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The Gift of Land, Joshua · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the deep dive brought to you by Reformed Thinking.
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We take your sources, stack the research, and distill the
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knowledge you need to grasp the most central ideas in Christian
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thought and history. Today we are opening up the book
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of Joshua. And for many, this book is, you
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know, it's often read just as a military record.
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A quick conquest and they divide up the land.
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Right, a straightforward historical account.
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But when you get past that surface reading and really look
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at the structure, the links back to Deuteronomy and the
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theological language the narrator is using, you start to
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see something else. You're looking at one of the
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Bible's most tightly put together narratives about God's
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faithfulness and our conditional obedience.
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That is absolutely what our source material is getting at
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today. We're doing a deep dive into
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sources that focus on Joshua as the successor to Moses, the
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incredible theological and even judicial meaning of the Jordan
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crossing, how God's law gets applied in these life and death
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moments, and the whole architecture of the narrative
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about the land itself. And our mission today is really
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to get at the central paradox in Joshua.
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How can God's promises be declared fully kept this already
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idea, when Israel's job to possess and hold on to the gift
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was well, clearly not finished, but not yet.
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We're going to be looking at how faith, obedience, and of course,
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human disobedience shape success and failure in this covenant
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relationship that God sets up. So let's start right where the
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book does. OK, yeah, let's untack this by
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starting with Joshua taking over from Moses.
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This isn't just a simple handoff, it's a theological
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changeover showing the continuity of God's plan.
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You've hit the main point there. The narrative creates this
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seamless we leave Moses talking to the nation in Deuteronomy and
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the story just picks up right away after the death of Moses.
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It's immediate. It is this straight line history
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confirms the book of Joshua is just the next step, the carrying
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out of the commands God gave it Horeb and repeated on the plains
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of Moab. Israel has to go and take the
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land. So it sets the timeline, but it
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also sets the theological scene. The generation that failed in
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the desert is gone, and the younger generation that survived
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that discipline is now, you know, standing right on the edge
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of its destiny. But they can't go forward
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without the right leader, right? And this is where the divine
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appointment is so key. Imam affirms Joshua's selection
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with a very specific, very direct statement.
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It links Joshua to the greatest figure in their history.
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The Lord says, as I was with Moses, I will be with you.
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That's more than just a pep talk.
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Oh, it's way more. It's the transfer of Providence
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itself, the guarantee of the divine Presence.
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It grounds Joshua's authority in God's constant presence, which
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is, you know, the one thing they need to succeed.
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But what's really telling us how the people react?
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They get it right away. They pledge their loyalty.
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As we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you.
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And that recognition is so critical because it lays out the
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basic condition of the covenant relationship from the very
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start. God's faithfulness, the promise
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of His presence that secures the land as a gift, is tied directly
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to Israel's required response, going after that gift in faith
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and obedience to His rules. The people seem to get it.
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The success of the whole thing hangs on their spiritual
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faithfulness, not just on Joshua being a good general.
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The book's prologue is set up around 4 speeches that get the
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plot moving, but God's direct charge to Joshua is the
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centerpiece. It is.
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It repeats that IMM will give Israel a land.
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But that promise is connected to three specific things Joshua has
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to do to keep faith. It's a very active kind of
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faith. Absolutely, the giving of the
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land is a guarantee on God's side, but the possessing of it
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depends on Joshua's actions and his spiritual condition.
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So let's walk through those three things because they really
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lay out the whole nature of the conquest.
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The first one is pretty straightforward act of claiming
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to cross the Jordan and actually set foot on the land.
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You have to physically go into the place God promised.
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That's the geographical part of it.
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The second is about spiritual strength to be courageous to
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fulfill his task. I mean the size of this cask
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facing fortified Canaanite cities that took more than just
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regular military guts. It required a different kind of
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bravery. It required faith, fuel,
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bravery, the knowledge that they were fighting God's battles, not
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their own. But it's the third requirement
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that really connects everything back to Moses and Deuteronomy,
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and it's what makes this story so much more than just a tale of
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conquest. The need to meditate on the law.
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Why is that specific inward spiritual practice the key to
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winning battles? Because holding on to the land
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is completely dependent on Israel's obedience to the Book
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of the Law. The sources are very clear on
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this. The war wasn't just about
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gaining territory. It was fought so Israel could
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live under God's law in the land, keeping themselves
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separate from the ethical sickness of the Canaanites.
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So meditating on the law is the way they stay faithful.
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It's the mechanism, It ensures faithful obedience.
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So success isn't about having better Chariots or more
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soldiers. No, it's about keeping the
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covenant. If they meditate on the law,
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they live by God's standards, and that gives them the
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spiritual right to fight and win.
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Precisely. And that leads to a basic
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theological point. Faith and ethics, not military
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power or what some critics might call jingoism, are what
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energized the battle. The fighting is just the
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practical result of a spiritual reality that comes first.
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If Joshua and Israel are fully aligned with God's will through
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the law, they can't lose. That's the core mandate.
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So before any battles start, before Jericho's walls come
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down, Israel goes through three big preparations.
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The story really slows down here to show how vital reverence and
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spiritual readiness are, right? Why take time for rituals when
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the enemy is literally right across the river watching you?
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Because the enemy's morale, as we're about to see, had already
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fallen apart because of what God was doing.
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These preparations confirm that Israel is entering the land as a
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holy people, a people worthy of the gift.
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The order of them is very intentional.
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It marks that final shift from the wilderness generation to the
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land generation. First, they renew the sign of
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the covenant through circumcision.
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That must have been a difficult, painful thing to do, especially
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right on the edge of enemy territory.
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What does this renewal mean in this particular context?
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Well, it's a reaffirmation of the Abrahamic covenant.
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It says that they are taking the land not just as warriors, but
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as God's covenant people. And what's more, the wilderness
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generation, after experiencing God's discipline, had let this
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sign lapse. They hadn't been doing it, no.
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So bringing it back marks the renewal of their holy status.
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It shows they are once again set apart.
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It's a painful physical act that shows an internal spiritual
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loyalty, and it was needed before entering the Holy Land to
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fight God's holy. Wars.
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And second, they celebrate the Passover.
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This is a huge bookend to the whole wilderness experience.
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What's the theological link being made here?
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Celebrating Passover now, decades after the first one in
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Egypt. The Passover connects their
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entry into the land directly back to their exit from Egypt.
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It's a reminder that they're amazing story started with God's
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miraculous action saving them from judgement.
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It drives home the point that they are not a self-made nation.
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They were rescued and are kept by grace.
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It roots their whole identity in God's saving acts.
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And right here is where the narrative gives us this
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brilliant, immediate symbol of their change.
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The manna stops. That is where the practical and
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the theological just come together perfectly.
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The very next day after the Passover, the manna was gone.
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They ate the food of the sworn land.
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They waited so long. That's powerful.
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It is the manna. The temporary, boring but
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necessary food of the dry wilderness is finished.
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It represents the end of that fragile, unsettled nomadic life.
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They are now in a land that produces its own food.
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The promise that the land would provide for them, spoken to the
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patriarchs, is now physically happening.
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The shift is complete. And the last preparation
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involves Joshua himself showing total submission to God's
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authority when he's confronted by the commander of eyeing M's
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army. This is the moment that makes it
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clear who was really in charge of this campaign.
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Joshua takes off his sandals because he knows he's on holy
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ground. And when he asks the commander,
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are you for us or for our enemies, the answer is neither.
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And that signals a huge shift in thinking.
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The war isn't about whether God fights for Israel.
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It's about whether Israel fights by faith for God.
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The commander isn't taking a side, He is the side.
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So total worship and submission, taking off the sandals that
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comes before making war. It is.
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This whole sequence confirms it. The campaign is a holy project,
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and it requires spiritual readiness above everything else.
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So now they have a consecrated nation, a clear mission of faith
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and ethics, and a divinely appointed submissive leader.
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And now they're facing the Jordan River, which is both a
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physical and a theological border.
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The Jordan crossing, which takes up Joshua chapters 3 and 4, is
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often just seen as a Red Sea Part 2, but it's it's much more
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complicated than a simple repeat.
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It's a symbolic, A judicial and a theological event that defines
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God's identity against the gods of Canaan and validates Israel's
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legal claim to the land. What's so fascinating is that
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the miracle isn't just about moving water so they can walk
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across. It's about God doing something
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that speaks directly to the Canaanite way of thinking.
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Exactly. The event was a clear statement
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of God's identity. Setting him apart from the local
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Canaanite gods is deeply polemical.
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How so? Well in Canaanite mythology the
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God Baal was seen as the king of the gods because he supposedly
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defeated the sea God Yem or the river God.
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So for them, control over chaotic waters defined who was
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supreme. So when God parts the Jordan, a
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major river, it's not just a logistical move, it's a public
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announcement of divine supremacy.
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It demonstrates with no room for doubt, that I am not.
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Baal is the true God and his Lord over the waters.
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It echoes what he did before at the Red Sea, the Flood, and, you
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know, his control over creation itself.
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The message is crystal clear. The supposed strength of
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Canaan's gods, their control over nature, is nothing compared
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to the true creator. And the way the crossing is
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arranged says so much about God's relationship with his
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people. The Ark, which is the symbol of
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God's throne and presence, leads the nation into the flooding
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river. This really points to the nature
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of God's action. God and his priests stayed in
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the place of danger, standing in the deepest part of the riverbed
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while the whole nation crossed over.
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This is God by himself, delivering his people.
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He goes into the chaos first. He does.
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He protects the holy nation as they step into the land.
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It reinforces the idea that the whole possession is a gift
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secured by His presence. So beyond that theological
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statement of supremacy, our sources point out this event had
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a real legal significance in the ancient world.
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It functioned almost like a court verdict.
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This is a point that people often miss.
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In the ancient Near East, throwing an accused person into
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a river was a common way to get a judicial verdict.
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It was called a trial by water. If you survived, it meant the
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gods had declared you innocent. That context changes everything.
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It means God, by putting the ark in the Jordan 1st and having it
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stand in the riverbed, pass this trial by water, and in doing so
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judicially proved that his and his people's claim to the land
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was legitimate and divinely given.
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It leaves no doubt God is establishing His ownership and
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Israel's right to be there. The ark in the middle of the
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danger validates their cause and the result was immediate.
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It was psychological warfare. The source notes that this
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demonstration of divine victory made the Canaanite kings hearts
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melt with fear. They understood the legal
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meaning of what they had just seen.
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So the spiritual conquest started before the physical one,
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with fear disabling the enemy's will to fight because their own
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gods had just been shown to be powerless against the true Lord
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of the waters. Beyond that, the crossing
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represented this massive shift in Israel's day-to-day reality.
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The move out of the hostile, dangerous and chaotic wilderness
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was finally over. The event symbolically marked
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Israel's change from one state of being to another.
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It sounds almost like a mini creation story moving from
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disorder to structure. That's a great way to look at
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it. The move into the good land
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completely revised Israel's way of life.
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It represented a creative change from chaos to ordered cosmos.
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The Israelites went from a nomadic life where there's
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survival depended on daily miracles like mana to life in a
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settled, fertile land with the resources already in place.
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Walled cities, Wells, Watered plains.
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The nation's identity changes from being always on the move to
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being rooted in a promised place.
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Absolutely. The crossing is the moment that
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solidifies their identity as a settled nation under a specific
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local covenant. This also connects back to the
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man of stopping. They now rely on rain and the
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natural harvest, which teaches them a vital lesson.
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God cares for the land and their well-being depends on the rain
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giver, God, not on their own calculations or irrigation
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systems like they had seen in Egypt.
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It's a complete physical and spiritual reorientation.
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OK, Section 3 gives us one of the most brilliant literary and
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ethical contrasts in the whole book, the fate of Rahab the
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outsider, versus the fate of HN the insider.
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This contrast perfectly shows the right theological principle
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for applying God's law during the conquest.
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It's all about saving faith versus damning disloyalty.
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This contrast is absolutely central.
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It frames the entire ethical structure of the Holy War.
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The sources really stressed that salvation didn't depend on your
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ethnicity or how close you were to the covenant, but on a
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spiritual choice. Loyalty to IMM versus greedy
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rebellion. Let's start with Rahab.
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She's described as a Canaanites prostitute, the most unlikely
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candidate for admission into the Kingdom of God.
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And yet she becomes really the first convert by the good news
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of God. Her confession is the key.
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When the spies show up, she doesn't just bargain for her
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life, she makes a theological confession.
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She says I know that I am is giving you the land, and that
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your dread has fallen upon us. She sees what's really
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happening. She does.
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Her statement confirmed for the spies that God had already made
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the enemy's morale collapse. She was acting with irrational
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saving faith, turning her back on her Pagan gods and risking
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her life to identify with God's people.
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And this action forces the spies to make a tough call about
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interpretation. Moses's command for Urim, total
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destruction or liquidation, was meant to protect Israel from the
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spiritual poison of the Canaanites who would turn your
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sons away from God. Rahab clearly isn't that kind of
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threat. That's the heart of it, because
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she chose to side with I AM and confess his sovereignty.
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The reason for Urim didn't apply to her.
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She wasn't a spiritual danger, He was an ally.
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The spies interpreted the Mosaic law based on its intent.
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Letting mercy O Come before judgement, Urim.
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Set set a huge precedent. It did.
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It established a critical principle.
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Loyalty matters more than ethnicity, and mercy wins out
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over judgment for those who truly turn to God.
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And we know from later in the Bible that this wasn't just a
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temporary pardon. Rahab was brought into Israel
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and even ended up in the line of David.
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Her choice of faith had historical redemptive effects
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that went far beyond the walls of Jericho.
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Right. She's a powerful exception that
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proves the rule. The ERM command was a protective
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measure for Israel's holiness, but God always makes room for a
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genuine faith response no matter where someone comes from.
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Her faith actually strengthened Israel's faith right before the
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battle. So now we turn to Akan, the
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Israelite insider who is the complete opposite of Rahab.
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He was part of the covenant community, but he showed himself
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to be totally disloyal by wanting and taking plunder that
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was devoted to God. Aurim.
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Akan sin was at its root 1 of irrational greed.
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At Jericho, all the precious metals, gold, silver, were
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declared Orem. They were dedicated or
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consecrated to God's treasury. This was to symbolize that God
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was the true victor, not Israel. And Ekkan took them for.
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Himself, he secretly took these dedicated items, putting his own
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greed in the place of God. And the result of this private
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act of disobedience wasn't just a personal problem, it hurt the
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entire nation, leading to that humiliating defeat at the battle
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of A. This shows that ancient idea of
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national solidarity or corporate guilt.
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In the context of the covenant, one person's act of disloyalty
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affects the whole group because the nation stands before God as
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one body. I Shan's spiritual failure
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caused God to withdraw His presence from the battle, which
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led to a military disaster and divine judgement on the nation
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until the sin was dealt with. And the judgement was severe.
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I Shan and his whole household were stoned and burned to
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cleanse the land of the spiritual corruption.
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This shows that disloyalty brings judgement and the
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complete loss of inheritance. I mean, think about the stark
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contrast. Rahab, the outsider, through
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saving faith in action, gets an inheritance and is given life.
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Aishan the insider, through disloyalty and greed, loses his
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life and his potential inheritance.
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The sources make it clear that spiritual preparation, defined
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by strict obedience to God's standards, is what actually
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brings victory, not just being a member of the covenant
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community. The law's intent is to maintain
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purity for those inside the covenant, but to show mercy to
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those outside who genuinely seek God.
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To really get the theological paradox, we have to look at the
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overall structure of the book. The sources explained that the
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narrator ties Joshua together with a common theme, claiming
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the sworn land by faith, and this theme shapes the three big
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sections taking the land, allotting it and retaining it.
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The whole book covers the events of one generation, from Moses
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death to Joshua's death. The three parts are structurally
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marked off, and they often use a summary line that stresses that
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the Lord gave the land and Israel took it.
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But each part builds up more and more tension about how well
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Israel is actually fulfilling its task.
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So Part 1, taking the land, Joshua chapters one through 12.
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This is all about conquest and compromise.
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The focus here is on military subjugation.
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It presents a string of intense victory, reports Jericho AI, the
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Southern campaign, the Northern Campaign, and it all leads up to
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that powerful statement that the land had rest from.
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And the narrator uses rhetorical hyperbole, which was common in
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ancient Near Eastern conquest stories.
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But here it has a critical theological job.
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The Hebrew term Co, meaning entire, all, whole, is used
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again and again 18 times in just one short summary section.
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And that's to build this impression of total, decisive
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victory. This is a really key point.
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If the sources later admit that a lot of land was still
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unconquered, why use such final sounding language?
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Because the language is theological, not just a
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historical inventory, the narrator is presenting the
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already viewpoint. God has decisively defeated the
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organized resistance of the Canaanite kings, and He has
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secured the land for Israel. The main central war of
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subjugation is 1. Which means the promise given to
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the Patriarchs has been fulfilled.
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Legally and theologically, yes, it has been fulfilled.
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But right away the narrator introduces some tension and
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qualifies this total success with historical exceptions.
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Yeah, the victory was decisive against organized resistance,
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but it wasn't absolutely complete in a geographical or
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demographic sense. We see this tension pop up early
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with the failure AI because of H and Sin, but also with that
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clever but unholy treaty with Gibeonites.
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They didn't ask God about that one.
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They failed to consult God before making that oath, and it
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became a permanent compromise. The source material also notes
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that some of the fortified giants, the Anichem, were still
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left in what would later become Felicia.
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This sets up the problem for the next generation.
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The victory is one, but the cleanup work is still left to
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do. OK, so that brings us to Part 2,
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allotting the land in Chapters 13 to 21.
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This is about distribution and unrealized desire.
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The second section completely shift gears.
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It moves from conquest to administration.
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The focus is on the divine authority for the distribution,
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which was done by lot. This reinforce the idea of the
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land as God's sovereign gift. And this section structurally
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reinforces that already viewpoint you mentioned.
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It is. God gave them the whole land, so
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now they're dividing up the territory.
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The distribution was handled by Eliezer, the priest Joshua and
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the heads of the tribal clans, which ensured divine guidance.
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However, the section starts with a massive qualifier.
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The qualification being the land that remained.
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Joshua is old, and God points out that huge tracts of
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territories still remain to be possessed.
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This really highlights the difference between a theological
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gift and practical possession. God has given them the entire
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land, fulfilling His promise, but Israel's duty to occupy and
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clear their tribal allotments still had to happen little by
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little. And as this section goes on, the
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tension of non possession and non fulfillment just grows.
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They're starting to get comfortable.
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And this is where we see the steady unraveling of coherence.
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As one source put it, the tribal failures begin.
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The failure is concrete. Tribes like Ephraim and Manasseh
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failed to drive out the Canaanites from their cities,
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specifically mentioning the Canaanites who had iron
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Chariots. This was a failure of faith.
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They saw the enemy's military strength instead of God's
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command. So they left these pockets of
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resistance. Yes, and that introduced gaps in
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and within their borders. The book starts with the success
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of Judah, but it moves toward the failure of Dan, whose
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eventual displacement shows their lack of faith in holding
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their territory. The allocation of land before it
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was fully possessed was a constant test of faith and
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obedience for the tribes. We should also touch on the
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unique inheritance of the Levites, which kind of frames
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these distribution accounts. Right.
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The Levites got a different kind of inheritance, God and his
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offerings. They didn't get a tribal plot of
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farmland like the other tribes. Moses had promised them 48 towns
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with pasture lands, which the Israelites gave them from their
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own inheritances. This distinction reminds the
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people of the spiritual priority.
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The priestly tribe's well-being is completely tied to God's
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provision and the people's faithfulness.
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That's interesting. And what's more, even the
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Levites had to take some of their allotted towns by faith's
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obedience, as many of these were still in Canaanite hands when
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they were assigned. So the final section, Part 3,
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retaining the land, chapters 22 to 24, is about covenant
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fidelity. It demonstrates that Israel has
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to hold on to the land in the same way they got it, through
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covenant faithfulness. The victory is won, the land is
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distributed, but keeping it is conditional.
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This section is all about Covenant loyalty.
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It's built around 3 main episodes, the issue of
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intertribal unity with the Eastern Tribes, altar, Joshua's
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farewell speech, and the Covenant renewal ceremony.
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All three stressed the need for unity and obedience.
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And Joshua holds the covenant renewal at two places Moses
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instructed, tying this final section all the way back to
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Deuteronomy. 1st at Mount Ebal, which happens at the literary
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turning point of the battle scenes.
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The altar they built their symbolize God's claim to the
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land and the law written on the stones to find the nature of his
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rule over that territory. Second, the covenant was renewed
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at Shechem, where Jacob had gotten rid of foreign gods
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before. A place with historical weight
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a. Lot of it.
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And here the people declare their intention to serve I AM
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and throw away their foreign gods.
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But Joshua's farewell address is the final warning.
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It looks back on God's past success but predicts Israel's
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future failure. His speech is a very sober
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reflection and it pulls directly from the warnings and
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Deuteronomy. He predicts that Israel will
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eventually be kicked out of the land because of apostasy.
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The closing scene at Shechem is deeply unsettling and ironic.
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Joshua tells them flat out that they are not able to keep the
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covenant because of the sinfulness of the human heart.
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And yet in their spiritual high, they declare their absolute
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faithfulness. 3 times we will serve.
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I am. And that overconfident
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declaration seals their fate. It acts as an irony that casts a
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shadow over the book's conclusion.
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They trusted their own strength and willpower to keep the
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covenant instead of relying completely on God's grace and
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provision to uphold their end of the deal.
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Joshua warns them that God is a holy God who will not put up
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with their sin. Their self-reliance just set the
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stage for the history we read about in the Book of Judges.
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OK, so now let's synthesize this theological tension across the
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whole book, bringing together the conquest, the failures, and
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the warnings, we see this clear tension between God's faithful
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promises, the indicative, and Israel's inconsistent obedience,
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the imperative. The foundation of the whole book
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is divine faithfulness. The book says again and again
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that God faithfully kept his promissory covenants, fulfilling
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the promises to the patriarchs centuries later.
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The opening promises and the closing reminders all confirm
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this. The narrator uses active verbs
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to stress God's role. I took, I gave, and I brought.
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The land is presented first and last as a gift of grace.
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But the narrative is just as concerned with human failure.
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The possession and the keeping of the land were conditional on
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obedience to God's covenant and meditating on the law.
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Israel had to go after the promises in faith and actively
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follow God's standards. There's no conflict between
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God's promise and the conditions placed on people.
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So grace and obedience work together.
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Grace establishes the relationship and provides the
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gift, but obedience is the required response for enjoying
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and keeping the blessings of that gift.
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The sources point out that trust and obedience have to work
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together. They complement each other.
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So the initial success was a result of faith and obedience.
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But the narrator knew the long story of history.
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Israel's heart was prone to unfaithfulness, which is why
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Joshua gives such a grim farewell speech.
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The narrator is writing a history that's already looking
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ahead to the exile. The structure of the narrative,
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moving from conquest hyperbole in Part 1 to tribal failure in
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Part 2 and then to the warning of expulsion in Part 3, is a
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very sophisticated theological statement about the limits of
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human ability to maintain a holy covenant.
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The already not yet framework is how the narrator resolves the
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tension between the glorious victory reports of Part 1 and
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the documented incomplete possession in Part 2.
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This is the central theological idea we wanted to understand.
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It is the biblical writers way of handling redemptive history.
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So let's define the already. The already refers to the
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decisive establishment of God's Kingdom and the fulfillment of
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the promise through Joshua's initial decisive victories.
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The organized war of subjugation was a success and the narrator
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confirms the land had wrest from war from God's point of view.
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The promises secured, the gift has been given.
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And the not yet acknowledges the lingering duties that are left
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for future generations. Correct.
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The not yet confirms that complete possession and rest are
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expandable themes. They weren't fully finished in
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Joshua's generation. Future generations have to
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continue the conquest and hold on to the land through ongoing
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faithfulness. The ultimate allotments they
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envisioned, like Felicia, never actually happened under Joshua.
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That final clean sweep rest was conditional on generations of
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faithful action. This tension explains why the
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narrator could use rhetorical hyperbole that word coup to
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declare total victory in Chapter 12, even while Chapter 13
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immediately admits large areas of land were still unconquered.
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The narrator is using language that honors God's fulfilled
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promise. He describes the victory as
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complete theologically because God granted it and defeated the
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central resistance. The sources give that analogy of
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a mural of a glorious sunrise. The painter shows the sun fully
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risen, representing the decisive conquest as complete.
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But there are still shadows. Yes, the corners of the canvas
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still show lingering shadows representing the territories
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that were left. The central victory is won by
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God, but full illumination requires ongoing, diligent human
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effort. It's a framework that the New
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Testament writers use to talk about the arrival of the Kingdom
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of God. It is here already in the person
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of Christ, but not yet in its full, completed sense.
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The blueprint is set centuries earlier in Joshua's conquest.
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And the closing scene really brings out the tragic irony.
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The book asserts a successful end to subduing the land because
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of God's faithfulness, but at the same time it marks the
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beginning of Israel's failed history of trying to keep it
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because of human unfaithfulness. The victory is achieved, but
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their ability to keep it is immediately in question.
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The prediction of future failure just cast this sobering shadow
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over the whole victory. The covenant renewal at Shechem
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ends up as a final witness against the people.
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Because they trusted their own strength to keep the covenant,
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they were set up to fail. Joshua warns them that when they
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turn away, God's faithfulness to His word will turn from doing
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them good to destroying them, enforcing the curses of the
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covenant, which include being thrown out of the land.
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It's a heavy conclusion. Joshua's a book about grace and
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fulfillment, but the conclusion is a big warning about
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self-reliance and the human inability to live up to God's
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high standards. So the book of Joshua gives us
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three key theological takeaways from this deep dive, all focused
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on the movement from chaos to covenant life. 1st, we establish
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God's absolute supremacy. This was shown polemically and
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judicially at the Jordan crossing, proving He is Lord
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over the waters and legally validating Israel's claim to the
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land, setting him completely apart from the nature gods of
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Canaan. Second, the proper application
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of the law's intent puts mercies as he first for the truly
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repent. The story of Rahab proves that
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faith and loyalty are more determinative than ethnic
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background when it comes to judgement term, setting a
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standard for inclusion to the covenant people.
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And 3rd, we learned about the need for constant faith and
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obedience to claim and keep God's gifts.
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This is that already not yet viewpoint.
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The promise of the land is secured by God's grace, but
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possession, rest, and keeping it are conditionally dependent on
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sustained human faithfulness to the Law.
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The historical framework of Joshua a successful conquest
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followed by a conditional possession that leads to an
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inevitable predicted failure. It invites you to think about
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the persistent pattern of human inability to keep a covenant
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even with the most spectacular displays of divine faithfulness.
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If the land was the goal and desire of the people of God,
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what does this cycle of promise and failure teach us about where
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our true hope, Forrest must lie? If Joshua secured the promise
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but couldn't secure the keeping of it because of human sin,
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we're led to look for a greater Joshua, a Messiah who can not
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only bring us into the true inheritance, but also grant the
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perfect obedience needed for us to keep it forever.