Well, another semester starts at Palomar, so it’s time to get back to what we were covering last spring. We have been going through each book of the Bible, providing a quick overview of it in the hopes that someday you will feel comfortable enough with the Bible to tackle reading the entire book. Since this is the foundational book for the entire Western world, that’s a great incentive to get started with that reading goal.
Let’s start now with a look at Joshua. This book begins the second division of the Old Testament, the books of history. The first five, called the Pentateuch, explain how Israel was organized as a people of God under the Mosaic covenant.
The next set of books look at the history of Israel in terms of that covenant. Joshua begins where Deuteronomy leaves off—the Israelites are east of the Jordan River waiting to enter their promised land. At this time (somewhere between 1400-1250 B.C.) the superpowers of the area, Egypt and Babylon, were weak, which allowed for the freedom of smaller nations like Israel to conduct their own campaigns. By the way, there is archeological evidence of the Israelites entering and attacking peoples there.
The book follows the crossing of the Jordan and the successful attack on Jericho (chapters 1-6), the attacks on southern cities (7-10), the later attacks on northern cities (11), a summary of all that happened (12), a division of the land to the tribes (13-22), and a farewell by Joshua (23-24).
Focus on the land is paramount in the story; the early chapters tell of possessing the land, the middle chapters explain the division of the land, and the concluding chapters discuss how to retain the land. The conclusion with its warning of necessary obedience to God ties in well with the following book, Judges.
Even though one may get a feeling of complete victory after reading Joshua, it’s important to know for reading the next book that the Israelites had only a foothold when the book ends. Many strongholds remain in enemy hands.
Many criticize what they call genocide here as the Israelites try to wipe out the Canaanites. But it’s important to realize several things—these people were being punished for sin (the Canaanites were terrible people who conducted child sacrifice and other horrible acts), the Israelites themselves were often punished by God for their own sins, the Canaanites were given the opportunity to surrender and live peaceably with the Jews, the language of Joshua may be hyperbolic (overdramatic word choice) because we see future chapters talking about the Canaanites who were still there.
