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?
(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?
(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?
(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?
(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?
(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?
(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?