Sermon Tone Analysis

Joshua’s Part In the Story of God’s People

Joshua Is the One Character Without Major Flaws

Joshua Becomes the Leader of Israel

Joshua Is the Conquering General of Canaan

Joshua Is the Transition Between Moses and the Judges

In order to

Joshua Encounters God’s General

Joshua Leads Israel in Conquest

Of course, you know the story of what happened next, as the spies were sheltered by Rahab, the people of Israel marched around Jericho 7 times, the priests blew the ram’s horns and the people shouted and the walls fell down.

Then the city was destroyed.

With a few hitches in the conquest, the Israelites conquered city after city with God’s help.

Well, after the news of the defeat of Jericho and Ai, which included Bethel and some surrounding towns,

A group of 5 kings got together to fight against the Israelites.

The kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon formed an alliance and laid seige to Gibeon, because they had a treaty of peace with Israel.

Joshua Faces the Axis in the South

As soon as Joshua heard of it, he set out against them from Gilgal.

The Israelites pressed the battle, and

This wasn’t just about Joshua and the Israelites.

This was a battle in which the Lord God of Israel supported the armies of Israel, not just in power for the Israelite soldiers, because God always reserves some glory for himself, and in this case it’s because of what God did from the clouds against the allied kings:

This was not a battle that took place in a few minutes.

This was a hard-won and important battle, so much so that, in order to allow Joshua’s Israelite armies to prevail, . . .

The Sun Stood Still

in answer to Joshua’s prayer:

The Book of Jashar that is mentioned here is not part of the scriptures, but it was some kind of historical epic that outlined amazing things like this 40 hour day that God gave Joshua.

It is a lost book, mentioned only here.

There can be nothing more said about that day for us except what the scriptures say:

Interesting, isn’t it, that the prayer of Joshua is answered in a way that is so over-the-top that the Scripture says, “there has never been a day when Yahweh listened to a man”.

It puts Joshua in a kind of unique position, because as one of God’s unusual characters, Joshua has God’s ear because of Joshua’s own faith in reliance on God.

With Moses, he was unique because God talked face-to-face with Moses.

Joshua did not have that kind of interaction as far as entering in to the tent of meeting.

Instead, Joshua was a prayer warrior whose warrior needs were met in God’s abundant supply.

Joshua faced the kings, armies, and cities of the Southern cities and completely destroyed them.

And the record reads . . .

and in this first war to take the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

and although Joshua is the General of Israel’s armies, it was Yahweh, the God of Israel that was the Commander in Chief, surrounding and supporting Joshua’s adventures, and

Joshua and Israel did not immediately occupy the cities, for the land had not yet been apportioned to the various tribes of Israel.

It probably would have led to an early civil war if one tribe had to displace another in the walled cities of Canaan.

So after returning to the camp at Gilgal, the armies rested and regrouped for a bit.

Next was the conquest of another very large Axis army made up of the northern cities, and this was a big fighting force that covered the battlefield and was supported by cavalry and chariots.

God told Joshua not to be afraid of them and Joshua surprised them at Merom, and chased down the fleeing army because the Lord handed them over to Israel.

Then they took the cities where they had come from, and were allowed by God to plunder most of them and take the livestock.

The scripture records that. . .

And that’s why we read that . . .

Joshua Conquered All That He Met

In these first conquests, as the Canaanites were completely overwhelmed wherever Joshua went.

The list of victories is given in

With all these victories won by the Lord’s General, and contained in just a couple chapters of the Bible, it is easy to think of it as something that happened like a blitzkrieg, sudden and overwhelming.

It wasn’t quite that simple or quick.

There was a lot of land, a lot of opposition, and a lot of work to do.

And some of these victories meant the armies of Israel had to keep up the pressure.

In fact,

and the General had to keep his troupes motivated through it all.

We get a hint later that this took decades to accomplish.

Facing such fierce invaders as the Israelites were at that time,

And there was nothing nice and clean about the battles.

This was a kind of genocide, directed by the Lord:

And do you remember that the spies 50 or 60 year ago were afraid of the giants in the land, the Anakim?

They didn’t pose a problem.

Only a few were left in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod, which would be the ancestors of Goliath in a couple hundred years.

Finally, Joshua’s battles were over, and he could retire the army for now.

Victory in Yahweh Brought Rest

And the land was allotted and the cities resettled with Israelites.

Now, there were many cities that Joshua had not waged against; there is only so much that can be done with one battle-hardened General who led most of these battles on foot.

The Bible records that it’s

Time for Joshua to Retire

Even though the full extent of the promised land yet remained:

Still, in what remained were. . .

The whole of the promised land is theirs for the taking, but now the rest of the taking had to happen.

It would fall to the tribes who inherit the land to secure their cities and borders.

Although the conquest of the heart of the land had given Israel a strong foothold, so much more would have to happen as the Israelites took control of the land occupied for centuries by the Canaanites.

God was giving rest to Joshua as General, but retaining him as a sort of Governor as he carried out what he had promised, and it was

Time to Divide the Land

Joshua Found All He Needed in Yahweh

He found courage

He found wisdom

He found power to overcome

He found God would fight the battles with him

He found God would sometimes fight the battles for him

He found that God’s guidance would hold him together.

Joshua Was Faithful