Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Welcome to the weekly Deep Dive podcast on the Add On Education Network.
The podcast where we take a look at the weekly come follow me discussions and try to add a little insight into insight and unique I am your host Jason Lloyd, here in the studio with my friend and this show's producer, Nate Pyfer What's up? Hey, Nate.
How are you doing this week?
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Doing all right.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Good.
It's good to be back in the studio. It's good to be talking about the Old Testament. I hope you guys at home are enjoying the Old Testament as much as I am and a big thanks for listening. We appreciate you guys out there giving us a listen.
Today we are talking about the book of Joshua and again, it is another lesson where we are going to try to squeeze an entire book into one week.
Obviously we are not going to be able to cover everything in here, but we are going to try to hit the highlights of what I find most significant, important or interesting or at least what time allows me to talk about.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: Can't wait.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Okay, let's just dive right into it. First, Joshua, he is an original, one of two from Egypt that survives long enough to see the Holy Land, him and Caleb. Everyone else from his generation is gone. So he's the last of the Mohicans, if you will.
And he's leading the people in and he's going to lead them into battle and we're going to talk about some of the cool experiences that he has at he is establishing Israel in the land.
But one thing I think deserves mention is his name. I find of one of the most fascinating names in all of the Old Testament.
His name is a compound name of two words, Jeho for Jehovah and Oshua from salvation.
And the Shua is where the name Jesus, Yeshua comes from Jesus meaning salvation and Jehovah meaning Jehovah. So Jehovah is my salvation. But the cool thing with the name is literally Jehovah is Jesus, which I find kind of.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: It's awesome.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: It's a cool name.
It's kind of weird when you think about their names. Back in the day, like I would have a hard time calling my kid like, hey, Jehovah is Jesus, come here.
Or what do you think? Jehovah is Jesus? Can you tell me about this?
And that's how things were. Like, you look at a lot of their names and they had meanings. And today we pick names that have meanings too, but it's a meaning in a different language. So it doesn't seem so weird to us. So when we call somebody Michael. And it's a question, who is like God?
We don't say, hey, who is like God? Come here. I don't know. Having that different language just takes it one step removed to where you can have meaning, but also know it's a name and not feel like you're saying something kind of weird over, over and again.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: Okay, it's interesting.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: For what it's worth, I like it.
All right, let's get into this book.
The first chapter, when Joshua takes over.
There's some really cool things that are happening here.
First, there's a phrase, and this almost becomes the banner message throughout the entire book of Joshua. You're going to see it repeated over and over again.
Be strong and of a good courage.
And it's repeated. Not only does the Lord say it to Joshua several times in this first chapter, but you also have a couple of the tribes.
Verse 12. And to the Reubenites and the Gadites and to the half of the tribe of Manasseh. So these tribes, the half tribe of Manasseh and the Reubenites and the Gadites, their inheritance was on the other side of the Jordan.
They've already conquered that land, that territory. So they don't have the need necessarily to cross the river and to continue to fight to establish themselves, because they've already got their land. They can call it good. But they promised Moses that even though they had their land conquered, they would stay in league with Israel, to continue to fight with them at their side until all of their neighboring tribes, their brethren, have established themselves in the land. And then they would return back to the other side of the river to be in the land that they've conquered for themselves.
And they come to Joshua and say, we understand that we've made this covenant and we're not looking to back out of it. The one request we have is that our women and children can stay here in this land and not travel with the rest of Israel.
And we, the men of war, will go with Israel and fight with Israel and fulfill our promise to Moses, to God and to the rest of our brothers.
If you'll allow our families to stay back, we will follow you. And then it's interesting what they repeat back to Joshua because it says, I'm just going to read their response. Verse 16. And they answered Joshua, saying, all that thou commandest us, we will do. And whithersoever thou send us, we will go. So a very good message. I will do what you want me to do. I will go where you want me to go.
According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee. Only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be that doth rebel against thy command and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death.
And then this last line, only be strong and of a good courage. So you have this. They're repeating that same message that God gave to Joshua, they're repeating back to Joshua. So he's getting it not only from above him in a command as God is speaking to him, but he has conveyed that message so well that even Israel below him is coming back to him and repeating that message. So this is their rallying cry, which is going to be needed because they have to establish themselves in a very hostile territory. It's going to require strength and courage.
Let's go into chapter two.
Chapter two is a fascinating chapter to me.
This is when Joshua sends spies into the land of Jericho. Do you know the story? Maybe I should just give it a little quick recap.
He has two spies that he sends into the land, and the two spies go into the house of Rahab, who is a prostitute, and they spend the night with her. And the people in Jericho saw the Israelites come into her house. So they come to her and ask, where are the men from Israel that came in here to spy out the land?
And she could easily turn them over and have them executed as spies.
But instead, she hides them, and it's kind of interesting. In the roof of her house. So you've got these wood, the fibers or whatever it is that's laying the roofing material. She has them stashed within the roof itself.
And she tells the men of Jericho, yes, they did come in, but they quickly went out of the gate, the city Nate Pyfer it closed for the night. In fact, if you're quick enough, you might be able to catch up to them. They fled the city.
So she gets them on this misdirection. So they go running out of the city to try to go chase these men of Israel down.
And then she takes the Israelites, the two men, and she promises them, hey, I've spared your life.
I would like that you, in return, spare the life of my father's house. So not just her, but her father and her father, all of her father's house will be spared and part of this deal.
And they make a covenant with her, saying, yes, we will spare you. Here are the terms in which we will do it. If anyone that's within this building, in their father's house. You bring them to this room, and we will spare everyone there. And if they're in here and they die, then it'll be on us. But if they're not in here and you don't follow through, then the blood is not on us. We're. We're relieved from the oath that we make with you. So they make this covenant, and then she ties a scarlet rope, ribbon, whatever it was, scarlet, to be able to let them down out of her window. So her house is built right into the city wall.
So her house is the city wall. It shares a common wall there. And she's going to let them out the window down the city wall to the outside through there.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: And.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: And their covenant. Part of that covenant is you have to tie this scarlet rope in the window so that we can see it when we come to conquer, so that we know to save your household. So there is a lot of, I think, interesting symbolism going on here. For one, why is Joshua sending spies into Jericho when they go to conquer this area?
The Lord commands Joshua to have all of his troops surround the city and walk around it once a day. It's not like they're going to go in and make an honest war of this. The walls are going to collapse and they're going to take the people. Surprise. What's the value of spies in an attack like this?
And if you've got these spies going in, there's just a lot of interesting questions here.
Of all places to go as a spy, why are they stopping in the house of a harlot?
And what's the symbolism of that?
And then you talk about the scarlet.
And I keep calling it a scarlet rope. Let's just read the verse here. When they talk about the Scarlet cord, verse 15. Then she let them down by a cord through the window. For her house was upon the town wall that she dwelt upon with the wall.
What's the symbolism there, the significance of the scarlet cord that not only saved the life of the Israelites, but also saved the life of her father's house and everything that's there?
So there's some imagery here, there's some questions here. And I'm kind of setting the stage. I don't know. Do you want to take a swing at it, Nate, or am I just pulling the rug right out from under you?
[00:10:54] Speaker A: No, keep going.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Okay.
I kind of look. I mean, I think the obvious one may be the scarlet.
Scarlet being red is a symbol of the atonement, the blood of Christ. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, these men are going to be spared.
Their life was forfeit. They were caught as spies.
And I almost look at their life as being forfeit in two ways. One, because the city had caught them and was coming to pursue them.
And she could have easily turned them in and they could have died. So literally, physically, their life was forfeit, but spiritually, in a sense that these Israelites are going in and turned into the house of a harlot. And it's interesting because the word that they use when she comes back to them in verse eight, and before they were laid down, and this word laid is to lie with carnally, to lie with sexually, before they were laid down. So as they're coming into the house of harlot, and before they were that she came down upon them.
She came up unto them upon the roof, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the lands, that the terror is fallen upon upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
I see them almost as a spiritual type of death as well, where they turn into the house of a harlot, as before, they're going to lay down and forfeit themselves that way. And this idea of a strong female character who is outside of Israel is going to be a common theme that we see throughout the Old Testament. And this strong female character is going to be brought into the house of Israel.
What other image does a woman represent in the Old Testament? If we are talking about female characters, what other female characters?
Not specifically people, but what do we use female characters to refer to?
You have got Lady Zion and you've got Lady Babylon.
One is described as a virgin, the other one described as a whore. But this idea that nations are referred to as women.
So if you have a strong Gentile woman who is going to be brought into the fold, and then you have Israel as a woman who is going and laying with the outside. I almost see this story as a prophetic story about a time when Israel is going to be turning away from God, turning to find sexual gratification or worship a different God than what they had worshiped and lose their way. And in that opportunity, you're going to find a strong outside female nation. Or this woman representing a strong Gentile nation is going to see the miracles that God has done for the Israel and bring themselves into the fold.
That's what I see happening here in the story.
And when they take her in initially, this is really neat.
We have to fast Forward to the war when they take Jericho.
So I'm going to skip to chapter six, when Jericho and the walls fall in verse 23. And the young men that were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brethren and all that she had, and they brought out all her kindred and left them without the camp of Israel. And this word with. Without the camp of Israel. This is the fringes of the camp. We've talked about the fringes of the camp before, because the fringes of the camp is where we often see the rebellion or the people that distance themselves from.
From the Lord. And here you have this outsider who's initially the fringes of the camp. But look at what Joshua says in verse 25. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's house and all that she had, and she dwelleth in Israel. Now, that word in, it's not the Hebrew word for inn. The Hebrew word for inn is beit. And it just means in.
In here, it's karev. And the karev means in the midst, in the heart, in the core. So where she started at the outskirts of the town when she was first saved, as soon as verse 25. Now all of a sudden, we see her in the karev, in the heart, in the midst, in the center of Israel. She has worked her way from the fringes to the inside. You're going to see this with Ruth, because Ruth was not an Israelite woman.
She was married to Israelite men who showed weakness in marrying outside of Israel and going and picking up this outside woman. But she was more faithful than her husband's. And that faithfulness in choosing to be with her husband's family and choosing to be part of Israel leads to her becoming this strong figure in Hebrew history, this adopted outsider coming in. So throughout the Old Testament, we keep getting these glimpses of a foreign nation, a foreign woman who is going to be brought into Israel initially, maybe the outskirts, but going to become at the core, the center of this new Israel, if you will.
I think it's interesting to see this.
I don't know. It teases it throughout the Bible, for what it's worth.
All right, moving forward, as Joshua's preparing for this, first they have to cross the Jordan, and before they get there, the Lord commands them. So when we talked about the parting of the Red Sea, the wind blows all that day, and Israel moves over once the water is parted on dry land.
When they cross this river, things are going to be a little Bit different, because the Lord says, I need those who are carrying the ark to step into the water with the water coming up to their ankles in the midst of the water. And once all four of them are in the water, and it's interesting, they make a little bit of a note because they say this is the time that the water overrunneth its banks. So it's not like they're in the river itself.
They're at the sides of the river, which are normally dry land. But because the river is full at the time of this year, the water has extended the natural border, the banks, and they're standing in the sides where the water is deep enough that they're still in it. Once all of them are there, then the Lord will stop the water from coming upstream and dry up the land. And the ark has to stay put where it is until all of Israel has passed.
And this dominion over the water becomes the Lord's calling card. Throughout the Bible, we saw it with the Creation, when the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water, we saw it in the parting of the Red Sea. Now we're seeing this mastery of the waters as they cross over here to become Israel. This is why when Christ is in the boat in the New Testament and they say, master, carest thou not that we perish? When the storm is raging and he stands up and says, peace, be still, and controls the water, he is identifying himself as this Jehovah in the Old Testament that time and time again has shown mastery of the waters. And the water is an image of chaos.
Water goes wherever it wants. It doesn't have form, it doesn't have structure. It just it is. And it does whatever it can. It flows to the easiest path. It goes downhill. It expands in all different directions. It is the opposite of order.
And Jehovah is a God of order. He is going to impose his will. He's going to impose his order by the breath of his mouth. His spirit breathes upon it and it obeys.
Once they cross over on the other side, Joshua wants to make sure that everyone remembers the event. And he creates two different pillars. One is 12 stones that are gathered as they cross to the other side. The other, they gather the stones together at the feet of where the people that held the Ark were in the borders of the river that you're going to see seasonally as the waters recede back into the river. And at parts that you're going to see the pillars partially buried by water as it comes to signify.
This is when God stopped the waters and allowed us to cross the sea to. Not just as a sign for Israel to remember God and not forget him as they get established in the land, but as a sign to all of these other nations that are going to be doing battle that this really happened and the Lord is on their side and be careful. He's. He is God.
It's good to have those reminders. And if I were to make a modern connection to that.
When we read the Scriptures and Christ was such a. He did such a good job of taking the Scriptures and making them relate to us in everyday things that we deal with in our life. So that as we do those actions, as we go and harvest the crops or whatever it is, we're reminded of what lessons are tied to that as we look at the.
The trees and what they symbolize. And it helps to reflect our thoughts and turn them heavenward or turn them to God.
All right, let's move on. When we talk about chapter five, as the Lord's preparing his people to come over, he commands Joshua to circumcise them a second time.
And you're like, wait a second. Circumcision? That sounds painful.
It's not a second circumcision. That's impossible.
Yes. Does not sound pretty. It is not a second circumcision because they have to go in and explain this in a little bit more detail. What happened is all of Israel had been circumcised before they left Egypt. But as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, circumcision didn't become an important thing for them anymore.
And the new generation that rose up had not been circumcised. So this new generation of men that were going to be fighting and establishing themselves in the land of Canaan, they had to be circumcised.
So this is an example of cleansing that inner vessel and establishing that covenant. Before you go out and do whatever saying, we are going to tame ourselves, we are going to cut part of this off. And we have talked about circumcision last week. So I think that is all I am going to say here is just offer that up to the Lord and show that we are willing to obey you and use.
What's the word here? Restraint.
Let's go to the very end of this.
This is one of the more interesting things. They celebrate Passover and they use food. They say from last year. And when they say food from the last year, it's kind of cool because the actual Hebrew word there is the food that was passed over.
So they used the passed over meal. Excuse me, the Passover food. To celebrate the Passover and eat it with manna. And this is the last time that they're going to be eating leftover food from previous years or relying on manna in the wilderness. Because from here moving forward, they will be eating the fruit of the land. It's a very significant event for them. And as soon as they celebrate the Passover, this is when the Lord appears to them. And it's neat because the Lord appeared.
You look in Doctrine and Covenants to Joseph Smith in the Temple on Passover, and the Passover becomes very significant in Israelite history. This isn't the last time we'll talk about it. But when the Lord appears to Joshua, verse 13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold the there stood a man. And here's the Hebrew word Ish, literally man, over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries?
So he sees a man standing with the sword, who are you? Are you for us or against us?
And the man responds, and he said, nay, but as captain of the hosts of the Lord am I. Now come, he says, I'm not for you against you. I am the captain of the Lord's host.
And if the Lord has. And the word host is the Hebrew word for army. So if you want to translate this, I am captain of the Lord's army. So if it's the Lord's army, who's the captain of the Lord's army?
This is the Lord. And we see that because Joshua's reaction.
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship.
Now we see something similar in the book of Revelation. When an angel comes to John and says, I am the Lord, and John worships him. And he says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not the Lord. Don't worship me. I am a messenger from the Lord.
I'm just sending you this message. You don't see that here. In fact, when Joshua falls on his face and worships, the Lord not only does not rebuke him, but the Lord says, he says, and he did fallen his face to the earth and did worship him, and said unto him, what saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: We've heard this before.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Yes.
And so Joshua did so this is like Moses and the burning bush. This is the. This is the Lord of hosts, the captain of the army, coming to give Joshua specific instructions on what to do and the next verse. So we have this. I hate that there's a chapter separation here. So chapter six.
It's not how it's written in the Hebrew. Verse one. Now, Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went in and none came out. This is more of a commentary to give you backstory, but it's not part of the diction. If you were to keep reading verse 15 and skip to verse 2 as if it was the same chapter, it makes more sense. Verse 2. And the Lord said unto Joshua, see, I have given unto thine hand Jericho and the king thereof, and all the mighty men of valor. This is a continuation. So now we're not even saying, this is the captain of the Lord's host. The charade's done. This is the Lord himself. And the Lord said unto Joshua, and he gives him these instructions. You're going to take it, and you're going to compass the city about and walk around the city.
Six days, once a day. Now, you think about how large a city is. Jericho is a pretty significant city. How long would it take to walk around that entire city by foot?
Right.
It's not a small task.
And doing it once a day until the seventh day. And on the seventh day, you're going to walk around it six times. Whoa.
Yeah. I thought on the seventh day, you rested.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: No, on the seventh day, you walk around this thing six times. And it's very important when you walk around it, make sure that the men of war go before the Ark. And then you have people in front of the Ark that are also going to be blowing their horns. And then the Ark, and then you're going to have a rear guard of soldiers as well, following this procession.
And while they're going about blowing the horns, and there's something to be said about this.
The wind, the breath, the spirit being played out of the horns is the only sound that's going to be made.
And they say, make sure that not a single word is spoken by any of the men in the camp.
And so what's the significance of that?
I think we should be able to see this, right?
If it's just the horns that are blowing, it's just the breath that's moving the sound. Whose voice is it? Who's the one that's acting to destroy this city and make sure that the men don't speak and then at the end of the day, the seven. The seven days when they come around it six times, then I command all of the men to shout together.
And I almost look at this account as a retelling of the creation in a sense, too, because you don't have men on day one, day two, day three, day four. But after men have been created, then I want you to sound your voice off as well. Unifying yourself with God, men with God is what is going to be conquering the enemy. And part of this conquering is a creation story that I am going to get rid of the chaos and the wickedness that you have descended into and restore it with order. With a very high level of order.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: And so they do this, and the walls come falling down. You know, the story.
And I think that's. That's probably all we need to say on that subject.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: Killer. Okay, is there a scientific thing for this or not?
Is there a scientific explanation for this, or is this straight up a miracle?
[00:28:54] Speaker B: There is a scientific explanation for this.
They say when we were talking back with the story of Lot and his wife coming out, that there was an impact crater or some sort of blast that hit the ground so hard that the shockwave would have called the. Caused the walls to. To have fallen. I don't. I don't know if I necessarily agree.
I don't know if that was it or not. I would think if the. The blast wave is strong enough to knock the walls down, it would probably be strong enough to do some serious damage to Israel sitting outside of the walls too.
Unless they happen to be on the far side of the city.
But the Lord has them from. From where they settle, ready to go, so that as soon as the walls collapse and they move forward right into
[00:29:45] Speaker A: the city, yeah, they're there.
So it's probably not anything with the shockwave big enough to mess up the whole system.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: So it's just a straight up miracle. Could be.
[00:29:56] Speaker B: I like it.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: Let's keep going.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: Yeah. The one interesting thing is that Joshua does curse Jericho after the fall of the city. He makes a very interesting curse in saying that whosoever shall build Jericho again. So this is the end of chapter 6, verse 26. And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth the city Jericho. He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. So the Lord was with Joshua and his famous noise throughout all the country.
This curse Joshua is saying is not just to inhabit the city. There's a big difference here. In fact, he gives this city to Israel to be inhabited, and he lists it as part of the inheritance of Israel.
So there's no curse against being within the city. But what he's saying specifically, and what you lose in the translation riseth up and buildeth the city of Jericho. It's not built. It's buildeth the fortress that rebuilds the city walls and the gate specifically. If you make this a fortress, a walled city, then you're doing it to your own dismay, your own destruction.
And he curses. He says he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. So you see that foundation, those walls, and then the gates, the gates of the city. A walled city. If you make this a walled city, you do so at the expense of your own children.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Killer. Let's keep going.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: And it does happen. There is a guy later in the wicked times of Israel that does bring all of that's fulfilled later on. We don't we to that now.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Okay, we'll get there.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: We'll get there.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: We'll hearken back to this.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: We'll.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: We'll circle back.
[00:31:50] Speaker B: Okay, now we've got.
We got an interesting story.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Can't wait.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: When they win with the battle of Jericho, there's one guy who decides to take a little something for himself.
And when he takes a little something for himself, it causes the Lord to stop being on Israel's side.
And Israel's not necessarily aware of what happened. Joshua's certainly not aware. He sends scouts in to go look at the city of AI next.
And they look at the city of AI and they say, look, this city's smaller. We don't need all of Israel to fight in this. Let's just choose 3,000 men and have them go and take care of AI for us. So they select their 3,000 men. They go to battle against AI, and all the men of AI come out and chase the men of Israel. So Israel flees before them to the quarry, the stone quarry there, outside of the city, to where 36 of their men are killed.
And as they come back, defeated, Joshua rents his garments. And we've talked about what that means to tear your coat. This idea, if covering yourself is a sign of atonement, then uncovering yourself is, I am undone. I need atonement. Showing you need for being covered, discovering your nakedness and says, why, Lord? And the prayer he falls on his face as he did earlier, and he prays to God and he says, why is it that thou has forsaken us? This is your name, and this is to the damage of your name.
Now, all of the other countries, when they see that we're not invincible and that we fell to this small city, so much so that we didn't even send our whole army, we just sent a small portion and we couldn't even take care of them, they're all going to join and take courage and come and destroy us.
So he's filling this, he's praying to God and saying, why?
And God says, because one of you have done wickedly and have not aligned yourselves to me.
And if you want to figure out what this is and be back on my side, then you take all of the different families of Israel, you bring them to the tabernacle, and you cast lots. And the idea is, if you're casting lots, you don't control the outcome. And if man does not control the outcome, then God is controlling the outcome. And God is going to find who it is that has committed this great sin that has caused Israel to no longer be aligned to the Lord.
Now remember what the Reubenites and the half tribe of Manasseh, and at the very beginning, what they come back to Joshua and say, whosoever of us who does not follow everything that you say, may he be put to death.
And it's interesting, if you look at the military laws of behavior, the law code that you have even today in the United States, there are four crimes that are punishable by death in times of war, one of which is sedition. If you are to disagree or not carry out, I should say, a direct order from your commander, in time of war, it can be punishable by death, particularly in an instance like this where disobeying the order leads to the death of 36 more of your brethren who didn't know that they didn't have the Lord on their side.
So they cast lots, and it circles down to one family, down to one man. And they say, okay, tell me. And it's really, it's interesting how Joshua approaches him, because Joshua doesn't say, listen here, you sob like he says, come here, my son.
And how he talks to him in still this loving way, even though he knows that this is capital punishment that's coming.
Confess and tell me what. What happened?
And he took something. That's an abomination.
And. And for the interest of time, in Leviticus, we read this as we're preparing for or in numbers, as we're preparing for the Coming into the Israelites, into the land of Canaan, the Lord says there are a few things that are abominable. He says, first, the utensils that are in the different houses of worship, the temples that are used in there, the silver and the gold utensils and instruments in their temples, that is the Lord's. Take those and dedicate them to the Lord's house and keep them in the temple and the treasury and build up a treasure unto the Lord.
But the idols themselves are supposed to be destroyed.
And the silver and gold that you lay upon the idols are an abomination, and they are also to be destroyed.
And the guy takes this garment and the silver and this gold, and they say that what he took was an abomination.
And so if this was in these ancient cultures, you didn't just have a statue of a God that you worshiped, you would clothe the God and you would feed the gods. So you'd bring food there, and then the priest would wash the gods, they would clothe the gods, and they would eat the food for the sake of the gods in place of the gods.
And so if you're taking some of these things that were placed onto the gods or dedicated to the gods, the Lord identified these as an abomination. And the way they're supposed to be treated is mashed down into a powder, melted down, burned or whatever. This guy takes it and he takes it whole, and he knows what he did is bad to the point where he buries it in his house and hides it so that nobody discovers what he has done.
And I think that becomes very key when we try to question if what we're doing is right or wrong. If we have to hide it from everyone else by burying it, then it's probably wrong.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: It's probably a good indicator.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: And the fact that he doesn't destroy it and try to change the nature of it, what is he going to do in preserving the nature of it? How is he going to be using it if it was used in the worship of a false God? So there's some interesting questions here. But by deliberately disobeying the order, he has put the camp of Israel at risk.
And so Joshua, relying on the Lord, takes him and destroys him and his family. And not just that, but also his sheep, his possession. And it just wipes everything out, saying, we're not having any of this as part of who we are. That's very similar to the story of Phinehas who says, no, this ends here. We're not allowing this to be a part of us. We're consecrating ourselves to this effort. And in times of war, strict obedience becomes very important.
And it's not to say the Lord does not want Israel to become wealthy or to receive their riches.
The Lord asks them to borrow or get as much money from the Egyptians before they leave, as we talked about in the time of the Exodus. And. And in the very next battle they're going to do. The Lord says, you can now take any silver or gold or any booty that you have, and you can take that unto yourselves. It becomes more of an object lesson in, did the Lord say I can do it? Or the Lord specifically say I can't do it? And if I am going to directly go against a commandment from God, that's a willful rebellion, and that's going to lead to death. Rather than destroying everyone because of your rebellion, we're going to cut this out and try to instill this obedience.
Awesome.
All right.
[00:39:50] Speaker A: I love it.
A lot of good lessons in this week's, like, life lessons.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: There's a ton of stuff, and it's kind of cool when they start describing all of the nations that Israel is going to be fighting. The way they describe it is that when they saw the destruction of Jericho, when they see them cross the river, when they see everything that they have done, the destruction of the people on the other side of the river, Balaam and Balak, and everything that happened there, it says that their hearts melted.
So you see all of the courage just kind of leak out of them. Their hearts melted. But then it also says, and they lost their spirit, the Ruach, the same spirit that moves upon the waters.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: Oh, interesting.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And that same spirit, by the way, is what God breathed into the nostrils of Adam to give him life. So it's literally the life flowed out from them. They didn't have the spirit with them anymore.
And then you contrast that with Joshua and his group, who has full of the spirit. It's the spirit blowing through the horns. And it's this. This idea that the spirit prospers. Somebody without the spirit, you die. And with the spirit, you're strengthened and you can accomplish anything.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: All right, let's talk about some treachery, some interesting deception.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Can't wait.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: The Gibeonites, these guys are smart.
So you have all of these different people who look at Israel coming in and they know that they're in the path of destruction and they have to act of destruction. Yeah. They know it's not going to go, well for them.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: And so they're trying to bind together and say, hey, maybe if all of us combine, maybe we can stop them. Or, what's the best course of action to try to preserve our lives?
And Gibeon, rather than make an alliance with everybody else, they come up with this tricky plan.
They say, okay, let's get old wine bottles, let's get old clothes, and let's make it look like we've been on a journey for a long time.
And then we're going to show up in Israel and be like, hey, we worship the same God that you worship. And we heard that the Lord is establishing you in the land. And because we worship the same God, we want to come be with you and worship God with you and be a part of you.
And so they show up and they know that they're on the black list. Is that the right way to put this?
As we talked about last week, God is destroying this people because of their wicked, not because of the righteousness of Israel. They know they're on the naughty list. The naughty list.
And so they have to kind of present themselves as somebody who's not on the naughty list.
So they show up to Joshua and the twelve princes, because you have one representative of each tribe who's consulting with Joshua. We talked about this kind of this first presidency and this quorum of 12 that Israel had leading them and making these decisions.
And when they come to make this agreement, they say, hey, look at these. Verse 13. This is chapter nine. And these bottles of wine which were filled were new. And behold, they are rent, and these are garments. And our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey which we took. We're not. So they ask him, where are you guys from? Not from anywhere around here. From really far away.
Verse 14. And the men took their victuals and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.
And Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them to let them live.
And the princes of the congregation swear unto them. And it came to pass at the end of three days, after they had made league with them, because it takes this oath. Process is not just. I shake hands and we're done, right? So after three days, when now this is ratified and irreversible, that their heart that they heard, that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt among them.
And the children of Israel journeyed and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Chephara and Beeroth and Kirjah Jearim and the children of Israel smote them not because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the princes.
How could you?
That's coming out of our inheritance. We were supposed to live in this land. And you made a treaty with them without consulting with God.
What does that say about the infallibility of Joshua and the twelve princes, that they make a decision like that without consulting with the Lord?
You know, okay, it's interesting.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: What happens because of it.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: Well, the Lord honors it and tells them, look, you've made a covenant and you swore by my name, so by my name you have to defend it.
Verse 20. This we will do to them. We will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swear unto them. So Israel is afraid to break the oath because they made the oath in the Lord's name, but because they were dishonest and misrepresented who they really were.
Joshua says, hey, you're going to be the water drawers and the axe hewers, the wood hewers for the ark of the covenant, for the temple of the Lord. You're going to be doing all of the hard labor forevermore as you dwell with us because you deceived us on who you were. But for the covenant's sake, we will not turn back on our word.
[00:45:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: And the interesting thing is, in the very next chapter, you have five different nations that go to make war with Gibeon because Gibeon sided with Israel rather than side with them. Right? Okay, if you're Joshua, how tempting is it to be like, dude, these guys, they lied to me.
Let them settle this on their own deal.
Right?
I'm just going to stand back and watch these five nations destroy them, and then I'm going to come clean up with the five nations, and then we have all of our inheritance back and we can fix the mistake that we made. Okay, that's not how it plays out.
Joshua and all of the hosts of Israel defend Gibeon and save them from the five for the oath's sake that they made. That's how important it was, that they live up to the word that they made, that they were not dealing treacherously with their neighbors.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: So the lesson we learned from this is just don't blow it in the first place.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And be a man of your word. If you say you're going to do something, don't make excuses or try to find a way out of it.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Even if you blew it in the first place.
[00:47:00] Speaker B: Even if you blew it in the first place. Follow through.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: I like it. Let's keep going.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: Okay.
A lot of this is just going to be destruction.
Joshua coming through, trying to get them to get a lot of their land.
Oh, I can't believe we were just about to gloss over it.
When Joshua goes to fight against these five people that are fighting against Gibeon, one of the craziest stories in all the Old Testament happens.
He's smiting the people, and they're doing so well. I guess a couple of things happen once as they're smiting the people and the people turn to flee.
It says that God sent stones down from heaven to smite the five armies as well.
And it says that more were killed from the stones of heaven than from the Israelite sword.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Okay, wait, is this like a hailstorm?
[00:48:02] Speaker B: It is. And they call it a hail storm after that.
So God sends hail down and it starts to destroy the people.
And Joshua worried that these people are going to get away and they are winning the day. They are winning the war. The hailstorm is helping. The tide has turned in their favor.
Commands the sun to hold still and the moon to stay where it is until he can finish mopping up.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: How did you almost forget this part of the story?
[00:48:32] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:48:34] Speaker A: Is it the first daylight savings time jokes, maybe? Daylight savings time? Instead of everybody complaining about it all the time, maybe it was divinely inspired. Ask Joshua.
What do you think, Jason?
[00:48:53] Speaker B: I think. I think the sun's standing still.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: It's a little bit more important than.
[00:48:58] Speaker B: It's a little more significant than.
Than just rewinding your clock a few hours till you can keep smiting somebody, whatever.
But where else in the story. Where else have you ever heard, anywhere in any book, even outside of the Bible, of a war going on? And the war is going so favorable that you command the day to just.
[00:49:22] Speaker A: Let's keep going.
Just finish this off.
[00:49:26] Speaker B: Yeah, let's keep that sun up a little bit longer. I've got to finish some business.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Kind of amazing.
Gotta finish some business.
[00:49:34] Speaker B: I've got. I've got some.
[00:49:36] Speaker A: Think of the other army's reaction to this. They're like, are you kidding me? Right?
Like, they're like, okay, good news, guys.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: If we could just make it.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: If we could just make it.
[00:49:44] Speaker B: If we could just make it till sunset.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: And then. And then the sun just stops. And you're just like, come on.
[00:49:51] Speaker B: Come on.
What now?
[00:49:55] Speaker A: What?
[00:49:57] Speaker B: I mean, was there any question in their minds who the punishment was coming from after stones from heaven.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: You got to just throw your hands up and accept it. Right?
[00:50:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I think that's, I think, credit to the Gibeonites. There's a story in the New Testament about the.
I think this story fits so well with this one.
It's about. It seems like such a sneaky, weird story, too. Like, the servant who's been.
What has he been pilfering from his master? And the Lord finds out and he's going to lay him off, right? And so he calls in all of his favors from all of the different people that he's done to kind of save him from the wrath of the Lord at the end of the day. And the Lord, like, praises him for his quick thinking on his feet and at least trying to do whatever it was he could do to try to spare him. You know what I'm talking about?
[00:50:55] Speaker A: No.
[00:50:56] Speaker B: Son of a gun.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: I like it, though.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: Seems like a weird story, all right?
But these guys, I mean, they're fighting Israel even though they know that they've been wicked, and they fight it all the way to their bitter end, where the Gibeonites get a little bit crafty to try to spare themselves and even turn to the Lord and like, hey, I'm willing to serve in the tabernacle. I'm willing to help out.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: Between that or death. It doesn't seem like it's that hard of a decision. But, okay, maybe it was.
[00:51:30] Speaker B: And it's an interesting thought when you compare this with Balaam, too. This is what somebody mentioned to me last week when you talk about Balaam the prophet who goes to Balak and so readily looks at Israel and says, hey, we just send a bunch of women out there and get them to fornicate, then they're not going to be on God's side anymore.
How much easier was it for him to think? Like, I've got two options.
One, I can tell the people of Balak to repent and be on the Lord's side, and then the Lord won't smite them anymore.
Or I can just corrupt this nation and then God won't help them.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.
Rest in peace.
[00:52:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:15] Speaker A: I mean, what. Yeah, I'm with you. All right, let's keep going.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: All right.
I did find an interesting article. When you talk about the scientific explanation of this, this is one of the harder ones for me to try to look at and understand what happened.
Don't say, for what it's worth, whenever you see the sunset, your eyes are playing tricks on you in some sense. You're not really seeing the sun setting.
The sun disappears below the horizon long before we see it. What happens is the light from the sun curves with the Earth and the atmosphere, and so that we see the sun above the horizon even after it's already set.
So you can see a sun in the sky when the sun is not even there, just with physics and atmosphere, but that's not explaining it sitting up in the sun at noonday. There was another article that even goes as far to say the day that this happened, October 30th, and I believe it was the year 1207 BC because that was the day of a solar eclipse. And when they say that the sun and the moon shall stand still, the idea of standstill, it doesn't actually say stand still in Hebrew. It says, we'll be silenced, we'll be held back.
And so not necessarily held back in the setting of the day that they go down, but held back in the sense that their light is held back, that they're muted and the moon coming in front of the sun, as you know, the moon reflects the light of the sun, and if it's in line, there's no light for it to reflect back.
The moon will be dark, the sun will be dark, and the whole sky will be darkened.
If this was a solar eclipse, it would make a little bit more sense, scientifically speaking, that he's commanding that they hold back their light. But also in the ancient world, they believed that a solar eclipse was a divine sign, that the heavens were upset with the established order, with the kings.
And the sense that you have a solar eclipse in this region is that the kings of this region have been condemned to die, that they shall no more give light so that a new order will come, a new king will reign in that land.
[00:54:40] Speaker A: So, I mean, is the story more of a allegory, I guess. I don't know.
[00:54:46] Speaker B: Maybe. So.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: I mean, that would make sense, right? If it was to symbolize.
The solar eclipse basically symbolizes the end
[00:54:54] Speaker B: of an old order, establishment of a new order.
I still think it's kind of cool if a commander of an army says, hey, I'm not done beating you yet. I know, it's brutal. Keep that sun right up there until I'm done.
Are you serious?
[00:55:13] Speaker A: Oh, and by the way, the sun's not going down.
[00:55:17] Speaker B: You will not escape my wrath.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: I mean, at a certain point, like, can't you just surrender?
It seems like a solid white flag moment, but sounds like throughout the scriptures, the children of Israel didn't really have much Time for white flag moments.
[00:55:37] Speaker B: No. No, it's not. Yeah. It doesn't go great their style.
No.
So, I mean, we can. I'm just gonna kind of glance through the rest of this book here with Joshua. It's. It's dividing up the land by the inheritance. And. And we see this over and over. The Lord preserves his people when they choose to be on his side and to not hold anything back. They're established in the land.
At the very end, Joshua in chapter 23, exhorts the people again to be strong, to be courageous, and to not give up and continue to wipe out the residue of the wickedness in the land. If they're going to be preserved as a people. So don't marry the Canaanites. Don't mix with them.
And you see this.
This kind of is maybe not hatred, but enmity with Canaanites. Canaan being the descendants of Ham versus these guys who are the descendants of Shem. And not just their birth differences, but the idea that one is completely given to sacrificing their kids to the gods and a false worship and a decrepit, wicked society. I don't want that to be Israel's inheritance. I don't want that to be Israel's lot in life. You need to get rid of that. And so he makes some promises to them that if they were to put that out and destroy it, that they as a nation will be preserved and the Lord will protect them and guide them.
And just to remember all of this as he establishes this idea of the covenant people. The bones of Joseph are taken out of Egypt and buried in Shechem. This final restoration of this covenant, the idea that God made this covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this is kind of the bringing it all together and saying, I told you I would not forget you.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:57:38] Speaker B: And establishing them here in this land.
The birth of a nation.
[00:57:41] Speaker A: I love it. The birth of the nation Joshua. Awesome.
Yeah. Killer. What are we talking about next week?
[00:57:49] Speaker B: Judges?
[00:57:51] Speaker A: Can't wait.
[00:57:52] Speaker B: Yeah, Judges, baby. Yeah, just. Should I give context? We'll wait till we. A little bit.
[00:57:58] Speaker A: Give us a little bit.
[00:57:59] Speaker B: So this is the end of the. Well, Joshua was the beginning of the. Outside of the books of Moses, we had the first five books of Moses. Joshua is kind of this little bridge between the Exodus and Moses to where Israel becomes a nation. And the first years of his Israelite rule.
They don't have a king. God is going to be their king. And they keep descending into these periods of apostasy, Think, pride, cycle.
And every time they do, God is going to raise up a judge to redeem them, to save them. And you have this whole apostasy, restoration, prophetic cycle repeating itself through judges until finally Israel establishes a king. And then we're going to get to the historical, historical part of kings and then move on to some prophetic parts and a little bit more of Israelite history. And it'll be fun, be a fun year.
[00:58:52] Speaker A: Thank you, everybody, for listening. Until next week.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: See ya.
