Joshua 20-21: Planning for Holiness

Theological Proposition/Focus: We serve a Holy God and his expectation for us is personal holiness.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: As fallen creatures in a fallen world, Holiness does not happen by accident. Rather we must plan to live in holiness in a fallen world.

Introduction:

Image: Many people have said variations of "Plan for the worst, hope for the best."

ETOPS-120 a certification for aircraft flying across the ocean.

A couple of months ago my mother-in-law asked me if there were special procedures in place for airlines flying across the ocean. What if an engine fails in the middle of the ocean, she asked. The answer is that airlines are required to plan for such an eventuality. The program is called the ETOPS certification. ETOPS certification designates that an airplane must stay within a certain distance of an airport at all times to allow for an emergency. The most common certification is ETOPS-120 which states that an ETOPS-120 certified airplane must always be within 120 minutes of an airport. So, when a route is planned across the ocean, the route is planned so that at all times the plane is within 120-minutes of an airport. In reality, an engine rarely fails, but the plan is in place so that an engine failure is not the end of the day.

Setting the Stage:

The setting today involves more land allotment

We have been in Joshua for a while now and today we are talking through more of the land allotment. That is, after conquering the land, it was time to divide out the land. Part of dividing the land was figuring out how the land would be used.

Body

Planning for holiness requires planning for life in a fallen world (20:1-6)

Almost immediately following the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, Moses wrote about Cities of Refuge (Ex. 21:12-13). Further details about these cities can be found in Numbers 35:6-34 and Deuteronomy 19:1-14. These cities were explicitly identified as places where someone could seek shelter in the case of manslaughter. Blood revenge was common in the ancient world but God values life and so while God prescribed the death penalty for murder, he also provided a way in which manslaughter did not result in more loss of life.

So, let's look closely at what Joshua wrote in order to apply this to ourselves. The first thing I want you to see is that

Life in a fallen world will inevitably be marked by some bad days (1-3).

The Devastation of the Fall means sin is rampant.

I don't think we fully grasp sin and fallenness. We talk about sin as being the bad things we do but when we say this we often only consider purposefully bad things or things that we think of as being under our own control. Certainly, these things are sin, but we need to broaden our definition a little.

In some contexts, particularly in some Old Testament texts, the term “sin” is primarily used in reference to external actions performed by human beings (e.g., murder, adultery). In other parts of the Bible, the term “sin” is expanded to include the inner actions of humans, such as their thoughts and desires. Sin is also often portrayed as an entity not dependent on human actions, such as a state of being in alienation from God or an impersonal force acting within humans or societies against God

So there is a sense in which sin can be completely unintentional and a state of having missed God's holy expectation. Practically, this means that you can unintentionally miss God's Holy expectation of you and even though it was unintentional you are still responsible. In ancient Israel, manslaughter was one such example.

Sin, regardless of intention, has consequences.

This is going to be hard for some to hear. You see, we are taught that motive matters. Yes, motive matters, some, but our actions regardless of motive also matter. You can do everything right and still be wrong and while society might say "then it is not your fault," a holy God must call sin exactly what it is, sin. In short, there are going to be some bad days.

Life in a fallen world may require God's people, in discernment, to stick up for someone (4-5).

Consider a situation where this might happen.

Imagine the situation, Jeremiah is unhooking his cart from the oxen and slips. The cart begins to roll downhill and to everyone's horror Miriam, the neighbor's wife is struck by the rolling cart. Jeremiah immediately renders help but later that evening Miriam passes. The neighbor, in a rage of fury swears that Jeremiah will pay for taking his beloved. Jeremiah quickly packs a few items and sets out for Shechem, one of the cities of refuge in Ephraim. One commentary mentioned that Jewish tradition holds that the roads between cities of refuge were among the best kept roads. Signs along the way read "refuge, refuge," and there were even runners whose job was to help those along their journey.

Upon reaching the city, Jeremiah is greeted by the elders who listen to his situation and offer to provide protection as long as Jeremiah stays in the city. While Miriam's death was terrible, taking Jeremiah's life would not solve the problem. Jeremiah's life will never be the same but at least he has life.

In a fallen world we need to create avenues for those who fall into sin to be restored.

Here is what is striking to me. The guilty party is not declared innocent but rather the guilty party is accepted and protected. This reminds me of accountability. The church is a hospital for sick people. We need to be ready to accept sinners and help them in their sin.

Life in a fallen world requires sacrifice (6).

What about justice?

Well, consider this. The guilty party was required to stay in the city until the death of the High Priest. This could be a very long time. Life would never be the same. This is also maybe a foreshadowing of Christ's atoning death. The death of the High Priest denoted a point where forgiveness was essentially given. Ultimately, the death of Christ was the point where total forgiveness was given.

Those caught in sin need to be willing to accept consequences if those consequences mean freedom from the sin.

Here is something that struck me as I considered the passage. One could try to cover up their sin, to hide it, to avoid all consequences. However, in covering the sin the individual also gave-up any protection. You could choose not to go to the city of refuge but you were risking everything.

Similarly, you can choose to try and hide your sin but you would be stupid to do so. Confessing sin brought a future guarantee of freedom.

Image: Cheating in School

One of my responsibilities in my previous university job was handling cases of Academic Dishonesty when the case was a bigger case. I cannot tell you the number of times when honesty saved a student and the number of times a student tried to hide their cheating and dug themselves an impossible pit. I remember one instance where a student cheated was caught and proceeded to produce what the student claimed was photographic evidence that they had not cheated. Unfortunately for the student, photos taken with a cell phone have both embedded time stamps and location stamps. When those stamps did not match the server logs for the computer system we went from having circumstantial evidence of cheating to hard evidence of fraud.

Really what it comes down to is a simple step we need to take.

Planning for holiness requires sacrifice (21:1-3)

This is an interesting passage in the middle of the land allotment. You might recall that

In Deuteronomy 18:1-2 the Levites were given an inheritance that consisted of the Lord

That is, the inheritance of the Levites was the sacrifices made to God. However, they would need houses to live and we see here that towns were given to the Levites.

In Numbers 18:21 we learn that the Levites were given the tithe in exchange for the work they performed.

Between the tithes of Numbers 18, the sacrifices of Deuteronomy 18, and the cities that this passage required the people to give to the Israelites we see a general principle.

God's people may be asked to sacrifice in order to support God's vocational servants.

Notice the sorts of sacrifices that were required of the people.

They were now asked to give up towns within their inheritance.

It has been estimated that no one in Israel lived more than 10 miles from one of the 48 cities.

Everyone was affected by the need to support the Levites but everyone also had the benefit of living close to someone who was devoted to serving God.

I am so thankful for a church that supports the pastors and staff. We are incredibly thankful for your support. So please understand that I am speaking from a position of thankfulness when I say that it falls on God's people to support the vocational ministers that he has given to his church. The Israelites made a sacrifice in order to provide for the vocational ministers and this sacrifice was important. Similarly, we as Christians are to sacrificially support our vocational ministers.

1 Timothy 5: 17-18 states

The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

Now, for those who are vocational ministers, there is also a word for you.

God's vocational servants may be asked to sacrifice in what they receive.

Notice that everyone else received significant tracts of land.

The Levites only received 48 towns and the associated pastureland (v. 8)

The Levites were not given the land resources that would allow them to acquire large flocks or great resources. The Levites were called to sacrificial dependence on the people they served.

I immediately see an application to us today. We need pastors who are willing to work for whatever God provides. And we need churches that are willing to sacrifice to ensure the pastor is well-cared for.

image: A pastor earning tens of millions of dollars a year raises red flags.

The other day I saw an article about the wealthiest pastors in the United States. I was shocked to see that one was worth 760 Million and others were worth tens of millions of Dollars. I thank God for the way he has blessed me and I hope he continues to bless me. However, I see something wrong with pastors earning hundreds of times the annual salary of their congregants. This does not seem to be the model given to us in the Bible.

Planning for holiness is worth it (21:43-45)

You might be asking yourself "why go through all this work for holiness." After all, we live in a fallen world, it would be so much easier to just take it easy. The answer is that planning for holiness is worth the effort. God cares for his people, he has called us to holiness and he is the provider.

I want to be careful not to overstate my case here. verses 43-45 are not the effect of verses 1-42. Rather, we should be willing to strive for holiness because of who God is.

God does give physical blessings.

God gave Israel the land he had promised.

I want to note here. Not the land promised to Abraham in Gen. 15 but the land promised to Israel in Num. 34.

God still has promises left for Israel.

God does give rest.

God gave the Israelites rest from war and victory (44).

From Judges, we know that eventually, Israel fell back into war but those tragedies were Israel's fault for not continuing. The rest God gives is not a permanent do nothing rest but rather a reprieve from the constant demand and an opportunity to take time to rest.

You are probably familiar with Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Something that I note is that the yoke is not taken away, rather the yoke is light. In context, Jesus is probably talking about sin. He is stating that the burden of sin is huge, he offers to take that burden, it is not that you are free to do whatever you like, but that what Jesus asks of you is a much lighter burden than the burden of sin.

Similarly here, Israel was not free to do whatever is wanted or nothing at all, but rather as they trusted in God they would find their task restful.

God does fulfill His promises.

This is the big summary statement. God is faithful, we plan for holiness because God is faithful.

image: Looking up to someone enough to imitate them.

Growing up, one of my sports heroes was Jerry Rice. I loved watching him play but more I loved reading his story. I read about how growing up his father was a mason and he used to help his father lay bricks. He said that his father would toss him bricks and attributed his ability to catch to those days. I remember wanting to start practicing throwing and catching bricks. I was always ma much better quarterback than receiver but I remember always wanting to play wide-receiver. I planned ways to imitate Jerry Rice, not because he had ever given me anything but because he was so good. Holiness is a characteristic of God and we need to imitate God's holiness simply because God is so good.