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Joshua 1
Joshua 2
Joshua 3-5
Joshua 6-7
Joshua 8-12
Joshua 13-24
 
 

(Please read the scripture that accompanies this study.  In this on-line Bible study, we cover bits and pieces of information contained in the scripture, but there are so many topics that are not covered.  Don’t miss a blessing, read God’s word! )

Joshua wrote this book of the Bible about his experiences in leading the Israelites into their inheritance, “the Promised Land”.  He was the chosen leader of Israel after the death of Moses.

Who was Joshua?  Let’s look at his resume:

Experience:
Assistant to Moses since his youth (Numbers 11:28)

Duties and Responsibilities:
-Under Moses direction, he led the Israelites into battle against Amalek and won the battle.
-He accompanied Moses and stayed at the base of Mt. Sinai as Moses received the Ten Commandments.
-He stood guard over the Tent of Meeting as the Israelites were encamped at Horeb, the mountain of God.
-He was one of the twelve chosen to go into Canaan on a spy mission during the initial part of the wilderness journey.  He reported back to Moses that the land was exceedingly good and that the Lord would give it to them.  (Numbers 14).  Of all the Israelites that left Egypt with Moses, only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the Promised Land because of their faith in God and obedience to Him in giving a positive report to Moses regarding this spy mission.  (Caleb is mentioned again in Joshua 14. We’ll catch up with him later.)
-He was commissioned as Moses’ replacement as leader of the Israelites 
-He served as leader and warrior in leading the Israelites into their inheritance.

Qualifications:
Because Joshua was the assistant to Moses, he was by Moses’ side and experienced the miracles of God firsthand, and learned how to walk obediently with God.  The Lord said that Joshua had followed Him wholeheartedly.  (Numbers 32.12)

After Joshua was commissioned as the new leader, the Lord told Moses to encourage and strengthen Joshua.  Moses’ words of encouragement were: “It is the Lord your God who will cross ahead of you; He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to inherit.”

Words of encouragement can provide us strength and courage to take on a task that we may be afraid to do.  In the book, “The Five Love Languages”, Dr. Gary Chapman teaches that “the word encourage means ‘to inspire courage.’  All of us have areas in which we feel insecure.  We lack courage, and that lack of courage often hinders us from accomplishing the positive things that we would like to do.  Most of us have more potential than we will ever develop.  What holds us back is often courage.” 

Oftentimes we see our weaknesses, but God always sees our potential. The Lord encouraged Joshua to “Be strong and courageous” and added:
· I will be with you – I will never leave you or forsake you.
· You will lead the Israelites into their inheritance.
· You shall give them the possession of land I swore to their fathers.
· You will have success wherever you go.
· I will be with you wherever you go.

Joshua knew that his new role was in God’s plan and timing, but he also knew the role would require his all – his everything.  To be strong means to stand firm.  To be courageous means to be confident.  The Lord was telling Joshua, “Stand firm and be confident in me.” 

Recently I returned to work full-time. I struggled for months before making this decision because I wanted to be certain it was in God’s plan and timing. Though my responsibility is not to physically lead God’s children into a new promised land as Joshua’s job was, I do have a passion for teaching God’s word.  My fear came into play because I did not want to take on a new role as full-time employee and leave my passion for Bible study behind.  As I sought God’s will in my decision to return to work, Joshua 1 encouraged and comforted me.  “Be strong and courageous” or “stand firm and be confident in me.”  The Lord showed me that by my returning to work, He was opening a door of opportunity for me to reach more people for His kingdom and I felt an assurance that He would enable me to continue teaching His word.

As we continue to review Joshua, we will see how he adjusted to his new leadership role.  In an Experiencing God study that I did years ago, I learned that anytime we are obedient to God, we have to make adjustments in our lives.  He will ask us to do things that are totally unfamiliar to us and that cause us to sacrifice a bit of ourselves for His work. As God calls you into a new territory, don’t be afraid to allow Him to direct your path and don’t be afraid of making the adjustments.  Be strong and courageous.  Stand firm and be confident in Him.  He will not leave you and He will not forsake you.

Thank you, Lord, that you go ahead of us and prepare the way.  Thank you that you encourage and strengthen us with your words and with your presence.  Teach us to be encouragers to those we live and come in contact with each day.

When we read stories in the Bible about how God worked through and blessed His children, we can apply those same lessons to our lives.  He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  I enjoy learning how He worked in the lives of others, because I know that He may work in my life in the same manner.  This week, we read about a woman named Rahab and how God turned her life around.

At the Lord’s guidance, Joshua sent two spies into Jericho to look over the land.  While in Jericho, they stayed in the home of Rahab, a prostitute.  Why would they stay in the home of a prostitute?  God directed them to her home because He knew that her heart was open to Him and that she would be instrumental in the Israelite victory over Jericho.  Rahab’s house was built into the city wall, so they could escape quickly.  (In Joshua’s day, most cities had two walls about 12-15 feet apart, with houses built between them.)  And with her reputation, it wasn’t unusual for strange men to enter her home, and her home would be a good place to gather information without having questions asked. 

When the king of Jericho came to Rahab looking for the spies, she risked her life to protect them.   Her motives were a little selfish because she wanted to save herself and her family and she knew that the powerful God of the Israelites would be successful in taking over the land.  But Rahab also knew that the God of the Israelites was not an ordinary god – He was the “God in heaven above and on the earth below.”  She knew in her heart that He was worthy of worship and worthy of risk.  Because of her belief in God, she offered kindness to total strangers whom she knew would come and take over the land.

While the spies were there, she was instrumental in delivering to them a word of encouragement and a message of faith.  She said, “I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.”  Her words confirmed in the hearts of the spies a promise that God had made to them earlier.  In Deuteronomy 11:25, the Lord promised that he would “put the terror and fear of the Israelites on the whole land, wherever they went.”  When the spies received this word from Rahab, they knew that the Lord would give them victory in the battle.  Their report back to Joshua included the words spoken by Rahab:  “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands, all the people are melting in fear because of us.”

Rahab had lived a life of darkness; she was a Canaanite prostitute who had worshipped pagan gods.  But when she talked with the spies, she confessed that she knew the power of their God.  She put her life into God’s hands because she knew that Jericho would soon come to ruins and that her only hope was in the God of Israel whom she believed would save her.  Because of her faith, God was able to use her in the victory of Israel. 

Rahab’s heart had been pierced by stories of God and she desired to know the God of Israel personally.  She was so hungry for God that she didn’t wait until her life was cleaned up to begin serving Him; she was obedient to Him at the first opportunity.  In Deuteronomy 4:20, the Lord promised the Israelites “when you seek me, you will find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”  This promise also applied to Rahab, a Canaanite, and to each of us.  When God pierces our hearts, we seek after Him and He will make Himself known to us.  He used Rahab because of her desire and willingness to find Him and to know Him.  Once she found God she found fulfillment.  He will also use each of us if we will allow Him. 

In Deuteronomy 28, we read about the blessings of obedience. God blessed Rahab’s obedience, just as He promises to bless our obedience.  From what I’ve learned, we will have blessings that we can see and know, but other blessings may be unknown to us.  The blessings that Rahab knew were that she and her family were saved when the Israelites conquered Jericho; she was allowed to live among the Israelites and serve their God (Joshua 6:25).  She received forgiveness for her past and began a new and fulfilling life.  We know this because she later married an Israelite and had a family.  The blessings that were unknown to her were that she would be remembered and considered righteous for protecting the spies (James 2:25); and that she would become an ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5).

What does it take to be considered righteous in the eyes of God?  Obedience.  And the only way to obey God is to know Him and to serve Him.  How else will you know His voice?

What does it mean to take a step of faith?  How do you go to the edge of a river that swells with floodwaters and step in without fear of being swept away or drowning? 

When you get right down to it, taking a step of faith is a hard thing to do.  Sure, you may know what the Lord is directing you to do, but you’ve never done that before, and you just don’t have the confidence that you need in taking that step.  Stepping into the unknown is scary.  It feels so much safer to stay where you are than to take a step into uncertainty.  So, you close your eyes and say, ‘Yes, Lord, I will do it, but You must lead me because I don’t know the way.  Keep me focused on You so that I can follow You without fear, knowing that You will not lead me anywhere that I should not go and that You are the perfect guide for my life.  I know that You will never leave me.  Now, teach me to trust You more and more.  Amen.’

Joshua was about to lead the new generation of Israelites into a new land.  They had never been this way before (“Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before”); never experienced anything like they were about to see.  Yet the faith of this generation shows us that they trusted in God.

In moving the Israelites forward, God instructed them to break camp, pack up their belongings, and move down to the banks of the Jordan River, following the priests who would carry the Ark of the Covenant ahead of them.  At this particular time of the year, the Jordan was in flood-stage and the riverbanks were swelling with water.  God didn’t tell the people to wait until the waters separated before crossing; rather, He gave instructions for the priests to carry the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan River ahead of the people.  As soon as the priests set foot in the Jordan, its waters were “cut off and stood in a heap.”  In order for God to perform the miracle, the priests had to first step into the water – and when they took that first step, showing their complete trust in God, the  waters stopped flowing. 

What if they had been afraid to take that first step?  Often God provides no solution to our problems until we trust Him and move ahead with what we know we should do.  Perhaps we stand still, expecting to see obstacles removed rather than trying to pass through them.  Instead of standing still, we must step into the floodwaters and go forward even though it appears dangerous or impossible.  If we move forward in faith, the path will be opened for us.  Our faith grows as we are obedient and move toward God.

The priests stood in the middle of the riverbank, on dry ground, as the Israelites crossed through on dry ground. When the entire nation had crossed the Jordan, the Lord instructed that twelve men, one from each tribe, to pick up and carry a stone from the middle of the Jordan riverbed onto the shore.  And then as the Lord commanded, the priests carrying the Ark came out of the Jordan and as soon as their feet touched ground above the Jordan River, the Jordan began to flow and returned to flood stage as before.

The Israelites camped at Gilgal and used the twelve stones to build a memorial to God, as a remembrance of how He cut off the flow of the Jordan River before the Ark of the Covenant so that they could cross on dry ground.  “He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and that you might always fear the Lord your God.”  Before the Israelites were sent into battle, they took the time to worship and honor God for his provision in crossing the Jordan River.  They built a memorial of the twelve stones and they worshipped God.  We must also remember that before we do our God given tasks, we must first set aside time to spend with God so that our hearts and minds are focused on Him. 

When the Amorite and Caanite kings heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan so that the Israelites could cross over, they were afraid.  The Lord had previously promised in Deuteronomy 11:25 that He would “put the terror and fear of the Israelites on the whole land.”  These kings knew that the power of God was with the Israelites.

Joshua 5:13-15 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"  "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"  The commander of the Lord 's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

“The place where you are standing is holy”.  Many years earlier, the Lord also said to Moses, "Do not come any closer, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." (Exodus 3:5)  Joshua was the new leader of the Israelites, and he was in the presence of God.  Through these words, Joshua received strength and courage to continue the journey, with the knowledge that the Lord was leading the way!  “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Romans 8:31.  Hallelujah! 

The Lord led the Israelites into battle, and He wants to lead us every day of our lives.  How do you go to the edge of a river that swells with floodwaters and step in without fear of being swept away or drowning?  By keeping your focus on the Lord and taking one step at a time, knowing that wherever He leads is the best path for you.  Move forward in faith and watch your faith grow stronger and stronger.

Jericho was tightly shut up out of fear of the Israelites; no one entered nor left the city.  The Lord told Joshua and the Israelites to march around the city with all the armed men once a day for six days.  (In Joshua 4:13, we read that there were 40,000 men armed for battle.)  Seven priests were to walk in front of the Ark of the Covenant, carrying trumpets made of ram’s horns.  On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.  When the people heard the priests sound a long blast on the trumpets, they were to give a loud shout; and when the people shouted, the walls of the city would collapse and the Israelites could go up into the city and take it.  And that is exactly what happened.   This story reminds me of a song I learned as a child: 

Up to the walls of Jericho, he marched with spear in hand.
"Go blow those ram horns", Joshua cried, "'Cause the battle is in my hand".
Then the lam'ram, sheep horns began to blow, trumpets began to sound,
Joshua commanded the children to shout, and the walls came tumblin' down.

Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho
Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.

The Israelites destroyed all that was in the city, saving only the things that were to be devoted to the Lord, and Rahab.  Because Rahab had risked her own life for the Israelite spies, she and her father, mother, brothers and all who belonged to her were saved and put in a place outside the camp of Israel and allowed to live among the Israelites. 

The Lord told Joshua, “The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord.  Keep away from the devoted things (silver, gold, and articles of bronze and iron) so that you will not bring about your own destruction.”  But Achan, of the tribe of Judah, saw the plunder and acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things.  Of the plunder, he took a beautiful robe from Babylonia, silver and a wedge of gold, and hid them among his possessions.

The Lord was angered at the sin of Israel (Achan’s sin brought God’s anger upon the entire nation) and He did not go with them into battle against the city of Ai.  After their defeat at Ai, Joshua asked the Lord why He had not given them the city.   The Lord told Joshua that someone had taken and hidden some of the devoted things from Jericho, which was in direct disobedience to the word and commandments of the Lord.

When Achan was caught, he confessed his sin and the devout things were recovered, but Achan and all his possessions were destroyed.  Because Achan deliberately disobeyed the command of the Lord, he had to be punished; the price for sin had to be paid.  Let’s look in the scripture to see what we can learn about the punishment and forgiveness of sin:

The first sin was committed in the book of Genesis. God commanded Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”  When Adam chose to eat from this tree, he deliberately disobeyed God.  The punishment of death wasn’t because Adam could now see the difference between good and evil, but was because he had disobeyed God.  In giving Adam the choice, God allowed Adam to choose between obedience and disobedience.  The punishment for disobedience was death.

“Just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death comes to all men, because all have sinned.”  Romans 5:12

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:23

Because God is holy, it is impossible for Him to allow sin into His presence.  And because He is a just God, sin must be punished.  For “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Throughout the Old Testament, we read how a sin offering was required for the forgiveness and removal of sin. 

In the New Testament, we read how God made a way for everyone to be forgiven once and for all.  God sent His son, Jesus, to earth in human form, so that He could pay the price for the sins of the inhabitants of the earth.  Jesus was the final ‘sin offering’ presented to God.
. 
“God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.”  Romans 8:3
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”  I Corinthians 15:3-4

And because Jesus sacrificed His life for us, the price for our sin has been paid.
“In Jesus, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin.”  Ephesians 1:7

How do we obtain forgiveness?  Jesus paid the price for all people.  And to gain forgiveness, all we have to do is ask our Father in heaven to forgive us.

“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Romans 10:9

Jesus said, “I have come (into the world) that they (all of mankind) may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  John 10:10

In our reading this week, we meet sin face to face with the disobedience of Achan; we meet the price of sin with Achan’s punishment and death.  Sin in our lives separates us from God, and in order for us to come into His Holy Presence, we must have the sin removed from our lives.  God, in His mercy toward mankind, sent the perfect sin offering into the world, His Son  Jesus.  When the life of Jesus was sacrificed to cover our sins, the need for sin offerings was eliminated.  Though the reading this week was harsh and disturbing, please remember that God made a new way for us to receive forgiveness of sin.  The Old Testament was written as God was teaching the Israelites how to follow, honor and trust Him.  The New Testament shows a new law – a new way to forgiveness of sin.  Don’t get beaten down by the punishment in the Old Testament, but rather turn to the New Testament to understand how God deals with the forgiveness of sin in our day.

Reading these chapters is like reading a war novel -- strategy, war, deceit, death, conquerors and victory.

Earlier, Joshua had sent 3,000 men to take over Ai, but the Israelites went on their own, without God’s guidance, and were defeated.  On the second trip into Ai, the Lord was with them.  Joshua sent 30,000 fighting men out at night with orders to set an ambush behind the city of Ai, and had 5,000 men in ambush west of the city.  The next morning, Joshua led a second group north of Ai.  When the army of Ai attacked, the Israelites to the north pretended to scatter, only to turn on the enemy as the men lying in ambush moved in and burned the city. 

Battle Tactic 1: Wait on the Lord and always allow Him to lead.  When we move without God, our lives are in our own hands; when we move as God leads, He will guide our path and give us the final victory. 

All of the people in the surrounding cities became afraid of Joshua’s army and set about to make war against them; with the exception of the people from Gibeon.

Gibeon was an important city in the land, considered one of the royal cities, and all of its men were good fighters.  However, the Gibeonites knew that God was on the side of the Israelites and that Joshua’s army intended to conquer the entire land of Canaan.  The Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the men of Israel into making a peace treaty with them.   The Lord had preciously instructed the Israelites not to make a treaty with people in Canaan (Deuteronomy 7:2, “Make no treaty with them … for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods.”) The men of Israel did not inquire of the Lord, but rather depended on their own discernment in deciding to make a treaty. 

Battle Tactic 2: Inquire of the Lord before making major decisions.  The troops were deceived because they failed to seek God’s guidance.  We can make wrong decisions and choices when we don’t inquire of God.

Three days later, they learned they had been deceived.  In Leviticus 5:4, we read where God commanded that oaths be kept.  The Israelites made a mistake in making a peace treaty with the Gibeonites, but rather than destroy the Gibeonites, they honored their vow and the Gibeonites became woodcutters and water carriers for Israel and for the altar of God.  When other kingdoms found out about the treaty between Gibeon and Israel, they staged an attack on Gibeon, but the Israelite army came to their defense and won the battle in Gibeon, with the Amorite kings fleeing.

Battle Tactic 3: When mistakes are made, always take the high road to rectify them.  The troops were deceived because they failed to seek God’s guidance.  We can make wrong decisions and choices when we don’t inquire of God.  But like the Israelites, we can make the best of our circumstances and honor our promises or rectify our mistakes by committing all future things to our Lord. 

Under God’s guidance, Joshua and the army conquered city after city, destroying each city and leaving no survivors, as God had instructed them in Deuteronomy 7:24.  “So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to tribal divisions.  Then the land had rest from war.”  Thirty-one kings and their kingdoms had been defeated; however, there were still many peoples yet to be conquered.

With God’s help, Joshua and the army conquered the cities that stood between them and their inheritance.  They may have lost a fight, but they won the battle.

Walking the Christian life is not always easy.  Some days we will lose fight after fight, give in to temptation after temptation; even feel like we are struggling for every breath that we take.  With each fight, we are to choose whether to yield to the temptation or to conquer the temptation.  With God’s help, we can each conquer the enemy that stands between our heavenly inheritance and us – that enemy is our sinful nature.  We may lose a few fights along the way, but with God’s help, we will win the battle; we will be conquerors.

In our reading this week, Joshua completed dividing the Promised Land between the twelve tribes of Israel.  If you click here, you can view a map showing how Israel was divided among the twelve tribes as well as a map showing current day Israel.

As the Israelites moved into their land, they “did not drive out the people.”  Remember, the Lord warned them, “Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.”  If the Israelites did not drive out the people from their inherited land, they would be tempted to adopt the detestable practices and customs of the surrounding peoples.  The warning they received from the Lord was for their own good, so that they would not turn from Him.  "But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.”

Joshua began his role as leader of the Israelites with words of encouragement from the Lord, “Be strong and courageous.”  Joshua ended his leadership role with words of encouragement to the Israelites.   “Be very careful to love the Lord your God.  Not one of the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed.  Every promise has been fulfilled.” 

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” 

In our reading, we read of the glorious decision of the Israelites to follow the Lord.  They shouted:   “The Mighty One, God the Lord!  The Mighty One, God the Lord! … We will worship the Lord at His sanctuary.  Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from Him today.  We know that the Lord is with us.  The Lord is God.  We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God.

My family also chooses to serve the Lord.  How about yours?

After Joshua died, the people served the Lord as long as the elders who followed Joshua were alive. 

But the Israelites were a stiff-necked (stubborn and self-centered) people and eventually adopted the ways of the surrounding countries and of the peoples that were not driven out of their inherited lands. 

In Him, 
Mary