Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20061008.htm

THE PREINCARNATE MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST
Part X: Applying Christ's Conquering Ministry In Israel's Conquest Of Canaan
(Exodus 23:20-23, 27-33 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Great challenges often exist to making headway in ministry advances in personal ministries or even ministries as a local church body, and they can intimidate or discourage us to give up trusting God to help.
    2. However, as we trust and heed the Lord, God Himself makes headway for us in the process, a lesson appearing in the Preincarnate Christ's ministry in Israel's behalf in the conquest of the Promised Land:
  2. Applying Christ's Overcoming Ministry In Israel's Conquest Of Canaan, Exodus 23:20-33 et al.
    1. While God was giving Moses the Law (Exodus 20:1ff), He announced He would send His Angel before the nation Israel to preserve them in their journey and bring them into the Promised Land, Exodus 23:20.
    2. Now, this Messenger was to be obeyed, for God said, "my name is in him," meaning He was God, Ex. 23:21! This was the Angel of the Lord Whom we learned in past lessons was the Preincarnate Lord Jesus.
    3. Were Israel to heed the Preincarnate Lord, God would be an enemy unto Israel's adversaries, and cut off the Canaanites that impeded Israel's conquest of their Promised Land, Exodus 23:22-23 with Exodus 3:8.
    4. Indeed, God would accomplish this feat in edifying ways as described in Exodus 23:27-30 as follows:
      1. God would cause Israel's foes to be afraid of them before they met in battle, Exodus 23:27.
      2. The Lord would even use hornets to drive out Canaan's inhabitants, which method would minimize any destruction of crops, houses and farm lands so Israel that could inhabit them, Exodus 23:28.
      3. God promised to drive out the inhabitants of the land slowly so the land would not become desolate from a lack of human maintenance nor lest the wild animals multiply against Israel to their harm; God would drive out the inhabitants at the rate the people could manage to their benefit, Exodus 23:29-30.
    5. However, when Israel actually began to face possible battle with Canaan's peoples, instead of trusting and obeying God, all but Joshua and Caleb faithlessly disobeyed the Lord, Numbers 13:30-14:2. Accordingly, God condemned that generation of Israel to die in the wilderness, Numbers 14:22-24 with 26:64-65.
    6. Nevertheless, in the next generation when Joshua led Israel, the Angel of the Lord helped Israel conquer the bulk of the Promised Land (as follows):
      1. When Joshua sent the two spies to Jericho, he learned that the people there already feared Israel due to the report of God's work in their behalf at their crossing of the Red Sea and His helping them defeat the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, Joshua 2:1, 9-11. This fulfilled the promise of the Lord back in Exodus 23:27 to send His Angel, the Preincarnate Jesus Christ, to demoralize Israel's foes.
      2. Then, after Israel had crossed the Jordan and prepared to fight Jericho, the Captain of God's spiritual army of angelic forces, the Preincarnate Christ, appeared to give Joshua battle instructions as to how He Himself would miraculously cause Jerich o's walls to fall to give Israel victory, Jos. 5:13-15; 6:1-5.
      3. Though Israel temporarily failed to heed the Lord in the battle at Ai (Joshua 7), the Lord gave them victory over it in the end when the nation handled Achan's sin that had caused this defeat (Joshua 8).
      4. Israel failed to gain counsel from the Lord to discern that the Gibeonites lived in the land and were not faraway peoples with whom Israel could make a treaty; this led to a treaty with Gibeon (Joshua 9).
      5. However, Joshua was blessed of God for honoring the oath he had made in God's name to protect that alliance, and he was blessed in conquering many other Canaanites with God's help, Joshua 10.
      6. Possibly to avoid additional alliance temptations with the Canaanites, God caused the hearts of the rest of the Canaanites to harden so as to want to fight Israel so Israel defeated them in battle, Jos. 11:19-20.
      7. Joshua thus took the bulk of the land and gave it as an inheritance from the Lord to Israel, Jos. 11:23.
      8. Of special interest to us, Caleb received his inheritance in Judah, for the Lord preserved his strength for war to take the land all during the former, faithless generation's wilderness wanderings, Josh. 14:6-13!
Lesson: When Israel failed to heed and trust the Preincarnate Christ, the nation failed to take and settle the Promised Land out of concern for the huge human obstacles involved; yet, when Israel heeded and trusted Him, she saw Him intimidate her foes, give her victories and sustain the nation in its activities.

Application: May we trust and heed the Lord Jesus Christ in our era that HE might give us ministry blessings and successes in discipling others regardless of the human obstacles we face to the contrary!