Joshua

The book of Joshua deals with the campaign of the Israelites onward towards the Promised Land as after several battles they do eventually cross the Jordan and enter into the Promised Land.  This they do under the leadership of Joshua who took the place of Moses who died before he was able to lead the people into the Promised Land.  Joshua's name in Hebrew is equvalent to the name of Jesus and both translate to say "the Lord is my salvation."  Thus, Joshua is a type of Christ.  Moses, who was a type of us, was stopped short and Joshua who is a type of Christ took over the work of actually getting people into the Promised Land in the same way that Christ will take over that same work for us because we don;t have the authority to lead people into the Promised Land.  In the campaign towards the Promised Land, you see several battles in which the Israelites drive out several established peoples before them.  They kill their kings and the families of the kings in order to keep the wicked nation from infiltrating the land.  This is symbolic of the fact that the power of darkness dwells tihin the realm of the life of the Spiritual Israel.  That power tries daily to drag the Christian away from seeking the presence of God.  Thus, it is important for one when they become a Christian to move the darkness out of the plane of which they reside upon.  I will elaborate more on this subject in a minute.  In chapter five we find a significant story of the tearing down of the walls of Jericho.  This occurred in its entirety on the seventh day, after the Israelites had been marching around the city for six days.  This passage in many ways ties in to fit exegetically in alignment with the millenial-day hypothesis which I introduced in my page on the book of Exodus and which is discussed in detail in my pages on Psalms and 2 Peter.   Chapter five also deals with the circumcision of the Israelites at Gilgal because they had not been circumcised in Egypt.  Joshua led the Israelites to keep a covenant that had to be very unfortable at least for the men to keep.  In the same way, Jesus will lead the Christian to keep the covenant that is difficult for them to keep. Chapter seven deals with sin in the camp as one man Achan stole the devoted things of the Israelite camp and the Israelites start suffering loss in battle.  Then, God reveals the sin of Achan to Joshua and tells him that before he can win anymore battles he has got to deal with Achan accordingly.  As Christians, there are so many ways we can follow in the path of Achan and steal the devoted things of our camp.  When one becomes a Christian, they devote their lives to Christ and submit to his will.  They can often times take devoted things in manners that would never dream about.  One example is through stealing the joy of other Christians whom are devoted to God as well.  This comes when Christians are blatant and cruel to other Christians and they refuse to love each other in spite of the command of Christ.  When one is guilty of stealing the devoted things, they need to be brought before the camp and dealt with accordingly.  Int he presence of the physical entity of the nation of Israel, Achan was stoned.  The Achan's of today need to be dealt with but not through the same manner because we are of a spiritual nation.  Thus, the best prescription of punishmnet is at least suspension of such a soldier from the leadership and in some cases expulsion is even necessary and fully acceptable.  Joshua 9 deals with the campaign of the Israelites as they march on.  In this passage, Joshua asks God to make the sun stand still for about a day.  God listens so that the Israelites can succeed in fighting out their enemies.  When one is living in the darkness, it takes the sun to expose what is coming against them.  God made th sun stand still in this case because the people the Israelites were marching against were indeed living in the darkness and thus they suffered for their choice.  Chapters 12-19 deal with the giving of allotment of the land among the Israelites.  Each tribe with the exception of the tribe of Levi was given a piece of land to live in.  Thus, they settled on different planes, but no plane was higher than the other except for Levi rising above the rest because their inheritance was the work of the Lord and in this sense the tribe of Levi which contained the priests is a foreshadow of Christians who share in the priesthood as believers.  In chapter 18, Joshua deals with 2 and a half tribes that have not yet taken possession of their land nand asks them what they are waiting for.  Often times as Christians, we waste time in taking possession of the things God wants to give us such as the fruits of the spirit by simply not responding to the fact that he has offered this and many great other blesings of spiritual abundance unto us.  Joshua deals with cities of refuge.  These were actually spoken about in Deuteronomy.  However, Joshua sets up six cities of refuge which people may go to if they had killed unintentionally.  This is representative of Christ who is the city of refuge for all in people in the world who unintentionally killed him because their eyes were blinded in regards to the truth.  The book of Joshua closes with Joshua giving final instructions to the people and reminding them of the wonders God has performed in bringing them to where they have come.  Joshua instructs them to choose whom they will serve.  The people respond that they will choose God and Joshua tells them that the stones present that day will testify against them if they do not hold to their word.  The book then concludes with the death of Joshua.