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...

The statement “hearing is believing” is perhaps the biblical counterpart to the common expression “seeing is believing.” This statement, “hearing is believing,” definitely characterized the life of Rahab the harlot in Joshua 2. When she welcomed the spies and provided refuge for them from the King of Jericho’s men, she told them what she heard about their God and what she believed. Rahab never saw the Exodus nor did she ever see the march of...

Joshua 1 details a very exciting moment in the history of Israel. After being in Egypt for 430 years (1876-1446 BC) and after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years the nation is positioned to receive the long awaited gift of land. Unfortunately, the gift of land could not be unwrapped and enjoyed without a challenging fight. The land that God promised to Israel was occupied and the residents had to be driven out. Now, although a challenge...

“Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.” These are the words that John Sammis wrote in connection with an 1887 Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting. In this song, Sammis captured one of the core messages found in the Old and New Testaments. This message to trust and obey seems so simple and so familiar that often we either don’t hear it or we read right over it. Well, I invite you to slow down and...

A significant theme used to open the book of Joshua is the Divine Warrior (Josh 1:1-5). The key ideas associated with this theme are victory, fight, and trust. As the Divine Warrior, the Lord promises to terrorize Israel’s enemies and to abide with them as His covenant people. The Lord is presented to us as the Divine Warrior in Exodus 15 in the Song of Moses. In this song Moses sings, the Lord is a man of War, the Lord is His name...