Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 4

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 4 - Predestination; Jos 14-17.

Announcements/opening prayer:

Predestination is the work of God the Father before the foundation of the world for every Church Age believer to execute God’s plan, purpose, and will for his life. It is for believer's only.

The purpose in each believer's predestination is to be conformed to the image of Christ. This transformation requires unique circumstances in each believer's life.

By unique we mean the particular circumstances that God directs and allows in the life of each believer. These circumstances and the people in them are masterfully and perfectly designed for only one believer. In them, God’s genius forges a path for that one person in which lessons of faith and tests of faith lead him and only him towards being conformed into the image of Christ.

Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;

Rom 8:30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

The glorious story is told in five words, "foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified."

God knew all who would believe before they were created, before the foundation of the world. The Alpha and Omega knows the end from the beginning. To these believers, before the formation of the world, God fixed a boundary. God set limits upon them in conformity with goodness and light. This limit is a position and all the rights and blessings that go along with that position. They were designated to the position of a saved person.

Foreknowledge: Before the foundation of the world God knew all who would believe and He designated them to the position of a saved person.

We took up an analogy that comes from Kenneth Wuest's work, Bypaths in the Greek New Testament, chapter 13, The Divine Sculptor's Masterpiece.

We may picture a huge quarry of granite which is visited by a sculptor. The quarry is the human race and the Sculptor is God the Father. Imagine that the quarry has all be cut into large granite blocks representing individual men. The Father foreknows which would believe in His Son. To the natural eye, they look no different than the other blocks, but the foreknowing eye of the Father sees something that no other man can see, and He calls out for certain of the blocks. One might wonder at His selection, for so many of them seem to be the least promising of all those from which He had to choose - so many of them are scared, weathered, and cracked.

The Sculptor had a wonderful Son. He has come to the decision that He would like a group of statues all made in the very image of that Son.

Yet, the Father had determined to make some images of His Son, the Lord Jesus, not carved out of granite, but molded from living personalities. He passed angels and chose men.

Heb 2:16

For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.

In order to see this verse in its wonderful context, we will study the second chapter of Hebrews in light of the topic of predestination.

Heb 2:1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Heb 2:2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense,

Heb 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

"disobedience" - parakoh, [parakoe] = to hear alongside, hence a failing to hear.

Adam was warned about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but at the critical time he let that warning pass him by.

Disobedience thus means a failure to hear due to carelessness. Adam was careless. The foundational support for carelessness is a desire for our own will.

Verse one states that we really need to pay attention and so not fail to hear. The phrase "drift away from it," somewhat misses the word pararreo, which means to let slip by or glide by. The passive voice means that we let the words drift by not paying close attention to them and so heeding them. We may have listened to the word in the past, but when the critical time came to apply the word, we let it pass by. In a way we are letting it drift away from us, which does look the same as us drifting away from it, but the emphasis is passive and not active. We let it go rather than actively seeking to run from it.

Heb 2:1-2 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we let it drift by us. For if the word spoken through angels [Law at Sinai] proved unalterable, and every transgression and failing to hear received a just recompense,

The angels gave revelation of God's message in the OT and now Jesus Christ has given revelation of God's word to the NT saints. In chapter one the author made it clear that Christ was far higher than angels. In chapter two his argument is that if the revelation given by angels, which amounts to the Mosaic Law, was unchangeable and their failing to hear it and letting it drift by them by not heeding it with great attention brought upon them swift recompense, then how much more will we not escape such recompense if we fail to heed and let drift by the word of our Lord?

Heb 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

In the Lord's message, which is not in the Mosaic economy, is that NT believers are predestined as sons with a divine purpose. The revelation that came through the Son carries heavier obligations and a heavier recompense.