Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

Ai Destroyed

¹ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. ² You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

Now that Israel had dealt with their sin, God wanted to lead them to victory again. If we want victory, we must first repent of the sin in our lives. He encouraged them not to be afraid or discouraged. After a spiritual failure, it’s easy to get discouraged and afraid that you’ll continue to fail. But God wants to encourage us to pick back up where we left off.

This time God says to take the whole army, not just send 3,000 soldiers.  Now that God was with them again, they probably could have taken Ai with 300 men, but God knew their confidence would be helped with a more sound military strategy. That’s why God also instructed Joshua to set an ambush. Once again he tells Joshua not that he would give Ai into his hands, but that he already had. The battle is already won, but we must be obedient to God in order to benefit from it. And this time, God allows them to keep the booty for themselves. The plunder and livestock were not the issue, obeying God was the issue.

³ So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night ⁴ with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. ⁵ I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. ⁶ They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, ⁷ you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The LORD your God will give it into your hand. ⁸ When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the LORD has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”

⁹ Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people.

Joshua gave the orders that God had given him to his troops, and he sent 30,000 men just for the ambush, which was 10 times the total amount of troops that had tried the previous attack on Ai. Plus, he added one wrinkle that shows what a great general he was. He told those who waited in ambush to set the city on fire after the men of Ai came out to chase the main Israelite army. As we’ll see in the next verses, this distracted and disheartened the army of Ai, and proved to be a decisive advantage for Israel.

¹⁰ Early the next morning Joshua mustered his men, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. ¹¹ The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. ¹² Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³ They had the soldiers take up their positions—all those in the camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the desert. ¹⁶ All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. ¹⁷ Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

¹⁸ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out his javelin toward Ai. ¹⁹ As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.

²⁰ The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising against the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction, for the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the desert had turned back against their pursuers. ²¹ For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from the city, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. ²² The men of the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. ²³ But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the desert where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. ²⁵ Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. ²⁶ For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed ^[a] all who lived in Ai. ²⁷ But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the LORD had instructed Joshua.

²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. ²⁹ He hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take his body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.

The key to this battle, to me, is in verse 18. Joshua waited to give the signal to the troops waiting in ambush until God told him to. Even when we know we are in God’s will, and we think we have a perfect plan, it’s vital to wait on his timing. You can’t rush God. In verse 26, it says Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out the javelin until the battle was completely over. I’m not sure if this is a poetic way of saying he showed Ai no mercy, or if he actually stood there with his spear extended until the battle was won. In either case, Joshua followed through on what God told him to do until the task was completed. Sometimes when God gives us a job to do, we may get tired, distracted by other things, or discouraged, and leave the job unfinished. Joshua did not do that.

For much of the Old Testament this cycle of victory followed by failure followed by repentance followed by more victory followed by more failure, is repeated over and over for Israel. Many of us follow the same pattern in our own lives, but we don’t need to. God wants to give us complete victory over the kind of willful disobedience Israel was guilty of over and over. Even a casual reading of the Old Testament reveals the results of the kind of inconsistency Israel exhibited over the years. They ended up in exile, and only a remnant of the nation remained. But they did not have Jesus Christ and the dispensation of the Holy Spirit working within them like we have. So what’s our excuse?

Mark Bible Ai, Bible, Joshua

Achan’s Sin

¹⁶ Early the next morning Joshua brought the tribes of Israel before the Lord, and the tribe of Judah was singled out. ¹⁷ Then the clans of Judah came forward, and the clan of Zerah was singled out. Then the families of Zerah came forward, and the family of Zimri was singled out. ¹⁸ Every member of Zimri’s family was brought forward person by person, and Achan was singled out.

Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family. This shows how tribal the culture was. And it still is in that part of the world, except for Israel and Egypt. I have heard experts on the middle east say that there are only two true nations in the middle east, Israel and Egypt. The rest of the middle east is basically families with armies. A big part of what makes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so difficult is that people there do not identify themselves primarily by their nationality, but by their clan and tribe. They’ve thought of themselves that way since the time of the patriarchs, and we can see that societal structure at work here. Though Israel is a modern nation now, at that time they were structured tribally, like all the other peoples of that region.

The Bible never explains how God indicated to Joshua who the guilty tribe, clan, family, and individual was, but we know God spoke to Joshua, audibly or otherwise, and God unerringly led Joshua to the guilty party. Be sure your sins will find you out (Numbers 32:23).

¹⁹ Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, by telling the truth. Make your confession and tell me what you have done. Don’t hide it from me.”

²⁰ Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. ²¹ Among the plunder I saw a beautiful robe from Babylon,^[d] 200 silver coins,^[e] and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound.^[f] I wanted them so much that I took them. They are hidden in the ground beneath my tent, with the silver buried deeper than the rest.”

²² So Joshua sent some men to make a search. They ran to the tent and found the stolen goods hidden there, just as Achan had said, with the silver buried beneath the rest. ²³ They took the things from the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites. Then they laid them on the ground in the presence of the Lord.

Once he was found out, Achan confessed. I can’t help but think Achan knew he was the cause of the trouble before the process even started. If, immediately after Israel’s defeat at Ai, Achan had come forward and confessed his sin, would this story have turned out differently? Any media consultant will tell you that it’s always better to get out in front of a scandal than to try to cover it up. The truth inevitably comes out, and when it does, it will only be worse for you. That’s a lesson I’ll bet Tiger Woods wishes he had learned sooner. Of course, it would have been better if Achan had not sinned in the first place, but sometimes temptation gets the best of all of us. I think if Achan had come forward right away, he might have been able to spare his family. If you have a secret sin that could ruin your reputation if it were found out, consider how much worse it will be for your family if you do not repent. The longer you try to keep it secret, the more damaging it will be for those around you when God exposes your sin.

²⁴ Then Joshua and all the Israelites took Achan, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons, daughters, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, tent, and everything he had, and they brought them to the valley of Achor. ²⁵ Then Joshua said to Achan, “Why have you brought trouble on us? The Lord will now bring trouble on you.” And all the Israelites stoned Achan and his family and burned their bodies. ²⁶ They piled a great heap of stones over Achan, which remains to this day. That is why the place has been called the Valley of Trouble^[g] ever since. So the Lord was no longer angry.

Achan’s family must have helped Achan hide the booty he had stolen. That compounded their guilt. I have seen commentary that says the original language indicates that only Achan may have been executed, and the rest of his family were made to bear witness. That would be more in accordance with Mosaic law. If that’s true, it makes me feel a little better about it, but however it happened, it’s not a happy ending. There never is a happy ending for sin. We may think our sin is private, but no matter how secret we think it is, it affects those around us. If we live lives that are pleasing to God, that has an effect on those we come into contact with too. What kind of effect do you want to have?

Mark Bible Achan, Bible, Joshua

¹ Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

² Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. ³ March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ⁴ Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ⁵ When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.”

⁶ So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” ⁷ And he ordered the people, “Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD.”

Jericho was on high alert, and who can blame them? Jericho was not a large town, as archeological evidence shows. It was only six acres inside the city walls. That’s why they were able to march around it seven times in one day. And a nation of two million people had been encamped right on their doorstep for days. So the gates were kept shut. They expected to be attacked at any time.

What’s interesting to me in this passage is that God told Joshua that the walls would collapse after they did what God ordered, but Joshua did not tell the people that. They just had to follow his orders, which they knew were from the Lord. This shows how after the crossing of the Jordan, the people really did trust Joshua just like they had trusted Moses. The other point that jumps out at me in these verses is that God did not say that he would deliver Jericho into their hands, but that he had. The battle was already won, though Israel didn’t know it yet. You may feel like you’re in a spiritual battle, but the battle is already won. God has already delivered you. You only have to obey him to see the victory for yourself.

⁸ When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD’s covenant followed them. ⁹ The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. ¹⁰ But Joshua had commanded the people, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” ¹¹ So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there.

¹² Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. ¹³ The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding. ¹⁴ So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

All through this process, Joshua still never told his troops what would happen on the seventh day. And this must have been dangerous. Jericho actually had two walls, a retaining wall 12-15 feet high, and on top of that a mudbrick wall six feet thick and about 20–26 feet high (answersingenesis.org). Troops would have been stationed along the top of the wall and in the gate towers. They could easily shoot arrows at them, throw rocks, burning oil and tar, you name it. It seems to me that by the fifth or sixth day of this, Joshua would have gotten some questions from his lieutenants. But Joshua still did not tell them what the outcome would be. They had to trust him, and by extension, trust God.

¹⁵ On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! ¹⁷ The city and all that is in it are to be devoted ^[a] to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute ^[b] and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. ¹⁸But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.¹⁹ All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury.”

After they had circled the city seven times, Joshua tells them to shout, and gives them instructions for the battle, but he still does not tell them that the walls will fall when they shout! While he was instructing them about destroying everything, saving Rahab, and giving the silver and gold to the Lord’s treasury, some of them must have been wondering, “OK, how do we get in?” Often God tells us what to do, but not how it will happen. I’ve heard many say that God told them to give a certain amount of money to the church, but they had no idea where the money would come from. They had to trust that God would provide the money he wanted them to give. God does this to build our faith. When he tells us to do something, he provides a way for us to do it. But he wants us to trust him with the “how”.

Many are troubled, myself among them, by God’s command to destroy everyone and everything, including women and children. Let me address each item separately. First, I’ve often wondered why they had to destroy the livestock. Surely Israel could have benefited from the cattle, sheep, chickens, and other livestock Jericho had, and the animals were innocent of any sin the people of Jericho were guilty of. But I think God told them to destroy even the innocent things for the same reason he told them to give all the silver and gold to the Lord’s treasury. He didn’t want individual Israelites getting rich from plunder. Once people started piling up possessions they won in battle, the reason for battle would change. God wanted them to go into battle in his name, not to start conquering people left and right in order to get rich.

Second, God’s order to destroy all the people and the “devoted things” was his judgment on those people for their occult practices. Archeological finds show that, as with many primitive cultures, Jericho was heavily involved in the occult. God has a “zero tolerance” policy when it comes to the occult (Deut. 18:9-14). God did not want Israel to be corrupted by the practices of the people they were conquering, so he didn’t want them to keep any of the Canaanite idols as souvenirs or marry their women. But he was also rendering judgment on the people of Jericho. Why tell them to kill even the women and children? Because the women were as involved in occult practices as the men, and Satan has a claim on the offspring of those who practice such things (Exodus 20:4-6).

Joshua also instructed them to spare Rahab and everyone in her house, in accordance with the promise they had made. Rahab had told the spies in chapter 2 that everyone in Jericho knew about Israel and their God, but only Rahab had showed faith in that God.

²⁰ When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. ²¹ They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

²² Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” ²³ So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

²⁴ Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house. ²⁵ But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

²⁶ At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho:
“At the cost of his firstborn son
will he lay its foundations;
at the cost of his youngest
will he set up its gates.”

²⁷ So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

Only after they completely obeyed Joshua’s orders did they see how God would give them the city. Some may have doubted, and all must have wondered, but all obeyed in spite of their questions. As a result, they saw the fruits of their obedience.

Chapter 2 says that Rahab’s house was in the wall. That’s how she let the spies down from the roof to make their escape. I’ve had this picture in my head since I was a kid that when the walls came down, one part was left standing where Rahab’s house was. When Dr. John Garstang excavated Jericho in the 1930’s he discovered the walls had fallen, but the one gate had a tower left standing. That must be where Rahab’s house was. The ruins of the gate tower still stand 16 feet high. Often when I see Biblical sites, my previous mental image of them is shattered, but this time it was actually confirmed! The chronicler says that Rahab lived in Israel “to this day”, showing that this account was written after the fact, but still during Rahab’s lifetime.

Then Joshua places a curse on anyone who rebuilds Jericho. That curse was fulfilled in 1 Kings 16:34 when Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho. Jericho lay in ruins for 400 years until that time, but since then, it has been continuously occupied, and still is today, in the Palestinian territory, making it one of the most ancient cities in the world that’s still lived in.

Mark Bible Bible, Jericho, Joshua

The Fall of Jericho

¹³ Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

¹⁴ “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

¹⁵ The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

This is an intriguing passage. Biblical scholars believe this is an Old Testament appearance of Christ himself. Check out the footnote at the end of this chapter in the Amplified Bible:

Joshua 5:15 “The real character of this personage was disclosed by His accepting the homage of worship (cf. Acts 10:25, 26; Rev. 19:10), and still further in the command, ‘Loose thy shoe from off thy foot’” (KJV) (Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown, A Commentary). The New Bible Commentary supports this position (as do J.P. Lange, The Cambridge Bible, Charles Ellicott, and many others) when it says, “We believe that this was the Son of God Himself.”

There are other places in the Old Testament where God appears in the form of a man (Genesis 18:16-33, 32:24-30, Judges 13:1-23). Many also believe Melchizidek was really an Old Testament appearance of Jesus, as may have been the fourth figure in the furnace of fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Jesus is God in the form a man, and he existed before time. Who else could God appearing as a man be, even if he had yet not been “born”? God is not bound by time like we are.

When Joshua saw this mysterious man standing before him with a sword, he asked a perfectly reasonable question, but the wrong question, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” God’s answer is interesting. He says neither. I would think God would be for the Israelites rather than the Canaanites. Otherwise, why did he lead them there to defeat the Canaanites? But God did not appear to Joshua to offer his support. He came to say who he is. When Joshua understood who he was talking to, he fell down on his face and worshiped him. The fact that this man accepted Joshua’s worship shows that this was God and not an angel. As shown in the cross references above, angels never accept worship from men.

Then Joshua asked the right question, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” When we meet with God the right question to ask is not, “Are you on my side?”, but “What do you have to tell me?” The first step in a right relationship to God is recognizing who he is. If we really understand who God is, we’re not so concerned about what he’s going to do for us as we are in hearing what he wants to say to us.

The Lord’s message to Joshua confirmed who he was. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy” is the exact same thing God said to Moses from the burning bush (Exodus 3:5). And as verse 15 says, Joshua did so. This is the process of true worship. First, recognizing who God is, listening to his message to us, and then obeying him. Because of Joshua’s true worship, God proceeded to lead him on a series of great victories, and he will do the same for us if our worship is as true as Joshua’s was.

Mark Bible Bible, Joshua

Circumcision at Gilgal

¹ Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

The great miracle that God provided for Israel accomplished the purposes God had in mind. Yes, it got Israel safely across the Jordan into the Promised land, but as I said yesterday, the main two proposes for miracles are to glorify God and to help people believe. When God stopped the flow of the river until Israel had passed over, the Canaanite peoples knew how great and powerful Israel’s God was. He was glorified. And as a result, the Canaanites believed. Not in the sense that they believed and repented, but in the sense that the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). They were intimidated, which ended up being a great military advantage for Israel in the days to come.

² At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.” ³ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth. ^[a]

⁴ Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the desert on the way after leaving Egypt. ⁵ All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the desert during the journey from Egypt had not. ⁶ The Israelites had moved about in the desert forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷ So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. ⁸ And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed.

⁹ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal ^[b] to this day.

I have to admit I have a very hard time with the whole idea of circumcision. Why did God order that particular practice, ever? If it was to set them apart, it sure seems like he could have come up with something that was more public. It’s not like pagans would notice there was something different about an Israelite because he had been circumcised. They couldn’t even see it! Even Paul calls those who circumcise “mutilators of the flesh” (Phil 3:1-3). And it is mutilation, pure and simple. It’s cutting off the tip of your penis! Just look at the name they gave to the place where Joshua did this. If you click on the footnote in verse 3, you’ll see they named the place “hill of foreskins!”

Another problem with circumcision is it only applies to males. What physical mutilation did females have to undergo to show their obedience? I’m very glad that the New Testament removes this requirement for Gentile believers. I’m sorry, but it just makes no sense to me. Throughout the Muslim world, baby girls are mutilated sexually, and as a result, can never experience sexual satisfaction in their lives. It’s cruel and inhuman, but how is it different than what we still do to baby boys in the western world today, all because of this ancient Jewish practice?

But as much problem as I have with this issue, it did serve to remind Israel of their dependence on God. And apparently they needed reminding, even after what God had just done. Circumcising all the men of military age incapacitated them for days, leaving them extremely vulnerable. I’m sure it occurred to Joshua and all the men of Israel that if they were attacked before they were healed, they would be helpless. But they went through with it anyway, trusting God to protect them. Of course, the Canaanites didn’t know of their vulnerability, and were still afraid of them because of what God had done. When God asks us to do something that seems unreasonable, he is putting us in a place where we must trust him.

After they obeyed God, he rolled away the shame of their slavery in Egypt. They had been out of bondage in Egypt for 40 years, but their sense of shame at having been slaves was still there after all that time. Though our sins are washed away when we first accept Christ, we may still feel a sense of shame and guilt over what we’ve done in the past. But as we learn to obey God no matter what he asks of us, we demonstrate that we are no longer slaves to sin, and our sense of shame can be rolled away. God had delivered them from bondage a generation earlier, but it took actually entering the Promised Land and renewing their commitment to God through obedience to make them feel like they really were a new people of God. Salvation can take place in a moment, but actually becoming convinced we are a new creation can be a process.

¹⁰ On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. ¹¹ The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land: unleavened bread and roasted grain. ¹² The manna stopped the day after ^[c] they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.

Imagine what that first Passover in the Promised Land must have been like. I can imagine some of the old women who remembered the first Passover while they were still in Egypt, telling the children how the angel of death had passed over their houses because of the blood on their doorposts. And now they were in the land God had promised their ancestors. They were living the promise.

Now that they were in Canaan, the manna stopped. A former pastor of mine, Lenny Wisehart, says that the reason most of us don’t experience miracles is that we don’t need them. For 40 years, God had provided the daily miracle of manna, but now that they were in Canaan, they no longer needed it. They could feed themselves. God wants us to mature in him, so that he no longer needs to hold our hand every minute to make sure we don’t fall. We can’t stay babies forever, always needing mother’s milk or manna from Heaven. We need to grow up, stand on our own two feet, and eat the produce of Cannan.

Mark Bible Bible, Canaan, circumcision, Joshua

¹ When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, ² “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, ³ and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

⁴ So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, ⁵ and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, ⁶ to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ⁷ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

⁸ So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. ⁹ Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been ^[a] in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

So much of the story of the Exodus and conquest of the Promised Land is like this. It’s a picture of obedience. First God tells Moses or Joshua something, then Moses and Joshua tell the people what God said, and they all obey God. The church still operates on this model. God speaks through human leadership, and as long as that human leadership is following the Word of God, we must trust that God is speaking to and through them. The test for those of us in leadership is, are we walking close enough to God that people will believe he told us something?

Each of the twelve men, one from each tribe who had been chosen before the crossing (Joshua 3:12), did as God commanded Joshua and carried one large stone from the riverbed to be used in the memorial. It’s important to remind ourselves and our children what God has done for us. It helps our faith to remember God’s faithfulness.

¹⁰ Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, ¹¹ and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched. ¹² The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them. ¹³ About forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.

¹⁴ That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just as they had revered Moses.

After the twelve tribes of Israel crossed over, the armies of the eastern tribes crossed over to fight for Israel, just as they had promised. God had just confirmed Joshua’s authority with a great miracle, and any doubts some in those tribes might have had would have been erased by what they had just witnessed. How many years did Joshua serve as Moses’ protege? At least 40. He had prepared for this day for many years, and had been faithful in many small things. Do we want God to exalt us to a position of leadership? We must be willing to serve and prepare for as long as it takes. Joshua was not a young man when he took over the leadership of Israel. It was only after a lifetime of faithful service that God exalted him in Israel’s eyes.

¹⁷ So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.”

¹⁸ And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before.

¹⁹ On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. ²⁰ And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. ²¹ He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²² tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ ²³ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea ^[b] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. ²⁴ He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”

I still am struck by the effect witnessing the crossing of the Jordan must have had on these priests, which I commented on in Saturday’s blog. What an amazing experience that must have been. I mentioned in that same blog that some have speculated that an earthquake somewhere upstream may have stopped the Jordan that day, and there is evidence of that. But even if that is the case, the fact that the river immediately started flowing again when the priests carried the ark onto the shore shows that this was God’s doing.

Continuing his obedience to God, Joshua set up the memorial as God commanded. Whatever chronicler wrote this down said the memorial is still there “to this day”, so this all must have been written down later. As Joshua set up the memorial to remind Israel of what God had done, God made sure at some point that all of these events were written down so that future generations, including ours, would know what God had done and have our faith strengthened.

In verse 24, Joshua says that God performed these miracles for Israel for two reasons, so that everyone would know that God is powerful, and so that they would always fear the Lord their God. If you have read my blog with any regularity, you know I have come to the conclusion that Jesus performed miracles for basically the same two reasons; to glorify God, and help people believe. When God stopped the Jordan, it helped Israel enter into the Promised Land, but that was not the main reason he did it. When Jesus healed people, it helped those people, but that was not primarily why he did it. When God performs miracles today, those miracles may be a great help to someone, but even today, the purpose of miracles is to glorify God (so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful) and to help us believe (so that you might always fear the LORD your God). When we need a miracle, we should pray for God to help us, but we should also pray that God will glorify himself through the miracle we’re asking for, and that people will believe in him because of what he does for us. That’s what miracles are for.

Mark Bible Bible, crossing the Jordan, Joshua, miracles

Crossing the Jordan

¹ Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. ² After three days the officers went throughout the camp, ³ giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. ⁴ Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards ^[a] between you and the ark; do not go near it.”

⁵ Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”

After three days of preparation, after the spies had come back from Jericho, Joshua gave his orders for crossing the Jordan. As we’ll see later, in verse 15, the Jordan was at flood stage, and the people, having camped near a river overflowing its banks for three days, must have been wondering how in the world they were going to get across. The river had fords (Joshua 2:7), places near the city where the water was shallow enough to cross. That was where the spies had gone across. But two spies traveling light fording the river and moving a whole nation of millions of people across with all their possessions were two completely different things.

Joshua instructed them to follow the ark of the covenant, but to stay 1000 yards away! That 10 football fields! How could they even see it that far away? The ark was covered with the purest gold (Exodus 25:10-22), which would have glinted in the sun, making it a beacon. The people were told to stay far away from the ark to respect its holiness, since the presence of the Lord was with it, and only the priests could get near it. But staying far away also gave everyone a clear view of the ark. By following the ark, they were following the presence of the Lord into the Promised Land.

Joshua’s exhortation in verse 5, “consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you”, is one of my favorite quotes in the Bible. We love to see God do amazing things among us, but in order for those things to happen, first we must consecrate ourselves. If we are truly consecrated to God, he then can do truly amazing things among us.

⁶ Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.

⁷ And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. ⁸ Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’ “

⁹ Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. ¹⁰ This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. ¹¹ See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. ¹² Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. ¹³ And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD -the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”

I wonder if this part happened in exactly this sequence, or if God speaking to Joshua in verses 7-8 is a “flashback”, and God had said this to Joshua previously. It seems like in order for Joshua to say what he said in verse 5, he must have gotten some word from the Lord before that. Or maybe he knew God would do something incredible, but didn’t know what. If the sequence of events happened in the order listed here, this was a real act of faith. Joshua had not yet mentioned how they were going to cross the river until after God spoke to him in verses 7-8. He simply told the priests to take up the ark, and told the people to follow it. At that point, God told him what he would do. Joshua never questioned God about how they would get across, he just prepared as God told him to, and waited for God to tell him what to do. That’s a picture of faith, obedience, and waiting on God that we can all look up to.

God knew that some in Israel would have trouble accepting Joshua’s authority, so he provided a Moses-like miracle to show everyone he was with Joshua like he was with Moses. God could have provided a bridge or some other way to cross the Jordan, but he parted the waters, just like he did with Moses, because he knew the resonance this would have for Israel. He told Joshua to tell the priests to go and stand in the river, but didn’t say what would happen. We don’t know if Joshua even knew what God would do at that point. God could have stopped the river first, but instead he made the priests step into the water first. That’s the very definition of a step of faith. Isn’t that how God works? He doesn’t show us the dry riverbed first. How much faith does it take to cross a dry riverbed? He wants us to step into the flooding river first and trust him to do the rest.

While the Bible does not relate the words of God to Joshua about stopping the river, we know God did tell him what he would do at some point, because Joshua told the people to “listen to the words of the Lord” in verse 9. Only after the priests had gone ahead to step into the waters of the Jordan did Joshua tell the people how they would cross the river. In this one event, Joshua learned to trust God more, and the people learned to trust Joshua.

¹⁴ So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. ¹⁵ Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, ¹⁶ the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea ^[b] ) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷ The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

Some have suggested that some natural event, like an earthquake, stopped the Jordan river that day. There is geological evidence of an earthquake around this time at the location the Bible describes. But even if it was a natural event, God was behind it. God often uses people and nature to accomplish his purposes. One question I’ve always had about the crossing of the Red Sea and this crossing is the term “dry ground”. What’s at the bottom of a river is mud and muck, not dry ground. And the Jordan is a muddy river. It would take days for the ground to dry up completely. Either God supernaturally dried up the ground, which the Bible does not mention, or there’s some natural explanation. They were probably crossing at the fords, which would be more solid ground to start with. Maybe it was rocky there, or had a gravel bed. That would make it a suitable place for a ford. You wouldn’t have a ford of a river in a place where a horse would get stuck in the mud. Once the water stopped flowing, it would drain from the gravel quickly, making a good place to walk across. Plus it must have taken many hours, if not days, for the whole nation to cross. A few hours in the sun would have dried up whatever mud there was.

Another thing that amazes me about this account is that the men who held the ark stood there and held it for as long as it took for approximately two million people to cross. I don’t know how many priests typically carried the ark. (If anyone knows, please comment) It must have been at least 2, maybe 4, maybe more. The ark was heavy (gold with stone tablets inside!) and even multiple men sharing the load would get extremely tired holding it for that long. But God enabled them to do it. Can you imagine how they felt, standing there holding the presence of God Almighty in their hands, watching their people finally cross over into the Promised Land, hour after hour?  The God who has the power to stop the Jordan River also has the power to give us the strength do do what seems beyond us. For the Levites of today, those who stand in front of the people of God, lifting him up for them to see, God provides the strength to do what he asks, and our reward is seeing people cross over into the Promised Land.

Mark Bible Bible, crossing the Jordan, Joshua

Rahab and the Spies

¹ Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute ^[a] named Rahab and stayed there.

During the three days that Israel prepared to cross the Jordan River, Joshua sent spies into the land. He specifically wanted information about Jericho. Jericho is considered the third oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, so it was one of the more well known cities in the ancient world. It’s very near the Jordan, and was a desirable location for settlement. Hence the wall and fortifications. This would not have been the first time Jericho faced a military threat. The spies, once they entered Jericho, went and stayed in an inn. Inns, or hotels, were known as houses of prostitution in ancient times. That’s why when Jesus traveled with his disciples, and when the Apostles traveled to preach, they stayed in private homes rather than in hotels. The Bible clearly says Rahab was a harlot, but the two spies would not have known anyone in the city they could stay with, so they stayed at her inn. But God had reasons for bringing them together.

² The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

When the king of Jericho learned that the vast army just across the river had sent two spies into the city, he must have had them watched, so he knew where they were staying. But Rahab hid the spies. Why did she risk her life to save these strangers? God was working on her. Yes, she was a prostitute, and she lied to the king’s men, but God was bringing her to faith in him. Look at her confession of faith in the next section.

⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea ^[b] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ^{[c] 11} When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. ¹²Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.”

Notice that she doesn’t say, “Your army is too large, and I know you will conquer us, so help me and I will help you”. The reason for her fear of them was not based on the size of their army. She knew that the Lord had given the land to them. Stories of Israel’s conquests thus far had reached Jericho, and those stories were not just about how there was an advancing army destroying all in their path. The word that was going around was how Israel’s God was giving victory to them. Are the stories that are told about us stories of our own accomplishments, or are they about what God is doing through us? As a result of what Rahab had heard, she came to the conclusion that “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below”. Do people come to that conclusion from our actions?

¹⁴ “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land.”

¹⁵ So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. ¹⁶ Now she had said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”

¹⁷ The men said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us ¹⁸ unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. ¹⁹ If anyone goes outside your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head; we will not be responsible. As for anyone who is in the house with you, his blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on him. ²⁰ But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

²¹ “Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.” So she sent them away and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

²² When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. ²³ Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. ²⁴ They said to Joshua, “The LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.”

Rahab showed how her faith in God was beginning by the mere act of asking the spies to swear by the Lord. Not on their own lives or honor, or on whatever pagan god the people of Jericho worshiped, but on Israel’s God. The spies agreed, and gave her the conditions under which her family could also be spared. The scarlet rope that she hung from the window as a sign to spare her house is symbolic of the blood on the doorposts on the first Passover night in Egypt. The angel of death spared the houses with blood on the doorposts, and Rahab’s house was spared because of the red rope. Both, of course, are symbols of the blood of Jesus and our salvation.

When the spies returned, Joshua learned that the whole country was afraid of them, which was encouraging to Joshua and Israel’s army. So what was the purpose of this spy mission? Did it have any effect at all on their military strategy? Not really. The news was encouraging, so that helps morale going into battle, but that was the extent of the mission’s immediate effect on Israel. The real purpose, God’s purpose, was to save Rahab. Rahab was to marry one of the prices of Judah, and she become an ancestor of David, and of Jesus himself (Matt 1:1-6). Her act of faith was recorded in Hebrews 11:31 centuries later. God went to amazing lengths to save one pagan prostitute, and her legacy still lives today. No matter how low we have sunk, God can still fulfill his purpose in us beyond anything we can imagine. But we must have faith in him and act on that faith the way she did.

Mark Bible Bible, Jericho, Joshua, Rahab

¹⁰ So Joshua ordered the officers of the people: ¹¹ “Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Get your supplies ready. Three days from now you will cross the Jordan here to go in and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you for your own.’ ”

Can you imagine the excitement? After 40 years of wandering in the desert, they were making final preparations to cross the Jordan and possess the Promised Land. On the one hand, three days seems like a lot of time to pack up for a people that had been on the move for 40 years, but it was a very large group of people. According to Numbers 26:51, the number of men of fighting age at that time was 601,730. There must have been at least that many women, children and men too old to fight, so we’re probably talking about at least 2 million people. No matter how organized you are, it takes time for that many people to get ready to do anything, especially move. But I can imagine the ripples of excitement as the officers went to their respective groups to tell them they were going to cross the Jordan in three days!

¹² But to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, ¹³ “Remember the command that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and has granted you this land.’ ¹⁴ Your wives, your children and your livestock may stay in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers. You are to help your brothers ¹⁵ until the LORD gives them rest, as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving them. After that, you may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you east of the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

The eastern, or Transjordan tribes were fulfilling an agreement they had made with Moses in Numbers 32. They had decided that this land east of the Jordan was good land for them to build fortified cities and graze their livestock, and had asked Moses for this land. Moses had agreed, but only if they agreed to send their fighting men to help the rest of Israel possess their land. It would have been easy for these tribes to decide that since they had reached their goal, the rest of Israel could do it on their own. But Joshua remembered what they had promised Moses, and reminded them of it. Thier response was exactly as it should have been.

¹⁶ Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the LORD your God be with you as he was with Moses. ¹⁸ Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!”

They were not content to let their brothers fight on their own. They recognized Joshua’s authority and made no distinction between him and Moses. Sometimes when we have new leadership in the church, it’s hard to show the same support to the new leadership as we did to the old. The pastor, worship leader, or staff person who was with us through thick and thin is now gone somewhere else, and there is this new person who does things differently. But we must remember that our service and loyalty is to God, not to any particular person. The eastern tribes vowed to obey Joshua just as they did Moses, on the condition that the Lord must be with Joshua the same way he was with Moses. We should have the same standard for human leadership in the church today. We must support a new pastor just like we supported our favorite pastor in the past, and we must pray that God will be with them like he has been with those who led us to Christ.

Their last words to Joshua were the same as what God had said to him earlier, “Be strong and courageous!” This was confirmation to Joshua that he was doing what God had commanded. Don’t you love it when God confirms that you are on the right path? Even when we our following God’s will to the best of our knowledge and ability, in our humanness, it’s easy to wonder and doubt sometimes if we’ve misunderstood him somehow. But God will confirm our choices and actions when we’re doing the right thing, often through people.

Mark Bible Bible, Joshua

When I started this blog on August 21st, 2008, I was in the middle of the Book of Joshua, so I started blogging where I happened to be in the Bible at the time. My first few months of blogs were on my MySpace page. But after I became familiar with Wordpress, I started hosting this blog here on my website. So now I will blog on the first chapters of Joshua that are missing from my MySpace blog. When I get to where I began blogging, I’ll transfer and update my MySpace blogs so everything I’ve done in my Bible blog is here in one place.

The LORD Commands Joshua

¹ After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: ² “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea ^[a] on the west. ⁵ No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Moses is dead, and it’s now Joshua’s turn to lead Israel. Have you ever been in a position where you were the helper to a leader for a long time, and then suddenly you had to lead? It can be intimidating. So God both encourages and commands Joshua in this first chapter. As is true throughout the Bible, God combines promises with commands. So often we love to quote the promises, but we leave out the commands. But they are connected. If we want to receive God’s promises, we must obey his commands.

God’s command in these verses is to get ready to cross the Jordan. When God has an important task for us, he wants us to be prepared. The generation that escaped from Egypt was gone, and now the children of those people would be the ones to enter the Promised Land. Joshua wasn’t the only one who was taking over from a fallen leader. The entire nation was claiming the promise God made to their ancestors. My generation has struggled in this area. My parents’ and grandparents’ generations sacrificed to build and sustain the churches we worship in today. Their commitment to God and the church, and their lives of prayer and service are an example that we must live up to. That generation is dying off now, and it’s time for the Baby Boomers and Busters to take on that mantle. Get ready to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land.

God gives them one command in this paragraph, and he makes 4 promises.

I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Though God gives the specific boundaries of the land he is about to give them in the next verse, he doesn’t say the whole land is theirs before they start. He promises to give them every place they set their foot. In other words, they have to go and claim the land themselves. If they had stayed in one little area, that’s all God would have given them. How much do we limit God by how far we willing to go?

No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As long as Israel relied upon God and obeyed his commands, nothing was impossible for them. That same promise, with those same restrictions, applies to us today.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Our faithfulness may change from one generation to the next, but God’s faithfulness remains the same. As he was with the gray haired saints in our churches, he will also be with us, if we do what they did.

I will never leave you nor forsake you. This is one of the greatest promises of God, because this one is not conditional. No matter what we do, no matter how far we stray from him, God never leaves us or forsakes us. We may limit how much he can do for us by our disobedience, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is still there.

⁶ “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

One command to four promises in the last paragraph, Four commands and two promises in this one. That makes the ratio just about even, five commands, six promises. Whenever you see a promise of God in the Bible, look for the command. That’s the problem I have with the books of promises that you see in Christian bookstores. They never include the commands, and so they lead people to believe that we have no responsibility in receiving God’s promises. I love the most repeated command in this passage.

Be strong and courageous. He says it three times! This phrase is repeated throughout the Book of Joshua. Israel had to defeat a lot of hostile peoples to possess the land God had promised. The source of their courage was not in themselves, but in God. The same is true for us. We may think we’re inadequate to the task God has given us, and we probably are. But be strong and courageous, because God is more than adequate, and our strength is in him.

I also think God repeated this phrase to help Joshua, specifically. As we’ll see later, Joshua was a bit of a reluctant leader. If he was intimidated by the thought of replacing Moses, who talked with God face to face, who can blame him? I think God was encouraging Joshua to have courage because God’s presence had not left with Moses. The rest of the sentence after the first time God says this to him is “because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.” Not Moses, Joshua, but you. Any pastor who has taken over from a long time pastor who led a church for many years can relate to this.

Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Here’s a promise combined with a command. The reason Israel had wandered in the desert for 40 years was because they had disobeyed God. They had the promise, but did not obey the commands, so God kept them out of the promised land and gave it to the next generation. If we want God to grant us success, we must obey him.

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Another command followed by a promise. Here God explains how to obey him, by keeping his Word in our minds and on our lips. It’s hard to keep God’s commands if we don’t think or talk about them much. People tend to think and talk about what’s really important to them. What does our thought life and conversation reveal about what’s important to us? It’s amazing how much easier it is to obey the Word when we stay in the Word.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. Just in case Joshua didn’t hear God the first two times, God says it again. Yet another command followed by a promise. Are we getting it yet? No matter what you are facing, no matter what you’re afraid of, no matter how bad things seem, be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Mark Bible Bible, commands, Joshua, promises