Introduction to Joshua  

Background God has chose Abraham and has promised to bless him (Gen 12:1-3, cf. Gal 3:8). Through Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed, he was also promised that his family would be a large nation & God would lead them to a land he would give them. Abrahams family grew and became known as the people of Israel. They were held in captivity in Egypt, where they grew further. God miraculously redeemed them from Egypt, led them through the Red Sea and gave them a covenant (Exodus). He showed them how the people of God were to live before him & be a blessing to the other nations. The people were rebellious & spent years wandering around the wilderness (Numbers). The law is repeated with an emphasis on loving obedience. Joshua is appointed to lead the people in to take the land God is giving them (Deuteronomy).  The Book of Joshua is the first of the historical books of the OT. This is not mere history, it ‘preach[es] the facts of history to the church at ever stage in redemptive history’ (Goligeher). Though the book depicts Joshua writing (8:32, 24-26) it does not claim he wrote the book. Repeated references of something existing ‘to this day’ (4:9, 5:9, 6;25; etc) suggest it was written later.  Theme This is part 2 of God’s redemptive work. In part 1 he redeemed the people from slavery in Egypt & gave them the covenant and now in part 2, under the leadership of Joshua, the Lord as divine Warrior brings his people into the Land of Promise and gives them “rest.” (ESV Study Bible).  Structure. Here are two suggestions: 1. Claiming the land (1-12) 2. Possessing the land (13-21)3. Keeping the land (22-24) (Goligher)  1. Joshua leads Israel (1-5) 2. Battles with the Canaanites (6-12) 3. Joshua divides up the land (13-22) 4. Joshua’s final words (23-24) (The Bible Project)  As always The Bible Project video is very helpful www.jointhebibleproject.com/?video=1-7 and can also be found easily on YouTube.  The Bible Project Poster:

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Did God order Genocide? 

One of the most significant discussion points arising from Joshua is the command of God to the Israelites to totally destroy the Canaanites. This is a discussion well worth having. We need to wrestle with this issue and be ready to respond to challenges that will come. I recently heard of a Muslim highlighting Israel’s Genocide as a sort of defence for the actions of Islamic State.  This is not a new challenge and there are plenty of recourses around to consider the matter. The Bible Project Video takes a few minutes on it. Here is link to a blog http://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/did-god-order-genocide The subject is taken up in a new theological journal. I found this to be most helpful & have had permission to copy this for you (available on Sunday). Here is the ESV Study Bible’s notes on the matter.  

The Destruction of the Canaanites 

The account in Joshua presents the sensitive reader with a deep problem, namely, the apparently wholesale slaughter of the indigenous Canaanite population in order to allow the people of Israel to occupy their land. How did Israel have any right to seize that land? And how can it be God’s will for them to spare none of those who resisted them in defense of their own land? Could this be a level of barbarism that God tolerated in the OT but now forbids in the NT?

Certainly people hostile to the Bible decry ancient Israel for its “ethnic cleansing,” and many sensitive Christians find this deeply troubling as well. To handle the topic thoroughly would take a longer essay, but the discussion here can guide thoughts for fuller reflection.

One must begin by acknowledging that the questions are legitimate. Christians rightly condemn this kind of behavior in other circumstances, and there is no warrant today for nations to destroy other nations in order to take their land. But there are special features of the command to Israel that both make it unique (and therefore not open to be imitated) and allow it to be seen in a moral light. This command is one reason why Exodus records the call of Moses in such detail (Ex. 3:1–4:17; cf. Num. 12:1–15): Moses is God’s unique choice to be the lawgiver for his people, and the commands given through Moses come from God’s own mind (cf. Deut. 18:15–20). Believers accept God’s appointment of Moses to speak his will. Without this command from God as delivered through Moses, Israel would have had no right to the land.

A second point to clarify is that the Pentateuch sets out laws of warfare, distinguishing between battles fought against cities outside the Promised Land (Deut. 20:10–15) and those fought against cities inside the land (Deut. 20:16–18). It is only the latter case that requires Israel to spare no one (“you shall devote them to complete destruction”); see the notes on Deuteronomy 20:1–20 and 20:16–18. The law appears to be unconditional and implacable. With these clarifications, one can now outline why this command is not an unsolvable “problem.”

(1) A fundamental OT conviction is that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the Creator of all there is, and therefore the owner of all lands. He has the right to distribute territories according to his good and holy will (cf. Ex. 19:5; Ps. 24:1). As the universal Creator, he is also the universal Judge, to whom all people everywhere are accountable: cf. Genesis 6–8 (the flood story affects all kinds of people); Genesis 11:1–9(the Tower of Babel); Exodus 12:12 (judgment on the gods of Egypt); the prophetic oracles about

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the nations (see chart). The NT shares this basic conviction: cf. Acts 14:15–16; 17:24–31. This means that God has the ultimate rights over the land of Canaan, and that he has the right to bring the Canaanites to judgment for their moral condition and deeds.(2) Since all people are sinners, all are rightly subject to God’s judgment. The Pentateuch gives a moral rationale for the removal of the Canaanites, seeing it as divine judgment for their iniquities (see note onGen. 15:13–16; cf. Lev. 18:24–30; Deut. 9:5). This action against these peoples, then, is an expression of God’s judgment on them through the agency of Israel. This judgment therefore announces the moral nature of God to the whole world for their instruction (that announcement in all its clarity is itself part of the blessing that Israel is to bring to the whole world). In ways that are not entirely clear, the faithful will participate with God in carrying out the final judgment (1 Cor. 6:2; cf. Ps. 149:6–7), and Israel’s bringing of judgment on the Canaanites foreshadows that great responsibility as well (see note on Josh. 6:17). God’s judgment allows no double standard: he did not base his choice of Israel on any merit of theirs (Deut. 7:6–9), and he calls them to embrace his love faithfully. Unfaithfulness will lead to judgment upon Israel itself, whether at the level of the individual (Ex. 22:20) or the whole people (Josh. 7:11–12; Mal. 4:6; cf. Lev. 18:28). This cannot be called “ethnic cleansing,” since the treatment is just, regardless of ethnicity.

(3) Further, the Sinai covenant sets Israel up to be a “theocracy,” a unique combination of what is now called “church” and “state.” Membership in the people is both political and religious, and thus “citizens” are under obligation to be faithful in observing the covenant. Those who carry out egregious violations must be removed (e.g., Deut. 13:5; 17:7; etc.), and if Israel were to allow unrepentant Canaanites to remain in the land, they would drag the whole people down into idolatry, injustice, and evil (e.g., Deut. 7:4; 12:29–31), which, sadly, is just what happened. Christians are not to carry out this kind of warfare, because the people of God are no longer identified with a particular nation-state.

(4) Finally, even though the laws about destroying the Canaanites are stated in an uncompromising and unconditional way (in keeping with the rhetoric of ancient Near Eastern conquest accounts, which allows for this kind of unqualified statement), the way Israel applied those laws apparently made room for some of the Canaanites to surrender and survive, particularly if they professed faith in the one true God (see note on Josh. 2:9 for Rahab and her whole family; see note on 9:1–27 for the Gibeonites; cf. 11:19). This means that the appearance of implacability in these laws is just that, an appearance, and there is an implied allowance for exceptions. This is another point showing that, strictly speaking, the command given to Israel is nothing like “ethnic cleansing,” since ethnicity itself is not the reason for the action.

These factors—God’s right to allocate land and judge the world with perfect justice; the need to protect the purity of the Israelite theocracy; and the provisions for even Canaanites to be saved—all illustrate the justice that lies behind these provisions. At the same time, it is also clear that the practices known as genocide and ethnic cleansing are indeed evil, and the Israelites were not commanded to commit them. These factors were a unique part of Israel’s mission; no people today have any right to use them as a warrant to support injustice. Key Themes The book of Joshua is fascinating not only in respect to literary and historical questions but perhaps especially in regard to several theological topics: land, leadership, the Book of the Law, covenant, Yahweh’s war (Hb. kherem), judgment and mercy, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, promised rest, God’s faithfulness and his people’s response, and so forth. The theological lessons to glean from the pages of Joshua are many:

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1. The Lord’s abiding presence as the key to strength and courage (e.g., 1:5, 9).

2. The centrality of the Lord’s instructions for succeeding in one’s mission and acting with insight; land and rest as divine gifts (1:7–8).

3. The ability of the Lord to save the “outsider” (Rahab), and the danger of the “insider” falling away (Achan; see chs. 2 and 7).

4. The Lord as divine Warrior and the reality of judgment when iniquity is full (e.g., 10:42; 11:19–20).

5. The danger of presumption and failure to inquire of the Lord (e.g., 9:14).

6. The Lord as protector of the covenant (e.g., 10:1–15, esp. v. 11).

7. The unity of the people of God (18:1–10; 22:34).

8. The sovereignty of God in giving his people place and rest (1:13; 11:23; 21:43–45).

9. The faithfulness of God in fulfilling all his good promises (1:2; 21:43–45).

10. The necessity of removing false gods & worshiping God alone (24).

The list could continue. Given the virtual identity of the names Joshua and Jesus (both are rendered “Jesus” [Gk. ’Iēsous] in the Gk. of the Septuagint and the NT), and in light of passages such as Hebrews 4:8–11, it is not surprising that the leader Joshua has been interpreted as a “type” of Christ. (ESV Study Bible)

 

The Story of salvation (The big picture)Important to see how Joshua fits in the unfolding of God’s salvation plan. The history of Israel displays/enacts how God will save the world.

The OT picture salvation Salvation in JesusGod chooses to place his blessing on Abraham & make him a blessing to the nations (Gen 12:1-3)

He chooses us to be a blessing to the nations too. (Acts 1:8; Eph 1:3-6, 2:8-10; Titus 3:4-5)

God miraculously rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt by the Passover & Red Sea. (Exodus)

NT pictures us enslaved by sin (Jn 8:34) but through the blood of Jesus our Passover Lamb, God’s wrath is turned aside (Rom 3:21-26; 1 Cor 5:7; 2 Cor 5:21).

God’s covenant with them shows them how they live in fellowship with him. Sacrificial system -points us to Jesus. (Ex & Lev)

God’s word shows us how to live.We do not have a sacrificial system – we have Jesus. (Heb 10:19-25; 1 John 1:5-2:2)

They enter into the Promised Land & drive our all sin. (Joshua, see Isaiah 59:15b-21 & 63:1-6)

We await the return of Jesus who judge, liberate & make all things new. (Matt 25:31-46; Rev 21:1-8)

Later we will have the rule of King David – the new king of Eden. (1 Samuel, Is 9:6-7)

Jesus will rule as King of his Kingdom (Matthew 1; John 18:36; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Peter 1:11)

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A story of Salvation (Joshua 2:1-14)Rahab is a trophy of God’s grace & an example to us saving faith.  Joshua is on verge of Jordan ready to enter into Canaan & take the land. He sends 2 spies to look at Jericho. They enter the house of a prostitute, a good place to be unnoticed, but they are. Soldiers come but Rahab hides the spies & sends the soldiers off in another direction.  Rahab is afraid of what God will do to Jericho & she seizes the moment to express her faith in God as Lord & throw herself on the mercy of God.  In her words and her actions she shows her faith.

‘Rahab represents the example of one who confesses God’s historic acts of redemption & receives salvation. The confession of faith became the means to

salvation (Rom 10:9; 1 John 4:15)’Having seen the power of God she declares:

‘THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GOD IN HEAVEN ABOVE AND EARTH BELOW’ The sentiment of the Pentateuch:“Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on

the earth below. There is no other.” (Deut 4:39) She pleads for Kindness (12). (Heb. ‘hesed’ means ‘covenant loyalty’. What she is saying is: ‘Please show me unfailing help to a needy covenant partner. I know that God is God over all; I know that he has given you this land; I have turned from my people to your people please show kindness to me and my family. There is no other salvation for me, but in you, for you will have the victory.‘ Her Actions back it up too as James 2:25-26 highlight (see James 2:14-26). Her faith is confirmed by her actions.  She is further commended for her faith in Hebrews 11 the great list of people of faith, the only woman, a Canaanite prostitute closes the list.  Her faith brought her into the people of God. She later marries Salmon, together they have Boaz who’s great grandson is King David. She is brought into the Kingly line of Jesus (See Matthew 1:6).  What can we learn? 1. What sort of faith saves us. She confesses salvation with her mouth & it is shown to be true by her actions. As we face the justice of God we would do well to throw ourselves on his mercy & kindness & put out faith in him.  

...if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ & believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)

 True faith leads to action, as we turn from our sin & turn to live for God.

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2. An encouragement to live by faith. Heb 11 is designed to encourage and exhort Christians to keep going, to live by faith and not by sight. Calvin suggests Rahab’s inclusion what to shame the Jews for their lack of faith… Who would have thought a Canaanite prostitute could show such faith. Ought not we, with all that we know of God & of Jesus show such faith?  In Joshua 1 God calls Joshua to trust his promises and be strong & very courageous (1:6, 7, 9). Joshua does & proves the faithfulness of God. At the end of his life he points out that not one of god’s promises have failed (21:45)  Can we trust the promises of God & be bold & very courageous?  3. How wonderfully God redeems sinners Isn’t it great to see how God worked in Rahab’s life, to snatch her from destruction & bring her into God’s family. That is what he does for each of us.

 Suggestions for discussion/consideration as you read Joshua  2nd or 3rd May. Growth Group Central. An opportunity for all groups to gather together to worship & pray around the word.  9th or 10th May1. The big picture. God’s redeemed people live in God’s new, purified kingdom. Watch the Bible Project video again and discuss.2. Joshua’s commission (ch 1)3. Story of Jericho & Rahab show’s us God’s willingness to save those who express their faith in him but also his justice on those who do not.4. When is it OK to lie?5. Achan’s sin. What lessons can we learn here about the seriousness of sin. Are there NT examples or passages that help us apply this? (Ch 7) 16th or 17th May 1. Genocide – it is God who clears out the nations2. Joshua 21:45 Share about the faithfulness of God in scripture and in your life.Joshua 24:15 one of the famous verses of the Bible. What would it look like for your family to serve the Lord? 23rd or 24th May (Reading Galatians, see notes)  

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