The Journey Brought Forth "Joshua"
This blog series is focused on God’s word bringing people through their journeys in His intentional way that He has set in front of them thereby bringing them through to His completion.
Exodus through Malachi is the section of scripture that most Christians find themselves living in its revolving pattern of realization, but once they receive its revelation, the Third Stage of Life is what their lives are built upon instead of attempting to achieve. Joshua is the sixth book of the Bible, and it tells of the triumphant taking of the Promised Land through Joshua’s leading them as Moses had instructed and God speaks to him.
God starts speaking to Joshua as soon as Moses dies and tells him that he is to be courageous and go into the land to possess it and he is to keep the whole Law as Moses had commanded him. God is telling His people the same thing as parts of their own selves die to be brought closer to Him. This relationship with God that He gives to His people is continually furthered by gifts and trying times alike with God knowing what must occur every step of the way as He leads His people the way He knows they must be led to enter the true Promised Land.
Joshua instructs the people to be ready to enter the Land in three days and sends spies into Jericho. The spies went to search the land and spent the night in a harlot named Rahab’s house hiding from the people of the land that pursued them. She tells them the cities were fearful of them since they had heard of how God dried up the Red Sea and made them victorious in war. The spies made a pact not to destroy her or any of her family that was gathered in her home that had a scarlet thread hung in the window. This is the same hiding behind the scarlet blood that Jesus Christ’s blood gives to all of his family even the ones of a different worldly blood line.
Joshua mobilized the people a couple of days later, and as soon as the priest’s feet hit the water of the Jordan the water stopped flowing, and they walked across the river that had been overflowing as upon dry ground. There is a division of heaven and earth by a covering of water, and this shows, God’s people that can understand, the barrier has been removed for them that can see, but at this Stage of Life, people are still amazed by the earthly aspect of God.
When they passed over the Jordan, a family member from every tribe took a stone of witness from the bottom of the riverbed and set it in one pile to bear witness to God’s working in their lives for future generations to see. God operates in His people’s lives the same today and forever. He does works to help His people understand who He is and tell others in the future, and does it, so it will bear fruit every month of the year for its collective good to bear fruit in season and out of season as one unit.
There was need of another circumcision once they entered the Land because none of them had been circumcised in the wilderness which allows us to know that God has brought the people through a life event of understanding and set them into another state of being that is understood by a painful separation from the flesh into His healed state of existence.
Joshua followed God’s instructions to set seven priests with ram’s horns in front of the warriors and the Ark of the Covenant following, and march around the wall of Jericho once per day for six days then seven times the seventh day keeping silent with their voices and only blowing the horns; until the last pass on the seventh day, then blow the horns and the warriors shouted a shout of victory. Upon this action, the walls fell down, and they went up in the victory. God’s united people being led in Him will shout with the voice of victory and come into His presence upon the day He has set in front of them.
With this victory, came a curse to all of Israel because one of the people had taken some of the material things from Jericho after being instructed not to do so, and the next battle they went into they lost. When people win a victory in life, it is easy to be distracted by its worldly distractive properties; until the maturity has been received to understand how to keep things in their proper place. The curse that the Israelites dealt with was, many lives were lost in the subsequent battle, and the necessity of the death of the offender and all of his family to pay for the offense. Life is simple to live in God, but when His people are distracted there are things that occur that are not easy on the flesh or their understanding in their own abilities. God restored His people to His way directly after this and gave them victory over the city they had lost their first battle.
The next lesson God had to help His people understand is to pray always and not to make decisions in their own ability. There was a group of people who were named the Gibeonites. They sent people disguised as being from a far land, and they asked to make a pact with the Israelites not to be harmed, and the Israelites joined into the agreement then found out they were who they really were. Upon this knowledge, the Israelites placed them in a servant state to be their assistants in hard labor, but could not destroy them as God had instructed them to because of their agreement. God’s people must do everything decently and in order as He does things, and the proper first step in every decision is to ask God what that step is.
When the other people heard the Gibeonites made a pact with Joshua five kings came together and fought against Gibeon, but the Israelites defended them and were victorious in battle. As the people fled from the Jews, God sent large hailstones upon them, and more people died by the hail than in the battle. Joshua caught up to the Amorites, and God had the Sun and Moon stand still for almost a whole day to give the Israelite victory in battle. God makes all things work together for good to His people, and this situation with the Gibeonites gathered their enemy into one place and gave them victory at one time instead of a long multi-battle war.
Joshua then continues to destroy the inhabitants of the Land as God instructed him. God hardened the hearts of the people in the land to come against Israel that He might destroy them. God’s people are in a war. It is a spiritual war, and they should know God has set it in motion to accomplish His purpose through His people. Once God takes His people through a certain portion of their journey, He shows them what has been accomplished allowing them to appreciate the progress; then, He shows them what is left to be done in their future. There are “spoils of war” that come with each victory in every Stage of Life, and God shows His people how to enjoy them and stay focused on Him at the same time.
Joshua was old and gathered the people to tell them how he had divided the land to them that they had yet to possess, how they were to continue to expel the people from their lands because God had given it to them, and the determinate factor was if they followed God and kept His commandments or not. God has a plan for His people to accomplish while they are on the earth and He has given them the clearly written instructions of how to accomplish each step of the path.
Joshua then reminds the people of the Israelite’s history starting with Abraham until the great conquests God had given them in the land they currently possessed; so he could tell them that life and death was set before them and they could choose to serve the one true God; or, the gods of Abraham’s fathers or the gods of the peoples they had dispossessed from the lands, but Joshua was going to serve the Lord. The people made a covenant that day to serve the Lord God of Israel and set up a stone of witness. God’s people must make resolve in their lives to receive God’s eternal blessings.
Joshua died and did not appoint a leader to succeed him. The people who were left followed God until the elders had passed as well.
The Book of Joshua tells of the amazing conquests the Lord gave to Israel during Joshua’s life and how God’s people today can have the same experiences as they leave their understanding to receive His way and follow Him with all of their hearts knowing there will be times of trials, lessons, and correction, but it all works to benefit their future as they learn who they are in Him.
