JOSHUA - Week 2
It doesn’t take long for the book of Joshua to get cooking!
We’re only at the end of our second week in Joshua and already things have been pretty full on.
Joshua and the Israelites have been making their way through the land and conquering place after place. There have been some bumps along the way, but it’s clear why people describe this narrative as a ‘conquest’.
Following a thought-provoking comment on last week’s post, we’ll begin this week by addressing two broader elements about Joshua;
- That it could be considered the ‘Ephesians of the Old Testament’
- That Joshua is presented as a ‘type’ of Jesus.
Following that, we can have a good old fashioned bible study centred on the classic story about the walls of Jericho. Sound good? (I know this is typed and you can’t reply, but I enjoy the pretence of informality!)
1) Joshua and the New Testament
So, there are two claims to address as we consider Joshua’s relationship to some of our New Testament texts.
Joshua as the ‘Ephesians of the Old Testament’
This is part of the description from the introduction to Joshua in the Passion Translation. Having just spent six weeks or so exploring Ephesians, this idea is particularly interesting, as we can compare and contrast the two texts.
Joshua, as we highlighted last week, is a story centred on the conquest of Canaan and the division of the land between the tribes of Israel. Ephesians, by contrast, appears to be a letter to an early Christian community, speaking into specific challenges that they were facing from their wider society.
Where, then, would such a comparison come from?
It appears as though the clearest point of connection is about inheritance and blessing. Both texts address these themes, with Joshua speaking about physical inheritance and blessing and Ephesians speaking about a spiritual inheritance and blessing. Once we have that difference in mind, the similarities become more apparent.
Take these two passages as examples;
Joshua 1:3-4 – "I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west."
Ephesians 1:3, 11 – "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ... In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will."
Then there is the idea of warfare; again the physical/spiritual distinction plays out as the Israelites encounter literal battles, and Ephesians warns of a spiritual battle, but both affirm a victory through God.
Joshua 10:8 – "The Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.'"
Ephesians 6:10-12 – "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against... the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
As you unpick some of the key themes in both texts, points of crossover are more common.
God’s presence with us.
Unity in God’s people.
The importance of obedience and holiness.
The fulfilment of God’s promises.
Something, then, to look out for as we read the second half of Joshua!
Joshua as a ‘type’ of Jesus
If you cast your minds back to January 2024, as we were studying Exodus, I wrote a reflection about the idea that Jesus was portrayed in Matthew’s gospel as a “new Moses” (you can read that bit again here). Then, last week, I wrote about Joshua being portrayed as a legitimate successor to Moses, and beyond that, parallel to Moses.
Given those two elements, it perhaps shouldn’t be surprising that some would try to join some points of connection between Joshua and Jesus.
The idea of a ‘type’, if you weren’t sure, just means someone or something in the Old Testament that foreshadows something in the New Testament.
Let’s start with the name. Joshua, whose Hebrew name "Yehoshua" translates to "Yahweh is salvation," shares the same name as Jesus (derived from the Greek "Iesous"). That nominal connection to salvation points us towards a deeper connection; that both Joshua and Jesus serve God’s people and take them into the fullness of God’s promises.
Both Joshua and Jesus are involved in the work of deliverance and redemption. As we saw with the comparison between Ephesians and Joshua, there is a distinction between the physical and spiritual.
That distinction, however, might be one that we impose more readily than original context would prompt us. For the Ancient Israelites, the physical was a hugely important part of their theology.
A physical journey from physical slavery, through physical conquest, to physical freedom.
The physical temple as the physical dwelling place of God.
The physical offerings and sacrifices people made as worship to God.
Our theological location is so far removed from that, and is embedded much more in the spiritual, which is unsurprising given the tone and content of the New Testament writings.
So, whilst we could see the physical/spiritual distinction as difference, I think we ought to understand it as different expressions of the same thing.
Joshua and Jesus are both leaders who take God’s people to the ‘Promised Land’- the land of Canaan for Joshua and the Kingdom of God for Jesus.
Just as with the dual-fulfilment prophecies in Isaiah, Joshua offers a partial or initial salvation, but Jesus is then the ultimate realisation of this.
Reading the Joshua story now, having read about what was to come, means we can do so with a sly grin and a knowing glint in our eye, seeing this story about the deliverance of God’s people under the leadership of Joshua as a glimpse of what Jesus would go on to do.
2) Joshua and Jericho
Right, now let’s have a look at the story of Jericho in Joshua. This story is such a great demonstration of God’s power and provision. It has been adapted in so many different ways and lends itself to Sunday school stories, songs, film and basically any format, due to it’s dramatic and emphatic nature.
Before all the marching and walls tumbling down (spoiler alert!), we see at the end of Joshua 5 that Jericho was the first place that the Israelites came to having crossed the Jordan. What should they do first?
To their credit, they are not caught up in the excitement of finally making it to the Promised Land, beginning to plot how to conquer Jericho, but instead they prepare with three rituals: circumcision, Passover and the first consumption of the produce of the land. These things focus the people on the God who brought them this far.
Right at the end of chapter 5, verses 13-15, we get a short story about an encounter with someone who describes themself as “commander of the army of the Lord”. Joshua responds with reverence and worship. This ‘commander of the army of the Lord’ then offers us a line which draws us back to the story of Moses at the burning bush;
“Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” Joshua 6:15 (NRSV)
Just like in Exodus 3, where Moses then receives instruction from God about his mission, so too Joshua is instructed on what to do at Jericho.
If you were playing attention, you may have noticed that the number seven plays an important part in these instructions.
Seven priests (Joshua 6:4)
Seven trumpets (Joshua 6:4)
Seven days of marching (Joshua 6:3-4)
Seven circuits on the seventh day (Joshua 6:15)
In biblical literature, the number seven symbolises perfection, completion, and divine fulfilment. This is exemplified in the creation narrative in Genesis, where God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh (Genesis 2:2-3). In Joshua 6, the use of seven underscores the idea that the victory at Jericho was perfectly orchestrated and completed by God’s power.
Something that might not have been so obvious is a Hebrew term "herem" (חֵרֶם). We find this in Joshua 6:17-18
" The city and all that is in it shall be devoted (Herem) to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers we sent. As for you, keep away from the things devoted (Herem) to destruction, so as not to covet and take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it.”
Herem refers to the practice of completely dedicating something or someone to God, often through total destruction, as an act of divine judgment.
This meant that:
Everything in Jericho was to be destroyed, except Rahab and her family.
All valuables (gold, silver, bronze, and iron) were to be set apart for the treasury of the Lord (Joshua 6:19).
No personal gain was allowed from the spoils, as they were wholly dedicated to God.
In a literary sense, verse 18 mentioning ‘bringing trouble upon (the camp of Israel)’ anticipates what is to come – and we don’t even have to wait long! Joshua 7 tells about Achan, who does exactly what he shouldn’t have done.
The story of Jericho emphasises a few things.
First, it highlights the role of God in this process, which then is predicated on the faithfulness of the Israelites. It is God who gives Jericho over to the Israelites, but they display obedience to God in what they do.
Then, there is the importance of the rituals. From those before Jericho through to the specific details of the plan to bring down the walls, ritual symbolism and ceremony are right at the heart of this story.
Finally, this story sets the template for the rest of the conquest narrative.
Obey God and have success. Disobey, as we see in chapter 7, and fail.