READ | SERMON NOTES
Summary l The context of Joshua chapter 5 is that Joshua was standing at the edge of the Promised Land and about to lead the Israelites into battle against the fortified city of Jericho. His heart must have been filled with hopes, dreams and yet uncertainty. We too stand at the edge of our future and contemplate our own personal hopes, dreams and ambitions but also our fears. However, there are two things that can stand in the way of the future that God wants to give to us. The first is our ambition and the second is our fear.
1. Overcoming ambition. Secular wisdom dictates that we need to be powerful to succeed. This is almost satanic in origin as we read in Isaiah 14:12-15 how the heavenly worship leader, the archangel Lucifer (the former name for Satan) craved to be more powerful than God and tried to seize the throne of God with a third of the angels of heaven. But God cast them down to the earth and prepared hell for them. This was the first recorded act of rebellion in biblical history and at its root was pride, envy and ambition. Contrast this with Jesus, who had ultimate power but gave up His right to that power and humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on the cross for us. And so God exalted him and lifted him up and gave Him the Name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow. We see two contrasting responses to power – The first is the way of Satan (and the way of the world), that if you want power, you must seize it. The second is the way of Christ. He had who ultimate power but laid it down for us.
In Joshua chapter 5, Joshua meets a heavenly being (the pre-incarnate Christ himself). When asked if He is for or against Joshua, Christ replies “neither”, but as the Commander of the Army of the Lord, He had come. He was teaching Joshua an important lesson that Joshua had got it all wrong. It was not Joshua who was in charge. It was not about Joshua’s army or strategy. It was not about Joshua. There is only one Commander of the Army of the Lord and He is God himself. God was the one in charge! Joshua understood this and fell on his face and worshipped.
We all want to be in charge, we all want to be the god of our own lives, we all want to be the ones calling the shots. We yearn for power and admiration in all arenas of life, in our offices, in our schools and even in church. We are so easily tempted to seize power if we can. But the God principle that Christ demonstrated on the Cross is that if we give up our power to God, He will give us His power and use us to change the world!
2. Overcoming fear. When US President announced world-wide tariffs on 3 April 2025, the stock markets plunged and we entered into an era of uncertainty and fear. US consumer sentiment reached a new low and we now have a massive trade war. We are living in anxious times but we must remember that there is a greater reality, one where God is still on the throne. (Psalm 46:6-7,10). There are two contrasting realities – Our human reality which is based on what we see around us, what the media say and what our leaders say. Then, there is the God’s reality, the God reality, reality as God sees it. And in that reality, God is always in control and He is always supreme.
This contrast is seen clearly in Joshua chapter 2. Forty years earlier, the Israelites failed to enter the Promised Land because of their fear. Spies had been sent in to spy out the land. Ten of the spies returned and reported only terrifying obstacles. Compared to the giants of the land which they saw, the Israelites were like grasshoppers in their own eyes. Only Joshua and Caleb saw the promise and but the rest of them only saw the problem. Fast forward 40 years and this time the two spies by Joshua into the Promised Land to spy out the land. They entered into Jericho and encountered a prostitute named Rahab. She hides them in her root and lies to her own king that the spies had left. The reason she did so was because she saw the God reality, that God had given Israel the land and she and her people were doomed to defeat. Ironically, it was the enemies of God that saw the God reality, but 40 years earlier, the Israelites could not see it. They could only see their own human reality. It took an enemy of Israel to open the eyes of the spies to the God reality.
The only way to overcome fear is to move from our human reality to see the God reality. Instead of looking at the problems, we need to look at God. Let us run back to Him and ask Him to show us His reality, so that we can walk by faith and not by sight. Let us stop crying to God about the size of our problems, but start speaking to our problems about the size of our God!
We overcome ambition by knowing the God principle. We overcome fear by seeing the God reality!
(Sermon notes by Frances Lim)
PONDER | REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- When we look to the future, what emotions does it evoke?
- Why is it difficult to give up power? What concrete ways can we do it?
- What are the truths that God wants you to believe about your future?
