Latest / Scripture Central / The Courage to Choose Christ | Joshua 1-8; 23-24 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | May 18-24

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The Courage to Choose Christ | Joshua 1-8; 23-24 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | May 18-24 · Scripture Central

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We live in a time when peacemakers are needed.
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I hope that we can have. Faith that from God's
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perspective, he sees things differently.
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There is nobody in this room. There is nobody that we know who
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has gone so far away that the powerful love of Jesus Christ
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cannot reach out, change, transform and redeem them.
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God really is with you. Every year the Oxford Dictionary
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picks the word of the year. It's kind of like the homecoming
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competition for the English language.
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In the year 2024, the word of the year was not faith, hope, or
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charity. It was brain rot.
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I'm not making this up. This literally was Oxford
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Dictionaries word of the year in 2024.
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Nothing says cultural optimism like brain rot.
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And I'll be honest, I wasn't 100% sure what brain rot was.
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So I did a little bit of research and I discovered it's
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what happens when you're endlessly scrolling through
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social media looking for something interesting.
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Brain rot is when your thumb is training for a marathon, but
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your soul is standing still. You're endlessly scrolling and
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never choosing where to focus and that's where the book of
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Joshua comes in. The most famous verse in the
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book of Joshua is Joshua 24 verse 15, where Joshua says
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choose you this day, whom you will serve As for me in my
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house, we will serve the Lord. So today we'll explore five
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stories from the book of Joshua. Plus we'll also look at the
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hardest moral question. Each of these stories that we'll
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explore today invites us to choose today to follow the
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living God. No more scrolling time for
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choosing. So let's start with Joshua
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himself. Can you imagine being picked to
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follow Moses? I mean, that's like following
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Adele in a talent show. Nobody wants to do that.
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So what advice does Moses have as he passes the prophetic baton
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on to Joshua? In Deuteronomy?
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Moses says be strong and courageous, and these words are
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echoed by the Lord in Joshua chapter 1.
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The Lord says to Joshua, be strong and courageous.
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Now these verses sound like a good pep talk.
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Be strong, be courageous. Let's go in Deuteronomy.
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Here's the full passage. Moses summoned Joshua and said
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to him in the presence of all Israel, be strong and
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courageous. The Lord himself goes before you
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and will be with you. He will never leave you nor
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forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be
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discouraged. And the Lord told Joshua, as I
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was with Moses, so I will be with you.
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I will never leave you nor forsake you.
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Be strong and courageous. So the reason why Joshua can be
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strong and courageous isn't because he's the man, it's
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because God is with him. He's courageous not because of
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his own skills or powers, but because of God's covenant love.
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But that doesn't mean that Joshua can just coast.
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God tells Joshua some specific things that he needs to do.
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In verse 8, the Lord tells Joshua, be careful to obey all
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the law my servant Moses gave you.
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Keep this book of the law always on your lips.
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Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do
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everything written in it. So here God is tying Scripture
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to our mouths, what we say to our minds, how we meditate, and
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even to our hands, how we act on the word that we receive.
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And it's interesting that modern science shows that Scripture
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study is a powerful way to feel God's presence.
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A social science researcher named Justin Dyer shared some of
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his recent research. He found that scripture reading
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was related to a more secure attachment to God.
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People who regularly read Scripture trusted God more.
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They felt that God was reliable as they were reading their
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scriptures. That seemed to increase their
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sense that God is never going to leave me.
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These are powerful, actual researched findings that come
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from studying scripture. We feel God's presence.
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Now some of you might be thinking to yourself, this
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sounds like really interesting research.
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I wish I could read the whole study, which granted I've linked
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to the podcast episode and the research study on the course
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website. So God told Joshua that he would
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be with him, and God gives us the same message in a major way
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that God is with us is through the Scriptures that helps us
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feel God's presence. Returning to the conversation
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between the Lord and Joshua, the Lord ends it right where he
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began. He says be strong and
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courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord
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your God will be with you wherever you go.
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So these words apply to Joshua and they apply to us as well.
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Now we won't be going into a battlefield like Joshua, but in
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our own lives, there's going to be times where living with faith
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is not the popular thing to do. It reminds me of one of my
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favorite movies, A Walk to Remember.
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I don't know if you've ever seen this movie.
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It's about a rebellious high school student named Landon.
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He falls in love with a Christian girl named Jamie, and
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at this point in the story, they're not in love with each
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other. In fact, they're on a bus
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together. And Landon is criticizing Jamie.
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He points out all these uncool things that Jamie does, and then
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he says, how does that sound? Jamie responds, thoroughly
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predictable, Nothing I haven't heard before.
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Landon's surprised and asks, you don't care what people think.
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Jamie just says no, smiles and moves to a different seat.
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And Landon is left wondering, how is it possible that Jamie
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doesn't care what other people think about her?
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But Joshua would have known the answer.
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Jamie can be strong and courageous because she has God's
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approval. She doesn't need approval from
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her peers. She knows God is with her.
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So take a moment. Ponder your own life.
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When have you felt God's presence give you courage in a
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moment of fear or uncertainty? There was a somewhat disturbing
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experience that I had had and I had this fear that it was going
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to happen again. And my sweet husband said, I am
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going to give you a blessing, but I want to read you a
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scripture that will help you as you move forward.
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And he turned to Doctrine and Covenants Chapter 6, and he read
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the Scripture. Cast your night, your mind, upon
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the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might
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know concerning the truth of these things.
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Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter?
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What greater witness can you have then from God?
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And he said, You will feel that sweet spirit here tonight, and I
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want you to remember when your heart is troubled, how you felt
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tonight. And I've thought about that
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Scripture so many times over the course of my life, when the Lord
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has spoken, peace to my mind that I can reflect and I can
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remember, and that will give me comfort when I might be
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struggling. Thank you.
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When we read Joshua about be strong, be courageous, that's a
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statement that you can make that anybody's ever called to a
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church assignment. I was called as a Bishop.
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I was, you know, I was called the state president and just you
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just you've kind of lost. And so that gives gives us great
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hope to know that not only are we called, but we're all so
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blessed that the Lord will be with us in our service.
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Thank you. So maybe.
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Let's look inside our hearts right now.
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Think of a challenging situation you're facing.
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If you deeply felt that God was with you, how would help you be
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strong and courageous Now? Maybe everyone in this room is
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doing great. Maybe everyone in this room is
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facing serious challenges. We're all in different places.
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There's probably some people who are a part of this class and and
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maybe our life isn't 100% where it needs to be.
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We need to make some changes and I testify God can give us the
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courage to change. And maybe there's some of us and
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we're doing everything exactly right, but it still feels like
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we're walking through the fire. I testify God really is with
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you. I love these words.
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Be strong and courageous for the Lord.
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Your God will be with you wherever you go.
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Choosing courage isn't about pumping yourself up.
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It's not about blasting ACDC music.
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It's about choosing today to follow a God who says I am with
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you wherever you go. So Joshua chapter 1 ends with a
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call to courage. And in chapter 2, we find it in
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the most unlikeliest of places and the most unlikeliest of
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people, Rahab. So before the Israelites even
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set foot in Jericho, Joshua sends 2 spies into the city.
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They end up in the House of rehab.
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Who's a prostitute? By every outward measure, Rahab
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is on the wrong side of the street.
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She's a Canaanite. She's on the fringes of society,
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but she's the one who shows courage.
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We read The King of Jericho learned that the spies entered
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Rahab's house and sent this message to Rahab.
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Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house,
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because they have come to spy out the whole land.
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But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
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She said yes, the men came to me, but I didn't know where they
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had come from. At dusk, when it was time to
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close the city gate, they left. I don't know which way they
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went. Go after them quickly.
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You may catch up with it. So Rab hid the spies at a great
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personal risk to herself. If the King's soldiers had found
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them, she would have been probably put to death.
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So what gave her the courage to hide the Israelite spies?
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She said, I know that the Lord has given you this land.
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We have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea. 4
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The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth
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below. Do you see the source of her
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courage? It wasn't that she's the boss
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woman, is that she knew who God was.
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She didn't know him personally, but she had heard the stories of
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him, and for her, that was enough.
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And so she asked the Israelites, What protection can you offer
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me? The Israelite spies gave her a
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simple sign. Tie a scarlet cord in your
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window. And that red cord would mark her
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house and spare her family. And I think it's easy to see
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some foreshadowing. Maybe this is a stretch, but
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maybe it's not. One day the blood of Christ,
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another scarlet sign, would mark us for salvation.
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As Isaiah says, though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as
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white as snow. So what happens after Rahab
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joins the Israelites? So Jericho is destroyed, but
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Rahab joins the Israelites, and Matthew tells us that one of
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Christ's ancestors was named Rahab.
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Now, it's possible that it was a different Rahab because there's
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lots of people who are named Rahab.
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But Matthew and his genealogy is listing people that he expects
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that we've heard of, according to Christian.
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In addition, Rahab went from being a Canaanite harlot to
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being the mother of kings. Think about that.
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She goes from the lowest possible place all the way to
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being the great grandmother of King David and the ancestor of
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Jesus Christ. That's the whole gospel in
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action. There is nobody in this room.
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There is nobody that we know who has gone so far away that the
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powerful love of Jesus Christ cannot reach out, change,
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transform and redeem them. We have reminds us that courage
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isn't just for generals like Joshua.
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It's for ordinary people who believe in God.
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Even if they don't know everything.
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They just move forward with faith.
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And I acknowledge it isn't easy because sometimes there's a
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cost. Rahab faced a risk.
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And sometimes you and I are going to face an overflowing
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river. As the Israelites got to the
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Jordan River to cross into the Promised land, they had a
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problem. The Jordan was at flood stage,
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so the Jordan River is wide, deep, and it's moving fast.
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You probably remember that many years earlier the Lord had
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parted the Red Sea and we read that the Israelites crossed
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through the Red Sea on dry ground.
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In other words, the water parted, then they walk through.
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That's how I like to live my life.
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God clears the path and I'll just keep on going.
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But that's not how it was in Joshua.
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Joshua told the Israelites, the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
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of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.
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And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord set
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foot in the Jordan, it's waters flowing downstream will be cut
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off and stand up in a heap. In other words, they had to move
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first. Then after the soles of the feet
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of the priests are wet, the water parts.
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Sometimes we just have to walk into the water expecting that it
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will part. That's a little harder than
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walking through the Red Sea on dry ground, but sometimes that's
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what God asked to do. It reminds me of a story told by
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Elder Richard G Scott. He was working for the Navy in a
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nuclear engineering program. He'd been there for more than a
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decade. It was a very important program.
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And while he was serving in this way, he was called to be a
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mission president. So he told his boss, Admiral
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Rickover, who was a very important person in the Navy,
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that he would be leaving his employment.
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He said as I explained the call and that it meant that I would
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have to quit my job. Admiral Rickover became rather
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excited. He said some unrepeatable
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things, broke the paper tray on his desk, and in the comments
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that followed, clearly established 2 points.
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Scott, what you are doing in this defense program is so vital
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that it will take a year to replace you, so you can't go
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second. If you do go, you are a traitor
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to your country. Admiral Rickover went on to tell
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Elder Scott that if Elder Scott quit, Admiral Rickover would
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never hire another Latter Day St. again.
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So Elder Scott was feeling stuck.
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What do I do? Obviously he wants to follow the
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call that God has given him, but it's a tough situation
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sometimes. God asked us to walk into the
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river and see what happens, and that's what Elder Scott did.
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He started training a replacement moving forward to
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serve the Lord as he'd been called.
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And then he said on the last day in the office, I asked for an
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appointment with Admiral Rickover and a secretary gasped.
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I went with a copy of the Book of Mormon in my hand.
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He looked at me and said, sit down, Scott, what do you have?
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I have tried every way I can to force you to change.
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What is it you have? There followed a very
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interesting quiet conversation. There was more listening this
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time. He said he would read the Book
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of Mormon. Then something I never thought
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would occur, happened. Admiral Rickover said when you
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come back from the mission, I want you to call me.
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There will be a job for you. You and I are going to have our
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own red seas to cross, our own Jordan rivers to get through.
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Sometimes the water parts before we move and sometimes our feet
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have to get wet. And we could ask ourselves what
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gave the priests the courage to walk into the swiftly moving
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current? You've probably already figured
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it out. It wasn't their own power.
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It wasn't their own ability. Remember that when the priests
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stepped into the water, they were carrying the Ark of the
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Lord. The ark wasn't just a box.
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It represented the very presence of God.
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It's another way of seeing what we talked about in Joshua
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chapter one. It wasn't that Israel was strong
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or skilled. God's presence held the river
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back. Now this really happened.
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It happened maybe 3400 years ago, happened a long time ago.
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Let's bring this to us here and now In your life, when have you
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walked into the river and then seen the water park?
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Years and years ago, I was living as a single mom in
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Indianapolis and I'm really wondering, pondering what do I
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do? Where should we be where what
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would be the best place to raise my kids and the best environment
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and feeling that maybe it wasn't where I was.
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And on my knees one night literally saying I will go where
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you want me to go. I will do what you want me to
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do. The next morning I went into the
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office and an e-mail popped up that the position that I had in
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the office office was open in Salt Lake City and things just
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fell into place as only God could put them into place for
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us. I felt I was walking into the
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darkness with every step and wondering, would my kids
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appreciate this move? Would they be happy with it?
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But there were wonderful friends and dear family waiting for us
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in the Salt Lake City area and it ended up being a huge
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blessing to us. But it definitely took walking
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into the darkness without knowing, just with that faith
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that God is there. Thank you.
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I just think it's powerful for us to to see in life.
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Sometimes we just have to walk into the water and it's not
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easy. But our courage doesn't come
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from how awesome we are. Our courage comes from how
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awesome God is when we really believe it.
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That changes everything. Now I want to turn to a lesser
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known but extremely powerful story.
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This is the encounter between Joshua and the commander of the
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Lord's armies. So the Israelites have crossed
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the Jordan River, but they haven't gone to attack Jericho
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yet. As they're moving towards
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Jericho, Joshua looked and saw a man standing in front of him
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with a drawn sword. Joshua asked, Are you for us or
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for our enemies? Neither was the response.
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But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come.
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Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and asked,
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What message does my Lord have for his servant?
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It's a very short change, but something powerful is happening.
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Joshua starts out with the question, are you for us or for
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our enemies? Are you on our side?
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Heaven answers. That's the wrong question.
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Do you see this? Isn't God signing up for
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Joshua's campaign, It's Joshua's signing up for God's.
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That's a life changing difference.
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Joshua pivots from saying I'm in charge to saying I'm your
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servant. He goes from saying God be for
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me to God, I'm for you. And it's only after this pivot
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that the walls of Jericho will come tumbling down.
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Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said my concern is not
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whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is to be on
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God's side. I love an insight from a
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Christian named Barbara Boyd. She's talking about this
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encounter between Joshua and the commander of the Lord's army.
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She said if the 94,000,000 miles.
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Now this again, this is going to take some mass, so bring your
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brain power here. If the 94,000,000 miles between
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the earth and the sun was the thickness of a piece of paper,
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do you realize the distance from the earth to the nearest star
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would be a stack of papers 70 feet high?
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Just the diameter of our little Galaxy would be a stack of
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papers 310 miles high, and our little Galaxy is just a speck of
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the universe, the Bible says in Hebrews 1.
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Jesus Christ holds the universe together with the word of his
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power, she continues. Jesus Christ holds the universe
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together with his pinky. Do you ask somebody like that
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into your life to be your assistant?
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If you ever say to God, I'll obey you.
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If, if you have any ifs, that means you're not obeying at all.
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You're still the master of your life.
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You're still Lord of your life. You're still trying to get him
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enlisted in your army. You're the general, he's the
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Lieutenant. But God says I either don't come
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in at all or I come in as the general.
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So often in my life and maybe in yours.
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I start out like Joshua. I have a plan.
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I know what I need. I come to God and say, hey, are
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you with me? Are you going to help me?
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One day Jesus was talking with a rich young ruler who asked him a
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good question. What must I do to have eternal
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life? Jesus looked at him, loved him,
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and said, Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and
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you will have treasure in heaven.
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Then come follow me. At this the man's face fell.
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He went away sad because he had great wealth.
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Can you see how the rich young ruler is coming to Jesus and
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saying, will you be for my plan? And then just a few moments
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later, Peter said, we have left everything Lord to follow you.
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For Peter it wasn't God be for me, it was God I'm for you.
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Timothy Keller frames it like this.
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Almost everybody comes to God when they have a problem.
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I just broke up with somebody. I have self esteem problems.
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I'm having financial problems. You come with a problem and you
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say I need something. I need someone to help me live
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the life I already know I should live.
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I haven't agenda. I want to know are you for me or
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against me? As long as you're doing that,
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you don't know who you're talking to.
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How do you ask somebody like this into your life to be an
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assistant? You can't talk to God this way.
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The commander of the Lord's host, the real general when you
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come and you say to God, I'd like to believe in you, but will
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you help me with my problems? Will you help me do this and
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that? Jesus says that's the wrong
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question. The point is not whether I'm
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going to be for you or against you, but whether you're going to
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be for or against me. If you come to me conditionally,
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if you say I'll obey you, if you haven't come to me at all, you
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don't even know who I am. Now let's think about some
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concrete scenarios in real life today.
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What would it look like? What would be the difference
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between God be for me versus God I'm for you?
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Maybe we could think about real life situations, relationships,
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career choices, serious setbacks.
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Think of some hypothetical situations.
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What would it look like? What's the difference between
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God be for me and God I'm for you?
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I think about this. God be for me rather than God,
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I'm for you. When I, I get a calling in
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church, I, I'm asked to do like I was asked to be young women's
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president. So I had all these incredible
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ideas and Heavenly Father be with me as I go forth and to
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think now going back to that think, oh, how much more
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effective I could have been and was once I discovered it, that I
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turned to the Lord and said, what do you want me to do?
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He knew those young women much better than I ever would, and
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having him be my leader was the key.
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Thank you I. Have three teenagers and bless
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you. They're actually amazing.
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They're so amazing. But as I watch them start to
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have struggles that I can't fix, I find myself in prayer often.
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Being like this is clearly what's going to be best for
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them. So God like help them see that.
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But I feel Him gently teaching me that He has a road for them
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and a plan for them and He loves them more than I could ever left
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them. And that if I just allow Him to
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work in their lives, the best possible outcome will come.
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And it might not be the outcome that I think is the best for
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them, but it is one that they covenanted with Him in the pre
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existence to fulfill. And He is working a mighty work
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in their lives. And so I need to come on board
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with His plan for them and not tell Him what my plan for them
24:10
is. Thank you.
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As I was thinking about this just this morning actually, I
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was kind of brainstorming some ideas.
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God be for me. Lord, help me get into this
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specific college. Help me land this job.
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Bless my plan versus God. I'm for you.
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Lord, guide me to the path where I can serve you best.
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Shape my desires to match your will or God be for me might look
24:34
like Lord. Please make this person like me.
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Make this relationship work versus God.
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I'm for you. Lord, if this relationship is
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part of your plan, help it grow in love and faith.
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But if it's not, give me the peace to trust your timing.
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One more example, God be for me might look like God.
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Fix this problem, change them, make my life smoother.
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God, I'm for you, Father, use this problem to make me more
25:00
like your son. Give me strength tacked with
25:03
faith even when life stays hard. And so an invitation.
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Think about your own prayer life.
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What would shift in your prayers if you moved from God?
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Be for me to God, I'm for you. Joshua starts out saying, are
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you for us or against us? But he shifts to saying, what do
25:24
you want me to do? That's a shift that we can make
25:26
in our own lives that invites so much of God's power.
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We don't really hear very much more about the conversation that
25:33
Joshua has with the captain of the Lord's host.
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What do you think Joshua felt if the captain told him, hey, I got
25:40
this great battle plan for you. All you got to do is March
25:42
around Jericho, blow some trumpets.
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It's going to be amazing. Joshua trusted in God.
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And sometimes when you make God the true general in your life,
25:53
he's going to tell you to do stuff that you're like, I don't
25:55
know if this is going to work, but over the next several
25:57
chapters we're going to read that the walls of Jericho come
26:00
tumbling down and the Israelites are able to conquer the Promised
26:04
land. Now from one perspective this
26:06
sounds miraculous, but from another perspective it's
26:10
actually part of the hardest moral question.
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We have one more story from Joshua that we're going to
26:16
discuss, but I want to take a moment and think about this
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challenging question. Maybe it's not the hardest moral
26:23
question, but it's got to be one of the hardest.
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The question is why did Jehovah, the pre mortal Jesus Christ,
26:30
condone violence against the Canaanites and other groups?
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If you really believe in Jesus Christ, who said love your
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enemies, we have to kind of wrestle with this a little bit.
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If we go back to Deuteronomy chapter 20, the Lord says in the
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cities of the nations, the Lord your God is giving you as an
26:49
inheritance. Do not leave alive anything that
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breathes completely destroy them.
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The Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, parasites, Hittites,
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and Jebusites as the Lord your God has commanded you.
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For believers in a loving, merciful Christ, this can sound
27:05
disturbing. How does Christ, who said love
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your enemies, give a command that sounds like genocide?
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It's a wrestle, and I want to start with the Come Follow Me
27:14
manual. It says when reading the Old
27:16
Testament, as with any history, you're likely to read about
27:19
people doing or saying things that to modernize seems strange
27:23
or even troubling. We should expect this Old
27:26
Testament writer saw the world from a perspective that was in
27:30
some ways, I might say, in many ways, quite different from ours.
27:34
Violence, ethnic relations, and the roles of women are just some
27:38
of the issues that ancient writers might have seen
27:40
differently than we do today. So what should we do when we
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come across passages in the Scriptures that seem troubling?
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First, it might help to consider each passage in a broader
27:49
context. How does it fit in God's plan of
27:52
salvation? How does it fit with what you
27:54
know about the nature of Heavenly Father and Jesus
27:57
Christ? How does it fit with revealed
28:00
truths and other scriptures, or with the teachings of living
28:04
prophets? In some cases, the passage may
28:07
not seem to fit well with any of these.
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Sometimes the passage may be like a puzzle piece that doesn't
28:13
look like it has a place among the pieces you've already
28:15
assembled. Trying to force the piece to fit
28:18
isn't the best approach, but neither is giving up on the
28:21
entire puzzle. Instead, you may need to set the
28:23
piece aside for a time. As you learn more and put
28:26
together more of the puzzle, you may be able to better see how
28:30
the pieces fit together. It can also help to remember
28:33
that in addition to being limited to a particular
28:36
perspective, scriptural histories are subject to human
28:40
error. For example, over the centuries,
28:43
many plain and precious things were taken away from the Bible,
28:46
including important truths about doctrine, ordinances, and
28:49
covenants. At the same time, we should be
28:52
willing to admit that our own perspectives are also limited.
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There will always be things we don't fully understand and
28:59
questions that we can't answer. So although we're not going to
29:02
be able to completely unravel this difficult question, I want
29:06
to explore a few different possibilities.
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I'm not saying that any of these are the correct answer.
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Maybe all of them are. Maybe none of them are.
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But let's explore some possibilities as to why the Lord
29:17
might have condoned violence against the Canaanites. 1st is
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the reason that the Bible itself gives.
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Let's go back to Deuteronomy chapter 20, right after the
29:27
passage we read earlier. The Lord says otherwise.
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They will teach you to follow all the detestable things they
29:34
do in worshipping their gods, and you will sin against the
29:39
Lord your God. So the Bible itself says that
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the Canaanites were so wicked their evil practices would
29:45
corrupt Israel. In other words, you've got to
29:48
eliminate the temptation so that you can preserve the covenant
29:52
identity. Nephi offers a similar answer to
29:56
the question he explains. Do you suppose that our fathers
29:59
would have been more choice than the Canaanites?
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If the Canaanites have been righteous, I say unto you, nay,
30:04
the Lord esteemeth all flesh, and 1.
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He that is righteous is favored of God.
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The Canaanites had rejected every word of God and they were
30:12
ripe in iniquity. The fullness of the wrath of God
30:15
was upon them. So Nephi says God isn't playing
30:18
favorites. The Canaanites were only
30:20
destroyed because they have rejected God's word.
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And the Bible says the Canaanites were doing some
30:25
pretty serious things like child sacrifice.
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So they were ripe and iniquity. They had to be destroyed.
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Another answer is that alongside the historical details, early
30:37
Christian fathers read these as spiritual accounts as well.
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For example, they might say the Canaanites could typify vices
30:46
that occupy the soul as Israelite devotes them to
30:50
destruction. Christians must eliminate sin,
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So on this reading, the severe warfare language could be seen
30:57
as a summons to repentance, not a license for violence.
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Another possible answer could have to do with historical
31:06
hyperbole. We might wonder to ourselves,
31:09
did the Israelites really kill every man, woman and child?
31:13
In the ancient Near East it was a common practice to talk about
31:16
total annihilation in describing a person or a country's victory.
31:21
In the Bible we see this too. In Joshua 11.
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It says everyone in hot sore they put to the sword.
31:27
He burned hot sore itself. But a generation later we read
31:31
the Lord sold the Israelites into the hands of Jabin, king of
31:34
Canaan, who reigned in hot sore. But I thought everyone in Hot
31:37
sword had been eliminated. We see the same thing.
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Joshua and all of Israel went to Hebron and attacked it.
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They took the city and put it to the sword together with its
31:44
kings, its villages, and everyone in it.
31:46
They left no survivors. But a generation later, Judah
31:50
went down to fight against the Canaanites living in Hebron.
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We see this multiple times. So which is it?
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Totally destroyed or still present.
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And it may be that some of the language in Joshua is
32:03
rhetorical, not literal. It's saying that the Lord
32:06
decisively is breaking the Canaanite power, not that every
32:11
human being is wiped out. Another possibility is God
32:15
speaking to the people in their own language.
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We know that God speaks to us in our own manner of conversation.
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And remember that this is happening more than 3000 years
32:25
ago. So perhaps the Lord's revelation
32:29
is coming in an idiom that sounds familiar to them but not
32:33
to us. What sounds to us like cruelty
32:36
may have been, in their manner of speaking, a way of simply
32:39
saying that God's power surpasses all others.
32:43
So we're hearing, you know, across millennia, across
32:45
cultures, and maybe some things are getting lost in translation
32:49
now. Maybe it's all of these.
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Maybe it's none of these. Ultimately, what I rely on is
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God's higher perspective. In Isaiah chapter 55, we read
32:58
for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways.
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My ways declares the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the
33:04
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
33:08
than your thoughts. From our.
33:10
Perspective. Death is the harshest finality,
33:14
but from God's eternal perspective, things might look
33:17
very different. We know that with Noah and the
33:19
flood, God needed to do a divine reset, and maybe something is
33:23
happening in a similar fashion here.
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But even if we can't resolve every detail of this challenging
33:32
moral question, I. Hope that we can have faith.
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That from God's perspective he sees things differently.
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And for us in the here and now, we know that in modern
33:42
Revelation, Jesus Christ has said renounce war and proclaim
33:47
peace. We know that we live in a time
33:49
when peacemakers are needed. Now, we could end right there,
33:54
but I want to conclude with one more story from the book of
33:57
Joshua. It's about a lesser known hero
33:59
named Caleb. And sometimes it's easy to lose
34:02
track of Caleb because his story spans several books of
34:06
Scripture. Back in Numbers, you might
34:07
remember that Moses sent 12 spies to scout out the promised
34:12
Land. 10 of them came back terrified, saying we can't
34:16
attack those people, they are stronger than we are.
34:19
I want to make it clear that the 10 spies weren't cowards.
34:22
What they saw was genuinely frightening.
34:24
Describing the Canaanites, they said we saw giants and we're in
34:28
our own sight as grasshoppers. Only two of the spies gave a
34:33
positive report, Joshua. The same Joshua that we've been
34:36
talking about today and Caleb, they said do not be afraid of
34:40
the people of the land. The Lord is with us.
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It's the same pattern we've been talking about today.
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They had courage because they knew God was with them, not in
34:49
their own strength, but in God's strength.
34:52
Because of Caleb's faithfulness, God promised Caleb some specific
34:57
territory. He said, I will bring Caleb into
34:59
the land of Hebron and his descendants will inherit it.
35:04
So Fast forward 45 years. Caleb was 40 years old when he
35:08
was one of the 12 spies. Now he and Joshua are the only
35:12
two of the adult Israelites who've been able to enter the
35:15
promised land. Caleb is now 85 years old.
35:18
Now, I don't know about you, but when I'm 85, I think I'm just
35:20
going to be watching a lot of movies.
35:22
That's my main plan. It would have been very easy for
35:26
Caleb to kick back and say I'm going to let the next generation
35:30
take over Hebron because that land was still held by some
35:34
giants. But instead, Caleb said I am
35:36
still as strong today at age 85 as the day Moses sent me out as
35:41
one of the 12 spies. I am just as vigorous to go out
35:44
to battle now as I was then. Now, therefore, give me this
35:51
mountain. I hope that you're marking 1
35:53
liners as you're reading the Old Testament.
35:55
There are so many power phrases, and to me this is one of them.
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Give me this mountain. It would have been easy for
36:04
Caleb to kick back. I'm 85 years old.
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Doesn't matter to me that giants are in the land of Hebron.
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I'll let someone else take care of it.
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No, he didn't shrink from the giants.
36:13
When everyone else said we can't, Caleb said God can.
36:19
Do we feel the same level of excitement to do God's will?
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President Kimball did. He said there are great
36:26
challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met.
36:29
I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord
36:33
humbly give me this mountain. Give me these challenges now.
36:39
How did Caleb have the courage to say, give me this mountain?
36:45
The Lord said about Caleb. Because my servant Caleb has a
36:48
different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him
36:54
into Hebron. When others saw giants, Caleb
36:57
saw God's promises. Why?
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Over and over again, the Bible says Caleb followed God
37:06
wholeheartedly. Think about that word
37:08
wholeheartedly. What does it mean to be in a
37:11
relationship wholeheartedly with all your heart?
37:16
You could probably brainstorm and contrast a relationship
37:20
that's wholehearted. What that looks like compared to
37:23
1/2 hearted relationship. Think about these questions.
37:28
How does the same principle of a wholehearted relationship apply
37:33
to your relationship with God? What would it look like to study
37:36
your scriptures wholeheartedly? And what would you have to give
37:41
up this week if you really gave God your whole heart?
37:46
And so we come back to where we began, not with endless
37:50
scrolling, but with the call to make a choice.
37:54
The book of Joshua is all about choosing to follow Jesus.
37:58
In fact, it's interesting. Joshua and Jesus share the same
38:02
Hebrew name, Yeshua. The Lord saves, and we've seen
38:07
these parallels today. Joshua led the Israelites into a
38:10
promised land, just like Jesus leads us into eternal life.
38:14
Joshua conquered enemies with the sword.
38:16
Jesus conquered sin and death with the cross.
38:19
Joshua gave the people an inheritance of property.
38:22
Jesus offers us an inheritance that can never perish.
38:25
Every story we've looked at today finds its fulfillment in
38:29
Jesus Christ. He's the presence that gives us
38:32
courage. He's the scarlet cord that
38:35
saves. He's the ark who holds back the
38:37
rushing river. He's the commander who demands
38:41
our allegiance. And He's the strength behind our
38:44
cry. Give me this mountain.
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So when Joshua says choose today whom you will serve, the choice
38:52
is clear. What would it look like for you
38:55
to wholeheartedly make that choice today?