Oh my goodness – it has taken forever, but the moment of taking the promised land is finally here, and this book details how they did it. Joshua is a book about courage and strength. If you need to be inspired by some historical might, then you are going to love this book. Read how they won the battle, took the promised land and be encouraged as they establish the kingdom of God after forty years of delay.
Welcome to the first week of Joshua, this incredible book is the turning point of the Old Testament. A turning point is that point in a movie when everything comes to a climax and you lean in. The characters are ready, the scene is set, you know the plan, you know the enemy and now for the big fight scene. From this point, we can either go backward down the hill or we can push through, win this victory and enter the new day.
The Book of Joshua is an incredibly fascinating book, full of prophetic undertones, leadership advice, and epic historical narrative. It serves the bridge between the Pentateuch and the rest of the biblical corpus known by Jewish communities as the Tanak (Torah - Instruction), Nebiim (Prophets), and, Ketibim (Writings), or for Christians; the Old Testament.
For the Dives for Joshua, I wanted to change things up a bit. In the Dives I am going to show you quick grabs of wisdom that jumped out at me as I studied the book. Joshua has so much in it that I didn't want to limit our study to one topic, so here are my first seven grabs of wisdom as you read this book.
To frame this Deep Dive, a brief survey of the pivotal events that have occurred between God, and the people of Israel is in order. At the forefront of those events stand the Abrahamic Covenant, arguably the most prominent covenant made by God to humanity. Here is an excerpt from the first time we see it at the beginning of Genesis 12:
This is the best line in the whole book–when you hear Joshua’s prayer in Chapter 7:6-9, it’s submissive again. He has forgotten he is not the servant, he is a leader. ‘Pardon your servant, Lord’, it’s with torn clothes that he is seeking God and God responds, ‘What the heck are you doing on your face!’ This is awesome, what He is saying is simple! You don’t need to beg. Israel sinned, then he tells them exactly what is going on.
When reading the book of Joshua there are many outstanding stories, but one story that remains with the reader long after the reading is that of the crossing of the river Jordan. It’s a captivating recount, found in Chapters 3 and 4, of how the Israelites crossed the raging Jordan river over into the land of Canaan–The Promised Land!