Lord God, we wish to see Jesus.
By your Spirit’s power, give us eyes to see his glory.
Through Christ we pray. Amen.
—based on John 12:21
John Walton, the teacher in the videos we watch on Sunday morning, says that Joshua is the story of God’s faithfulness and Judges is the story of the people’s unfaithfulness. That is a great way to think of the transition. The name “Joshua” means “the Lord saves,” and “Jesus” is the Greek form of “Joshua.” Even in the people’s unfaithfulness we will see that God never abandons them.
Joshua 22 – The Eastern tribes return home. This is a very encouraging scene. The nation of Israel as a whole takes its relationship with the LORD very seriously.
22:34 (KJV) – I mention this verse because the wording in the King James Version makes me smile: “And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God.” An altar named Ed – I like that. (Ed is the Hebrew word for Witness.)
23:3 – “You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you.” The entire chapter 23 is the elderly Joshua’s testimony of God’s power. It was only God’s hand that brought Israel into the promised land.
Joshua 24 – It has been said that this chapter is the foundation for worship. God uses the pronoun “I” 18 times in 10 verses (in the NIV) to tell what he has done. Read through verses 2-13 and see which actions are God’s. God has the first word in worship, and we respond.
24:31 – “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.” This is the summary statement for how the Israelites responded to God’s actions during this conquest period. It is a sharp contrast to what is about to happen throughout the book of Judges.
Judges is another book that speeds through history to tell a big story. Genesis covered many centuries very quickly. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy combined cover a period of about 40 years. The main action of Joshua is maybe a decade. Judges now covers several centuries.
Joshua 1:1-2:6 tell the story of a transition where Israel no longer experienced complete success. Since complete success is the story of complete reliance on God in the book of Joshua, this is now the story of straying from reliance on God. 2:6-9 is a flashback that shows the stark contrast between the obedience of the generation that entered the land with Joshua with the disobedience of the successive generations. 2:10-19 is the summary of every story that will happen in this whole book. 2:20-23 is the theological overview from God’s point of view. The people became covenant breakers. Although God is angry, he never abandons the people.
3:6 is the end of the introduction, and it succinctly spells out Israel’s response to living among people with other gods. Moses had said at the beginning of Deuteronomy 7, “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” Israel is going down exactly the wrong path, but this is not the end of the story.
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