We begin today with Joshua 1:1 – 2:24, the last part of yesterday’s reading.

The last time Israel saw Moses, he left the camp and hiked up into the Abarim mountain range. He said he wouldn’t be back and in Joshua 1:1, God confirmed his death and didn’t waste time giving Joshua his marching orders.

“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.” Joshua 1:2

The Promise and the Charge to Joshua

Joshua had watched Moses meet with God for decades, but now God spoke directly to him. He must have been thrilled by what God promised him.

“No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you;

I will never leave you nor forsake you.”Joshua 1:5

Then God charged Joshua with the most important thing he must do.

“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:8-9

Strategic Actions

Joshua instructed Israel to get supplies ready for the days of battle that lay ahead. The men of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh were leaving their families in settlements in Moab and Gilead, but all the other tribes mobilized their families to travel with them.

Joshua sent two young men ahead to spy on Jericho while Israel prepared to cross the Jordan River. The men crept into the city and took refuge in the house of a prostitute, a place where strangers in town might not be noticed. But the king of Jericho had spies too, and they tracked Joshua’s men to Rahab’s house.

When the king’s men came to interrogate Rahab, she lied and sent them away. Then she had a talk with the two Israelites.

“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 of you.” Joshua 2:9

 Rahab’s Faith

Rahab had heard how Israel crossed the Red Sea more than forty years earlier. She also knew the more recent story of how they had defeated the two Amorite kings.

“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 2:11

Rahab begged for mercy for herself and her family when Israel attacked Jericho. God granted her request and the spies arranged a signal that would protect everyone in Rahab’s home.

The scarlet cord Rahab hung outside her window foreshadowed Christ’s blood, shed for the salvation of lost people. As Israel approached Jericho, they saw the red cord in the window and understood that God had granted protection to Rahab’s family.

Based on Rahab’s information, the spies brought Joshua good news: “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.” Joshua 2:24

Lord of All the Earth

After three days of preparation, Israel moved about seven miles from Abel-Shittim to the eastern bank of the Jordan River. The Ark preceded them and the tribes followed in their usual order.

The Jordan River was swollen with flood water, but the priests walked straight toward it. Joshua told them, “as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord – the Lord of all the earth – set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” Joshua 3:13

Moses had referred to God as “the Lord our God” in Deuteronomy. Now Joshua began to call him “the Lord of all the earth.” As God had promised earlier, through Abraham’s descendants God would show all the nations that he was the Lord of all the earth.

Crossing Jordan At Last

The priests stepped into the rushing waters of the Jordan and upstream God stopped the river’s flow. A town named Adam some distance away was suddenly flooded, but where the priests stood with the ark, the ground quickly dried. The priests stayed in place, holding the ark aloft while the tribes of Israel passed by them.

Once everyone was across the river, Joshua had a leader from each of the tribes collect a large rock from the riverbed. Then he built a memorial to the crossing on the west side of the Jordan.

“[Joshua] said to the Israelites, ‘In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan . . . as he had done to the Red Sea . . . so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.’” Joshua 4:21-24

Joshua told the priests to come up out of the riverbed and the water immediately returned to flood stage. The kings of the Amorites west of the Jordan heard what God did for Israel at the Jordan River and “their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.” Joshua 5:1

Israel Gets Right with God Again

The Israelites didn’t circumcise their sons while they were in the wilderness. The Bible doesn’t say why, but some theologians, including John Calvin, believe it was part of the punishment God gave Israel. Circumcision marked Israelite men as belonging to God and it seems he banned it for those forty years. It wasn’t until God brought them into the Promised Land that he reinstated circumcision.

The long sentence they served in the desert for their crimes against God was finally over.

The Commander of the Lord’s Army

Joshua went off by himself to think as the tension of war rose in the camp. What was he supposed to do about Jericho, this ancient, thickly walled city with its own king and army waiting inside? What was the right strategy?

^“Now 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 went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?’

The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” Joshua 5:13-15

Joshua had just had his own face to face encounter with God.

The Fall of Jericho

The Lord had a strategy for taking Jericho, one that Joshua would never have come up with on his own. For six days, seven priests walked in front of the Ark of the Covenant blowing loudly on rams’ horns. An armed guard marched in front of the priests and the rest of Israel’s army followed in silent formation behind them. They circled Jericho’s walls once and then went back to camp.

On the seventh day, Israel rose early and marched around the city seven times. On the seventh round Joshua told the army to shout because the Lord had given them the city. When the shout went up the walls of Jericho collapsed and the army went straight in and took the city.

Jericho was “devoted to God”. That meant that everyone and everything in the city was to be completely destroyed by fire, but objects made of precious metal that survived the fire were brought to the treasury of the Lord’s house.

Joshua remembered the promise the spies made to Rahab and sent them to rescue her and her family. They joined Israel and lived as part of them after that. God had made provision in the Law for foreigners like them; they were to be treated as equal with the Israelites.

A Curse for Rebuilding Jericho

Joshua pronounced a solemn oath over fallen Jericho.

“At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: ‘Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: ‘At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.’” Joshua 6:26

Five hundred years later a man named Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. His firstborn son died when the foundations were laid and his youngest son died when its gates were set in place. I Kings 16:34.

Israel had finally arrived in the Promised Land, but the battles had just begun.