If you are keeping up with the daily Bible readings, you will soon be finishing Deuteronomy and beginning Joshua.
Joshua is an interesting book, especially if you are interested in war history. Perhaps the two most well-known verses are at the beginning and the end, but they’re not always considered in their context. Joshua 1:9 is, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” This is from the introduction, which the Lord spoke directly to Joshua. Joshua had been the assistant to Moses, and when Moses died, Joshua assumed leadership of Israel. Whereas Moses had been a guide and teacher in the wilderness, Joshua was more of a general. The time had come for Israel to conquer the land of Canaan, and Joshua was called to lead their armies. You might remember from Numbers 13 that Joshua was one of the twelve spies sent at the beginning of the Exodus to spy out the land of Canaan. Of those twelve, Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who trusted the Lord to give them the land and encouraged the people to take it. But the people listened to the ten instead. Thirty-nine years later, Joshua was finally going to lead Israel into the land God had promised them. It was still an intimidating task, so the Lord promised to be with him.
The other well-known verse is at the end. After driving out the inhabitants (or most of them) and claiming the Promised Land, Joshua admonished the people to serve the Lord. In 24:15 he says, “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” It’s not like Joshua is really presenting them a serious choice, though. The Lord, Yahweh had just given them this land. So if they decide later that they don’t want to serve the Lord, what other god will they serve? One of the gods of the people whom the Lord just drove out of the land? That would be foolish, and that’s Joshua’s point. So the people vow to serve the Lord. But Joshua had witnessed their fathers grumbling, wavering, and rebelling for forty years in the wilderness. So he gets sober with them and says, “You are not able to serve the Lord” (24:19). But they insist. Then Joshua reminds them of God’s covenant with them, that if they serve him, he will bless them in the land, but if they do not, he will take it away from them.
Probably the most difficult part of the book is all the killing. In Deuteronomy 7, the Lord commanded Israel to devote the Canaanites to destruction, and Joshua almost completely carried it out. That was a specific command for the conquest, so God does not command for that to be a general practice of warfare. Yet, the conquest might still trouble us. First, we should remember that all people are the Lord’s, and he can do what he knows is best. Second, Joshua tells the story more from the perspective of Israel, but it doesn’t give a full picture of the Canaanites. We know from some biblical passages, as well as archaeological evidence, that the Canaanites were very wicked, even to the extent of child-sacrifice. It may be that the timing of the conquest was also God’s judgment upon Canaan. So it’s not like he took the land of some innocent people and gave it to the Israelites. Finally, the intention of complete destruction was so that the Canaanites, with their false gods, would not draw the Israelites away from faith in the true God. This concern proved true. Israel did not completely drive out the inhabitants of the land, and some of those people became a persistent problem for them.
Finally, I want you to recognize that Joshua is, in some sense, a foreshadowing (or “type”) of Jesus. They have the same name (our English name “Jesus” comes from the Greek version of the Hebrew name “Yeshua,” which we translate as “Joshua”). It means “Yahweh is salvation.” So Joshua foreshadows the way Jesus comes as our conquering hero to deliver us from our enemies, in our case, the devil and his angels. Jesus overcomes the forces of evil. So when we read in the gospels about Jesus casting out demons, that is the fulfillment of the ministry Joshua prefigured. Ultimately, Jesus overcame the devil and his forces at the cross, not by putting anyone else to death, but by accepting death as his own. Therefore, he swallowed up death. Finally, by the power of his resurrection, he will lead us, his Church, out of the wilderness of this life and into the new Promised Land: the new creation.
The peace of Christ be with you all,
Pastor Dan Antal