God’s Story of Salvation: Joshua

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God’s Story of Salvation: Joshua

Connecting the Pentateuch 

• Genesis: The Origin of the Nation and God’s Redemptive Plan
  • God’s purpose: a people “in his image”
  • God’s Rest
  • Sin results three curses: death, offspring, ground
  • Blessings through Abraham & his offspring reverse the curses: blessed life (resurrection), great nation, rest
  • The rest of the Bible re-creates God’s plan for his image and his rest
• Exodus: The Deliverance of the Nation & God’s Redemption Picture
  • Moses: foreshadows of the Messiah
  • Passover: foreshadows the Lamb of God
  • Red Sea: foreshadows cleansing in baptism
  • Tabernacle: foreshadows God dwelling with his people
• Leviticus: The Holiness of the Nation: “Be Holy for I Am Holy”
  • How to live in the presence of the Lord
  • Holiness when approaching God in worship
  • Holiness in lifestyle
• Numbers: The Test of the Nation: Trial in the Wilderness
  • Rebellion = Failure & punishment
  • They do not enter because of unbelief
  • A new generation prepared to enter the Promised Land
  • Hebrews 3-4 pictures us in the wilderness striving to enter the “rest”
• Deuteronomy: Reminders to the Nation: Preparation to enter the Land
  • Remember and be careful to obey
  • Warnings of idolatry
  • Worship in the land
  • The future of the nation
  • Death of Moses

The Brief Overview of Joshua: 

• Israel has finally reached the destination God has intended for them. Canaan was a fulfillment of God’s Rest, harkening back to the beginning when God rested, created the Garden and intended for man to join him in the Garden Rest/Paradise. When man sinned, God set in motion his eternal plan to redeem and restore man back into a fellowship rest with him. The Tabernacle and Canaan, or the Promised Land, were God’s beginning pictures of what God would eventually do through Christ in bringing his people to a new heavens and new earth. 
• Two verses summarize the main message of Joshua:
  • 1:13 “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’” 
  • 21:44 “And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands.” 
  • Please note that “rest” does not mean inactivity, but a freedom from threat of their enemies, lack of provisions, and of concerns of life. Thus, the “rest” is not a piece of land, but a place of protection and abundance. This foreshadows God’s eternal rest. 

• Now at the border of the Promised Land, God appoints Joshua as the leader of the people to replace Moses. It will take about six years for Canaan to be conquered. In that time, Israel will only lose one battle in which 36 men die as the result of one man and his family who stole some of the spoils from the battle of Jericho. Israel learns an important lesson. When they remain faithful to God, they will always be victorious. However, if they purposefully sin and rebel, they will lose.

• Once the land was conquered (1-12), God then brings the people to the rest he promised by dividing the land into 12 sections so that each tribe would have their own inheritance (13-24). The land that God promised Abraham 430 years previous is now Israel’s possession. 

• The close of the book is a speech by Joshua in which he challenges the people to choose between God and the idols that their forefathers served. As would be expected, the people choose God. However, even as we read those words, there is a nagging feeling that their promise will not endure to the next generations. Therefore, Joshua warns that if they turn to their idols, God would do to them as had been done to the Canaanite nations. As stated in Deuteronomy, rebellion will be their future.

• Two texts will suffice for summarizing the two main lessons:
  • Joshua 1:6-9 This text is a key to serving God. Much of what God commands us may at times seem to be impossible, or at least, overly difficult. But the Lord encourages both Joshua and us (Cf. Heb. 13:5-6) that he will be with us and we will succeed, only be strong and courageous and be careful to do all that was commanded in the Law. 

• • Joshua 24:14-15 The book completes the challenge of Joshua by urging us to “serve the Lord in sincerity and faithfulness.” Most importantly, Joshua says, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Two principles are critical:
    • There are only two choices, serving yourself and the idols of this world, or serving God. One will lead to life and the other to death.
    • Second, “choose this day.” Don’t go through life waffling between following worldly passions and dabbling with being somewhat “religious.” Make a choice; make the choice just once and never look back. Choose today.

Joshua: The Messianic Picture and Message

• Joshua is best introduced by noting Joshua’s name. His original name was Hoshea [salvation]. However, in Numbers 13:16, Moses changed his name to Joshua (Yahweh saves) – the same as Jesus. Therefore, there is no doubt God intended Joshua to become a type of Jesus.

• Key Message: “Be strong and courageous…for the Lord God is with you.”

• Outline of the book:
  • 1-12 Conquering of the land
  • 13-24 Inheritance of the land

• Joshua becomes the new Moses echoing Moses’ leadership 
  • Warns the people to obey: keep the covenant
  • Spies sent into the land just as Moses did 40 years previous
  • River parted just like the sea parted for the 1st generation
  • Some Gentiles come to salvation just like some Egyptians left Egypt with Israel

• A picture of Eden is given when the angel of the Lord meets Joshua upon entrance into the land (5:13-15)
  • Joshua is directed to take off his sandals because he is standing on holy ground.
  • He is the commander of the Lord’s army and is on the side of God’s cause. 
  • Since Canaan is the new Eden-Rest, he is a reminder of the angel guarding the Garden who now allows entrance. 

• The battles of Jericho and Ai give contrasting messages to Israel and us: 
  • With the Jericho victory, God proves that he is the power behind all their victories. Israel does not attack. They simply march around the walls silently and God gives them victory. 
  • Ai teaches Israel the opposite lesson. When sin is discovered in the camp Israel has no power against their enemies and they lose. Lesson: to prosper and receive God’s blessings, they must obey God. Otherwise, God will treat them just as he does all others who rebel. They are not special when it comes to disobedience! 
  • Further, Israel is taught that they must not hide those who are rebellious, even a family member.

• We also see that God makes exceptions to the rule of destroying all the Canaanites. Mercy is given to those who turn and put faith in the God of Israel.
  • Rahab, a prostitute who lived in Jericho protected the spies and confessed her belief in the God of Israel and therefore she and her whole family were saved. Rahab later married a man of Israel, and through her descendants Jesus was born. This shows God’s mercy for all who turn to him. God is no respecter of persons. (Note also, she is another example of “woman” conquering the Serpent)
  • The city of Gibeon also came and sought mercy and confessed their faith in the God of Israel and were spared.

• In the last half of the book (13-22) we see the inheritance of the land with the 12 tribes given their allotted territories. This was a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham over 400 years previous. Joshua 22:43-45 states, “Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” Verse 44, “And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers…” How amazing it must have been for that generation. They had been in Egypt as children. They would have remembered the bondage and hardship. And they had been 40 years in the wilderness, in which they had dealt with extraordinary trials including food and water limitations. But now they find rest. They are living in houses they did not build, enjoying vineyards and fruit trees they did not plant, and living as free people without fear of being attacked by a foreign nation. Knowing firsthand the previous hardships, their appreciation for what God had done would have been humbling. 

• In the final two chapters (23-24), Joshua gives a speech to Israel and the close of his life similar to the speech Moses had given. He warns Israel of idolatry and urges obedience and keeping the covenant. Israel promises their faithfulness to God. However, the next generation will not keep that faith.

Joshua’s Message for Today: 

• Misuse of Joshua 22:43-45. The first lesson to consider is how many brethren of used this text over the years. Because of the teaching of premillennialism (God has not yet fulfilled the land promise for Israel and will bring them all back to their land in the millennial reign of Christ), many, if not most, used this text to defeat the doctrine by arguing that God had already fulfilled the land promise to Israel. Therefore consider the problems with this approach to scripture:
  • The first major problem is studying the Bible to defeat what we believe to be a false doctrine and for the purpose of justifying our own position. It is foolish to do so because we will invariably miss the context and purpose of a text when we are trying to justify ourselves which condemning someone else. God’s first reason for writing the Bible was not to defeat false doctrines but to teach us about himself and to get each of us aligned with his thoughts and ways (Isa. 55). 

• • Second, before concluding that a premillennialist is wrong, how about considering a couple questions:
    • Why is it that the prophets continued to talk about God bringing a new rest for Israel (Amos 9:13-16; Isa. 11, etc)? These are the passages upon which premillennial doctrines have depended. These must be explained.
    • Further, what will be done with Hebrews 4:8, which tells us that “Joshua did not give them rest?” 
  • In other words, by only studying to defeat false doctrines, we easily miss the foreshadowing of the ultimate “Rest” we have in Christ. God had planned from the beginning to give all his people rest (Genesis 2:1-3). In Psalm 95, David spoke of the continued need to live in order to enter the rest. Therefore, the Canaan rest was a physical “type” of God’s ultimate rest. When Israel sinned, as we will see in Judges, the nation was no longer at rest as God allowed the nations to attack them. Therefore, the Hebrew writer proclaims that “there remains a rest for the people of God,” and that we are to “strive to enter that rest.” 

• The conquering of Canaan was a monumental and frightening task. To quote the original spies: “the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large…the land devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height…and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” 
  • We often ridicule that generation that refused to enter. They allowed their fears to overcome them. Why? Because they considered their own weakness in comparison with the people of Canaan. We do the same. We do not see God, and we do not trust God when we fear.
  • How faithless are we when we fear to do what God has asked of us? The conquering of Canaan is a picture of what God has asked everyone of us to do. Listen to the words of Joshua 1:5-7, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them…” These are the words of the Hebrews 13:5-6. Please consider, the Hebrew writer had urged these Christians to continue to labor to enter his rest. The message of Hebrews is that in order to enter into glory we must take the same path as Jesus: we are perfected through suffering. Yes, we are in the same place as they. The command and the promise are the same as it was for them. And in 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” 

Berry Kercheville