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Joshua: The God Who Gives the Land He Promised | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. We are doing a deep dive today
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  into one of the most critical periods in the whole story of
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  redemption. We're looking at that shift from
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  the patriarchs, you know, wandering around to the Kingdom
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  getting established in Canaan. And we're going to 0 in on the
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  book of Joshua. We have a really compelling
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  stack of sources here that see this whole history as well, not
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  just a military record. It's more like a huge
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  theological statement about one single central idea.
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  That's the perfect starting point.
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  Our whole mission here is to really distill the core message
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  these texts are giving us about how God rules.
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  And when you when you really analyze these conquest stories,
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  the focus is never, ever on how good Israel was at fighting or
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  how moral they were. The question the sources are
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  answering is this. How does Yahweh bring his
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  Kingdom into being in a fallen world?
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  And the answer from all the material, I mean, it's
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  completely unanimous. The Kingdom is established only
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  by grace and by divine strength. That has nothing to do with
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  human virtue or, you know, military might.
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  In fact, it's often established in spite of them.
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  Right. And what's so insightful looking
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  at this material is how the story is immediately tied
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  backwards and forwards. This deep dive connects the
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  failure of Adam and Eve in the first garden all the way to
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  Israel getting set up in the Promises Land.
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  Canaan becomes this sort of new garden, and Israel's failure
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  there proves why a future perfect Ting is so necessary.
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  Israel's whole history becomes this object lesson in well, in
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  sovereign grace. It really is.
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  It's the story of redemption getting its first physical
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  address on Earth, you could say. And if you want proof, absolute
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  proof, that this whole thing is driven by God's choice and not
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  human quality, well, you just have to look at the man chosen
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  to start the whole covenant line, Abraham himself.
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  OK, let's unpack that choice because it is startling when you
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  stop and think about it. The story of God's people starts
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  not with some pillar of virtue, but with someone who was frankly
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  steeped in paganism. This choice of Abraham is it's
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  the first and maybe the most powerful signal that God's rule
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  works on grace alone. It just completely removes any
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  idea of merit from page one of the national story.
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  And we don't have to guess about Abraham's spiritual state when
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  he was called. It's not ambiguous.
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  The sources have clear testimony, and it's delivered
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  much later in the story by Joshua.
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  When Joshua gathers all of Israel for his final speech, he
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  says, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, long ago your
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  father's lived beyond the Euphrates.
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  Tara, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served, O
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  gods. And that detail is just, it's so
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  critical that their great ancestor, the father of the
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  faithful, was a polytheist and idolater living way out in
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  Mesopotamia. It just obliterates the idea
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  that God sort of scanned the earth, found the most righteous
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  guy and said, you're the one. No, Abraham was found in his
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  sins serving other gods. That is the whole theological
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  insight. The sources make a huge point
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  that Yahweh rescued Abraham from that corrupt, idolatrous world
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  by calling him out of it. Choosing an idolater served a
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  very specific theological purpose.
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  God chose someone with no spiritual potential, no inherent
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  righteousness, to make it absolutely clear, crystal clear,
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  that the Kingdom and all the glory that came from it would be
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  from His sovereign strength alone.
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  He had nothing to do with human piety or any goodness in
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  Abraham. If the root of the tree Abraham
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  was salvage from idolatry, then the branches Israel have
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  absolutely no room to boast about themselves.
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  This gives us the perfect context for that analogy of the
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  master sculpture that we found in our sources.
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  If a sculptor wants to get all the credit for a masterpiece,
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  they might pick a block of flawless pure marble, right?
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  Something that's already beautiful and full of potential.
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  But the story of Abraham suggests God did the complete
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  opposite. Exactly.
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  The sculptor chose a rough, unpromising rock from a pile of
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  rubble. That's the idolater Abraham.
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  It's a material with no natural beauty and in fact it was
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  tainted by paganism. The choice wasn't based on the
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  rocks value, not at all. So when the finished work, the
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  covenant people, is finally displayed to the world, everyone
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  knows the beauty and the quality belong completely to the
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  sculptor scale. That's God's grace.
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  It has nothing to do with the potential of the rough rock,
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  which is human merit. The materials contribution was
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  0. And that first sovereign choice
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  of Abraham was so needed because it marked a restart of God's
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  entire plan of redemption. You really have to see it
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  against the backdrop of just catastrophic human failure that
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  came before it. After the fall, human history
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  was just on a relentless downward spiral.
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  God had tried to reset with the flood, but the sources are quick
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  to show that the flood didn't get rid of the inclination to
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  sin. Right after the flood, what
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  happens? Humanity gets together the Tower
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  of Babel, and what are they doing trying to build a city in
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  a name for themselves? It was just rebellion and brick
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  and mortar. So humanity had proven it
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  couldn't recover the ground lost in the garden.
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  The whole race was, you know, spiritually speaking, in an
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  active alliance with the serpent, living for their own
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  glory, disobeying the command to fill the earth under God's
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  lordship. That first promise of victory
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  over evil from Genesis 3.15, where the offspring of the woman
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  would crush the serpent's head, well, it seemed impossibly
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  distant. Redemption required a divine
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  intervention, A surgical and miraculous choice.
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  So when God called Abraham, he said a long term plan in motion,
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  putting three key things, land, children or offspring, and a
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  blessing that would reach the whole world.
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  This was the first necessary step to produce the faithful
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  offspring who would finally win that victory and restore God's
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  rule. The history of Israel, which we
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  see come to a head in Joshua, is really just the beginning of
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  fulfilling these foundational, grace driven pledges.
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  OK, so let's jump forward a few centuries.
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  We go from one man, Abraham, to this massive nation on the edge
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  of Canaan, and we're in the book of Joshua.
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  This is where we see the physical, tangible fulfillment
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  of those pledges start to happen.
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  The story moves forward in a big way here, especially with the
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  promise of the land. We see the realization of the
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  covenant spoken to Abraham and then confirmed to Isaac and
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  Jacob. The first promise, the
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  offspring. It started almost comically
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  slow. I mean, by the time Jacob's
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  family gets to Egypt, the text says there were only about 70
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  people. But the exponential growth in
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  Egypt right before the Exodus proved that this wasn't about
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  human effort or, you know, fertility.
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  It was about a divine decree. That slow start in Genesis
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  actually reinforces the grace principle again, doesn't it?
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  It proves the Kingdom isn't built on like predictable human
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  efficiency or population trends. It's built on God's supernatural
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  timing. Precisely.
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  And that leads right to the land.
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  This is the second element of the promise that Joshua's tasked
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  with bringing about. And the possession of Canaan is
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  always shown as this stunning, totally undeserved gift.
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  It wasn't because Israel was mighty or morally better than
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  anyone else. Deuteronomy, which is kind of
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  the prologue to Joshua, says it's so clearly it is not
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  because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart
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  that you were going in to possess their land.
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  It was only because of Yahweh's sovereign covenant love.
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  And what really drives home this idea of unearned grace is just
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  how lavish the provision was. The sources really lean into
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  this. Israel was walking into a
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  developed territory, the story in Joshua reminds them.
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  They moved into cities they did not build.
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  They used wells they did not dig, and they enjoyed vineyards
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  and all of orchards they did not plant.
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  It's the ultimate sovereign grant.
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  Think of it like that dream home analogy.
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  You don't just win a plot of empty land, you win a fully
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  furnished high tech compound, all already stocked with food
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  and infrastructure. The previous tenants, the
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  Canaanites, are cleared out and you just get the keys.
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  Israel didn't earn the land, they didn't pay for the
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  materials. They didn't even plant the
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  gardens. They inherited a fully
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  operational rich headquarters designed for them to live under
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  Yahweh's rule. So we have to see this as more
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  than just real estate. This land wasn't just a spot on
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  a map, it had this deep theological meaning that ties
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  all the way back to the beginning of the human story.
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  The sources make that connection very explicit.
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  The land was like the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve.
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  Canaan was supposed to be an outpost of Yahweh's lordship,
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  the place where the king would live among his people.
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  Israel was put there as a corporate New Adam, a group of
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  vice Regents whose job was to live in perfect covenant
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  faithfulness and extend God's good rule out to the rest of the
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  world. But before this corporate Adam
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  could take possession and start ruling, they had to be in a
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  right relationship with their king.
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  That's what happened at Gilgal. Indeed, before the 1st battle,
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  before they even tasted the fruit of the land, they had to
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  be richly prepared. They all went through a mass
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  circumcision at Gilgal, which the text says remove the
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  reproach of Egypt. This was a fundamental cleansing
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  and a recommitment. So what was the reproach of
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  Egypt, really? Was it just that they had been
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  slaves? It was deeper than slavery.
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  The reproach symbolized their status as an uncommitted people,
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  spiritually tainted by the idolatry and a degradation of
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  Egypt. And that was compounded by the
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  disobedience of the older generation who died in the
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  wilderness. So by receiving the sign of the
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  covenant now right on the border, they're basically saying
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  we are no longer defined by our past slavery or our wandering
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  unbelief. We are defined by our dedication
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  to Yahweh. This act of covenant renewal
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  meant they were spiritually ready to possess the land and
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  enter into the promised rest. And that rest was the state of,
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  well, delightful existence where their enemies were defeated and
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  they lived in fellowship with their king.
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  But crucially, that rest depended entirely on their
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  continued faithfulness. Which brings us perfectly to the
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  conquest itself. If the land was a gift, then the
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  victory needed to take the land also had to be delivered as a
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  gift. That way, absolutely no credit
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  could go to human military strength.
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  The Conquest is the demonstration of this principle
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  in action. It's not a story of tactical
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  genius. It's a story of pure
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  supernatural help. The Battle of Jericho is the
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  ultimate, almost comical example.
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  The strategy given by the commander marching around a huge
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  fortified city for seven days and then having priests blow
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  trumpets while the people shout. I mean, it was patently absurd
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  from a military point of view. If you propose that battle plan
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  at West Point today, you'd be laughed out of the room.
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  No rational strategy relies on sound waves and a religious
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  ceremony to bring down stone walls.
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  The complete bizarre nature of the strategy with the whole
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  point. It guaranteed beyond any doubt
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  that Israel could not say that victory was because of their
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  siege weapons or their courage. It was a holy war fought by the
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  Lord Himself. The people were basically just
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  performing a liturgical parade and then shouting.
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  They were witnesses to the fact that Yahweh was the true divine
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  warrior. And this divine warfare goes way
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  beyond just collapsing walls. Our sources detail these
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  astonishing events during the campaigns against the Southern
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  and Northern coalitions. They confirm Yahweh was actively
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  fighting on the front lines. The southern campaign,
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  especially against the coalition led by the King of Jerusalem, is
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  fascinating. When Israel's army engaged them,
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  the Lord intervened, throwing Israel's enemies into total
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  confusion. But the real miracle happened
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  when the Lord threw massive hailstones down from the sky.
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  The sources say that more people died from the hailstones than
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  from Israel's swords. That's a powerful detail.
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  The elements themselves were fighting against the enemies of
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  the Covenant. But then, of course, we get to
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  the cosmic miracle, the centerpiece of the whole
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  supernatural intervention. Yes, for Israel to get the
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  complete victory before dark, Yahweh did the unthinkable.
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  He stopped the cosmic clock. He made the sun stand still over
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  Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Agelon for about a
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  whole day. This act of just staggering
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  cosmic control makes the narrator summary undeniable.
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  The Lord fought for Israel. Swords and bows and human plans
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  were just completely insignificant compared to the
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  intervention of the Sovereign King who controls the stars.
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  And if that wasn't enough to show total divine rule, the
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  sources highlight God's control over the very minds of Israel's
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  enemies. This might be the most absolute
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  demonstration of sovereignty regarding the Northern Coalition
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  led by Jabin, King of Hazor. The text tells us explicitly
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  that it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts so they
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  would come out and fight Israel. This wasn't just God knowing
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  what would happen, it was active control.
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  God decreed their destruction and then He shaped their wills
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  and desires so they would choose the path that led right to their
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  own annihilation. This shows that Yahweh reigns
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  absolutely, orchestrating even the actions of His enemies to
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  fulfill His plan. So given that the land and the
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  victory were total gifts secured by this divine warrior, we have
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  to look at the man on the ground, Joshua, the one who
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  looked like the general in charge.
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  I mean, he certainly appeared to be holding all the authority.
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  Joshua's authority was immense. The sources describe it as a
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  kingly role. He was Moses's chosen successor,
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  and Israel was told to obey him just as they obeyed Moses.
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  Joshua commanded the armies, he executed the enemies, he
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  delivered God's Word, and maybe most symbolically, he was the
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  one who allotted the land to the tribes.
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  In a lot of ways, he's a forerunner of the future kings
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  in Israel. He had the title, he wore the
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  uniform, he gave the commands. He looked like the Supreme
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  Commander. Yet the narrative includes a
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  scene that seems designed specifically to puncture that
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  illusion, to make it clear that Joshua was not the ultimate
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  leader, he was just a subordinate.
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  That defining moment happens right before the conquest
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  begins. New Jericho.
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  Joshua sees this mysterious man standing in front of him with a
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  sword drawn, ready for battle. And Joshua, you know, showing
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  his military mindset, asks, are you for us or for our
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  adversaries? And the man responds with his
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  title. No, but I am the commander of
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  the Army of the Lord. And the sources based on what
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  happens next imply very strongly that this figure is a pre
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  Incarnate appearance of Yahweh himself taking the role of the
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  Supreme General. The reaction and the command
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  confirm it. Joshua immediately falls face
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  down on the ground in worship, asking what his Lord commands,
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  and he's then told to remove his sandals.
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  For the place where you stand is holy.
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  This is a very deliberate, direct parallel to what happened
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  to Moses at the burning Bush. The theological meaning is
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  impossible to miss. This encounter stripped Joshua
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  of any illusion of being the supreme authority.
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  He was immediately demoted, or maybe you could say promoted
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  from the chief field general to a subordinate officer.
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  The real leader of the conquest was there on the ground and in
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  command. That's the core insight.
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  Joshua was a viceroy. He had delegated authority.
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  But the moment the Supreme commander in chief showed up, he
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  had to acknowledge that his success, his strategy, his very
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  right to stand on holy ground, it's all dependent on the grace
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  and the plan of the Divine Warrior.
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  Victory wasn't going to depend on Joshua's tactics, but on his
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  obedience to his superior. And the narrative make sure we
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  don't forget this lesson. It immediately gives us examples
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  of what happens when Joshua tries to rely on his own
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  judgement. We see 2 clear failures.
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  The first is the initial defeat at AI.
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  After the huge success of Jericho, Joshua felt confident.
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  He sent a small spy team that came back and said the city was
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  weak. You know, let not all the people
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  go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and
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  attack AI. He relied on human intelligence.
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  He underestimated the enemy and just assumed the victories would
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  keep rolling in automatically. And crucially, he did this
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  without consulting the commander of the Lord's army.
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  He relied on his own human wisdom and his staff's
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  assessment. The result was a total route.
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  About 36 men were killed and the entire nation panicked.
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  It was a sharp, bloody lesson that victory doesn't come
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  through human calculation, even if it seems sound.
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  It comes only through divine instruction.
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  The second big failure is the deception by the Gibeonites,
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  which also shows Joshua failing to consult the true authority.
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  Yes, the Gibeonites famously came to Joshua in ragged
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  clothes, pretending to be from a distant land, asking for a peace
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  treaty, and Joshua and the elders with him were completely
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  fooled by the disguise. And the sources tell us plainly,
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  but they did not ask counsel from the mouth of the Lord.
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  If they had just asked the commander, they would have known
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  the truth and obeyed the instruction not to make treaties
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  with the people of the land. Joshua failed because he relied
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  on how things looked and his own discernment.
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  He forgot his primary duty was submission and asking for
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  orders. His leadership was only
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  effective when it mirrored the commander's plan.
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  This necessary submission, Joshua constantly having to
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  yield to the commander, brings us to the central tension of the
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  covenant in the land. The land and the victories were
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  pure gifts of grace, but that grace demanded a response from
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  the people. The structure of the covenant is
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  very clear, and it reflects the whole nature of redemption.
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  Grace comes before obedience. The indicative comes before the
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  imperative. Yahweh delivered Israel from
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  Egypt, first establishing who they were, and then he gave them
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  the law. The land was secured by divine
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  power and then they were expected to live rightly in it.
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  So obedience isn't a way of earning the gift, but it's the
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  necessary expression of gratitude, and it's the
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  condition for keeping your tenure in that gift.
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  The response had to be total internal faithfulness, Joshua
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  told them again and again. They had to respond in grateful
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  obedience and trust. This meant serving Yahweh with
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  all your heart and with all your soul, which specifically
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  required them to reject the worship of other gods and not
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  assimilate into the Pagan culture around them.
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  That focus on remaining in the land, enjoying the rest, makes
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  it a conditional gift. You get the land for free, but
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  you stay there through continued faithfulness to the king.
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  And if they failed that requirement, they face the same
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  judgement the Canaanites had. And we immediately see how
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  serious this covenant faithfulness is through the
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  stark contrast the narrative gives us between two men,
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  Aachen, who represents the way of the curse, and Caleb, who
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  represents the way of the blessing.
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  Aachen's sin at Jericho is pivotal.
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  It shows just how fragile their corporate identity was and how
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  severe it is to live in God's presence.
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  It's the moment that proves how serious living in this outpost
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  of Yahweh's lordship really is. Despite seeing the miracle of
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  Jericho, Aachen violated the ban the harem.
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  The harem meant that certain spoils were totally devoted,
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  either for destruction or dedicated to the Lord's treasury
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  as holy objects, and Aachen took a cloak from Shinar, some
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  silver, and a bar of gold. This wasn't just petty theft,
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  this was a desecration of a holy war.
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  Precisely by taking things that were devoted to Yahweh, HN's
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  individual sin had catastrophic corporate consequences.
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  The text says that the anger of the Lord burned against the
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  whole nation. The entire corporate body of
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  Israel was now devoted for destruction until that
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  contamination was removed. The sin of one man jeopardized
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  the gracious presence of the king for millions of people, and
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  it LED directly to the defeat at 8.
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  It showed that holiness is absolutely non negotiable when
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  the king is living among his people.
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  And the severity of the punishment a Chan, his family,
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  all his possessions were stoned and burned in the valley of
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  Acor. It really underscores this.
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  It proved Israel could be just as much an enemy of God as the
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  Canaanites if they broke the terms of their residence.
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  Now contrast that tragic failure with Caleb.
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  He's presented as a Chan's polar opposite.
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  Caleb had already shown 40 years earlier that he wholly followed
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  the Lord My God. He showed total faithfulness
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  when the ten other spies refused to trust Yahweh's promise.
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  And his reward in Joshua's time wasn't just any piece of land.
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  It was a challenging territory. The mountains of Hebron, which
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  he then had to go, and clear of giants he asked for the hardest
• 19:11
  assignment. Caleb's faithfulness was
• 19:13
  rewarded with a specific hard won blessing and inheritance.
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  He relied completely on Yahweh's strength.
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  He drove out the giants and He secured his portion.
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  He represents the ideal Israelite, someone who receives
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  the gift of land by grace and then responds with trusting,
• 19:28
  zealous obedience and secures his rest.
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  The contrast between Akins failure, which brought
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  judgement, and Caleb's faithfulness, which brought
• 19:35
  blessing just highlights the absolute stakes of covenant
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  faithfulness. Yet despite these clear examples
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  of a Chan and Caleb, the narrative closes on this deeply
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  ambiguous note. It casts a shadow over Israel's
• 19:47
  future. Yes, after Joshua renews the
• 19:50
  covenant at Shechem, reminding them of God's entire redemptive
• 19:53
  history all the way from Abraham, he gives them this
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  stunning challenge now. Therefore, fear the Lord and
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  serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.
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  But if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this
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  day whom you will serve, and the people declare, you know we will
• 20:08
  serve Yahweh. But Joshua's response is so
• 20:11
  unsettling. He basically tells them you are
• 20:13
  not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God.
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  That is the devastating realization that closes the
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  book. God had fulfilled every single
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  promise they had the land, the new garden.
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  They were enjoying rest. And yet their hearts prove they
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  were still in Adam, repeating the failure of the first vice
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  Regent. They could not maintain the
• 20:31
  required faithfulness because of the weakness in their own sinful
• 20:33
  nature. This lack of heart capacity,
• 20:36
  along with the notes about incomplete conquest, it all
• 20:38
  signals that the Mosaic covenant and human leadership just
• 20:41
  weren't enough to secure true, lasting, eternal rest.
• 20:44
  This canonical tension, the physical promises are fulfilled,
• 20:48
  but the people can't live up to the requirements.
• 20:50
  It forces the whole story forward.
• 20:52
  It points belong Joshua, the temporary general, and Moses the
• 20:55
  temporary mediator. This systemic failure reveals
• 20:58
  the need for a true competent solution, a true new Adam, a
• 21:03
  king and final prophet who has to come from the line of Judah.
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  This promised king has to be able to do a corporate Israel
• 21:09
  could not live in perfect, total, unswarming faithfulness
• 21:13
  to Yahweh while ruling his outpost.
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  This coming king is the prophesied solution to the
• 21:18
  dilemma created by the failure of the human heart, even in the
• 21:21
  new garden. And the sources connect this
• 21:23
  figure directly back to the original promise in Genesis
• 21:25
  3.15. They affirm that this king from
• 21:28
  Judah is the one who won't just bring temporary regional
• 21:32
  judgement, but will finally secure the decisive, permanent
• 21:36
  victory. He's the one who will crush the
• 21:38
  head of the serpent and bring the promise of global blessing
• 21:41
  to its final state, securing an eternal inheritance for his
• 21:44
  people. The physical temporary victories
• 21:47
  of Joshua, like putting his feet on the necks of defeated kings,
• 21:50
  they were just echoes and shadows.
• 21:52
  The final checkmate requires this ultimate faithful
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  sovereign. So as we wrap up this deep dive,
• 21:57
  the lesson really stays constant across the entire arc of this
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  history. It starts with the sovereign
• 22:02
  call of Abraham, and it culminates in Joshua's
• 22:04
  temporary, incomplete rest. And the lesson is this.
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  The Kingdom of God is inaugurated, secured and
• 22:10
  advanced purely by divine grace. It began with the non
• 22:13
  meritorious choice of an idolater.
• 22:16
  It proceeded through supernatural elemental acts of
• 22:18
  deliverance. You know, the Ark of the
• 22:19
  Covenant leading them into the Jordan and around Jericho.
• 22:22
  And it was secured by military victories that were achieved
• 22:25
  through counterintuitive strategies designed to get rid
• 22:28
  of any human boasting. Joshua secured a wonderful
• 22:32
  physical inheritance, but Israel's revealed inability to
• 22:35
  maintain that rest because of their sinful hearts.
• 22:39
  Well, it cast the entire rest of the story of Scripture in a
• 22:42
  necessary light. It forces us to confront the
• 22:44
  fact that just having the garden isn't enough.
• 22:46
  The heart of the Vice Regent has to be perfect and incorruptible
• 22:49
  to live eternally in the King's presence.
• 22:52
  That is the precise point the narrative isolates, since the
• 22:55
  human heart, including Israel's heart in the new Garden, proved
• 22:59
  it was incapable of maintaining covenant faithfulness.
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  What did this future king from Judah, this necessary new Adam
• 23:06
  who is destined to succeed when the first one failed?
• 23:09
  What did he have to accomplish differently, both inside himself
• 23:12
  and externally, to secure eternal residence and global
• 23:15
  blessing for his people? That is the ultimate question
• 23:18
  this deep dive leaves with you to consider.
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  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into reformed
• 23:22
  thinking. We hope this knowledge brings
• 23:24
  clarity to your understanding of the story of redemption.