"The Safest Place You Can Be" Joshua 5:12 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Well let me now direct your attention to the book of Joshua.

We'll be looking at chapter five for the next two weeks.

What maybe, I'm just guessing, maybe, a bit of an obscure text for some of us.

I hope it will be incredibly encouraging for us.

A wild text, perhaps a text you might say that a youth pastor would choose to preach.

But if you don't know what I'm talking about, you will in just a moment.

Why don't we begin by reading from God's Word together?

Look down at your Bibles.

Joshua chapter 5, I will read verses 1 through 12.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

Joshua chapter 5, beginning in verse 1.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the son of Israel, A Gibea to Arlut.

And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt.

Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord.

The Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised.

For they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.

When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their place in the camp until they were healed.

And the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you, and so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.

While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.

And the day after the Passover, on that very day they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land.

And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

This is God's word.

I became a believer in Jesus Christ.

Over ten years ago now.

It's kind of a weird thing for me to ponder.

While I was an undergraduate student, and this may not be the normal path into ministry, but I studied mathematics in undergrad.

I'm an actual card-carrying math nerd.

So naturally, as a new believer in Jesus Christ, studying mathematics, I immediately, upon my conversion, found myself reading Blaise Pascal, the famous 17th century French mathematician who himself became a believer and wrote a book about his Christian faith.

There are many quotes in that book that stand out to me, but one that I have pondered over and over since becoming a believer goes like this.

You may have heard it before, let me read it to you.

Pascal says, All men seek happiness.

This is without exception.

Whatever different means they may employ, they all tend to this end, the cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views.

The will never takes the least step but to this object.

This is the motive of every action of every man, even those who hang themselves.

One that has become quite famous, and I trust that many of you have heard it before.

And I've pondered it over the years, and as we move to different stages of life and experienced different things, I have wondered if maybe we could even replace the word happiness with another word that would describe the human condition in the life we experience.

Maybe this quote could also read something like this All men seek safety.

This is without exception.

Whatever different means they may employ, they all tend to this end.

The cause of some following their heart and others following doctors, politicians, and pastors is the same desire in all.

We desire safety of our bodies, safety for our children, safety for our communities, and the will never takes the least step but to this object.

I wonder if you can relate to that.

You go through different stages of life, you find yourself constantly worrying, constantly striving to obtain safety for you and for others.

And there's nothing wrong with this need, with this desire.

I mean, this is a genuine human need, one that I relate to very profoundly.

One way that I can show this to you is I name my kid safety.

Our second daughter is named amparo.

It's a family name, but it's a beautiful word.

It comes from the Bible, the Spanish translation of the Bible, from Psalm 46.

It says, God is our refuge.

It's where we find safety in Spanish.

He's our amparo.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains swell at its trembling, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

That psalm was one of Martin Luther's favorite Psalms.

It's in this Psalm, the Psalmist teaches us that safety is a genuine human need.

And at the same time, it teaches us where to find resolution for that need.

In fact, the scriptures teach us over and over and over where to find resolution for this genuine need, our need for safety.

And that is exactly what this perhaps obscure text before us in Joshua 5 that we just read teaches us.

This text that is rich in its revelation of God's character and his relationship with his people teaches us where to find safety.

This morning I want to study Joshua chapter 5 with you, and I think as we do, we will discover that the Bible teaches us that the safest place that you can be is in obedience to God.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

The place where you can find genuine, solid, grounded safety is in obedience to God.

This passage before us unfolds in four phases, and we'll look at them this morning.

We're going to see God's power, God's people, God's promise and God's provision.

I know that's a mouthful and a tongue twister, so we'll take them one at a time.

First, let's look at God's power.

God's power.

That's in verse one.

Verse one teaches us that God's power is worthy of our trust.

Now let's just, before we even get into the text, let's just remember the context of Joshua in chapter 5.

Joshua is the first book that follows the Torah, the books of Moses.

And the conclusion of the books of Moses.

Moses has led the Exodus out of Egypt.

Israel has crossed the Red Sea.

They have come to the promised land.

They've received the law from God at Mount Sinai, and then they rebelled against God.

And so we're not able to enter the promised land.

God judged that generation by telling them that none of the males 20 years and older would enter the promised land, but they would be sentenced to wander the wilderness for 40 years until that entire generation died, and their children would enter the promised land.

Well, those 40 years are over.

And at the end of Deuteronomy, leadership of the nation is transferred from Moses to Joshua, and the beginning chapters of Joshua, Joshua has led the people of Israel across the Jordan, and at Joshua chapter 5, they are in the promised land.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

And verse 1 sums up the scene if you look at that in your Bibles.

Look down at verse 1.

The text says, As soon as all the kings of the Amorites, upon Israel crossing the Jordan, all of these kings who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over their hearts melted, and there was no longer any spirit of them because of the people of Israel.

God had parted the Jordan River just as he had parted the Red Sea.

Israel had crossed over, and the result of that was that the nations on the other side of the Jordan were terrified.

Terrified that this God of mighty power was with this people.

It says that their hearts melted before Israel.

The reason that this verse stands at this part of the story is to teach us that God's power had gone before the people and he was making sure that he was going to accomplish his ends with his people.

He was protecting them, he was providing for them, his power had gone before his people, and he was going to achieve his ends.

But notice Israel doesn't know this.

As Israel crosses the Jordan River, they don't know that the reputation of their God has preceded them and has gone all the way across the land to the western shore, all the way to the Mediterranean, to the Canaanite peoples.

They don't know this.

This is an editorial note added after the fact for our benefit, so that we would learn that as God was bringing his people across the Jordan into unknown territory, his power was going before them to prepare the way.

This is written for our instruction to teach us that the same God who is at work in us, the same God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, and I will be with you even to the end of the age.

That same God goes before us with his same power, and when he calls you to do something, he will enable you to do it.

In other words, this little editorial insertion is here for our instruction to teach us that God's power goes before his people to enable their obedience.

And when his people obey, they find that the safest place you can possibly be is in obedience to the God whose power surrounds you.

Well, Israel doesn't yet know this, and so this leads us to really the main unf the main portion of this text.

It's the second part in our story.

We've seen God's power.

Look at verse 2, and let's see God's people.

God's people are called to trust and obey this God.

So even before we get to verse 2, just rem just try to imagine as best you can this scene.

Israel has miraculously seen God part the waters of the Jordan while it was at its highest peak during the flood season.

They've marched across supernaturally, the waters have returned.

They've built a memorial to remember how God provided for them.

In other words, you don't build a memorial.

God doesn't tell the people of Israel to build this memorial so that they can get wiped out.

They're confident that they are going to take the land.

They're confident that there will be new generations who will remember what's about to happen.

They're ready to rumble.

They're expecting God to pull out, tell them to pull out their swords and get to work, and then God tells them, Stop.

And verse 2, look down at your Bibles.

At that time, as Israel is ready to rumble, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.

What?

There is absolutely nothing crazier, there's nothing more inconceivable, there's nothing more suicidal that could possibly have been said in this moment than perform an operation across the entire nation to incapacitate the entire army and leave yourself completely exposed in enemy territory.

Why couldn't they have done this somewhere else?

Why cross the Jordan, stand, at the end of verse 10 says, in the plains of Jericho, before these fortified cities, and incapacitate the entire nation?

What?

None of this makes any sense.

So you ask, well, why?

Well, the text actually gives us a reason why God commanded this.

So look down at verse 4.

Verse 4 to 7 tells us the reason for this command.

Verse 4, this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war who died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt, though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.

For the people who walked forty years in the wilderness until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the voice of the Lord.

And the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that he had sworn to give to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

So it was their children whom he raised up in their place.

That's who Joshua circumcised.

The reason is that well, it hadn't been.

Think about this for a moment.

Let's just remember why these people had not been circumcised.

Forty years earlier, their fathers had stood almost in the same place they were, but on the other side of the Jordan.

And you remember that Moses had sent twelve spies across the land to spy out the land.

And those spies had returned in the book of Numbers in chapter 12 and 13 with a report about the land.

And they tell the people it's a land flowing with milk and honey.

It's beautiful and luxurious.

It's everything that God said it would be.

But we can't go up there.

And why can't we go up there?

Because the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large, and we're not able to go up against this people, for they're stronger than we are.

The land is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw and it are of great height, and we seem to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seem to them.

And all the people cried out, Oh, that we had died in Egypt! Why would God bring us here to lead us across this river and kill us?

Why didn't you just kill us in Egypt, God?

So they rebel against him.

And we know the rest of the story.

They wander 40 years.

And somewhere in those 40 years, circumcision had dropped out of their practice.

They'd raised up their sons and had not obeyed the covenant and made marked them out as covenant members.

And so now God is going to teach this new generation an important lesson.

He wants them to be marked as covenant members.

That's what circumcision is.

We'll talk about that in a moment.

But he's going to do this in a particularly crazy way.

He's going to lead them across the river into the land where they are standing right before those fortified cities that their fathers were too afraid to take.

They're in the land with these devouring tall people.

And God says, now, now, I want you to learn that you can trust me.

Now I want you to be circumcised.

Now I want you to be entirely incapacitated and totally in my mercy, totally resting on my arms.

Let's make this even worse, actually, because the people of Israel would have been quite aware that there is one other story in the Bible of a large-scale circumcision.

It's in Genesis in chapter 34, perhaps another obscure text, but it would not have been obscure to these people.

Genesis 34 tells us that one of the daughters of Jacob, Dinah, had gone out into a town and she had been assaulted by a man named Shechem.

And Shechem had decided that he wanted to take Dinah as his wife.

And so he went to Jacob and his sons and said, I want to take her as my wife.

But as soon as Jacob's sons discovered what had happened to their sister, they devised a plan to avenge their sister.

So they said to Shechem and to his father Chomor, If you would like to take her as your wife and intermarry with our family, and we intermarry with you, and we'll join you in your city and make your town stronger, then you must all be circumcised, and then we'll be united and intermarry.

And so they went back to their town and they convinced all the elders and all the men of the city, We're all going to be circumcised and intermarry with this new tribe, and we'll become one.

And so that's exactly what happens.

And the text says that three days later, while the men were recovering, Simeon and Levi took swords, arose, went into the town, and killed all the males.

Because they were defenseless after their operation.

Now that, as I said, may be an obscure story to us, but it would not have been obscure to these people.

These are people whose tribes are named after the sons of Jacob.

Simeon and Levi are the ones who perpetrate this act, and the people crossing the river among them are Simeonites and Levites.

They know about their forefathers.

And so now here they are in this enemy territory before these fortified cities.

Their fathers were far too afraid to stand before.

And God tells them, incapacitate yourselves just like the men of Shechem.

What?

I mean, this is the most ludicrous command you could possibly imagine.

Can you imagine what they're thinking?

God don't do you have no don't you understand?

God, don't you care about us?

You let us here just to slaughter us?

Paul tells us that the stories of the Old Testament are given for our instruction.

So one of the questions we need to ask ourselves as we read this text is when you are confronted with a command from your Lord Jesus Christ that makes you feel like, don't you understand?

Don't you care?

What do you do with it?

When you're confronted with a command that seems the most dangerous, ludicrous, absurd, the most upside-down topsy-turvy, the most incomprehensible thing you could imagine.

What do you do with it?

When you're confronted with a command that just you just don't want to do, what do you do with that?

What do you do with God's word, with his command?

When he speaks into your life and speaks about your attitude, when he speaks about the words you say, when he thinks about the thoughts that you think, when he speaks about your goals, when he calls you to do something or calls you not to do something, when Jesus commands you, what do you do with his command?

God intentionally conspired to lead the people of Israel to a place where his command would sound as ludicrous as could possibly be in order to teach them and us this lesson that the safest place you can possibly be is not in your own wisdom, is not in what seems best to you.

It's not in what is natural.

The safest place that you can be is in obedience to God.

The safest place you can be is in obedience to Jesus' commands.

Now, I said a moment ago that we would talk about circumcision just for a moment, in that it is not a random command entirely.

The command that God is giving the people of Israel is in fact a very important one.

Why, why does God care about this?

Well, certainly we we know, but let's just be reminded for a moment that circumcision's the mark of the covenant with Abraham.

When God called Abraham, he gave him a promise in Genesis and chapter 12 that Abraham would be the father of a great nation, that he would inherit a land, and that through Abraham's seed, God would bless all the nations of the earth.

Then in Genesis chapter 15, God creates a covenant ceremony where he seals the deal and proves to Abraham that he will make sure his promise is fulfilled, but in an unexpected way.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

That is, that the two parties, when they make a covenant, they would agree to some covenant, they would cut an animal in half, the two parties would walk between it and saying, If I break this covenant, may I be broken like this animal?

And God has Abraham separate the animal, and surely Abraham is expecting that soon God is going to have me walk through there, and the idea is gonna be if I don't obey God, then the covenant will be broken, and I'll be broken.

And that's not at all what happens.

Do you remember what happens in Genesis chapter 15?

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

God causes Abraham to go into a deep sleep, and a smoking torch appears, symbolizing God's presence.

And it's not Abraham who walks through the animal, it's God Himself.

Teaching Abraham and teaching us that God will fulfill this covenant.

He will fulfill his promise to make Abraham the father of a great nation in a land, blessing all the nations of the earth.

And if anyone has to be broken in order to fulfill it, it will be God himself.

It's a covenant entirely of grace that God swears by his own character that he will fulfill.

And he gives Abraham a very simple mark to unite himself to it.

Two chapters later, in Genesis and chapter 17, God says to Abraham, This is my covenant that you shall keep between you, me, and your offspring forever.

Every male among you shall be circumcised.

Circumcision is just the mark.

Of one who belongs to this promise, who believes in this promise, who trusts in Yahweh, who has pledged himself to Abraham and his descendants.

That's why circumcision matters to God.

It's marking the people of Israel out to belong to this covenant God who has pledged himself to them by his grace.

Circumcision then becomes a national marker in the Torah.

In Leviticus and chapter 12, it becomes part of the law of Moses, part of the covenant with Moses as well.

But all along, God promised that his covenant would be of grace.

And in fact, even in the Torah itself, God spoke of a future day when his people would not just have a physical surgery, but God would send his spirit, who would do a spiritual surgery on their hearts to circumcise their hearts.

So God says, even through Moses in Deuteronomy in chapter 30.

I believe I have this on the screen, yes.

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live.

That should sound familiar to us, even if some of these Old Testament texts are a little bit unfamiliar.

This language ought to be familiar because this is everywhere in the New Testament.

This promise that even Moses gave to the people of Israel has been fleshed out by the prophets and capitalized on by Jesus himself, who says that he is the bringer of this new covenant, where he will, by his death and resurrection, establish a new covenant where the seed of Abraham will be offered forgiveness of their sins, and he himself, the Messiah, the ultimate seed of Abraham, will offer salvation and blessing to all the nations of the earth, that all who repent of their sin and believe in Jesus Christ will be forgiven of everything that couldn't be forgiven through the covenant of Moses.

And God will send his spirit in this new covenant into the hearts of everyone who believes in Jesus to circumcise their flesh, to give them the new birth, as Jesus says, to bring them from death to life, as Paul says, to make them new creatures.

This is why Paul says in the New Covenant in Galatians chapter 6 and 14 neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

Because in the new covenant, what makes you a member is not a physical operation, but a spiritual operation that the Spirit Himself does on your heart, transforming your very nature, bringing you to faith in the Messiah, forgiving you of your sins and creating in you affections, love for Jesus Christ, and hatred for sin that offends the God that you love.

And so as God calls Israel to be faithful to their covenant, even if it seems ludicrous to them, so God calls new covenant believers to be faithful to their covenant, to love their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So I think it's worth asking this question.

New covenant, that's what we belong to.

By faith in Jesus Christ, we belong to the new covenant.

So God's not going to ask us to do something crazy like what he asked people of Israel, right?

God's not going to ask us to pick up a knife.

This is where we have to pause and remember that Jesus Himself said, that Jesus Himself, the one who dies in our place, who resurrects from the dead, who offers us forgiveness, he says, he looks us in the eye and says, Luke 9, 23, if anyone would come after me, you want to be a member of the New Covenant, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

This is the call of the New Covenant.

In other words, in the New Covenant, God will not call you to pick up a knife.

He calls you to pick up a cross.

He calls you to die to yourself all of your sinful desires, some of the desires that come as natural to you as breathing.

He calls you to bring your conscience before him into the things that you think are right and wrong to be defined by God's word and not what seems natural.

He calls you to bring your personality, he calls you to bring your career, to bring your family, to bring everything that you are and everything you hope to be before him, and to crucify it and to tell him, command me, Savior.

I'm yours.

This is the call of the new covenant.

Even if it sounds ludicrous, even if Jesus' words to you seem impossible or dangerous, the call of the new covenant is to take up your cross and follow Jesus.

And what God is teaching the people of Israel, and what he wants us to learn is that when you obey Jesus Christ, you'll find obedience to Jesus Christ is the safest place you can possibly be.

If you want to be safe, if you want to be happy, if you want to be fulfilled, if you want peace and joy, the place you find those is in obedience to Jesus Christ.

That's exactly what Joshua discovered.

We skipped over verse 3, so let's go back to that.

Look at verse 2, and then we'll read verse 3 for context.

Verse 2, at that time the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel, this ludicrous command that we've been analyzing.

But notice the language of verse 3.

So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the son of Israel at Gibeah the Arlot.

It's almost exact verbatim repetition of the command.

God commanded, Joshua obeyed.

Because Joshua had learned this lesson.

This is the first thing that God told him in Joshua chapter 1.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

You want to have success, then this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate it on it day and night, and be careful to observe all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

You want success, you want to be prosperous, you want safety and happiness and blessing.

The place you can find it, the safest, most blessed place you can be, is in obedience to God.

That's the lesson.

That's the lesson for us.

Take up your cross and follow Jesus.

That's where safety is found.

God's people trust in God's power and obey him and find safety in so doing.

Well, that takes us to the third part of this scene.

We've seen God's power and God's people.

Now let's see God's purpose.

What is the purpose for all of this?

What has God achieved through this ludicrous command and his people's obedience?

That's in verses eight and nine.

Look down in your Bibles.

At verse eight and nine.

It says, When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.

And the Lord said to Joshua, Today have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.

And so the place is called Gilgal to this day.

Gilgal sounding like the word for to roll.

God's rolling away the shame.

What is God doing here?

God's purpose in this ludicrous command is through the people to glorify himself.

How do we know this for sure?

Well, the end of chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, fly over all of chapter 5 like a banner.

Here is what God is doing in chapter 5.

Look at the end of chapter 4.

Chapter 4, verse 23.

The Lord dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over.

So that, here's God's purpose.

All the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, and that you may fear the Lord your God forever.

God's purpose in what he's doing through Israel is to glorify his name.

In some ways that's not complicated, is it?

His purpose is to glorify his name, and particularly through commanding this act of obedience, in this incredibly dangerous situation, he's removing their reproach.

What does that mean?

Reproach in the sense of shame.

In particular, he says, the shame of Egypt.

The idea is that Israel had been shamed when they had left Israel Egypt, rather, 40 years previously, saying, We're going to Canaan.

And they couldn't get into Canaan.

And they wandered around the wizard wilderness for 40 years, just dying.

They'd been shamed.

And more than that, God's name had been shamed because it appeared that God could not do what he said he would do.

So the question is, is God able?

Does disobedience thwart God?

And God is answering that question emphatically.

No, disobedience isn't going to thwart God.

He promised that he would fulfill his covenant, and he will fulfill his covenant.

Israel's going into the land.

What he's teaching the people here is that while his covenant is unbreakable and he will fulfill his promises and he will be glorified in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of the nations, it is the obedient people who get to participate in the blessings of God's purposes.

It's the obedient people who love God's glory, who get to participate in God glorifying his name.

It's the obedient people who get to experience the gladness of being part of what God is doing in the world.

The first generation did not thwart God's plan.

God is going to be glorified in the world.

Everything that is happening in our world right now is part of a plan that God declared before the foundations of the world.

When you join your life with his.

But that's not natural, is it?

That's why God said that he was going to bring a new covenant where he wouldn't just do a physical operation, but a spiritual operation.

Because what Jesus calls us to in the new covenant, to crucify ourselves, to die to ourselves and to follow Jesus, is not natural.

He's calling us to kill all the desires in our heart, to get rid of them, to get rid of all the desires in our heart, and that's not possible.

You know this?

Just basic fourth grade science.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

And so it is in the nature of your heart.

You can't just get rid of your desires.

You could trade one earthly, sinful desire for another, but you can't just get rid of them and have nothing in its place.

What you need is for the spirit to penetrate nature, to enter into your heart, and to replace your natural desires with supernatural desires, with spiritual desires, with a love for God, with love for his character, with love for his glory, with love for his goodness.

And that's exactly what God does in the new covenant.

This is what Paul tells us that the new covenant is about this Messiah who has achieved all the promises of God, just as God said that he would be broken in order to fulfill his promise that through the seed of Abraham a blessing would go to the nation.

So God entered into this world, piercing the natural world, and entering in as a man, and he himself was broken.

He himself was slaughtered.

And in our place, in his slaughter, bore the wrath that we rightly deserve for our sins against the holy God who made us.

And he's resurrected from the dead, and now he sends his spirit into the world.

And now his spirit pierces the natural world by piercing individual hearts to awaken us to the reality of God, to lift the veil so that we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and recognize that I'm not just an accidental human being that dies and nothing happens.

I'm a creature in the image of a God who made me.

I have a soul that will live forever, and I've sinned against this God, and I see my sin and I see Christ, and I see in Christ a merciful Savior who will forgive me and rejoin my life to the God who made me and will make me happy forever, and I love Him.

This is a supernatural act, a new birth that replaces our old desires with a new supernatural desire to love God and to love his glory.

And when your love is for Christ and for his glory, then you can take up your cross and follow him.

Apart from that, the call of the new covenant to deny yourself is just misery.

But if your eyes have been opened to see that Christ is better than anything you could ever hope, think, or imagine.

And what he offers you, when he offers you, come to me.

He offers more than you ever dreamed of.

You would trade the whole world.

In fact, what good would it be if you gained the whole world but forfeited Christ?

And so when his commands come into your life and he tells you to die to yourself, then his commands, ludicrous as they would sound to a natural man, just make sense to a supernatural man, to a man who's been reborn, to a man indwelt by God's Spirit, who beholds the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ's commands just make sense.

Yes, of course, this God who died for me.

Yes, of course, this God who satisfied the wrath of God for me.

Yes, of course, this God will care for me.

Of course, this God, when he commands me, commands me for my good.

Yes, of course I will follow him.

God's power goes before his people, who he calls to absolute obedience.

And that obedience is directed towards this purpose, to know Jesus Christ and be part of glorifying his name in your life and in this world.

And when that is your life, when you discover that obeying Jesus is the safest place you can be, you experience the fourth part of this story: God's provision.

The last part of our story is in chapter 5 and verse 10.

So look down, we'll close out our story with the last three verses.

Verse 10, we see this.

Look down in your Bibles at verse 10.

We see that God provides for his people in their obedience.

Verse 10.

While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.

And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain, and the manna ceased.

The day after they ate of the produce of the land, and there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

They kept the Passover.

Exactly as God said his people would.

And Exodus chapter 13, when he instituted the Passover, remember the Passover is remembrance of how he redeemed them out of Egypt.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

The firstborn of all the land of Egypt had died.

People of Israel had been instructed to slaughter a lamb and to paint the blood of the lamb over the doorposts of their house, and the destroyer would pass over that home.

And they're instructed year after year to keep the Passover feast, to remember how God redeemed them out of Egypt.

The first Passover, neck in Exodus chapter 13, is kept as they leave the land of Egypt, and God tells them that when you enter the land of Canaan, you will keep this feast again, and now they're doing it exactly as God had said they would.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

In fact, the details of this feast are remarkable for how they fulfill what God said would happen.

Leviticus chapter 23, God spells out the details for the feasts of Israel to be kept.

Leviticus 23 · chapter mention

He specifies the exact day when Israel is to keep the Passover.

And we get in verse 10 this little detail that they kept the Passover on exactly the day they were supposed to, the 14th day of the first month.

Then verse 11, the day after, they're eating unleavened bread from the land.

They couldn't eat these things before because they were just stuck with manna.

Now God brings them into the land, no more manna.

Now they eat of the produce of the land and they're able to keep what Leviticus 23 says would happen, a seven-day festival of unleavened bread.

Everything that God said had happened would happen.

In fact, there's also one little tidbit that's interesting that the people of Israel, we said, would have been familiar with the story from Genesis chapter 34.

Genesis 34 · chapter mention

Simeon and Levi slaughtered all the people of Shechem.

And the text says that it's the third day after their operation that Simeon and Levi arose and killed all the men of Israel.

Or excuse me, all the men of Shechem.

And I just think that those people of Israel, knowing that story, three days after their operation, would have been wondering what in the world is going to happen.

And it's exactly on the third day after they obey God and receive circumcision that they're not being slaughtered, but they're keeping the Passover.

All the details are arranged because God is teaching Israel as He's teaching us to spurn the wisdom of the world, to obey God, to follow Christ, to die to yourself, take up your cross and follow him.

And when you do that, you experience the blessings of obedience, the provision of God.

That's exactly what David said would happen.

Psalm 23, a text familiar to many of us.

You prepare for me, you prepare for me a table.

Where?

Where does God prepare a table for his people?

You prepare for me a table in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

God's infinite power is at work in his people who trust and obey him.

And when we do, we join our lives to God's purposes, we experience his provision and taste of his blessing.

We sing a hymn about it often.

There's one way to be happy in Jesus.

And when you obey, you experience the blessing and provision of God.

Father, thank you for this text that illustrates to us your goodness to your people.

Lord, thank you that you are a God who can be trusted.

Thank you that you promise that when we submit ourselves to you, we'll find ourselves leaning on everlasting arms who care for us.

Father, we do ask that your spirit would work in our hearts and cause us to behold your glory and your goodness and your power and would stir in us strong faith that would die to self, would love you and obey you.

And may we taste of the blessings of obedience as we give ourselves to you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.

If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.