Overview of Joshua, Adult Discipleship Class

I was talking about the celosphere and the church. I was talking with a seminary buddy of mine who spoke for the Burbank, California Charlie Kirk Memorial. They have these memorials around. Many of you maybe remember the Colorado State one that many people went to. Really unique and awesome time. In many cases the gospel was presented, and praise God for that. But my friend from seminary was asked to speak at this event in Burbank, which is right next to Hollywood, for those of you who don’t know, the Los Angeles area, at this memorial. And at this memorial was the Burbank mayor.

And my friend went up there and he certainly did not hold anything back. and was preaching about, like, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. And then he mentioned the mayor specifically. Because the mayor had hosted a transgender thing during some sort of child book reading hour and all that junk. And he called him out to his face. And afterwards, the Burbank mayor came up to my friend, and he told me a couple months ago, and said, hey, look, no hard feelings. And my friend turned to him and said, I meant every word. Yeah, so it’s amazing.

It’s one thing to have the church and state as one and another thing to recognize that it is our duty to talk about the application of God’s word in particular instances. So, let’s see here. Actually, turn to the book of Joshua. Last week we were in the book of Deuteronomy or a few weeks ago. And if you remember a few weeks ago, I said that the stakes couldn’t be higher, right? The Book of Deuteronomy, if we were to take it as a whole, could be what form of writing or speech? It could be a sermon, right? Final speech. And who’s giving this final speech?

You all know this. I know it. Come on. Come on. Who? Moses. Thank you. Everyone raise your hands. Raise them. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Raise them up. Raise them up. Raise them up. Raise them up. Raise them up. Flip them. Pat yourselves on the back. Good job, everybody.

So yes, Moses gave his final address to the people of Israel, after all of these amazing things that God had worked through him as Israel’s chief leader, since their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, right? If we were to consider the whole context of what is going on, Israel as a nation began in the book of Genesis, but Moses’ ministry began in the Exodus, right?

And it’s so important to talk about the Bible contextually, that is taking it within its context, Otherwise, we can run into a multitude of errors. Pastor Ron today talked about how the view of the state and the church being one was primarily based on Old Testament texts. And while it’s good to have scripture references for things, we should take them within their context. And so if we go to Old Testament texts such as Joshua and just apply them without considering the context in whom it was written to and take principles from it and just take it one for one, we can run into a multitude of errors, ranging from the church and the state being one to many modern prosperity theologies today. Take the blessings for obedience given to Israel, God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai to be for believers today if we just only obey.

We name it and claim it. Even historically, some people have unfortunately taken Joshua to be 100% applicable to us people in the United States, and purging the United States of the Canaanites or Native Americans. And so, all those things are bad, and it’s important that we take this in light of its context.

And so the history of the nation of Israel began with the one patriarch who started the whole thing that God called out. Who was that patriarch? Who? Abraham, or more like Abraham, right? No, terrible joke. I saw that online. I take no responsibility for it. It begins in Genesis chapter 12 where God calls out Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant and promises three things. What are those three things?

Seed, land, and blessing, right? Seed, land, and blessing. That God promised not only to Abraham, but to Isaac, and to Jacob, and their descendants after, that God would make his descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky, grains of sand on the seashore, into a great nation, which involves land, which involves a multitude of people, and that they also would be blessed.

And that in him, in Abraham and his descendants, all the nations of the earth, the families of the earth would be blessed, which is fulfilled in Christ. And so it’s amazing, because then we get to the book of Exodus, as we had mentioned before, and God is still faithful to Abraham, right? Even though Abraham’s loaned out, so is Isaac, so is Jacob, even Joseph, as is mentioned in the first chapter of Exodus. God is still faithful, because what happens to the population of the Hebrews in Exodus?

It grows, right? And is it a natural growth or is it a supernatural growth? Supernatural. Exactly. What we would expect from natural processes is if affliction is added on to a population that then they would perhaps decline in population. But what happens instead is the opposite.

And so God is still faithful to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his promises to the people of Israel. in growing their population. And God delivers them in an amazing way through ten different plagues, right? Raising up Moses as a deliverer to bring the Hebrews out of Egypt into Sinai, where God gives them two rules as a nation. What were their two rules? Does anyone remember? There were to be a what and a what. Kingdom of Greece, a good and a what?

Holy nation. In other words, they were to live differently. Their god was not like the gods of the nations, right? Not like the gods of the Egyptians from where they came, or the Canaanites to where they would go. And because he’s a holy god, they were to be holy as well. They would have lived differently.

They had different laws as we saw in Leviticus, right? There’s some things in our minds just might not make sense. Mixtures of fabrics are forbidden. Eating bacon or pork or any unclean animal, crustaceans, or crossbreeding different types of cattle, those things were forbidden, not necessarily just because they were random, actually not at all because they were random, but very specifically so that they would be different.

They wouldn’t be other, they would be set apart. They wouldn’t practice the same practices of the nations, but instead would live differently because again, God is holy. And as we learned in the Nadab and Abihu account, right? God is holy. And because of that, his people should be holy as well. The biggest question at the end of Exodus is how can a holy God dwell in the midst of sinful people, right? Because 40 days after Moses leaves them and goes up to the mountain, what happens?

The golden calf idolatry, right? Not good. And so what we already know from the text itself is that Israel has this tendency towards sin. They, not unlike anyone else in the world, everyone has been corrupted by the fall, as seen in Genesis chapter 3. And Israel has this tendency towards idolatry that needs to be thwarted.

Right? In order for them to be blessed, according to the Mosaic Covenant, they will be blessed not for disobedience, but for what? Obedience, right? To God, worshiping the true God. Then they will be cursed if they what? Disobey. We can find that in the book of Leviticus, chapter 26, and we saw it repeated again in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28, last time we met. And so God cares tremendously about Israel’s spiritual health. Even though they have left physical bondage, it’s very clear, at least in the history that we’ve seen so far with the golden calf, with the sin of Peor in the book of Numbers, that their tendency is towards idolatry. And so what God commands them to do is to flee it in all sorts of different ways, by remembering what God has done for them, right? In the book of Deuteronomy, we talked about that, how God Before he gives them commandments, reminds them of what he’s done, so that in obeying him it should be out of love and not for his love.

He also tells them, are they supposed to leave the peoples in the land? No, the Canaanites. Why? What would happen if they left the Canaanites in the land? Compromise. Idolatry. Exactly. Once again, religion and culture were intertwined back then and so even having people living with a different cultural lifestyle would end up being a snare to them and would lead them to idolatry which then would bring on blessings or curses. Curses.

And so Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, gives his final plea to Israel and reminds them that God did not choose them because they were more righteous than the rest of the nations, right? It was not because of their righteousness that they would dispel the peoples of the land. Right, and we remember Israel’s history. They weren’t more inherently righteous than anyone else, but God said it was because of the wickedness of the peoples of the lands that he would carry out his judgment and in so doing bring Israel as that instrument of his judgment into the land, also fulfilling his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God also wanted them to dispel the peoples from the land for their own benefit, as mentioned before. Not only to judge the peoples of the lands, but also so that Israel wouldn’t be tempted toward idolatry.

But as even the sections of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and even as Moses had mentioned himself in the book of Deuteronomy, what was going to happen? Was Israel going to be perfectly obedient or were they going to disobey? they were going to disobey.

Absolutely. But he mentioned that because these promises are built upon God’s character, even when they did disobey, when they cried out to God, when God ultimately would change their hearts, circumcise their hearts. And they would return to God that he would forgive them and restore them to the land.

And so at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, we saw the death of Moses. If you think of Israel, even though they are the second generation, that was a really big deal. Moses had been with them that whole time. From Egypt, from the wilderness wanderings, all the way through for that 40 years until the very end. And then Moses died. But before he died, he appointed a successor, whose name is?

Joshua, which is exactly where we are at today. And so the stakes couldn’t be higher for the nation of Israel. God has been faithful to Israel and making them into a great nation so far. He’s made them very numerous. They used to just be Abraham and Sarah, and now they’re many. As we mentioned even before, millions of people. God has been faithful in blessing them as they have sought to obey Him as a nation. Now the big question mark is, what about the land? Is God faithful? And with the precedent that we have before of what God has done, is God going to be faithful to Israel with this promise? Yes, absolutely.

So if we were to divide the book of Joshua into two sections, the first 12 chapters, chapters 1-12, could be titled, Conquering the Promised Land. The second section, chapters 13-24, describes dividing the Promised Land. And so if we were to synthesize all the material of the Book of Joshua, and you are trying to remember what it teaches in a more summarized form, we can think of the Book of Joshua as the theme of the God who conquers and divides.

As mentioned before, our approach to the Old Testament isn’t man-centered, because is man the main character of the Old Testament? No, who’s the main character? God’s the main character, absolutely. That’s why the theme is centered around who God is.

The date here is likely 1406 to 1386 BC. The authors is Joshua, obviously until his death, which is probably a trusted assistant. And so we begin the book of Joshua in chapter one with God’s charge to Joshua. Verse one, now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, but the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. So this is important, the crossing of the Jordan, because Canaan’s on the other side. And Joshua now has assumed command of Israel as a different leader. But even though he is a different leader, Israel has the same God.

And the same God who is faithful with Moses will be faithful with Joshua as well. He’s commanded, of course, to be strong and courageous. Those are some verses that often are cited and memorized, and it’s important. Joshua was to obey God and to trust him. Verse seven, only be careful and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. And so Joshua assumes command, and they sent out spies to go check out Jericho, which we see in Chapter 2.

Now, this whole section with Rahab is so interesting, because there’s often the question of, is there such thing as a white lie? Does God condone it? And there are different positions on this specific issue, and not that lying is ever okay. But I do think that God blesses Rahab in chapter 2, not because of her lie, but in spite of it. Very similar to the Hebrew midwives in the book of Exodus in the very beginning. And so God is faithful, not necessarily because Rahab lies, but in spite of it.

It’s amazing. And so when the spies of Israel stay with Rahab in Jericho, one of the peoples that they are to conquer at the very beginning, she says in verse 9 of chapter 2, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, Desilon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted, and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Remember, kingdom of priests and holy nation is that they were to live differently, and in living differently, the nations would see how God had blessed them, and how they would, in result, should want to worship him. And we see Israel, even though they don’t have the land yet, are operating somewhat in this capacity. God certainly has promised that the fear of Israel would spread to the nations after the Exodus account.

We saw that in the book of Deuteronomy. in Moses’ final speech, and we see it fulfilled in real time here with Rahab’s mention to the spies. The spies promise that Rahab will not be conquered herself, that her and her family will be safe for her service to the spies.

It’s amazing. The spies come back in verse 24 of chapter 2. We read, Surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us. Very different than the first generation of spies in the book of Numbers.

And so Israel crosses the Jordan, and this is an amazing and often overlooked miracle. We think of the Red Sea as a miracle that we remember often, right? In the Exodus, God parted the Red Sea and they walked through it. And God does this with the Jordan as well.

And what this does is it’s a miracle that shows that Joshua is God’s appointed leader. We often think about the purpose of miracles, and in the New Testament, they were to validate the authority of God’s Word. We saw miracles accompany the spread of God’s Word that validated it was genuinely God behind it. And here it’s kind of a similar purpose, only to validate a leader.

So they cross the Jordan and begin their conquest. And they set up memorial stones in chapter 4. In verse 6, Joshua says to Israel, let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall say to them, because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.

There’s a massive emphasis on remembrance and the importance of remembrance. If Israel is to succeed in the promised land, if they are to receive blessings for obedience and continue to be faithful, worshiping the true and the holy God, they have to remember these things, what God has done for them. The Deuteronomy mentioned that a number of times, and we see it’s the similar motif here in the book of Joshua. They would teach their youth as well. And we see at the end of chapter four, that they are to remind them of all the things that God has done, and they’re to be faithful in that. Now, chapter five is important, because verse one says, now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, again, in the land of Canaan, the Canaanites to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan, before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

The reputation precedes them again. God is faithful. And so Joshua begins right before the conquest to tell Israel that all must be circumcised. The first generation had been, but the second generation hadn’t. And once again, this sign was important.

It was important because it pointed back to God’s covenant with Abraham And it was an important practice as well because it reminded Israel that they were ultimately dependent upon God for the growth of their population and the future of their nation, not on their own efforts. And so Joshua gets ready for the conquest of Jericho, and there’s some really interesting account in chapter five, verse 13. It reads, now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, no, rather I indeed come now as the captain of the host And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, What has my Lord to say to his servant? The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so.

Earlier today in our service we read from John chapter 1, right? And John talks about in specifically chapter 1 verse 18 I believe he talks about how no one has seen God at any time the father Because God is spirit, but the son has come to reveal the father to us And because of this it’s very likely that this is a pre-incarnate Christ an occasion of Christ revealing himself Before he assumed human flesh a couple reasons for why I would hold that position even though some wouldn’t One, he doesn’t say that he’s with them or for their adversaries.

He says no and asserts his authority. So rather than just being an ally to Joshua, he seems to be a sovereign. Another thing is that Joshua bowed down to him. And when ever an angel appears, what do they normally say when people bow down to them? No, no, no. It’s because they know God really well, right? He alone deserves glory and worship. God says in the book of Isaiah, his glory he will give to no other. And here he doesn’t rebuke Joshua. But verse 15, for me at least, I think is the most compelling argument in how he responds to Joshua.

He says, remove your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy. This is almost identical to Moses’ account of the burning bush. where he was commanded to remove his sandals because the place where he stood was holy, because the presence of God was uniquely manifested there. And so I do believe that this was an occasion of pre-incarnate Christ, which is really amazing. When you think about the motif of the seat of the woman who had crushed the head of the serpent, That the scepter would not depart from Judah, that this one would come to reverse the fall and the curse and destroy Satan forever, that he would reveal himself right before the conquest of Jericho is just absolutely amazing. So we get to the conquest of Jericho, right?

The conquest of Jericho, and God commands Joshua in chapter 6 verse 3, it says, you shall march around the city, all the men of the war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also, seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the ark. Then on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up, every man straight ahead.” This is a pretty normal way to siege a city, right? No. Once again, and that’s important, right?

Because is Israel a normal nation? No. They’re not. They’re a holy nation. They’re different. And in pointing to the God that they serve is not like the gods of the nations. Interestingly enough, God shows here in the conquest of the lands that God is not like the idols of the nations that so often would have limited sphere of sovereignty. They would be in control of one piece of land, but not all. No, this is the creator God from the very beginning of the book of Genesis, who created the heavens and the earth and is sovereign over everything.

It’s amazing. So they end up obeying and they shout on the final day and Jericho is ultimately destroyed. It’s amazing. And they go in and conquer and Rahab is protected. And they’re called as Israel to destroy everything and devoted to destruction to God. In verse 19 of chapter 6 specifically. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. These wouldn’t be destroyed. But the spoil was not to be kept by Israel themselves. They were to be given to God because God had brought this great victory. And so verse 21 says they utterly destroyed everything in the city. They were obedient in destroying things in the city.

And we see in verse 25, Rahab the harlot, and her father’s household, and all she had, Joshua spared. And she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. By the pop quiz question, for all of you who know the New Testament. Who was Rahab’s husband? Anyone know? Yes. Yes, exactly. Oh, Jeannie, it’s so good to see you. I didn’t get to say hi to you yet. Air hug. Yeah, Salmon. Salmon, you know, his name’s not Cobb. It’s not tilapia. It’s Salmon. There’s Salmon. That was her husband.

And who was Rahab’s son? Boaz, right? Remember the book of Ruth? Boaz, right? What kind of man was Boaz before he was married? He was ruthless, right? That was another terrible joke from online. I take no responsibility for that one either. Boaz’s son was named Obed. Obed’s son was named Jesse, and Jesse’s son was who?

David. Right? Isn’t that amazing that Rahab, God used her to be the matriarch of David’s family, and as we see in Matthew chapter 1 as well, it’s not just David, because who comes from the line of David as well? Jesus does. the Messiah, the Savior, the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent, would choose to come through the line of someone who God redeemed from a horrible past. It’s just amazing. It shows the power of redemption, that no one’s ever too far gone, and that God forgives even the most worst of sinners if they repent and believe. It’s just an amazing thought.

So then chapter 7 talks about Israel’s conquest of Ai, where they fought the peoples of Gemini and Chachi B’ti. Once again, another terrible joke. Just do this to try and have you remember these things. And it says in verse 1 that the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban. Remember, they were supposed to put all the silver and gold and bronze and iron, all that was to be holy to God. but they had been unfaithful. Achan had been unfaithful. And so they try to conquer this people, the people of Ai, and they lose. And Joshua is, of course he’s upset, right? Because God has promised them, he’s promised them descendants and blessing and what? Land, right? Land. He’s promised them a land that they could go to. And God has been faithful so far. Why, God, would you be unfaithful right now?

And verse 8, O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off your name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?

And God tells Joshua, the reason for this is that Israel had sinned. They had transgressed His covenant. And they had taken things which they shouldn’t have taken. Remember, blessings result in what for Israel? Obedience results in what? Blessings. And disobedience results in what? Curses. We can already expect that from Leviticus and Deuteronomy. And we see here disobedience results in curses. They lost to their enemy. And so eventually, they find out it’s this Aiken guy, and they end up executing him because of this. And so then they try and fight AI again, and AI is conquered in Chapter 8.

It’s amazing. It’s just, once again, so many things about this, and we don’t have too much time. It’s just not a normal conquest. Then it goes to show that it’s God who really is the one who’s fighting for them. Chapter 8, verse 7 talks about the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. It’s a common phrase. He uses it again and again, showing that God is the one who’s bringing about this conquest. And it’s just amazing.

But what’s the one problem? Disobedience is the problem. And what would disobedience look like in the conquest? What would disobedience manifest, what would it look like? Would it look like leaving the peoples in the land or not leaving them in the land? leading them in the land.

And the Gibeonites, one of the peoples not of Israel, decides to be crafty. And so they pretend like they’re really travelers that come from a distant land and they come to Israel and say, hey, we want to make a treaty with you. In Israel, the text explicitly says, in verse 14 of chapter 9, It says, the men of Israel took some of their provisions and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord.

Verse 15, Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them. So they didn’t end up conquering this group of people because they had made this covenant with them. And they made the covenant because they didn’t seek the Lord first. Is that setting themselves up for success or failure? Failure. Absolutely. Remember that for later.

So then five kings came to attack that group of people, and Joshua went and fought them. Once again, God fought for them. Chapter 10, verse 13 talks about the sun standing still. Oftentimes you’ll read in more liberal commentary some sort of explanation of, well, the Hebrews, there might have been some weird eclipse, or they were on something that day. It just doesn’t seem right. And that’s not the point of the text. The point of the text is to show this is a supernatural event.

The God who created the sun, moon, and stars can do whatever He wants, whenever He pleases with them. And so, in order to ensure their success, the sun stands still. And verse 14, as mentioned before, says, the Lord fought for Israel. They have more victories, more victories.

When they beat some more kings in chapter 10, one thing I want to point out in verse 24, it says, when they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with them, Come here, put your feet on the necks of these kings. So you get the picture. You beat the kings. The practice was to put your feet on the neck of the king or the head. What does that sound like from what we’ve learned already? What? The snake? Yes, just like the snake. The seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The leader would destroy his foe.

It’s an ancient practice that kings would do, and so, once again, drawing from Genesis 3.15 knowledge, that’s to be expected, and it points to the seed being a royal ruler.

So Joshua continues to conquer the people in verse 33 of Lakish, 34 Eglon, 36 Hebron, verse 38, Debir. Verse 40 says, Thus Joshua struck all the land, the hill country, and the low land, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed.

Why? Just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded. Verse 42, Joshua captured all these kings and their lands at one time because the Lord, the God of Israel, what? Fought for Israel. Absolutely. It’s very clear that God’s the one who is bringing about all this success.

And Joshua is seeking to obey God and God is blessing Israel as a kingdom of priests through their obedience. We see that now, verse 15, Chapter 11, it talks about just as the Lord had commanded Moses and his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

So let’s take a pause here real quick. Let’s take a look at Joshua as a character, as a leader himself. Other than the Gibeonite deception, right, where people disguised themselves and he didn’t seek the Lord. How was he doing as a leader? I think he’s doing pretty good, right? He’s obeying God. He’s conquering all the people. He’s doing exactly what God commanded. And so, more kings. In chapter 12, there’s a list of the kings that were conquered by Joshua.

But as mentioned before, Joshua is one man, right? And because Joshua is one man, chapter 13, verse 1, God tells him, you are old and advanced in years, and very much of the land remains to be possessed. And so essentially what he tells Joshua is, all right, divide up different portions of the land to the tribes themselves, that they may carry out the conquest further. Because Joshua himself was limited.

And we see that God was the one who would drive them out, but verse 13 says that the sons of Israel did not dispossess the specific group, the Geshurites or the Maccathites, for Geshur and Maccath live among Israel until this day. Setting up for success or failure? Absolutely. Caleb received some land in chapter 14. Judah’s territory is described in chapter 15.

Interestingly enough, Judah was supposed to conquer Jerusalem, right? We think of that the city of David. It wasn’t Israel’s capital yet, and it wouldn’t be until 2 Samuel chapter 5 when David would come and conquer that piece of land, but it was ruled by the Jebusites. Then we see in verse 63, it says, Now as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the sons of Judah, could not drive them out, so the Jebusites lived with the sons of Judah at Jerusalem until this day. Setting ourselves up for failure or success?

Ephraim. Ephraim. One of Joseph’s sons and his descendants. We see they were commanded to drive out the peoples in their allotted land, but verse 10 says, but they, Ephraim, did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites live in the midst of Ephraim to this day, and they became forced laborers.

Setting ourselves up for success or failure? Failure, absolutely. We see in verse 12 of chapter 17, it says, but the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of these cities, the ones listed earlier, because the Canaanites persisted living in that land. It came about when the sons of Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor.

Is that obeying God or not obeying God? Not obeying God, right? drive them out, don’t let them stay. But they did not drive them out completely. You see how redundant this is almost. It’s very clear the author of Joshua is showing, is making a point that Israel was not faithful in that command.

And so there’s more territories allotted through chapter 19, cities of refuge chapter 20. Cities that are given to the Levites as well In chapter 21 in the end of chapter 21 verse 45 says not one of the good promises Which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed All came to pass.

He’s got a faithful God Absolutely. Even the promises he made to Abraham years and years before he still was faithful to And so Joshua summoned some of the leaders as well in chapter 22 and says in verse 5, and keep His commandments, and hold fast to Him, and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Once again, this is based in love. Israel was chosen based off God’s love. God redeemed Israel because of His love and faithfulness. Therefore, Israel, in light of what God had done, was to love Him, and out of that love, obey Him.

They have an incident of an offensive altar. It was just sort of a misunderstanding in chapter 22. And then I want to read this part in chapter 23, Joshua’s farewell address. And then we’ll call it good for this week. Chapter 23, verse 1. Now it came about after many days, when the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies on every side. And Joshua was old, advanced in years, that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, and their heads, and their judges, and their officers, and said to them, I am old, advanced in years.

And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is He who has been fighting for you. See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which I have cut off from the Jordan, even with a great sea, toward the setting of the sun. The Lord your God, He will thrust them out before you and drive them out before you, and you will possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.

Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain among you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. Once again, Israel’s purging of the peoples of the lands was not on the basis of ethnicity. It was on the basis of religion, on idolatry. And so God has been faithful.

But Joshua warns, verse 12, for if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them so that you associate with them, and they with you. Know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you, but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

And Joshua, eventually, after recounting Israel’s history, calls on Israel to serve God. You know, the famous verse, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And Joshua ends up dying. And so the major question that remains at the end of the book of Joshua is, what will happen next in Israel’s history?

Have they been completely faithful to drive the peoples out of the land? No. Will they likely be tempted by idolatry? And in doing and practicing idolatry, are they being obedient or disobedient? And in being disobedient, what are they promised? Blessings or curses? Curses. They have lost the great spiritual leader that had led them up to this point. And we’ll see in the book of Judges, the theme recurring is that there was no king in Israel in that time, no spiritual leader to lead them in the right direction.

And as a result, because of the peoples in the land, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Let’s pray. Lord, we come before you in gratitude of your word, that you have revealed these things to us for our own benefit. That Lord, as is even mentioned in the New Testament, that these examples are written for us. Lord, to remind us that the most important thing is to obey you. That Lord, to obey is better than sacrifice. That God, more than just the externals, the going through the motions, it’s so much more important, Lord, that our hearts are in the right spot. And so, Lord, we do ask that you would search our hearts this week, Lord, that we would purge any sort of sin and immediately repent from it, Lord, that we would cling to you and that you would grow our love for you, that we would want to obey you even more. Once again, Lord, we look at this example of Israel and know that apart from your grace, we’re no better. and pray for your grace in this upcoming week through everything that we do, that it might glorify your name, and that we might know more about you. It’s in you that we pray these things. Amen.