Holman Old Testament Commentary - Joshua

Kenneth Gangel, Max Anders, Max Anders

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781433674358
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

One in a series of twenty Old Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders. Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.

Joshua 1

Possessing the Promise

I. INTRODUCTION

Gilmore's Traps

II. COMMENTARY

A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.

III. CONCLUSION

Ten Minutes a Day

An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.

IV. LIFE APPLICATION

How to Be a Great Follower

Melding the chapter to life.

V. PRAYER

Tying the chapter to life with God.

VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES

Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.

VII. TEACHING OUTLINE

Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.

VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.

“Leadership is the activity of influencing people
to cooperate toward some goal which they come to
find desirable.”

Ordway Tead

After the death of Moses, the Lord spoke to Joshua and commissioned him to take over the leadership of the Hebrew people. Based on that commission, Joshua commanded the people to get ready to go into the land in three days. He then instructed the warriors of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh to go with the other tribes into the land inside the Jordan River and help them to subdue the promised land. When that military task was done, Joshua told these two and one-half tribes they could return to their apportioned land on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

Possessing the Promise

I. INTRODUCTION

---

Gilmore's Traps

In his wonderful book Making a Leadership Change, Thomas Gilmore identifies some problems leaders face when they assume a new responsibility. He warns that the biggest traps lie in the path of connecting with existing staff:

Leaders, especially early in their tenure, do not get fully developed options from which they select a path. Rather, a direction begins to emerge from a sequence of choices—about people, issues, resources … and from serendipity. … Traps arise from misunderstandings and the inability to discuss the situation freely (Gilmore, 136).

Indeed, Joshua faced numerous traps or there would have been no need for God to tell him, “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged” (1:9). According to Gilmore, the first has to do with patterns of delegation, a lesson Joshua had seen in negative form by watching Moses before his confrontation with Jethro recorded in Exodus 18. Yes, Joshua had inherited a staff, and we learn about them in Joshua 1:10 where they are called “the officers of the people.” New leaders face a mutual learning experience with existing staff in order to provide a good working relationship within a reasonable amount of time. Since leaders early in their tenure do not want to appear unresponsive, they tend to give out signals suggesting they want involvement in everything. The result is an overloaded desk and staff relinquishing their independence—either eagerly or grudgingly.

The second trap centers on internal versus external priorities. Joshua had to keep the people balanced between the physical task of conquering cities and the less obvious but more important task of maintaining spiritual vitality. This is a challenge each of us faces every day as we struggle to enter the spiritual heights of “Canaan.”

The third of Gilmore's traps deals with handling resistance to change. Picture a pastor who comes to a staff meeting making suggestions and asking for input. The staff responds, and the church leaders get involved. Knowing the practical realities of the church, they often cite difficulties that the pastor's ideas might encounter. He may interpret this feedback as resistance or lack of vision and in the future consult both staff and church leaders on fewer matters. If this happens they may identify less with his ideas and become bystanders, no longer feeling that their leadership is important.

Joshua could not carry out his mission without the supernatural power God promised would be available. But he also could not carry it out if he did not have the support of the tribal leaders, “the officers of the people.” Despite the great similarities between Moses and Joshua, we all agree Moses was a tough act to follow. Think again of the new leader who replaced the prophetic icon, Elijah. Despite the striking similarities between their ministries and mannerisms, those two men were quite different. Elijah's miracles were spectacular, national, and highly visible, whereas Elisha dealt more often with “little people” and common things such as water, oil, pottage, loaves, and axe heads.

Elijah was an ascetic, a mountain man who thrived in the wilds by himself; but Elisha seemed to be always in the company of students from the schools of the prophets and apparently exercised some kind of leadership role among them.

The lesson here is simple—but so important. God calls his people to follow others who have served in the same capacity in earlier years. It is tempting to measure ourselves by the record of a predecessor, failing to realize that God does not expect us to be like anyone else. Like Joshua, we must carry out the gifts and commands he has placed on us for our time. We can certainly learn from those who have gone before, but we don't want to fall into any of the traps or in any way restrict God's powerful hand by mimicking the ministry of another one of his servants.

II. COMMENTARY

---

Possessing the Promise

MAIN IDEA: Responding to God's call for leadership requires experience, strength, and courage. God had granted Joshua considerable experience before Moses' death. Now he commands Joshua to be strong and courageous.

God's Promise to Give (1:1-5)

SUPPORTING IDEA: The Israelites had to walk by faith to receive God's promises to them. They had to face and overcome obstacles all along the way. These verses tell Joshua and Israel that God will accomplish everything he had promised to Moses.

1:1. God had set his plan in motion when he called Abram out of Haran and led him to Canaan. In Genesis 12:2 God had said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.” In the very next chapter, when Abram stood on the land, God said, “All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever” (Gen. 13:15). Abraham had been followed by Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. After four hundred years in Egypt, the family had grown into a great nation—a nation of slaves struggling under the cruel hand of Pharaoh.

God heard their cries for help and moved to fulfill his promise to Abraham. God called Moses who had fled from Egypt and spent forty years as a shepherd in the desert. God told him, “I have come down to rescue [my people] from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exod. 3:8). Moses was hesitant, but God said, “I will be with you” (Exod. 3:12). Through miraculous plagues God freed his people from Pharaoh's grasp and Moses led them through the Red Sea and into the desert where they wandered for forty years until an entire generation died off.

Moses did not enter the land himself because he disobeyed God, but before he died, he had an important request:

“May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the LORD'S people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him” (Num. 27:16-20).

The first verse of Joshua describes the calling of a new leader. We have already learned in Deuteronomy that Moses is dead, and the narrative continues, almost uninterrupted, from Deuteronomy 34:12. Joshua is reintroduced into the narrative by a direct call of Yahweh himself. We learned in Deuteronomy 34:9 that God had chosen him and prepared him, and now Joshua and the Israelites stood on the western bank of the Jordan River ready to fulfill a promise given to Abraham hundreds of years before.

In addition to Moses and Yahweh, Joshua the son of Nun, the main protagonist of the Book of Joshua, also is introduced in verse 1. He is named about 205 times in the Old Testament, 148 times in this book. After this, his name appears most often in Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Judges. Joshua is mentioned twice in the New Testament—in Stephen's speech, where Joshua's leadership in bringing the tabernacle into the land of Canaan is mentioned (Acts 7:45) and in the Book of Hebrews, in the great passage on rest (Heb. 3-4): Joshua's rest is depicted here as incomplete, not fulfilled until Christ's rest (4:8) (Howard, 73).

Later in this book Joshua will also be called “the servant of the LORD” (Josh. 24:29). Here, however, the title is reserved for Moses, a title used of him more in Joshua than in the rest of the Old Testament combined. In addition to the fourteen times it appears in Joshua, this title for Moses also shows up in Deuteronomy 34:5, 2 Kings 18:12, and 2 Chronicles 1:3 and 24:6.

1:2. Let's not forget that Joshua had been one of the spies and had personally seen the enemies Israel would have to defeat and the walls they would have to bring down. There was no question in Joshua's mind where he was headed—into the land I am about to give to them. The promise of the land began in Genesis 12:7 and was scattered all over the Pentateuch, but between the place where Joshua stood and the first step in that land flowed the Jordan River. The Jordan begins just below Mount Hermon and flows south into the Sea of Galilee and ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Editorial Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Holman Old Testament Commentary Contributors
• Holman New Testament Commentary Contributors.
• Holman Old Testament Commentary
• Introduction to Joshua
• Joshua 1
• Joshua 2
• Joshua 3
• Joshua 4
• Joshua 5
• Joshua 6
• Joshua 7
• Joshua 8
• Joshua 9
• Joshua 10
• Joshua 11–12
• Joshua 13–14
• Joshua 15–17
• Joshua 18–19
• Joshua 20–21
• Joshua 22
• Joshua 23
• Joshua 24
• Glossary
• Bibliography