Joshua: Conquest of Canaan

1
Joshua Conquest of Canaan

• Chapters 1-6, 10, 23-24

2
The Ark of the Covenant

• Exodus 25 describes the design for its
  construction. It was a sacred container
  containing.
• Stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments
• Aaron's rod
• A little bit of manna
• Gods presence was between the cherubim in the
  mercy seat (where he communicated with Moses
  (Exodus 2522)

3
The Tabernacle
Exodus 25-30 describes specific rules for its
construction. It was a mobile temple within
which sacrifices were carried out. The ark
rested in the Holy of Holies or The most holy
place. It was moved by the Levites from camp to
camp during their 40 years in the wilderness.
Solomon finally built a permanent temple to
replace the tabernacle.
4
The tabernacle in more detail
5
Holy War

• Under Ban
• Deuteronomist history offers one solution to the
  Canaanites presence extermination without
  mercy. Yahweh is characterized as a consuming
  fire, a jealous God (Deuteronomy 424)
• All Canaanites are placed under ban, an aspect
  of holy war in which the enemy is consecrated to
  the attackers God and, in effect, sacrificed to
  him. Allowing the Canaanites to live would make
  them a source of religious corruption.
• Deuteronomy 2-6 2 and when the Lord your God
  gives them over to you and you defeat them, then
  you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant
  with them and show them no mercy. 3Do not
  intermarry with them, giving your daughters to
  their sons or taking their daughters for your
  sons, 4for that would turn away your children
  from following me, to serve other gods. Then the
  anger of the Lord would be kindled against you,
  and he would destroy you quickly. 5But this is
  how you must deal with them break down their
  altars, smash their pillars, hew down their
  sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.
  6For you are a people holy to the Lord your God
  the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the
  peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured
  possession.

6
More Holy War

• Deuteronomy 2010-18
• 10When you draw near to a town to fight against
  it, offer it terms of peace. 11If it accepts your
  terms of peace and surrenders to you, then all
  the people in it shall serve you in forced
  labour. 12If it does not submit to you
  peacefully, but makes war against you, then you
  shall besiege it 13and when the Lord your God
  gives it into your hand, you shall put all its
  males to the sword. 14You may, however, take as
  your booty the women, the children, livestock,
  and everything else in the town, all its spoil.
  You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which
  the Lord your God has given you. 15Thus you shall
  treat all the towns that are very far from you,
  which are not towns of the nations here. 16But as
  for the towns of these peoples that the Lord your
  God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not
  let anything that breathes remain alive. 17You
  shall annihilate themthe Hittites and the
  Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the
  Hivites and the Jebusitesjust as the Lord your
  God has commanded, 18so that they may not teach
  you to do all the abhorrent things that they do
  for their gods, and you thus sin against the Lord
  your God.

7
Outline of Joshua

• 1 God Commissions Joshua
• 2 The spies and Rahab
• 3 Crossing the Jordan on dry ground
• 4 Commemorating the crossing
• 5 Preparing (Circumcision and Passover, a
  theophany)
• 6 The fall of Jericho
• 7 Sin of Achan
• 8 Capture of Ai
• 9 the trick of the Gibeonites
• 10 the sun stands still and the five kings
  defeated
• 11-12 Summary of the conquest
• 13-22 Distribution of the land
• 23-24 Joshuas messages to the people

8
Joshua 1 Commissioned

• Joshua 1 8-9
• This book of the law shall not depart from 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. 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.

9
Joshua as another Moses
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
Joshua 15b
Moses Joshua
Crossed Red sea on dry ground. Used rod. Theophony at burning bush. God promises to be with him Presents Gods law to the people at Sinai and Shittim Crossed the Jordan river on dry ground. Used the ark Theophony near Jericho. Meets commander of Gods army who promises victory. Presents Gods law to the people at Shechem
10
Joshua 2 Rahab, a harlot

• Some prefer to think of her as a hostess, one
  who keeps a public house, as if from the Hebrew
  word meaning to nourish.
• But, zonah means harlot, and not hostess. It
  signifies harlot in every other text where it
  occurs.
• Strangers from beyond the river might have stayed
  at the house of a harlot without suspicion or
  remark.
• The house of such a woman was also the only one
  to which they, as perfect strangers, could have
  had access, and certainly the only one in which
  they could calculate on obtaining the information
  they required without danger from male inmates.
• She outsmarts the spies and the people of her own
  town. She ends up saving herself and her family
  and becoming a very important woman in Israels
  history.
• She becomes part of the lineage to King David
  (and later to Jesus).
• The contracts the spies make with her is violates
  the covenant of Dt. 20.
• After the deal is made, the spies add further
  conditions.
• The spies report only what she has told them.

11
Joshua 3

• 4. Stay away from the ark, it is dangerously holy
• 8 13. Joshua and priests must stand in the
  water before it parts. Demonstrate faith.
• The water stood still for about 26 km (from their
  place to the city of Adam)
• Miracle of crossing safely through a body of
  water happens again (Noah, Moses twice, Joshua)

Illustration by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld's
For Die Bibel in Bildern (German), 1853
12
Joshua 5

• 2. A second circumcision because the children had
  not been circumcised in the desert. It is now a
  new generation
• 10. the Passover is celebrated.
• 13. Joshuas theophany further confirms his close
  relationship with the Lord.
• Removes sandals like Moses (on holy ground)
• The Heavenly army will be fighting with Joshua

13
Joshua 6 Jericho falls

• 16And at the seventh time, when the priests had
  blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people,
  Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.
  17The city and all that is in it shall be devoted
  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. 18As for you, keep away from the things
  devoted 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. 19But all silver and gold, and
  vessels of bronze and iron, are sacred to the
  Lord they shall go into the treasury of the
  Lord. 20So the people shouted, and the trumpets
  were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound
  of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and
  the wall fell down flat so the people charged
  straight ahead into the city and captured it.
  21Then they devoted to destruction by the edge of
  the sword all in the city, both men and women,
  young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.

14
Joshuas military conquests

• Joshuas military conquests begin at Jericho.

15
Watch Out

• Joshua 239-13
• God has been faithful. Now the people need to do
  their part.
• 9For the Lord has driven out before you great and
  strong nations and as for you, no one has been
  able to withstand you to this day. 10One of you
  puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord
  your God who fights for you, as he promised you.
  
• 11Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord
  your God. 12For 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, 13know 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.

16
Watch Out more

• Joshua 2314-17
• This seems like an overly optimistic view of what
  has happened.
• 14 And now I am about to go the way of all the
  earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all
  of you, that not one thing has failed of all the
  good things that the Lord your God promised
  concerning you all have come to pass for you,
  not one of them has failed.
• 15But just as all the good things that the Lord
  your God promised concerning you have been
  fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon
  you all the bad things, until he has destroyed
  you from this good land that the Lord your God
  has given you. 16If you transgress the covenant
  of the Lord your God, which he enjoined on you,
  and go and serve other gods and bow down to them,
  then the anger of the Lord will be kindled
  against you, and you shall perish quickly from
  the good land that he has given to you.

17

• 14 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. 15Now 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.
• 19 But Joshua said to the people, You cannot
  serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a
  jealous God he will not forgive your
  transgressions or your sins. 20If you forsake the
  Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn
  and do you harm, and consume you, after having
  done you good. 21And the people said to Joshua,
  No, we will serve the Lord! 22Then Joshua said
  to the people, You are witnesses against
  yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to
  serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.

18
Joshuas pillar at Shechem

• Some archeologists believe this could be the
  stone Joshua erected at Shechem to hear and bear
  witness to Yahweh's covenant with Israel (Joshua
  2426-28)
• 26Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law
  of God and he took a large stone, and set it up
  there under the oak in the sanctuary of the Lord.
  27Joshua said to all the people, See, this stone
  shall be a witness against us for it has heard
  all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us
  therefore it shall be a witness against you, if
  you deal falsely with your God.

19
The division of the 12 tribes
Notice that the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and
half of Manasseh are on the east side of the
Jordan River. They chose this land instead of the
promised land, but their soldiers still went to
help conquer the land of Canaan.