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Joshua 1-24: a Prophetic Overview

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Joshua 1-24: a Prophetic Overview Joshua 1-24: A Prophetic Overview Proposition: The events of Joshua’s life parallel the events of the Lord Jesus (Je-shua) as He takes back planet earth. There are a few of us in this church who love Bible prophecy. I am definitely one of them. I have preached through the book of Revelation twice, preached through the book of Daniel once and covered the NT prophecies found in the gospels and letters. People have been stunned by how accurate the prophecies of the Old Testament are, over 400, most of which pointed to where Jesus would be born, what His ministry would entail and even the manner of His death. The fascinating thing about Bible Prophecy however is not the sheer number of prophecies that pointed to Jesus’ first coming but the greater number of prophecies that point to His second coming. Chuck Missler, arguably the greatest Bible scholar of our time says that 1/3 of the Bible is in fact Bible prophecy. And so even if you are not keen on prophetic literature, you can’t avoid it unless you delete 1/3 of the Bible. Many Bible prophecies point to the day when Jesus will call the church up to Himself, how He will put on a feast for them in Heaven for 7 years while on earth the Christ rejecting people that remain will experience the awesome power of His Holy anger. After a while the church will return with Him from Heaven; there will be a mighty battle in the valley of Megiddo, Armageddon, Satan and his supporters will be locked away for 1000 years and Jesus will set up His reign on the earth in Jerusalem and we will be given areas of the planet to govern, for the millennium. I used to think that there was only one Bible prophecy that needed to be fulfilled before the rapture of the church. That is that Christ will be preached to all nations and all peoples. I used to believe that until I read Revelations 14 where it says an angel will preach the gospel to every people group before the return of Jesus during the 7 years of tribulation. Every Bible prophecy that needs to be fulfilled before the rapture of the church has already been fulfilled. The fig tree blossoming, Israel becoming a nation again was the last one. Which means that you and I get to live in this state of expectation. The church could be raptured before I finish my sermon, or it could be as late as May 2048, being one generation after the fig tree has blossomed. Jesus wants you and me to know Bible prophecy and to recognise and to live as if He is coming again today. There is a story of a little 4-year-old girl whose mother was a woman of God. On this particular day this little girl made the decision to follow Jesus and to love Him for the rest of her life. Her mum was just so happy so she stopped in at the ice-cream shop on the way home for a treat. “Honey” the mum said, as they sat eating ice-cream. “Are you sure that you want to go to Heaven and meet Jesus one day?” “Yes”, came back the definite reply. “But I would like to finish eating my ice-cream first.” That little girl was ready to be beamed up that day. And that is the kind of expectation that we are meant to live with. Live every day as if the rapture could happen today and you will never regret it. The apostle John says that whoever has this hope, purifies himself even as Christ Jesus is pure. In other words, if you believe that today, could be the day, and your head is up, and your heart is expecting, that will bring a sharpness to how you live and great wisdom. With the expectation of the rapture in your heart you will find that you don’t want to mess around with sin and foolishness, because today might be your last day to serve the Lord. There is also a peace that comes into your life when you consider Bible prophecy and live with an expectation of the imminent rapture of the church. Jesus said; don’t let your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions and I am going to prepare a place for you. You purify yourself and you have supernatural peace when you live as if today is the day that He will call us up to Him for the wedding feast of the Lamb. 1 Friends, when I hear of bizarre weather patterns on the news my heart gets excited, because Jesus said it would be a sign of that the end was approaching. Jesus said that in the last days people would fear the rising of the sea. Weekly, in our generation I hear that fear. The Bible prophesies a cashless society. Something that was unthinkable until 20 years ago. I remember reading the book of revelation as a teenager and it says that when the two witnesses are raised back to life the whole world will see it. Back then I thought, yeah right. Since then I have watched a lot of news, CNN, BBC world etc. And the whole world can watch a single event. When we use the Bible as the key to interpreting Bible prophecy, you don’t start reading 666 on jam jars or whacky things. You get a real picture of what is to come and you can’t help being excited. Over the past year we have been studying the book of Joshua and we have seen that the Promised Land is a type of, a picture of the Spirit filled life we live now. And in that regard, it is hugely helpful. But there is another way to look at Joshua that also builds in us an expectation of the end times and the return of Jesus. And that is to see Joshua in his 7-year conquest of the land of Canaan paralleling our Joshua and His conquest of planet earth. 1. JOSHUA’S CONQUEST OF CANAAN PARALLELS JESUS’ CONQUEST OF PLANET EARTH. You will recall that Joshua and Jesus are the same name just as John and Honi are the same name. But Jesus and Joshua don’t just have the same name, they have parallel functions. In the book of Joshua we see a Godly leader, taking the people out of the desert into the Promised Land. A land that had been promised to Abraham for His descendants, but a land that had been overrun by other nations in their absence while they were in captivity in Egypt for 400 years. These nations had no legal right to be there in God’s eyes. It wasn’t their land but they acted as if it was and Joshua had to defeat them and take back control of Canaan. In the same way. Jesus said that the prince of this world is Satan. Paul called Satan the god of this age. You will recall how the earth had been put under the authority of Adam and Eve, our representatives, our champions in the Garden of Eden. They blew it and put themselves under Satan’s authority. Ever since then Satan has caused famine, disease, rape, division, violence, weeds and earthquakes. Those things are evidence, or consequences to the fact that the title deed to planet earth has been lost. Jesus Christ died on the cross, defeating Satan and legally taking back the title for the planet. Joshua took 7 years to clean up the land and to establish Israel’s rule on it. Our Je-shua we read in Rev 6-19 will also take 7 years to deal with a Christ rejecting world harshly before the church will return with Christ to rule and reign for 1000 years. 2. IN JOSHUA 3:10 WE HAVE LISTED THE 7 REMAINING KINGDOMS OF AN ORGINAL 10 NATION ALLIANCE (GEN 15) THAT JOSHUA WILL DEFEAT. IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION JESUS DEFEATS A 7 NATION ALLIANCE (FORMED OUT OF THE OLD ROMAN EMPIRE IE EUROPEAN UNION) THAT WAS ORGINALLY A 10 NATION ALLIANCE. The antichrist is going to rule this alliance of the nations in the end times. He is not going to be grotesque like some image from Hell’s pizza. The antichrist will be handsome, charismatic, a powerful speaker and appear at least at first to be a peace maker. In Joshua 10 we read of Jerusalem’s pagan king called ADONIZEDEK; WHICH MEANS “THE LORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS” What a name for this pagan king. The Lord of righteousness. 2 He rules Jerusalem. The name of the city Jerusalem is derived from two words; Jehovah meaning God and Shalom meaning peace. Adonizedek is portrayed as the opposite of Melchizidek. Hebrews 7 tells us that Melchizideck was Jesus pre the virgin birth. Melchizedeck or Jesus is the true king of righteousness and the king of peace. When Abraham met him in the desert he offered Melchizedek tithes and worship. Melchizedek in return gave Abraham bread and wine, which are the symbols of ..... communion. 3. ADONIZEDEK WILL PERSECUTE THOSE WHO CHOOSE JOSHUA’S SIDE (THE GIDEONITES) JUST AS THE ANTICHRIST WILLPERSECUTE THOSE WHO PUT THEIR FAITH IN JESUS AFTER THE RAPTURE. In Joshua 9 the Gibeonites tricked Joshua into forming an alliance with them. They saw that God was with Joshua and the Israelites and they wanted to live, so they dressed up ambassadors, in old clothes, and put mouldy bread in their saddle bags and begged Joshua for an alliance.
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