God's Plan -- Entering the Promised Land

The Book of Joshua, or "Yehoshua", while literal history, also symbolizes the Christian’s rescue from bondage; to wandering in the spiritual wilderness, to occupying (or pressing into) the promised land of rest and blessings of this earthly life.  

Additionally, it is the story of a man’s life -- the literal namesake of Jesus -- a servant of God who faithfully fulfilled his calling. It is also a book about warfare, where the Israelite’s physical battles parallel our spiritual warfare.  Joshua met face to face with the Lord of Hosts, Commander of heaven's army and was commissioned to "take the fight" into the enemy's camp…

Ephesians 6:12 ”...against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”.

Parallels to Ephesians

Commentators have made these comparisons between the letter to the Ephesians and the book of Joshua:

Joshua vs Ephesians  

Joshua	Ephesians
Enter Israel and possess the land	Enter the world to gain possession of souls
Earthly inheritance promised to the Hebrews	Heavenly inheritance promised to believers
Given to Abraham, to be possessed later	Given by Christ, for us to possess later
Predestined for a chosen people	Predestined for a chosen people
Opened by a divinely appointed leader	Opened by a divine leader
Gift of grace, not deserved by it’s recipients	Gift of grace, received by faith
A scene of earthly conflict	A scene of earthly and spiritual conflict

Joshua models for us what Victorious Christian Living is. God does not just deliver us from the bondage of sin (Egypt) into an empty wilderness, but to His rest, where we are to live.

“The central act of redemption in the New Testament is the work of Jesus on the cross. The central act of redemption in the Old Testament is the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.”[1]

Preparing for Spiritual Warfare

Canaan does not represent ‘eternal rest’ as in life after death, but rather life after “re-birth”.  The land the Israelites received was a gift.  However, to enjoy the blessings of the gift, the land had to be possessed (Joshua 1:3).

Hebrews 4:8-11,16:  For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience (of the Israelites)….Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Likewise, for Christians to inherit the “land” (the blessings of Christ) requires us to believe, and act on that belief. Those who are content to live in Egypt (the world) will not want to exert the effort to take possession of this inheritance, especially if it involves conflict! And conflict is what we are called to prepare for and expect!

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 ...since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments  and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.  And we are ready to punish any disobedience, once your obedience has been confirmed.

As we go “into battle”, consider how to be armed. We are exhorted to…

Ephesians 6:13 “take up the whole armor of God, that (we) may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand”

Those who persevere in this conflict are promised the victory!

1 John 5:4,5 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We are promised rest after the battle, once we have inherited the ‘Promised Land’

Ephesians 1:11,12 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

While Christians are rescued from the snare of sin (bondage of Egypt), some of us choose to go back, and some of us wander in the spiritual desert, never taking hold of what God has provided for us, just as the generation of Hebrews fell in the desert due to their unbelief and disobedience. There are no “non-combatants”, only victors and prisoners of war.

The Rescue of Rahab

What appears to us to be a simple matter of gathering military intelligence is actually God mysteriously to fulfill His purposes -- two men sent as messengers to Jericho…

Joshua 2:8-11 Before the men fell asleep, she went up on the roof  and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you.  For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan.  When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.

• How many Amorites knew about the Israelites and their “god”.
• How many Amorites who rejected God avoided destruction?
• How many Amorites who called upon the Lord were spared?
• Where was the most dangerous place to be in Jericho?
• Where was the safest place in Jericho?
• What did Rahab do to “earn” her salvation?

God is able to make sure that all who hear the Shepherd’s voice and answer are saved.  The messengers were sent to her, and her declaration of faith showed God was already at work before they arrived.

Rahab also knew she and her people were under condemnation and did not question the justice of this. Whenever God punishes the wicked, He acts in righteousness – but it is when we are spared destruction that God shows mercy – and Rahab is an example of grace to us.

• Justice is when you get what you deserve
• Mercy is when you do not get what you do deserve
• Grace is when you get what you do not deserve

Crossing the Jordan

The ‘Promised Land’ was just over a river, an impassable river… They crossed at Beth Bara, which means “House of Passage”.

Joshua 3: 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

Compare and contrast the crossing of the Red Sea with the crossing of the Jordan

Red Sea	Jordan
Moses led the people	The Aaronic Priesthood led the people
The people walked out on open ground	The priests had to step into the water before it would part
The people were pagans	The people had the Law
They were going into the wilderness	They were going into the Promised Land
They were escaping an army and destruction	They were launching a military offensive
They were receiving manna from God	They were leaving manna from God
They had just celebrated Passover	They crossed over before Passover (Joshua 5:10)

Symbolism of the 24 Stones

Joshua 4:8-9 The Israelites did just as Joshua had commanded them. The men took stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each[a] of the Israelite tribes, just as the Lord had told Joshua.  They carried them to the camp and set them down there.  Joshua also set up 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing. The stones are there to this day.

The 24 stones represent the two kinds of people in the world – those who remain buried in the river, dead to sin, and those lifted out and set up on dry land – free of the bonds of sin.  What did the 12 stones “do” for themselves to get out of the river?  Notice another parallel:

1 Peter 2:4-5 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The Commander of the LORD’s Army

Joshua has an encounter with his namesake, and feels eerily similar to Moses' encounter with the burning bush:

Joshua 5:13-15 When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?”  

“Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.” Then Joshua bowed with his face to the ground in worship and asked Him, 

“What does my Lord want to say to His servant?” The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, 

“Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Jesus Christ is a warrior.  This escapes many people.  

Note from verse 2 of Joshua 6 that God “has given” the victory; we fight from victory, in fact we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37-39).  The Amorites put their faith in the city walls.  Joshua would have to build a mound – taking months of effort even with 600,000 fighting men to scale those walls.  But God had showed Joshua that they would be delivered into the Israelite’s hands in seven days, by doing it God’s way.

For six days, the army “marched around” Jericho, as a sign of the Amorite’s judgement.  In those six days, anyone in Jericho could have asked Rahab how to be saved.  The Amorites saw the ark of the covenant march around the city – they saw their impending destruction and knew about the God of Israel (Joshua 2:17-19).  What if the king of Jericho had responded as the king of Nineveh did?  What if he had approached Joshua and asked for “their god’s” mercy?  The Gibeonites do precisely that in chapter 9.

The emphasis of the battle plan had nothing to do with effective military strategy, but to give God the glory. The silence suggested the presence of the LORD.

Habakkuk 2:20 “But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

The shouts and trumpet suggest the victory of the LORD (see Psalm 47).  All the possessions were to be devoted to God.  Not only were they His by rights as “first fruits”, but also because he had “given” Jericho to the Israelites. He did the work!

The Power of Prayer 

Contrast the failure to pray before the battle of Ai, or before making a covenant with the Gibeonites with the prayer Joshua prays to defeat the five Ammonite kings at Beth Horan.  God uses this situation to draw out His enemies in the open field of battle and defends the covenant made with the Gibeonites.

Joshua learned that when you aligned with God’s will, ALL things are possible.

Joshua 10:12-14 Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”  So the sun stood still, And the moon stopped, Till the people had revenge Upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher?  So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the LORD heeded the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.

The Bible does not allow this to be allegorized – it is a miracle and must be accepted as such.  There are some fascinating conjectures how this was accomplished, but note that the stones killed only the Amorites, and “no day like it before or since” has occurred.  Naturalistic explanations don’t make sense if “Jehovah listened” to a man’s prayer…

Notice the symbolism here: Joshua comes to dispossess the iniquity of the land, and a king proclaiming to be Adoni-Zedek (king of righteousness) comes to war against him, and signs and wonders in the heavens defeat the worldly elements, and their leaders hide in caves.

Revelation 6:14-17 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

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[1] © 2001 David Guzik – Joshua Commentary http://www.enduringword.com/guzik.html

Scripture citations are from:  Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) © 2009 Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville TN or New King James Version®. (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson