Today I started the book of Joshua, which to my understanding is a book of violence and drama as the people of Israel fought to take over the land. It is a story of conquest and fulfillment for the people of God.
They were under the leadership of Joshua as they fought the battles. Once they were victorious, they were able to divide the land among the tribes of Israel.
In these battles, it became evident that God fights for his people when they are “strong and courageous,” and put their full trust in him. Although anonymous, the book appears to contain eyewitness testimony, which leads some to believe it may have been written by Joshua himself.
Where Deuteronomy ends, the book of Joshua begins. The people are still camped on the east side of the Jordan River
Today’s reading began with the Lord initiating action by charging Joshua, his chosen replacement for Moses, to lead Israel across the Jordan and take possession of the promise land. He urged courage and promised success, but only if they obeyed the law of God that Moses had given them.
This chapter consisted of speeches significant in their content and order. The Lord commanded Joshua as his appointed leader over his people. Joshua, the Lord’s representative, addressed Israel and the people responded to him as they would have Moses.
Joshua ordered the officers to go through the camp and tell the people to get their supplies ready, for in three days they were crossing the Jordan and taking the land.
He reminded the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh that they had promised to fight with them, and they obliged. They said to him,
“All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”
-Joshua 1:16-18
Joshua sent two men to Shittim as spies to go check out the land, especially Jericho. They went and came into the house of a prostitute named Rahab and lodged there. Word got back to the king of Jericho that the men were there, and he told Rahab to bring them out.
Instead, Rahab hid the men and said that they had already left. The king’s men pursued after them, not knowing she had lied. She spoke to the men she was hiding saying that she knew why they were there, and all the people were afraid because they had heard stories of what the Lord had done for Israel: Egypt, Red Sea, conquered kings, etc.
She asked the men to put in a good word for her with God, since she had dealt kindly with them she wanted her family taken care of as well. They responded, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”
She told them how to escape to safety, and they were thankful. They told her that when they came back to take the land, she was to tie a scarlet cord in the window. Herself and her family were to stay in the house and they would be safe. If they went outside though, they were sure to die with everyone else.
They left and went into the hills and stayed there for three days until the pursuers returned. They searched, but found nothing. They went back to camp and told Joshua all that had happened to them. They said, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”
Finally, the people crossed the Jordan into the promise land! Well, not yet. They went to it and stayed there for three days. They also had to wait for the ark of the covenant to set out before they could go, and they had to stay a ways behind it.
When they got to the Jordan, the priests were to stand still in it to stop the water from flowing. So the people set out, following the priests carrying the ark. As soon as the priest’s feet touched the river, the waters seized and created dry ground.
“Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.”
-Joshua 3:17
Now…they…had…finally…made…it!
When all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, The Lord said to Joshua to have twelve men, one from each tribe; take twelve stones from the Jordan. They were to be taken from the very place the priests stood. They were to take the stones and lay them down in the place they were staying that night.
The stones were used as a memorial to remember that day, and how the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. The people did as they were commanded and took twelve stones according to the number of tribes of Israel.
A stone monument was commonly used as a memorial to remind future generations of what happened at that place.
And Joshua took twelve stones and set them up in the midst of the Jordan where the priests had their feet. It says they are there to this day. Is that true? I need to research this!
When everyone passed over, the armies did too. There were about 40,000 ready for war. When the priests left the river, the waters returned to how they were before and overflowed its banks.
The people came out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camped at Giligal on the east border of Jericho. The twelve stones were set up there. And Joshua spoke to the people, saying,
“When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
-Joshua 4:21-24