Issue #106 January & February 2020
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Free - Take One “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain ® deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8 Issue #106 www.livingspringsinstitute.org January & February 2020 In our last segment, we pretty well covered the the task was complete, the focus would be on obtaining the land necessary lead-in and facts about the Book of Joshua. Of course, God wanted them to have and living on it. This would mark in our introduction to Joshua I have emphasized how much he quite a change for the nation from the way they had lived. really is a prophet. Thus, while the book is not considered a prophecy book, it is the story about a man leading God's nation. God would also lay out the true boundaries of what that As long as Moses did this job, he did it to get them to where they land was. The first part mentioned is an area the nation hardly needed to go both in having the law and becoming a true nation, ever really owned in full, if ever. This in no way means God did as well as physically to the area they would call home. Joshua not intend for it to be so, the nation just never served God well now leads them into the land, but we should not forget how the enough to expand all the way to the boundaries that were to be nation only needed Joshua because they had not followed the theirs. The first part of this verse describes the far northern and path God wanted them to take 40 years earlier. Now the eastern area they were to claim. Lebanon is along the coast to nation was solidified and needed a man, much as the north before the land begins to turn and head west along the any prophet ever was, to lead them Mediterranean coast. Israel's land was to go more to the east at through the specific steps of getting on that point and head toward Mesopotamia. This is actually track and being everything God to say they were to own the route Abraham and his wanted them to be. In a nutshell, father originally took from Mesopotamia that's what the Book of Joshua is all to get to the promised land in the about, and as we begin our beginning. This was an important overview of the verse by verse of trade route and continued to be so this book I hope we can see it for centuries. Even empires longed from that perspective, for it is to control this area of land, so if from that perspective the book Israel could have one day claimed it, is seen in its fullness. that would have been quite an asset! The middle of the land is not so much Verse 1 of Joshua specified, but there is no need to because chapter 1 specifies that it was Part LXII it’s been very obvious that area of the after the death of Moses that God came promised land between the Jordan and the to Joshua. This by no means is to say God had not By Philip E. Busby Mediterranean would be the core of the spoken to Joshua before this time, but it is here that Joshua land. So it is only said they would have land becomes the true leader. Until the moment Moses was truly to the setting of the sun on the coastline to the gone, Joshua, in spite of being anointed as the new leader, was Dead Sea. This means just how far south they would still “under,” Moses. Now Moses was out of the picture and it go down into territory they had traveled across on their way to was time for the full weight of his job to rest on Joshua. God where they now were, was something open to them and for them. would come directly to Joshua to get started, and God tells Joshua the specific job he was to accomplish. That job was Next, God confirms to Joshua that He will be with him taking the nation to the west side of Jordan. They had already in the same way He was Moses. As Israel goes into battle, none claimed much land on the east side, and that was all land God of the people standing in their way from taking this land would would one day have instructed the nation to take, but the real be able to stop them. By making the comparison to Moses, God focus was always to be on the land west of Jordan. In verse 3 we is also showing Joshua a truth he should already be so aware of. are given the fact God intended to give the nation all the land That truth was that when the people refuse to follow God and they set foot on. This is an interesting point in that it means His instructions that will cause trouble, but as long as God's Joshua's job would be to lead the nation only in the places God words were followed, they will simply sweep aside all those wanted to give them. What this emphasizes is that the days of who would resist them. Thus, God encourages the nation to be the nation wandering for any reason was over! From here until of good courage and trust in His ability to bring them into and P.O. Box 271, Loveland, CO 80539 (970) 593-9468 Copyright © 2020, Living Springs 1 give them this land He promised their fathers. He also and even point to the fact they were aware Israel was the nation specifically warns them to remember the one stipulation to for whom God had dried up the Red Sea to allow them to cross. receiving this blessing was/is to heed the Law as it was laid out They were also very aware of how Israel had easily defeated and by Moses. This means the Law would not be a living, changing totally destroyed the kings on the east side of Jordan. Here, after thing but a consistent Law to be followed year after year, four long decades of travel, the stories of what God had done for generation after generation. If the nation would do this, God Israel had not died but came to be widely known. This brought would always be with them in all the things they did and in all true fear to the people, and a knowledge that anything the God the places they went. Joshua is therefore reminded to meditate of Israel wanted to give unto the nation would be given! upon the Law, because it is one thing to follow some tradition or ritual you feel you know but another to actually know the This woman knew Israel's taking of the land was Law for one's self. The Law tells one how to do things right and inevitable, so she asks that they show kindness to her and her why. That is what God wants Joshua to be reminded of from the family. She had helped them, and she asked only mercy in very beginning. God then asks the question, was it not true it return. They would swear to her that what she asked would be was He Who had told the nation to be strong? The fact God done, and they would spare the lives of her immediate family. would bring about what needed to be done was not an After this she let them down by a scarlet cord from the window interpretation of a prophecy which made people think this is of her house, which was on the wall of the city, and told them what they were to do. The nation had been given a direct where to go in order to hide until the king's men returned from commandment to do all these things and God would prosper looking for them. They would instruct her that when the armies them in doing so! of Israel returned, she was to put that same scarlet cord out of her window as a sign of where she was so as not to be killed in So we are told Joshua wastes no time, but goes directly the battle. They made it very clear her family was to stay in the to the officers to tell them to prepare the supplies they need to house. Israel would not be accountable for any one of them who go over the Jordan. He would give them three days and then left the door of her house, but if they stayed they'd be spared as they would set out to do what God had commanded. Joshua also long as they kept all they knew without warning anyone Israel reminds the three tribes who had desired to own land on this side was coming. Of course, the woman would promise and of Jordan, that they had promised they would send their men remember to put the cord from her window. So the men went out with the nation to fight alongside their brothers in taking the to hide until the king's men had given up looking for them, and land on the west side of Jordan. They could leave their animals, then they would return to Joshua to report what they had found. wives, and children, but the men would go over and fight until the land God was to give the nation had been claimed for the use As the men return, we see a scene being replayed from of the tribes who had not been given land.