According to the battle report, the news of the treaty created fear in the heart of the King, so much so that he formed an alliance with four other nations to defeat the rising nation of Israel (Joshua 10:1-2). This was the reaction of Adonizedek, King of Jerusalem, when he heard that Gibeon, one of the great royal cities, made a peace treaty with Israel. According to Joshua 10, the newly formed coalition of five nations attacked Gibeon. In...

Joshua 9 recounts the treaty that Joshua made with the Gibeonites during Israel’s march into the Promised Land. It seemed like the right thing to do. After all the Gibeonites presented themselves to Joshua as a people from a far country. They had old sacks on their donkeys. Their wineskins were torn and mended. Their sandals were old and patched. Their bread was moldy. Since Joshua knew from the Law that people in the land were to be destroyed...

Joshua 8 opens with some of the most reassuring words found in the Bible, do not be afraid nor be dismayed. This is the first of four uses of this phrase in the book of Joshua (cf. 10:8,25; 11:6). Literally, these words are commands issued by the Lord to Joshua, the covenant leader of conquest prior to the defeat of Ai. In a grammatical sense, God is imposing His will upon the will of Joshua as the commander of the Promised Land conquest. This...

Joshua 7:1 opens with the sobering statement, “the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.” Although we do not find this statement very often in Scripture, we do see many Old and New Testament passages dealing with the wrath of God. The Joshua 7:1 statement is very graphic and could literally be translated, the nose of the Lord burned. What was the Lord burning about in Joshua 7? The Lord was angered over the covenant violation...

Don’t you love it when things work according to a plan? I love it when a plan comes together and a project is completed. Well, if you were an Israelite in the 1400’s you might have wondered if God’s plan regarding the capture of Jericho was really going to work. God’s plan to give Jericho to Israel in Joshua 6 was unconventional to say the least. The plan gave precedence to the Ark of the Lord and to the priests, along with the armed men of...

Do you think we take the Lord and His Word as seriously as we should? Do you find yourself living with a yeah . . . but mindset? Yeah, I know what the Word of God says, or yeah I know what the Lord wants, but I am sure that it won’t apply to me. If this is you in manner of life or mindset, then consider the Joshua 5 narrative. The Joshua 5 passage affirms the commitment of God to His words of promise as well as His commitment to His words of...