All right, so lesson one of this new Bible study Joshua God's promise fulfilled is entitled the general introduction to Joshua. We want to do some work on the character, the person of Joshua himself, a biographical sketch of Joshua's role in his preparation period is training, okay, and from Exodus all the way through Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch. But also we want to introduce the book of Joshua, its main themes, its structure, its title, that kind of thing. So there's a lot to talk about here.
But why I entitled first thing I want to say, I want to introduce this Bible study with going to chapter 21 verse 43, because this is the reason why I entitled the Bible study God's promise fulfilled, even more so than the conquest of the promise land. But when people say Joshua titles often resolve around or revolve, excuse me, around the theme of conquest, but I wanted to make sure that everybody really understood that it's secondarily about conquest and it's primarily about God's fidelity to his promises. And that's really what Joshua 21 43 says here on the top of your notes, if you have your notes, this is going to be the verse that introduces this whole thing. It says, thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers, and having taken possession of it, they settled there.
And that's really crucial. Talk more about this towards the end when we look at the key themes of this book. But it is really God's promise fulfilled. It's God's fidelity to his people because he swore oaths to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them the land and to have them settle in the land.
The land is a gift. So it is God's promise of a gift that is really the first major theme. And its conquest is really secondary. All right.
And that's really one of the things I want to clarify here in this first lesson. We'll talk a lot about this as we get to the main introductory themes. But first, let's look at a biographical picture of Joshua. He's introduced as Joshua the son of noon, and you end up none.
That'd be really awkward. Joshua the son of noon. So I want to spend some time, probably 45 minutes maybe, looking at all the ways in which he appears throughout the Pentateuch, not just to go through verse after verse and say he showed up here and here. But I really want to share all of these different appearances of Joshua throughout the Pentateuch to demonstrate that he is being trained by Moses.
He's being prepared for this role and also to show his virtues and his desire to be with God. So as we go through all of this, I'm going to unpack that. We have a lot of passages here where Moses is teaching Joshua or helping Joshua to be close to God and to be faithful and to be courageous and all of that. So that's really kind of the picture that I want to paint for you as we go through all of these verses and these various stories.
The first and foremost, Joshua comes from the tribe of Ephraim. That's important because Ephraim is a very significant tribe. Ephraim and Judah probably are the two most important tribes of all of the tribes of Israel. Judah, of course, is the King of the tribe.
David hails from Judah. Christ is born of the tribe of Judah as a descendant of David. And so Judah is the King of the tribe. Levi is of course a very important tribe as well because of the priesthood, but that's more of a temporary thing, more on that in the Bible study on the Pentateuch.
You want to check that out. But Ephraim is important. People pronounce as Ephraim. If you remember, if you go back to Genesis, Joseph was in Egypt and he married the daughter of this Egyptian priest, so a kind of high-ranking woman here, and he has two sons by her, at least two sons that are mentioned and recorded in Scripture.
So these two sons are born, have an Egyptian woman and Ephraim. So there's Manasseh, the first born, and Ephraim is the second born. Ephraim is the one who receives the birthright from Jacob. If you go back to chapter 48, Jacob does a little switcheroo and places his hand of blessing upon the second born son, and Joseph's like, what are you doing to add?
You're not supposed to do that? He goes, I know what I'm doing, leave me alone, right? And he blesses Ephraim. And so there's a lot of discussion about that, the way they separate the birthright and the blessing.
You can go back to Genesis, we talk about all of that in great depth. But nevertheless, Ephraim, the second born, is the one who receives this great blessing. So every later becomes a very important tribe. It's really powerful, it's really large.
And once you go fast forward in salvation history, and you see the split of the Davidic kingdom into the north and the south, Ephraim is the leading tribe because the first king, Jeroboam, is from the tribe of Ephraim. And I think it's really important, and that's all tied into the fact of Jacob's blessing, back in Genesis 48, but that's more details for another time. Right now, it's important to understand that Joseph is from this very significant tribe. And so really, that kind of gives him some Egyptian blood as well if you want to look at it that way.
And honestly, that's really important because this isn't in your notes, just pop into my brain right now. The fact that, so later on, we're going to talk about how Joshua is a type of Jesus. Well, Joshua is of Egyptian and Israelite lineage. And you're going to see that same thing in Jesus's genealogy as well.
This is just popping into my brain right now. So later on, it's not in your notes. But just as Joshua has Egyptian and Israelite lineage, so too does Jesus have Gentile and Israelite lineage, because salvation is not just for the Israelite. Salvation is through the Israelites for all the other nations.
And you're going to see that reflected in Jesus's genealogy as well as in his mission, his pasticle mystery, and preaching to the church and all that kind of stuff. So that's just one little small further detail. And if you mention that Joshua is half Egyptian or at least his Egyptian blood, why is that important? I think it points forward to the only Jesus Christ.
He's coming from Gentile and Jewish blood as well. Anyways, just close parentheses. I wanted to point that out there. Joshua, as you read, I'm going to get a whole bunch of pastures for you.
He's called Moses the servant and his minister. He's really his protégé, his attendant. He is really, really important in Moses' life. We studied Moses' life and all the shenanigans that he had to put up with Israel and how they were really, really just pain in his neck.
Well, Joshua was there the entire time. So as a young man, from when they left Egypt, Joshua was at the right hand of Moses every step of the way. So while he's called the servant of Moses and the minister and all this, I actually want to use kind of a first-century term, which is a disciple. Really, Joshua is the disciple of Moses.
And I'm going to explain later on why that's really, really important because I'm going to share with you how many commentators point this out, that Joshua is a new Moses. He's a Moses figure. He's a type of Moses. He also fast forwards towards Christ.
He's a type of Jesus Christ. But something that I want to share with you that you're not going to find in your commentary is that Joshua is also a type of all Christian disciples. So hang on to your hats. We're going to talk about that as well.
So I use the word disciple intentionally because I think Joshua is a type of Christianity, a type of the Christian disciple who follows Jesus. I'll explain that later on. So let's go to Exodus 17. This is the first time that Joshua is mentioned in the Pentateuch.
Joshua 17 comes right on the heels of crossing the Red Sea. Egypt is defeated, Pharaoh is drowned in the waters and all this stuff. Well, it's not smooth sailing from there because the Amalekites, they kind of see Israel as low hanging fruit. Here's a nation of slaves.
They left Egypt. They're weak. They're tired. They're easy prey.
So Amalek, the Amalekites, oppose Israel and fight Israel. So what happens is Israel defends themselves through Moses' intercession and Joshua's leadership, military leadership. So we're here in Exodus 17. I want to spend a little time reading these passages so that way it's fresh.
I mean, it would be very helpful if you did the Bible study on the Pentateuch here in Scripture in tradition.com because we go through all these in great depth. But nevertheless, this should be a good review. So Exodus 17 verses 9 and following says Moses said to Joshua, choose for us men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow, I will stand on the top of the hill with a rod of God in my hand.
So Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek and Moses, Aaron, who went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. Whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary.
So they took a stone and put under him and he sat upon it. And Aaron and who were held up his hands, one on one side and the other side so that his hands were steady until going down to the sun. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. So this, I think is really important to give us a picture of Joshua right off the gates.
So remember, Joshua's a young man, he's called a young man in various places in these stories. He is a young man. I could put him in the 20s or 30s, I could probably make a lot of sense, I suppose, the jury's out on that one, but he's called a young man. And he has no military experience.
Keep this in mind. They've been slaved to Egypt. His whole life, all the Israelites are slaves. He is not some like, maybe seal with all this experience, Green Beret, this special ops commander or something like that.
And then he just goes out there and just easy peasy nails it. He is a young man with no military experience. So you can imagine his courage. You can imagine his bravery and his obedience to Moses.
And Moses gives him authority. Moses doesn't even choose us some in for us. So Joshua was appointed as this commander with no experience. He has zero resume.
But he has Moses appoints him to do this task. So not only is he courageous and brave and obedient, he's to Moses, he also obedient to God. But notice something also, because he is not a soldier with all this military strategic experience and talent and whatnot, he is only successful due to Moses' intercession. When Moses continues to intercede for him with his hands raised up in intercessory prayer, which is what that's a symbol of, then Joshua has success.
So that is very much important for foreshadowing the whole book of Joshua. Joshua is going to have success due to God's power. And certainly, Moses' intercession, I would definitely argue as a Catholic, Moses is interceding on behalf of his people. So Joshua, even though he doesn't have any time to get to Joshua, of course, he does have experience.
But the point still remains, Joshua is victorious because of God. And that's the overarching thing of all of this. The land is a gift. It's not military might is not the primary reason why they succeed.
So we see Joshua in this very first story, and it's significant because it's going to foreshadow his whole role and his leadership in his conquest and the whole book of Joshua. So that's the first story about how he's successful against the Amalekite through the intercession of Moses. But I think, keep in mind, painting this picture, this biographical picture, how courageous and brave and trusting and obedient he is. That's good stuff.
All right, the next time we see him, and again, you're going to see some purpose, a deeper purpose for this, you see him on Mount Sinai. So Joshua accompanies Moses on Mount Sinai, and he goes up the mountain higher than anyone else, even more than Aaron. And I think that's really, really important. Remember to go farther up the mountain.
Moses went to the top, and then next is Joshua, and then the rest, and then after Joshua are the elders and Aaron and who are in the others. Okay, so Joshua goes up higher than everyone else up on the mountain. That's indicating his closeness to God. So here's a couple of examples for you before and after the golden calf.
So if you remember the whole golden calf, the buckle, keep that in mind, that's the background. So chapter 24 verse 12 and following, really that's on the heels that right after the covenant between God and Israel has been ratified, then Moses is going to go up to the mountain for 40 days. Well, this is what he says. So Lord said to Moses, come up with me, come up to me on the mountain and wait there, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commandment which I have written for the instruction.
So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, wait here for us until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron and who are there if you need something, basically. Okay, so Moses takes Joshua up farther up on the mountain, closer to the presence of God.
And on the way down, you see that very same thing reflected just really quickly here in Exodus 32 17. Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the covenant in his hands, tables that were written on both sides, on the one side on the other, they were written, and then fast forward, when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. Moses replied, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of the feet, but the sound of singing that I hear. Okay, so a couple things really quickly about this whole response that Joshua says to Moses, it's the sound of war in the camp.
It's like, oh, poor innocent Joshua, you don't really understand is how quickly Israel can turn away from God. It is not war. It is idolatry. Right?
So I kind of, in my mind, it could be Naivete, right? And Joshua's naive a little bit, but maybe also he's very innocent. He's a very innocent, pure man. Like he has no parts in the golden cap debacle and idolatry and fornication and all that stuff.
He has no part in it. He's innocent, maybe a little naive as well. He doesn't really understand just how bad Israel is. Because that's really the beginnings of all their problems.
That's not true. They had problems on the way to Mount Sinai. Well, in any case, why? What's the point about bringing Joshua farther up on the mountain?
Well, upon reflection, I think it's because it reflects Joshua's relationship with God, he's growing, it's developing, right? And Moses is teaching Joshua really in essence how to be close with God, how to pray. When you're up on the mountain communicating with God, you're really praying, right? It's an advancement in the spiritual life.
And that's so important because Joshua's not going to be successful in his mission throughout this book, the book of Joshua, unless he's faithful to God. I want to talk about this in chapter one in the next lesson. It's fidelity to God. It's clean to God.
It's not departing to the right hand or the left hand from his law. That's going to bring you success. And what I see personally reflected in him going up on the mountain higher than everyone else is that he's being set aside for leadership. But part and part is because he loves God.
And Moses is training him, mentoring him in the spiritual life to communicate to God and that symbolize by him going up higher on the mountain. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense of what's going on. And actually, that's reflected in this next part as well.
In Exodus 33, 11, what you find here is that Joshua attended Moses at the tabernacle and someone's in the tabernacle, even though he wasn't a priest. This is crazy, right? This is crazy what Joshua was doing here. So Exodus 33, 11 says, Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as his man speaks to his friend.
When Moses turned again into the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of a young man, did not depart from the tent. That's beautiful. He didn't depart from the tent. Now you have to ask, was this voluntarily so?
Or involuntary? Was it demosives command him and say, stay here and guard the tabernacle and he's like, yes, sir, I'll do it. Or is he there voluntarily? Like when he's not needed, he is there in the tabernacle.
All right. I think maybe you could argue both and we don't know for sure. But the fact that he is with Moses and the service of the tabernacle again demonstrates his closeness with God and the depth of his spiritual life. And really, if you go back to Exodus, I share and I teach with you how the tabernacle is a mini Mount Sinai, right?
So the fact that Joshua was able to go up higher on the mountain on the mountain on the mountain itself and close to God is going to be reflected in the fact that he's able to serve with Moses in the tabernacle because if you can do one, you can do the other because the tabernacle is a little mini Mount Sinai, right? So I'm sharing this with you to say he's close with God and that's going to be the key for his success. He's not this great center. He's an incredibly gifted man and incredibly faithful man.
One of the great personages, one of the great personalities of the entire Old Testament, okay? So he's close with God. These passages reflect his spiritual life. That's what I would argue there for you, okay?
Next, he's fiercely loyal to Moses.