JOSHUA
Lesson 4 - Chapters 1 and 2

This week we open the book of Joshua. Our first three weeks have been spent on binding
together the history of Israel to help us understand what God had done to lead Israel to this
momentous happening: the possession of the Promised Land.
It’s around 1300 B.C., and Moses has died. He climbed Mt. Nebo and was given a panoramic
and apparently supernatural view of the Promised Land by the Lord before he passed away
(much in the same way that the Apostle John was “carried away in Spirit” to be given a view of
heaven and a peek into the future). Somewhere on that mountain Moses was buried (the last
words of Deuteronomy says he was buried by God), and to this day no one knows the precise
location of his grave.
Open your Bibles to Joshua chapter 1.
READ JOSHUA CHAPTER 1 all
Lest there be any doubt as to Joshua’s position of authority over Israel and Moses’ unique
status before the Lord, it is stated in the first verse. There we are told that Moses was the
servant of God (servant of Yehoveh, actually) and that Joshua was a minister (or official, or
steward) of Moses. The term “servant of God” was a very high status reserved for only a
handful of men in the Bible, and was later synonymous with the term Prophet. Moses was the
supreme mediator of Israel, even higher than the High Priest, and Joshua was Moses’
assistant. It would be wholly incorrect to say that Joshua replaced Moses because the position
of Mediator in its highest form was not handed to down to Joshua or to anyone else for 13
centuries until Yeshua, the son of God, the anointed one who would be pierced and die for the
sins of all men, appeared. And although both Moses and Yeshua were Mediators, of course
Yeshua was a step higher because He was and is God, and Moses was not.
Joshua indeed would perform some acts of mediation between Israel and Yehoveh, even
being referred to as mediator at times (but so were the High Priests), but not in the position of
Moses. Yet Joshua was the supreme human authority over Israel as of Moses’ death, he was
the Lord’s choice, and of this the Bible leaves no doubt.
In verse 2 Joshua is told that now that Moses has died, arise and lead Israel to cross over the
Jordan. This instruction would have come 30 days after Moses’ death, due to the standard
30-day mourning period during which time Israel stayed put. Further we will eventually be told
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that one of the first things that Israel did after crossing over into Canaan was to celebrate
Pesach, Passover. Since we know that Passover takes place on the 14th day of the 1st month
of the year, it follows that Moses died a little more than 30 days earlier in the 12th month of the
year that had just concluded. Tradition is that Moses died on the 7th day of Adar, the 12th
month of the Hebrew calendar.
It was necessary for Moses to die before Israel crossed over into the Promised Land because
this arrangement was a divinely ordered punishment for Moses for breaking faith with the Lord
when Moses smacked a rock with his staff (in order for water to be brought forth to fill a need
for the Hebrews he was leading), but he had been instructed by God to SPEAK to the rock.
That is the point of emphasizing Moses’ death in these opening passages, for Israel was
bound NOT to enter Canaan until Moses was gone.
It’s also important for us to know that before Moses’ died he officiated over a name change
for his protégé. Hoshea son of Nun’s name was changed to Yehoshua. In English we would
say that Hosea became Joshua. In Hebrew Hoshea means “he saves”, and Yehoshua means
“Yah saves” (Yah or Yeh is simply a contraction for Yahweh or Yehoveh, depending on
whatever your favored pronunciation of God’s personal name might be). It is identical to our
Messiah’s name. Yeshua or Yahshua was but a later way of saying Joshua in Hebrew.
The first 5 verses of Joshua serve as a kind of prologue in which promises and definitions
concerning the land that God intended for Abraham’s descendants to inherit are summed up
and repeated from earlier pronouncements in the Torah. There were TWO sets of land that we
need to be aware of involved here; there was the actual Promised Land that was reserved for
Israel alone, and it lay to the west of the Jordan River, and there was the land that the Lord
permitted part of Israel to possess (although it was not part of the Promise) that lay to the east
of the Jordan River. The land that lay to the east was now the official tribal territories for
Reuben, Gad, and ½ of the people of the tribe of Manasseh; this was land that Moses had led
Israel to conquer as a kind of staging ground from which to attack Canaan. This land east of
the Jordan was not intended for Israel, but those 3 tribes preferred to stop and settle down
there rather than move on. Moses allowed it on condition that those 3 tribes would provide a
substantial number of troops for Joshua’s army as it moved upon the inhabitants of Canaan.
That Moses led the people in conquering the land east of the Jordan is proof of itself that it
could NOT have been part of the Promised Land since God had years earlier decided that
Moses was prohibited to ever set foot there.
Verse 4 gives us a broad definition of the region that Yehoveh meant for Israel. It started in the
south at what is usually called the desert or the wilderness, and this is referring to Kadesh at
the southeast corner of Canaan. The Lebanon (yes, the same Lebanon that we know of today)
was the general northern boundary of the Promised Land; that is, Lebanon was INCLUDED as
part of the Promised Land. To the northeast the boundary was the Euphrates River and to the
due east it was the Jordan. The western boundary was the Mediterranean coastline. Of all the
boundaries given the one to the north is the least well defined and understood.
There is this reference to the “all the land of the Hittites” in verse 4 that has caused some
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amount of disagreement among scholars because the Hittites were a large, powerful, wealthy,
and advanced civilization that occupied what is today Turkey, which is north of Lebanon. The
Hittites were for all practical purposes an Empire that dominated the region in that era. Most
experts no longer think that area of Turkey is what is being referred to when it speaks of “all
the land of the Hittites”; rather it is well-recorded that the Hittites had several settlements and
outposts throughout the Land of Canaan and it was those scattered settlements that are being
identified.
In modern terms and according to modern national boundaries this means that the Promised
Land set aside for Abraham includes all of modern Israel, what is called the West Bank (this is
a terrible but politically correct name for what is actually Judea and Samaria of Jesus’ day),
Lebanon, and much of Syria. It also incorporates a little more of the Sinai than Israel currently
possesses, but not much, because the southernmost boundary is generally agreed to be a dry
river bed called Wadi el-Arish (the Brook of Egypt) that is located about 20 miles south of Gaza
City. However that does mean that the formal Promised Land territory indeed includes ALL of
what is today referred to as the Gaza Strip.
That the boundaries defined in verse 4 are those that God has set apart as the land for His
people Israel is undeniable. That some church officials argue that the Promised Land does
NOT include Gaza, or even Ashkelon and Ashdod (currently Israeli held towns); that this land
should also NOT include Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Golan Heights, is the
epitome of ignorance of the plain wording of the Bible, apostasy from the Word of God, flat out
disbelief and rebellion, or perhaps a combination of all of the above. Let me make it perfectly
clear that Seed of Abraham Ministries (Torah Class, Holyland Marketplace, and whatever other
ministries that the Lord may see fit for us to undertake) stands upon the Old and New
Testament definitions of the Promised Land and accepts no other. It all belongs to Israel
because it all belongs to God. No amount of geopolitical realities, contempt for the Jewish
people by the majority of the Church, desire of much of the Arab and Muslim world that neither
the land of Israel nor the Jewish people should continue to exist, or even of our governmental
leaders and politicians’ propensity to compromise with, and appease, our enemies using Israel
and her people as bargaining chips, changes anything. True reality is the sovereign will of God;
all human plans and intentions to do anything else is but a vain effort to thwart His will, and that
is a foolish and dangerous thing to attempt. It’s one thing for an unredeemed world to stake
out such a position; but for those Jews who profess to be God’s chosen, and for those gentiles
who profess to trust the Hebrew Messiah for eternal salvation to deny that the promise to
Abraham remains intact is all the more egregious. Let us vow never to turn our backs on
God’s Word or Israel regardless of what we perceive it might cost us in friendships and even
in family relationships because our relationship with the Lord trumps it all.
In verse 5 the Lord makes a promise directly to Joshua: no one will usurp him. Just as there
were time after time for Moses that the people mutinied and committed rebellions, elders
challenged his leadership, his own family grumbled against him, there were many battles
against foreign enemies that put Moses in harm’s way, and thought they are only hinted at
there were plots against his life the Lord did not allow Moses to be dethroned and cast aside.
So it will be for Joshua; the Lord says that He will be with Joshua just as He was with Moses,
and that Joshua will not be replaced or overthrown. And as we’ll see by the end of the book,
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he was not.
With Joshua understanding that he has attained a position that cannot be defeated by any
man, and will not be removed from him by the Lord, Joshua is told to have courage and he is
to have this courage regarding two things: the land and the Law. First the land; it was not
simply going to be handed over to Joshua; Israel would have to fight for it. Israel would have to
make Holy War, instituted by Yehoveh, against the wicked tenants of God’s land that needed
to be physically evicted. Joshua is going to have his bad days; lots of Israelites are going to be
maimed and killed in the process. However he is to always remember that the Lord is simply
allowing His plan to play out and Joshua is to use a combination of his own best efforts plus
God’s guidance in order to ultimately achieve victory.
The second area Joshua is to be courageous in its doing is the Law, the Torah. Joshua is to
observe (and see to it that Israel observes) God’s Law. This, too, will take great and steady
courage because just as it happened for Moses many of the people will balk and fight the truth
of Torah tooth and nail. Joshua, as Moses, will grow weary from constantly exhorting and
confronting his people to stay faithful to the One God and His Torah. Many of you listening and
reading these words have already experienced such a thing in your lives; you are constantly
being forced to explain yourselves. You are constantly accused of being legalistic, of
abandoning grace and choosing law to save you, or of being in a cult. Some of you have been
accused of the unforgivable crime of trying to become Jews, or even worse claiming that Jesus
was actually a Jew when most of your Christian friends are quite certain he was a light-skinned
European born with a Greek name. It gets tiring and at times discouraging to face these things
day after day, but the Lord says to have good courage. Not to have perfectly steady emotions,
nor to think that an occasional (and inevitable) defeat means that He has abandoned you. The
battle is going to be long (your entire life, actually) and at times dangerous and frightening.
In fact I think that on one level the story of Joshua battling for Canaan is the model for our
lifelong battle on earth as God’s redeemed. Our so-called walk with God is more similar to a
protracted Holy War that ends only when the Lord ends it at a place called Har-Megiddo
(Armageddon). We’ll have brief periods of elation and victory, followed by longer periods of
hard labor and difficult battles, some ending in apparent defeat. To expect anything else is to
set ourselves up for losing hope or perhaps even our faith. The Lord was readying Joshua for
the rigors and harsh realities that lay ahead; but for him, as for us, ultimate victory is assured.
At verse 10 the dynamics take a strong turn; up till now the Lord has been instructing and
encouraging Joshua; now it’s time to act. Joshua begins by issuing his first orders to the
officers of his army, who are also the leaders of the camp of Israel. First step: get organized
and prepared. Israel is to make ready to break camp, and so they must gather food and
supplies as in 3 days they will move towards the Jordan.
I have been asked in the past, is Jordan (Yarden) a Hebrew word and if so what does it mean?
Actually it is Hebrew and it means, “descender from Dan”; in other words the river descends,
flows down from, the city of Dan. Some of you have been with me on tour and we’ve seen the
grotto of Paneas that is essentially the headwaters of the Jordan. The name was eventually
shortened to the Grotto of Pan, and it is located at Caesarea Philippi. Now if you are paying
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attention what I just said should prick your ears; because the river is named after the tribe of
Dan, but it will be a century or more after the death of Moses before Dan ever occupies the
headwaters of this river named after them. Obviously, then, the Yarden is a much later name
for that river, so it has been inserted into the Bible over time in order that people know what
river it is that is being identified. What was the Jordan’s former name before it was called the
Jordan; the name the Canaanites probably used? I’ve never discovered it, try as I might. This
practice of substituting newer names for the ancient places and rivers and cities is usual for the
Bible as it has been copied and edited over the centuries.
Joshua continues giving orders in verse 12: just as the 9 ½ tribes are preparing to cross the
Jordan so is it time for the 2 ½ tribes (who now claim the land on the eastern bank of the
Jordan as their inheritance) to provide the allotment of troops that they pledged when Moses
was still alive. The civilian populations of Reuben, Gad and ½ of Manasseh were not asked to
come along; in fact only a portion of the available fighting men were to come. But those who
came were to be the crack troops, the best. Here’s where it gets dicey but it’s not really
apparent until you read between the lines: these troops were obligated to go, but for how long?
Verse 15 says, “until the Lord has given your brethren rest….” These troops who really had
nothing personal to gain (they already had their land) had to fight alongside their brethren until
all of the other tribes had conquered the regions assigned to them. How long would this take?
Who knows. Not only that, who makes the determination as to what constitutes a sufficient
enough victory and state of stability for those troops to be released to go home?
Does all of this sound familiar? The problems we’re facing in Iraq, trying to determine when
our troops can come home is based on determining what a sufficient level of safety and
security amounts to. It is also based on when the indigenous army (the Iraqi army) is able to
handle the nation’s security on its own. These questions and dilemma’s aren’t only for
modern times; they have always applied to national interests and warfare. Joshua, and the
various Israelite tribes with their differing priorities, has to sort this out and it is a delicate
matter.
The answer is that Joshua will determine when those troops can lay down their weapons,
cross back over the Jordan and go home, their pledge fulfilled; and the problem is that
Joshua’s authority over those 2 ½ tribes who have taken their inheritance OUTSIDE of the
Promised Land, east of the Jordan River, is quite ambiguous. Is Joshua to have the same
authority over them as he does over the 9 ½ tribes who are going to possess the Promised
Land? Are those tribes who refused their inheritance inside the Promised Land still going to be
as much a part of the Israel tribal confederacy as those who accepted it? This was a very real
and critical political problem of some proportion; if those 2 ½ tribes refused to recognize
Joshua’s leadership there would be a real possibility of war between the 9 ½ tribes against the
2 ½ at the same time Israel was attempting to conquer dozens of Canaanite tribes and city
states; the entire endeavor would have been in doubt. In fact, later in Joshua, we’ll read where
warfare between those two groups came within an eyelash of actually happening.
Well, thank the Lord for small favors, the 2 ½ tribes respond (in verses 16 and 17) that they will
do all that they promised to Moses, and that they will submit to Joshua just as though he was
Moses. By the way, as we read more of Joshua we’ll find that indeed they stayed true to their
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word.
Let me also comment briefly on the use of the word, “rest”; in Hebrew nuach (this was used
when the leaders of the 2 ½ tribes agreed to help their brethren obtain “rest” in their allotted
territories. Up to now the primary term used to speak of the redemption of Israel was
“inheritance”; they would inherit the land. But now we’ll begin to see more and more Scriptural
use of the term rest and, of course, we’ll see the term “rest” used as a focal point of
redemption in the New Testament. The kind of rest that nuach speaks to is divine deliverance.
It also speaks to a ceasing of vigorous labors. Rest is a promise made to God’s people just as
much as the inheritance of land is a promise. The Sabbath that began at the beginning of the
world was all about rest, and it was about the Lord resting. The Sabbath given to Moses was
about rest, and it was about mankind resting. Isaiah spoke of rest (nuach) as applying to the
good life that an obedient people of God could reasonably expect. Rest even became a term
applied to God’s prophets obtaining the Holy Spirit so that they could speak God’s message
to God’s people, and of course we read of the Holy Spirit resting upon various men and kings
so that the Lord could use them for Kingdom purposes. Who could ever forget the vivid scene
of Jesus being baptized by John the Immerser when the Holy Spirit came down as a dove and
“rested” upon Jesus, or when at Shavuot, Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came as tongues of fire
and “rested” upon the heads of those ordinary Jews who believed on the Lord Yeshua for
salvation?
Rest was now front and center as both a means and a goal of redemption.
It is good for us to see that what has been established by the writer of Joshua is that Israel, all
12 tribes, are unified in purpose at this point in history. Even though some Israelites will live
outside of the Promised Land, and therefore have different circumstances to deal with in their
daily lives than their brethren who live on the west side of the Jordan, a unity has been
affirmed; a unity that centers on Yehoveh their God, and on their single leader, Joshua. We
also see how godly leadership is intended to operate when the leaders and the people are
looking as one towards their supreme commander, the Lord God. A paradigm is established
that has at its heart an organization whereby one man commands several officers, who
themselves each command more, who then go out among the people and bring one message
in one spirit to a people prepared to accept it so that all will march in an orderly fashion
towards a God-ordained goal.
This paradigm is a wonderful model for the church. We live dispersed throughout the world, in
many lands with varying circumstances and daily realities. We are Jews and we are gentiles.
We have varying agendas and live under a wide range of political and economic systems.
Hundreds of cultural and societal traditions have been developed, revolving around their
particular languages and centuries of national history. We are different colors, shapes, and
sizes. Joshua wondered how he could keep a group of 12 tribes, each with their own tribal
interests reigning supreme, soon to be geographically separated, together in spirit and with a
common purpose to establish a kingdom of God on earth. The key for Joshua was the same as
it is for the church, to maintain a common identity; and that identity is of a people set-apart
from the world who trust the God of Israel and who work to follow and achieve His will. But it
also meant that a common understanding of what the God of Israel’s will amounted to was
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necessary and, as has been the emphasis since Mt. Sinai, the primary source of knowing and
establishing God’s will for all of His people was the Torah.
Let’s move on to chapter 2.
READ JOSHUA CHAPTER 2 all
This chapter incorporates some of the greatest drama and most memorable characters in the
Bible; the battle of Jericho and the ironic female hero, a Canaanite prostitute, Rahab, who
professed faith in Israel’s God.
Jericho is even today an amazing place; it is a little dicey to venture there currently (and for a
Westerner in particular) because it is Palestinian Arab controlled territory even though many of
the local Arabs remain friendly and grateful for your business at this run down village where
only 8 or 9 years ago it was a thriving tourist site. Fortunately the Tell of the ancient city of
Jericho is a few hundred yards away from the modern day village of Jericho thus extensive
excavation could be accomplished. With a bit of bravery a visitor can look down upon the walls
of that ancient city, most of them collapsed some largely intact, and I’m sure at least some of
you have done so. I had the privilege back in the early 90’s and I really didn’t want to leave
the place. For me it was second only to the Old City of Jerusalem on the list of awe-inspiring
places to be in Israel.
It is generally agreed that Jericho first existed before the Great Flood, and as is common
among such ancient sites it has been destroyed and rebuilt on numerous occasions. Modern
archeology confirms the location of Jericho so there is no doubt that what we see today is
authentic. It is the lowest city in the world, nearly 800 feet below sea level (so you can imagine
what happened when God destroyed the world with that 40 day deluge). It is about 6 miles
north of the Dead Sea, and about a 2-hour walk from the Jordan River. Some of the walls that
one can see today are about 3500 years old, although under that are walls that date to 5000
years old. Below them are large stone structures that date to 10,000 years ago. In fact it also
appears that from the time of the destruction that we’ll read about in Joshua, the city was
abandoned until around the 7th or 8th century B.C. and then rebuilt only to abandoned again
for several centuries, inhabited again, and the cycle repeated to modern times.
Joshua instructed two spies, advanced scouts, to go look over the situation at the first enemy
stronghold Israel would encounter upon crossing the Jordan River. By now Israel had moved a
short distance to a place called Shittim, which means “Acacia Trees”. Shittim was located on
the east bank of the Jordan and is today known as Tell el-Hammam in the nation of Jordan.
Like Jericho it too is located about 6 miles north of the Dead Sea, and is only about 7 miles
from the Jordan River so it was the perfect staging ground for Israel to launch it’s assault of
Canaan.
Joshua, being an experienced general, knows that he must have a good idea of what they’re
up against so that he can formulate a proper battle plan. Now some theologians have accused
Joshua of lacking faith due to his sending out of these two spies; this comes from applying to
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this event the tone of the story when the leaders of Israel, so many years earlier, told Moses
that before they would go in to Canaan they needed some scouts to go out and see what sort
of opposition they faced; and it is an error to see this as the same situation. Recall that 12
spies were sent by Moses (one from each tribe) because each tribal leader wanted to be
properly represented and was not willing to accept the report from someone of another tribe.
Therefore each tribal prince sent his own hand-selected man loyal only to him. In a nutshell we
saw that those 12 spies were NOT going to Canaan in order that battle plans could be drawn
up, they were going because of fear and trepidation on the part of the leaders of Israel. This
was NOT something Moses wanted to do or that God ordered, rather this was an act of
skepticism. This was an act that demonstrated that they did not trust the Lord; the leaders of
Israel preferred to make their OWN decisions as to whether or not they would even go into the
Promised Land. The results were that 10 spies said to attack Canaan would be suicide, but 2
had a different opinion. All of the 12 agreed that the enemy was numerous and well fortified;
but the 10 said that this reality meant they should forgo their attempt to enter. The 2 said that
God had promised the land to them so it made no difference how well-prepared the
Canaanites were or how many there were of them, and that Israel should go forward to claim
God’s promise to Abraham. We all know the results of that foray and the final decision that
ended in that generation dying off without ever being allowed to enter the Promised Land.
That’s not what was happening here at Jericho. This sending out of 2 spies was not about
deciding whether to attack, but was meant to add information on how to attack. Notice that the
identification of the 2 spies and the tribes they represented were not important enough to
record; rather they were going on this mission on behalf of all Israel and Joshua, not the
individual tribal leadership. This was about Joshua’s concern to be diligent in his duty and
careful with the precious lives of the people whom the Lord had entrusted to him.
Joshua’s instruction was to view both Jericho AND the land; this only meant the area between
Shittim and Jericho. The idea was for them to scout a good route and to determine the strength
and readiness of Jericho’s defenses. It is emphasized that the spies were sent out secretly,
meaning that only Joshua, the spies, and perhaps a couple of his closest officers knew about
the foray. This is in contrast to the story of the 12 spies sent by committee 38 years earlier, and
the people anxiously awaiting their return and report.
The 2 spies arrived at the city of Jericho and immediately went to the house of a Canaanite
prostitute named Rahab. Some prominent Jewish scholars such as Rashi say that she may not
have been a prostitute, because the Hebrew word zonah didn’t necessarily indicate a Harlot
although it was the most common usage of the term. Some Bible translations follow Rashi (and
Josephus, by the way) and say that Rahab was NOT a prostitute but rather an innkeeper.
Actually as more understanding of the ancient Middle Eastern cultures come into light it could
very well have been that she was both a prostitute and an innkeeper. The narrative implies that
the house where she lived and the spies entered was her property; something that would have
been unusual for a simple harlot. The earliest inns whereby weary travelers could stop for a
day or two were always inside city walls. They were little more than a place of shelter, with
some kind of bed or mat available that afforded them protection from bandits and wild animals
and of course provided the opportunity for the company of women.
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Prostitution was not at all seen as a bad or immoral thing in most of the world; it was as
common as most any other trade or craft. It was so common that pagan priesthoods even
opened their own brothels as a means to earn money to run the enormous number of Temples
dedicated to their equally enormous number of gods. Thus like so many of the laws and
regulations we’ll see in Torah, the outlawing of common and religious prostitution among the
Israelites by Yehoveh was yet another means of separating Israel from all other peoples.
Unfortunately as we’ll see all throughout the Bible, Old and New Testaments, prostitution
remained embedded Hebrew society even though it was looked down upon.
That the house inside the walls of Jericho that the spies visited was a known place for travelers
is evident by its logical and convenient location to the city wall and the city gate. When the
king sent his soldiers to inquire about the two strangers they immediately went to Rahab
because her establishment was the town inn where any traveler was most likely to stay.
Let’s stop here and we’ll take up the story of Jericho, Rahab and the spies next week.
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