Bible in 365 Days

Joshua 1-4

Joshua 1

In the Hebrew division of the Scriptures after the Torah or Law came the Prophets, divided into the Earlier Prophets and the Later Prophets. In this section the first Book is the Book of Joshua. Its content is a continuation of the history of the chosen people. The first division (Joshua 1-12) tells the story of the conquest of the land.

The link of connection between this Book and the preceding ones is arrestingly shown in the use of the word "therefore," in the charge to Joshua; "Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise." The work of the great leader was completed, but the work of God moves forward. For this Joshua was divinely commissioned. His right of entrance was that God had given the land to His people. His power of entrance was to be that of the divine presence and the consequent inability of any man to stand against him. The conditions of his success were to be that he must be strong and courageous by obedience to the law of God.

Immediately following the account of this commission of Joshua we have his call to the people. It was characterized by urgency and dispatch; "within three days" the hosts were to move forward toward all the conflict and difficulty which had long ago frightened their fathers and turned them back into the wilderness. The call was uttered first to the whole nation and then especially to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who had already found their settlement on the wilderness side of the Jordan.

It is interesting to notice here the terms of the response of the people to the call of the new leader. They said "Only Jehovah thy God be with thee, as He was with Moses". (Joshua 1:17); "only be strong and of a good courage" ( Joshua 1:18). The people thus made the same demand on Joshua as Jehovah Himself had already made.

Joshua 2

Forty years before this time the spies had been sent out and had brought back to Moses their reports of the land. Of these, Joshua had been one of the two who had brought back a report revealing their recognition of the power of God.

Now Joshua himself once more sent out spies. The whole story, however, reveals the principle of his sending was very different from that underlying the sending of the spies in the time of Moses. As we saw in considering the Book of Numbers, the occasion then was almost certainly one savoring of unbelief. Here it was the action of faith.

Faith, however, is never foolhardiness. It acts with caution. Joshua's vision of God was no dimmer and his courage was evidenced by his attention to all the details of the coming conflict. Whatever the report of the spies might be, he would go forward, but it was important for him as a military leader to know the condition of affairs.

The men thus sent found all they wanted to know from conversation with Rahab. A comparison of what she said to them with the report which they brought to Joshua (verses Joshua 2:9-24) will show that their report was in exact accord with what she told them.

Thus these spies returning to Joshua made it evident that the promise of God that no man should be able to stand before him was being fulfilled; for, according to Rahab, "the fear of you is fallen upon us."

Rahab's action was that of faith (Hebrews 11:31), which was manifested in that she acted on the conviction that had come to her in common with the rest of the people in Jericho concerning this invading army. The men of Jericho shared that conviction but rebelled against it. Rahab recognized the activity of God and yielded to it.

That is faith.

Joshua 3

The first movement in the actual advance of the people into the land was of such a nature as to impress them with e truth of their positive relation to God. There was nothing in this first advance calculated to give them any cause for personal glorying. They came on to the actual soil of Canaan not by deflecting the course of the intervening river nor by bridging it, but by direct divine intervention. Divine power arrested the rushing river and made a highway for them to the other side.

The method of the divine procedure was intended to magnify Joshua in the sight of Israel by demonstrating to them that God was indeed with him as He had been with Moses.

While the act was wholly God's, was performed on the fulfillment of certain conditions by the people. Charged so to do by Joshua, they sanctified themselves and thus made possible the action of God. Moreover, they moved in obedience to His command, setting themselves in array, with the priests leading before the parting of the waters.

The crossing of the Jordan was connected with the center of their life, the divine Presence, which was made evident by the pause of the priests and the Ark in the midst of the river bed while the hosts marched past them into possession.

Joshua 4

The commands of God required haste in obedience. Haste, however, never means neglect of religious observance. The very fact of their need for the divine guidance made it of supreme importance that the people should take time for worship and the recognition of their relationship with God. Safely over Jordan, with the conflict waiting, the hosts must pause while stones were gathered out of the river bed and erected in a memorial pile on the land to which they now had come.

We shall miss a very great deal of the beauty of this picture if we fail to notice the true reason of this pause and the erection of this pillar. That reason is revealed in verses six and twenty-one. "That this may be a sign among you, that, when your children ask in time to come, . . ." "When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come. . . ." It will be remembered that the same principle held in connection with the establishment of the Passover feast. The ultimate purpose of God lies far out of sight. Ere it is reached, new generations will spring up. Therefore none of the lessons of the present must be lost. They must be perpetuated in memory throughout the coming days. In order that this may be so, Jehovah deliberately arranged for such things as would appeal to the natural curiosity of a child. What more natural than that in days to come children playing or walking near this heap of stones should ask their fathers what it meant. It was for this that the divine arrangement made provision and the people were commanded that when the children asked their questions, they were to be answered. So the story of divine deliverance was retold by fathers to children through all successive generations.