trying to take the gospel to a primitive tribe in Ecuador.  For his efforts, they speared him to death, along with four others.  A few months before embarking on this risky mission Jim Elliot wrote this in his diary:  “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose!”

That is really the underlying sentiment of this final chapter of Joshua.  Risking everything in this world, and even losing everything including our lives, simply cannot compare to gaining the favor of Almighty God.  With this foundation, let’s examine some key elements in regard to risking everything for the sake of the Kingdom.

1.  The PATTERN of Risk

Throughout the Bible we have a continuing saga establishing a pattern of God’s people taking great risks to fulfill God’s plan and purpose.  First we introduced to Abraham as a risk-taker. 

² Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. ³ But I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River, led him throughout the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants.  I gave him Isaac,  ⁴ and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.  I gave the hill country of Seir to Esau as a possession, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

These verses take us all the way back to the “Table of Nations” when national identities were being established in Genesis 10-11.  This links Joshua and the Conquest to a story-line continuing over 600 years.  The bulk of the story of Genesis deals with the family of Abraham.  Abraham, at that time Abram, was a businessman minding his considerable business in a land called Ur.  Ur was a Chaldean city about 150 miles south of Babylon.  God called Abraham to go to a city that God would show him later.  That city would be in Canaan after a trip of over 1500 miles! Keep in mind that Abraham’s family were pagans, not followers of Yahweh. So, Abraham was already on the edge. Abraham was probably a novice in regard to Yahweh, and no doubt had some pagan baggage to carry.  Here’s God’s call to Abraham to take a great risk of faith:

Gen 12:1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Leave it all behind!  That was the task set before Abraham.  Leave everything you had grown up with and grown accustomed to and march out into the unknown.  Could you imagine if God called you to pick up everything you own and begin travelling north to a city He would show you later—a trip of about 1500 miles that would end up somewhere in Saskatchewan, Canada!  Even with all our modern conveniences that would be a daunting task for us, full of risk and uncertainty.  Yet, that is what Abraham did by faith.  Verses 3 and 4 add another twist to the life of Abraham:

But I took your father Abraham from the region beyond the Euphrates River, led him throughout the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants.  I gave him Isaac,  ⁴ and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.  I gave the hill country of Seir to Esau as a possession,  but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

God promised to “multiply” his descendants and proceeds to give him one—Isaac!  And, that would come when Abraham was near 100 years old.  But, Isaac would not even get an inheritance in the Promised Land—at least not initially—but Isaac’s descendants would end up as slaves in Egypt for over 400 years.  Everything about Abraham’s adventures points to “risk and uncertainty.”  Yet, Abraham took that risk and his descendants did indeed multiply and are at the time of Joshua, settled in the Promised Land.

Joshua includes in the pattern of risk takers Moses and his brother, Aaron.  Verses 5-7 introduce us to the next risky situation:

⁵ “ ‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron;  I plagued Egypt by what I did there and afterward I brought you out. ⁶ When I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you reached the Red Sea,  the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen as far as the sea. ⁷ Your fathers cried out to the Lord, so He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea over them, engulfing them. Your own eyes saw what I did to Egypt. After that, you lived in the wilderness a long time.

You know the story.  Moses challenges the most powerful man on earth, Pharaoh.  Pharaoh was considered a god, not just a man.  Moses had no weapon but a shepherd’s staff and a saint’s trust.  This would be a little like you or I going to Putin and telling him to get out of the Ukraine, or else!  Moses took the risk, by faith.

Verses 8-13 complete the discussion of the pattern of risk related to taking possession of the Promised Land.  Verse 8 says,

⁸ Later, I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan.  They fought against you, but I handed them over to you. You possessed their land, and I annihilated them before you.

Verses 9-13 fill in the details of the campaign to possess Canaan.  The Israelites took that risk, by faith.

All throughout the Bible we have the record of “risk-takers” from Noah taking on a flood to David taking on a giant, and many others.  The Biblical pattern shows us that obedience involves risk.

2.  The PURPOSE (14-27)

When the Bible speaks of “risking everything to be obedient” to God, we must establish what we mean exactly by “risk.”  Verses 14 and 15 give us insight to what godly risk is all about:

¹⁴ “Therefore, fear the Lord and worship Him in sincerity and truth.  Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped  beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and worship Yahweh. ¹⁵ But if it doesn’t please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.  As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.”

We can identify the next section in our chapter by the English conjunction, “therefore.” Therefore translates a single-letter word in the original language (וְ,wa).  This one-word conjunction connects what follows to what has gone before.  We have just talked about the “pattern” of risk-taking in the Bible, and now Joshua focuses on “why” we take these risks. 

We have already discussed the issue of passionate worship in chapter 22 as a means by which we retain our blessings from God.  Here, Joshua brings the matter of worship up again in regard to the risk we encounter to retain our blessings.  The purpose for taking any risk is to demonstrate our complete trust in and devotion to Almighty God.  It is not for our own gain, but for the gain of the Kingdom that we take risks.

Risk is not foolishness, or presumption. Godly risk is more closely associated with the idea of “choice.” Joshua 24, verses 15 and 22 point this out.  The original Hebrew word, bachar (בָּחַר), conveys the idea of preference, but it also involves an “examination, proving, or testing” (Gesenius), but not testing in the sense of “tempting God.”  Remember, the Devil once tempted Jesus to “prove” God’s power and love by jumping off the high pillar of the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus answered,  Jesus told him, It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God (Mat. 4:7).

The idea of “choice” here in the Hebrew is not foolish, presumptive speculation about God, but recalling to mind all that God has done in the past to give one confidence of what God can do at present, or in the future.  In other words you might call this kind of risk-taking, a  "calculated risk." Risk based upon faith in Who God is and what He has already done. This type of risk is based upon an absolute trust in God and an all-encompassing devotion to God.  Risk is based upon a confident choice to place oneself under the shadow of God’s Providence.  I think of the great line from the Psalmist (91:1):

the KJV says it most beautifully, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Ironically, taking even the greatest risk as a matter of worshipful obedience to Almighty God, in fact, is the safest decision one can make. Choosing the path of God even if it leads straight toward the enemy’s lines is safer than choosing to remain in the foxhole.  Trusting in worldly fame or fortune, or other false gods, put you at an eternal risk—a risk of losing God’s favor, not only now, but forever.

There is no blessing for presumptive or foolish “thrill-seeking.” But, blessings incalculable accrue to our lives when we risk all because of our love and devotion to God.  Biblical risk-taking involves trusting God’s promise, or in other words, acting in faithful obedience to God's directions. Sky-diving may qualify as an adrenaline-pumping risk but it is not of necessity a Kingdom activity.  For a risk to lead to blessing it must be based upon an act of faith according to God’s revealed Word, or promise.  Otherwise, it may be nothing more than foolishness.

Verses 16 through 24 describe the response of Israel in regard to her obligations under the covenant.  Israel resolutely chooses to “abandon all and live only to worship and serve Yahweh.”  Verses 16 and 24 serve as bookends for the renewal of the covenant responsibilities:

¹⁶ The people replied, “We will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods!

………………………………

²⁴ So the people said to Joshua, “We will worship
the Lord our God and obey Him.”

The purpose for risk-taking is to demonstrate our love and devotion to Yahweh, the God of the Covenant, not simply to enjoy an adrenalin rush or hope to gain some great material blessing.

3.  The PAYOUT

In one regard, the Bible is like baloney.  No matter where you slice baloney, it’s 100% baloney.  No matter where you slice the Word of God it is 100% promise!  I’ve heard people say, “Even if there were no heaven, I would love God for Who He is.”  Baloney!  That’s a great sentiment, and it is probably how it “SHOULD” be, but in reality we are in this faith for what we get out of it—and, God has no problem with that.  I know this because His Book is a “book of promises.”  According to one person’s count there are 3573.  Others have counted 7000. Herbert Lockyer wrote a book called All the promises of the Bible and claims to list 8000 (from, the Internet).  I don’t know.  I’ve never counted.  I do know this: if there are any, there’s at least one more than I deserve!  In fact, I know there are many promises.  In fact, after discussing the Covenant Renewal in verses 14-27, the Bible adds this summary statement:

²⁸ Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.

This reminds us of God’s promise in1Peter 1:3-4:

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  According to His great mercy,  He has given us a new birth  into a living hope  through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead  ⁴ and into an inheritance that is imperishable,  uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Or, the promise of the Lord, Himself (John 14:1-3):

¹Your heart must not be troubled.  Believe  in God;  believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many dwelling places;  if not, I would have told you. I am going away  to prepare a place for you. ³ If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back  and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.

I have set several times that there is a connection between “risk and rewards.”  This is true in business; it is even more true spiritually.  This great book based upon the theme of “Turning Obedience Into Blessing” concludes with the beautiful story of Joshua, the Beloved Leader of the Conquest, finally receiving his reward.  I don’t mean his allocation of property in the hill country of Ephraim in the Promised Land, but his reward of entering into the Paradise of God.  (Jesus has not yet died, so Joshua even has more promises to see fulfilled!)

Not only does Joshua receive his glorious “pay out” here at the end of the book bearing his name, but the ancient patriarch, Joseph, also receives his payout having taken nearly five centuries to come to fruition.  Joseph, had died in Egypt as you recall, hundreds of years earlier.  But, he made the Israelites promise to carry his bones to the Promised Land.  Let me read the beautiful end to a wonderful saga:

²⁹ After these things, the Lord’s servant, Joshua son of Nun, died at the age of 110. ³⁰ They buried him in his allotted territory at Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim  north of Mount Gaash. ³¹ Israel worshiped Yahweh throughout Joshua’s lifetime and during the lifetimes of the elders who outlived Joshua  and who had experienced all the works Yahweh had done for Israel. ³² Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt,  were buried at Shechem in the parcel of land Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for 100 qesitahs.  ^f It was an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants. ³³ And Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, which had been given to his son Phinehas  in the hill country of Ephraim.

Joshua, Joseph, and Eleazar, faithful followers of Yahweh, all received the grand payout of God’s fulfilled promises.  There is most definitely a pattern of risk-taking in the lives of God’s servants for the purpose of faithful obedience and devoted worship to Yahweh.  That risk always leads to great rewards.  Obedience always turns into blessing.  Whatever risk you may have to take, there will be a PAYOUT.

Who does God’s work will get God’s pay

However long may seem the day; However weary be the way;

Though powers and princes thunder, “Nay!”
Who does God’s work will get God’s pay.

He does not pay as others pay; In gold or land or raiment gay;

But God in wisdom knows a way,
And it is sure, let come what may,
Who does God’s work will get God’s pay.

The greatest risk and the greatest dangers come not from boldly pushing forward in what God has asked you to do, but the greatest risk is pushing back when God asks you to do it!

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