READ: JOSHUA 23:1-16 TEXT: v14 Going the way/all the earth
And,
behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in
all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed
of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you;
all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.
The Bible gives us several deathbed scenes in the Scripture
Thankfully most (though not all) of them concern the passing of those who sought Him for salvation/lived their lives accordingly
Among the moving and most instructive ones are those of:
[i] Jacob, esp. when he gathered his large family around him in Egypt and spoke movingly and prophetically of the 12 tribes
And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up
his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto
his people. (Genesis 49:33)
[ii] We have the deathbed of Joseph, Jacob’s favourite son where
he gave commandment that his bones should be carried up out of Egypt
– an event referred to here in Book/Joshua (24:32)
[iii] By contrast, we have King Saul’s death bed scene as
he lay bleeding and dying out of the will/God in defeat on a battlefield
We have every cause to tremble for his soul: “Where is he?”
No wonder, even wicked Balaam expressed the rather hopeful (and for him: ult. futile) wish: he might die: death/the righteous
Hymn: If I love Him when I die…He will take me home on high
Any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, then let him be accursed (1 Corinthians 16:22)
We want to look at these words/Joshua on his deathbed
Like Paul after him, he has finished his course and kept the faith
Henceforth there is laid for him a crown/righteousness
His words here (part/overall speech) provide us 3 main thoughts:
1) THE PAST HISTORY WHICH JOSHUA REVIEWED:
…the way of all the earth…
A/ In referring/death, Joshua does not see himself as a pioneer
He is not boldly going where no man has ever gone before
He sees his pathway as one which is well trodden:
[i] The first man to die a physical death was Abel
Brutally bludgeoned/death in a field by his wicked brother
The first rude coffin was made nailed together to carry him to the first ever grave in the first ever little cemetery on earth
Perhaps a little bunch/flowers were set/virgin soil of his grave
So death goes right back to the very beginning of time
[ii] The first man ever born (Adam) soon came to die
He lived several hundred years (930) but he too had to die
He was the first man to learn about the principle/death
In Garden/Eden…death was mentioned as the consequences/sin
He buried (as said) his son Abel in harrowing circumstances
His job (with others) was to comfort the grieving mother
[iii] Adam was not the oldest man who ever lived
This distinction lay with Methuselah (969 years) but at last even the oldest man ever succumbed to the beckoning finger/death
B/ When Joshua therefore says that he is going the way of all the earth
– he means death is the universal experience of all
Every community: its undertakers, death column and cemetery
May be a thousand different ways in which a thousand different cultures remove their dead – but they all do it
Universal experience – “all the earth”
C/ This but corresponds with the clear teaching/Bible: All
things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to
the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him
that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so
is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
(Ecclesiastes 9:2)
What is this one event to all? It is death itself
The rich cannot buy their way out from its grip
The wise/scheming cannot outsmart it
The fit/healthy cannot outrun it or fight it off
It is appointed unto men once to die (Hebrews 9:27)
We have all got to face the reality of going to our long home
D/ This phrase all the earth tells us why death is the universal experience of all men no matter where/when and how they live:
[i] Genesis 1:26 where man had dominion over all the earth
First mention which is very important:
Shows man’s privilege and responsibility towards God
Ultimately it will show the great heights from which man fell
[ii] Another strategic reference is in Genesis 11:8
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Here man not fell in Adam, but fell again when God destroyed the earth/flood and yet again after the tower/Babylon
Sin is the universal experience of all men
There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not (Ecclesiastes 7:20)
Death always follows heard on the heels of sin
Joshua was on sure ground: The past history he reviewed
2) THE PRESENT REALITY WHICH JOSHUA FACED:
I go the way of all the earth
A/ He managed to do what very few folk do – self application
He got beyond the small talk which many stop at at funerals
Of course, he was a very old man (v1) and on his death bed
What must it be like to take to your bed for the last time?
To lift your feet from off the floor for the very last time?
This is what Joshua did – he faces the present reality/death
B/ We may be young as far as number/our years are concerned
In reality, that means very little
While every one of us can say: I know not the day of my death (Genesis 27:2) as Isaac had to confess, yet we may also say:
There is but a step between me and death (1 Samuel 20:3)
These were the words of David in very harrowing circumstances
He sealed them with an oath: As truly as the Lord liveth
This is true of us all
It is accepted that by the very nature of things some appear to be nearer to death than others;
Some are old in years and well past their sell by date
Others are not in the best of health
Others are in the military hot spots of the earth
But everyone of us must acknowledge that one little miserable
stumbling step lies between us and the beckoning finger/death
Once death calls – that little step ahead is taken away
C/ No one has ever cheated death before
Yes…there have been times when it appears to have been done
People have walked away from the crashed/crushed cars with only a few cuts and bruises
There have been near misses and last minute reprieves
In a famous incident, a man condemned to hang found that the trap door would not open beneath him on ( I think) 3 occasions
Recognising the hand/providence they let him live
That was not death being cheated – that was death dictating when and where and how it would enter in to extinguish life
D/ We need to face this present reality of death
It is best done in a very sober frame/mind
Denial is only a form of self deception
Delay is just another form of the same folly
In Deuteronomy 32:29 we read: O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
It
is considered exceedingly wise even by worldly men who deny that there
is a God or an eternity an afterlife either in Heaven/Hell to see that
their affairs are in line
They prepare themselves carefully crafted wills/last testaments
They buy themselves burial plots and make many arrangements
We ask people to go one further and prepare to meet their God
After death (so it is not final) is the judgment (Hebrews 9:27)
We remind men that they personally are sinners and so they must die, for the wages of their sin is death
Death/Bible is much more than the cessation of breath/body
Death/Bible is a spiritual experience as well as physical
Adam was threatened with death on the very day he would sin
As seen. He lived hundreds/years afterwards in a physical sense
But he died spiritually – dead in his trespasses/sins (Ephesus 2:1)
Spiritual
death takes in the thought of being separated/God for all eternity –
consciously abiding forever under His curse for sin
E/ Was Joshua ready to meet his God?
Had he made preparation and if so, what plans had he laid?
Where they sufficient to deal with the sin issues/his life?
Let us answer this with our third/last point:
3) THE FUTURE TESTIMONY WHICH JOSHUA ENVISAGED:
A/ Joshua here is addressing first of all his people left behind
He is going to leave them via the valley/death, but they would be facing life in the Promised Land where Joshua had laid them
Therefore to strengthen them, Joshua makes this statement:
And,
behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in
all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed
of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you;
all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.
True, he is looking back to experience…but only to look forward
He wants the COI to remember that just as God’s word has never
failed in the past…neither can it ever fail in the future
B/ We asked the question whether or not Joshua was ready to meet His God…and the answer is a positive “Yes”
Joshua was ready to meet his God because he cast his soul in faith upon the gospel promises/God’s word
What did Joshua know about the gospel?
Doubtless, his knowledge was not as extensive as ours
He had the writings/Moses and that’s about it
But he had enough to save his soul:
[i] He had the promise/Redeemer in the first promise:
The seed/woman bruising the Serpent’s head: Genesis 3:15
[ii] He had the story/Passover Lamb redeeming the enslaved Israelites from the power/Egypt by the mighty hand/God
[iii] He had the Serpent being lifted up in the wilderness
A most explicit gospel lesson: John 3:14-15
[iv] Joshua’s own name carried great gospel truth:
Jehovah is Saviour: Matthew 1:21
There are a whole host of gospel lessons in the early Books/OT
C/ The sinner is invited/gospel to cast himself upon these gospel promises so that he can be ready to meet His god
These promises assure the sinner that the work/Christ on Calvary to remove his sins is indeed a perfect work
That Christ alone has power on earth to forgive sins
That every last sinner/earth may conclude himself invited/come
That a repentant faith is all that God is looking for
For thou desirest not sacrifice; else
would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou
wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)
D/ Perhaps a wee word in here for Christians would not be amiss
Not for us to unduly rest back and await death because our sins have been forgiven us and all the promise/gospel are ours
God hasn’t saved us so that we can sit/twiddle our thumbs as we anticipate the joys/heaven than await us when we die
God saved us to work for Him in sheer gratitude
When we are reminded that we are going the way of all the earth, then it ought to spur us on in our work/Him
In death, we rest from our labours, but our works will only follow us if they have been performed
Let us not appear empty handed before God
Appeal
THE END