Taking the Promised Land

Questions for Thought

1. In Joshua 1:3, God told Joshua he had given the Israelites all of the land they would walk upon. But in Joshua 6, God told Joshua there was something they would have to do in order to have Jericho. So, did God give them the land or not?
2. How can we apply the above principle to salvation?

Beginning in the book of Joshua, the Israelites have wandered in the wilderness for 40 years as God said they would do. Moses has died and now Joshua has taken over and is going to lead the people to the Promised Land. In Joshua 1:3, God said, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.”

Just as Moses 40 years earlier had sent out spies to look over the land, Joshua also sent out spies to look at the first settlement they were to take. He sent two spies to Jericho to see what the circumstances were. The two spies stopped at an harlot’s house named Rahab. The king heard they were at her house and he sent for them. Rahab hid them and lied to the men who came from the king. She told them the spies had left already and they needed to pursue them so they could overtake them. Then she went to the spies and told them she knew the Lord had given them the land. She told them how afraid the people of Jericho were. She had heard all about how the Israelites had come out of Egypt and what they and done to the kings they met on the way. She asked the men to promise her to save her household when they came back to destroy Jericho. The men agreed and she let them down off the roof over the wall of the city with a scarlet rope. The men told her to put the scarlet line in the window of her house and she and her family would be saved as long as they remained in the house.

When the men returned to Joshua, they told him how scared Jericho was. They said the Lord had delivered Jericho into the hands of Israel. Joshua and the people then proceeded to cross the Jordan on dry land just as their fathers had crossed the Red Sea on dry land. God told Joshua to send the priests with the ark of the covenant ahead. They were to stand still in the Jordan until all the people passed by on dry land. Once the people were across the Jordan, God had Joshua pick 12 men, a man from each tribe to carry a rock from the middle of the Jordan and leave them in the place where they would spend the night which was Gilgal. Then in later years when the children asked what the stones represented, the fathers were to tell them it was here God dried up the Jordan until they had crossed it. In addition, Joshua had 12 stones placed in the middle of the river where the priests had stood. Once the priests came out of the water, the Jordan returned into its place and its banks overflowed just like they usually did.

Many in this new generation of Israel either had not seen such a miracle before or may have been too young to remember the crossing of the Red Sea. Can you just imagine how they must have felt in walking through the Jordan on dry land? Would such a miracle not cause them to have an unshakable faith in the God of their fathers? One would think so, but we will see such is not necessarily the case with us humans. We seem to quickly forget the power of of our God.

This younger generation that was born during the 40 years of traveling had not been circumcised as God had commanded so in Joshua 5 we have the circumcision of these males. In addition, now that they were in the land of plenty, the children of Israel kept the Passover and the manna about which they had complained previously, ceased. Instead, they ate of the fruits and produce of the land.

In Joshua 6:2, God told Joshua He had given into his hand Jericho and its king and inhabitants. But immediately in verses 3-5, we read where God told Joshua what the Israelites had to do in order to take the land. Now that may sound like a contradiction. If I give you something, do you have to do anything in order to possess it? Think about that for a while. If I give you $100 and tell you it is yours, when is it yours? Is it your possession when I say, “Here, have a $100” or is it yours when you reach out and take it in your hand?

According to Joshua 6:3-5, the children of Israel were to go around the city of Jericho once a day for six days and then on the seventh day, they were to go around the city seven times. On that seventh day, the priests were to make a long blast with the ram’s horn and then the people were to shout with a great shout and the wall of the city would fall down. Then the people were to enter the city and take it. They did just as God commanded them and on that seventh day, they took the city. Then and only then would we say they had possession of the city given to them by God. This is such an important point when it comes to our salvation which has been freely given to us by God through Christ. It is freely given to all men, even to the worst sinner. But, we do not possess it until we take it. How do we take it? By obeying God’s commands which we will look at when we get into the New Testament.

When the people took Jericho, they were to save Rahab the harlot and those in her house as promised by the spies. The rest of the city was to be burned with the exception of the silver, gold, brass, and iron which were to go into the treasury of the Lord’s house. One of the Israelites, Achan, did not obey the command of the Lord. Instead, he took some clothes, silver, and gold and hid them. So in the next battle with Ai, the Israelites lost. Joshua was very upset, not knowing why they lost the battle. If God had given them Canaan but they were unable to take it, what was the problem? Joshua went to the Lord to find out what was wrong and God told him Israel had sinned in not obeying God. He told Joshua someone had taken some of the things that were supposed to have been given to the Lord’s house. God said He would no longer be with Israel unless they destroyed from among themselves the person who had sinned. Joshua gathered the people together and the Lord revealed it was Achan who had sinned. He and his family and all he possessed were destroyed and then the Lord again gave the Israelites victory over the land.

Back in Exodus 23:20-33, God had commanded Israel to destroy completely those people in the land He had given them. They were not allowed to make any covenants with them and they were not to allow these people to dwell in the land. It seems here in Joshua 9:24, the inhabitants knew of this command. In Joshua 9, we have an account where several of the inhabitants came together and presented themselves to Joshua. They pretended they had come from a far land and they asked Joshua to make a treaty with them to do them no harm. Joshua failed to ask God about the matter and instead he entered into a peace agreement with them. Once Joshua found out the men had lied to him, he made them become servants of Israel, but they were agreeable because it meant they would not be killed. Joshua should have been more cautious here and obeyed completely the will of God. How often do we forget to go to God’s word before engaging in some religious practice that looks fine to us but may be totally against what God wants?

Throughout the rest of the book of Joshua you can read of the conquests made by the Israelites. God gave them the land as promised, but remember, they had to work to get it. In Joshua 21:43 we can read that God gave unto Israel ALL the land He had promised to give them and they possessed it and lived in it. God had at that point fulfilled the promises to Abraham to make of him a great nation and to give him the land of Canaan. The only promise left of the three God made to Abraham was that in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed. We will see that promise fulfilled in the New Testament.

There is so much in this lesson for us today. One of the most important concepts we have to understand is when God gives us something, it does not mean we do not have to do anything in order to have it. Just like His giving the Israelites the land did not mean they had nothing to do. They had to obey God and when they chose not to obey, God had the right to take away their blessing. We too must obey God if we want our eternal blessings He has promised us.

At the end of Joshua in Joshua 24:31, we have another of the sad verses in the Bible. According to that verse, the children of Israel served God all the days of Joshua and all the days of the leaders who outlived Joshua. While that sounds wonderful, it is what Israel did after those leaders died that is so sad. We will begin to see some of those events in the next blog which will cover the period of the judges of Israel.