Making Sense of Joshua

In this series, each week I take a book of the Bible and show how it fits into the big picture of God’s plan of salvation for the whole world, which is the story of Israel, which becomes the story of Israel reduced to one man. Which means the main thing I’m doing in this “Making Sense of the Bible” series is showing how each book points to that one man—Jesus.

Today we’re looking at Joshua, which is an amazing book with fascinating stories that have a lot to teach us about Jesus.

The final words of Moses to all the people as he passes his leadership on to Joshua just before he dies in Deuteronomy, sound a whole lot like every speech Joshua would ever give:

Moses said,

“The LORD will give the land to you. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of the Canaanites. He will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” Deuteronomy 31:5–8

The Book of Joshua is like the Book of Acts for the Old Testament—how the kingdom of God is expanded, what God continues to do and teach in this new reality. 

Joshua is like a second Moses. His ministry is patterned after Moses’ ministry. Moses was the greatest prophet until Jesus—who’s called “the prophet like Moses who is greater than Moses.” So Joshua is like a second Moses and Jesus is like a greater second Moses. The Bible is full of little references like this but Jesus’ name is actually pronounced the same as Joshua in Hebrew. Yeshua. Jesus was named after Joshua.

They both took people into a new kingdom of God. As the Book of Joshua begins, the people of Israel are on the banks of the Jordan River, ready to cross and enter the Promised Land. Joshua gives a speech, it not only sounds a lot like Moses’ final speech when he commissioned Joshua, it sounds like the final speech Jesus gives His disciples—the one we call The Great Commission—the one where He commissioned us.

Joshua says,

“Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. ...all the land from the Great Sea to the going down of the sun... I will not leave you or forsake you. … No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. (As they go to conquer the land God had given them.) Be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses … commanded you. … Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:3–9 

Then at the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus, Yeshua, said this to His disciples and to all of us,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (not just from the sea to the sunset) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (As we conquer the whole world with the Gospel) teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Wherever you go)

Matthew 28:18–20

One of the problems for modern readers, when we come to the book of Joshua, is all the bloodshed and violence. But God is always saving the world by destroying wickedness. As the church, we spread the kingdom of God by proclaiming the Gospel but it’s not exactly a bloodless war. It’s just not the blood of our enemies. The blood spilled in this conquest was when the Son of God took all the world’s sin and guilt on Himself and died on the cross. There’s no way to avoid violence and bloodshed when sin is involved.

So Moses had sent 12 spies into Canaan 39 years ago, one of them was Joshua. I don’t think Joshua wanted to repeat what happened last time, when the spies came back and scared everyone out of going over and taking the land—which cost them 40 years. So he secretly sends two spies to scope things out, they were to only report to him. 

It’s important to read the Bible as it is given to us—not to sugarcoat the parts we don’t like. This first story is one of those. Joshua sends over two guys who had grown up in Wilderness Bible Camp like a couple of country bumpkins, and what’s the first thing they do when they get to the big city? They had probably never even seen a city before. What’s the first thing they do?

They find a whorehouse and spend the night. Meet a pretty young thing named Rahab. A prostitute. You can argue for their virtue all you want but the facts are the facts.

On the other hand, Jesus ministered to prostitutes a lot, and He was always being accused of how inappropriate it was to be hanging around such bad company. Maybe our bumpkin spies were as virtuous as Jesus. Sure.

Anyway, someone tells the king of Jericho that some Israelite spies are at Rahabs’s brothel and he sends some troops over to arrest them. She hides her Hebrew customers and lies to the soldiers to protect them. Says they already left and she didn’t know who they were.

Now, why would she do that? Risk her life for a couple of strangers?

Chapter 2, verse nine, Rahab says this to our young spies,

“I know the LORD has given you this land,” ... “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. For we have heard how the LORD made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the LORD your God (Yahweh) is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.” Joshua 2:9–11

Rahab actually used the covenantal name of God, Yahweh, and confessed real faith—she feared the LORD. The Canaanites knew Israel was coming. They had been watching God plow through anyone who stood up against them. Their hearts melted like wax. They were afraid.

She lets them climb down from a window using a red rope. For helping them she asks that she and her family be spared when they come back to take the city. So the men promised to protect her. They pointed to the red rope they climbed down and said, “you must leave this red rope hanging from the window, this is how we’ll know to save you and your family.” Except the spies didn’t call it a “red rope” like Rahab had, they called it a “crimson thread.” In Hebrew, the word for “thread” is the same word for “hope.” It’s probably where we get the expression “a thread of hope.” 

And crimson is definitely red, like blood. We are certainly supposed to think of the Passover here with the blood on the door frames of the house to protect the people inside. And since we don’t forget about the New Testament when we read the Old Testament, we obviously think of the blood of Jesus protecting us in spiritual warfare.

The spies go back and give Joshua a good report. “God is going to give us this land!”

They cross the Jordan, it’s a lot like crossing the Red Sea. The priests carry the Ark of the Covenant into the river and the water backs up, making a giant wall of water so the people can pass on dry ground. It’s a river, so there’s only one wall. If they had any doubts about Joshua, this eases their mind.

The Jordan is also where Jesus was baptized. It’s where the old gives way to the new. It’s where Christ is connected to us and our sin in baptism—and where we’re connected to His death and resurrection. 

Once they crossed the Jordan and set up camp, all the male children who had been born in the wilderness had to be circumcised. We’re not told why they waited until now. They would have ranged in age from newborns to 39-year-old men. All the dudes are squirming.

This is a reboot. They celebrate Passover for the first time since Sinai. Maybe because they didn’t have the provisions while they were eating manna in the wilderness, maybe because they were disobedient. As soon as they eat this Passover meal in the new land, the manna stops and they never see it again. God tells them to eat from the fruit of the land from now on.

Notice they had to be circumcised before they ate the Passover. Since baptism is our entrance into the New Covenant, the New Testament (those are the same thing), that’s why we require baptism before eating our Passover Meal, which is the Lord’s Supper.

By the way, do you know what the female rite of entrance into the old covenant was? It was a ritualistic bath—a baptism—called a “Mikveh.” Makes sense to me that the Bride of Christ, the church, would enter the same way.

So, the men have been circumcised, they all celebrated the Passover, and a warrior comes walking up to the Israelite camp with His sword drawn, ready for battle.

Joshua steps up to Him. “Are you for us? Or our enemies?”

The man says, “No.”

He identifies Himself as the Commander of the Lord’s Army. Which is another name for the Messiah. The Prince of Peace. This is Jesus.

Is Jesus for us, or is He for our enemies? Yes. He is for us and our enemies. In the Gospel, we destroy our enemies by making them our friends—our brothers and sisters. But even in the conquest of the Promised Land, what they were doing was for the ultimate good of the world.

One day Jesus is going to return in power and glory. When He does, it’s going to be far more terrible for those who are against Him than it was for the people of Canaan. We say it every week, “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” The world is going to be cleansed by fire and remade with glory and light. God is always saving the world by destroying wickedness and making it holy.

Joshua bows with his face to the ground. The Lord says, “take off your shoes, this is holy ground.”

Joshua is having his own Burning Bush moment.

All through the Old Testament, Christ was always with His people, leading and guiding—just not yet in flesh.

The rest of the account calls Him Yahweh, that’s how we know it’s Jesus. He gives the instructions for how to take Jericho. Seven priests were to march around Jericho seven days with the Ark of the Covenant, leading the people, blowing ram horns, no one else saying a word. Once a day for six days then on the seventh day, the Sabbath probably, they were to march around the city seven times. Then they were to all shout. The walls would come tumbling down.

This first victory was going to be completely handled by God to show that He’s the reason they would succeed in taking the land.

Once the walls were down, they were to take the city, kill everyone, men, women, children, animals. They weren’t to take anything for themselves. Nothing. They were to burn it to the ground. By the way, this is only one of three cities that God had them destroy, the rest of them they kept.

Rahab and her family were spared, they joined God’s people. In the Gospel of Matthew, she’s actually mentioned in the lineage of Jesus.

The next city on the list to destroy was Ai (pronounced “Aye”). It wasn’t as big as Jericho so Joshua just sent 3,000 men to take care of it. But it was a total disaster. They got their butts handed to them. They ran away screaming like little girls. 36 men were killed.

This is the lowest point in the life of Joshua. The people became terrified. Why did God bring them all this way just to be defeated by a stupid little town in the middle of nowhere? It says it was their hearts that melted now.

Joshua’s response is not cool. He doesn’t handle this well at all. He blames God. He sounds like Israel at the Red Sea, “Why did you just bring us over here to die? We should have stayed in the wilderness.” He puts dust on his head and lays on the ground in despair. 

God says, “Get up! This happened because Israel broke faith. They took things that were forbidden to take in Jericho. You need to remove those things from among you, or you will never win another battle.”

This is an interesting story because it shows the corporate, community responsibility and consequences of sin. Sin is never just an individual problem. It affects everyone.

We, as the reader, were told that a man named Achan had taken some forbidden things in Jericho and that was the reason Ai defeated them, but Joshua didn’t know about it.

Once he finds out, he followed God’s orders and is led to Achan of the Tribe of Judah. Achan confesses his sin, he was in Jericho, saw some gold and silver and a nice robe—he had to have them, flat out coveting. For his sin, he’s stoned to death, his possessions are burned. It’s unclear whether or not his children were also stoned—maybe, maybe not. Then they burned his body and covered it with stones.

This is a graphic portrayal of what dying to your old self, and repentance looks like. It’s also a grim foreshadowing of what it looks like when one man has his life taken so that the whole community can be restored to God’s blessing. The big difference, of course, being that Jesus wasn’t guilty when He willingly gave His life for your sin.

God tells them to take Ai again, don’t be afraid—this time I will be with you. He gives them a clever plan. Hide 30,000 men silently behind the city. Attack from the front with a small group. When Ai returns the attack, run away like you did last time. Once their army leaves the city, the 30,000 men are to run in and burn it down. They turned the place into a heap, which is what Ai means.

Moses had told them to do a particular worship service once they set up camp on the other side of the Jordan. That’s the next thing they do. It probably took a while because Joshua was supposed to write the instructions of God on an altar made from uncut stones. Was it the whole Torah? All five books? Just Deuteronomy? Just that one chapter? The Ten Commandments? Doesn’t say.

Canaan was panicking. First Jericho, then Ai. Six of the Canaanite kings got together and formed an alliance to fight against Israel. But one King had a different idea.

It says the Gibeonites were “crafty.” The word for “crafty” is the same word that’s used for the serpent in the garden of Eden. It says they knew about how Yahweh protected and fought for Israel against Sion, Og, Jericho, Ai. They also knew that God had told them to destroy the Canaanites. I mean, they were Canaanites but wanted to be on the winning side, so they came up with a clever plan.

They dressed up an envoy in old, dirty clothes, worn sandals, packed threadbare bags with stale moldy bread, poured their wine in old wineskins—then they showed up at Israel’s camp pretending to be from a faraway land. They told Joshua they came to make a peace treaty. He asked where they came from and all they said was they were from a distant land, they explained, ”when we left our country, this bread and wine was fresh, see how worn our clothes have become on this journey?” They said they knew all about Yahweh and everything that happened in Egypt, all they wanted was to be at peace with Israel and to be their servants.

It says that Joshua examined their bread but didn’t consult the Lord. He made the treaty.

Three days later they found out the Gibeonites actually lived nearby. 

What do you do when you have two conflicting options and both of them are right? They were supposed to destroy the Canaanites and not make treaties with them. They were also supposed to be people of their word and not go back on an oath.

What do you think they did?

They said since they swore an oath in the presence of the Lord, they would honor the treaty and make them slaves. Interestingly though, they didn’t make them, like the lowest of the low slaves doing the dirtiest work—which is what I would have done. Stinkin’ Gibeonites! Instead, they had them cut wood and carry water for the Tabernacle. Actually, a pretty sweet gig.

Think about what that means for the reputation of Yahweh. People knew that God was good and just and fair. That His people would be likely to keep their word. 

The rest of Joshua doesn’t go into as much detail on the various battles. It says they conquered the land, took the major cities, and then spends several chapters dividing up the real estate among the Tribes. 

Chapter 23 is a long time later. Joshua has grown old, he’s 110 years old. He gives a couple of final addresses to the people of Israel. He mostly wants to remind them of two important things: that God kept all of His promises—He brought them safely to the Promised Land, He fought for them, they were living in cities they did not build and eating from gardens they did not originally plant. But he also wanted to warn them in the strongest possible language not to forsake the Lord. Not to intermarry with the Canaanites. Not to worship their gods. Not to even invoke their god’s names.

Chapter 24, the final chapter, is another address to the people. This time it’s in the context of a worship service at the Tabernacle. He gives their salvation history. He reminds them to fear the LORD and serve Him alone.

The most famous verse from the Book of Joshua is probably 24:19

“As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:19

Your grandma had that plaque in her kitchen. Most of us miss the context of what Joshua is actually saying.

He tells the people to fear the LORD and serve Him with their whole heart—the first commandment. Put away forever the idols of your ancestors (which tells us they still had a problem with worshiping actual false gods.)

Here’s the part we miss: He says if you refuse to serve the LORD then you have a choice: You can worship the false gods of Egypt on the other side of the Jordan, or you can worship the false gods of the Canaanites, where you live now. Those are your choices.

That’s what you’ll choose, if it’s left up to you. One false god or another.

But God has chosen you. Do not refuse Him.

Oh but the people say, “Far be it from us to refuse God! We will serve the LORD!” Far be it from you indeed.

Joshua was old and wise and battle-hardened. He looked at the people, “No you won’t. God has been good to you but you’re going to fail Him.”

(Nice pep talk Josh).

“No, we WILL serve the LORD! We promise.” The people answered.

So Joshua renewed the covenant with the people, he rolled a huge stone beneath a tree that was near the Tabernacle. “This stone will be a witness to what you have promised, it has heard all the words of the Lord that He spoke to us.” He’s probably thinking, “This rock listens about as well as you do.” Then he sent the people to their homes.

Stones rolled away. Trees. Do I need to spell it out for you?

We are told that Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived him and knew all the things that God did for Israel. And that’s how the book ends. With victory and faithfulness. 

If only we would never turn the page and find out what happens next.