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One of the reasons why I think that these overviews can be good for us, it's that sometimes when we just look at individual stories, we kind of lose the big picture of the context of the entire book in which these stories are found. And not only that, but just it can serve as a review for people who even know these stories just to be reminded of these things and to help us to know where to find things in our Bible because a lot of times situations come up or we're talking to somebody and something comes to mind, we want to be able to know where to find things in the Bible and it's good to just have an idea of how the Bible is laid out, what's in the book of Joshua, what's the book of Joshua about, and you can take a step back in an overview like this and kind of get the big picture as opposed to taking a microscope to just one verse or two verses, kind of get the big themes of the book. Now the book of Joshua, and I've already done Genesis through Deuteronomy kind of as a part of this series if you want to call it that because it's not every week or anything, it just kind of is whenever we feel like it, but in the book of Joshua we've got at first in chapter one this introduction where God is giving instructions to Joshua and you really get a big part of the theme of the book from these first instructions that Joshua has given. Moses has just died at the end of the book of Deuteronomy and Joshua is now in charge. He's picking up the mantle and he's got some pretty big shoes to fill and he's about to lead the children of Israel into the promised land, okay, because if you remember they'd been slaves in Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea and they left Egypt. They were supposed to go in the promised land 40 years ago but they ended up not having faith and so they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Now finally 40 years later it's a new generation and Joshua has been ordained to lead them into the promised land. Now look at verse number six of Joshua chapter one it says, be strong and of a good courage and these two instructions to be strong and to be of a good courage are going to be repeated over and over again because this is the major theme. For unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them only be thou strong and very courageous, there it is again, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, this is probably the most famous verse in the book of Joshua. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. So the instruction keeps hammering this point, be strong and of a good courage, be strong and of a good courage. Now Joshua has this difficult task ahead of him because the land of Palestine, the promised land, it's already filled with nations who already live there and many of these nations are somewhat powerful and they have chariots of iron, they have great militaries and they have walled cities, the Hivites and the Jebusites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, all these different groups are there and God has determined that these people are super wicked, they've done all kinds of abominations and perversions and just horrible horrific things that are described in Leviticus chapter 18, Leviticus chapter 20 and so God has slated these people for annihilation and so the children of Israel are going to come in and bring judgment upon these existing nations who have become so incredibly ungodly and then they're going to dispossess them of their land and they're going to take over the promised land. And so this is a big job because there's a lot of fighting involved, I mean it's a military conquest that's going to take years and so you can see how someone like Joshua could be daunted by the task of going in and fighting all these battles but here's what you have to understand, it's not a difficult task, it's an impossible task, it's literally impossible for Joshua to lead these ragtag troops from the wilderness into the promised land and fight these Canaanites on their own turf and win against these walled cities and iron cherries, it's just not happening. But it is going to happen through the power of God because with men it's impossible but with God all things are possible and this is why the only skill that Joshua really needs to have is just doing what God told him to do and just not getting scared, don't panic, just do what I told you to do, be strong and of a good courage, look I've commanded you, I'm going to do it, I promise to give you the promised land, that's why it's called the promised land, and I am going to get you to the finish line but you just have to stay with me. Don't fear, don't panic, don't quit because why did they fail 40 years ago? They feared, they didn't have the faith and so that's why this instruction is hammered over and over again because it's really the only thing Joshua needs to do is just do what he's told and not panic. He doesn't need to be a brilliant military tactician or an incredible warrior or trainer of combat, right? He just has to do what he's told and have faith and you know that's a lot like the Christian life obviously. We need to obey the Lord, we need to follow God's commandments and just not fear. Just trust that the Lord is going to guide us through life and that if we acknowledge him in all our ways, he shall direct our paths and so fear is the enemy today in our lives just as much as fear was the enemy in Joshua's day. And not only fear but also weakness because it's be strong and of a good courage, right? So we don't want to get weak and just quit, get lazy, give in, faint in our minds. No we need to stand firm, be strong, don't flinch, have faith, have courage and God will get us to the destination. So Joshua gets these important instructions and that's really a theme for the whole book of Joshua because the conquest is going to be the work of God not just the work of a powerful military or something like that. It's all going to be done through the power of God. So then we have Joshua give instructions to the people. So the first part of chapter one is God instructing Joshua. Now Joshua's instructions to the people aren't very complicated. You know look at verse 11, he says, "'Pass through the host and command the people saying, "'Prepare you vittles, for within three days you shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it.'" So the instruction is pretty simple at this point. It's just head them up, move them out, let's go, right? Just let's go, pack your stuff and in three days we're crossing the Jordan River. Okay, and then here's the people's answer. Look down at verse 16, and the answer Joshua is saying, "'All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go." Because they don't want to make that same mistake that was made 40 years ago. According as we hearken unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee, only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses. You know, we want to follow you as long as the Lord's with you. Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not hearken unto thy words, and all that thou commandest him he shall be put to death, only be strong and of a good courage. Now notice, the people have obviously heard the instruction that Joshua heard. And so they're reiterating that to Joshua, because they're reiterating, hey, be strong and of a good courage. Because of course, God did not speak directly to Joshua. When the Bible says in Joshua chapter one, the Lord said to Joshua, you know, God spoke directly to Moses, but Moses is kind of the only one of the major prophets where God spoke them directly. That typically doesn't, usually God's speaking through some kind of a prophet, okay? And so the Bible will often just, as a shorthand, will say God said to so and so, but a lot of times he's doing that through an angel or prophet, some kind of a messenger. And so the people probably heard that injunction, or maybe he has passed it along to them. But they are saying, look, just like God told you not to be scared, we're telling you the same thing. Hey, be strong and of a good courage. Let's do it. So here's what you get from that final verse. Everybody's on the same page. You know, Joshua, the people, God, everybody's in agreement. They're on the same page. This is ready to move forward into chapter two. Now one thing I want to quickly point out before we get into the rest of the book is that you could also take a symbolic view of the book of Joshua. And obviously the things in the book of Joshua really happened. Of course, this is an actual history of what happened. But there's also an allegorical interpretation that is, you know, another layer of meaning here. And really there are so many layers that we could spend the rest of our lives reading the book of Joshua and keep finding more because the Bible is so deep. But of course, the name Joshua, in case you're not aware of this, is the Old Testament version of the name Jesus. So that when you're in the New Testament, any verse that talks about Joshua in the New Testament actually calls him Jesus. So in Acts chapter seven, when reference is made to Joshua, it says they went with Jesus into the Promised Land. But that's just because names in the Old Testament are in their Hebrew version, and then they get moved into the Greek version. So Elisha becomes Elisias, Elijah becomes Elias, and Isaiah becomes Esaias, right? You've probably noticed that when you're reading the New Testament that people's names are spelled a little bit differently. But it's kind of interesting that Joshua's name ends up getting spelled Jesus in the New Testament. Now the modern versions will just change it to Joshua. So you'll be reading Acts chapter seven or Hebrews chapter four, and it'll just put Joshua. Which okay, it is Joshua that we're talking about, but the reason why the KJV leaving it as Jesus is superior is because now you learn as the reader, because the context makes it clear that it's Joshua in Acts seven. And then you kind of put two and two together and realize, oh, Joshua and Jesus are the same name. Why? Because Joshua is a great picture of Jesus. So this is what I mean about like a symbolic or allegorical interpretation for the book of Joshua is that Joshua represents Jesus. See Moses represents the law, right? The law was given by Moses. And if you think of it as a salvation allegory, you know, Moses can't get them into the Promised Land because they come short. They've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So the law can't get us saved, right? Moses can't get them into the Promised Land. Who does get them into the Promised Land? Jesus, right? Jesus does what Moses can't do. Jesus does what the law can't do. Okay. And so, and what do they have to do? They really just have to just trust God and he's going to do the work, right? And so obviously no allegory is perfect. No symbol is perfect, but there's a lot that you can do with that allegory. And I already did a sermon called Jesus and the book of Joshua where I explored a lot of that, but today we're going to focus more on just kind of the surface interpretation, but I'm just putting that out there that there's another way to read the book of Joshua where you're thinking about Joshua as Jesus and you can be even more enriched by that. But anyway, back to what we're saying. So in Joshua chapter one, we've got this prologue, introduction, instructions are given. Now chapter two, we roll into the story about the two spies and Rahab the harlot says in chapter two verse one, and Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly saying, go view the land, even Jericho. Now here's what's funny. Everything went bad the first time 40 years ago because they sent spies into the land to check things out and see how things were. And the spies came back and 10 of them gave an evil report and said, we checked it out and this is impossible. We can't do it. We're going to be destroyed. It's a bad idea. And then two spies were good. Caleb and Joshua. Caleb and Joshua came back and said, you know, what in the world? God's going to give us the victory here. Let's do this. And so that's what destroyed everything where the 10 bad spies, the 10 spies died. And of course the children of Israel punished by having to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Well, what's kind of funny is that this time they just send two spies. It's almost like, Hey, we're only sending the two good guys this time. Not the 10 idiots, right? Even though it's two different people, but there's a little bit of symbolism there. So they send these two guys and these two guys, man, they are the exact opposite of the first spies. These guys don't really accomplish a lot on their recon trip. Okay. These two guys are sent out, go view the land, even Jericho. They went and came into a harlot's house named Rahab and lodge there. Interesting choice of accommodations. But anyway, they go there and they, they basically, they show up and they spend the night and she hides them and the authorities come because somehow they were detected coming in and she says, no, no, they went that away. And she lies for them and, and, and basically sends the troops going the wrong way. She hides them on her rooftop and she has this conversation with them in chapter two where she tells them, you know, we know that God is with you guys. We heard about what happened in Egypt, even though it was 40 years earlier. You know, she's saying, look, you guys have a reputation because we know about God parting the red sea. We've heard things about that. We've also heard about how in the wilderness you defeated these two great Kings, Sihon and Ogg. And so all of the hearts of the people of Canaan are melting right now. They're scared because of you. And so, Hey, I just hid you guys. I just helped you guys out. So do me a favor and spare me and my family. You know, when you come through here and kill everybody, don't kill us. And so they make an agreement with her that anybody who's inside the house when they attack Jericho is going to be safe and she has to put this scarlet thread outside of her house. Her house is on the wall, so her house is part of the wall, basically. She lives on the wall. And so there's a red thread that she's going to put out, a red cord that she's going to hang out the window. And that basically is the sign. This is Rahab's house. Don't kill anybody here. And anybody who's inside the house is safe. And of course, this probably is ringing some bells with you, a similarity to Passover, right? Because in the Passover, everybody has to be in the house and they put the blood on the doorpost. What color is blood? Of course, red. The blood on the doorpost and anybody who's inside the house is safe. And of course, both of these things picture the blood of Jesus, okay? And so she and her household are going to be spared because of this. But here's what I think is so funny about this. And there's so many things in the Bible that are funny. The Bible is such an entertaining book to read. And thank God, if God wants us to read the Bible every day, he gave us such a great book to read. Not only is it filled with spiritual truth and wisdom, but it's also just entertaining to read because it's just that good. And there's a lot of funny little things. But here's what's funny is they're supposed to spy out the land and they're supposed to spy out Jericho. They talk to one person and then go home. That's pretty much what they accomplished on this recon trip. They do very little, okay? Now what's funny is that the original spies did too much. They went beyond their mandate. They were supposed to come up with just recon for doing the conquest, but then they exceed that by coming back and giving their opinions about whether it's even possible, which wasn't really their job, okay? These guys kind of underperform. But that's good because God's going to do it all anyway. It's all about just trusting in the Lord. They pretty much just show up and talk to one person. And when they come back to Joshua, what do they report back from their spying trip? Just what that one person told them. Hey, we talked to this really reliable source, okay? She's a harlot. Don't let that bother you, but we talked to Rahab the harlot and she says that we got this. I mean, she says that we can win it. You know, she says that everybody's scared and we got this. Oh, well, case closed. But here's what's so beautiful about this is that it fits in perfectly with the theme of the book. This isn't about how well they can strategize militarily. It's about God doing it, okay? And again, if you want to switch over to allegorical mode for a second, you can think about this, how obviously the scarlet thread out the window represents salvation. Why did God pick a harlot? Because it's a weird place for them to end up crashing. But obviously God picked a harlot because it's a symbol of salvation and he's showing that even a sinful person can be saved, right? Because obviously a harlot is a morally bankrupt type person, right? It's low on the scale of morality right there. And so he's picking a very sinful person, but hey, did she get saved here by reforming her life? Did they tell her, look, you got to put a scarlet thread out the window and you got to promise never to be a prostitute again. Is that what they told her? No, because salvation is by grace through faith. She trusts, she puts the scarlet thread, she's spared physically, but it represents a spiritual salvation. Not only that, but basically she then is able to give good news to them in a sense by telling them, hey, you're going to win. We're scared. And then they pass that on to Joshua. So it's not a very traditional recon by any stretch of the imagination. So anyway, that's a great story that kind of needs its own sermon, the Rahab the Harlot story. So I don't want to spend too much time on that because that needs its own sermon. But anyway, they come back, they tell Joshua what they heard from Rahab the Harlot. So then in chapter three is when they actually cross the Jordan River and they're actually coming into the promised land proper. And God actually miraculously parts the Jordan River for them just as he had earlier parted the Red Sea for Moses. And part of this shows that God is with Joshua just like he was with Moses. And so at this time, look if you would at verse 15, and as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water for Jordan overflow with all his banks all the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose upon and heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Zeratan and those that came down toward the sea of the plane even the salt sea failed and were cut off and the people passed over right against Jericho and the priests that bear the ark of the coming of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. So it's a little different than the Red Sea miracle because when Moses crossed the Red Sea there's a wall of water on either side. There's a heap of water on either side. In this case the water is obviously flowing from one direction so the water is kind of pushed off to one side and they're able to cross on dry land. Again so it's not mud or muck or you know when God does a miracle he does it all the way and so it's literally dry ground. And so the priests that are bearing the ark of the Lord or the Levites that are bearing the ark of the Lord what happens is the moment that they set their foot in the water that's when it parts so they kind of had to take a step of faith. They're carrying this heavy box on their shoulders and they have to just step into a river and then when they do that that's when the Jordan River parts and you have the heap of water on the upstream side. Well they basically get halfway into the river and they just stop so that the Levites are carrying the ark and they're standing in the middle of what was the river now a dry crossing and they just stand there and then all of the children of Israel filter past them. So they stay there just holding it and then all the children of Israel go by on dry land. Then once all the children of Israel have crossed over then they take the ark out of the river and then the water comes crashing back in and it is the way it is once again. So that's chapter three, the miracle of crossing the Jordan River. Then in chapter four they set up 12 stones from the Jordan River as a monument, as a memorial hey let's not forget that God did this cool miracle and so they make a monument out of 12 stones for the 12 tribes. In chapter five Joshua is commanded by God to circumcise the Israelites. To circumcise the Israelites. Now if you think about it this is a big act of faith. Wouldn't it make a little more sense to get circumcised on the other side of the Jordan River? I mean if you're going to get circumcised you're going to be laid up for a few days because the Bible says after they get circumcised they have to rest in their camp for several days because they have to heal and recover from the wound of being circumcised. Okay because obviously that's a surgery in a sense that's being performed and so they need to recover a little bit. Remember what happened in the days of Simeon and Levi avenging their sister Dinah and all that? Well remember those guys weren't very good at fighting right after they got circumcised back in the book of Genesis and so if you think about this God is asking them to do something that requires faith because it would have made a lot more sense when they were on friendly territory. Let's get circumcised over here on friendly territory but instead God has them cross into the enemy territory, cross into the hostile country right outside Jericho. Okay now we're all going to get circumcised. You see God often does things like this because he's testing their faith and because he's showing them that it's through his might and his power not through human wisdom and understanding that the work is accomplished. This is sort of like when Elijah has the face off with the prophets of Baal and he's going to call down fire to burn up the sacrifice and he has them pouring buckets of water on the sacrifice before he calls down fire just to make it harder. Okay so God is telling them to be circumcised on the dangerous side of the Jordan River. So they cross over the Jordan River and they get circumcised because they had the children of Israel had been circumcised in Egypt but in the wilderness they didn't circumcise the children that were born on the road in the wilderness. They didn't do circumcision so now they're circumcising them as a nation. Anybody who's not circumcised gets circumcised and then they have to rest of course. Says in verse two of chapter five, you want to flip over there Joshua chapter five verse two, at that time the Lord said unto Joshua make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time and Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. Now obviously they named it that after the fact and this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise all the people that came out of Egypt that were all that were males even all the men of war died in the wilderness by the way after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised but verse five all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt them they had not circumcised. And then it talks about the fact that they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years kind of reiterating that in case you didn't read numbers in Deuteronomy you just jumped in in Joshua one he's giving you a little recap of what's going on and so forth. Okay but then at the end of chapter five you have this really cool thing so again we had the instructions in chapter one the two spies in chapter two chapter three they cross the Jordan River right chapter four they build a monument chapter five is the circumcision of the Israelites then we have this really interesting scripture at the end of chapter five beginning in verse 13 it says and it came to pass verse 13 when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. Now keep in mind they're on the hostile side of the Jordan River and Joshua is near Jericho and a guy comes toward him with a drawn sword basically the weapon is unholstered right and so Joshua says to him at the end of verse 13 art thou for us or for our adversaries you know hey are you for us or are you against us because we're just looking for a reason buddy and he said in verse 14 nay now this was not a yes or no question are you for us or are you for our enemies no because neither is the case he says nay but as the captain of the Lord as the captain of the host of the Lord am I now come so he says it's not that I'm for you it's that you're for me you're on my side I'm not on your side okay now who could this possibly be that would command such respect because Joshua is the leader ordained by God in place of Moses there's nobody higher than him on the chain of command humanly speaking Joshua is the man so who's this guy pulling out a sword telling Joshua what to do okay well it says in verse 15 actually let's keep going but as the captain of the host of the Lord am I now come and Joshua fell on his face to earth and did worship and said unto him what sayeth my Lord unto his servant and the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua lose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place where I'll now standest is holy and Joshua did so this is of course exactly what was said to Moses at the burning bush by the Lord so this is an Old Testament what we would call an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ because it's basically God in human form speaking to man which obviously it's not God the Father because no man has seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he had declared him there are certain Old Testament appearances of Christ where for example in Daniel chapter 3 in the fiery furnace the fourth man in the fire the form of the fourth is like the Son of God the Bible says and you know again that's a whole sermon of all the Old Testament appearances of Jesus but here we see that he is worshipped by Joshua he receives that worship and he even tells him be even more respectful you know he's not telling oh don't worship me I'm human he's telling him put off your shoes from off your feet the place where I'll standest is holy ground so he is the Lord he is Jesus Old Testament appearance of the Son of God and so that's what we see in Joshua 5 that's a pretty cool scripture because those appearances are rare and precious in the Old Testament so then we get into chapter 6 we have the famous story about the walls of Jericho coming down and this is the first battle really showing how God is the one who's gonna make this conquest of the Promised Land possible and so the way that this works is that they're told to approach Jericho which is totally shut up they have all the gates shut down I mean they've boarded up the windows and they've batten down the hatches they're ready to be attacked because they you know this huge army has just crossed the Jordan River so they know something's coming so they've just got everything in defensive mode and so what God has the children of Israel do is he has them march around the city of Jericho one time every day for six days okay and while they do this no one is allowed to talk nobody can say anything they're not allowed to say a single word and I've sometimes heard people use this as an illustration when their when their kids won't shut up like can you imagine if you would have been living in the days of Joshua you would have screwed up every you know God probably just struck you dead or something because you just can't shut up for six days or whatever but anyway I heard that somewhere trust me I didn't say it I said I heard it from someone else and the armed men went before the priests look at verse 9 of chapter 6 the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets and the rearward came after the ark the priests going on and blowing with the trumpet so the priests are blowing trumpets but the people aren't allowed to talk at all so if you're in Jericho this is what you see if you look out of Jericho here's what you see just this huge multitude of people just going around your city in a circle not attacking not fighting and you're kind of like what is the deal what are these people doing just blowing a lot of trumpets but no talking so there's no trash talk you know there's no threats it's just silence as far as verbal speech but trumpets okay so it's and look what it says in verse 10 Joshua had commanded the people saying you shall not shout nor make any noise with your voice neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I bid you shout then shall you shout so they all walk around and everybody's just silently walking around and just ominous scary trumpets are blowing you know from the perspective of the people in Jericho so they do this for six days in a row one lap then on the seventh time at seventh day let's look at that look at verse 14 the second day they compass the city once and returned into the camp so they did six days so they did it once for six days verse 15 it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day because you got to get up early if you're gonna do it seven times in one day it's a lot of laps right it's probably a big city probably took a long time to walk all the way around and it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and compass the city after the same men are seven times only on that day they compass the city seven times the other times the days they only did it once okay and it came to pass at the seventh time verse 16 when the priests blew with the trumpets Joshua said of the people shout for the Lord has given you the city and the city shall be accursed even it and all that are there in to the Lord and we'll get to that in a moment anyway they shout and when they scream out with all their voice the walls of the city just collapse the walls of Jericho just collapse obviously it's a miracle you know I've heard some people try to explain you know it's like when a singer breaks a glass with their voice it's like no it's not gonna work okay I don't care what frequency that is obviously it's a miracle of God they all shout and it's just from silence to just screaming and it just all comes crashing down and now basically obviously Jericho is not ready for this they're not ready for their main defense wall to just drop then obviously they just go in and just conquer the city with no issue but I want to draw attention to this statement here about everything being a curse look at verse 17 the city shall be accursed even it and all that are there in to the Lord only Rahab the harlot shall live she and all that are with her in the house because she hid the messengers that we sent now what does that mean to be accursed I mean when you hear a curse yeah I know what that means but here's what's interesting accursed to the Lord now does that just mean accursed from the Lord's perspective no it doesn't when the Bible says accursed to the Lord what it means is it's a curse for you to mess with it because it belongs to the Lord it all goes to the Lord okay now let me explain this to you a little bit to make sure that there's no misunderstanding you might be familiar with the word anathema right this is a word that's in our King James Bible is basically just left untranslated from the original language it's brought directly from Greek into English so instead of the translators coming along and and saying oh anathema that means cursed it just stays anathema right so when you're in what is it first Corinthians or wherever it's found first Corinthians though right first Corinthians 1622 you know if any man loved not our Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathema right maranatha and so what does that word mean anathema well Spanish speakers probably know what this means because they still use this in the modern Spanish language they'll say anathema right and it basically means is accursed but here's what's interesting what that word literally originally meant you know if you go way back in the Greek language like you know say 2,500 years ago or something what it originally meant was something that's offered up or dedicated okay now so why did this word eventually come to mean cursed well the exact same reason why it says in this passage accursed to the Lord because here's the thing things that are dedicated to the Lord or even things that are dedicated to a false god and a pagan religion you know it's considered that if you then turn around and mess with that stuff and take that stuff then you are accursed so this word evolved from meaning dedicated to meaning accursed okay and why because those are both in many ways the same thing here's why because these things are accursed to the Lord what are they gonna do with them the city shall be accursed even it and all that are there in to the Lord we're not just talking about the people or the animals but we're also talking about even the gold and the silver the money the clothing the things those things are also accursed to the Lord why is this important because in the very next chapter what's Achan gonna do the Bible says in chapter 7 verse 1 but the children of Israel committed a trespass a trespass is a sin right in the accursed thing for Achan the son of Carmi the son of Zabdai the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah took of the accursed thing and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel what was the accursed thing that Achan took he took gold and he took a Babylonish garment so he's taking merchandise he's taking spoil he's taking riches he's taking wealth now what was supposed to happen is that the first battle at Jericho all of that spoil was to be given to the Lord and what that means is that basically was to go into the house of God it was supposed to be like in the offering plate it was supposed to be for the Levites to use and the tabernacle it was supposed to go toward God okay after this and all subsequent battles they're allowed to keep all the stuff but in the first battle everything goes to the Lord and this is the principle of God getting the first fruits of God getting the first things of the flock so God gets his offering first and then the people get whatever spoil that they want so that's why the Bible doesn't just say that it's a curse but that it's accursed unto the Lord and that Achan touched the accursed thing it's that thing which was dedicated to the Lord but with a curse attached to it if you mess with it okay so that's why it's accursed to the Lord and so therefore when Achan takes this stuff he incurs the wrath of God and that's what chapter 7 is about and so everything in the city is a curse to the Lord when it comes to the people what does that mean when it comes to the people it's that they're all to be slain they're all to be slaughtered because they've committed way too much perversion they're super wicked they need to be wiped out and so that's what it means for them but when it comes to the stuff it means that that stuff goes into the house of the Lord in the future they're still to slay the wicked Canaanites but they are to keep the stuff for themselves and then they still give a portion unto God but a lot of it just goes into their personal wallet after that point okay so that's chapter 6 where the walls of Jericho fall down and Rahab the harlot is spared the city of Jericho is destroyed the first battle I mean God just did it through a miracle by making the walls come down obviously they still have to come in and fight but it was just pretty easy at that point chapter 7 they move on to the next battle which is AI and they lose the battle because Achan had stolen of the accursed thing God isn't blessing anymore and so they lose the battle at AI but then once they figure out what the problem is once God tells them it's because of what Achan did they punish Achan he's killed and then once Achan is killed then in chapter number 8 they go back to AI and they win the second battle at AI and then God tells them that they can have whatever they want now think about how stupid Achan is because Achan gets all excited about the the spoils and he couldn't resist all that gold and and treasure but if he would have just waited until AI God let them take whatever they want from AI God's gonna let them take from all these other places as well it's just that we need to give God his share first it's the same thing with us in our lives you know we need look God doesn't just demand that we have nothing for ourselves in our life but you know what he demands is that we start out our week doing what giving him the first right that's why we're at church on the first day of the week you know we're seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all these other things are added unto us but we seek the Lord first we give the Lord the first fruits of our increase we give him the first day of the week right we should always put him first and then he does bless us with something for ourselves as well and so in chapter 7 they lose at AI but in chapter 8 they win at AI also in chapter 8 at the end we have this important passage about them writing down a copy of the law of Moses and reading it out loud so it says in verse number 32 if you want to turn to Joshua chapter 8 and he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel and all Israel and their elders and officers and their judges stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites which bear the ark of the covenant Lord as well the stranger as he that was born among them half of them over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal as Moses the servant the Lord had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel and afterward he read all the words of the law the blessings and cursings according to all that is written in the book of the law there was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the children of it or all the congregation of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers that were conversant among them and so they write down a copy of the law that Moses had received at Mount Sinai and and other revelations that he received thereafter and they write down a copy and they read it out loud for everyone to hear so everybody hears all the commandments everybody hears the blessings and cursings and it's so important that God's word be read out loud in all periods at all times even in the New Testament what does the Bible say till I come give attendance to reading and you know the obviously the context there is in the church also and and he talks about how the epistle to the Thessalonians should be read in the Church of the Laodiceans you know Paul's epistles are to be read out loud okay in the front of the King James Bible on the title page which is obviously not inspired by God unless you're a ruckmanite but the title page says that it's appointed to be read in churches right so you know the intention with the King James Bible being translated as a this is designed to be read in churches and it's pretty sad today that a lot of churches they don't really read the Bible in church you know you go to a church service and they might read like one verse or maybe they'll read like two three verses and then the sermon will barely reference scripture itself read it you know and this is one of the reasons why at our church number one we read an entire chapter before the sermon even starts because I believe that just the the out loud reading of God's Word is important you say well I can just read on my own well here's the problem some people don't know how to read some people don't know how to read well now I do obviously believe that everyone should learn how to read if you know if you're an adult and you don't know how to read shame on you learn how to read but what about children you know little children don't necessarily know how to read they need to hear the Word of God being read out loud and that's why we need to read the Word of God out loud in our homes so that our children even before they're old enough to read can get the Word of God coming in and then we bring our children to church they can hear the Word of God being read out loud from the pulpit it's an important part of our church service where we read a chapter of the Bible but not only that in the sermon itself I've embedded a couple chapters worth of verses typically in each sermon one to two chapters equivalent of scripture are in each sermon 30 40 even 50 verses because we should preach the word and we should be using the Word of God and reading it out loud so all the way back when the Bible was first written the first parts of the Bible were committed to the written word it was being read out loud for everybody right it's so it's always been an oral thing okay it wasn't just a written thing that you read by yourself on your own it's always been something that's publicly audibly read and heard and it was that way then and it's that way now we need out loud reading of God's Word for God's people and so that's what we see here in chapter number eight as well chapter number nine I'll just quickly tell you this story in chapter nine people see in Canaan they start to see what's happening here okay Joshua just defeats Jericho no issue he loses at Ai but then he rallies and after he fixes things with Achan he defeats Ai no issue so the other city-states of the region are starting to figure out hey these people are a serious threat okay now according to Rahab the harlot everybody was all totally scared in the first place but now they're actually seeing it happening and so they start to realize we need to band together we need to team up against the Israelites because what you have to understand is that modern-day nation states are just that they're a modern-day thing typically in the ancient world states were usually more like a city state that's why in just a little area like Palestine you have lots and lots of Kings eventually we're gonna have a list of 31 kings defeated by Joshua now for us 31 kings would represent like just this in this tremendous area of like 31 countries or something right 31 kings would be like all of Europe or something you wouldn't really expect 31 kings to be in this little sliver of land of like if you looked at a map modern-day map of Israel it's not that big is it you know what I mean it's not it's not the size of the United States folks okay it's a little sliver of land from Dan even to Beersheba is 144 miles so we're talking about an area that's much smaller than Arizona let alone the United States so how do you fit 31 kings into such small area it's because each kingdom is what's called a city state okay so each city is its own government entity with its own king and and there could be alliances that come and go but you know when you've got this foreign invader of the Israelites coming in you start putting aside your differences with the neighbors and you start to team up so you have five kings that team up and they're gonna team up against the Israelites well in chapter 9 which is what we're talking about another group of people get smart and says hey if you can't beat them join them so the Gibeonites are like forget this we're not teaming up with these guys we want to team up with the Israelites because they're winning but they somehow realize that Joshua is not making alliances with anyone maybe someone else had already tried to make an alliance with them but God had said don't make alliances with anybody these people are a bunch of super weirdo perverts kill them all they're super wicked super ungodly wipe them out and so what they do is they do this this ruse where they basically get a bunch of old dirty clothes and they get a bunch of old rotten food and they show up to Joshua's camp looking like they've been traveling for a really long time and they're like oh man we're from such a far country look at this food man this this bread was fresh when we left look at it now and so Joshua and the elders of Israel they look at the evidence that they're presented with bunch of old clothes and old food and they're like well yeah I mean these guys clearly came from far away and so they don't they don't ask counsel at the Lord they don't pray about it talk to the prophet of God or you know they basically just they just impulsively just go okay no problem because God had told them that they can make alliances with people far away but these particular people in Palestine man they need to go they need to be wiped out other people yeah make alliances with other people but not these people so these the Gibeonites are the ones who pull this off they lie to Joshua they lie to the elders of Israel and Joshua falls for it and so they swear an oath to these people that they will not destroy them that they make an alliance with them well of course it turns out they're from right close by Gibeon and so then when the children of Israel roll up at Gibeon they can't they can't fight Gibeon because they've made a promise they've made this oath they've sworn by the name of the Lord so they have to honor their agreement so they tell these people well here's what we're gonna do we're just gonna make you the hewers of wood and drawers of water for us you know you're we're not gonna kill you because we made an alliance with you but you guys are gonna do the jobs that Americans won't do and so you guys are basically gonna be chopping wood and hauling water and you know and and they're like great because they're just like we just don't want you to kill us all so we're happy to draw you know draw water and you would and you know the Israelites are mad though the Israelites get mad at their own leadership like why did you do this we're supposed to be wiping these people out and they're like we're sorry we promised them they're like why did you do that why'd you promise I don't know cuz we're stupid I don't know you know so the the children of Israel upset with their leadership but whatever they get over it and they move on people make mistakes right so then in chapter 10 these five kings that Gibeon didn't want to team up with now these five kings say okay Gideon has tea or sorry Gibeon Gideon's not coming for a long time Gibeon has made an alliance with the Israelites so now Gibeon's our enemy now so now the five kings go and attack Gibeon and then the Gibeonites are like Joshua you're our buddy now like you may disagree with us you have to defend us now because that's what the oath said so then the children of Israel they go to defend Gibeon and that's where they face off with five kings so they're fighting against you know five armies in a sense the resources of five different local kingdoms long story short the and if you would look at verse number five of chapter 10 says therefore the five kings of the Amorites the king of Jerusalem and of course it was not called Jerusalem in those days it was called Jebus but this shows us that the book of Joshua was clearly written after the time of David because David's the one who renamed it Jerusalem and so it says that the king of Jerusalem the king of Hebron the king of Jarmouth the king of Lakish and the king of Eglon gathered themselves together and went up they and all their hosts and camped again before Gibeon and made war against it and then Joshua comes and you know protects the Gibeonites Joshua and the Israelites defeat the five kings and this is where the the miracle happens where Joshua commands the son to stand still because he says I'm not done defeating this enemy and I don't want the son to go down before I can completely achieve victory and so God actually makes the son stop and the day goes longer than 24 hours and and it was a huge miracle and the Bible says you know is that really a unique miracle in the Bible because never did God ever just harken to the voice of a man asking for something so outrageous I mean like you know I think we should think big when we pray but I mean Joshua was really thinking big I mean I've prayed a lot of prayers but can you imagine praying something so outrageous as son stands still that's pretty wild but God's like hey I like your attitude because God likes that kind of faith and so God liked that attitude and God said okay why not right and basically he ends up not you know he ends up actually not allowing the Sun to move basically just you know think about the whole universe is everything's moving in the whole universe right I mean we know that the earth and the planets the stars everything's moving okay you know of course I don't want to talk about the bozos you know who I'm thinking about right now just read read my mind right now so I don't have to do it okay yeah all right everything's moving including the Sun okay so the Sun stopped the Sun's usually moving and it stopped but guess what so is everything else to earth moon stars Sun everything's moving all the time okay you need to read my mind for the rest all right so anyway amazing miracle then in chapter number 11 we just see more cities defeated right so we you know defeat of five kings in chapter 10 more defeats toward the end of chapter 10 more defeats throughout chapter 11 and then in chapter 12 we get this catalog of the 31 kings defeated by the Israelites starting with Jericho and AI and down the list 31 kings okay now that's the fun part of the book of Joshua right now you say well pastor Anderson you know it's it's already 715 p.m. and we're only in chapter 12 you know are we gonna make it okay well here's the thing we're gonna make it because chapters 13 through 22 I'm gonna say like one sentence chapters 13 through 22 is dividing up the land and this is kind of and and I I'm not saying this in any kind of a disrespectful way because obviously all scripture is given by inspiration of God it's profitable for doctrine it's all a blessing especially to those who are mature in the faith and have a lot of understanding but let's face it as a new believer as a baby Christian as a physical child this is a rough part of the book of Joshua to get through Joshua chapters 13 through 22 is kind of a boring part for lack of a better word you know to most people obviously it's not truly boring in its essence because all of God's Word is magnificent it's just that we aren't necessarily smart enough to process it all but the bottom line is chapters 13 through 22 is a rough patch in the book of Joshua from a reading perspective where for lack of a better word it's kind of a boring part okay now some people have asked me hey is it all right when I'm reading my Bible to just kind of skip those kind of parts to just skip the quote unquote boring parts and I would say absolutely not there's so many reasons to read the so-called boring parts of the Bible what about was just a list of names read it now first of all let me give you a bunch of quick reasons and then I'll wrap up with chapters 23 and 24 first of all in these parts that seem like they're just dragging on and on there will be these tiny little nuggets mixed in where there's be like one really cool verse that's just kind of tucked in there and you got to plow through all that other stuff to find that little gem that's buried in there and that's that's one good reason right number two it builds character you know you don't want to be this person I might get read if it's fun no shut up and read that list of names and build some character right because we want to in 2023 be people who have an intention span longer than these stupid social media sites that where videos are 30 seconds long max or 60 seconds max or 90 seconds max you know you just don't get it because you're old no I don't get it because I don't have attention deficit disorder like you know like I just want to sit and just watch videos that last 10 seconds each or something stupid you know but that's the generation that we're living in no why don't you sit down and read a book with no pictures in it and why don't you read Joshua 13 through 22 and get some smarts okay you know grow an attention span and actually get the ability to focus and learn and be quiet and study and meditate and read your Bible even the hard parts that's another good reason right build some character another reason is that it actually makes you a better reader and let me tell you why because the best way to read is to read through phonics okay phonics not the C and say method okay there are some misguided pedagogical methods out there that teach people how to read through like a C and say method where you're almost you're just like memorizing the shapes of words or the sequences of letters but the right way to learn how to read is that you know B says B and C you know and you got to learn sounds you know that there's the long a says a the short a says a a says as an apple E says a as an elephant I says it as an Indian oh wait never mind that got canceled so it's I says it as an inchworm now all the books are being changed they're all being reprinted I don't know why there's anything wrong with India or Native Americans that are call themselves Indians or whatever but anyway I digress you know Oh says Oz and octopus uses us an umbrella that's the right way to read where you you know how you don't know this word sound it out if you don't know the word sounded out people who learn how to read through phonics are better readers than people who learn like a C and say type method here's why these lists of names make you a better reader because of the fact that you can't just see and say because you've never seen may her shallow low hash pass to just be like oh yeah may her shallow hash pass of course so you have to sit there and sound out that name it's the only way to even read the thing and this is gonna make you a better reader in general and people are bad readers I've told them I said hey when you get to those lists of names you should read them out loud just practice training your brain to sound things out and the only way to read lists of names is to sound them out because these names are so obscure that you're not gonna just recognize like if you say if you see JOHN it's like you know you're not you're like you're not sounding it out your brain just sees that and just so obviously all of our brains are eventually gonna see and say certain words but when you're learning how to read you're better reader if you actually learn phonics and learn phonetical rules and so reading lists of names trains your brain to sound things out okay there's a third reason to read the so-called boring parts because you're gonna have to sound some stuff out in Joshua too because it's not lists of people's names but you know it's place names there are a lot of wild place names and you have to sound out a lot of these things this list of Kings at the end of chapter 12 you're gonna sound that out and you know hooked on phonics is gonna work for you and so that's a good reason so chapters 1 through 12 you're having fun you're reading the book of Joshua it's like chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 it's like 13 14 15 that's where you have to have a little character to grind it out okay so you grind out chapters 13 through 22 then you get to chapters 23 and 24 and you get some final words from Joshua to the people and this is where you get the other most famous verse because remember the the most famous verse is at the beginning this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night then you get the next most famous thing in chapter 24 where Joshua says as for me and my house we will serve the Lord and so Joshua's final charge to them his final speech them I'm just gonna kind of sum it up for you because we're out of time he basically says look your ancestors worshiped idols they worship false gods but you know you've got to only worship the Lord if you're gonna worship the Lord it can only be him you can't mix you can't mix pagan gods and worship of the Lord you figure out what you want to do do you want to worship the gods of Egypt you want to worship the gods that your ancestors worshiped but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord and then they say no no we're gonna serve the Lord too and he basically says I don't think you guys can because I know you guys you guys are gonna screw this up and they're like no we promise we're only gonna worship the Lord we're gonna get rid of all the false gods and he's like okay well you know you guys are making this commitment I'm paraphrasing of course you guys are making this commitment you you know you better stay to this you know your witnesses against yourselves that you've promised to only worship the Lord oh yeah that's all we're gonna do okay great we're all on the same page Joshua dies and here's the thing all the time that Joshua was alive the children of Israel did worship the Lord and all the elders that were that were of Joshua's generation that outlived Joshua when any of those old-timers were around they did worship the Lord but of course once Joshua's gone and all the elders that outlived Joshua are gone then they end up you know forsaking the Lord worshiping false gods and that's where we get the book of Judges so there's your overview of the book of Joshua tonight and I think it's good to get that kind of an overview to see a book of the Bible and see okay what is the book of Joshua about right they're on the verge of going into the Promised Land it's all gonna be done by faith it's all gonna be done through the power of God as long as they do things God's way they can't lose as long as they just follow instructions follow Jesus do what God has said and God will open every door they just have to be strong and have a good courage there's the story about the spies with Rahab the harlot parting of the Jordan River setting up of a monument circumcised the children of Israel captain of the Lord's host Battle of Jericho Achan steals things after the walls fall down Ai is a defeat because of Achan's disobedience then they go back to Ai and then they win it the nations start to team up with one another against Israel the Gibeonites team up with Israel by lying then everybody turns on the Gibeonites and they have kind of it comes to a head Joshua versus five kings at the same time he wins after that it's just a series of victories for Joshua then once the lands conquered then they're dividing up the land parceling it out and then Joshua is telling them hey you need to serve the Lord that's the book of Joshua in a nutshell of course they don't fully conquer the land in the book of Joshua there are little pockets that they don't end up conquering and these are the pockets that are going to cause them problems in the book of Judges the next book after Joshua so the biggest takeaway is that we need to be strong and have a good courage do what God tells us to do we can have success and victory in our life if we follow the Lord if we serve him God's gonna bless us that's the main takeaway God can perform miracles God can do anything so the most important thing is to make sure that God is with us that's what matters most in our lives let's borrow a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great book of the Bible Lord I pray that we would all read it and meditate upon it Lord and that it would be a blessing to us as it guides us in our lives and in Jesus name we pray amen