Joshua 2:24(NKJV)
24And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us.”
Joshua 5:2(NKJV)
2At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.”
I apologize for yesterday. The day got away from me and I did not get a post up. Today I want to take a quick look at two more attitudes that set apart the second generation of Israelites from the first generation.
In Joshua 2 we see that Joshua has done the same thing Moses did in Numbers 13 and 14. He sends spies into the land. This time, however he does not send them into the land to see if it is good. Joshua has already been there. He knows it is a good land. He sends them specifically to check out one of the things that kept the first generation out of the promised land. He sends them to Jericho, the biggest walled city of them all.
When they come back their report is very different from the 10 that went in with Joshua. They tell him, “We know we can take the land because the inhabitants are terrified of us.” The majority of the spies from the first generation said exactly the opposite. “We cannot take the land because the inhabitants of the land are too strong for us. We look like grasshoppers to them.” The people who will enter the promise are those who begin with faith and confidence in God and His Word.
You might say, “Why did Joshua even send in the spies at all. He knew the land.” It is not wrong to know what you are up against. Joshua needed to know some things about the enemy, but he did not send in the spies wondering if they could take the land. He simply needed to know how to go about it.
If we are going to walk in confident faith we often need to know what the opposition is. However what we do not need is to hear from those who may be in unbelief. That is why Joshua sent the spies in secretly. He wanted to know what they faced but he was not looking for input from those who might not believe they could take the land.
Sometimes you need to limit the voices you hear from if you are going to stay confident in your faith. Too many times I have seen good people, people who know the Word and are believing God back away from faith because they gave their ears over to ungodly counsel. Sometimes it is within their own family.
If we are going to enter into our promised destiny we must be a people of confident faith. We must know before the trial comes that God will certainly see us through to victory. To have that kind of faith we must give our attention to the Word of faith not the word of unbelief.
The second generation had spent decades listening to Joshua and Caleb. They had seen their parents, who were the voice of unbelief, die in the wilderness. They approached the promised land with the confidence the their leaders had brought back to them.
They knew the challenge, but they also knew that if God was with them they could not fail. If we are going to possess our land of promises there will be challenges. We must know before we ever face them that God will give us victory.
In the 5th chapter of Joshua, the people have already crossed over Jordan. They have gone partially into the promised land. However before they continue, God commands Joshua to circumcise the people. The first generation had neglected this practice. If the people are going to go all the way with God they must be sanctified.
What was so important about this? Circumcision was not just some religious ritual. It was the physical sign of the blood covenant. It told the world that Israel was set apart to God. It was not their fault that they had not been circumcised. However that didn’t matter. To possess the promised land, they had to be fully sanctified. They had to be compliant to all the requirements of God.
We live in a world of relativism. We are constantly told that there are no absolutes of right and wrong. This is not true. The bible is clear about what is right and what is wrong. If we are going to possess our promised land we must be sanctified in our lifestyle.
You may not be doing anything really wrong. You may have gotten a certain distance into your Christian life without dealing with certain areas, but to possess our destiny we are going to have to go as far as we can into sanctification.
It is important to understand that I am not just talking about “doing a law.” I am talking about yielding to the life of God within. You will never be fully sanctified by will power. You can be fully sanctified if you yield to the dealing of the Holy Spirit.
That said, there are things that the bible calls wrong and those things simply must be avoided. There are other things that Paul called unprofitable. These are things that may not be wrong per se but they project the wrong thing to the world around us. They also do not cultivate the right things in our lives. We must put them aside if we want all God has for us.
I believe God has much for our generation. If we are going to fulfill that calling we need to be a people who are unselfish. We need to understand and submit to divine order. We need to cultivate a confidant faith in God and his Word and we need to be sanctified in our lifestyle. With these characteristics in place I believe we can change our world.
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