Executing God's Battle Plan

Joshua 1:10-18 “Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people: "Go through the camp and tell the people, 'Get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you will be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you to inherit. Joshua said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: "Remember what Moses the LORD's servant commanded you when he said, 'The LORD your God will give you rest, and He will give you this land. Your wives, young children, and livestock may remain in the land Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But your fighting men must cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers and help them until the LORD gives our brothers rest, as [He has given] you, and they too possess the land the LORD your God is giving them. You may then return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of what Moses the LORD's servant gave you on the east side of the Jordan." They answered Joshua, "Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go. We will obey you, just as we obeyed Moses in everything. And may the LORD your God be with you, as He was with Moses. Anyone who rebels against your order and does not obey your words in all that you command him, will be put to death. Above all, be strong and courageous!"

God can promise us, challenge us, even command us the receive the land, but until we pick up our armor and go into battle and execute God’s battle plan nothing will happen.

(1) God has anointed someone to be in charge of executing His battle plan-Verses 10, 11 “Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people: "Go through the camp and tell the people, 'Get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you will be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you to inherit.”

The Lord told Joshua that He was going to give the people the Promised Land and fulfill His promise to Abraham. Everywhere he set his foot would be his. He also told Joshua that He would never leave him or forsake him, but now Joshua had to act!

Verse 10 tells us, "Joshua ordered the officers of the people..."A key word in this first chapter of Joshua is the word "order."
-It appears forty-three times in Joshua, and seven of those are in the first chapter.
-It refers mostly to God’s commands for his people.

God delegated His authority to Joshua, who in turn delegated it to his officers. Joshua commands his officers to "Go through the camp and tell the people ’Get your supplies ready."
-Now what exactly these supplies were is not stated, and scholars disagree as to what they may have been.
-However, the point here is that they had to take what they needed and get ready to use it.
-Each man was responsible for his own supplies since there was no regular quartermaster’s corps.

God can promise us the land from now until the second coming, but until we take and use what He’s given us, it will never happen. God didn’t give us gifts so we could sit on them.

-Joshua gives them a timetable. He tells them "Three days from now you will cross the Jordan..."
It is possible that Joshua meant they would merely be setting out from their present encampment within three days, not actually crossing within three days. In actuality, they didn’t cross for seven days due to delays. However, the issue here is not the number of days it took to move, but that the decision had been made to move.

The concept that matters here is “go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.”
-The phrase “take possession of” carries with it the idea of taking by force.
-Elsewhere in the OT, it is simply translated “drive out.”
-Sometimes even those things that are given to us we have to go in and claim for our own. We can get an inheritance, but until we take it to the bank, it doesn’t do us any good.

It is easy to talk about the promises of God, but we need to lay claim to the promises. It is easy to talk about taking the land in here, but until we go out there and take hold of it, we will accomplish nothing.

(2) We are to do this in unity! Verses 12-15 “Joshua said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: "Remember what Moses the LORD's servant commanded you when he said, 'The LORD your God will give you rest, and He will give you this land. Your wives, young children, and livestock may remain in the land Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But your fighting men must cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers and help them until the LORD gives our brothers rest, as He has given you, and they too possess the land the LORD your God is giving them. You may then return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of what Moses the LORD's servant gave you on the east side of the Jordan."

Joshua turns his attention to the "Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh..." Under the leadership of Moses, they had asked to settle east of the Jordan. They were herdsman and saw that the land east of the Jordan had good pasturelands. So they asked for that to be there inheritance. A part of the agreement was that they had to go with their brothers and take the land west of the Jordan.

Joshua tells these tribes "The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land." The promise of “rest” is found in all of these passages, and it is God’s gift, part of Israel’s inheritance. However, before they could sit back and enjoy their rest, they had to pitch in and see that their brothers have rest too.

Their wives and children could stay behind, but "all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers until the LORD gives them rest..." The rest already granted to them could not be enjoyed until they all enjoyed it.

They couldn’t sit back and relax while their brothers still had work to do. They were a family, a unit; either they all would find rest or none of them would. They had a responsibility to one another. It wasn’t every man for himself, it was all for one and one for all!

Philippians 2:4 “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

If we are going to take the land, we will need to do it together. We cannot say, "Oh, that’s someone else’s job," because it is everyone’s responsibility. We are in this together!

(3) Following the chain of command-Verses 16-18 “They answered Joshua, "Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go. We will obey you, just as we obeyed Moses in everything. And may the LORD your God be with you, as He was with Moses. Anyone who rebels against your order and does not obey your words in all that you command him, will be put to death. Above all, be strong and courageous!"

The success or failure of any army depends on the whether or not the soldiers are willing to follow. Now that Joshua has given the orders, look at the response: "Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go."

The officials of the people and the tribes east of the Jordan joined together in affirming their loyalty to Joshua and his instructions to them after he had spoken to each of them. Notice their enthusiasm and whole hearted devotion to Joshua especially notice the level of commitment: "Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you."

They had fully obeyed Moses, and they would also fully obey Joshua.
There wasn’t going to be any "But Moses did it this way." They were fully committed to following Joshua. However, they insisted upon two conditions.                                                              

First, they insisted, "Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses."                                                                                                       

-They knew that if they were going to take possession of the land that God had to be in it.

-They knew that the battle was more spiritual than it was physical, and if they were going to win, it would depend on God.

1 Samuel 17:47 “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

The other stipulation they had was "Only be strong and courageous!"
-The final “Be strong and courageous” is the fourth time this exhortation has appeared in the chapter, the first three coming from God himself.
-They wanted to make sure that in the heat of battle Joshua wasn’t going to chicken out.
-If God required it of them, then surely they had a right to expect it of him as well.

If the Lord is not with us, we cannot succeed, but if He is on our side, we cannot fail. We have to be strong and courageous and we’ve got to be:
-Willing to go into the heat of battle.
-Willing to follow where He leads us.
-Willing to go where He tells us to go.

It is going to take faith, trust, and vision. It will also take obedience, loyalty, and determination if we are going to take the land for the Kingdom of God.