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[0:00] Open your Bibles to Joshua, the sixth book of the Bible.

[0:17] You know, Joshua is an exciting book, at least most of it, and I say exciting in the sense of adventure, action, and it really is, you know, and it's a real story, right?

[0:48] It's a real story because it is real history, and very important history, not just Jewish history, but the history of God's redemptive plan that He, working out all the way through the Old Testament, from Genesis all the way through to Malachi on into the New Testament, and so it's a real story, real history, and it is an important part of the inspired Word of God, okay?

[1:19] It's not just a history book. It is inspired. It is, and therefore, inerrant, and it is God's holy Word, and so if it is that, and it is, as is the case with every book of the Bible, then, of course, it has great meaning for us, and more than just simply an exciting read and interesting as we kind of delve into the history of that day and see the conquest and so forth, more than just history.

[1:53] It has great meaning for us, spiritual meaning for us today. In fact, Romans 15 and verse 4 says that for whatever things were written before were written for our learning.

[2:08] That includes the book of Joshua, as well as all the books in the Bible. So it's for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope, and we're going to find hope as we study through this book, starting tonight and taking however long it takes.

[2:29] I'm not sure just how long it'll take. It's probably going to take as long as it's going to take for us to go through Luke on Sunday mornings, but we'll take our time with it.

[2:41] Now, what I want to do tonight is present an introduction, introduction to the book, but not separate from the Scriptures of the book because I'm going to read the first six verses and allow some of the key elements of the first six verses of the book to kind of introduce for us this great book.

[3:06] So let me go ahead and read that to you. You have your Bibles open, Joshua chapter 1, and I'm going to read the first six verses. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead.

[3:28] Now, therefore, rise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

[3:58] No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

[4:09] Be strong and of good courage, or courageous, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

[4:20] Now, we're going to, next time, going to look more in depth to these verses, but I want to let these verses, rather kind of glean some things from these verses that I think will help serve as an introduction to this book, the book of Joshua.

[4:39] Now, I want to divide it into three points. That is my introduction, not this text, but my introduction. Three points that help us understand, I think, the book of Joshua, and not just the book, but Joshua himself, before we really delve deeply into the book verse by verse.

[5:02] First of all, number one, Joshua is a book about character. It's a book about character. And what I mean is, specifically, some specific characters, strong characters who had character, a godly character.

[5:23] And so the book is about character. And we don't start with Joshua, we would start with Moses there. The book is about Moses as well. I mean, after all, Moses is mentioned five times.

[5:35] I know you didn't count them as we were reading those verses, but five times Moses is mentioned here in the first six verses of the book. In the entire chapter, the first chapter, Moses is mentioned ten times in the first chapter of the book of Joshua.

[5:53] And guess what? In all, Moses is mentioned 57 times. Throughout the entire book of Joshua. Now, you know, on the one hand, that seems quite reasonable because, you know, Moses was a great man, great leader of Israel.

[6:09] And continued to be revered among the Jews all the way on into the New Testament, even in our day to day. But even though the book is entitled Joshua, taking the name of the principal character in the book, Moses is a character mentioned in the book.

[6:28] It's a very key person. And so the book of Joshua then begins with the announcement of Moses' death. That's what we have here in verse 1. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord.

[6:42] And then, of course, God announces to Joshua in verse 2, Moses, my servant, is dead. He's now dead. So it begins with Moses. It begins with the announcement of his death.

[6:54] And it says a few other things about him, just kind of in passing. He's the servant of the Lord. And Moses, of course, we know quite a bit about him.

[7:06] And Moses had been a great leader of the people of Israel for many, many years. And really, all you have to do is go back to the previous book, Deuteronomy, and look at chapter 34 and verse 9.

[7:22] And you kind of have a really technically an epitaph of Moses' life. It really is a summation of his life. And starting with verse 9, just listen to what God said about Moses.

[7:36] Now, Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom. For Moses had laid his hands on him, so the children of Israel heeded him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

[7:47] But since then, there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses. Highly revered. Not a prophet like Moses. Since then. Now, that means he was a great prophet.

[8:02] Now, I don't know what you do with John the Baptist because Jesus said something quite astounding about John the Baptist. But we're not getting into that right now. Whom the Lord knew face to face.

[8:13] Now, think about that statement about Moses. That he knew him face to face. And in all the signs. Verse 11. And in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh.

[8:26] And we know about that, don't we? We could flesh that out in our minds. The great wonders that Moses did in the presence of Pharaoh with the rod of God. And all the great miracles, wonders, and the sending of the plagues and so forth.

[8:41] Before all his servants and in all his land. And by all that mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

[8:51] And I think I would, first thing in my mind would be as Moses standing there by the Red Sea. And suddenly it just parted right before them.

[9:03] Incredible wonder. And it did strike terror. Not only in the hearts of Moses or the people of Israel. But as we're going to see, all the people of the promised land of Canaan.

[9:16] And they knew about that. And it struck terror in their hearts as well. We'll talk about that when we get to the conquering of Jericho. Alright, so Moses was a great man.

[9:28] Great leader. The book of Joshua is about in some sense Moses. And the continuing of his great leadership there in Israel. But as great as Moses was, of course.

[9:39] Moses disobeyed God, didn't he? And he was not able then, not permitted rather, to lead the people of God into the promised land. God would not allow that.

[9:50] Because he sinned. And you can read about that in Numbers chapter 20 and verse 8. We're not going to turn to that tonight. But perhaps you remember the story.

[10:00] How God had instructed Moses to speak to the rock. So that the rock would provide water for Israel. Thirsty Israel. But Moses was kind of bent out of shape about Israel at that time.

[10:13] God's people. And he got angry. And instead of speaking to it, he struck the rock. And still gave forth water. But God then would not allow Moses, because he disobeyed him, would not allow Moses to enter into the promised land.

[10:28] That's why we don't have Moses leading them here in the book of Joshua. We have Joshua leading. And Moses is not going to step into the land of promise, because he sinned against God.

[10:41] And we might be thinking, you know, that's pretty harsh. I mean, you know, maybe we get a little angry sometimes. And, you know, I mean, God, give the guy a break. You know, he got angry with your people, and for good reason.

[10:54] A bunch of stiff-necked people. And wouldn't follow his leadership. Wouldn't trust in God. And so he got angry. I mean, so big deal. Well, it was a big deal with God. And I guess the point we should get from that is that God has a high standard for those he has called and puts in places of leadership.

[11:15] To whom much is given, much is required. And Moses, much was given, and much was required. So Moses was able to look over into the promised land, but he was not allowed to step foot in the promised land.

[11:28] And so the book of Joshua is a book of character. And we begin with Moses. And then, second, of course, obviously, there's Joshua. Joshua.

[11:40] And, you know, the name that the book is named after would be Joshua. And then verse 1, let's just kind of look at that again. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun.

[11:59] He spoke to Joshua. Moses is now dead. Great leader. Continues to be revered. But he's not going to lead the people. Joshua is the heir apparent to the leadership of Israel.

[12:14] God's man. Chosen man. And he's the son of Nun. We don't really know anything about his father other than his name is Nun. And that is, by the way, how you pronounce it.

[12:27] What? Son of Nun. Okay, I'm sorry. I just ruined Wes's joke. But you have many other jokes. A whole repertoire of jokes that you could use.

[12:38] Anyway, where was I? Joshua's father was named Nun. We don't know anything about him. He's mentioned, other than being mentioned in relation to Joshua, he is mentioned only one other time in the kind of the lineage, the genealogy of Ephraim.

[12:57] The tribe of Ephraim in 1 Chronicles chapter 7 and verse 20, 20 to 29. Joshua's mentioned there. And Nun, his father is listed there. But that's really all.

[13:07] And we know, of course, that Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim. But what about Joshua? What about this man? What about his name?

[13:20] And perhaps you know these things, but I want to share them with you tonight. The name Joshua is Hebrew. Did you know that?

[13:30] Of course it is. And in the Hebrew Bible, it is usually spelled, well, I won't spell it in the Hebrew, but in English it would be not spelled, but pronounced, Yahashua.

[13:45] Or Yahashia. Sometimes it is spelled Yeshua. Yeshua. That's Joshua. And it means Yahweh saves.

[13:59] That's what the name Joshua means in the Hebrew. Yahweh saves. Or Yahweh delivers. It could be translated that way or defined that way. Yahshua.

[14:11] Yahweh, rather, saves. But Joshua was not his original name. Not his given name. His given name was Hashia.

[14:23] Hashia, meaning salvation. That's his given name. That's what his mom and dad gave him. Hashia. And it was Hashia all throughout his young adult and on into adulthood and even early on in his relationship with Moses.

[14:40] His name was Hashia. So, how did his name become Yeshua or Yahashia? How did it become that? Well, Moses changed it.

[14:51] Moses changed his name. And we have that account in Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13 is where Moses is being instructed by God to send out spies into the promised land.

[15:07] And a certain number of them. And he is to get the spies from one from each of the tribes. The 12 tribes. He says in verse 2 of Numbers chapter 13.

[15:19] Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.

[15:31] All right. So, he's to pick one from each tribe. And then when you go on down in the chapter in verse 8, you discover that from the tribe of Ephraim, Hashia. That's what the Bible says.

[15:42] Hashia, the son of Nun. So, he's still named Hashia then. Before he goes into the promised land to spy it out. And it's Hashia. But then in verse 16, the Bible says that Moses called Hashia, the son of Nun, Jehoshia or Yahoshia or Joshua.

[16:05] He called him Joshua. He changed his name. Well, really, technically, he added to his name is what he did. Now, why did Moses change his name? Well, we don't know.

[16:17] The Bible doesn't tell us exactly. We can come to some conclusions that I think are valid, apparently, because Moses saw something in this man.

[16:31] And not only that he saw something, but something was revealed to him by God. Something that God had revealed to him about this man. And not so much necessarily about his character, though his character certainly comes out very profoundly.

[16:47] On the pages of scripture, even before we get to the book of Joshua. But I think his character was what it was because God had chosen him. Specifically chosen him.

[16:58] I mean, Moses somehow knew that. And so, he changed his name. He saw that God, Yahweh God, would one day use Hashia to be a very special leader in the people of Israel.

[17:11] Now, just how much Moses knew, I don't know. He may have known it all. Maybe by then he did know. And so, what did Moses do? He added the name of God to Hashia.

[17:27] Yah, the name of God, added to Hashia, making it Yahashia. Yah, or Yeshua, the shorter version.

[17:38] And what does it mean? Well, we've already said what Yeshua means. It means Yahweh saves. Yahweh saves. Yahweh is salvation.

[17:49] He's the deliverer. All right, so that's his name. Second, his history. The history of Joshua. That is, I mean, his history prior to the book, what we find in the book of Joshua.

[18:07] The events that take place in this book. Joshua is first mentioned in the Bible as a military leader. We don't know what he was before. I think if you watch Cecil B. DeMille's version of the Ten Commandments, he was a stonemason of some kind, you know, very skilled in carving things.

[18:27] At least that's how he is portrayed in the movie. But the first thing we know about him is that he's a military leader and an exceptional one, I think.

[18:42] In fact, it's in Numbers, excuse me, Exodus chapter 17. And you can turn to that. Exodus chapter 17, verse 8. First time we hear about Joshua.

[18:58] All right, let me read, start with verse 8. Now, Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek.

[19:15] Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. Remember this story? It's one of my favorite ones. So Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek.

[19:29] And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek, the Amalekites, prevailed.

[19:42] But Moses' hand became heavy, so they took a stone, put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side.

[19:53] And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. So very clearly, he was a commander, a leader, a soldier, a military leader in Israel's army.

[20:12] That's the first time we hear about him. Later, in Exodus 33 and also in Numbers 11, we're told that Joshua was a servant or close aide of Moses.

[20:25] So he was a pretty important man in the leadership of Israel even at this point. Then Joshua, as aide, as a, quote, servant of Moses, Joshua was with Moses when he went up on the Mount of Sinai to receive the law.

[20:47] And you remember, Joshua went with him, went part of the way, and then Moses went the rest of the way. And Joshua stayed there faithfully. This is, by the way, just as a side note, really speaks to the faithfulness of Joshua because there's no telling how long he waited.

[21:04] Remember the people down in the camp, they waited so long, they thought Moses was dead. It had to have been a long, long time. Thought he was dead, and so you know what happened down in the camp.

[21:15] But Joshua stayed there, stayed there until Moses came down. Later on, after Israel again, once again had lapsed into idolatry, Moses met with God in the tent that was set outside the camp.

[21:29] And there was a reason for that because of their idolatry. God wasn't in the camp, he was outside the camp. And Joshua was with Moses when he met with God there. Still later, of course, he was one of the 12 spies sent into the Promised Land into Canaan.

[21:47] And you remember he and Caleb were the only two that brought back a report that was based upon faith, faith in Yahweh God. And therefore, Joshua and Caleb were the only two of that generation who were allowed to enter into the Promised Land.

[22:04] Even Moses was not allowed to enter in. So Joshua was a key person. Was he not? A great leader, commander, a soldier. And he'll prove himself in that way, of course, in the events of the book of Joshua.

[22:18] But he was also a close servant, aide, advisor, helper of Moses and was with him at some very key junctures in Moses' life, in the life of Israel.

[22:32] And so, really, you know, it's not any wonder. Just looking at it from man's perspective, there's no real wonder to it that God would use Joshua in this wonderful way to be Moses' successor and to be the courageous leader of Israel as they would enter into the land.

[22:50] The Bible says in Numbers 27, verse 18, And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, with you, a man in whom is the Spirit.

[23:01] This is quite a testimony to who Joshua was. A man in whom is the Spirit. And lay your hand on him. Set him before Eleazar, the priest, and before all the congregation.

[23:14] And inaugurate him in their sight. And you shall give some of your authority to him. That all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. At his word they shall go out.

[23:27] And at his word they shall come in. He and all the children of Israel with him, all the congregation. Joshua was God's man. He was God's man.

[23:38] Just before Moses' death, God called Moses and Joshua into the tabernacle. Called them in together. And the Bible says in Deuteronomy 31, verse 15, that the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud.

[23:52] And the pillar of cloud stood above the door of the tabernacle. And first God is going to say some things to Moses. And then in verse 23 of that chapter, Deuteronomy 31, God commissioned Joshua, the son of Nun.

[24:09] This is his official commissioning. And said, Be strong and of good courage, courageous, for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them.

[24:20] And I will be with you. This is official commissioning. And of course, we're going to see in the first chapter of the book of Joshua, God repeating this.

[24:32] Be strong and very courageous. You're going to repeat it several times in this chapter and we'll possibly talk about that next week. All right, so Joshua, that's his name, his history.

[24:44] Let me just say a little bit about his book. His book, the book, the book that goes by his name. It's titled, the title bears his name. Who wrote it?

[24:55] Do you care who wrote it? The book is not signed. All right, it does say these are the words of Joshua, the son of New.

[25:06] It's not signed in any traditional way. And so who wrote it? And I said, do you really care? I wasn't trying to be ugly or silly, but really we don't know and it doesn't really matter that much as long as you don't, you know, believe in some wild, crazy thing.

[25:25] Like some do. Some have supposed that Samuel wrote the book. That's one candidate. This is just for your enjoyment. That Samuel wrote it and there's not a lot of evidence to that possibility.

[25:44] Some say that Phinehas, Phinehas, you say who was he? Well, he was the son of Eleazar, the high priest. He is a prime candidate and it has some merit because he would have been an eyewitness and it seemed clear from the writing of the book the writer was there when these events took place.

[26:05] And Phinehas is also mentioned in the book. In fact, it's the last name mentioned in the book and so some have thought that maybe Phinehas was the one who did it. Liberal theologians, by the way, they would ascribe it to some unknown authors, Deuteronomists, they call them, and probably wrote as early as the 6th century B.C.

[26:24] and I'd just throw that one out. Anything that the liberals think they know, I'd just say they're probably wrong. Well, just do. I kind of know which way to go.

[26:37] If the liberals say this is what we believe then I think, well, it can't be that. Then it must be something else. But anyway. Others say that Joshua wrote it.

[26:49] Your pastor says that. Just like he says Paul wrote Hebrews too. Tom's not even listening to me back there.

[27:04] Yeah. No. Joshua did not write Hebrews. We do know that. We'll have to talk later about what you think about Joshua. Okay. I don't want to start a second level to our kind of disagreement, friendly disagreement.

[27:16] But I think Joshua did and there's a lot of evidence for that and we're not going to get bogged down in that. Jewish tradition, the Talmud, the Jewish Talmud names Joshua as the author of the book.

[27:29] And it does seem that the book was written shortly after the events happened so it was written by an eyewitness. Joshua 6.25 kind of indicates that.

[27:41] It's talking about Rahab the harlot and what she did for the spies and because of that because she hid the spies it says that so she dwells in Israel to this day.

[27:54] To this day. So it had to have been written near the timing of the events of the book of Joshua. So that doesn't necessarily mean that Joshua wrote it but at least he was a contemporary and it kind of points to that fact.

[28:07] And the unity of style in the book you know that's something that scholars look at when they're trying to determine an author and it suggests that one author wrote the bulk of it.

[28:19] Now of course Joshua didn't write about his own death. Someone else had to include that. But there is in one place the first person referring to Joshua and he and so forth and so that had to have been written by someone else.

[28:38] So perhaps some of it was written by Phinehas which is the second best guess. And I told you this was important right? So you just jot that down. The evidence I think supports Joshua as the author of the book and you can make up your mind for yourself.

[28:55] Alright so Joshua is a book of character. There's Moses there's Joshua but I would mention another and that would be Jesus.

[29:07] Well Jesus is not in here is he? I don't see his name anywhere but actually you do. Actually you see his name all throughout the book of Joshua. That's not referring to Jesus the Jesus of Nazareth not directly but indirectly and in the sense of a type an Old Testament type Jesus is here.

[29:29] Remember I mentioned that Joshua is the Hebrew name for Yeshua and it means Yahweh saves. That's what Joshua or Yeshua means. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament that's the Septuagint where 70 scholars took the Old Testament scriptures and translated it into Greek in that Greek translation they used the name Jesus for Joshua and do you know whose name that was in the New Testament?

[30:07] Jesus. Jesus is the Greek word for Jesus and do you know what the name Jesus means? Yahweh saves. it's the same.

[30:19] I mean that stands to reason. Yesus is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew name Yeshua or Joshua and so and I really believe this that Joshua is an Old Testament type of Jesus.

[30:35] And so Jesus is in this book as he is in every book of the Bible. That's what Jesus said. You read the scriptures and you think that you have eternal life in them but they are they that testify of me.

[30:49] Every book of the Bible testifies of the Lord Jesus. He's in every book. But he's clearly in Joshua in the sense that Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus the Greek name for Jesus.

[31:04] And he's a type. Joshua is Yahweh saves to God's people. Jesus is Yahweh saves to his people to us. Yeshua Joshua is the captain of God's people.

[31:20] And who is Jesus? Jesus. He's the captain the captain of our salvation. Hebrews 2.10 But also you ought to consider this and we'll maybe perhaps dig into this a little bit deeper later but Moses of course was a lawgiver.

[31:37] He's a lawgiver and now he's dead. And he was not permitted to lead Israel into the promised land. And if the promised land is a figure of the spirit-filled Christian life which I think it is then the law cannot lead us into the promised land.

[31:56] It cannot. Many who try to enter with the law but the law will never get you into the promised land. Galatians 3.11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident.

[32:09] The Bible says for the just shall live by faith not by the law. So Joshua then led the people of God into the promised land and they followed him by faith.

[32:20] So Jesus is our way into the promised land and he's our way through faith. Through faith. Alright so first Joshua is a book of character about character.

[32:33] Second Joshua is a book about continuation. continuation and it's important for us to see this in our study of the book of Joshua.

[32:45] This is not a separate story in the Bible. You know this is not a new story. The book of Joshua takes up where Deuteronomy left off and it does so almost seamlessly.

[33:02] You know it's difficult I mean it's not hard to see this. It's why some have you know kind of off the wall scholars have included it in the Pentateuch although then it's not the Pentateuch it's the Hextateuch but that it just kind of flows right on into Joshua.

[33:20] There's just hardly even any break. In fact there's no break historically or chronologically in time. And so the book of Deuteronomy then ends with the death of Moses and God's epitaph of his life and then the book of Joshua takes up from that point.

[33:40] Even the wording of the first verse sounds like the continuation of a story. After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass and then we have the book of Joshua.

[33:54] So Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses Joshua begins with after the death of Moses and then it came to pass. So the book of Joshua takes up where Deuteronomy leaves off.

[34:06] But also Joshua the book of Joshua takes up where well actually Joshua himself takes up where Moses left off. So there's a continuation very obviously there.

[34:18] God used Moses to lead Israel out of the bondage of Egypt and now he's going to use Joshua to lead them into the promised land to possess the land to actually conquer it and to possess it.

[34:33] So Moses is a symbol of deliverance Joshua is a symbol of victory victory in the promised land. But I go a step further all in all the book of Joshua is a continuation of the history of redemption history of redemption in the narrow sense the history of God's people through whom he's bringing redemption to the world or did bring it through them.

[35:04] And just think about it in this way you might want to jot this down in Genesis we have the election of a nation the nation of Israel that's what happens in Genesis rather Israel was born as a nation through the call and covenant of God given to Abraham and then given again to Isaac and then renewed again with Jacob who became Israel and so Genesis is the election of a nation Exodus we have the redemption of a nation they're redeemed Israel was delivered out of the bondage of Egypt and they crossed over the Red Sea and they were given God's holy law Leviticus in Leviticus we have the sanctification of a nation the sanctification of a nation Israel was instructed on how to worship God how to have a relationship of worship with him in view of his holiness his utter holiness in numbers we have the direction of a nation

[36:09] God directing a nation even in their wanderings it's a time of Israel's testing and they are numbered as a nation and so he's giving them direction and in that sense preparing them bringing them up closer to the brink of the promised land itself and then in Deuteronomy we have the instruction of a nation and it's full of instructions the law was reviewed in Deuteronomy and reiterated a number of times and the book itself closes with the assurance that Israel will possess the land and then Joshua we have the possession by the nation possession of the promised land Israel crosses over Jordan and they take possession of the land and you know really when you think about it I mentioned that Joshua is a continuation of Deuteronomy it's so key to our understanding of redemptive history the next book is the book of

[37:11] Judges and we would it would hardly make any sense to us without the book of Joshua I mean you can't just take up Judges and say we have the Judges of Israel and what's this they're already in the land we you know the history that's given to us in the book of Joshua is crucial critical to our understanding of God's redemptive plan through his chosen people Israel and all the way through to the New Testament alright so all of this is a testimony of the covenant keeping God God always completes what he starts what he has begun Philippians 1 6 being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ and that work is is Joshua is a part of that work and God is going to get it all done alright so Joshua is a book about character Joshua is a book about continuation and then one last thing Joshua of course is a book about conquest it's a book about conquest it certainly is that conquering the land

[38:20] Joshua said or God said rather to Joshua in verse 2 now therefore arise and go over this Jordan this Jordan river you and all this people to the land which I am giving to them the children of Israel and he says every place this is this great every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you as I said to Moses and then he said in verse 5 no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life he's speaking specifically of Joshua no man will be able to stand before you so while the land has been given it's theirs and there is no stopping that they must conquer it that's implied in verse 5 no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life so in our study of the book of Joshua we're going to see the accounts of some great battles we really are sorry ladies

[39:24] I know war movies are not your favorite war stories but we're going to deal with that and we're going to see God bringing great victory we're going to see some defeats victories and defeats but God proves his faithfulness over and over and over throughout the book of Joshua and he promised his people this land and God will not fail to fulfill his promise that said we need to understand we will revisit this a number of times in our study of Joshua that this is all a type of the Christian life it's a type of our Christian life the promised land is not a type of heaven I know many many have believed that over the years and that's been taught by many but it's not a type of heaven you know you know the old kind of saying you know when we speak of someone a Christian who's died they've stepped over the chilly waters of Jordan well it's not a type of heaven the promised land is a type of the spirit filled Christian life and so the spirit filled Christian life is ours by promise it's ours but it is ours also by possession that is we must possess it it must be conquered daily it's important to realize that Israel's ownership of the land was unconditional under the

[40:58] Abrahamic covenant it was unconditional it was promised it was theirs by right and God had promised it and it was his covenant with them and so it was theirs but possession of the land was conditional as we're going to see as we go throughout this book it was conditional upon what their ability to conquer the people no their faith conditional according to their faith and their obedience and so it is with the Christian life today conflict and conquest is what the Christian life is about conflict and conquest by faith laying hold of what we already have positionally in Christ that's what we need and will understand in the book of Joshua Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ praise the Lord it's our possession that's what that is but Ephesians 6 same author same book in Ephesians 6 we face the fact that there are enemies in our land and so what do we have to do according to

[42:17] Ephesians 6 verses 10 put on the whole armor of God and that suggests that this Christian life the spirit filled Christian life is one of right it's one of possession promised by God but it's one of conquering and conquest but not in our own strength but according to faith in fact I believe that's what Jesus means according to faith be it unto you so that's an introduction to the book of Joshua and next time we'll start with verse 1 and mine it for everything that it's worth okay Thank you.