Joshua: Watch the Feet

Now, chapter number one of Joshua. I think I speak on behalf of all of the visitors to thank the assembly here for the very abundant lunch that we had. And it'll be a challenge to keep you all awake.

I should have had you all take at least two cups of coffee before leaving, but we'll do our best. And if I see you with your eyes closed, nodding off, I will assume you're praying for me. That's a much better way to approach it than to think you're sleeping.

Joshua chapter one, we're going to be reading quite a bit. I should maybe just tell you ahead of time what we're looking at so you can key on it. Notice the many mentions of feet in the book of Joshua.

Going to be mentioning five or six different places where feet are mentioned. So chapter one and verse number two, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore, arise.

Go over this Jordan. Thou and all this people in the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon.

That have I given you, as I said unto Moses, and so on. Look further, if you will, chapter number three. I know some of this we've already mentioned.

Chapter three, verse 13, and it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests, that by the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall western the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon and heap. Verse 15, and as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of Jordan, for Jordan overflowed with all his banks at the time of harvest, and so on. Chapter four, verse number three, and command you them, saying, take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest's feet stood firm.

Twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place where you shall lodge this night. Verse nine, and Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests, which bear the ark of the covenant, stood, and they are there until this day. Chapter five, verse number 15, and the captain of the Lord toasted unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place where thou standest is holy, and Joshua did so.

Chapter nine, verse number three, Joshua nine, verse number three, when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard that Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, they did work wildly, and went and made as it had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old and rent, and bound up, old shoes upon their feet, clouded upon their feet, old garments upon them, and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua out of the camp of Gilgal, and said unto him, the men of Israel, we be come from a far country. Now, therefore, make ye a league with us.

And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, peradventure ye dwell among us, how shall we make a league with you? They said unto Joshua, we are thy servants. Joshua said unto them, who are you, and from whence come you? And they said, from a very far country thy servants are come, because in the name of the Lord thy God, if we have heard the fame of him, all he did in Egypt, all he did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, Sion king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, which were at Ashteroth. Wherefore, our elders and all the inhabitants of our country speak unto us, saying, take vittles with you for the journey, go to meet them, and say unto them, we are your servants.

Wherefore, now make ye a league with us. This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you. And now, behold, it is dry and moldy.

And these bottles of wine which we filled were new, and behold, they be rent. These our garments and our shoes are old because by reason of the very long journey. And the men took of their vittles and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.

And Joshua made a peace with them and made a league with them to let them live, and the princes of the congregation swore unto them. Then, of course, they find out that they really were deceiving them, and it leads to murmuring and discontent among the people. Turn to chapter number 10, Joshua's campaign against the five kings.

Five kings took refuge in a cave, and they were held there till the battle was done. This is the day, of course, when the sun stood still and the moon in the valley of Avalon, and the great miracle was accomplished. Verse number 22, then said Joshua, open the mouth of the cave and bring out these five kings unto me out of the cave.

And they did so, brought forth these five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmath, the king of Lechesh, and the king of Eglon. Came to pass when they brought out these kings unto Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of war and sent them to the captains of the men of war, which went, sorry, pages stick together, unfortunately. Which went with him, come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings.

And they came near, put their feet upon the necks of them. Joshua said unto them, fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage, for thus shall the Lord do unto all your enemies whom ye fight, against whom ye fight. And afterward Joshua smote them and slew them, hanged them on five trees, and they were hanging upon the tree until evening, and so on.

Chapter number 14. And verse number, this is Caleb, maybe started in verse number seven. 40 years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Cagis Barnea to aspire the land, and I brought him word again, as it was in my heart.

Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance and thy children's forever, because I was wholly followed the Lord my God. Now that will be more than enough to us to read and consider, hopefully just maybe a lesson or two from each of these, the feet of the pilgrim, the feet of the priest, the feet of the prince, the feet of the pretenders, the feet of the people, and the feet of the pathfinder here in Caleb.

It is another line of ministry and very profitable to look at the four great prison prayers of the Apostle Paul and look at them in light of what we've been looking at here together in the book of Joshua. You recall in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Philippians 1, and Colossians 1, Paul from his imprisonment in Rome, he lifts up these four prayers in the epistles for the people of God and their welfare. He prays first of all, as you recall in Ephesians 1, for vision, the eyes of your understanding being open, the eyes of your heart being, he wants them to have vision, to appreciate the inheritance.

Chapter three, again he prays, now as for a right view, they might understand the dimensions of the tremendous mystery of God, its length, breadth, depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ. He prays for them to appreciate the measurements, the broad dimensions of the inheritance to which God has brought them as part of that great mystery, the one body of Christ. When you come to Philippians 1, it's right values.

He wants them to have right values. You remember how he prays there, that they might approve things that are more excellent, things that really matter, a discerning approval of what really is of value, not to get distracted by the many, many things that can lead us away. Someone as well said, Christianity is not a matter of separating between the good and the bad, a matter of separating between the good and the better.

Many, many things are good, many, many things are very legitimate, many, many things can be pursued with a clear conscience, but is it really the very best for your life? God is not content to give you just the good. He wants to give you the best. And so Paul prays in Philippians for the best.

He wants us to appreciate what really is of value. Now he does that in that epistle. Remember how in chapter number one, he speaks about it's far better to be with Christ, to depart and to be with Christ, far better.

Chapter two, he tells us it's far better to think about others. In chapter three, he tells us far better to have this one thing in mind, one thing he strives for, that I might know him. And in chapter four, he reminds us as well, that it is far better to allow God to strengthen us and to be able to live for God in this world.

So Philippians then tells us about having right values. And when you come to Colossians, you remember, there he prays that they might be fruitful, so virtues in our life. Now all of that could serve as a background for the book of Judges.

Especially here, we're looking at the feet of the prince, well, the feet of the pilgrim, first of all, that of the priest, that of the prince, and so on. Now just very quickly, and I know we're looking at these, again, some of these things we've touched upon already, but the feet of the pilgrim. We have a reminder of God's promise, the land is theirs.

In fact, he says, the land I'm giving you, the land I am giving you, the land that I have given you. Verse number three, actually a little different tense. I've already given it to you, it's yours.

He reminds them then of his great promise. But then linked with that promise was a responsibility. Every place the sole of your foot treads on will be yours.

So they had to go in and claim it, had to put their foot on the land so it was theirs. Not enough just to theorize. Lovely for us here to sit together in a nice ministry meeting session where we talk about all the blessings that are ours in the Lord Jesus, all the inheritance that lies ahead for us.

Lovely theory, but is it reality? Is it reality for us in our lives? He says, you've got to put your foot on it. You've got to claim it for your own. We all remember the days of the homesteading in this country, especially out here in the Midwest and West, where men were able to claim land by walking on it.

Walk it, claim it, and it was theirs. So we have here the same idea. The need, personal responsibility to claim the land.

So it is really what we have in Paul saying, as I mentioned in Philippians chapter three, that I might know him. I want to really attain, I want to really grasp what God has saved me for. Now that's not a matter of whether I should be a preacher, an elder, Sunday school teacher.

Paul wants to be like Christ. That's really the vastness. He wants to be like this one, in fact, I think in the original language, it's just one thing, one thing.

Forgetting everything else. I'm striving to be like Christ. I want to attain that for which God saved me.

And so he is a man who wants to claim his inheritance. Romans chapter six, of course, is that great chapter of knowing and reckoning and yielding and obeying. So we know truth.

That's wonderful. But then reckoning it, living in the good of it, and then yielding to the spirit of God, and then obeying what he, all that is part of the process of claiming, of putting your foot down on the ground that's yours and living in the good of it. Reminds them then of the enormity of the great inheritance they have in chapter one.

It gives them the dimensions, the boundaries. So the only limitation, the only limitation placed on the people of God was their faith. Do you really think God can give you this? Do you think he's given it to you? Do you really agree with God that he's given you all of this to enjoy? It's yours.

Claim it, live in the good of it. And likewise, we face the same challenge, living in the good of all that God has given to us. We live in it by faith.

Please don't think you left faith at the day of conversion. The just shall live by faith. Everything, every step in Christianity is marked by just believing God.

Faith is not imagination. Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith is not hoping for the best.

Faith moves upon the word of God. Everything God says we believe, that's faith. So that, just to take a very simple example, a businessman here who is running his business according to the principles of the word of God, honesty, truthfulness, fairness with his employees, he is running his business by faith.

A woman who is raising her children in the home according to the principles of the word of God is raising her family by faith. Faith is living on the good of what God has said. So it's part of everyday life, part of what you do at work, how you act at school, how you raise the family, how you move among the believers, all of that.

We live by faith because we are putting the word of God into practice, controlling every aspect of life in every sphere, not just separating the secular from the spiritual, but every aspect of life is governed by the word of God and is a life lived by faith. He reminds them that they will be absolutely invincible. He reassures them of his divine presence and of the future for the people.

The Feet of the Pilgrim. Let me quickly mention about the feet of the priest. We've touched on this already.

The feet of the priest in Jordan, the brink in the midst and out again. Three different places the feet are mentioned as standing. The feet of the priest entered Jordan and the waters fled.

Do you ever wonder why the waters didn't flee when the great anti-type of the ark entered Jordan one day? He came into Jordan to be baptized by John and the waters didn't flee. The waters covered him in baptism. He was going to know death in all of its fullness and all of its depth.

So Jordan did not flee. Eventually he conquered death, but he endured death. He died death by dying slew.

But here we are reminded that the waters flew and the eyes of the people upon the ark enabled them to move through the Jordan safely and not one drop of water fell upon one Israelite. Not one drop of water touched one Israelite. They passed over on dry ground and the waters fled at the presence of the ark.

Not one drop of judgment will ever fall upon a child of God. It was all exhausted in our substitute upon the cross. Reminded of that here, let's see it.

So the Red Sea, now just again, this isn't a story of Egypt to Canaan, but just puts us in context. The Red Sea cut them off from Egypt. The Jordan brought them into blessing, into Canaan.

Now in Christ, both have occurred at the moment of conversion. Both occurred the moment you trusted Christ as your savior. His death cut you off from the world.

His death, burial and resurrection brought you in to all the inheritance, all the blessing that God could possibly give a human being. I don't think we realize that. Ephesians chapter one, that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.

What that means very simply is this, that every blessing that the infinite, loving, wise heart of God could ever conceive of giving to people has been given to us in this dispensation. We are inundated with blessing. We are drowning in the blessings of God.

He could give nothing. Don't think God has some other blessing to hold that he's gonna give us in eternity. Everything's ours now.

He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He's held nothing back. You realize we had a Bible reading conference recently on the upper room ministry, John 13 to John 17.

I was impressed with this. Five times over in that upper room ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks about asking in his name. You know that Moses couldn't do that.

Abraham couldn't do that. David couldn't do it. The greatest of God's saints could not ask in his name.

Now, just to give you some idea of what that means, hopefully we don't just append it to the end of our prayers or use it as an introduction. I had an employee who worked for me for a number of years. Her husband was a painting contractor.

And he said to me one day, he says, if you ever need paint at the paint store down the road, he said, go in and use my name. So I would go in and use his name. And everything he had established with that owner of that store, I came into the good of by just using his name.

Everything Christ means to his father, you and I come into the good of by just using his name. It's not name-dropping. If you want to call it, it's good name-dropping if you want to use it in that expression.

But you and I come into the good of all that Christ means to his father when we mentioned his name in prayer. So it's not just a formula we use, not just a catchphrase, but we should use it with all the intelligence we can. We're asking in his name.

It also implies we're asking in light of his interests, what he would be interested in, what concerns him, what's for his glory. All of that is, of course, encompassed, but we come into the good of all Christ is to the father. We're asking in his name when we come in prayer.

So we have blessings that Old Testament saints knew nothing of. They were great men, they were godly men. And I guess it should really put us to shame that they lived such godly lives with such limited blessings as compared to what we have.

But nevertheless, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing that God could ever give to human beings. God has nothing better to give than he's given us in Christ. So just keep that in mind if you're looking at this together.

The feet in Jordan, the feet on dry ground, the Jordan cut them off. Things mentioned could be made of the fact the waters fled back to the city of Adam. And without becoming too fanciful, I think certainly there's the thought there that all that ever occurred in Adam, all that ever resulted as a result of Adam's sin, Christ has more than negated.

He has overcome and triumphed. Hebrews 2, everything that sin brought into the world, Christ has not only answered for, but he's given us even something better. Remember when God takes something away, he always brings in something that's better, better.

And so we have something better because of what Christ has done at Calvary. Better than innocence, better than Eden, better than natural life, we have eternal life, we have heaven, we have the future, we have a new life, a new birth, all of that as a result of what Christ has done at Calvary. And of course then their feet stand on dry ground, and we have the feet then of the priests.

The feet of the prince and the feet of Joshua. Take off thy shoes from off thy feet. The place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

If Joshua is going to wage a holy war, he must know what it is to learn holiness in his own life. The reality of holiness. Sadly, I think, and I speak for myself first of all, we know very little of genuine holiness, a real hatred of sin.

I lament, I lament that I was more sensitive to sin after I got saved than I am now. You become hardened, you become used to it, so that the off-color jokes, the cursing around you, you try to just shrug it off. What do you expect? Doesn't bother me like it used to.

We become so used to living in a world that is so defiling and so evil, that holiness seems to escape us. To actually see our world as God sees it would move us to tears. Think of what it meant for the Lord Jesus to walk through a world marked by sin everywhere.

He saw the effects of sin on lives, saw the effects of sin on human hearts, saw what sin cost God. As he moved through this world, longing to bring men as worshipers to his father, John chapter four, must have grieved him to see individuals whose lives were so far from God. God was being, in a sense, deprived of worshipers.

I sometimes think of that in my better moments on a Lord's Day morning, where we live, even the evangelical churches, all the churches are basically losing customers, and you don't see many people going to any kind of church service on a Sunday. And you see them out jogging, nothing wrong with jogging, but you see them out jogging, walking their dogs, going to the beach. You think, there are lives from which God is getting nothing.

He's being deprived of worshipers. The Lord Jesus moved through this world conscious of all that sin had cost God, all that sin was robbing God of. And in that sense, in many other ways, he was a man of sorrows.

It grieved him. And so we're reminded here then that Joshua must learn holiness, and he must fall at the feet of a leader, recognizing his own weakness and his own necessity. As I mentioned, he had the same experience as Moses did in Moses' beginning in Exodus chapter three, as he is at the burning bush.

But also, God has given us little vignettes of individuals called to service and their experiences. And I find that those experiences stamp themselves upon their ministry for the rest of their life. For example, you have Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six.

What does Isaiah see in Isaiah chapter... In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. What's he impressed with? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. He's impressed with the holiness of God.

Do you know who the one prophet is who speaks of a holy one of Israel, who speaks of God's holiness more than any other prophet? Isaiah. In his first experience, God stamped something upon Isaiah's soul that never left him. Impressed on him was God's holiness and all that God desired and all that God deserved and how sinful men were.

What about John on the Isle of Patmos? Sees the Lord in all of his glory and beauty and he falls at his feet. I've often thought, and I've done my own writing, so you'll understand, that before a man writes, he should be at the feet of Christ, as John was. Before John takes up his pen to pen his tremendous revelation of Christ, he's found at the feet of Christ.

Be a good place for all of us to begin. Any service for God is at the feet of Christ. That's where Joshua has to begin, at the feet of the captain of the Lord of hosts.

I have little doubt in my own mind this is a picture of the incarnate, or an appearance of the incarnate Christ, pre-incarnate Christ, before he came in incarnate form. But here he falls at the feet of the leader, owning his need. And also, what is he really doing? What's he really doing when he's saying, are you for us or against us? And he has to learn, no, you're for me and have to yield to me.

Could I suggest this is Romans chapter 12 in Old Testament language? A man bowing, an absolute self-surrender, all that he is, all that he can do, all that God has fitted him for, it's all yielded at the feet of the one who is Lord of all. We are reminded time and again in the New Testament that before a work can be done for God of any value, yielding, an absolute self-surrender. Now if you want to trace something that is very stark and very, very sobering, just start in chapter one of Romans and look at the use of the word body.

In chapter one of Romans, bodies are defiled, aren't they? Men shaming. And so I don't have to go into detail. You come to bodies that are dominated by sin, bodies that have the sentence of death because of sin.

Then bodies that are redeemed. And then bodies that can be surrendered. Little wonder he says in Romans chapter 12 in verse one, present your bodies, your bodies.

God is looking for those who are willing to present their bodies. That means all that I am, all that God has fitted me for, my personality, all that I am, God can sanctify and use for his glory. God is looking for those who are willing to bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus and be what he alone can make us to be.

Romans chapter 12, verse one, very familiar. It's not so much men upon the altar. I know that's how we usually think of it.

I view it more as the Levite presenting himself at the door of the temple. Here I am to serve a willing sacrifice in service in life. I do not want to demean in any way men who have given their life for Christ.

They put us to shame, martyrs. However, a daily, lifelong sacrifice of myself is as noteworthy and as praiseworthy as a martyr who gives his life for Christ. So don't just laud the martyrs.

Laud those as well who have lived long lives of consistency and sacrifice for God in everyday life. So I remind you here then of being at the feet of the prince and Joshua having to take the shoes from off his feet because it is holy ground. Feet of the pretenders, the men of Gibeon working very, very wildly, working deceitfully to seek to have their lives preserved.

So reminded here then of the deceit of the Gibeonites. This is Colossians two. Colossians two tells us of four different deceitful men.

Four dangerous men who will deceive the people of God and rob them of all that they have in Christ. And so Paul in Colossians chapter two tells them don't let any man beguile you with enticing words. That no man spoil you the philosophy or vain deceit.

That no man therefore judge you in meat or drink or in respect to the holy day. That no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels. And so he brings four dangers.

Four dangerous men, four men who will work deceitfully among the people of God to rob them of their inheritance and of all they have. What's Paul's antidote for all that? How does Paul answer all of that deceit? He tells them in chapter two, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So Paul gives us four steps to overcome.

First of all, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in him. How did you receive Christ Jesus as Lord? You remember how you did it? You did it because you said I can do nothing. I can accomplish nothing for God.

I need Christ. He has to be everything. So just the way you receive Christ as Lord, he was Lord of your life then, except keep living in a life that is marked by his Lordship over you and allow him to be Lord of your life.

Then he says rooted in him, roots going down deep into the soil that God has planted you in, built up in him and established in the faith, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So the antidote to all deceit, all forms of doctrine that would lead us away is to be rooted in Christ, to bow to him as Lordship, to be rooted in him, to grow in him, to be built up in him, to be established in the faith and to abound in thanksgiving. Here were deceivers and they came and upon their feet, since we're talking of feet primarily, they wore old shoes and to make them look good, to make it look like they had a long journey through the wilderness, to deceive.

Spiritual deception always carries with it a little bit of truth. Now you know what I mean. They start with a bit of truth and from the truth move to a deceptive angle on it.

And so we need to be very, very careful and need to be very, very wise. Fortunately, we have been preserved in large measure from much of the error that has occurred in lots of places. Now that's not a pat on our back.

It's really a testimony to God's wisdom because I think what has kept us from error to a large extent is the fact that we have a weekly breaking of bread. I don't think we appreciate it. We don't appreciate the preservative, remembering the Lord each week is actually, not just upon our own souls in terms of warmth and joy, but in terms of doctrine.

Now, please don't get distracted tomorrow morning, but if you ever take note at a breaking of bread, virtually every major doctrine concerning Christ is mentioned. Someone will get up and speak about his being the eternal son. Someone will get up and speak about him being the lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world.

Someone else will mention his virgin birth. Someone else will mention his impeccable life. Someone else will speak about his, many will speak about his substitutionary death and the value of it.

Others will speak of his resurrection, his resurrection, his ascension, his enthronement, his glory, his coming kingdom. We get expression to an entire Christology in our breaking of bread. And the reinforcement of that week by week, it serves to preserve us, keeps us clear on doctrine.

So we have a great debt that we owe to the wisdom of God in instituting a weekly remembrance that we might be kept close to Christ and aware of all the great teaching relative to the person and work of the Lord Jesus. So here, again, the tremendous value of preservation because of the work of Christ and the remembrance of that work for our own souls. Of course, they asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.

That's the great problem, wasn't it? They took, they moved by sight, they moved by what they saw, logically, reasonably, they just took and they were deceived. Need to always be very careful. The old adage, appearances can be deceptive, and they are, and the need of great care for those who are responsible for an assembly, the great need of care, not moving just on appearances, but always asking counsel of the Lord and seeking to know his mind and will in issues that are very, very important to the assembly.

The result, of course, was the first murmuring against the people of God here in the book of Joshua. Their confession was almost identical to the confession Rahab made, but rather than suing for mercy, as Rahab did, they resorted to manipulation and to deceit. And the result was rather than enjoying the liberty that Rahab enjoyed in the family of God, they were brought into servitude.

These became the woodcutters and the water drawers for the remainder of their lives among the people of God, the Nethanims and so on, who drew water and who cut wood for the people of God, became literally slaves as a result of their deception. Reminded then of feet that were used in deception of the people of God, the feet of those who were pretending to come from a distant land and so on. What about the feet of the people in chapter 10? Mighty enemies had to be subdued.

You can read the background, the kings who arrayed themselves as Joshua began his campaign against them. And the five kings and their armies were all joined together to do battle. And as Joshua called the sun and the moon to stand still in the valley of Avalon, he was victorious and slew the enemy.

The kings took refuge in the cave. And at the end of the battle, the rocks were removed from the cave and the enemies brought forth. And the feet of the people were placed upon the necks of their enemies.

Of course, that reminds us of Romans chapter 16, God shall shortly brew Satan under your feet. The real enemy that was causing problems in the assemblies in Rome. But here then is a picture of the believers gaining triumph over their enemies and putting their feet upon their necks.

We are reminded elsewhere, 1 Peter chapter two, five enemies that have to be subdued, putting away all anger, wrath, malice, envy, evil speaking. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Five enemies that need to be put under the believer's foot, feet, if he's going to enjoy the word of God.

And as a result, the salvation God has provided. Anger, wrath, malice, envy, jealousy, all of that has to be put under your feet. You cannot be a Christian who's marked by anger, short fuses, temper.

Oh, someone said, but that's just the way I'm made. That's the problem. That's the way we're made.

And God wants to unmake you, okay? To say that there is a problem in your life that you cannot overcome is to do insult to the spirit of God who dwells in you. If we really believe the spirit of God is an omnipotent person who dwells within, then there is no habit, no weakness, no tendency that he cannot subdue because he is the spirit of God. And that's his goal.

That's his desire to change us, to remake us, to reform us into the image of Christ. And so never, never say that that's just the way I'm made. I can't help it.

Yes, you can. There is nothing that cannot be dealt with righteously and completely by the work of the, now, it's a struggle, no question. It's a difficulty.

Many of us recognize things that mar us as individuals, things of the flesh that keep recurring. But there is power within with the spirit of God indwelling to overcome. So here were kings that had to be subdued.

Paul uses the same language, the same idea. Again, when you come to Colossians 3, there are five sins of our mouth and five sins that are moral that, again, he tells us to put off and things we have to put on, things that will hinder us in our Christian lives. And we won't go into the five moral sins or the five sins of our mouth, but you can read them in Colossians 3, very similar to what we have in 1 Peter 2. So there are things we have to recognize.

This has to be judged in the presence of God. This has to be brought under the control of the spirit of God. I have to put my foot upon this, in a sense, so that it no longer controls me.

I control it. Then, of course, Joshua brought out the sword and slew it. So we're reminded that with the help of the spirit of God, these things can be dealt with righteously and completely by his grace.

So here, then, the feats, then, as we have the feet of the people upon the necks of their enemies, that was going to hinder, had to be dealt with before they would actually be able to possess the land as God intended them to possess it. So I guess the question is, how are we doing with our feet? Are we walking on Canaan's land, or are we still puddling around, trying to get through Jordan? Do we know anything of the help of the spirit of God in dealing with habits, tendencies, flaws in our makeup? We all have different flaws. None of us, there's only really, there's only really one normal man that ever lived.

You realize that, right? Only one normal man that ever lived, the Lord Jesus. The rest of us are flawed, broken creatures, and God is in the business of trying to remake, like the potter, to remake us, to make us what he intends us to be. So we all have, some have anger issues, some have depression issues, some have frustration issues, some have, you can go through the long list.

You name your own, I have mine, you have yours. But there is a need that we recognize and deal with them in the presence of God and allow the spirit of God to overcome. Let me quickly come then to the feet of the pathfinder of this man, Caleb.

I'm gonna say more about Caleb later in one of the other meetings, but let me just mention a few things here. Here is a man, and he's 85 years of age, and he still, he still wants to claim his inheritance. He still is not content to sit back and just coast.

Our modern cars all have cruise control. I sometimes think of cruise control Christianity, right? Just put Christianity on cruise control and make it home without too much trouble. Don't speed up, don't slow down, just cruise.

Caleb was not content with cruising. He wanted to grow. He wanted to move forward.

He wanted to advance. I think all of you are familiar with the fact that Mount Everest is the highest mountain in our world at 29,028 feet, I think it is. Many, many attempts to climb it.

Of course, now it's commonplace. But back in the early 20s, there were a number of men, George Mallory and others, he tried it in 1921, he failed. Tried it again in 1922, and he failed.

Tried it again in 1923, and he was never seen again. Somehow got lost on Mount Everest, never returned. Number of his friends gathered in London for a memorial dinner.

The keynote speaker had behind him a picture of Mount Everest. And he spoke to the crowd about the many attempts to climb Everest and the failures and so on. Then he turned to the mountain and said, mountain, we will one day conquer you because we can grow and you can't.

You can grow if you want to. You can grow if you really make it your goal. Caleb was not content just to finish life, 85 years of age with promises he never enjoyed.

He wanted to finish life as God intended him to finish it. Another man in our Bible, and I think if I'm right, he was older than even Caleb. Daniel must have been close to 90, if not in his 90s, when you read of him in Daniel chapter nine.

Because he had been through, he had been taken captive as a young boy, likely as a teenager, if not younger or thereabouts. 70 years of captivity had occurred. And now it's the end of the 70 years.

And he's reading in the book of Jeremiah. He understands by books, the book of Jeremiah, that the 70 year captivity was about to end. That God had promised 70 years of captivity and then he was going to deliver his people.

And Daniel sets himself to pray for the deliverance of the nation. So here he is at 90 years of age, studying his Bible, finding new truth, finding it from the book of Jeremiah, God is going to deliver his people after 70 years. And he's praying about it.

At 90. I wonder how many of us will be reading our Bible to look for new things at 90 years of age, if God spares us. That was Daniel.

Wasn't content just to coast along with all he knew, with all he knew was tremendous already. But he wanted new ground. He wanted to enjoy more.

So he's praying at 90 years of age that God will accomplish his word. And something very interesting, he was praying for the 70 years of captivity. God said, you know, I'm going to give you something even better.

I'm going to give you a prophecy about 70 weeks of years, not just 70, 70 weeks of years. And you're going to tell you about when Messiah is coming. God did exceeding abundantly above all that you could ask or think.

It's one of the wonderful occasions where God answered prayer far in excess of having anything Daniel ever thought. So here's a man and he wants to claim more. Five times over we read that he wholly followed the Lord.

He wholly followed, a man whose heart was wholly taken up with God. And as we'll see in the next meeting, he wanted Hebron. Now what's significant about Hebron, many, many things.

Number one, it was the place of highest altitude in the land of Israel. This man wanted to die as close to heaven as he could. I've mentioned before, so if this is redundant, you can blame it on my age, okay? It's one of the few benefits of age.

You can blame repetition on my age. We used to have, in the house we lived in for many, many years, we used to have a flowering cherry tree and a Vermont sugar maple tree. The flowering cherry tree looked beautiful in the spring, lovely blossoms, but they quickly faded and you just got kind of your usual green leaf and faded in the fall, nothing very spectacular.

The Vermont sugar maple, it began very, very nondescript, nothing very beautiful out of sugar maple in April and May. But come October, absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking in its beauty, orange and red, all intermixing as the sun would shine upon it in different ways, it was gorgeous. Just towards the end of its flowering and its leafing.

And I often thought, I'd love to be a sugar maple. Like to go out looking the very best I can look for God. Like to go out as close to Christ as I possibly could.

I'd like to end life, not as a Japanese cherry tree, like to end it as a sugar maple, looking my best at the end. That's how Caleb wanted to end. Close to heaven, the highest spot in the nation, highest part in the country, Mount Hebron, in the heights, close to heaven.

It was also the place where Abraham had dwelt. It was the place where the cave of Machpelah was. Many, many reasons why Hebron was so special.

That's where he wanted to be. He wasn't content just to live in the lowlands. He wanted to live in the heights, wanted to live close to heaven.

May God help us. The feet, the feet, first of all, of the prince, the feet of the pathfinder, the feet of the pilgrim, the feet of the priests, the feet of the people, and as well, the feet of the pilgrim. May God help us to put our feet, both on the promised land, on the inheritance that's ours, on the necks of all the enemies that would oppose God, and to enjoy all that He has for us.