Joshua 1

7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. 9 I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 2

[10:10 am, 03/06/2022] Sean Rodrigues: Today we read the story of Rahab who aides and protects the Israelite spies, because she has been given Faith in the Lord of Israel, from hearing about his mighty miracles in the land. She is praised by the author of Hebrew as “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” (11:13)
Thanks be to God
[10:11 am, 03/06/2022] Sean Rodrigues: and as we might already know, she is incorporated into the very lineage of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Joshua 5

“13 Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us or one of our adversaries?” 14 He replied, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, “What do you command your servant, my lord?” 15 The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Joshua 9-11

I’ll also take Joshua 9-11 together, because these are mainly the wars of conquest of Canaan. Use the arrow keys on the website to move the chapters forward. Chapter 10 contains the famous incident of the Sun and Moon standing still in the sky until Joshua completes his rout of the five kings’ armies.

Following the initial wars in Numbers, there are further battles that follow the crossing of the Jordan and the destruction in Jericho, particularly in Joshua 10 with the famous incident of the sun and moon standing still until Joshua has the armies of the “Five Kings of the Amorites”, including Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem (vv.10:3,5,12-14). Following that there is herem warfare upon Makedah (v.28), Libnah (v.10), Lachich (v.32), Gezer (v.22), Eglon (v.34), Hebron (v.37), Debir (v.39) as it is summed up “So Joshua defeated the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings; he left no one remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded” (v.40)
Chapter 11 of Joshua continues in the same vein in the Israelites’ dealings with the kings of Northern Canaan (vv. 8, 11, 14, 19-22).
Chapters 12-21 are all to do with the territory and how it was divided among the tribes of the Israelites.

Joshua 22

If this chapter is hard to understand then the answer is in v.28, basically these three tribes whose land was on the other side of the Jordan (Trans-Jordanian tribes), built an altar purely as a copy of the actual Tabernacle so that their own descendants would know that they were one people with and worshipped the same God as the rest of the tribes and not for any ulterior motive.

“Dabaq”- דָּבַק (to cling, to cleave, to hold close) is a rich word and is used in the context of us “clinging to” the Lord, in which sense it is used in other places like Deut.10:20, 11:22, 13:4, 30:20, Joshua 23:8, as well as the famous Gen.22:8 “a man…shall cling to his wife”, and Ruth 1:4 when also famously Ruth clung faithfully in love to Naomi, and thereby was given to be one of Jesus’ ancestors:

Joshua 23

[8:01 am, 12/06/2022] Sean Rodrigues: “11 Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God. 12 For if you turn back and join the survivors of these nations left here among you and intermarry with them, so that you marry their women and they yours, 13 know assuredly that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the Lord your God has given you.”
[8:02 am, 12/06/2022] Sean Rodrigues: Have a blessed Sunday, thanks be to God.
[8:28 am, 12/06/2022] Sean Rodrigues: I can find four instances where the Israelites are commanded to love God:

Deuteronomy 10.12:
So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Joshua 22.5:
Take good care to observe the commandment and instruction that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, and to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.’
Joshua 23.11:
Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God.
Isaiah 56.6:
And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
and hold fast my covenant—

4 “Now, therefore, revere the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. 15 Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”