The Story of Joshua In The Bible To Trust God’s Words

 

The Story of Joshua In The Bible To Trust God One More Time

 

“Be strong and brave. Do not be terrified. Do not lose hope. I am the Lord your God. I will be with you everywhere you go.”

– Joshua 1:9

As the people of Israel continued to move toward Mount Sinai, they camped at a place near Amalek. When the people of Amalek got to know about their whereabouts they attacked them. Moses commanded Joshua to organize the men for battle. Moses then stood on the side of the hill and held his hands in the air.

As long as his hands were high in the air, Joshua was victorious. But when his hands came down, the people of Amalek started winning. Moses’ arms became tired and heavy, so he sat on a stone with Aaron and Hur on each side.

They supported his hands, so he could keep them high in the air. The three men stayed there until the sun went down. Joshua was victorious over Amalek. Moses then built a monument and called it “The Lord, My Banner.”

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Israelites Made A Tabernacle For God To Honor Him

The Israelites stayed in their camp before Mount Sinai for almost a year, while they were building the Tabernacle and learning God’s laws given through Moses. At last, the cloud over the Tabernacle rose up, and the people knew that this was the sign for them to move. They took down the Tabernacle and their own tents.

Then they journeyed toward the land of Canaan for many days. At last, they came to a place just on the border between the desert and Canaan, called Kadesh (Kadesh-Barnea). Here they stopped to rest, for there were many springs of water and some grass for their cattle.

While they were waiting at Kadesh and were expecting soon to march into the land which was to be their home, God told Moses, “Send some men to spy on the land I promised you, who should walk through the land, look at it and then come back and tell what they had found.”

“They should find what kind of a land it was, and what fruits grew in it, and what kind of people were living in it. The Israelites could more easily win the land if these men could act as their guides and point out the best places in it and the best plans of making war upon it.”

So Moses chose twelve spies of high rank among the people, one ruler from each tribe, and twelve men in all. One of these was Joshua, who was the helper of Moses in caring for the people, and another was Caleb, who belonged to the tribe of Judah.

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The Story of The Grapes From Canaan In The Bible

The Twelve Spies of Moses: A Bible Story About Joshua

These twelve men went out and walked over the mountains of Canaan and looked at the cities and saw the fields. In one place, just before they came back to the camp, they cut down a cluster of ripe grapes which was so large that two men carried it between them, hanging from a staff.

They named the place where they found this bunch of grapes Eshcol, a word that means “a cluster.” These twelve men were called “spies,” because they went “to spy out the land”. After forty days they came back to the camp, and told God’s people:

“We walked all over the land and it’s really beautiful! It has plenty of food. There is grass for all our flocks, and fields where we can raise grain, and trees bearing fruits, and streams running down the sides of the hills.”

“But we found that the people who live there are very strong and are men of war. They have cities with walls that reach almost up to the sky; and some of the men are giants, so tall that we felt that we were like grasshoppers beside them.”

Caleb, who was one of the spies said, “All that is true, yet we need not be afraid to go up and take the land. It is a good land, well worth fighting for; God is on our side, and he will help us to overcome those people.”

But all the other spies, except Joshua, said, “No, there is no use in trying to make war upon such strong people. We can never take those walled cities and we dare not fight those tall giants.”

And the people, who had journeyed all the way through the wilderness to find this very land, were so frightened by the words of the ten spies that now, on the very border of Canaan, they dared not enter it.

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Why God’s People Were Frightened of Enemies

They forgot that God had led them out of Egypt, that he had kept them in the dangers of the desert, that he had given them water out of the rock, bread from the sky, and his law from the mountain. All that night, after the spies had brought back their report, the people were so frightened that they could not sleep.

They cried out against Moses and blamed him for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. They forgot all their troubles in Egypt, their toil, and their slavery, and resolved to go back to that land.

They said: “Let us choose a ruler in place of Moses, who has brought us into all these evils, and let us turn back to the land of Egypt!” But Caleb and Joshua, two of the spies, said, “Why should we fear? The land of Canaan is a good land.

It is rich in milk and honey. If God is our friend and is with us, we can easily conquer the people who live there. Above all things, let us not rebel against the Lord, or disobey him, and make him our enemy.”

But the people were so angry with Caleb and Joshua that they were ready to stone them and kill them. Then suddenly the people saw a strange sight. The glory of the Lord, which stayed in the Holy of Holies, the inner room of the Tabernacle, now flashed out.

It shone from the door of the Tabernacle and the Lord, out of this glory, spoke to Moses, and said, “How long will this people disobey me and despise me? They shall not go into the good land that I have promised them.

Not one of them shall enter in, except Caleb and Joshua, who have been faithful to me. All the people who are twenty years old and over it shall die in the desert, but their little children shall grow up in the wilderness.”

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God Was Pleased With The Loyalty of Joshua & Caleb

“When they become men they shall enter in and own the land that I promised to their fathers. You people are not worthy of the land that I have been keeping for you. Now turn back into the desert and stay there until you die. After you are dead, Joshua shall lead your children into the land of Canaan.

And because Caleb showed another spirit and was true to me, and followed my will fully, Caleb shall live to go into the land and shall have his choice of a home there. Tomorrow, turn back into the desert by the way of the Red Sea.”

And God told Moses that for every day that the spies had spent in Canaan, looking at the land the people should spend a year in the wilderness so that they should live in the desert for forty years, instead of going at once into the promised land.

When Moses told all God’s words to the people they felt worse than before. They changed their minds as suddenly as they had made up their minds.

“No,” they all said, “we will not go back to the wilderness; we will go straight into the land, and see if we can take it, as Joshua and Caleb have said.”

“You must not go into the land,” said Moses. But the people would not obey. They marched up the mountain and tried to march at once into the land.

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The Story of Prophet Joshua And Moses In The Holy Bible

Why Moses’s Followers Defeated By Canaanites & Amorites

But they were without leaders and without order—a mob of men, untrained and in confusion. And the people in that part of the land, the Canaanites and the Amorites, came down upon them and killed many of them and drove them away. Then, discouraged and beaten, they obeyed the Lord and Moses.

Once more, they went into the desert. And in the desert of Paran, on the south of the land of Canaan, the children of Israel stayed for the next forty years; and all because they would not trust in the Lord. They needed this time to learn to trust God for everything and to become a strong and mighty nation.

The great leader Moses grew very old and brought the people to the edge of the Promised Land once again. When Moses died, Joshua became the new leader of the Israelites. God chose Joshua to lead his people into the Promised Land and gave him great encouragement.

“Remember, I am with you wherever you go,” said the Lord. Taking control of the Promised Land was not going to be easy. There were many cities and armies to conquer. But God’s people were ready. They had the strongest weapon on their side-the Almighty God.

Joshua began to think about the battle to come. One of the towns in that land was Jericho. Jericho would be a challenge for most armies as it was large and sturdy and had a high wall around it. But Joshua wasn’t worried.

The Lord is on our side, he reminded himself. Even God’s unusual plan for victory didn’t concern the leader. He had witnessed God’s power all his life and trusted that God’s plan would work.

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Joshua Got Victory Over Jericho Because God Helped Him

Joshua sent spies to see if the city was safe to enter. When the king of Jericho heard about the spies, he told his soldiers, “Go, capture them!” God helped the spies by sending them to a woman named Rahab. She hid the spies in her house.

When the soldiers came, she told them, “The spies are gone, but you can catch them if you hurry!” So the soldiers hurried away. Rahab quickly hung a rope outside of her window. She told the spies, “Now you can climb down and escape!”

The spies thanked Rahab and promised to remember her. God told Joshua that it would take seven days to conquer Jericho. When God’s people were ready to capture Jericho, they marched around the city walls for seven days.

In the first six days, the army marched around the city once each day. Seven priests blowing trumpets made of sheep’s horns marched along with them.

On the seventh day, the army got ready at dawn and began their daily maneuvers around Jericho. They marched seven times around the walls of the city. Then God’s big plan came into action.

The seventh time around, Joshua commanded: “The Lord has given us this city! Now shout, soldiers, shout!” The priests blew their trumpets as hard as they could.

The soldiers shouted with all their might. The walls of Jericho shook and came crashing down. Joshua and his army walked right into Jericho and claimed it for the Israelite people.

The land God had promised his people was now theirs! The spies remembered their promise and helped Rahab and her whole family.

Source: Joshua 5:13-6:27

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