The book of Joshua heads the Nabi'im - the collection of books known as "the Prophets." These books cover the period of Israel's history from the entrance into the promised land to the Babylonian Exile.

Joshua is the bridge which brings the people of God from the Wilderness wanderings into the land.

The book of Joshua takes up where Deuteronomy leaves off with the Israelites about to enter the promised land.

Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses. Joshua will end with the death of Joshua. As the book of Joshua opens, Moses has just died. Before his death, he had laid his hands upon Joshua who was to be the new leader. This book can be divided into two parts.

1. The first part details the actual taking of the land.

2. The second part deals with the distribution of that land to the various tribes of Israel.

This book is actually arranged in the format of a large Chiastic parallel. Thus, it can be seen that this book begins and ends with a focus upon the Covenant of the Lord with His people.

This is the message of the book of Joshua. It is that God has been faithful to keep His promises regarding a land and an inheritance for His people. Because God has been faithful in the keeping of His covenant relationship, so also the people of Israel are to be faithful in keeping the terms of the covenant.

The author of the book is not specifically identified within the book, although there is the occasional use of the plural pronoun ("we"), indicating his identification with the Israelites coming into the land.

This could be an editorial "us" and does not automatically mandate that the writer had been in the wilderness (verse 1 of the same chapter has a similar plural pronoun, but only in certain Hebrew manuscripts).

1. Likewise, there is an indication that Rahab was still living at the time of the writing of this book (Joshua 6:25).
2. The Talmud states that this book was written by Joshua himself, that Eleazar wrote the section detailing Joshua's death and that Phinehas added the verses telling of Eleazar's death.
3. However, there are several other events about which Joshua could not have written, since they took place after his death.

Caleb's conquest of Hebron (Joshua 15:13-14 with Judges 1:1, 10, 20). Othniel's capture of Debir (Joshua 15:15-19 with Judges 1:1; 1:11-15). The migration of Dan to Leshem (Joshua 19:47 with Judges 17:18 indicates that this was a time when idolatry was permitted; this did not take place until after the death of Joshua - Joshua 24:31). The town of Zephath had its name changed to Hormah in the days of the Judges (Joshua 12:14; 15:30 with Judges 1:16-17).

4. There are also certain factors which indicate later editorial additions to the book. On several occasions we are given the modern equivalents for older names of places (Joshua 15:9,49,54).

Joshua 6:24 makes reference to "silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron" that were saved for the "House of the Lord." This phrasing has been taken to indicate that Joshua was written after the building of the Temple. However, it is possible that the BEYTH-YAHWEH (hwhy tyb) is merely used to describe the "dwelling-place of the Lord."

An example of this type of usage is seen in instances where Abraham describe his house (Genesis 14:14; 15:2-3; 17:12-13) and in Exodus 23:19 soon after the construction of the Tabernacle.

The book also gives an evaluation of the elders who outlived Joshua.

And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the Lord which He had done for Israel. (Joshua 24:31).

5. The book of Joshua also makes reference to other written documents in the book of Jasher (10:13) and of a written description of the land which Joshua ordered to be written (18:9).

1 Chronicles 7:27 mentions Joshua as the only son of his family. It is possible that he was trained in Egyptian culture, perhaps even serving for a time in Pharaoh's army and learning about military matters.

• Joshua is first introduced to us in Exodus 17:9.

• Joshua is described as the servant of Moses (Exodus 24:13) and as a young man (Exodus 33:11).

• When 12 spies were chosen to go into Canaan, Joshua was chosen to represent his tribe, the tribe of Ephraim. It seems to be at this time that Joshua was given this name by which we know him.

1. It was Moses who changed his name to Joshua (Numbers 13:16).
2. The name Joshua means "Yahweh saves."

• One of the provisions of the covenant was for a dynastic succession - that the mantle of leadership would be passed from Moses to Joshua.

A series of letters were discovered at the ancient Egyptian city of Akhenaton, located on the east bank of the Nile midway between Giza and Thebes. The city has since become known as Tell el-Amarna by the combining of two names:

In 1887, a peasant woman found some tablets in the ruins of Tell el-Amarna. She sold them for ten piastres. The tablets were offered to European scholars, but were suspected of being forgeries and were rejected. The tablets were taken to Luxor and sold to tourists. By the time that scholars realized the tablets were genuine, a number of the tablets had been sold.

Excavations began in 1891 and a total of 400 tablets were eventually uncovered. The tablets date to the 18th dynasty of Egypt, specifically during the reign of Akhenaton. These tablets consist correspondence between the Pharaoh of Egypt at the kings of the cities of Jerusalem, Gezer, Lachish, Jarmuth and Eglon. However, they are written in Akkadian, demonstrating that this was the language of international diplomacy.

In several of these letters, there are complaints and requests for protection from invading Hapiru, a nomadic people who were overrunning the land. Some of these Hapiru had been joined by the Canaanites and some had offered their services as mercenaries.

The interesting thing about these Amarna Tablets is what they do NOT mention. There are no letters from Jericho, Ai, Bethel, or Gibeon - those cities which were destroyed by Joshua.

1. Joshua teaches us about the Lord.

• It teaches us about the faithfulness of God. In this book we see that God keeps His promises. God had promised the land to Moses (Exodus 6:4) and promised that Joshua would lead the people into it (Deuteronomy 3:27-28).

• It teaches us about the will of God. Joshua emphasizes that God wanted his people to take full possession of the land (Joshua 13:1; 18:3).

• It teaches about the power of God. Joshua shows that the Lord is more powerful than the armies and cities of the land. He is even greater than His people's disobedience or other people's trickery.

2. Joshua teaches us about the People of God. They need to be...

• People with an aim. We need to determine what is the will of God for us and then attain that goal.

• People of obedience (1:7-8).

• People of faith (3:15; 6:16,20).

• People without compromise. One of the most dangerous traps that faces us is compromise with the enemy. When the Israelites did not totally drive out the Canaanites, this compromise led to their eventual defeat.