What famous novel begins: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…”? Dickens begins his classic work, A Tale of Two Cities with this now well-known line, and it fits nicely as an introduction to chapter 18 of Joshua as well. The context of the chapters we have been studying is the dividing up of the land and it has as its bookends the tale of two cities, one given to Caleb and another to Joshua.
Joshua and Caleb were the two faithful spies, the two faithful men who went in to spy out the Promised Land and when everyone else was frightened and discouraged God’s people, Joshua and Caleb trusted and believed what the Lord had told them. We read of Caleb getting the city of Hebron in chapter 14 and then of Joshua getting Timnath-Serah in chapter 18.
Let me draw your attention to the first verse of chapter 18 because it would be easy for us to run by it without much thought, when in reality it illustrates the hallmark for the people of God and the dawning of a new age in redemptive history.
Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.
The people of God go into the land and set up the Tabernacle at Shiloh. Shiloh will be the primary center of Israelite worship until the reign of King David and then of course it will be moved 30 miles south to Jerusalem. But the Ark of the Covenant will remain in Shiloh for about three hundred years until the sins of Eli’s sons forfeit the ark and Shiloh is ruined in the judgment of God.
Moses had told the people that a day would come when the wandering would stop and the Lord would choose a place in the land where He was to be worshipped. Shiloh was the place…for now. It marked victory, it marked security and it marked permanence, and God called his people to worship Him there at that place, now, IN the Promised Land.
The promises of God fulfilled and God in effect, “sat down” at Shiloh and the people gathered to worship. God is always condescending to His people, He comes to us in ways we can understand, He stoops down that He might encourage our faith and to teach us His ways. And when God the Son becomes man we find this truth in its fullness, in its ultimate. Why? Why did God stoop so low as to be born in humility, born under the law, given over to the miseries of this life, to death itself? Why did God stoop so low? Because that is the depth of His love, that is who our God is…He comes down to us, to rescue us and bring us up to Him.
When in the wilderness, God came to them and dwelt with them. But the wilderness did not provide the paradigm for the settled life of the Promised-Land. So, the Lord brings them to Shiloh, and God sits down. But this is not the fullness either. For soon God will move to Jerusalem and to the temple as the types and pictures become more and more pronounced, more and more explicit.
But Jerusalem would not be the final day either. For in the coming of the kingdom in Christ Jesus we have another movement in the great redemptive plan of God. Now the kingdom is not manifest in ONE people, in ONE place of the earth. Worship is not confined any longer by an earthly location. Now in the glorious worship around the throne in heaven we gather with men and women from every tongue, tribe and nation under heaven as Israel, the church, is expanded.
The point of all of this, the point of Shiloh, the point of Jerusalem, the point of the tabernacle and the temple AND the emphatic point of the church today that lives in the fullness of these pictures, and types…is worship.
This is what God told the people in Dt. 12:1-15. They were to go into the land and God would set his name down, choosing a place where He was to be worshipped. The sacraments were to be faithfully set forth and enjoyed. They were to turn away from the Canaanite practices that were all around them, saying no to the worship of false gods and worldly deities and turn to this one place of worship and the One God of redemption.
Their worship, Who they worshiped, how they worshiped and then how they lived in light of the God they worshiped, was to make them distinct, distinct as a people, set apart unto the Lord and to His praise. In other words, the worship of the church is to set us apart as being a distinct people, unlike the cultures around us, not accommodating to the practices of the people of this world in how life is lived and certainly not accommodated to the wants, whims and wishes of how the people of the day WANT to worship.
This is why what is typically meant by “seeker sensitive” worship is so dangerous. Modern worship is often purposed to be in imitation of the culture, seeking to win the culture by becoming like them, especially in worship. But you can easily see that isn’t setting us apart, that is our joining them! Even in our own circles worship is often viewed as a pragmatic issue. Find the demographic you want to reach and worship in a way that they will want to come to your church.
Israel’s worship was to be done joyfully, to rejoice before the Lord and to do so with all their sons and daughters and all who are within their gates, bring them all to the joyful celebration of the covenant people of God, in the manner God has commanded. It was to speak to the people of security as God gives them rest in the land and that rest is to be celebrated in the worship of the people of God.
The first thing that Noah did when he stepped off the ark, was to worship. Solomon’s wonderful prayer for wisdom came after he had spent much time in the worship of God. The Magi, so overwhelmed at the star, had sought the child so that they might worship Him. Peter, when the Lord Jesus filled his nets fell at his feet to worship Him.
Israel had much to do, there was marching and war, the driving out of the enemies of God. There was the dividing up of the land, there was surveying to be done, there were enemies to be fought, they had to raise their children, cook their food. But all that life calls us to, from the everyday to the more profound, flows out of our being a worshipping people. When they worshipped in body and soul, heart and mind, according to God’s prescription, all these other things were blessed.
And when the worship began to lose its heart, or when there were introduced foreign elements to the worship of God, when worship became man-centered, when worship became a going through motions, like a superstition, then all the other parts of life began to suffer as well.
Jeremiah says “If you seek worthlessness…” what do you think it said next? You might think, well, if you seek worthlessness, you will get worthlessness…and I am sure that is correct, very true, but it is not what the Lord said. He said, if you seek worthlessness, you will BECOME worthless. Whatever you seek, whatever you pursue, dare I say whatever you worship, is what you will become like. If you worship man, you will become man centered, you set yourself on the throne, you will become self-centered, and if you set Christ there and pursue Him, you, we become Christ-centered. You will become like, what you seek.
Worship is the substance of life. Shallow worship experiences lead us to a shallow life. And this is why we make much about worship as we do. Like Israel, this is what sets you apart from the world, the information, the formation, the experience of faith is to be for us, as it was for them, a taste and an experience of that which is yet to come… a longing for the permanence of this experience without the distraction of sin which will be ours in the New Jerusalem!
Prayer: Father, I confess that my worship is often distracted and my heart seeks that which brings no peace, no comfort and no consolation. I pray that I would set the glory of my Savior before my heart and mind and that my worship of You through Him would lead me to becoming like my King. Help me to see that it is my calling to worship the Lord in all things and to Worship the Lord with my brothers and sisters, with joy on the Day You have set apart for us, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Psalm: Psalm 95 O Come Let Us Sing Unto the Lord