The Legacy of a Great Leader (Joshua 1:1-21)
INTRODUCTION:
As we come to the first chapter of the book of Judges, it is for us like a preface to the rest of the book. It sets the stage for us; it informs us of the circumstances that took place shortly after the death of Joshua. It prepares us for the rest of the book. It is like reading the back of a book and it just gives you enough details so that you want to read the rest of the book.
As we come to this first chapter, we come to an event that changes everything, these types of events happen in the lives of all people and all nations. Like when that first child is born, the lives of his or her parents are changed forever. This is not only true of birth, but also of death, the death of a parent or grandparent can affect a whole family. One commentator called these types of events “boundary events” because they are moments of irreversible transition. For a nation it might be the passing of a great leader that profoundly affects that nation, a sudden sense of loss, a knowing that change will result from the void created by the leader’s death.
This is what we have in the opening verses of Judges, a boundary event, Joshua has died. Consider what had been accomplished under the leadership of this man, he had brought the nation of Israel into its promised inheritance. Joshua was not just anyone, he had been chosen by God to succeed Moses and to lead the people of Israel into the promised land. He had been a man of great importance to the nation of Israel. It was by his personal example of courage, faith in God, and military leadership that he had led the people in breaking the backbone of the Canaanite power in the land of promise, making it possible for them to claim their inheritance from the Lord. Moses had led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness, then at the banks of the Jordon Joshua took over having been commissioned by Moses to be the next leader. But no such leader had been trained to take the reins after Joshua. There was a leadership vacuum and because of it, Israel was in crisis. Let’s pray and then read our passage for today.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Judges 1:1-21, our passage for this morning. Please stand, if you are able, in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
Judges 1:1-21,
“Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?’ The Lord said, ‘Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.’ Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, ‘Come up with me into the territory allotted me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted you.’ So Simeon went with him. Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. Adoni-bezek said, ‘Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.’ So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there. Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. Afterward the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country and in the Negev and in the lowland. So Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai. Then from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher). And Caleb said, ‘The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah for a wife.’ Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife. Then it came about when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Then she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water.’ So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. The descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people. Then Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. And Judah took Gaza with its territory and Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory. Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had iron chariots. Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had promised; and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak. But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.” (Judges 1:1–21, NASB95)[1]
THE INFLUENCE OF JOSHUA (Judges 1:1-3)
Even though Israel was in crisis because of the loss of their great leader, not all was loss because Joshua had left a legacy, the influence that he had on this nation far outlived him, and the influence that he had on the nation and the legacy that he left was God centered. Some leaders influence a nation, not for good but for evil. That was not the case with Joshua, he had modeled a godly life and the influence of that godly life carried over to the nation. Speaking of this influence, this legacy left by Joshua, the author of Judges writes in Judges 2:7, “The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel.” (Judges 2:7, NASB95)[2] Joshua had charged the people near the end of his life to serve the Lord only, and his life was an example of serving the Lord and even after he died the people followed his example of godly living. As we look at the rest of our passage, we will see several ways that Joshua’s life impacted and influenced the lives of the Israelites.
We have all seen what disunity can do to a family, there are many reasons that the harmony of a family can be broken. Maybe it is harsh words that hurt or selfishness on the part of one member. It happens often if a will is disputed, and feelings are hurt, and bitterness sets in, and the damage and the broken relationships can last for generations. This can also happen in a nation if leaders maintain power by pitting factions against one another. This almost happened in Israel when Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned to their inheritance on the other side of the Jordon. On their return they built an altar on the banks of the Jordon and the rest of Israel heard about it and thought these three tribes were turning from the Lord, building their own altar rather than coming to the Lord’s altar at the tabernacle. The rest of Israel was ready to march in war against them, but before they did that Joshua sent a delegation to the three tribes on the other side of the Jordan, the delegation was Phinehas the priest and one leader from each of the tribes of Israel to demand an explanation for this altar. Reuben, Gad and Manasseh explained that they were not turning from the God of Israel, but that the altar was a witness that they too belonged to Israel, so that future generations could not say that the Jordon was Israel’s boundary and those three tribes had no part with Israel, it was to remind Israel that just because the inheritance of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh was on the other side of the Jordon, they were still part of the nation of Israel. By sending this delegation Joshua avoided a civil war that would have divided the nation and instead it was unified even more. When Joshua died he left a nation that was unified, when that vacuum created by his death appeared we do not see the different tribes vying for power and control, instead they followed the godly example of Joshua and verse one tells us that “…the sons of Israel inquired of the LORD…” (Judges 1:1b, NASB95)[3] As a leader Joshua had drawn the people together rather than pitting them against one another, there was unity of purpose and that unity is the mark of a great leader.
Joshua as the leader of the people of Israel stood out from others as a leader, in part this was because Moses had named him as his successor and because the Spirit of God was on him. The Israelites recognized that God had given him the authority to lead them, and they respected that authority. Joshua never claimed in his lifetime that he was Israel’s supreme leader or that he had the last say or that they would be lost without him. Instead, he always directed the people to the LORD as the one to whom all were accountable, including himself. Joshua made it clear that their true leader was the LORD. Even though there was a hole, a boundary event, when Joshua died, the Israelites knew that they were not leaderless and they followed the example given to them by Joshua, they inquired of the LORD seeking direction from their Supreme leader. They understood that they were His people, His army. Joshua had never made himself out to be greater than God, but instead always made clear that God surpassed him in every way and this fact that God was the Supreme leader was a central part of his legacy that he left to the Israelites, and they continued to look to God as their leader even after Joshua was no longer with them.
It is not clear from the passage how the Israelites inquired of the Lord, most likely it was at the Tabernacle and through the high priest. According to Numbers 27:18-21 this is how Joshua had been given instructions from the Lord. Those verses say, “So the Lord said to Moses, ‘Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and commission him in their sight. You shall put some of your authority on him, in order that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey him. Moreover, he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his command they shall go out and at his command they shall come in, both he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation.’” (Numbers 27:18–21, NASB95)[4] Whether the response to their inquiry of what tribe should lead them in battle was by the Urim and Thummim or a spoken oracle from the high priest, their inquiry was answered. What is most important about this, is not how the inquiry was made, or how they were responded to, but the attitude of the people that it reveals. The people recognized that the LORD was their Supreme Leader and inquired of Him, just as Joshua had done and they believed that just because Joshua was gone that did not mean that God had abandoned them. Again, from this attitude and the manner of their inquiry we see the impact Joshua made on their lives.
There is one other aspect in these first three verses that again shows us the influence that Joshua’s leadership had upon the nation, it too is related to the unity that Joshua sought to have among the people, unifying them as a nation and not just a group of tribes. This third aspect has to do with Joshua’s leadership example to the people of teamwork. Joshua was a man who knew how to delegate responsibility and to work cooperatively with others to accomplish a task, and this is seen in his leadership. Over and over in the book of Joshua we see him sharing his leadership with Eleazar the priest and with the elders of Israel, those who were heads of families and tribes. The phrase “he and the elders of Israel” mentioned over and over in the book of Joshua reveals how Joshua shared his leadership with these men. Joshua modeled to the people of Israel team leadership consulting with the LORD, the high priest, and the elders, this example put humility, trust, and cooperation ahead of self-seeking, personal status, and competitiveness. Joshua knew that these men would bear the responsibility of the nation once he left the scene, and this first chapter shows just how much their understanding of this was due to Joshua’s leadership style. He left a legacy that not only impacted the elders of Israel but the whole nation.
Under the leadership of Joshua, the Israelites in a series of military campaigns had broken the backbone of the Canaanite resistance and then the land had been divided up by lot, giving each tribe a specific part of the land as its inheritance from the Lord. But when Joshua delivered his farewell speech, he had told the people there was still a lot of work to be done. Though they had broken the main resistance, there were still Canaanites living in the allocated territories and each tribe faced the challenge of taking full possession of the inheritance assigned to them and establishing a presence there. This was not going to be an easy task, some areas would be harder than others, especially if the Canaanite population were large and they had fortified cities. Some tribes were smaller and less equipped than others to carry out this task. They would have to work together to accomplish this task, and that is what we see happening in the first half of Judges 1.
When the Israelites inquired of the Lord who should go up first to fight against the Canaanites? The Lord responded that the tribe of Judah should go up first and the Lord promised that the land would be given into their hand. In verse three we see the sons of Judah following Joshua’s leadership style of teamwork. Instead of just going up, they asked the tribe of Simeon to go up with them to fight the Canaanites on Judah’s inheritance and in turn they would go up with Simeon to fight the Canaanites on their allotted inheritance. Let’s do this together forming an alliance that should have been an example to the rest of the nation as they began to take their inheritance from the enemy. The way ahead of them would be difficult but the fact that they started out this way working together was a good sign and another indication of the influence that Joshua had left on the nation.
THE BLESSING OF GOD (Judges 1:4-21)
The godly legacy that Joshua left the nation of Israel was good, but it was not the fundamental cause for the success that the men of Judah and those associated with them experienced. Their success was in God, not in their ability, just as Joshua’s achievements were never attributed to him but to the God whom he served. Even Joshua viewed what was accomplished during his lifetime this way, he said to the Israelites in Joshua 23:14, “Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.” (Joshua 23:14, NASB95)[5] God had been faithful, the promises He made, He had kept. The same was true now, He promised to deliver the land into the hands of Judah, and He did. God does not send His people into battle without being with them. He blesses those He sends with His presence and His help. The real reason that Judah was successful had nothing to do with their strategy, or their military power, or their unity and alliance with Simeon, their success was the evident blessing of God upon them and the fulfillment of His promise that He would give the land into their hand.
Within these verses we find two events that show to us the blessing of God at a closer range. Instead of just sweeping across Judah and Simeon’s campaigns, the author zooms in on two events to give us a closer look at what was happening. The first scene zoomed in on is military; the second is domestic.
The first joint campaign of Judah and Simeon was at Bezek, not far from Jerusalem. The result of this campaign was a massive victory. The author writes in verses 4-7, “Judah went up, and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. Adoni-bezek said, ‘Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.’ So they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.” (Judges 1:4–7, NASB95)[6] Only one verse, verse 4 reports the battle and it is not the battle that the author wants to dwell on, he quickly narrows his focus to one man, Adoni-bezek (Lord or ruler of Bezek) and he shows us what kind of man he was and the fate he suffered. It is a violent and gruesome passage, but understand it is not about revenge. The Israelites had not suffered at the hands of this man. By his own admission, many others had suffered because of him and now God brings judgment upon him and just retribution for what he has done. From this short narrative we see that much more is happening here than God giving the land to Israel, He is also judging the Canaanites, especially their rulers, for their evil lifestyles. In the present case, Judah and Simeon are the agents but it is clearly God’s doing. God is the one who gives this evil ruler into their hands, and what they do to him in cutting off his thumbs and big toes is God’s judgment on him. This is the flip side of God’s blessing to his people; they share in His judging of the world. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:2 that the saints will share in judging the world.
What are we as believers to make of this form that God’s justice took in this particular case, especially in view of Jesus command to love our enemies and do good to them? First, as already stated, this is not an act of revenge on the part of the Israelites. Not only is it not revenge, it is a principle of justice that was in the Law of Moses, he had written in Leviticus 24:19-20, “If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.” (Leviticus 24:19–20, NASB95)[7] The responsibility to carry this out this kind of justice was to be carried out by the judges appointed in the land for administering justice, it was not to be carried out by private individuals because then it becomes revenge. There was possibly no judicial process in this case, that is the nature of warfare; it delivers justice in situations where the normal process of justice has broken down. The justice received by Adoni-bezek was just in view of the suffering he had inflicted to seventy other rulers. He even admitted that it was just retribution from God.
The New Testament clearly forbids revenge, we are to leave that to the Lord who has appointed governing authority to carry out justice. We saw this truth in our study of Romans, this justice now belongs to the state. The truth taught in this passage is that cruel tyrants are not all-powerful. If they do not repent, God will one day call them to account, and we his people will share in God’s victory over them.
The second event in which the author zooms in on is in verses 11-15 and the blessing of God is more immediately apparent. This scene is not about a cruel tyrant who gets what is coming to him, but instead it is about a young man who is awarded for his bravery. The author writes, “Then from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher). And Caleb said, ‘The one who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will even give him my daughter Achsah for a wife.’ Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for a wife. Then it came about when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Then she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water.’ So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.” (Judges 1:11–15, NASB95)[8] Caleb, remember was an associate of Joshua. He and Joshua were the only two of the twelve spies who spied out the land to tell the people to go up and take the land. Caleb was commended by the Lord as one having a “different spirit” and one who fully followed the Lord (Numbers 14:24). So, Caleb’s daughter had a rich heritage, which she brought with her when she became the wife of Othniel. From verses 14 and 15 we also learn some more about Achsah, we learn that she is a practical woman who is not afraid to ask for what is needed. She presses her husband to ask Caleb for a field for her dowry. When the field given is in the Negev, the southern part of the land of Israel, a dry area, she herself asks her father for a blessing of springs to irrigate the land. She knows what is needed and she makes a reasonable request. Her father does not take offense at her boldness but gives her what she asks for. The picture that we have at the end of this narrative is of the desert blooming. Not just victory in battle, but marriage, land, and fertility—the rich blessing of God. Othniel is truly a blessed man. Caleb, who blessed Othniel and Achsah with their inheritance, receives the inheritance promised to him by Moses, he receives the city of Hebron, a fitting reward for a lifetime of fully following the Lord.
Not everything is perfect we see as we come to the end of this passage. There is some information given that tells us that not everything went according to plan. More will be said about this later in the chapter. Darker days are ahead. But the overwhelming truth of these first 21 verses is the faithfulness of God to His promises. The first part of verse 19 says, “Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country.” (Judges 1:19a, NASB95)[9] Israel’s experience in the time immediately following Joshua’s death was a time of abundant blessing.
CONCLUSION:
As I begin to wrap this message up, I want to look at a couple of things that I believe are significant in this passage. First, going all the way back to the beginning of this passage and the response of the Lord to the inquiry of the people of Israel as to who should lead them. The Lord’s response was Judah. This response is loaded with significance, and it should not surprise us because when Jacob blessed his children in Genesis 49, he had made clear that Judah was destined to lead his brothers, to lead the nation of Israel. Until this time Israel’s leaders were not from Judah. Moses was from the tribe of Levi; Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim. In the longer term the leadership that Israel would need to bring them into the full enjoyment of their inheritance would come from Judah, not just the tribe with that name, but from one who would arise from it, a man after God’s own heart, and this statement made at the beginning of Judges is in effect an announcement that the time has come for that to begin to happen. Not only did this tribe lead out after the death of Joshua, but the first judge to appear in this book is from Judah, you have already met him, his name is Othniel. So, we begin to see something in the opening verses of Judges that has its outworking in David and eventually in Jesus, the great Son of David, Israel’s Messiah, and the One hailed in the book of Revelation as “the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.” (Revelation 5:5b, NASB95)[10]
This passage has been about the legacy of a great man, Joshua made a huge impact on his generation, and he left behind people who worked together, called on God, moved at His command, and experienced His blessing. They were able to cope with his death because he had prepared them for the challenges they would face. We have this opportunity as parents and grandparents to leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we all share in an even greater legacy then that left by Joshua. For the church of which we are a part is the legacy of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the fruit of His work, and it still impacts the world that we live in. When the church honors the Lord and is obedient to His Word, His abundant blessings are evident, and it brings glory to God. God does provide leadership for His people, but more importantly than the human leaders He provides is that God is faithful. Human leaders come and go, and rise and fall, but God remains. The larger purpose of God has now been realized in the Lord Jesus. He is our Supreme Leader, the Perfecter of our faith, He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. We must focus on Him; we must go forward in His name. If we do, we will not only be richly blessed but, like Joshua, we will leave a rich legacy to those who come after us.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.