Joshua, the successor of Moses, leads the Israelites to the promised land, through conquest wars. The narrative picks up right after Moses’ death in Deuteronomy. Joshua is a figure of Christ, with even Joshua and Jesus being written the same in Greek (Iesous).
Chapter 1
Key themes:
- God commands Joshua to go into the promised land to conquer it, and gives a beautiful and motivating speech inspiring courage and faithfulness to the law. (Joshua 1:5-9)
- Joshua commands the officers of the people to prepare for battle.
Moral sense:
- We can be strong and of good courage precisely because we know the Lord is with us.
Chapter 2
Key themes:
- Spies are sent to Jericho and they stay and are protected by a harlot, and they make an oath to protect the harlot’s family because of it.
Chapter 3
Key themes:
- To cross the Jordan, priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went first, in front of the people, and when they stepped on the water, the river stood back, allowing the people to cross the Jordan.
Chapter 4
Key themes:
- God, through Joshua, commands each tribe to get a stone to be a memorial for the people of Israel of the miracle of the crossing of the Jordan.
Moral sense:
- It is so easy to forget what God has done for us, and the stones serve as a sensible and visual remembrance of what God has done for us.
Chapter 5
Key themes:
- The descendant generation of Israel was not circumcised, so the Lord commands Joshua to circumcise the people.
- Manna ceased to be given, as they ate the fruits of the land.
- An angel (?) is sent to be the commander of the army of the Lord (Israel? An angelic army?)
Chapter 6
Key themes:
- The siege and destruction of Jericho. Rahab (the harlot) and her family were spared.
Chapter 7
Key themes:
- Achan sinned by taking “devoted things” (that should have been destroyed) and stealing them for himself. Because of it, Israel lost the battle to Ai.
Allegorical sense:
- Achan’s sin is an allegory to the lure and attachment to sin.
Chapter 8
Key themes:
- After dealing with Achan, Israel tried again conquering Ai, using an ambush technique, and were able to conquer and destroy the city.
Chapter 9
Key themes:
- The inhabitants of Gibeon (Gibeonites) feared Israel so deceived them by saying they lived far away to convince Israel to make a covenant with them.
- When Israel found out the truth, they didn’t break the oath, and did not killed them, but they became servants to Israel.
Allegorical sense:
- The Gibeonites‘ actions remember the Parable of the Unjust Steward, that uses dishonesty (the Gibeonites lying about their true origin / the steward forgiving the debts of his master’s debtors). Both of them are self-centered and use morally dubious means to achieve it.
- At the same time, it also shows how God accepts even our imperfect contrition and egotistic motives when approaching Him, if we are at least sincere in our desire to do so. The Gibeonites refusal to plot against Israel and instead seeking reconciliation also shows this, they recognize that is better to be alongside Israel than to fight God’s will.
- The Gibeonites period as servants can be seen as a figure of purgatory, where the Gibeonites are paying the consequences of their wickedness, but are spared from eternal destruction.
Chapter 10
Key themes:
- The Amorites form a coalition to attack Gibeon, which was a big city. The Gibeonites ask for help and Israel destroy the invaders. Joshua kills their kings (5).
- Then, Israel conquer a ton of cities: Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, etc…
Chapter 11
Key themes:
- More kings make a coalition to fight Israel, but because the Lord was with Israel, they defeated and utterly destroyed all of them.
Chapter 12
Key themes:
- List of the kings and the land that Moses and Joshua conquered. Joshua conquered a total of 31 kings.
Chapter 13
Key themes:
- Joshua is old.
- Recaps Israel conquests until now, and what is left to conquer.
- Recaps the division of the land east of the Jordan.
- Balaam is dead.
Chapter 14
Key themes:
- Inheritance of Hebron to Caleb, son of Jephunneh. (Don’t remember this being promised to him)
Chapter 15
Key themes:
- Inheritance of land given to Judah.
- Othniel son of Kenaz (brother of Caleb (Kenaz or Othniel?)) receives Caleb’s daughter (Achsah) as wife, as Caleb promised to give her in marriage to anyone that “smites Kiriath-sepher”.
- The Jebusites (inhabitants of Jerusalem) could not be driven out by the people of Judah, so they live together in Jerusalem.
Chapter 16
Key themes:
- Inheritance of land given to Ephraim (Joseph).
- Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell in the midst of Ephraim, but have become slaves to do forced labor.
Chapter 17
Key themes:
- Inheritance of land given to Manasseh (Joseph).
- Manasseh could not take possession of some cities because of the Canaanites, but when they became stronger, they put the Canaanites to forced labor (and did not utterly drive them out).
- The tribe of Joseph (Ephraim + Manasseh) ask Joshua for more land, as they are a numerous people. Joshua gives them land, but there are still Canaanites there that have to be driven out.
Chapter 18
Key themes:
- Joshua sends out men to describe the remaining land so he can divide it up to give inheritance to the remaining seven tribes.
- Inheritance of land given to Benjamin.
- Jerusalem is also called Jebus, that’s why the inhabitants are known as Jebusites.
Chapter 19
Key themes:
- Inheritance given to Simeon. It was in the midst of Judah, because the inheritance given to Judah was too large for them. Simeon becomes part of the territory of Judah.
- Inheritance given to Zebulun.
- Inheritance given to Issachar.
- Inheritance given to Asher.
- Inheritance given to Naphtali.
- Inheritance given to Dan. They renamed a city called Leshem to Dan.
- The people of Israel gave a city to Joshua, Timnhath-serah, in the country of Ephraim. He rebuilt the city and settled in it.
Chapter 20
Key themes:
- Appointment of the cities of refuge.
Chapter 21
Key themes:
- Cities given to the Levites in the midst of the tribes. They also get the cities of refuge.
- Joshua 21:44 “not one of all their enemies had withstood them”, but it clearly speaks of Canaanites still leaving among them. So, what gives?
- God gives rest after the conquer.
- God has fulfilled its promises.
Questions: 3. Hebron is given to the Levites, but the fields of the city and its villages had been given to Caleb (?), didn’t understand how it works.
Chapter 22
Key themes:
- The eastern tribes are released to go back to their homes.
- They built an altar on the way, and the other tribes are scandalized by this, because they thought it was an act of disobedience, as there could be only one altar, in the tent of meeting.
- They were prepared to go to war because of this, but first, they tried diplomacy, and the eastern tribes explained that it wasn’t an altar to offer sacrifices, just for remembrance that they also were a part of the people of the Lord.
Chapter 23
Key themes:
- Joshua is old, and about to die, and Israel shall continue its mission of driving back the people in the promise land, and being faithful to God’s covenant, and not mixing with the Canaanite people and serving their gods.
Chapter 24
Key themes:
- Joshua’s last speech, recounting all that the Lord had done for Israel, and calling the people to serve the Lord alone, and not any other gods. The people confirm that they want to serve the Lord only.
- Joshua dies. Eleazar dies. The people bury the bones of Joseph they brought from Egypt on Shechem.
Reference
Joshua 1:9 ”Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Josuha 11:15 “As the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.”