Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see (Deut. 3:27-28).
God was about to ordain a new leader over Israel. As Lord of the cosmos, God possesses the authority to select His representatives. This authority is the theocentric principle undergirding this law. Moses was told to be a mentor to Joshua in these last days of wilderness wandering. The older man would prepare the younger to take authority over the nation. This transfer of personal authority represented the coming transfer of the inheritance to Israel. Joshua would command Israel after Moses died. Only then would the actual transfer of land take place. God was about to remove the authority of Canaan over the land. Israel's task was to enforce this transfer of ownership. This was clearly a land law. More than this: it was a one-time land law in Israel's history.Moses asked God if God would allow him to go into the Promised Land (v. 25). God told him not to ask for this again (v. 26). Moses had been forbidden to cross over because he had struck the rock twice with the rod in order to call forth water, after God had told him to speak to the rock but not strike it (Num. 20:8, 11-12).(1) This negative sanction against Moses was a prohibition against his participation in the inheritance. Moses had identified himself as a spiritual member of the exodus generation, a man who trusted more in signs and wonders than in the promises of God.
The sanctions of God are the means of inheritance. Positive sanctions are inheritance sanctions; negative sanctions are disinheritance sanctions. The focus of sanctions, point four of the biblical covenant model, is point five: inheritance and disinheritance. Positive sanctions are given to covenant-breakers ultimately to increase the inheritance of covenant keepers. "A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just" (Prov. 13:22). The New Heaven and New Earth are the eternal inheritance of the righteous (Rev. 21:1). The historical model for this final transfer of inheritance is the conquest of Canaan. The wealth created by covenant-breakers became the inheritance of covenant-keepers. "And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage" (Deut. 6:10-12).
Joshua inherited Moses' mantle of authority. He replaced Moses in the civil hierarchy. This transfer of authority was the judicial basis of the fourth generation's inheritance of Canaan.
Heirs and Inheritance Covenant-breaking man is short of time. He has to earn a very high rate of return in order to accumulate vast wealth in one lifetime. He has to compound this wealth at rates that are abnormally high. This means that he must bear greater risks. He may lose all of his capital in a bad transaction. The second commandment states specifically that covenant-breakers exercise only a few generations of rule, while covenant-keepers extend and compound their rule for thousands of generations, i.e., permanently. "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments" (Deut. 5:8-10).
The covenant-keeper can rest content with ordinary rates of growth, for he believes that his heirs will continue the process. The goal of the covenant-keeper is steady expansion, year by year, generation by generation. The continuity provided by the covenant releases covenant-keepers from a frantic search for abnormally high rates of return. If each generation is faithful in building up the inheritance, and if each generation trains up a faithful generation, the compounding process brings success. It is more important to raise up a faithful, competent, future-oriented generation than to make high rates of return for one generation, only to see the next generation renounce the faith, inherit, and squander the legacy. This breaks the covenant and dissipates the inheritance.
Compound growth becomes negative because of covenantal rebellion (Deut. 28:38-40). This thwarts the compounding process. It sets the next generation back one or more generations. The threat of covenantal forgetfulness is always before us: "But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day" (Deut. 8:18). So is the threat of negative returns: "And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God" (Deut. 8:19-20).
God told the exodus generation that they would not inherit. This prophecy pressured that faithless generation to consider the future of their children. Only through their children would they participate in the inheritance. They could have participated in the conquest by transferring military leadership to their sons at the time they sent in the spies. This was not what that generation wanted. Even Moses wanted to escape this negative sanction. He wanted to walk into the Promised Land as the national leader. God would not allow it. His word was unbreakable. No member of that generation would inherit personally. The inheritance of the nation of Israel would be attained through the disinheritance of the exodus generation. Because the exodus generation refused to disinherit the Canaanites, God disinherited the exodus generation. The Canaanites enjoyed an extra generation of dominion over the land.
God told Moses to encourage Joshua. Joshua would lead the nation into Canaan. He would therefore replace Moses as the nation's prophetic leader. He would command God's holy army. He needed training, even at this late date. He needed a word of blessing. Moses, as the supreme commander, was uniquely able to provide this blessing. It was like the blessing of a patriarch to his son. This time, however, the inheritance would not be a bloodline inheritance, as had been true of patriarchy. It was a judicial inheritance based on personal confession: Joshua's confession before the council of spies. Joshua, not Moses' son, was the heir of the office of national prophet.
As Moses' successor, Joshua would have to lead as Moses had. He would have to exercise courage. He was the representative agent in the conquest. He had been such a representative at the council; now he would be the senior officer. He had demonstrated courage then; he would have to demonstrate it again. Moses had recently testified to God's omnipotence, at the very end of his career. "O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?" (v. 24). It was this confession that Joshua needed to accept intellectually and internalize emotionally in his role as national leader. Through Joshua, the entire nation was duty-bound to accept it and act in terms of it. This testimony, if acted upon, would be the basis of their inheritance.
Courage Through Obedience Shortly prior to his death, Moses gave this advice to Joshua: "Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it" (Deut. 31:7b). God repeated this to Joshua immediately prior to the crossing of the Jordan River:
Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto 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 unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest (Josh. 1:1-9).
This more detailed version of Moses' instructions made it clear that the basis of Joshua's courage would be his commitment to the law of God. As the national leader, it was his task to read the law daily and meditate on it. The law was not to depart out of his mouth; that is, his words of judgment (point four) were always to be grounded in the law (point three). The basis of the inheritance (point five) would be their adherence to the law. If they ever departed from the law, they would forfeit their inheritance:
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand. The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway (Deut. 28:30-33).
Courage is a product of covenantal faithfulness. Without covenantal faithfulness, courage will depart: "In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see" (Deut. 28:67). Courage increases, or should increase, when men experience victories. That is, when they gain positive sanctions or, in wartime, inflict negative sanctions, they grow more confident. But if they refuse to trust God as the source of their victories, two unpleasant things can result: 1) cowardice because they do not trust God to deliver their enemies into their hands as He has in the past, and 2) defeat through overconfidence in their own power. Israel in the wilderness suffered from both afflictions: cowardice after the spies' report and overconfidence immediately thereafter, when they attacked Amalek against God's express command (Num. 13).
When God instructed Moses to build up Joshua's courage, He was telling Moses to relate the whole law to Joshua and the nation. The Book of Deuteronomy is Moses' response to God's command. The recapitulation of the law ends with Moses' final words to Joshua (Deut. 31:23). The law would serve Israel as the basis of the inheritance. Through the Mosaic law, Israel would maintain the kingdom grant from God.(2) Grace precedes the law. The promise to Abraham preceded the kingdom grant. "For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise" (Gal. 3:18). But Israel could not retain this grant if she violated God's law. "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you" (Deut. 4:1-2).
ConclusionThe exodus generation had been disinherited at the time of the council of spies. This negative sanction transferred the inheritance to their children. The parents would not enjoy the fruits of military victory. They preferred fruits without risk. They lost their inheritance.
God required courage from the next generation. They could not be risk-avoiders and also heirs. Under Joshua, they were courageous, though not enough to drive all of the Canaanites out of the land. "As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day" (Josh. 15:63; cf. 17:12-13). As a result, God ceased to support them militarily. Just before his death, Joshua announced: "Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you" (Josh. 23:13). This was an announcement of disinheritance, in contrast to Moses' prophecy of inheritance at the time of his death. Joshua's prophecy was fulfilled partially at the time of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. It was fulfilled completely in A.D. 70.
What the nation learned at the captivity was that courage and obedience are linked. They could not maintain their courage apart from obedience. Without courage, they would eventually surrender the inheritance. Without obedience, they would lose their courage.
Footnotes:
1. Gary North, Sanctions and Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Numbers (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1996), ch. 11.
2. Gary North, Leviticus: An Economic Commentary (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1994), pp. 8-10.
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