Joshua

Everything I knew about Joshua came from an old Sunday School song...

     Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho

     Joshua fought the battle of Jericho
     And the walls came a-tumbling down...

Well, Joshua did a lot more than fight one battle.

After taking over for Moses, Joshua sent two spies to the city of Jericho.  The spies encounter a woman, Rahab, who hides them. The king's men come looking for the spies and Rahab sends them on a wild goose chase outside the city walls.  She saves the Israelite spies and makes a proposal to them.  Since she protected them, will they protect her and her family during the attack?  Let them live.  The spies agree on the condition that she does not warn the king of Jericho about the impending attack.  

All the Israelites need to get to Jericho, which means crossing the Jordan river.

The Jordan is at flood stage, swollen and rushing.  How will they ever make it across safely?  Do you remember the parting of the Red Sea?  Well, God does it again.  He first sent the priests into the river with the Ark of the Covenant and as soon as they touched the water, it stopped flowing, backing up, creating a dry pathway.  They moved to the middle of the river opening it up from bank to bank while the rest of the Israelites walked across.  Just before the priests progressed to the other side, one man from each tribe carried a rock from the exposed riverbed in front of the priests and took it to the other side as a memorial to the crossing.  The priests stepped onto the other bank and the river started flowing again.

Then came the battle of Jericho.

God gave instructions for seven priests carrying seven horns to walk around the city wall one time and blow the horns once.  They did this for six days and on the seventh day they walked around the city wall seven times and blew the horns.  Joshua then gave the call for the Israelites to shout (not attack) and the walls came tumbling down, just like in the song.  True to the promise, Rahab and her family were saved while the rest of the city was burned to the ground.

God instructed the Israelites to take no plunder for themselves.

But one man did not listen.  He took a few items for himself and hid them.  Foolish man.  Because of that one person, God punished all of Israel.  When they went on their next battle they were soundly defeated.  No one could understand why.  Until God made it clear by outing the thief and sentencing him to be stoned and buried.  The lesson would not be forgotten...at least not in Joshua's lifetime.

After that, the Israelites proceed to destroy city after city.

God promised the land of Canaan to the tribes of Israel.  To fulfill this promise, he directed them in a violent, aggressive and vicious takeover of all the cities and their kings.  From this point on, when a city was subdued the Israelites were allowed to take livestock and other plunder, but they must kill all the people.  It was an extremely brutal time in Israel's history.

After the battles were done the lands were divided among all the Israelites.

If any people still remained in the embattled land, they became slaves of the tribe who now ruled the land.  Once the land was divided, the Ruebenites, Gadites and half of the Mannesseh tribes, who had fulfilled their promise to fight with Israel, were allowed to go to the other side of the Jordan and return to their families and the lands Moses had promised them long, long ago.  

On their way back, these tribes built an altar to God on the bank of the Jordan river.  

This almost caused their destruction, as God had been very clear they were not to build additional altars for burnt offerings and their fellow Israelites remembered the last time someone did not obey God's commands - they were all punished.  It was explained the altar was not for offerings, but was a symbol that, even though they did not have lands west of the Jordan, the Ruebenites, Gadites, and Mannessahs were still God's people.  This clarified, they were allowed to go back to their families.

Once the lands were divided among all the tribes of Israel Joshua knew it was time to say farewell.
  
He followed the lead of Moses and gave a history of their journey and reminders that the Israelites must follow the one God.  Do not worship any other god's.  Like Moses, Joshua is worried about the future of the Israelites.  Soon after, Joshua dies and is buried in the land of his tribe.  Joseph's bones, which had been brought from Egypt, were also buried in the promised land on the plot that his father Jacob had purchased long, long ago.

There was not successor named for Joshua - so what happens next?  Keep reading and find out...