Joshua Explained

​And so Joshua brings everything to that beautiful crescendo and all the people are like, we will serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. He says, And this rock of witness is gonna be, you know, it has heard your words think about this, Bodie. It's like the book of Joshua ends with this idea that the stone, which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone.

Joshua is our Jesus. And he's saying the rock has heard, and this is the final word on the matter. We all have to be committed to serving the Lord together. And so it kind of wraps up the book beautifully as a picture of when we're possessing our possession and we're overcoming our enemies, our loyalty has to be to God and to God alone.

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Hello and welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible podcast where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. My name is Bodie Quirk from YouCanLearnthBible.com here with Joey Rozek, Lead Pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey. Joey, how are you today? My good man.

Bodie, we are getting ready for an exciting book today, so I am blessed to dive into this one today.

We are gonna be looking at the book of Joshua, you know, this is the name the in the Old Testament where Jesus gets his name from. This is a book that has a great picture for us of the Christian life, of our spiritual battles, and of course, how Jesus leads us to victory. He's our Joshua. And so, I'm blessed to be doing this episode with you, Bodie today.

I know. It's been fun and it's been a challenge to try and summarize a full book in one episode where we really feel like we can give you what you need for you to go read and to study. This is never meant to replace your time in the word. It's meant to enhance, and to equip and to inspire you.

So we apply our seven part framework to equip and to inspire your Bible study. So today is episode 12, Joshua Explained is our goal. Now with this one, we have as we, as we do with every episode,

both video and audio available. So we have an audio version, for a podcast, but there is a video version available too, on YouTube, and sometimes the video may be a little bit more helpful, for those books that involve geography or involve the timeline a little bit more. And Joshua is one of those books. So if you have the ability to watch it, you're gonna get a sense of the geography of where the events that we're gonna cover today actually take place that will help you give a better sense of the book itself.

But what we're gonna do as we try and explain Joshua in a single episode, we are gonna impart our seven part framework, aren't we? Joey? What are some of the pieces we use, to unpack books for our listeners? And then why don't you take us into our first one?

Yes, well, this You Can Learn the Bible Podcast is really to help every believer out there or even a seeker out there to really get more familiar with your Bible, to

Yep.

to discover the treasure chest of Scripture and riches that are in there. But we do it by looking at the essentials. Like what is the book about? What are the essentials of the book? We look at the storyline. What, how does it tell a story about the bigger picture of God and his redemptive plan? What are the themes and ideas in this specific book? We look at structure, how does the book structure itself? And we wanna know what did we learn about God, what did we learn about ourselves? And then of course, what's our favorite things about this

So, Bodie, you and I give commentary through this book and, this is a book, brothers and Sisters, that is really helpful for the Christian life. Not only have Jewish people for years found so much understanding in the Book of Joshua, but it really highlights so much of the journey of the believer and how we are to enter into the blessings or the promises that God has for us. So, why don't we start with this first category, Bodie the essentials, and let's jump in.

Yeah. So let's do, let me ask you this question, Joey, if you want, and I can jump in too. We wanna study the book of Joshua. Let's say we don't know anything about the book, which we try and kind of start with at a blank slate with every episode. Where do we start? What are some of the essentials of the book?

Well, we know that we are still in the period of what we call the conquest of Canaan, so on our timeline, we have the Exodus and the Conquest together, but right now, we're in a 40 year period. We're now the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus and Exodus are done, and we're now in the second part of that. So I wanna hand it to you. I love how you kind of get us set up for these episodes. What do we need to know about Joshua from the get go?

So when we think about the book of Joshua, it, it's a unique book in the Old Testament, cuz it's like a standalone book. I, I actually like to liken it to the book of Acts in the New Testament because right after you have the four gospels, we have this wonderful historical book that shows us how the early followers of Jesus began to take the message of Christ to the world and how they began to live out their calling and so, in the Old Testament, you're kind of getting a similar thing here with the children of Israel.

They have left Egypt, we spent five books, the Torah, looking at how God's people were established. The Covenant with Abraham and all of that, and so, this is a really standalone kind of book in many ways, but, let me give you a few more of the essentials that's gonna help you with this book.

So first of all, this book is like you said, this is about 40 years after where we left off, with Deuteronomy, cuz there's a whole nother generation here. The 40 years that were in the wilderness have taken us to this point. It's about 1407, 1406 BC to 1366 bc. We are going to see after Moses died, how Joshua was the new commander.

Now, we don't know if he wrote the book, the Talmud, the Jewish Talmud does put Joshua as the author, but we put unknown there because we don't know for sure who actually wrote it, but it could even be a compilation where another author might have finished it, cuz of course, Joshua's death is recorded at the end of this book.

And what's really key about this book is we're in the place now where the children of Israel are about to cross over into the Promised Land. The Promised Land is called the Land of Canaan, and we're gonna learn about conquest. The purpose of this book has to do with the conquest of God's people and the promises of God fulfilled.

And of course, this, again, is a new generation of people, so Joshua, our fearless leader, so to speak, is going to be commanded to lead them into the promised land, but I say fearless leader because you're gonna discover he's human and he actually needed to be encouraged to not have fear, and many things that we see in the book of Joshua we can relate to. We have to find courage. We have to have the conviction to go forward and not go backwards and to enter into what God has promised for us.

and on the heels of that, let's now talk about where the Book of Joshua fits in the storyline of the Bible, you already said some of the key details. They're ready to inherit the land. So the first question is kind of what are the basics? That's the essentials. Number two is where does it fit in the overall story of the Bible? So let's remember some of the things that have led us to this point right here.

So Israel is finally ready to inherit the land that was promised to Abraham their forefather hundreds of years earlier. So just in the last couple books, numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, we have the law being revisited, that was Deuteronomy. We have the people of being prepared. Joshua is now anointed. Moses has died and been buried and that now we're ready. The time has come. The promise is going to be fulfilled and they're going to possess the land.

So this is so cool because what we can now see is how this is going to turn the page on our timeline for a whole new section that's gonna follow, like Joey said, this is kind of a standalone book that really sets the tone for what follows. So we wanted to start, just make sure that you understand that we're at the end of this Exodus and Conquest conquest period, a lot of important stuff is gonna happen in this book. So if you would, Joey, what are some key verses that will get us set to understand the role of the book of Joshua on the overall biblical timeline?

Well, at the very beginning of the book, the couple verses I'd like to read out loud is verses two and three, because it really shows you a bit of what is actually taking place and what is the promise that has been given for them to see fulfilled. So here's what we have. I. Joshua one verses two and three says, Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people into the land that I'm giving to them, to the people of Israel, and then listen to this verse, verse three. Every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon. I have given it to you just as I promised to Moses. So what did we notice here?

God is a promise-making God, and he's a promise keeping God. And he's saying, the way this is all gonna unfold is that you're gonna step out into this promised land. And whatever you stand upon, whatever you actually go forward and take, it's gonna become yours. It's like God's saying, Hey, blank check. Why don't you write out what you'd like here, go forward, and I think we don't always realized how amazing it is that God has so much to give to us.

But let me give you another key verse that really just says, well, how do you do that? How do you possess what God has for you? How do you have the courage to go in? Well, Joshua one, nine has this great word that I think is for every believer. Many people have memorized this verse, Bodie.

Mm-hmm.

Joshua one, nine, I've shared this with my boys and, they've committed it to memory. It's a great verse that reminds us of what is needed. Here's what God says,

have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage, or be courageous. Do not be frightened. Do not be afraid. Do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you. Wherever you go,

Amen.

place that is. And so God is saying, I go before you. I have made a promise to you. I need you to trust me, follow me, and I'm gonna give you, if you trust me what I have in store. And so this is a beautiful, beautiful verse in

Yep. Yep. So they're about to move. So Joey, thank you for reading that. And what I would like to do is actually transition over to, a picture of a map.

I showed this in the previous episode. They are at the plains of Moab. So the book of Numbers led them from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea, and now they're at the plains of Moab, which is the east side of the Jordan River, and like I said, at the beginning, geography plays a really important role in this book, cuz what's gonna happen is they're gonna cross over the Jordan River into the land of Canaan.

And so here we can actually know geographically and historically exactly where this took place. And so we can verify so many wonderful details about the authenticity of scriptures simply from the historical record that we have, which is so cool.

But that's really a simple explanation of number two, where are we in the storyline? They're about to take the promise of the land that has been promised and talked about and reiterated. It's finally here. So now Joey, let's talk about some of the ideas that are at play in the book of Joshua.

Number three, themes and ideas. What major biblical concepts do we find in the book of Joshua? I'll let you jump in and go first.

Yes. Well, there are many great themes in this book,

but perhaps the first one we want to kind of start off with is just like we had a crossing of the Red Sea out of Egypt, this is a crossing of the Jordan River, into Canaan, into the Land of Promise. So that's gonna be a really key theme, and what kind of goes with that, the preparation for that and the aftermath.

We're gonna see overcoming by faith is a, a huge part of the whole Christian life, and it clearly was for the children of Israel, but there's battles every day. We have battles to fight, conflicts to deal with, and so we're gonna learn about facing our different enemies.

We're gonna learn about the heart position, loyalty and disloyalty. We're gonna see how much of a theme that is. And then of course, I love the fact that we're gonna see how God has rest for his people. There's refuge for his people and renewal for his people. And then we're gonna see that God has different stewardships for each individual person.

In this case, different stewardship for the tribes. And then, they're gonna fully take possession of what God gave to them. But you'll actually notice when it's all said and done, they could have actually possessed a lot more, Bodie. They didn't fully possess all that they could have, and I think that's true for so many Christians today, you know, where we don't fully reach the potential that God has for all of us.

So maybe this book will inspire you as you're listening to this right now, to say, I want all that God has for me. That's what I.

I, yeah, and I love how this book highlights, as we're gonna get into so many of the key struggles of the Christian life, and that's all I wanna say about that right now, because we're gonna unpack what we mean by that, by going through the structure. But do we wanted to just present some of these major ideas that Joey had just listed out here because there, this is the book kind of of battle and there the Christian life is a battle, this side of eternity.

But God has gone before us and God will go before them. And we're gonna see how all of that plays out as we walk through kind of this book, and that's what I wanna do now. Anything Joey, you want to add on themes and ideas before we start introducing the structure and going through the book?

Well, maybe just one last point. Here's a little fun fact. This is about the promised land and the word land in this book shows up 87 times in this book, and so, for us, we are not so much about God calling us to a specific land as we're called to not the promised land, but the promised man, Jesus is the promised man, and, and they're going into the promised land, but you're gonna see the parallels are so similar. So why don't we dive in? Let's look at the structure and we'll, we'll talk about that

yeah, because the land was supposed to be a place of where they dwelt with God. That was part of the whole purpose, and we're gonna see, you know, the sanctuary plays a role in that. So many challenges are gonna come our way. So let's now do this. Let's introduce the structure of the book.

And so with each of this, so this is our number four of our seven part framework. What is the basic structure of the book of Joshua? The structure isn't really what we care about. What we care about is what does it teach us about God and what do we learn about our Christian life?

And as Joey already alluded, there is a lot that this book offers for our Christian life. So here's the structure of Joshua. It's actually a fairly simple book to break apart.

Chapters one through five are all about entering the land. Chapters five through 12 are about conquering the land. Chapters 13 through 21 are about possessing the land, and then the end, 22 through 24, they're an epilogue, they set up what comes next. So we have entering the land, conquering the land, possessing the land.

Now we're gonna spend the rest of the episode, really unpacking each one of these. So with the first one, chapters one through five, they've entered the land. The promise is now coming true. Joshua has taken command. There's some spies that have been set ahead and this new generation is prepared. So Joey, let's go one level deeper here.

When we talk about this first section one through five, there are some key things that happen. What do our listeners need to, what do we even wanna make sure that they just don't miss? What are some of the beautiful moments, essential moments about the actual entering of the land now that it's no longer a promise it's happening! Why is it so important?

Well, whenever there's great movements of God with his people, he. up a leader, he often puts a vision in the heart of someone or gives a command to someone, and we kind of see that all throughout the Bible, and the book of Joshua really highlights this. Joshua's commissioned in chapter one. God is speaking to him to reassure him of the promise. He is giving him the command to cross over, so you have the call and command of Joshua. This is a really important chapter for, especially for all of you out there who, maybe God is calling you to a new chapter in your life, a new season in your life.

We really need to hear from God, and of course, what I love is, well, how do we hear from God? Well, we need scripture, and, and one of the beautiful things is God commands Joshua to meditate on the book of the law. Like we have to be in the word day in and day out. He's told to meditate on the word day and night. Day and night, so that's key in chapter one.

Now, chapter two is a really unique chapter because here we see that God's plan is always bigger than Israel. We have a gentile woman named Rahab, who actually was a harlot, and she, when the spies are sent into that land to figure out how do we conquer this land? And Jericho is the first city that's walled that needs to be conquered. And by the way, the city was walled because the fear of Yahweh had already set into the land. They heard about the Great Miracles in Egypt. They heard about the deliverance, and so they put a wall there to protect themselves against God's people.

But Rahab, when she hears, the spies have come in and they represent Yahweh, she shows loyalty as a Gentile woman to God, and she says that she will hide these spies and protect them instead of putting herself out there with the king and saying, Hey, I might be able to get a reward for the king if I expose these spies.

She doesn't do that. That's huge. Chapter three is about this crossing of the river Jordan, which is another great picture of God's leading the way. He does the miracle of holding back the water, and he's the one who tells them to put the arc of the covenant in front saying You've never gone this way before.

Keep a space between you in it and chapter three. And it's a great picture of how we have to follow our good shepherd Jesus or our sort of son of the covenant, not the arc of the covenant, but the son of the new covenant following Jesus. That's key. And then chapter four, we see the stones of remembrance.

There's these memorial stones in the Jordan, and then each of the tribes take out one stone out of the Jordan and set up sort of an altar there in chapter four. And then chapter five, again, the covenant renewal. We see they're about to now, start their battles and the Lord kind of shows up a powerful picture.

The commander of the Lord's army shows up and gives a picture of how to put our trust in God before we go through the battles, Joshua doesn't know who he is. He thinks he's like one of the enemies of the land. But it's actually the Lord saying, I'm not for you or against you. I'm the, I'm the commander.

Right?

In other words, before you think about which side I'm on, you have to realize I'm the one who's gonna lead you into this battle and, and give you victory. So beautiful picture.

there's a lot. There's so much that happens here. We could spend the whole episode on this one section, but what's fascinating are in that chapter five, the Passover and circumcision, which are covenant markers, are now applied to this new generation cuz they couldn't have been applied earlier because they needed to be inheriting, the land, which is really the symbol of this new season.

So the promises remain that the old generation, this is the end of their dying off. Even manna, it says ceases at this point as well too. This is a major turning point that what's gonna happen now. So now they're entering into to the land, and what's interesting too, this is not the first time that they, the previous generation sent spies into the land also. And Joshua and Caleb were the only ones, if we remember the book of Numbers that had a positive report. Everybody else was terrified of the inhabitants. Now we send spies again too.

And again, we see the role of faith and fear. At play there. So there's so many wonderful themes that we see in the Bible that are interconnected through these books. , but man, we could spend so much time here on this section, Joey, but we probably gotta keep moving. Anything more on entering the land that you wanna share?

Well, let me just give a transitional point by reading out a verse that I think takes us right into the next section. In Joshua chapter three, verse five, right before they crossed the Jordan River. The Lord says these words, and he says it basically, through Joshua, but this is Joshua speaking to the people, but he says,

Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. So hear that tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you. That's a promise. So that takes us right into the next section

chapters five through 12, which is conquering the land and God's leading the Israelites to every victory here. If they have a victory, it's because of the Lord. And you know what's interesting, Joshua chapter six, if we could kind of jump into this little story here.

All of us know the story of Jericho, right? I mean, Joshua fought the Battle of Jericho. We, we know this is what's often said, but. Did he actually fight the Battle of Jericho? Well, you could say yes, he did, but he did it by faith Bodie. He didn't do it by strength. He didn't do it by strategizing. In fact, Listen, imagine telling your regiment. Okay guys, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna circle around the enemy. Not once, not twice, but six times. And by the way, on the seventh day when we do this again, we're gonna go around seven times.

And that's what you discover that sometimes, God causes us to walk by faith and not by sight, and they're marching around the city and they literally are trusting God, not saying a word in rank following the Lord, and God does the miracle, the wonder of breaking down the walls of Jericho, the walls literally come crumbling down and God's people shout for victory because the Lord was testing his people just to trust him and to walk in perseverance by faith one day at a time, and that's so much the Christian life. What a parallel.

The Christian life is living by faith, we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, even when we don't understand it. We trust in the Lord with all of our heart and lean on our own understanding, and in all of our ways, we acknowledge him and he directs our path. In this case, he actually gives them the city of Jericho through that. Isn't that a great story, Bodie? I

Oh, it's amazing. it makes me think about Abraham too because we, if we remember that the whole reason that this nation exists was because Abraham had a son and then God actually commanded that he kill him in obedience, in faith, and Abraham was willing to do it.

But because his faith was displayed, God interrupts it, and that son Isaac then becomes the covenant thread that eventually becomes these very people. So we see these themes, these beautiful covenant themes all through the scriptures that connect. And now again, God is asking the same people to trust that he is going to fight the battles for them, which Joey just talked about.

So there's the Jericho part in chapters five and. Awesome stuff. We see Rahab is spared from the destruction because of her covenant loyalty. So basically if you want to just kind of break down one level deeper of how they conquer the land, it's pretty simple. Chapters five and six are about Jericho. Chapter seven and eight are about Ai, the next battle we'll talk about, and then there's the northern region and there's the southern region.

So chapters nine and 10 are about southern conquest, and then chapters 11 and 12 are about north. And so that kind of covers the gamut of the conquering of the land. But Joey, like, why do we care about this? What's important for us to get?

Okay. Now I need all the listeners to lean in on this one. This is, this is one of the things where if you don't see this in the story of Joshua, you're missing one of the biggest points of application that is given to us in this book. There are three enemies. There are three enemies that we have to deal with as believers who wanna have victory in this life.

We have the enemy of the world. In other words, it's system and it's ways, and it's priorities and it's ideas that are contrary to God. We have to deal with this world. We have to deal with our flesh. We have to deal with our own selfish, sinful nature, and we have to deal with the devil.

So what are the three enemies? The world, the flesh and the devil. And you know, what you discover? The book of Joshua illustrates in these three battles that, that it starts with our three enemies. So we already talked about Jericho, which is a picture of the world. It's a walled city. We don't defeat the world by our ingenuity or strength.

We actually do it by faith. Isn't that what one John five four says? And what is the victory that overcomes the world? Our faith, right? So we overcome the world by faith. But then the next battle is Ai. Ai in chapter seven and eight has the story of God's people thinking they can just go in there and win a battle without praying, without relying on God.

In fact, in Joshua chapter nine in verse 14, it says that the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask the council of the Lord.

AI is about a man named Achan, who after the Battle of Jericho, he had lusted after the spoil, he had an idolatrous heart, and as a result, he took that which he was not supposed to take. He began to be an idol worshiper in his heart, and that sin in the camp caused them not to win the battle of Ai,

36 men died because of this. And how many casualties come in the Christian life and experience when we try to do things in our own flesh rather than seeking the counsel of the Lord?

The flesh nature of the fallen human race is a struggle in and of itself. And God had to basically pinpoint the family that Achan belonged to, and Achan had to be punished for his sin, and then they were able to win the battle after the fact.

So that's the battle of Ai. That's the second enemy. The flesh. What's the third enemy? The devil. The devil is roaming this earth like a lion seeking who may devourer. But how does he do it? He's a deceiver. And what did we discover about the Gibeonites? The Gibeonites were a people. They were one group of people out of the four groups of people of the Hivites.

They were a people that had come out of there from this far away part of the of the land of Canaan. But they came to God's people pretending that they were close by. Satan will often come as an angel of light, and these guys pretended that their sandals were worn, their clothes were all shredded up and they were tired when actually, they had been a neighboring people. They weren't so far. This is the deception. They pretended to be from far away when they were actually close and they made a covenant with God's people and Satan is always looking to find a way in.

So what's the application? We have to be on guard against the lies of the enemy. Jesus said, take heed that you're not deceived. There will be many who will come in his name. Many false prophets, many false teachers. And so the last of our enemies, Satan, himself, is a deceiver and the father of lies. And those are the three enemies we face, Bodie, in the Christian life.

We have to go up against this world. And its ways in its system. We have to go up against our flesh, our fallen and selfish nature, and we have to go up against the devil who's a deceiver. And we see that those first three battles in Canaan represent all three of those enemies.

Isn't that powerful?

So as we look at the three enemies that we are facing, we have the world, we have the flesh, we have the devil. It's interesting that when we're dealing with the flesh, it's so easy for us to follow what we just think and feel about something.

Oh, it's so powerful. Yeah, it is. And the way we respond to these different threats is not always exactly the same. So we as people need to be wise in how we go about battling the world, the flesh and the devil. And so that is so important. So when one of the things we want you to see is that these aren't just a record. There is a historical truth. These are historical accounts, but there's a layer here that makes them applicable to the Christian life at any stage, at any time in history. So to read both layers accurately is to get the most out of this section of the Word of God. Joey, that was awesome. Thank you for walking us through that.

Yeah, it was so good because there is battles and that is something that we just have to deal with and be prepared for. How do we prepare? By staying united to Christ, by staying close, by letting Him truly be the one fighting the battles because the victory has been won on the cross. But the battle for the hearts and minds of people rages every single day.

And always we are being asked whose side are you on? And where is your allegiance? And so we see a lot of these themes here in this section on conquering the land, but they do end up conquering the land. God promises the land, they conquer it. And so now what?

Now they're gonna possess it. It's really gonna become their inheritance now, isn't it, Joey? So now we're looking at chapters 13 through 21, where the land is divided amongst the 12 Tribes of Israel on both sides of the Jordan River. So I'd love for you to walk us into this section cuz I think that this is one of those sections that people can often feel like is tedious and they're like, oh goodness, another land, another tribe. What do we get from this section and how can we make the most of reading chapters 13 through 21.

Yes, you really hit it right on the button there, Bodie, is that this second half of the book of Joshua is a little harder to go through because you're getting a lot of the lists of the names of the tribes and where they're dispersed across the land. They all go in different directions and some of the tribes get more land than others.

But here's what I would say. If you really wanna get the most out of Joshua, Spend a lot of your time on the first half, the first 12 chapters, reading it, prayerfully and carefully read it, looking for the spiritual connections and application for the Christian life. The second half of the book, you don't have to read as slowly and carefully because you can kind of survey it a bit more.

What we discover in the second half is the big picture of application is that God gives different degrees of stewardship to the tribes, just like he gives different degrees of stewardship to us, kinda like the parable of the talents to one, he gives one talent to another, he gives, three talents, another five talents and so forth.

Well, we have to steward what God entrusts to us, and that's what you really see in the second half of the book. It's a stewardship section. The tribes are getting their distribution of land. It's divided up for them, and they're gonna take possession of what. Has given. And so you don't have to spend a long time to learn that application lesson, but if you want the details, I love the fact that the Bible's an historical book, Bodie.

It gives us the fine tuned details if you'd like to know which tribes got the most land and where they were situated, and of course later on in the Bible, these things become important because we see why certain tribes were where and how that plays itself out in the raising up of kings and future battles and so forth.

Yes, yeah, you gotta remember, this land is where most of the entire Bible takes place up until the book of Acts, when the expansion of the church goes out. So, the land, the name, it changes through the generations. So we want you to at least have a sense of the major turning points.

And this is a big one. Now that they've possessed the land, they divide it up. And if you are watching on YouTube, See the map of how it was divided up, but if you're not, here's the basics. The Jordan River goes north to south. There's an east side where they went before they conquered, and then there was the west side, which was the land of Canaan, they actually plotted lands on both sides, so they kind of went back.

Three tribes, Ruben, Gad, and half of Manasseh are tribes that were actually on the previous side, the Eastern side of the Jordan River. All the other ones are on the western side. But what's important now is what Joey said. There is a stewardship of this land. Now God promised and now God has delivered and now we're gonna enter into a new season where they are now independently gonna steward their inheritance.

And I love that idea that inheritance isn't something you just get and you're done. It's something that you can grow. It's something that you nurture and it's something that can be taken from you as we're gonna see down the road what happens to this land. So I think you, you said it well. Any other final thoughts on this section and the dividing of the land before we wrap up the book and we talk about the fourth section, the epilogue.

Yeah. Before we get to the epilogue, there is a couple points of application that I want to. That is actually important to consider. You've already mentioned about the tribe's Reuben. Gad, and the Half Tribe of Manasseh. They kind of continue a cycle, Bodie, have you noticed that when Abraham and Lot and their herdsman went their separate ways, sometimes people look with their eyes and they make conclusions for their life based on what they see.

Lot went to Sodom and Gomorrah thinking this is a beautiful place to be, but he didn't know the spiritual condition of that land. And here you have Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh saying, we're not wanting to go into the land of Canaan. We're, we're happy seeing what we see here. Let's just dwell here on the east side of the Jordan, and I find it so sad that there are so many Christian people today out there who are not willing to trust God and really lay hold of what he really has for you because you've settled for something.

less. And so I think that's an important application that sometimes we do settle, and you know what? You already brought it out, Bodie, that causes conflicts within. The rest of the body of Christ, so to speak, or the rest of the children of Israel in this case are saying, hey, we're not united. And , they were dealing with the lack of unity because of these differences in preferences.

And, even though they tried to set up an altar to show their loyalty to the covenant, It really caused a great squirmish like, Hey, we don't want to have two altars. Why can't we just have one altar and all be together?

And I think, you know, we have to deal with the fact that the Christian Church today, although united in Christ and endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, we still see sometimes preferences and traditions and man-made ways taking precedent over the things of God. I think that's important to mention and I'll say one more thing.

I think that in this third section here where they're possessing the land, one of the battles that we see happening when the King of Jerusalem, interestingly enough, Adoni-Zadek, is there and he had taken AI and utterly destroyed it. And, he hears about at least how this happened with the children of Israel.

We hear this story about the sun standing still one of those great miracles again, and although this is something that a lot of people have tried to give some commentary about, like what exactly happened, the idea of a sun standing still, doesn't the sun always stand still? I mean, we've learned that now and so forth, but what's actually happening is that God who's in control of all things and in control of time, he allowed enough light to endure for that day, for the battle to be won.

And I think sometimes we have to realize in the Christian life, God, he's the one who has the final say on. He has the final word. The entrance of his word gives light, and sometimes God wants us trusting and lingering a little longer with his word, and more light needs to be given for us before we can have the full victory in something.

And so we really see a miracle of God here, and it's another point of application. I love how in Joshua 10, verse eight, it says, in the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them for I have delivered them into your hand. Not a man of them shall stand before you. God wants us resting on the power of his words, not on the potency of our feelings.

Our emotions will lead us in wrong directions, but God's word will anchor us and lead us into victory. We need more of the lamp of God's word to light our paths. That's what we need

That's

So good. I love it. Yep. And it ends too. It's interesting that the tribe of Levi does not get a plot of land, do they? And the reason why is because they have been assigned to basically facilitate the presence of God throughout the entire land. And we see that this of course becomes the Levites who work in the temple offering incense as we see down through Scripture.

But, we're ending now where the land has been conquered, it's been divided, and now, we're starting to wrap up the book, so our final section,

if just a review, so if you're reading Joshua, chapters one through five is entering the land. Chapters five through 12 is conquering the land.

Chapters 13 through 21 is possessing the land, and now we're, our final section is chapters 22. Through 24, which we call an epilogue. And basically here's where it's just a covenant is renewed and Joshua dies in this section. So what are some things, Joey, as we kind of wrap up our episode here, why does this, is this included in scripture?

What can we gain from it? And where does it set us up to go? Cause again, you said this was a standstill book. A lot of new stuff's gonna start, in the book of Judges because they now are in the land and they have divided and possess it. But why do we care about the, the covenant renewal? Feels like we're kind of hearing some of the same stuff, but I think there's some beauty in these final chapters, isn't there?

Absolutely. Well, you know, when all the land was distributed to the different tribes, Isn't it interesting that Joshua waits to the very end before he gets possession of his allotment? I think it's a beautiful picture of how a spiritual leader is looking out for the whole flock, so to speak,

Mm, that's good.

accounted for.

And, and Joshua's one of the last ones to, take claim of the land and he's the one who gives a final address to God's people as the spiritual leader and his farewell address really challenges God's people to make sure that they stay loyal to God's covenant. I believe that one of the beautiful sayings, and of course we're all familiar with Joshua 24 verse 15, right? Where we have this beautiful passage where Joshua is basically commanding the people to choose who you're gonna serve in your life.

You can't serve two masters. Jesus says that in the Sermon on the Mount, and he's kind of commanding the people in a similar spirit. You have to choose now that you're in the land, you can't go and worship the gods of this land. You have to choose to stay loyal to God, he's kind of, in a sense, warning God's people, but he's even dialoguing with them almost to say, I don't think you're gonna do it, are you? You, you're gonna turn away from God, aren't you?

And they're like, no, no, no, we're not. He's like, well, you better be sure about it. And he's kind of going back and forth with them. And then he finally says, look, He says these words, if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods, which your fathers serve, that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That is a famous verse that many people have used in our lessons to families, those who are going to have children. We have to have a home. That is saying Jesus is the head of our home. The Lord is the head of our hearts and, and in every home, we need to make sure that we make a commitment, a covenant commitment, that we are gonna be servants of the Lord.

And so Joshua brings everything to that beautiful crescendo and all the people are like, we will serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. He says, And this rock of witness is gonna be, you know, it has heard your words think about this, Bodie. It's like the book of Joshua ends with this idea that the stone, which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone.

Joshua is our Jesus. And he's saying the rock has heard, and this is the final word on the matter. We all have to be committed to serving the Lord together. And so it kind of wraps up the book beautifully as a picture of when we're possessing our possession and we're overcoming our enemies, our loyalty has to be to God and to God alone.

And that's how this book ends. And then of course, Joshua dies. He's not the true Jesus. So he doesn't raise, he doesn't get raised back up from the dead, but he dies, and then we discover that the bones of Joseph are brought in because everything is finding its fulfillment in Israel. The bones are being taken there. The people have entered there, the promises are there, and for us, as the Christian, our promise is again, not in the promised land, but in the promised man, who is king Jesus, the prince of peace, the one in whom everything is pointing toward, everything is for Jesus.

Yeah. What's interesting too, if you want interesting parallel, read Moses's address in, Deuteronomy chapter seven, which was near the beginning of Deuteronomy, and then read Joshua's final address, in Joshua chapter 23, because what you get is the same exhortation from different sides of the Jordan River essentially.

And one is going into the conquest, one is after the conquest. They both speak to the same goal, which is our same goal for you to stay loyal to the Lord because that is the best life possible, is the life that is in Christ now. So, it's a beautiful book, Joey, but we're coming up on the end of our episode.

So again, as you read the book of Joshua, the first five chapters entering the land five through 12, conquering the land 13 through 21, possessing the land, and in the end, we want to renew our covenant with God every single day, don't we, Joey? The way that they renewed their covenant there. So our final question of our framework, now that we've talked about the structure, things it teaches about God and about us.

Do you have any final thoughts, any things that you just love about this book? And then tell us kind of where we're gonna be going next in the story and then and the podcast.

Well, as I've already mentioned, I mean, I love the book of Joshua. I see a great picture of Jesus. In the story about how only the Lord can lead us to victory, only the Lord can give us a life that is flowing, not just with milk and honey in the lands, but as Jesus would say, out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

I see the picture of victory and overcoming in this book of Joshua that I believe is helpful for me in my spiritual life. I see so many parallels. I love how the Lord shows up in the beginning of the book, in chapter five, as a commander of an army with a sword raised, kind of like, you know, we have a victor in Jesus and we're more than conquerors in him.

And I also love, we didn't get into it toward the end that God even puts six cities of refuge to just show how gracious he is that when there's people who have been, committing a crime that they didn't really mean to commit, or maybe they just have lost their way or they accidentally or intentionally did something, God allows six cities of refuge.

And I just think, how many times do we know that the Lord is our refuge? We need to run to Jesus. We need to run to our Lord. And I just wanna leave with one last final reading of a, of a passage, which is found in Joshua 21, where you just see God keeps his promises, all the promises of God are yes and amen in him.

And so in Joshua 20, Verses 43, it's a 45. It says this. So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around it. And it says, according to all that he had sworn to their fathers and not a man of all their enemies stood against them.

The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand and listened to this, not a word failed of any good thing, which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel all came to pass. That is a God who keeps his covenant. That is a God who you can put all your confidence in because he's a promise keeping God.

He's our promised rest and refuge, and he restores our soul. Let us look to our Joshua, our Jesus, and find our lives complete in him. Amen.

Amen. It's beautiful. I think what I love is the fact that even though God knows what's gonna happen in the book of Judges, and the darkness that them now inheriting the land, while certain Canaanite influences still remain, cuz just because they possess the land doesn't mean that they successfully wiped it clean, even though he knows that they're gonna fail, he delights in giving them beautiful things because of their loyalty in that moment.

And I think so often in our Christian life, we feel like one moment disqualifies us completely or one victory means that we don't need to continue to be obedient tomorrow. I love this book cuz God meets us where we're at. It's one of my very favorite things about this book.

And because Christ is our true and great victor over the final battle we know that He is leading us each and every day in our own lives, and so we hope that this has been helpful for you.

Joshua explained a seven part framework to equip and inspire your Bible study. Okay, Joey, one more thing before we talk about where we're going next.

We use some visuals today that if you would like to download, I offer a free PDF that I call the Complete Bible Timeline, and it's a complete walkthrough of the story of scripture, it's available at YouCanLearntheBible.com/timeline if you would like to download that for free. But we are now going to a new book, a different book, some new stuff's gonna happen here. Where are we going in our next episode?

Our next episode's gonna be in the book of Judges, and this is a book that really shows how easy it is for us to go through a cycle in our life where we are doing well one day and we're not doing so well the next. It's kind of like a book of a cycle of faith and trust in God and then unbelief and us falling apart and then God has to raise up a deliverer for us, this is kind of like a wandering wilderness after the fact again

Mm.

because the spiritual cycle continues until we put all of our trust and rest in Jesus, and that that's what we're gonna see in Judges is that we're gonna see a lot more cycles of sin, obedience, and then disobedience, and then God's faithfulness.

Yep. Yep. Which we introduced in our early episodes when we talked about the full story of the Bible. So if you want to get a review on that before we get into to our full episode on the Book of Judges, you can go back and listen to some of those earlier episodes. But friends, we are blessed to be here.

Thank you for joining us during this time. We are so excited to help you get equipped because again, we believe that you can learn the Bible. So until we meet again, stay in the word and let us continue to pursue Christ with all that we do with every day that he gives us. Until then, we'll see you next time. Grace in peace. God bless you.

Amen.

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