This week we have the arduous task of covering Joshua and Judges. There is so much in both of these books we could spend a year studying only these two amazing books of the Bible!
Joshua's name literally means "The Lord will save". In Greek, the name is equivalent to "Jesus". This book records the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 to give his offspring the land. This promise is fulfilled and written of in Joshua 21:43-45:
43 So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. 45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.
The journey into the Promised Land can be broken down into four areas:
- Cross the Jordan (1:1-5:12)
- Take the Land (5:13-12:24)
- Divide the Land (13-21)
- Serve the Lord (22-24)
The book ends with Joshua saying (Joshua 24:15):
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Unfortunately we see in the next book of the Bible, Judges, that the people do not follow Joshua's command.
In Judges, God used judges (military leaders) to deliver His people out from the judgment of their sin. A key theme throughout Judges is disobedience results in judgment. A perfect verse to highlight the state of the people is Judges 17:6:
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
The whole book can be summarized in Judges 2:10-19.
The people follow a pattern of relapse into sin, ruin, repentance, restoration, and ruin.
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