• : Joshua Chapters
  • 6:
  • 1-5, 15-19, 24-25
  • 7:
  • 1-12
  • 23
  • , 24
  • The Walls of Jericho fall
  • Israel is defeated at Ai
  • "Accursed thing" among the Israelites
  • Joshua's farewell address
  • Joshua & Eleazar die
  • Discussion Questions

Joshua 6:1-5, 15-19, 24-25 (Orthodox Bible's verses are 1 behind)

What was Jericho and how did it fall?

A walled city held by the Canaanite peoples. It fell from the Israelites following God’s instructions regarding the blowing of the trumpets. Obviously, it wasn’t the trumpets that knocked it down, but God Himself.

Who is Rahab?

A prostitute that hid some of the Israeli spies who originally scoped out the city in chapter 2. She and her house were promised to be saved if she tied a scarlet cord down the window in which she had led the spies to escape.

In V. 18 (17), what are the “accursed things” that Joshua warns against taking?

  • “Accursed things” referred to as

“ܚܸܪܡܵܐ

in Aramaic/Assyrian, were items/property devoted to pagan gods. An example could be an altar or censer devoted to use for serving a pagan god. These items were often expensive, made with precious materials like gold or silver, like how the Tabernacle’s furnishings were, so Joshua warns against taking them because he knows the greed of the people would encourage them to do so.

This word’s root is the same one used to mean “anathema” which is often referred to as “ex-communication” today. But the word’s meaning here is different as discussed above.

For us today, any worldly desire that we CLING on to and therefore sin with or in, is an accursed thing to us. That’s why this word is used for ex-communication, because ex-communication only comes about when the Church sees someone CONTINUOUSLY living in sin or error, which causes harm not only to them but to the flock of the Church. We’ll see this in the next chapter.

  • EXTRA: ***REGARDING EX-COMMUNICATION***

Leviticus Week 2:

We saw Moses commanding someone to be put “outside of the camp” for bad cases of breaking the law, similar to St. Paul instructing the Corinthians in

  • 1 Cor. 5
  • to give someone “over to Satan for the
  • destruction of the flesh
  • , so that his

spirit can be saved…”

for a bad case of sexual sin. We discussed that ex-communication is not the Church sentencing someone to hell, but stopping them from attending Church and being a part of the flock so that they may repent. See

  • Leviticus Week 2

on the website.

  • Joshua 7:1-12

What happens in chapter 7?

The Israelites are defeated at a city named Ai after taking Jericho. Joshua cries out to God, who notifies him of the accursed things taken by some of the Israelites. The men who sin are revealed by casting lots, and they are all killed alongside their families and cattle.

What relationship have we seen so far with sin or disobedience to God, and what it results in?

There are consequences to sin, and they are bad ones. This is pretty-face level, right? What about looking at the negative consequences of sin for people who already know and profess to follow God?

Think about the severity of punishments that the complaining Israelites received, or Moses & Aaron for their error, or these men now.

Which is to say, we ALL have to be very careful about returning to sin, which God likens to this,

Proverbs 26:11

. We are Christian-faithful who are in the Church, so we have a 2-fold obligation to not live in sin; for ourselves and for the Church. Yes, God is gracious, forgiving, and loving, but we cannot falsely think that it gives us a license to sin. God is also righteous, a consuming-fire, and Judge. When we don’t cut out worldly obsessions from ourselves, it remains within the Church, and when it remains within the Church, then we don’t succeed as a Church.

Not succeeding as a Church means we are not saving souls!

So these O.T. stories about God’s righteous judgement should not make us scared minions, because we know from Sodom & Gomorrah, and the 2 times that God spared the Israelites because of Moses’s intercessions, that we constantly have a way to appeal to His overriding mercy and forgiveness.

What is that way? It is repentance, and repentance entails remorse for our sins, continuous prayer to God, like praying multiple times throughout the day, and FASTING, which is what we did with the Rogation of the Ninevites a couple weeks ago.

We will reach a point where we just talk about this, but recognize that sin brings consequences, and in reality, it’s just God allowing us to face the reality of our sins, rather than Him “punishing” us.

***We’re skipping ahead to chapter 23 now; in chapters 8-22, we read about more wars and all the 12 tribes entering the land and Joshua dividing it out to each tribe. One notable thing we skip is Joshua commanding the sun and moon to stand still during a battle (Joshua 10).

JOSHUA 23 HAS NO ADDITIONAL NOTES.

  • Joshua 24
  • LET’S CLARIFY A FEW THINGS FIRST FROM THE READING

V.2.—

The river is the Euphrates rivers, which runs down the middle of Syria and Iraq; Abraham was east of this river.

V.9.—

Balaam was a soothsayer that the Moab king Balak tried to have curse the Israelites in Numbers, but he was only able to bless them because God was with them. The donkey Balaam was riding when he was going to see Balak had its mouth opened by God, and it spoke to him

  • (Numbers 22)

V.12.—

The “hornet” that was sent before the Israelites is either literally wasps/hornets sent by God against the Canaanites, meaning it is something not explicitly recorded in the Bible, or it is symbolic of the fear the Canaanites had of the Israelites.

  • V.19.—
  • Like in
  • Exodus week 5
  • , the word
  • jealous

is used to describe God here, but zealous is a more correct translation.

What is Joshua doing in this chapter?

He is giving a “farewell address” to the Israelites as he prepares to pass away. In it, he reminds the Israelites what God has done for them, and gives warnings against turning away from the Lord and serving other gods, reminding them that there will be punishment if they do that.

This is similar to what Moses did in the last few chapters of Deuteronomy…

What should we realize from this pattern of the Israelites being told what God has done for them, and then being warned to not stray from Him?

We should realize that God doesn’t just show blessings and mercies, but there comes a time when He shows righteous judgement and wrath.

These recurring warnings the Israelites get aren’t a scare tactic, and they shouldn’t be seen as God being cruel to people if they choose not to obey Him. Even though they warn of punishment, that in and of itself is out of mercy and love, because God is both trying to steer you away from the damage sin causes to yourself, as well as warning you of the Divine consequence that occurs from forsaking God.

It’s like when our parents used to warn us about doing something reckless as kids; they didn’t want us to suffer the pain of an injury, but they also knew that their love for us would lead them to punish us so that we definitely don’t do it again.

So when we remember God the Father in this light, we should feel a sense of shame and conviction over our stubbornness, but under that conviction should be peace and comfort knowing that God is so incredibly patient with us that we cannot even fathom it.

It’s God’s will that he gives us an inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven just as He gave apportioned land for each tribe in the chapters we skipped. We see Christ declare this in

  • John 14:2-3

CONCLUSION

So we have now finished Joshua as well, and it’s fitting to revisit God’s promise to Abraham now, which we read in

  • Gen 12:1-4, 17:1-2, 5-8

It seems as if this promise has been fulfilled, right? Let’s do a checklist:

Make Abraham a great nation and make his name great

Yes, the Israelites are powerful in war through God, and their name strikes fear into the other nations

Bless those who bless Abraham, and curse those who curse him

Yes, Balaam was unable to curse the Israelites, blessing them instead, and speaking against Balak.

Multiply Abraham exceedingly

Yes, the Israelites are a few million people now, starting with Abraham as 1 person.

Will give all the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants

Yes, the book of Joshua details this.

So if the promise is fulfilled, why is Joshua book 6 out of 66 in the Bible? Why doesn’t it end here?

Because we didn’t look at these promises— “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” & that God will establish His covenant to be an “everlasting covenant.”

From here on out we will see a sort of “shift in the atmosphere”. These promises are spiritual ones, pointing towards something beyond earthly land and blessings, and the Israelites will not realize this, which will lead to them getting caught up in said earthly things.

As we near the Great Fast, let us not make the same mistake as them, but learn from them, as God intends for us to do.

  • This Week's Study

—Nothing!