Joshua (יְהוֹשׁוּעַ – Yehoshua – ‘the LORD is salvation’) followed the ‘Commander of the Lord’s armies’ (Joshua 5) into battle as Israel entered the ‘promised land.’ What Israel accomplished militarily in a short period of time is an amazing feat, but knowing that the Lord went before them to win the battles against many cities and nations helps us understand how an army of the children of slaves could do it.

Joshua’s Victory

I recommend you read the entire Book of Joshua to see for yourself how the children of Israel defeated the pagan nations that had caused their parents great fear only 40 years earlier (Numbers 13). They trusted God, followed Joshua, and were victorious. Joshua chapter 12 lists all of the kings that Israel conquered under Moses and Joshua.

Joshua grew up in Egypt and had seen the power of God in liberating Israel from slavery. Joshua served Moses and God during 40 years in the wilderness. He led Israel into the promised land after the death of Moses. Joshua won many battles, but finally came to the end of his time on earth.

And the Lord said to him: ‘You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.’ Joshua 13:1

Joshua divided up the conquered land among the tribes according to God’s direction (Joshua chapters 13 – 21) and also set up special ‘cities of refuge’ (Joshua chapter 20).

So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. Joshua 21:43-45

Joshua’s Summary and Warning

Joshua chapters 23 and 24 are what I call ‘summary/warning’ chapters. Joshua addressed the tribes of Israel prior to his death. He reminded them of how God called a pagan family that included Abraham and his father Terah from ‘the other side of the River.’ God called Abraham to Canaan and multiplied his descendants, including Isaac and Jacob.

Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. Also I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out. Joshua 24:4-5

Joshua summarized the great things God had done for Israel and warned them against turning to ‘other gods.’

Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. Joshua 23:6-8

Joshua also spoke these words, which are familiar to many Christians:

Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ Joshua 24:14-15

Joshua died at the age of 110. The children of Israel buried him ‘within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash’ (Joshua 24:30). The children of Israel buried the bones of Joseph which they had brought from Egypt. They buried him at Schechem in the plot of ground that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor many centuries earlier (Joshua 24:32). Israel also buried Eleazar the son of Aaron.

Judges’ – Summary and Warning

As we saw earlier, God told Joshua ‘there remains very much land yet to be possessed.’ We learn about what Israel did about that after Joshua died in the Book of Judges. Judges begins with both a summary and a warning. The children of Israel asked God who would be first to fight the Canaanites. God answered – ‘Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand’ (Judges 1:2). Remember that the Seed of the woman that God promised Eve in the Garden of Eden would come through the Tribe of Judah, so it’s important to see that God chose Judah to be first to fight the Canaanites and promised them victory.

The leaders of the Tribe of Judah approached the leaders of the Tribe of Simeon and asked for their help in fighting the Canaanites. Judah promised Simeon that they would ‘likewise go with you to your allotted territory’ (Judges 1:3). Simeon agreed and both tribes were successful in their battles.

Then Judah went up, and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek … And Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Also Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.’ Judges 1:4, 17-18

Unfortunately, those are the highlights. Other tribes of Israel failed to complete the conquest of the land as God had told them. They included Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan. The tribes did place some of the Canaanite people ‘under tribute to them,’ but they did not finish the work God had sent them to do. How did the Lord respond to their disobedience?

Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: ‘I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you. And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.’ So it was, when the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept. Judges 2:1-4

Israel’s Thorns and Snares

The story of Israel’s life in the ‘promised land’ is not a happy one. The children of Israel ‘did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger’ (Judges 2:11-12). The anger of God was ‘hot against Israel, so He delivered them into the. hands of plunderers ‘who despoiled them.’ God ‘sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed’ (Judges 2:14-15).

God raised up ‘judges’ who would deliver Israel out of the hands of the pagans who plundered them. However, Israel ‘played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them.’ When the people groaned and cried out to God, the Lord would raise up a judge who would deliver them. However, when the judge died the children of Israel ‘behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.’

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You can download the first 13 chapters of this series here.

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You can download chapters 25 – 30 of this series here.

Next Time

That pattern continued for centuries, as you will read in the rest of the Book of Judges. The first two steps in ‘training to reign’ are –

  1. Believe in the Only True God (Monotheism)
  2. Fear God and Obey Him

Israel failed to do either consistently for hundreds of years, yet we know that God had an eternal plan for Israel. What would the Lord do to bring Israel out of the terrible pattern of wickedness we find in the pages of the Book of Judges? We’ll see in the next part of our special series – Train to Reign.

“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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