THROUGH THE BIBLE (Joshua)

By Bishop Elijah H. Hankerson III, BA, MA, DD

LESSON NOTES:

I.                  THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE ENTIRE BIBLE. If you understand that the Bible is written to show us how humanity was created for God, fell into sin, was reconciled through Christ (who was the product of a family) and God will restore everything through His sacrifice on the Cross; then you have the message of the entire Bible.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ¹⁷Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. ¹⁸And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. ²⁰Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. ²¹For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

II.                  THE AUTHOR OF JOSHUA. While it is commonly accepted that Joshua is the author of the book (because it comes from a firsthand account) there is no way for us to know for certain. Joshua is definitely the main character of the book and possibly the author. However, we know that there are at least two verses that were not written by Joshua:

Joshua 24:29 ²⁹After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.

Joshua 24:31 ³¹Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.

III.            WHAT DOES THE NAME JOSHUA MEAN? In Hebrew his name is Yeshua. That’s right; he has the same name as our Lord and Savior. Although our Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ; while Joshua is not. However, even in the King James Version of Scripture, there are passages where the reference is to Joshua; but the name Jesus is used.

Hebrews 4:8-9 ⁸For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. ⁹There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

Acts 7:45 ⁴⁵Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

IV.            HOWEVER, OUR LORD IS IN THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. Who we know as Jesus the Christ has always been. He did not just appear in the New Testament. One place He is found is in Joshua.

Joshua 5:13-15 ¹³Now 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?” ¹⁵The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

             A.WHY DO WE SAY THIS IS WHO WE KNOW OF AS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. While remembering that the Word (John 1:1; 1 John 5:7) did not have the name Jesus until Matthew 1:21.

1.               This Man of Joshua 5:13 is called my LORD (Yahweh) in Joshua 5:14.

2.               The Man is worshipped and does not refute it.

3.               The Man states to Joshua the same command that the LORD commanded Moses.

Exodus 3:5 ⁵"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

 V.            THE KEY WORD OF JOSHUA. Conquest is the key word. God uses Joshua to conquer many of the nations of the Promised Land.

                         A.            COVENANT IS ANOTHER WORD AND KEY WORD IN ALL OF SCRIPTURE. God promised Abraham that the Promised Land would belong to his descendants; so that there would be a place for the Redeemer to be born, raised, die and rise again! In Joshua Chapters 13-22 the different tribes received their allotments of land. PROGRESS AS PROMISED!

Genesis 12:1-3 ¹The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's HOUSEHOLD TO THE LAND I will show you. ²"I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

                         B.            THE KEY TO ISRAEL’S SUCCESS IN CONQUEST.

1.         As long as the people obeyed God they won. There was no Word of the Lord to Joshua until the death of Moses. Once Moses was dead; God gave Joshua the formula for success.

Joshua 1:1-9 ¹After 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. ³I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates-all the Hittite country-to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. ⁵No one will be able to stand 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. ⁶Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors 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. ⁸Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; 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. ⁹Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

                                                         a.                        BECAUSE JOSHUA ALLOWED GOD TO USE HIM; HE PROSPERED. The Red Sea was opened up through Moses for the people to come out of Egypt. Jordan River was opened up through Joshua for the people to go into the Promised Land.

Joshua 3:7-17 New International Version (NIV)

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.”

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 (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷ The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

b.                BECAUSE JOSHUA REMEMBERED THE LORD HE PROSPERED.

Joshua 4:19-24 New International Version (NIV)

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 parents, ‘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 what he had done to the Red Sea 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.”

c.                  BECAUSE JOSHUA TOOK THE PEOPLE BACK TO OBEYING GOD, HE PROSPERED. The men were circumcised and they all kept the Passover.

Joshua 5:2-12 New International Version (NIV)

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.

⁴ Now this is why he did so: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of military age—died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. ⁵ All the people that came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. ⁶ The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness 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 he had solemnly promised their ancestors 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 to this day.

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 they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate the produce of Canaan.

d.                GOD EVEN DID SOME SIGNS FOR JOSHUA THAT HE DID NOT DO FOR MOSES. God blessed Joshua to conquer the Southern part of the Promised Land (Joshua 10:1-43) and he blessed him to conquer the Norther part of the Promised Land (Joshua 11:1-23). God even shut down the entire solar system for Joshua.

Joshua 10:12-14 New International Version (NIV)

¹² On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
    and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
¹³ So the sun stood still,
    and the moon stopped,
    till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,

as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. ¹⁴ There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

2.         When they disobeyed they lost.

Joshua 7:2-12 New International Version (NIV)

² Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

³ When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” ⁴ So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, ⁵ who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

⁶ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. ⁷ And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! ⁸ Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? ⁹ The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”

¹⁰ The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? ¹¹ Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. ¹² That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

a.                 THIS IS WHY JOSHUA HAD TO MAKE A STAND FOR HIS HOUSEHOLD.

Joshua 24:14-16 ¹⁴"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." ¹⁶Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!

VI.            THE PURPOSE OF JOSHUA. To show that God is faithful to His covenant to redeem us from sin, by raising up a family, developing them into a nation and providing them land; from which the Savior would come!

VII.            THE SCARLET CORD. Just as Rahab placed a scarlet cord out of the window, through which her household was saved (a type of the saving power of the blood) when the walls of Jericho fell down flat; there is a “Scarlet Cord” that runs through Scripture from Genesis 3:15, to the Cross and on to the New Jerusalem: Redemptive history, present and future. Compare the Scarlett cord story to other passages of Scripture:

Joshua 2:17-19 ¹⁷Now the men had said to her, "This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us ¹⁸unless, 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. ¹⁹If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them.

Joshua 6:20 ²⁰So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

Exodus 12:13 ¹³The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Acts 27:31 ³¹Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.

                         A.            THROUGH THE BLOOD CURSES ARE BROKEN! Jericho was a cursed place! After the miraculous event of the walls coming down; Joshua pronounced a curse on anyone who would try to rebuilt it. But, when Jesus later enter Jericho, He declared salvation and deliverance!

Joshua 6:24-26. ²⁴ And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. ²⁵ And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. ²⁶ And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.

 

Luke 19:1-2, 9-10. 1 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. ² And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. ⁹ And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

VIII.                        TROUBLE BREWING. The old leadership dies out at the end of the book. Joshua dies. Eleazar the priest dies. Joseph’s bones are eventually buried (God had used this son of Jacob to save the family; but Joseph did not want to be buried in Egypt). The people served God all the days of Joshua. But, as this generation dies out, a lack of commitment begins to brew among the people; as we will see in the book of Judges.

Joshua 24:29-33 New International Version (NIV)

²⁹ After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. ³⁰ And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

³¹ Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.

³² And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.

³³ And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.

IX.                        PRAYER FOR SALVATION. As we close, if you have not received this Jesus pray this simple prayer:

"Father, I know that I have sinned against You. Please forgive me. Wash me clean. I promise to trust in Jesus, Your Son. I believe that He died for me—He took my sin upon Himself when He died on the cross. I believe that He was raised from the dead. I surrender my life to Jesus today.

"Thank You, Father, for Your gift of forgiveness and eternal life. Please help me to live for you. In Jesus' name, Amen."