Joshua - Chapters 6-12

In chapters 6-12 of Joshua, the Israelites conquer the land that God promised to Abraham. They start by crossing the Jordan River with the help of the Ark of the Covenant. They circumcise themselves and celebrate Passover. They conquer Jericho and Ai, following God's commands. One man, Achan, disobeys and brings loss to the Israelites. They renew the covenant with God and conquer more cities. The Gibeonites make a treaty with the Israelites and other kings attack them, but Joshua defeats them. The Israelites take the land promised to them, except for the Gaza Strip. The taking of the land fulfills God's promise to Abraham. The passage also shows that foreigners can live among the Israelites if they submit to their God, and disobedient Israelites are put to death. It emphasizes the sovereignty of God and the importance of faith and obedience. I am Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me, you can do that at theab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we are covering chapters 6 through 12 of Joshua. Up to this point, the children of Israel were on the east side of the Jordan River. Joshua sent two spies to check out Jericho. Rahab the prostitute hid them and lied to protect them. In exchange, they would spare her life and her family who stayed in her house. The Ark of the Covenant led the way for the Israelites to cross the Jordan River, which was at flood stage. The Lord stopped the flowing water and they crossed over on dry land. Once in the Promised Land, the Jewish people were circumcised, which was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham in Genesis chapter 17. Then once they were all healed, they celebrated Passover, and the next day they ate food from the land. And chapter 5 verse 12 says the manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land. There was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan. Chapter 5 ended with Joshua meeting the commander of the Lord's army. Joshua fell face down on the ground and at the commander's request, he took off his shoes because the place he was standing or kneeling was holy. Now the gist of these chapters deal with the Israelites conquering the land that God promised to Abraham back in Genesis. The first on the west side of the Jordan River was Jericho, then Ai, the southern cities, and finally the northern cities. With Joshua's help, the Israelites took 31 kings in all. I went into more detail in last year's lesson, Joshua and the Israelites take the Promised Land, on February 22, 2023. So today I just want to focus on a few things in these passages. With the taking of Jericho, Joshua followed the Lord's command on how to walk around the city for seven days. Chapter 6 verse 8 reads, When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord's covenant followed them. This made me think of Revelation chapters 8 through 11, and the seven trumpets that must come before the ark of the covenant came out of God's temple in heaven. Also with Jericho, everything was to be dedicated to the Lord. Chapter 6 verse 17 reads, The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. This was the first city and therefore it was the first fruits of their conquest. Everything was to be destroyed except for the silver, gold, bronze, and iron items that would go into the treasury of the temple. I have spoken before about how the Israelites were to kill everyone due to their evil practices, such as human sacrifices. That would lure the Israelites to serve other gods. My evangelism professor described it as cancer in a human body, and even though it's a living organism, the cancer brings death, so the goal is to remove all the cancer cells from our body. Rahab was spared from the ban because she had faith in their god. Chapter 6 verse 25b says, She lives among the Israelites to this day. The New Testament writer of Hebrews said in chapter 11 verse 31, By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. One other time she is mentioned in the New Testament is found in Matthew chapter 1 verse 5, with the lineage of Jesus Christ. Sammon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Rahab the prostitute, because of her faith in the Lord God Almighty, married a man named Sammon of the tribe of Judah, and she became the great great great grandmother of King David, and through King David came the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgiveness and redemption is such a beautiful thing. In chapter 7 we learn of one man's sin, Achan, who took some of the items that were devoted to the Lord, and his disobedience brought the Israelites a loss of taking the city of Ai. It also involved the loss of life of fellow Israelites who had gone to war and lost. Joshua and the elders prayed to the Lord, because they did not understand why they lost the battle against Ai, and through a process the Lord revealed who and what had happened. The items were recovered under the ground in Achan's tent, and they were brought forth and spread out before the Lord. Achan and his family were killed. The Lord told Joshua in chapter 8 verse 1, The King of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. The rest of chapter 8 tells the story of how Joshua and the men took Ai. Joshua sent some men at night as an ambush behind the city, then Joshua came out with some of his men in the morning to fight the army of Ai. They pretended to retreat, and the men of Ai ran after them and left their city, and then the men hiding behind the city came forth and burned it. When the Israelites saw the fire, they stopped retreating and turned and fought the men of Ai from the front, and the men who had set fire to the city came from behind, and all of Ai was destroyed. Chapter 8 ends with the renewal covenant that Moses explained to Joshua about curses and blessings, which is found in Deuteronomy chapter 27. Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal as the Lord commanded Moses. Joshua copied on the stone the commandments of the Lord, and then they offered sacrifices. Half of the people stood on Mount Ebal where the altar was, and half stood on Mount Gerizim. There was a responsive worship experience where all the people, including the women, children, and the aliens who lived among them, would hear the Levites cry out, curses upon people who would disobey the Lord in various ways, and the people would say, Amen. Then in chapter 28 of Deuteronomy, there were statements of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience. I've mentioned before about a verse in Deuteronomy chapter 20, verses 10 through 12, which tells the Israelites, When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. These verses help to explain chapter 9, except that the Gibeonites added to that a bit of deception, explaining they were from a different land instead of being a neighbor. The outcome was still the same. They became servants of Israel and were not wiped out. Now surrounding cities learned about the treaty of peace that the Gibeonites made with the Jews. So the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon joined forces against the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites sent word to the Jews to help. So Joshua marched up with his entire army, and the Lord told him not to be afraid. Not only did Joshua take them by surprise, but the Lord sent hailstones from the sky. And in chapter 10, verse 11b, it says, And more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. This is also the story where Joshua cried to the Lord for the sun to stand still over Gibeon until the enemy was defeated. Verse 14 says, There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. Those five kings hid in a cave, but they were ultimately killed by Joshua and his men. The rest of chapter 10 covers the southern cities that Joshua took. And chapter 11 covers the northern kings that Joshua defeated. Chapter 11, verse 9 says, That Joshua did to them as the Lord had directed. Verses 15 and 16a say, As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. So Joshua took this entire land. We also see in chapter 11, verses 18-20, Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time, except for the Hivites living in Gibeah. Not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites who took them all in battle, for it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses. We do see that there was one area where Joshua did not possess the land, and it's found in chapter 11, verse 22. No Anakites were left in Israelite territory, only in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod did any survive. The Jews did not take the Gaza Strip. Chapter 11 ends with, Then the land had rest from war. Chapter 12 reminds us that with Moses' leadership, the Israelites took the land of Sion, king of the Amorites, and the territory of Og, king of Bashan, on the east side of the Jordan River, where the tribes of Reuben Gad and half-tribe of Manasseh had settled. And then it lists the 31 kings that Joshua and his men conquered on the west side of the Jordan. The nine and a half tribes will live in this land on the west side. Now the taking of this land was promised to Abraham way back in Genesis, chapter 15, verses 18 through 20. In the 16th verse of Genesis 15, the Lord said, In the fourth generations, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. So one of the reasons for the ban on the cities was their sin. I also want to point out that throughout, we have seen that aliens could live among them like Rahab, but they needed to submit to the God of the Israelites. We have also seen that Israelites who disobey the Lord are also put to death. Another thing we see in this passage is the sovereignty of God. Just like in Exodus, when the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and at other times it said that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. In the same way, most of these kings had hard hearts against the God of the Israelites, even though they knew that God was fighting for them. It was the Gibeonites that realized it was in their best interest to surrender to Israel and to their God. So ladies, let me ask you, how is your heart today? Are you mad at the Lord for some reason? Would you say you have a hard heart? Are there some issues that are keeping you from life giving fellowship with the Lord? Do you have anything that you need to spread out before the Lord and talk to him about? When difficult things happen in life, it is hard to remember that God is always good and always just, and when we don't understand life, we can trust the heart of God. If you have heard his voice today, please don't harden your heart. Instead, let's be women who pray and obey. Until next time, and thanks so much for listening.