WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT JOSHUA?

Guaranteed Victory

(Joshua 1:6-18, ESV) 

Be Strong: God Is Greater! v.6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.7 Only be strong and very courageous…

Completely Obey: His Orders Are Good! v.7 …being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.  Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

Soak Up His Truths!

  • Overflowing – v.8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, 
  • Saturated - but you shall meditate on it day and night, 
  • Acting - so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. 
  • Benefiting - For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. 

Destroy Wrong Thoughts!

  • Fear – v. 9 Do not be frightened, 
  • Worry - and do not be dismayed, 
  • Independence – for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but havedivine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:3-5, ESV)
God Provides Rest for His People!  v.13 Remember the word that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, 'The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.'

Move Forward Together! v.16 And they answered Joshua, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.”

v.18 “Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

Joshua

Meaning of his name: “God is salvation”

Israel vs. Amalek

(Exodus 17:8-16) Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. [9] So 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 the staff of God in my hand.” [10] So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. [11] Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. [12] But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. [13] And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.  [14] Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” [15] And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner, [16] saying, “A hand upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

With Moses Part of the Way Up Mount Sinai for the Ten Commandments

(Exodus 32:17)  When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”

The 12 Spies of Israel

(Numbers 13:16-20)  [16] These were the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua. 17] Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up into the Negeb and go up into the hill country, [18] and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, [19] and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, [20] and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.

(Numbers 13:30)  But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

Israel Rebels

(Numbers 14:3-12)[3] Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” [4] And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” [5] Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. [6] And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes [7] and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. [8] If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. [9] Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” [10] Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel. [11] And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? [12] I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”

The Consequences of Rebellion – 38 Years

(Numbers 14:33-38) And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. [34] According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ [35] I, the LORD, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.” [36] And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him by bringing up a bad report about the land—[37] the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the LORD. [38] Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive.

Joshua is Commissioned

(Deuteronomy 31:7-8) Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. [8] It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

(Joshua 1:1-2) After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, [2] “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.

(Joshua 1:7-9) Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. [8] This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. [9] Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”    

Israel & War – 7 years

(Joshua 8:35) There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.    

SOUTH (Joshua 10:40-42) So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the LORD God of Israel commanded. [41] And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. [42] And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.

NORTH (Joshua 11:18-23)  Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. [19] There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. [20] For it was the LORD's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses. [21] And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. [22] There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain. [23] So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.

(Joshua 24:29) After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being 110 years old.