Joshua the son of Nun
September 17, 2011 - Crossroads
Joshua 24:31
Introduction
- Who in the Old Testament had no father or mother?
- Hoshea the son of Nun - Num 13:8
- Hoshea means "salvation"
- In old testament days, a person's name often related to how the person lived
- frequently God changed people's name when there was a major change in their life
- This happened in this case
- Moses changed Hoshea's name to Jehoshua or Joshua - Num 13:16
- The name Joshua means "Yahweh saves"
- The first part of the name is Jah meaning God or Yahweh
- The second part of his name comes from hebrew Yasha meaning savior, deliverer, help, preserver, avenger, defender, rescuer, one who gives victory and relates to being liberated, victorious in battle, saved from and victorious in moral troubles
- this evening we will take a brief look at the life of Joshua
The early days
- Joshua grew up in Egypt
- He experienced the hardships of slavery to the Egyptians
- He had not known Moses Prince of Egypt, that was in the history books as far as he was concerned, as he was born after Moses had gone into exile in Midian, having killed a man
- He witnessed the miracles, the plagues on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea
- One day Moses came out of the desert, and told Pharaoh, let my people go
- Joshua was probably in his 20's at the time
- The Amalekites attacked the Israelites soon after leaving Egypt
- Joshua must have been a young man with leadership potential, because he is chosen to lead the Israelites in battle against the Amalekites - Exodus 17
- He is victorious, because God gave him the victory
- After this battle, the next time we hear of Joshua, is that he is Moses's minister or personal servant
- Moses is training or mentoring Joshua. Note that Joshua is in his early 20's, Moses is over 80
- Not long after this the Israelites are at Sinai
- Moses and Joshua go up the mountain where Moses meets God, Joshua waits patiently for him
- The Israelites made a golden calf, an idol and God rejects the Israelies
- Moses sets up a tent, the tent of meeting, where Moses meets with God, personally
- Joshua, Moses' aide stays at the tent of meeting, even after Moses goes back to the camp
- Later on, in his early 60's, Joshua is one of the spies sent to checkout the land of Canaan, the promised land
- He is positive and believes God will give them victory
- The rest of the 12 spies, apart fro Caleb, were scared of the inhabitants
- Joshua then became the leader who brought the Israelites into the Promised nLand
Joshua's characteristics
- 1. Joshua was a man of courage
- as a 20 year old he led a battle against Amelek
- He recognized the victory came because Moses was praying for him, and God turned the tide of battle
- 2. Joshua was humble
- Joshua was prepared to be Moses' assistant or aide
- He could have been a leader in his tribe, the Ephraimites
- Instead, he chose to be a helper for an 80 year old man
- 3. Joshua was close to God
- When Moses met God in the tent of meeting, Joshua was there, and he did not leave, even after Moses went back to his tent
- Joshua kept his eyes on what God could do
- He had faith that God would come through
- He exercised that faith in the actions he took and God came through with the goods
- He taught the people he was leading, to follow God too
- All the days of Joshua, people followed God, because they had a leader who set the right example
Conclusion
- Joshua lived up to his name
- His name meant "God who saves, delivers, and gives the victory"
- He lived his life as a testimony to that name being true
- We too have a name
- Our name is Christian, from the greek Christianos
- This name means a "follower of Christ"
- I want to live my life as a follower of Christ, doing what he does, speaking what he speaks, staying in step with him every day of the week.
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