We shall continue with the study of the Book of Joshua this week.
(1) Why did the Lord command Joshua to set up stones from the river as an everlasting memorial of the event?
(2) What might be the significance of selecting 12 men, one from each tribe to set up 12 stones as a memorial?
(3) What function or impact did God desire to achieve by the remembrance and retelling of this event to future generations of God’s people?
(4) Reflect on your own walk with the Lord and see what might be the event in your life that deserves lasting memory.
(5) What might you do to ensure that it is being remembered and not being forgotten?
(6) How might you share it with “future generations”?
(7) V. 10 mentions that “everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people”. What could have gone wrong that might jeopardize this event? Why did the people have to “hurry” over?
(8) From this passage, can you list the lessons that the Lord wished to be learnt by the Israelites through this miraculous crossing of River Jordan?
(9) What is the main message to you today?
As the people of Israel were about to cross over the River Jordan in the most miraculous way, the Lord made sure that not only that generation, but also future generations of His people would not forget that it was He who brought them out of Egypt into the Promised Land; it was He who delivered them from slavery; it was He who led them through the wilderness; it was He who gave them the land; and it was He who has made them into a nation, but not for their sake, but that they would become His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod. 19:5-6). He did so by asking them to take 12 stones from right where the priests who carried the ark of covenant stood and bring them over to the other side of the river.
Today, the stones are nowhere to be found, and though some of His people might still remember His miraculous act of deliverance, most, at best, remember it only as history, and instead have lost their “fear” of the Lord, their God (Jos. 4:24).
Sometimes, I feel bad for the Lord. He knew that we would be very forgetful, even of His wonderful works in history and in our own lives. As a result, He has instructed us over 200 times in the Scriptures “to remember”. Alas, we are always too busy to stop and remember. This is why He has chosen to establish festivals in the Old Testament to force His people to stop and remember. And, in the New Testament, our Lord also instituted the Lord’s Supper to make us stop to remember His saving act on the cross.
If we know the heart of the Lord, we should stop often to remember all that He has done for us. At the least, we should stop and prepare our hearts the night before, as we prepare ourselves come to His table of Communion to remember Him through the bread and the cup — remembering not only His saving act, but He who loved us so much that He gave His life to atone for our sin.
(1) Try to look at this event from the viewpoints of (a) the priests who carried the ark, (b) the people in general, and (c) Joshua himself.
(2) What kind of test had each gone through? What might be the most important lesson learned by each of them?
(3) How similar was the crossing of Jordan to the crossing of the Red Sea?
(4) What might their difference(s) be?
(5) What were the two ultimate goals, from God’s perspective, of performing such great miracles? (see v. 24)
(6) As great as these two miracles were, how would they compare to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in terms of the demonstration of God’s miraculous power, and their results?
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
“Lest We Forget” had been made popular to serve as a reminder to us of some horrific events in history. Presumably, it all began with Laurence Binyon’s poem “For the Fallen” which was published in 1914 to remember the sacrifice of the young British soldiers in WWI. This ode is now often sung to remember the war heroes of both World Wars, with the line “Lest we forget” added to the end of it.
I invite you to reflect on the third and fourth stanzas of this poem as these young men emulated our Lord in giving their lives for us so that we may live in freedom today.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Lest We Forget.
Yes, we are people who are forgetful; we are people who will never learn from history, and so wars will continue and lives will be lost. But because of the ultimate victory our Lord has won on the cross over human sins, true peace, lasting peace will come upon His second coming as:
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev. 21:4)
(1) What impact did the miracle of the drying up of the River Jordan have on the Canaanites and their kings? Was God’s desire in 4:24 met? How should these people and kings respond to the power of God, apart from fear and loss of courage?
(2) What was the significance of circumcision? (See Gen. 17:9-14)
(3) Did the generation who came out of Egypt receive circumcision? But what was their fate and why?
(4) When should the Israelites perform circumcision on their children?
(5) Why didn’t they during the forty years in the desert?
(6) What was the added significance of this circumcision according to v. 9? What does it mean that “the reproach of Egypt” was rolled away?
(7) What is the main message to you today and how might you apply it to your life?
In giving them the Promised Land, the Lord often refers to such a promise as a promise of “rest’ (Deut. 3:20. 12:10, 25:19; Jos. 1:13, 15, 21:44; 23:1). The author of Hebrews picks up on the same theme and urges us to enter into God’s rest (Heb. 4:11).
This was a lesson that God constantly taught the Israelites to learn, even as they were about to engage in their first battle after the crossing of the Jordan River.
We read that the hearts of the Amorite kings and the Canaanite kings melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites upon hearing “how the Lord dried up the Jordan before the Israelites” (Jos. 5:1).
Logically, this was the best time to launch their attacks and with such a miraculous experience fresh in their mind, the Israelites’ morale would be at their highest.
However, probably to their surprise, the Lord commanded them to perform circumcision for the old and young and to observe the Passover. That meant that they were forced to rest physically until their wounds were healed, and they were forced to rest spiritually, to remember and reflect not only on God’s mighty acts of deliverance, but also on the true meaning of being God’s Chosen People. In other words, before their battles, they needed to rest before the Lord.
This
reminds me again of the word of Isaiah:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation (or deliverance), in quietness and trust is your strength.” (30:15)
Only when their attitude was put right, were they ready to do battle. Only when they could slow down from their excitement and their preparation and rest physically and spiritually could they allow God to put their attitude right.
This applied to the people and it was even more important to their leader. That’s perhaps why God had to appear and speak to Joshua in vv. 11-15 of chapter 5, in the midst of their rest, lest he as a leader did not grasp the significance of such an understanding.
(1) The people had celebrated Passover ever since the night they left Egypt. How special was this celebration in Joshua 5, in terms of when and where they celebrated it?
(2) Manna stopped falling from heaven the day they ate of the food from the land. Was this a cause of celebration or a time of grief?
(3) Which was a greater miracle: that the people could eat Manna from heaven or the produce from the Promised Land?
(4) The battle of Jericho was the first battle ever led by Joshua in the absence of Moses. How would Joshua feel at this time?
(5) This special encounter appeared to be a personal encounter with Joshua alone. What was he doing there by himself?
(6) Why did Joshua care if the man with a drawn sword was there for them or for the enemies?
(7) Why did the man say, “Neither”? What did he mean with his answer?
(8) Who did Joshua understand Him to be? How can you tell?
(9) Why did God choose to appear to Joshua before this first ever battle led by Joshua? What was the key to his victory?
(10) Why was Joshua’s prostrating before the Lord not enough? Why did he have to be ordered to take off his sandals as well?
(11) What important message does it have for Joshua, for the Israelites and for you?
(12) What is the main message to you today and how might you apply it to your life?
St. Augustine makes an identical point about
miracles in his discussion of the miracle at Cana.
“Our Lord’s miracle in turning water into wine comes as no surprise to those who know that it is God who did it. At the wedding that day he made wine in the six water pots he had had filled with water; but he does the same thing every year in the vines. The servants put the water in the jugs, and he turned it into wine. In just the same way the Lord turns into wine the water that the clouds drop. Only that does not amaze us, because it happens every year... So the Lord kept back certain unusual things for himself to do, to wake us up with miracles to worship him.”
The miracle that breaks the rules reminds us that the rules themselves are miraculous. We need to rediscover and to cherish a basic sense of wonder, of surprise, of the precariousness of actuality. Ecclesiastes, the dismal world-weary preacher of the Old Testament, might grumble that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9); but the New Testament answers loudly and excitedly, “Look! I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Of course, we may all of us sometimes get an Ecclesiastes' mood, and if we do, it is comforting to know that it is not utterly debarred from God’s domain; but we should not devote our minds and imaginations to prolonging and justifying it. We should aim rather to have minds and imaginations able to respond joyfully to the truth that in Christ everything is given back its youth and at least something of the freshness of the very first days of creation.
Morning has broken
Like the first morning;
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!
(Prayer by Simon Tugwell)
(1) Verse 1 sets the scene for the battle. What did the king and the people of Jericho expect Joshua would do in your opinion?
(2) In telling Joshua His strategy, the Lord said, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hand…”. If you were Joshua, what would you expect the Lord to tell you next?
(3) What did the Lord tell Joshua to do in vv. 3-5? What might your response be, if you were Joshua?
(4) What did Joshua tell the people to do? Had he left out any part of God’s plan? (Read carefully.)
(5) What was the hardest part of this “strategy” to Joshua?
(6) What might be the hardest part of this “strategy” to the priests and the people?
(7) For six days, the priests circled the city with the ark and the armed guard. Apart from the thundering of the trumpet, what might the men and the people be doing in silence throughout the six days?
(8) What might the spiritual and practical reasons be for circling the city for seven days?
(9) What is the main message to you today and how might you apply it to your life?
The story of the conquest of Jericho is one of the most amazing stories in the Bible. To us believers, it has rich meanings and lessons that are very precious to our personal walk of faith, and corporately, it reminds us that our battle, the battle of conquering this faithless society, belongs to the Lord.
However, to the unbelieving world, including those so-called Christians who take stories like this as fictional, they have been using archeological finds to disprove the credibility of the claim of the Bible. And so, two Italian archaeologists conducted a limited excavation on the ancient site of Jericho in the spring of 1997, and announced that, “they found no evidence for any destruction from the time of Joshua.”
This obviously contradicted findings in the mid nineteen hundreds, and for various reasons, all the evidence of these early digs has disappeared overtime.
But when Bryant Wood of the Associates for Biblical Research was given permission to visit the same site in September of the same year, he found that the Italians, in fact, “uncovered most of the critical evidence relating to the Bible story”. In particular, they uncovered a stone outer revetment wall (which stands witness to) the remains of the collapsed mud brick city walls which had tumbled.
And so, it really speaks volumes of the state of archeology in the Holy Land in that when the purpose of an excavation at a Biblical site is to disprove the Bible and disassociate the site with any historical Jewish connection, they would twist their findings to serve their ends.
So, don’t get too excited when you see books like the Da Vinci Code, (and there will be more to come). Our faith is not based on things that are speculative and even science that is always outdated by later theories and discoveries. Our faith is based on the unchanging truth of God in the Bible.
(1) When the 7th day arrived, the atmosphere among the people must have been so tense that one could cut it with a knife. They were ready to give a war cry with shouting. What was the shouting for — a war cry only or did it have more important meaning to it?
(2) Before they attacked the city, the Lord gave very clear instructions to the people to keep away from the “devoted things”:
a. What were the devoted things?
b. How should they deal with them?
c. What if they did not deal with these things as the Lord commanded?
d. Why did God impose such a command which was quite contrary to what happened in normal battles among the nations?
e. What is the spiritual lesson that is also important to us today?
(3) Did the wall of the city collapse because of the magnitude of the noise of the shout? Why did God use this “strategy” given this was the first battle after they crossed the Jordan River?
(4) The Israelites appeared to have totally obeyed every command of the Lord given through Joshua. What might be the hardest part of such total obedience?
(5) Joshua honored the promise of the spies and spared the life of Rahab and her family. How similar was her experience of deliverance to that of ours? (See 1 Pet. 2:10)
(6) Finally, Joshua put a curse on the city. Look up 1 Kings 16:34 to see its fulfillment.
(7) What is the main message to you today and how might you apply it to your life?
According to the Bible, because of the miracle of the crumbling of the wall of Jericho, Joshua’s fame spread throughout the land. (Jos. 6:27)
We understand that God has already demonstrated in history that He always raises up a leader (or leaders) to accomplish His plan on earth. In so doing, He is not only interested in using His appointed leaders to accomplish His plans, but also in molding them into servants who knew His heart. Abraham and Moses are prime examples. Also, as much as He needs to establish His chosen leader before His people, these leaders could never be more important than the One who chose them. It is the case with Joshua as well, and it is reflected in the miracle of Jericho.
To overthrow these strong enemies and to overcome the fortified walls of Jericho, God would enable Joshua to lead and fight like a champion — like Samson who pulled down the pillars of the temple, or like Gideon who was a mighty warrior indeed.
But this miracle of Jericho only served to validate that Joshua’s words were truly from the Lord, without equating him with God in terms of might and glory. As the wall of Jericho fell, the people could only give glory to one person, and that was the Lord God Almighty. And, they would truly be convinced that the battle belonged to the Lord.
(1) The victory of Jericho was so spectacular and complete. Did it mean that God was completely pleased with the Israelites?
(2) Since they did not really completely obey God’s command, why did God still give them such a complete victory?
(3) Why did Achan choose to disobey such a clear instruction of the Lord? With such a total victory, what might Achan think in his heart after the battle, with his secret loot? Did he think he could really get away with it?
(4) What do you think is the reason for God delaying His discipline or punishment (which appears to often be the case)?
(5) What was the result of one’s person’s sin?
(6) What lesson can you learn from Achan and his sin?
(7) As much as Israel’s defeat in the hands of the people of Ai was a direct result of Achan’s sin, how different was this battle from that of Jericho in the following terms?
a. The report of the spies
b. Joshua’s strategy
c. The outcome and the people’s reaction
(8) How would you have reacted to this defeat if you were Joshua?
(9) As Joshua grieved, he said to the Lord, “If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan” (7:7). That means such a thought must have crossed his mind before. What caused him to have such a thought in the first place? In verbalizing it to the Lord, how hurtful was this thought to God?
(10) Read God’s reply in vv. 10-15. What was the essence of God’s reply to Joshua?
(11) What is the main message to you today and how might you apply it to your life?
In this day and age, we often hear people defend their sinful action whether within or without the church by saying, “It is my personal business and does no harm to anyone (besides myself).” I wish it were true. But the effect of one’s sin often extends far beyond the individual sinner. Achan is a case in point in Joshua 7.
Allow me to quote from Keil and Delitzch in which they comment on the sin of Achan:
It “…was not imputed to the whole people, not as imputatio moralis, i.e. as though the whole nation had shared in Achan’s disposition, and cherished in their hearts the same sinful desire which Achan had carried out in action in the theft he had committed; but as imputatio civilis, according to which Achan, a member of the nation, had robbed the whole nation of purity and holiness which it ought to possess before God, through the sin that he had committed, just as the whole body is affected by the sin of a single member.” (Keil and Delitzch, Joshua, p.55)
Consider Ananias in Acts 5: Had he not participated in the movement of sharing all things in common in the first church, it would have been alright. But since he claimed to be part of the community of sharing, his sin would have brought disaster to the community if it was not dealt with immediately.
And thus, if we serve in God’s community of faith and yet continue to lead a life of sin without repenting, we will rob the whole community of the purity and holiness it ought to possess before God, and we will bring defeat to the community. And if God chooses to confront us, or even make our sin public, or discipline us somehow, it would be grace. But if God chooses not to deal with us, it would be a curse from hell which would eventually lead to greater destruction — destruction of ourselves and of His community!