Walk Through the Bible: Joshua
Text for Sermon: Joshua 1:5-9; 11:23
The five books of Moses, the Torah, all anticipate the fulfillment of God’s promise made to Abraham 500 years before in Genesis 15.
Joshua is the story of God’s faithfulness to His covenant promise as He leads His people into the Promised Land. We can take God at His Word and trust His unchanging character.
Joshua is about that nation receiving the Promised Land, about taking possession of the promise, about victory and glory.
After the first five books of Moses, called the Pentateuch, we transition to the historical books of the OT and the book of Joshua. Joshua is a continuation and culmination of the story of Genesis and the covenant promises of God.
As Acts is the bridge linking the Gospels and the Epistles, so Joshua is the bridge linking the Pentateuch with the rest of the histories, a link between promise and fulfillment. This is a hinge book, a pivotal book between the first 5 and the next 33. It closes one chapter and opens another chapter.
The book begins by mentioning the death of Moses and Joshua stepping in to fill the shoes of Moses.
We mainly remember the book of Joshua for the Rahab story and the great story of the fall of the wall of Jericho. And there is the great quotable quote used in graduation speeches, “be strong and courageous,” or the quote on the walls of many Christian homes, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
But between those two verses are 24 chapters that are a challenge to the modern Christian.
The author of the book is Joshua, whose name means Yahweh saves. Its Greek equivalent is Jesus, which means He will save his people from their sins.