Joshua | The Conquest of the Promised Land: Faith and Leadership in the Bible

Today we're diving into the book of Joshua, where Israel is poised to enter the Promised Land under Joshua's leadership. This land isn't empty; it has cities and people, leading to conflicts and battles that raise many questions we’ll explore.

Reflecting on God's promise to Abraham, we see His people destined to bless the nations. After 430 years in Egypt and a 40-year journey through the wilderness, the new generation, led by Joshua, is ready to enter the land. Joshua's leadership mirrors Moses', providing comfort and continuity to the Israelites. Both parted waters—Moses the Red Sea and Joshua the Jordan River—affirming God's presence and guidance. 

Joshua's story is filled with significant moments, such as the fall of Jericho. The walls of Jericho fell outward, a unique archaeological finding that aligns with the biblical account, affirming the miraculous event. This evidence strengthens faith, showing God's active involvement in Israel's history. Jericho's story isn't just a children's song; it’s a testament to God's power and faithfulness, with archaeological discoveries supporting the biblical narrative.

Before Jericho, Joshua encounters the commander of the Lord's army, a figure that could be a theophany or Christophany, indicating God's direct involvement. This encounter reassures Joshua of divine support, emphasizing that the battles ahead are not just physical but spiritual. The figure's presence confirms God's promise to lead and support Israel, highlighting the supernatural dimension of their mission.

The violence in Joshua raises difficult questions about God's character. Understanding God's mercy and justice is crucial. God gave the Canaanites 400 years to repent before judgment, demonstrating His patience and fairness. This period allowed for a chance of redemption, showing that God's actions were not arbitrary but a response to persistent wickedness. The Canaanites’ sins, such as child sacrifice and deviant practices, justified divine judgment.

#BibleStudy #BookOfJoshua #GodsFaithfulness #PromisedLand #BiblicalArchaeology #BiblicalLeadership #ChristianPodcast #JoshuaAndJericho #OldTestament #ScriptureJourney 

Transcript

 Joshua

Joshua

[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome to God's Whole Story. This year, we are doing a journey through Scripture, book by book. Each week, you will get a deeper dive into one of the books of Scripture so that you can see God's whole story. If you like the content you're receiving, we would love to have you partner with us.

Look in the show notes for a way that you can support us financially so we can continue to provide this content for you. Hope you enjoy this episode. Are you ready? It's time for Israel to go in the land. Joshua was about to take them in, but it is interesting. Sometimes it's, we can almost think of this as it's like this big blank slate that they're just going into this empty land, but there's cities and there's people in those cities and they're going to have to go in and do the dirty work of fighting war and fighting battles.

So that, that's interesting. Causes a lot of issues. It causes a lot of questions. And we definitely want to dive into some of those questions on this episode as we look at the book of Joshua. But let's just remember where we've come from. [00:01:00] We have God's promise to Abraham that he's going to use God's people to be a blessing to the nations.

Then they spent 430 years waiting in Egypt. Just a slight pause in that blessing. Very long drive through line. They finally get into the promised land and the 11 day journey took 40 years with the first generation dying off. And now we've got the second generation. They're waiting to go in as they're led by Joshua.

We talked a little bit about Joshua last week in Deuteronomy, but we have a new leader. Uh, Moses is dead and that has to happen. Joshua's the guy. And what are some of the things that God highlights about what Joshua does? As he takes on this leadership mantle, what are some things that stand out to you?

You want to go? I think one of the things that's interesting is that there are so many things that Joshua does that are very similar to things that Moses has done. Um, I, I [00:02:00] think one, because God is obviously moving, but if you imagine being somebody who has followed Moses, essentially their entire lives, right?

That this is like a generation of, of people that. Um, basically have seen all their forefathers die off in the desert. Um, and they've known nothing but Moses. It would be pretty comforting to see Joshua doing essentially the same things. And I'm not just talking like, yeah, he tied his shoes the same way.

I'm talking like he parted the Jordan river, right? Um, that would have some echoes, a hundred percent. And what's interesting is that is faith affirming to me still today. And it, it, it somewhat bothers me that I didn't know that. I did not know until I read the Bible. Imagine that, um, that. The Red Sea was not the only sea that was parted.

And even like the Jordan river, I think the text actually says that it was just like stopped up and essentially just, I don't know, piles up into the sky or something. And people walk across on dry land, just like they [00:03:00] escaped Egypt. Um, imagine how affirming that would be. Of like, Oh, okay. This guy's a faithful follower of God and I can trust him.

Um, but also today how it's like, man, like, that is so cool that God wasn't just moving in one little portion of the book, like one little person, one big person, actually, yeah. Yeah, I mean Moses would be a tough act to follow like oh my goodness. You're following a legend Yeah, and this is kind of God gives several stamps of approval saying Joshua's the new Moses Well, even the way the Lord talks to Joshua Has echoes of how he talked to move like Joshua has a relationship with the Lord that looks similar to Moses the way God talks to him the way he affirms his leadership and saying like I'm going to make a new Moses The people of Israel see that you are, that I am with you, just like I was with Moses basically.

Um, and so I see echoes there, just that relationship between the Lord and Joshua. Yeah. So there's [00:04:00] actually a number of things we've got. They both parted water. Okay. This Ryan mentioned before, uh, Joshua also sends in spies. Uh, which is kind of interesting, probably very redemptive, because the whole sending in the spies thing is what started the bad things happening in Numbers and Deuteronomy.

They came back with a bad report. In fact, Joshua was one of the spies that was sent in. He came back I wonder if there was some fear and trembling of like, oh no, what's gonna happen? But this time they send in the spies and they come back and they say, Hey, let's, let's go. God is with us. Let's go in. Uh, they reinstitute circumcision again.

So just as that was instituted under Moses, before the people going to take the lands, they do the faithful practice of circumcision. Passover is observed. Uh, Joshua, just like Moses is calling the people to obey. So we see all these parallels between Moses and Joshua. But that's really. It's reaffirming to the people, and here is our new leader.

We can trust him because [00:05:00] they were going to be asked to do some difficult things. Um, they were going to have to go to war. They were going to have to go take over cities. Uh, and we see throughout Joshua, some of the accounts of those different things, probably the most famous, One is Jericho. Uh, of course there are a number of other battles, but Jericho is often the one that we hear the most about because we sing about it when we're kids, but the walls come tumbling down, but beyond a children's song, there's actually some really cool stuff about Jericho.

Ryan, do you want to touch on that a little bit? Uh, I love talking about Jericho. It's one of my favorite stories because it's, it's. It's not just some dusty old story that they sing about in children's song, right? Like it's easy to think about that cause that's kind of our experience, but there's, there's a lot of archeology behind Jericho.

We have, we have discovered Jericho. I don't mean me, Chris and Chelsea, but we have discovered last week. We discovered Jericho. There is, there is some controversy around it. I don't want to present it as though there's like literally no pushback, but usually there is pushback against archeology that proves the [00:06:00] Bible.

And just to be frank, that's usually how it goes. Um, The city of Jericho is one of the only excavated. Ancient cities where the walls fell outward so that they discovered the site of Jericho. It's very common to discover ancient sites surrounded by walls. But when, when they discover these ancient cities, the walls and the remains of the walls are always ancient.

Inward. And that's because if you're going to attack a city, you're going to attack it, like you're going to build siege ramps and battering rams, all the things you're going to smash the walls down. And when you're smashing a wall from the outside, it falls to the inside. So Jericho is historically, um, as far as I'm aware, and I'm not an archeologist, but as far as I'm aware, it is the only ancient city that has been excavated with outwardly fallen outwardly fallen walls.

Um, and the reason that's faith affirming is because. Something different happened and we know what the something different is. The people walked around it and God caused the walls to fall. Um, [00:07:00] a lot of times what people will say is like, well, you know, there's probably like a earthquake that occurred or something.

It's like, yeah, there actually was like, God caused an earthquake, probably that made the walls fall down. And then the Israelites rushed in and took over the city. Which if you're not very familiar with ancient battle, if an enemy is attacking from outside the walls and the walls get destroyed, they would be.

Falling in yeah, because you're destroying them so that you can get in the city I often even like you would often even be building like ramps up to get over the walls and then into the city So it doesn't make sense for a city to be conquered with the walls falling out because they would have fallen on the attackers Also, there is a section of the wall that hasn't did not fall and the archaeologist I don't know how they figure out those things, but there is a section of the wall that was left standing which again You Like confirms the biblical account because there was a section of the wall that Rahab lived in, uh, Rahab being the, the prostitute that assisted the spies and became faithful to [00:08:00] God, uh, that her house was in the wall and that section of the wall did not fall down.

So everything that has been discovered actually is an incredible, um, confirmation. Of this story. And it's, it's another one of those times when, when I learned these details, I was like, Oh my goodness. Like, why didn't, why wasn't that on the flannel graph or like, why isn't that another verse to the song?

And the walls actually fell out. I don't know. I'm not going to write the songs, but it's incredible. It's incredible because I think there are so many times in life where you're like, well, if God could just prove that he's real and there actually are things that prove that God is real. And this is one of them.

Yeah, that's pretty amazing. So maybe we'll organize a God's whole story trip to Israel someday. And we can, I would leave that trip. Let's do that. If you want to go on that trip, sign up now. Uh, pricing is DVD.

Can I, can I ask you a question? Um, before they go into Jericho, [00:09:00] uh, Joshua is visited by a. a being, what are your thoughts on, on the, which is, uh, which being are you referring to? This is Joshua chapter five. Like an alien being? Well, um, the captain or commander of the Lord's army. What's your take on this, Mr.

Lotzball? Oh, you're directing this to me. Yes, I am. Um, well, there are several, like, people throughout the Old Testament that show up and we've discussed Melchizedek a little bit I think on the Genesis episode. Um, and it's kind of like, who are these people? You know, and, uh, they just kind of appear out of nowhere, and it's kind of interesting to see, um, There's a number of theories about it could just be a guy.

Uh, that's, that's always just some dude, just some guy. Uh, but there are a number of, uh, scholars that think this could be a Theophany, which is a appearance of God himself, or a Christophany, which would be a pre incarnate appearance of Jesus. Um, I lean towards [00:10:00] Christophany. Uh, I do think, uh, I think Jesus actually shows up several times in the old Testament, I think sometimes it's pretty obvious.

Um, And things like Daniel and different things. But other times, uh, I think we, we just have Jesus involved in all of history because he is eternal. Uh, he's not like limited until he is born in a manger. He was crucified before the foundation of the world. Scripture says. That's a crazy one, but what do you think, Chelsea?

Well, I'm wondering if there's, is the phrase commander of the Lord's army used anywhere else in scripture? You guys know? Top of my head. I want to say no, but I could be fact checked on that. It is a fun fact that in Exodus 23. Uh, God promises that his angel will guide Israel to victory. Okay. So, the language, as far as I know, is not exactly the same, but this is a confirmation of that promise.

Mm hmm. Uh. So then, I suppose another option could be an angel. An angel. [00:11:00] Yeah. Angelic being. Yeah, I don't know. I, I, I don't know. Love Christoph. And so I always like, I'm like, uh, did they happen to you often? I love when Christoph happened to me. , no,

Um, I, I mean, I love to just imagine that that's what it is, but I actually, I don't know. I, I don't, either way. It's a pretty incredible. An uplifting thing for Joshua to experience going into battle. I think at minimum we can say this was yet another confirmation that God was going to lead them and God was going to go before them.

And that this is something supernatural which It does also lead us into the conversation That is the trickiest one in this book is that we have the God that we've been talking about through the entire Pentateuch great God Loves his people compassionate spiritual We see that all three of the New Testament as well.

What is it with? Is God have like an alter ego [00:12:00] in the Old Testament? What is it with the violence? What is it with the killing? Um, we definitely need to spend a little bit of time talking about that. And so what, what would be some things that would help set up this conversation? What are some of the reasons why you guys think God Ask these people to go in and wipe out the inhabitants.

Well, I think an important question to ask when you're considering this is what do we know about God's character leading up to this point? Um, and he's displayed his character in many different ways through just choosing the nation of Israel through giving his law through, um, saving them from Egypt through, um, wanting to dwell with them in the tabernacle.

Um, so we have a good idea of the character of this God. He's not only loving, he's also holy, he's merciful, and he's also just. Um, [00:13:00] so I think looking at the overall picture of the character of God gives us, uh, a viewpoint when you get to these harder books with all the violence and the killing, um, to ask yourself, why, why would God do this?

Well, You know, he's merciful. So how has he shown his mercy in ways that's like, okay, I've shown my mercy to you for many, many years. And now your sinfulness and wickedness has come to a point where you've got to go. Just how many years has God shown his mercy to the inhabitants, the Canaanites? I don't know.

Top of my head. You have to help me out. Thousands? A thousand? I mean, it's not quite that long, but all the way back in Genesis. Right. Right. Genesis chapter 15, uh, part of what God said to Abraham. So we're going all the way back to Abraham. God actually, when he gave him the promise that they're off, he would have a great nation.

Uh, they would have many descendants. Uh, it actually says in Genesis chapter 15, let me read Read here [00:14:00] starting verse 13. It says the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

So that's actually pointing towards Egypt. Right. Okay. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve. Egypt and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. So that's the exodus. But as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

So all the way back when God gave Abraham the promise, he said all this stuff is going to happen because I am giving the Amorites or the Canaanites, these people who are the inhabitants of the land, I am giving them literally hundreds of years to turn from their ways, to begin following the God of Israel, because that was always open to foreigners.

I am not ready to judge them. So God actually sent his own people. To [00:15:00] Egypt in slavery for 400 years while he was merciful to the Canaanites. Now we're even past, you know, those 400 years in Egypt, we've got the 40 years in the desert. So, I mean, we're looking at a significant period of time where God has delayed his judgment.

So that's a huge aspect of his mercy that. We're not wiping them out. Now we're giving them 400 years to change. Something that has occurred to me recently, um, because I, I totally agree that this is like this understanding. This is critical to understanding what's going about to happen in Joshua. Um, we referred earlier to Melchizedek Melchizedek is a priest King from Salem, which is Jerusalem, which means that Mel Melchizedek is, um, Someone who is a faithful follower of God from this region, that's going to come under God's judgment, who blesses Abraham.

So in the past I've thought, well, you know, is he actually being merciful? [00:16:00] Because like, nobody's out there preaching anything. And that's actually like, you can, you can make a case. Simply from the text from what we've seen occur from Genesis through Joshua, that he even apparently, um, was making some kind of outreach to the people that were there.

And we can safely assume because God is just and God is righteous, that they continually rejected this. faithful outreach. Um, and, and two, um, as people came to believe they were welcome to be part of the family. I think about Rahab, she didn't come under judgment because she came to be faithful to God. So I'm glad we're pointing out these details because they are critical details.

Um, because you will come against or, or hear from people that like, Well, how could you love God? Have you ever read the Old Testament? Like he's the worst character. I think that's, uh, Richard Dawkins says he's the most depressing character in all of nonfiction. Um, or fiction, I guess you would call it. [00:17:00] Um, anyway, critical details to understand what's going on.

I think God was merciful to those people for hundreds of years. And I think also that he was Trying to reach out and they were rejecting him now. Another passage that is helpful in this is back in Deuteronomy chapter 7 Deuteronomy actually does say that when they will go into the land that God himself will drive the people out before them So there is this this Idea that's like God is actually trying to get people to flee from some of these cities and drive them out To other parts so that Israel can take possession of this land So not everyone that they went in like there There was probably a significant less population that they had to deal with because a lot of people had already been driven out but God does this because he doesn't want problems, future problems with intermarriage because when you married someone from a different religion, you actually often adopted that religion, too.

So that was part of it. And just the Canaanites, they were not good people. [00:18:00] And so the things that they were doing, like, you actually see how merciful God is. God is because the sins of the Canaanites were great, that they had deviant sexual practices, their worship involved a lot of horrible things, they were, they sacrificed their own children.

So these are people that, according to God's law, do deserve judgment. But even in that, you see that God is driving them out, God is giving them 400 some years to, to change. But when he does send Israel in they are told drive like the ones that haven't left go in kill them And and there's some phrasing use and it's especially this phrasing that is hard for a lot of people It says wipe out everything that breathes man woman child livestock all that kind of stuff Which that is the language that is used but we also see something interesting When they finally go in, and they take possession of these things, there are still people that are [00:19:00] in these places and are interacting, so we see that there wasn't a total wiping out of every single person, uh, because there are still some of them around, and in fact, even Many, many years from now, we see that there's issues of intermarriage do creep up.

So one of the things that is interesting that in some ways God is using battle language of the day that when you are told to go in, take possession of land, like the battle languages wipe out everything, but they actually didn't do that. So. Many of the accounts in Joshua that say they left no survivors, we actually later see in those very same cities there are still inhabitants of those cities.

So, the left no survivors is more like historical rhetoric for that particular battle, more than a literal reality of what actually happened. Now, did they kill people? Yes. A lot. A lot. Yeah. But we're just kind of presenting, we're trying to present some of the things that help frame this conversation a lot.

Um, that this would have been the way that [00:20:00] battles are described. And Chelsea, you referenced the character of God. I think that's really key because this is a unique period in, in Biblical history. This is really the only period in all of the Biblical narrative that we see God. advocating this much violence, this much conquest, and it is for the specific purpose of inhabiting the land.

But when you frame it with a lot of these other verses, it helps us understand a little bit more of what's going on. Uh, but they had to engage in time and space. There was actual war, actual death, um, that was involved in this, but it was a part of a, a bigger plan. You want to comment on that, Ryan? I would just say it's, it's funny.

Like we still today believe that the Punishment for sin is death. So I get it. Like, I don't want to minimize what's going on here. It is, it is tough to wrap your head around. I've had a very difficult time wrapping my head around, honestly. And, and still, you know, I'll read certain chapters and be like, Oh, jeez.

Um, [00:21:00] but we actually still actively teach that the, the, if, if you are a slave to sin, you will die and God is righteous and just, which means he can, he can demand someone's life. And something that's really interesting to me lately, he does that to Ananias and Sephira, which is In the New Testament, like this, after Jesus, he says, Hey, you missed the mark.

You're done. So it's interesting to me that we don't seem to have a terribly hard time saying like, yeah, if you don't, you know, if, if you don't obey God, you will come under judgment. We still believe this today. Um, God is incredibly gracious. He's incredibly merciful. We deserve to die immediately. We don't, he allows us to continue to live outside of salvation.

Um, but it's interesting to me how we never actually like compare those two things. So here we have God saying, Hey, I've reached [00:22:00] out to you. You're coming under judgment. I'm demanding your life immediately. Uh, the, the. Weapon that he uses is the people of Israel. And it is worth noticing in these chapters.

There are times where God commands these acts of violence. There are also times where he does not command these acts of violence and they do them anyway on their own accord. And it is important to make that distinction as well, that sometimes these people actually were wicked and they actually did commit acts of violence outside of God's design.

It's almost kind of the timeless human narrative. We think we're the good guys. Yes, and we think God's the bad guy. Yes, but if we go all the way back to Genesis God was a good guy and we were the bad guys. And so even the fact that this violence does happen This is only happening because it's taking place on a broken planet that already has been broken because of sin death and the enemy And so God is working within A broken context.

Um, [00:23:00] yeah, it's, this is definitely, it's challenging. Some people even call this a genocide. Uh, it really doesn't fit the definition of a genocide because it is based more on worship than it is on ethnicity. Uh, because there was, if it was based purely on ethnicity, Israel would not be able to accept any of the Canaanites into, into their people into, because it was based on worship.

So it does, those that say this is a genocide, God commanded genocide, actually does not fit the definition of genocide. Um, but he, he does want people to, uh, be expelled from the land so that they can take possession of it. On that worship point, um, It is important to read the whole Bible because there's going to come a time where God's actually going to demand the lives of his own people because they refuse to worship him.

So this same judgment comes to his own people, the people of Israel at the hands of other nations. So God chooses other nations [00:24:00] as a weapon of his wrath and God is consistent. If nothing else, God is consistent and continues to be consistent. There. Yeah, there's some foreshadowing here. Yes. That's if you break the covenant, like we already talked about in Deuteronomy, there will be another nation that will come in just like you are coming in right now and we'll take you away.

And we see that in a few hundred years. So we see it in judges too. That's true. We see it next week. We will see it next week. What do you think about Chelsea? As you hear us discuss this lovely topic? Um, Just that you got to just take the Bible as a whole. I, you just, you have to. And that's why we're doing this podcast, because you look at God's word.

It reveals a lot about who he is and who we are. And when you understand it in a way that, I mean, you could, you could listen to outside, I'm saying outside with quotation marks with my [00:25:00] fingers, outside voices talking about the Bible saying like, it condones genocide. God is. Um, and it's easy to get wrapped up in that if you're not actually reading the Bible.

If you're actually reading the Bible, you see it differently. Um, I don't know. Just another case to read the Bible. Just do it. There are a lot of amazing passages in this book, too. Like, it could sound really like this book's a big downer, but honestly, this is, this is probably one of the biggest questions that some people have.

Actually, some people's faith probably even hinge, uh, on this book. On this question. And so we really felt like we want to spend some time on it. Do we will links to some of the daily podcast episodes in the show notes that will give you a deeper dive into some of the amazing stories. There's some incredible, uh, just look, look into Joshua's leadership and the things that happened there.

So please take a listen to those. Um, but we just really felt like we needed to spend some time on this because as is such a big thing. And if you are sharing your faith. If you [00:26:00] are talking to people who don't believe in God, at some point they're going to ask you about this. What about the violence in the Old Testament?

Is the God of the Old Testament different than the God of the New? That was actually condemned as a heresy. Uh, the church does not believe that God is different or He has split personalities. And you really, as you dive into the scripture, you can see that this is the same God. He is a God of love, and He is also a God of justice.

Those are not opposed to each other. Even if we sometimes struggle to explain how those things fit together, we must embrace all of God, not just the parts that make us really warm and fuzzy. So on that note, we're going to wrap up the book of Joshua and next week we'll be back talking about an even darker book.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, but next week we'll be judges. Hey, thanks for listening. We'll see you next [00:27:00] week.