The Gospel According to Joshua

Several years ago, when a friend recommended the television show 24, I went to my local video store (back in the day when there was such a thing) and found the relevant section. I noticed that the first few episodes were checked out, so I grabbed an episode halfway through the first season in order to see if my wife and I would like it. When I arrived home and put the DVD into the player, we instantly discovered that this show’which depicts a 24-hour real-time narrative’cannot be sampled partway through. Having not started from the beginning, we were hopelessly lost.

The book of Joshua is the same way. Even if we start at the first verse of Joshua, we are still entering a midway point in the overarching story. We have to go way back’to the very beginning.

In the Beginning

When the storyline of Scripture begins, we see our sovereign Lord joyfully creating the heavens and the earth for his own glory. He populates this new world with creatures, culminating his good work with the very good creation of Adam and Eve, man and woman, designed in his own image to be his representatives who will be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the creation (Gen. 1:26, 28). With his vice-regents ruling the Garden of Eden, the Lord enjoys his Sabbath rest.

But it all went tragically wrong when his very good imager-bearers exchanged the truth of God for a lie, worshiping the creature over the Creator (Rom. 1:25). Acting in unbelief about the goodness and sufficiency of God's Word, they trusted in the demonic lie of the serpent and rebelled’and Adam's people (the whole future human race) fell along with their covenant representative. The only glimmer of hope, as Adam and Eve were displaced east of Eden, was that an offspring of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).

The sin-stained stumbling in Genesis 1-11 set the backdrop for a new act of the divine drama, beginning in Genesis 12. Yahweh had previously covenanted with all of creation to offer eternal life for perfect obedience (Gen. 1-3) and not to destroy the entire world again with a flood of judgment (Gen. 9). Now, in Genesis 12, 15, and 17, Yahweh initiates a new covenant, a covenant of grace, to be established with a childless man from Ur of the Chaldeans. Yahweh promises that Abraham will have numerous descendants (Gen. 12:2; 15:5) who will live in the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:7; 17:18-21), experiencing covenant blessings in order to bless the surrounding nations (Gen. 12:1-3). Abraham believed these promises by grace alone through faith alone, and he was reckoned as righteous (Gen. 15:3; Rom. 4:3).

The rest of the Pentateuch (i.e., Genesis through Deuteronomy) is a narration of the gradual fulfillment of these covenant promises. Isaac becomes the miraculous heir of Abraham, and the descendants multiply and become a great nation. And when Yahweh approaches Moses to deliver his people from oppressive rule in Egypt, he promises "to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites" (Exod. 3:8, 17).

But after their deliverance, the Israelites became more prone to grumble than to worship. They spend forty years wandering through the wilderness as sojourners and exiles, still east of Eden, waiting to inherit the Promised Land.

Crucial Opening Lessons

Even though Moses had led Israel to the eastern bank of the River Jordan, his disobedience to the Lord meant that he would not be the one to lead them into the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 34 already narrates the death of Moses, but Joshua 1:1-2 tells us twice that Moses is dead. The point is underscored: This is the end of the era and the beginning of new leadership. The book of Joshua will signal a major change in the history of Israel, bringing to completion what has come before (Genesis-Deuteronomy) but setting the stage for what is yet to come (Judges-Kings). After all these years, Moses' assistant, Joshua of Nun, will now lead God's people to rest in God's land under God's rule and reign.

We see in the opening instructions from Yahweh to Joshua several key principles. First, we see the sovereign power of the Lord. Notice the subject of the verbs: Joshua and the people are to cross over the Jordan "into the land that I am giving ‘¦ to you, just as I promised Moses" (Josh. 1:2-3). God sovereignly gives the gift of land for Israel to inherit. In it they will witness "victorious rest" (1) ‘Godward satisfaction and contentment as they no longer wander and face attack by God's enemies (11:23; 14:15 21:44-45; 22:4; 23:1).

Second, we see the indispensable presence of the Lord. Moses had candidly declared to the Lord, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here" (Exod. 33:15). Yahweh now says to Joshua, "Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you" (Josh. 1:5). We see this through the ark of the covenant, which represents the presence of the living God, as the priests carry it across the Jordan (ch. 3) and then around the walls of Jericho before its walls come tumbling down (ch. 6), culminating with Israel setting up "the tent of meeting" in Canaan as "the land lay subdued before them" (18:1).

Third, we see the necessity of covenant faithfulness. Precisely because God will be with Joshua wherever he goes, Joshua is free to be strong and courageous instead of frightened and dismayed (1:6-7, 9). His responsibility is to keep God's Word on his lips and in his heart day and night, being careful to do all that is written in it (1:7-8). Because Israel's presence in the land is dependent on their covenant faithfulness before a holy God, Joshua leads the people in two covenant renewal ceremonies, one on Mount Ebal (8:30-35) and one at Shechem (ch. 24).

As the narrative progresses from the marching orders in this opening prologue, we witness Joshua and the Israelites fulfilling God's commands and receiving his promises, first as the Israelites cross over the Jordan into the Promised Land (chs. 1-5), then as they take (chs. 6-12) and allot the Promised Land (chs. 13-21), and finally as they recommit to serve and worship as God's faithful covenant subjects within the Promised Land (chs. 22-24).

Not Quite Eden

Even with Joshua's good leadership, Israel was not immune from sin. Achan's disobedience had severe consequences (ch. 7), and we see that Israel at times failed to drive away the enemies of God from the territories (13:13; 15:63; 16:10; 17:11-12; 19:47). At the end of the book, as Joshua is an old man, he gathers the leaders of God's people together and reminds them of their covenant-keeping God: "Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass" (21:45). The very next word, however, is "but ‘¦" He goes on to warn what will happen if they choose covenant disobedience over faithfulness, and the amount of time spent on warning in chapters 23-24 is a foreshadowing of their failure to come.

Just as the book begins by noting the death of Moses, so the book ends by noting the death of Joshua (ch. 24). This sets the stage for the book of Judges, with its repeated cycles of apostasy and leadership failure, where we read that "in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judg. 17:6; 21:25). Israel was once again like sheep without a shepherd. Though they have been given so much, they continued to be "like Adam," transgressing the covenant (Hos. 6:7). Israel needed a perfect prophet, a perfect priest, a perfect king’a covenant-keeping leader who could not fail to bring them to God. Joshua was a godly man, who walked with the Lord and sought to obey his will. But he was still a sinner. His leadership was essential, but he was still dispensable. He was important, but he was not eternal. He was a descendent of Abraham and a son of Eve, but he was not the ultimate "seed of the woman" who will crush the head of the serpent and provide salvation forevermore.

The One Who is to Come

Israel needed not just someone who could instruct the priests to enter the Jordan carrying the ark of the covenant, but one who would enter the Jordan with the very presence of God in order to fulfill all righteousness (Matt. 3:15-17). Israel needed someone who could not only dispel God's earthly enemies but could cast out the satanic ruler of this world (John 12:31). Israel needed someone who could not only appoint twelve men to represent the land inheritance and set up memorial stones, but one who would appoint emissaries to carry forth his eternal message to all the earth (Matt. 10:1-15; 28:16-20). Joshua sets the stage for Jesus to enter in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4).

Some interpreters look at Joshua and Jesus through the contrast of physical fulfillment and spiritual fulfillment. Joshua, they note, is promised covenant prosperity: protection from God's enemies and success in all his endeavors (Josh. 1:5-8). Jesus, however, gives up physical comfort and protection in order to serve as our final sacrifice. Joshua leads the conquest of a physical land through physical war; Jesus rules a spiritual kingdom where we fight with spiritual weapons as "sojourners and exiles" (1 Pet. 1:21).

This observation is true, so far as it goes. It helps us to remember that in this world we are not promised physical safety or success. It reinforces the crucial truth that "we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).

But the physical-spiritual contrast is ultimately inadequate. We must remember that the story is not finished. There is another act to come in this divine drama. Christ will return and he will physically (as well as spiritually) defeat all of his enemies once and for all. "Unlike the wars of old that led only to more bloodshed and misery, Christ's global judgment and victory when he comes again will truly be the war to end all wars (Matt. 3:11-12; 24:27-25:46; Rev. 17:1-20:15)." (2) We will enter into the Promised Land, which is no longer restricted to a strip of land in the Middle East but is now expanded to include the whole earth (cf. Matt. 5:5; Rom. 4:13). Christ himself will wipe every tear from the eyes of our new resurrection bodies as we live securely in his presence forevermore (Rev. 21:4). One greater than Joshua has appeared and will one day return again. And on that day, all will see that the battle truly does belong to the Lord.