Alright brethren, let's go to
Joshua chapter 15. Joshua 15. Verse 15, it says, And Caleb
went up thence to the inhabitants of Debar. And the name of Debar
before was Kerjoth Cepher. And Caleb said, He that smiteth
Kerjoth Cepher, and taketh it, To him will I give Aixa, my daughter,
to wife. And Othniel, the son of Kenaz,
the brother of Caleb, took it. And he gave him Aixa, his daughter,
to wife. And it came to pass, as she came
unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field.
And she lighted off her ass, and Caleb said unto her, what
wouldst thou? who answered, Give me a blessing,
for thou hast given me a south land. Give me also springs of
water. And he gave her the upper springs
and the nether springs. This is the inheritance of the
tribe of the children of Judah according to their families. This text here, God's fulfilling
the covenant promise He made to Abraham over 470 years before this. He had promised Abraham that
He would give this land, and He had just given Judah their
portion in Canaan, and He gave Hebron to Caleb, the land of
that powerful people, the Onyx, And God had promised it. He said
He would and God did it. He did it. God our Father saves
by covenant promise. He saves by covenant promise.
It's a covenant that's not between God and men. It's a covenant
between God the Father and His Son and the Spirit of our God. God purposed to exalt His Son
in the hearts of His people. He purposed to do that, to lift
Christ up in our hearts. That's how He's going to destroy
our wisdom. That's how He's going to destroy our understanding
and our leaning to our flesh and keep us walking after Christ
alone. He's going to exalt Christ in
our hearts. That's what He keeps doing from
the beginning. He makes Christ to be the wisdom
of God unto us, makes Him to be the power of God unto us,
And He keeps working this in the hearts of His people. This
is how our wisdom is put down. He makes you behold that God
the Father sent His Son who fulfilled His will. fulfilled his purpose,
and is fulfilling his will and his purpose, so that nothing
is out of order, nothing is out of step, he's working it all
exactly according to God's purpose. And it shuts us up to Christ
to trust him. And he makes you know that for
Christ's sake, God the Father has given us everything he promised
to his people. This is why Paul said all the
promises of God in him are yes and in him amen. And to the glory
of God by us. That's what he's doing right
here. He's fulfilling a promise that he made to Abraham over
470 years before. He told Abraham that his children
would be in bondage in Egypt. God brought it to pass. He told
him he would send a deliverer and bring them out. He brought
them out. Out to the very year He said He would do it, to the
day He said He would do it. And He said He would deliver
them into the land of Canaan. And here they are now being delivered
because God fulfills His covenant promise. Now, we have this typified
in our text, how God makes Christ wisdom to us and destroys our
wisdom, destroys our understanding. First of all, the city that Caleb
purposed to conquer, it typifies the enemy Christ saves us from. This city pictures the enemy
that Christ saves us from. It says in verse 15, he went
up thence to the inhabitants of Debar. And the name of Debar
before was Kerjoth Cepher. Debor was named Kerjoth-Sipher
before and it had another name in scripture, Kerjoth-Sana or
Suna. Kerjoth-Suna, Kerjoth means the
city of. And this word means the city
of the book. The city of the book. That's
what it means. Now, Debor, these descendants
of Ishmael, the Arabs, were seekers of knowledge, science, and they
liked knowledge. They liked earthly knowledge
and earthly wisdom. And Debar was the seat of that
knowledge. This is where they kept all their
records. This is where they had a great library. This is where
they kept all this knowledge that they had accumulated. They
kept it on record in this place in Debar. So all the wisdom of
the Ishmaelites It was written and it was all there deeper.
It typifies the fallen sin nature, thinking ourselves wise, seeking
every form of knowledge except the true and living God, except
Christ our wisdom. John Gill points out that the
name Sanna or Sunni. You heard of the Sunnis? You
heard that in the news, the Sunnis among the Arabs? It signifies law, doctrine, and
manner of life. It was a secondary book. It's
called the City of the Book. It was a secondary book that
was a supplement to the Koran, a secondary law. Legalism, free will, fundamentalism,
likes to try to supplement grace with the old covenant law. To
mix law and grace. And it's not grace at all. It
ceases to be grace. The law is not of faith. It ceases
to be grace. You know how the Jews have a
book called the Mizna, that is a secondary book written by men
that's supposed to supplement the law. And so many churches
have creeds and different things written by men that's supposed
to supplement the word of God. And they usually end up taking
precedent over the word of God. This city here pictures the corrupted,
spiritually depraved, proud mind in every center. Natural wisdom
cannot know God. Natural wisdom thinks it just
makes good sense to mix the law with grace. And God has to teach
us. This typifies the city that God
conquers in us. that He has to conquer in us
and He has to keep putting down these inhabitants of Debar in
us when He makes Christ's wisdom to us and He does this to the
preaching of the gospel of Christ. It's why I read 1 Corinthians
1 to you in the beginning. God said, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. It means God is going to make
His people see we just don't have wisdom. We're just ignorant
unless God be our teacher. And we don't have understanding
unless God be our teacher. And so many times He's going
to keep showing us this to keep us from looking to ourselves.
But He said He chose foolish things. He chose things that
men despised. The preaching of the gospel.
It was ordained of God that men by their wisdom couldn't find
out God. Ordained by God. And it's interesting here, instructive
here, one of the first places God destroys through Caleb when
he goes into the land of Canaan is this place called Deborah
which was the seat of all knowledge. the library of the nation that
had all their accumulated knowledge and wisdom. And He sent Him there
to destroy this place. The Lord has chosen foolish things
to confound the wise, weak things to confound the things that are
mighty and powerful. He's chosen base things, things
despised, things that are nothing to bring to nothing everybody
that thinks they're something. Because God says, no flesh shall
glory in my presence. None. No flesh shall glory in
my presence. But it's of God. Here's how He
destroys our deeper, right here. He makes Christ wisdom to us. He makes us know we didn't put
ourselves in Christ. We had nothing to do with being
in Christ. It's of God that you're in Christ.
And you had nothing to do with knowing who He is. It's of God
that Christ has made unto us wisdom. And righteousness. And sanctification. And redemption. And when He does this work, that's
when we stop glorying in our wisdom. And we stop glorying
in our might. And we stop glorying in what we're going to do. And what we've done. And what
we're purposing. And we start glorying in the
Lord only. So that's what's pictured in
this place that he's sent to destroy, this seat of wisdom. It's got to be put down in you
and me. So how's the Lord going to do
this? God destroys our wisdom and makes Christ's wisdom unto
us by making us behold that God the Father purposed everything
from before this world was made and settled it by putting it
all into the hands of Christ. for those He chose to save. He
settled it all in Christ before the world was made. And then
sent Him forth to work it all out. He didn't leave anything
in our hands. Look here in verse 16. Before they did anything,
before they went anywhere and did anything, Caleb said, this
all started with Caleb. Caleb said, He that smiteth curjoth
cipher, and taketh it, to him will I give Exa, my daughter,
to wife. Caleb pictures God the Father
right here. Before anything was done, Caleb
made his will known to conquer Debar. Do you think this got
the attention of the people? When Caleb made it known that
he wanted to conquer Debar, and whoever the man is that conquers
Debar, he's giving him Exa, his wife, his daughter, to wife. Do you think that got the people's
attention? It was Caleb's will, it was his purpose to exalt the
man who won the victory over Debar. That was his purpose.
That was his will, that was his purpose. He would deliver them
from the inhabitants of Debar and save them from them, but
also in the process his will, his purpose was to exalt the
man who did this and won this victory. Because when He exalts
this man, there's going to be a man that the people will look
to and follow. And He's especially doing this
for His daughter. For His daughter. God determined
before this world was made, it was His purpose to give His Son
Christ Jesus a name above every name because He's the mighty
conqueror who conquered all the enemies of His people. God said,
I will make Him my firstborn higher than the kings of the
earth. What is it when we start getting worried about the nation
and worried about kings and rulers? What is it we're really saying?
We're saying we think those kings are higher than our king. We have a king that's higher
than all the kings of the earth. And he's ruling everything. "...being
so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they." And this was especially so for
his daughter, Exa. Do you think this got Aixa's
attention? When she heard that her father
say, whatever man destroys Debar, I'm giving Aixa her hand in marriage
to him. Don't you know that made Aixa
say, I want to see who comes forward. I want to see who wants
me as his bride. I want to see who's going to
come forth and go to this dangerous city of these giants and conquers
them for me. I want to see who loved me like
that. This is what it was for. It was to exalt this man before
her. In fact, later, after they go
in here, and it's partly their own fault that they didn't cast
out all the enemies, but it also says the Lord left enemies there.
It was fulfilling the Lord's will to prove them, whether they
would trust the Lord or not. And they came to a point where
they began to cry out for help. And Judges 3.9 says, When the
children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up
a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even
Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. This man that
Caleb is searching out to purpose to exalt, he becomes the first
judge over Israel and they had peace for 40 years. This is how
God our Father destroys our deeper. This is how He brings our wisdom,
our prudence to nothing. He's going to exalt Christ and
show us that before this world was ever made, He put it all
in Christ's hands and there's never been one moment that Christ
has failed or done anything out of order. It's all coming to
pass exactly as God will. God has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. That's why He was given them
this land right here. Because He said He made a promise,
a covenant promise to Abraham and to his seed. All those years
before, and that seed is Christ. Before He ever made the promise
to Abraham, He made the promise to Christ. And that's what He's
doing. He's exalting the Lord Jesus before us. And He destroys
our deeper by the Spirit of God making us behold Christ who entered
covenant to save His bride and accomplished it by laying down
His life for us. Not only did God the Father purpose
this before, Christ Jesus the Lord entered covenant with the
Father to accomplish this. Verse 17 says, And Othniel, the
son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it. He heard Caleb make this promise
that whoever went and took this city would have Exa, his daughter,
to wife. And he rose up to the challenge.
Othniel here typifies the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Othniel was of the tribe of Judah. And his name, Othniel, means
the Lion of God. And Christ is the Lion of the
tribe of Judah. He said in Genesis 49, 9, Judah
is a lion's wealth. He is speaking about Christ.
From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he
cast as a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet, till Shiloh come. Unto him shall all the
gathering of the people be." How do you know that speaks of
Christ? Because the Hebrew writer said it's evident our Lord sprang
out of Judah. And then in Revelation they said
John began to weep because nobody could open the book. And one
of the elders said to me, Weep not, behold, the lion of the
tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
to loose the seven seals thereof. Now, when we look at this passage,
it distracts people sadly because Othniel was near kin to Achish,
I mean to Achsa. Othniel was near kin to Achsa.
But see this spiritually. It's not Othniel who was Caleb's
brother. That's not what it means. That
would make Agsa his niece. I mean, Othinio is his nephew. That was forbidden by the law
of God. Othinio's father, Cenas, that
was his younger brother. I'm sorry, that is his nephew. But listen to this. If they were Any closer kin than this, it
would have been unlawful by the law. It would have been unlawful.
But this was lawful. Otheniel and Achael were half
first cousins. Achael was the daughter of Caleb,
born from a concubine named Mekah. You can find that in 1 Chronicles
2, verse 48-49. Now that still seems strange
to us that they're half cousins. But get the spiritual significance. Christ is our near kinsman. He's
our near kinsman. He came and took flesh and He
has the right to redeem His people. He's the near kinsman. Seeing
this wasn't forbidden by law, we're reminded that the Lord
Jesus came and He's lawfully married to His bride. He fulfilled
all righteousness for His people. He established the law and honored
it for His people so that the way that He redeemed us was by
paying the price in full, so it's a lawful union that He's
made. between he and his bride. Othniel
wanted Aixa for his bride. He wanted her for his bride.
And so he entered into this covenant relationship with Caleb that
he would go and win the victory. And that's what he did. He went
forth and he won the victory. Christ loved his bride, God's
elect, and he entered covenant with the Father voluntarily. When the Father made His will
and purpose known that He would deliver His bride to Him upon
the contingency that He accomplished this throwing down of these enemies,
Christ said, I will do it. The Son of God said, I'll do
it. He entered covenant with the Father to do it. And then
He came forth willingly and He conquered all the enemies of
His people by laying down His life for His people. Remember
how he said in John 10, 15, As the Father knoweth me, even so
know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, for
my people. No man is taking my life. I am
doing this willingly. Ophniel is doing this willingly.
He is going up to fight in place of his brethren, in place of
this one that is going to be his bride. He is going to do
battle and go into war to die, possibly die for his brethren,
to save them. And this is what Christ did,
willing to lay down his life completely, and he won the victory. John said, I saw, behold, a white
horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given
to him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. Now you picture
Othniel, he's coming home from the victory. He's gone there
and he's defeated Debar and he's coming home from the victory.
And the people are going out to him. They've heard he's coming
home and they're going out and they're singing his praises and
they're going out just to get a look at him. And I picture Aixa running out.
She wants to meet him. This is the one, he heard that
she was going to be his bride and he went and took on an enemy
people, an enemy city for her. That's how his people are made
willing in the day of his power. He makes us see Christ, he makes
us see what Christ has done in laying down his life for us to
save us from our sin and he don't ever stop letting us see it.
Exesau, this is the wisest, the strongest, this is the most valiant
one who went and did this because he wanted me to be his bride.
That's what Christ did before this world. He entered covenant
with the Father, came forth and laid down his life on the cross
to take his people to himself. This is how he comes and destroys
our wisdom and our prudence. He makes Christ wisdom to us.
He makes us see He is the power and wisdom of God. He is our
righteousness. He is our sanctification. He
is our redemption. He makes Him everything in the
hearts of His people and this makes us see ourselves as nothing
and less than nothing. Sinful, wretched sinners who
need Christ alone to save us. Oh, what a glorious good news
it is when He makes you know He has saved you. Nice grace. Now look at this last thing.
God our Father never ceases to provide this same joy in our
hearts through Christ our Mediator. The rest of our days He's going
to keep making us see Christ as our wisdom. The rest of our
days. And He won't stop this. Look here in verse 18. And it came to pass, as she came
unto him, unto Othniel, that she moved him to ask of her father
a field. And she lighted off her ash.
And Caleb said unto her, What wouldst thou? Who answered, Give
me a blessing, for thou hast given me a south land. Give me
also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs
and the nether springs. Exa had a need. She had a need. Have you had a need since Christ
fulfilled all your need? She didn't go directly to her
father. She had a need, but she didn't go directly to her father.
She came to Othniel. She came to him, and she moved
him. That doesn't mean she came there
and she tried to persuade him, oh, won't you do it? No. He saw
her need and he was moved. The Lord Jesus Christ is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. He sees our need. He knows our
weakness. He knows we're dust. He saw her
need. He was moved by her need. And
she moved him to ask of her Father. She asked Othniel to ask her
father. She asked Othniel to be the mediator
between her and her father, to go to her father and present
her need to her father. We come to God our Father only
through Christ our Mediator. We never stop praying in His
name. We never stop coming to Him and
confessing our need, confessing our sin, confessing our need
for grace and mercy and strength and His power and His wisdom
and all these things. But we only come in a mediator.
We only come in Christ. We approach the holiest of holies,
God our Father, only in Christ. We can't come any other way.
But we have welcome access by Christ our High Priest. We have
welcome access to God our Holy Father. He ever lives, Christ
our Mediator ever lives to make intercession for us with the
Father. And look at this, I love how it says, she moved Him to
ask of her Father. So Ophniah, he's obviously gone
to speak to Caleb. But the very next word says,
And Caleb said to her, What wouldst thou? Father hears Christ, and
for his sake he hears his child, and he speaks to his child. She
asked for a field. She asked for a field. She said, Give me a blessing.
For thou hast given me a south land, Give me also springs of
water." And he gave her upper springs and the nether springs.
She had come there and said to Othniel in verse 18, she moved
him to ask of her father a field. The word there is a wide expanse
and the root word means gladness and joy. He had given her an
inheritance. Whenever you're brought to Christ
and made to believe on Christ, the Father makes you see you
have received an inheritance from Him. According to His eternal
purpose, by the blood of Christ, He's given you an inheritance.
You've inherited all things. They're yours. All things are
yours richly to enjoy. But that south land was a desert
land. That south land was a dry land. We live in the south land. He
is providing everything for us. He is sowing. All things are yours. These folks
that were in Canaan, all they were doing was taking care of
the land and took Caleb and the children of Israel got there
to take it over. That is all they were. And God
said, I gave Egypt for you. I gave Ethiopia and Saba for
you because you were precious in my sight. They were just taking
care of the land for you. God has promised us that. But
we live in the Southland. It's dry. This is not our home. We can't find anything here that's
going to give us any lasting peace. And every bit of it, God's
going to take it away. Because it's not our home. It's
not our peace. It's not our life. So what do we do? We keep going
to the Father because we need a blessing. We need the nether
springs. We need the upper springs. We
need the covenant blessings of joy from our God above. We need Him to speak peace from
above and point us to Christ. We need Him to continually strengthen
us and give us the blessings He has promised us from above.
Psalm 46 verse 4 says, there is a river, the streams whereof
shall make glad the city of God. She said, oh give me a blessing,
thou hast given me a southland, give me also springs of water.
And He gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. There
is a river, the strings whereof shall make glad the city of God,
the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the
midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her and that right early. Just like Caleb gave her this
greater inheritance, just like that. Christ said, Whatsoever
you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. Our problem is we're usually
going to the Father and we're saying, give us more of the Southland. We want more of the desert. We've
got to be brought to go to Him and say, Lord, give us the spiritual
blessings. That's what we need. That's what
we need. He'll take away some of the things
of the Southland to make you come to him for the spiritual
blessings. And coming through a mediator,
her father received her, and he gave her her petition that
she requested. He gave her the upper springs
and the nether springs. This is His promise. He talked
about in Romans 8, He talked about how the Father foreordained
His people, predestinated His people, He justified His people,
He glorified His people. He's done all this for His people.
Christ has laid down His life for His people. And it's all
those things that He just mentioned that He's talking about when
He said, He that spared not His own Son, how shall He not with
Him freely give us all things? Oh, He'll provide you the Southland
and the things you need in the Southland, but it's those upper
springs we need. And He's going to make you see
and make you know that He's given His Son. When His Son was made
sin, He didn't spare Him. He's not going to spare any spiritual
blessing from His people. He's going to give it all to
His people. He put all things under His feet,
gave Him to be the head over all things to the church which
is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Christ fills all in all. He says
He was sent to them that mourn in Zion. This was the daughter
of Zion right here. That's who it was. That was mourning.
She had a need and it moved her husband. Are you mourning in
Zion? It moves Christ. He's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. He came to give them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise in the
place of the Spirit of heaviness. that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified. And that's what He's going to
do. He did it when He first came and destroyed our deborah and
made Christ's wisdom to us, and He does not stop. There's an
old man of Sinah here that don't believe God. Me too. There's an old man in us that
don't believe God, that don't want anything to do with God,
that don't like the message of the gospel of grace. He's a legalist.
That's all he is. And he's a worldling. That's
all he is. And that deborah's got to be
destroyed. He's got to be constantly put down. And the only way it's
done is God making you behold Christ, your wisdom. Christ your
righteousness, Christ your sanctification, Christ your redemption. We don't
much believe that. We want to always go and supplement
grace with our works and our law keeping. That's the main
thing we got to be safe from. The main thing. Now let me give
you one last thing. Aches' name means a trinket. It means an anklet. Like an ankle
bracelet that makes a noise. That's what her name means. The
root word means to sound out. To sound out. Now you hear that,
and you immediately... It reminded me of the priest's
garments. The holy priest, when he went
to the holiest of holies, he had bells on the hems of his
garment. And so they heard that bell tinkling
while he was in the holiest of holies, and they were constantly
reminded, and when he came out, they were constantly reminded
of atonement through the blood of the Lamb. Sounded out the
atonement through the blood of the Lamb. It's a picture of the
gospel we preach, sounding out this message of the glory of
God's grace. And this is what Paul is saying
in 1 Corinthians 1. Don't you find it instructive
that in the face of all the Corinthians' trouble, that's where Paul started,
the Spirit of God moved him to begin with saying, it's this
gospel God's going to bless to make us nothing, that we might
see Christ as all. And when He's done that for you,
you know what you do? You sound out. He said, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Who do you reckon, after
all of this, who do you reckon aches a glory in? You reckon
she boasted about how she helped Othniel destroy Deborah? You
reckon she boasted about that? She didn't have nothing to do
with it. You reckon she boasted in her
will and her purpose? It was all Caleb's will and purpose.
She didn't have a thing to do with it. I'll tell you who she gloried
in. She gloried in the one who accomplished it for her. And
that's who God's people, we sound out this glorious gospel saying,
as God said, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That's the whole point, Paul's
point in 1 Corinthians. Want to glory in somebody? Glory
in Christ. How? Believe on Him. Speak of
Him to one another and trust Him to work and make Himself
wisdom in the hearts of His people and destroy our deborah. He won't
fail. He never has. He never will.
Go to the Father with your need. Go to Christ with your need and
cry to Him with your need. We're thankful for everything
He's given us in the Southland, but we need the Upper Springs.
Go to Him with your need. Christ is moved with the feeling
of your infirmities. He will go to the Father, and
the Father will hear your petition, and He'll give you blessing from
above so that your heart knows you've got Christ as your peace.
You know, when you've got Christ as your peace, it don't matter
what else is going on. It don't. You're fine. Because
you've got the one thing needful. I pray you make Christ our wisdom
and destroy our deeper. Amen.