Table of Contents
Joshua
Joshua picks up the morning after Deuteronomy ends. Moses is dead; the man who has stood at his side for forty years takes the whole weight of it, and the LORD’s first words to him are a command repeated until it sticks: be strong and of a good courage. What follows is the conquest of Canaan — the Jordan cut off in flood, the wall of Jericho dropped flat, a long day at Gibeon — and then the slower work of dividing the land tribe by tribe.
The book carries a name worth noticing. Joshua is the Hebrew Yehoshua, which the Greek New Testament writes as Jesus. Hebrews reads the whole account as a picture — a leader who brings a people into their rest, and a better rest still standing open. These studies go through Joshua in order, the same way the rest of the Bible section does.
List Of Articles
Be Strong And Of A Good Courage
the man who spent forty years as second in command handed the whole task; the promise of every place the sole of his foot would tread; and one command given four times over
Joshua 1The Line Of Scarlet Thread
two spies, a house on the wall, and a Canaanite woman who had heard what the LORD did at the Red Sea and staked her family on it
Joshua 2The Waters Rose Up Upon An Heap
the priests’ feet in the brim of the flooded Jordan, the river cut off far upstream, and twelve stones carried out so a child would ask why
Joshua 3-4The Captain Of The Host Of The LORD
the reproach of Egypt rolled away, the manna stopped, the first Passover in the land, and a drawn sword met with the words <em>loose thy shoe</em>
Joshua 5The Wall Fell Down Flat
six days round the city and nothing said, seven times on the seventh, one long trumpet blast — and a scarlet cord still hanging in a window
Joshua 6An Accursed Thing In The Midst Of Thee
thirty-six men dead before tiny Ai, a leader on his face asking why, and the answer: <em>Israel hath sinned</em> — one tent, one buried wedge of gold
Joshua 7He Wrote Upon The Stones A Copy Of The Law
Ai taken by ambush at the second attempt, then the whole nation between Ebal and Gerizim while every word of the blessing and the curse is read
Joshua 8They Did Work Wilily
mouldy bread and cracked wineskins, a league sworn in haste without asking counsel of the LORD, and an oath Israel kept for centuries after
Joshua 9Sun, Stand Thou Still Upon Gibeon
five kings against the city Israel was bound by oath to defend, hailstones that killed more than the sword, and a day the sun did not hasten to go down
Joshua 10So Joshua Took The Whole Land
the northern kings and their horses and chariots, Hazor burned, the Anakim cut off from the hill country, and a list of thirty-one beaten kings
Joshua 11-12Give Me This Mountain
much land still unpossessed, the tribes east of Jordan, and an eighty-five-year-old asking for the hardest ground because he wholly followed the LORD
Joshua 13-14The Lot Of The Tribe Of Judah
Caleb’s daughter asking for springs of water, the Jebusites left in Jerusalem, the daughters of Zelophehad given their inheritance, and a complaint answered with <em>cut down the wood</em>
Joshua 15-17Slack To Go To Possess The Land
the tent of meeting set up at Shiloh, seven tribes surveyed and given their portions by lot, and Joshua himself served last, a single town he asked for
Joshua 18-19That The Slayer May Flee Thither
six cities where a man who killed by accident could outrun the avenger, forty-eight towns for the landless Levites, and <em>there failed not ought of any good thing</em>
Joshua 20-21A Witness Between Us
the eastern tribes sent home with a blessing, a great altar built by the Jordan, an army mustered against them — and a misunderstanding cleared before a shot was fired
Joshua 22Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve
one man of you shall chase a thousand; the whole story retold from Abraham; put away the strange gods; and an old man’s line his house would be known by
Joshua 23-24