1. Friday Night Genesis - Friday, June 1 2012 - Joshua
Intro to the book
This month we are examining the book of Joshua. It is a rather exciting book, because
here, finally, after centuries of slavery and 40 years of wandering through the wilderness,
Israel is now entering and taking possession of the land that God promised to their
forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So we get to see God as someone who keeps
His promises over the long haul. However, in giving the land to the Israelites, God also
seems to be engaging in some wholesale ethnic cleansing, which also raises some
serious questions about His character. I am sure we will have the opportunity to examine
this subject in more detail as we go through the Bible.
At the end of Deuteronomy Moses died, and so now Joshua becomes the new leader of
Israel, and this book covers the period of his leadership of the nation. In the beginning of
the book we find Joshua coming to terms with the daunting task of leading this entire
nation into the long awaited promised land. God comes and encourages him to be
strong and courageous. The people also come to encourage him to be strong and
courageous and offer this promise: “Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey
you.” (Joshua 1:17) Wouldn’t that make you feel so much better? Have you read the
previous 4 books of the Bible?! Joshua was there for the last 4 books of the Bible and
has seen just how fully they obeyed Moses! Can you just see him looking up and saying:
“buckle up God, it’s gonna be a rough ride”.
Historically we are somewhere around 1400BC, with the initial fighting taking some 5-6
years. (show map) At the end of Deuteronomy we left the action here on the east side of
the river Jordan, just north of the Dead Sea. In this book we cross to the west bank of
the river Jordan into the area that is today known as the West Bank (show map). By the
end of the book of Joshua the land is divided between the 12 tribes (show map). Not all
of this land had yet been conquered, but it was now up to the individual tribes to clear
out the portions of their allocated territory that had not been taken during the initial
campaign. At this point the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh were released
to return to their lands on the east side of the river Jordan.
Scripture reading: Joshua 2:1-13
I find the story of Rahab and the spies absolutely fascinating, not least because the
prostitute Rahab will eventually wind up listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.
It is in this story that we begin to see the dynamics of things outside of Israel, and also
begin to understand just what it was that God was trying to do through His patronage of
the nation of Israel. You may remember way back in Genesis 12 that God promised
Abraham that he will become a great nation and all the peoples of the earth will be
blessed through him. This specific promise was then repeated to Isaac and Jacob, and
here we start to understand just how God had already been doing it for centuries.
The first thing that helps us understand how God was reaching the nations is to
understand the mindset within which the ancient world operated. The nations of the
ancient world each had their god or more likely a number of gods that they worshipped.
The prevailing wisdom of that time was that the state a nation found itself in was directly
proportional to the power of their gods. So if a nation was prosperous and successful on
the battlefield their gods must be powerful. If a nation was poor and got conquered by
another nation it meant that their gods were pretty useless. Convinced of the power of a
certain god, people may begin to worship that god, not necessarily leaving their previous

2. gods, but simply adding this new one to the collection as a sort of fire insurance, kind of
covering all the bases type of thing. Understanding this mindset also helps us
understand why God had so much trouble with the Israelites running after other gods
and having to spend a good deal of time impressing upon them that He was indeed the
ONLY God.
Right off the bat God was impressing those who came in contact with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob that their God was something extraordinary. Through Joseph and his
interpretation of the dreams and subsequent governing of Egypt, the God of Joseph
became well known and respected at the Pharaoh’s court. However in Exodus 1 we read
that there came a time when a Pharaoh who knew nothing of Joseph and his God took
power and enslaved the Israelites. And this brings us to the time of Moses. As the
plagues rip into Egypt God specifically tells Moses “I will bring judgment on all the gods
of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12) And through the plagues Egypt is once again reacquainted
with the God of Israel. When Moses and Aaron first go to the Pharaoh his response is
very blunt: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the
Lord and I will not let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2). However, by plague eight Pharaoh would
become well acquainted with God and say “The Lord is in the right, and I and my people
are in the wrong." (Exodus 9:27). Of course, we know that it took a few more plagues for
him to relent and let the people go, only to then change his mind once again. He
gathered his army and pursued the Israelites. As the Israelites were pegged in by the
Egyptian army from one side and the Red Sea from the other they started to panic. But
listen carefully to what God says: “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out
to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the
sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will
harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory
through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians
will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his
horsemen.” (Exodus 14:15-18).
And so here we are at Jericho 40 years later reading the words of Rahab to the two
spies and we finally come full circle. Here we get to see what a tremendous effect the
events in Egypt and at the Red Sea had on the nations in that entire region. The
Israelites may have needed constant reminders of God’s power, but Rahab’s memory
and reasoning were razor sharp: “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a
great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear
because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you
when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the
Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our
hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your
God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (Joshua 2:9-11) The people of
Jericho heard about the events in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and it was this that led
Rahab to conclude that the Lord is God in heaven and earth.
It is here that the penny drops - Israel was not chosen to be God’s little pet on this earth.
Israel was going to be the vehicle through which God was going to make Himself known
to all the peoples on the earth. In an environment where the credibility of a god was
dependent on the strength of the nation that worshipped the said god, God called out
Abraham and made him into a nation through which God could establish His own
credibility among ALL the peoples of the earth. And with Rahab we see how this is
starting to bear fruit.

3. This is also how the Apostle Paul understood the role of Israel: “Understand, then, that
those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify
the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will
be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the
man of faith.” (Galatians 3:7-9).
There have been some other clues along the way too. When Moses sent out the 12
spies all those years ago to check out the promised land, and these guys came back
saying there is no way we can take this land, God told Moses to stand aside so He could
wipe out the entire nation and then make Moses into an even greater nation. “Moses
said to the Lord, “Then the Egyptians will hear about it! By your power you brought these
people up from among them. And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it. They
have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you, Lord, have been
seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a
pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you put all these people to death,
leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, ‘The Lord
was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he
slaughtered them in the wilderness.’” (Numbers 14:13-16). You may also remember the
king of Moab, Balak, being so concerned about the Israelites that he hired Balaam to
curse them. Through his interaction with Balaam however, he discovered that the Lord
had blessed that nation. Or how about this statement of Moses about the laws that God
gave the Israelites, which we mentioned last month: “Observe them carefully, for this will
show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these
decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” What
other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is
near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deuteronomy 4:6,7).
Back in the 1400’s BC they may not have had CNN or the internet, but that did not mean
that what happened in Egypt stayed in Egypt. The news spread among the nations, and
so as the Israelites made their way towards the promised land, people that they
encountered were well aware of their history and the power of their God. And God was
counting on this in order to reach the nations of the world.
I often hear people say that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of
New Testament. I do not think this is the case. In a world that understood and respected
only power, gentle Jesus meek and mild would have been completely ineffective in
reaching the masses. But the God who sent His only Son so that whoever believes
should not perish but have life everlasting is the same God that I see actively working,
using the nation of Israel trying to reach and bless ALL people, even in the gruesome
world of 15th century BC. The God who reached the prostitute Rahab by the reports of
His power, is the same God who will one day reach another prostitute thrown at the feet
of Jesus by His kindness. As we saw last month, knowing God and following God’s laws
has intrinsic blessings, and God wanted to share those blessings with all the peoples of
the earth throughout history. Israel had the privilege of being the vehicle which enabled
God to do so. At the time of Moses and Joshua this involved swords and bloodshed. But
a time came to put down the sword. In 10th century BC Israel had a king by the name of
Solomon. God had given him peace on all sides, and the Bible reported the following:
“God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as
measureless as the sand on the seashore. From all nations people came to listen to
Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.” (1.

4. Kings 4:29, 34).
God has always been looking to reach all mankind, regardless of whether mankind was
in the mood to fight or to seek wisdom, and God’s special relationship with Israel over
the centuries was an integral part of that effort to reach us all - both Jew and Gentile.
Because God “wants ALL people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth”
(1. Timothy 2:4).