Moses is gone. Joshua — whose name means "Jehovah is salvation" — now leads Israel across the Jordan into the promised land. The transition is immediate and physical: the Jordan parts, Israel crosses on dry ground (echoing the Red "reed" Sea), and twelve monument stones mark the moment. Manna ceases the day after they eat Canaan's produce — forty years of miraculous provision end because God now gives something better: the land itself.

The conquest begins at Jericho — but not through military strategy. God's battle plan is liturgical: march, carry the ark, blow trumpets 7 times, shout. The walls fall. Rahab — the Canaanite woman who hid the spies — is saved by a scarlet cord, then converts, marries Joshua, and becomes the ancestor of prophets. But Achan's secret theft from the devoted things (cherem) brings defeat at Ai and judgment on his household. Individual sin has communal consequences.

The middle chapters — skipped in study manual — tell the rest of the story: the Gibeonite deception, the southern and northern campaigns, the sun standing still over Gibeon, the allotment of land to each tribe, cities of refuge for the manslayer, Levitical cities scattered throughout the nation, and the near-civil-war over an altar at the Jordan. These chapters transform Joshua from a conquest narrative into a land-grant document — God's deed to the property He promised Abraham.

The book closes with Joshua's farewell — old, honored, and clear-eyed: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Israel renews the covenant at Shechem, and the promised land is, at last, home.

"I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil … therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19)

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)

Moses framed the covenant as the same choice that has stood before God's children since Eden: life and good, or death and evil — the vocabulary of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2–3). Joshua, at Shechem, isn't introducing a new idea. He is calling Israel back to the choice Moses already placed before them — the choice that defines every covenant.

Joshua doesn't say "believe" or "feel" — he says serve. The verb is practical, active, daily. And the choice is framed as urgent: "this day" — not someday, not when conditions improve, not when you've figured everything out. Now. Today. The entire book moves toward this moment: crossing the Jordan, taking the land, receiving the inheritance — all lead to this question. What will you do with what God has given you?

This choice is also the foundation of the pride cycle that will dominate the next several weeks of study. Beginning in Judges, we will watch Israel answer Joshua's question — and answer it badly, repeatedly, with each generation spiraling further from the covenant. The same cycle runs through the Book of Mormon. The pattern is not ancient history; it is the human condition. And the antidote is what Joshua modeled: choose this day. Not once. Daily.

1. Chazak Ve'ematz — Be Strong and Courageous

God's commission to Joshua repeats four times: "Be strong and of a good courage" (1:6, 7, 9, 18). The repetition signals that courage isn't a one-time gift — it's a sustained choice. The Hebrew chazak ve'ematz (חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ) combines physical strength (chazak) with resolute firmness (ematz). Joshua needs both.

2. Rahab — The Unlikely Ancestor

A Canaanite woman, a "harlot" (or innkeeper per Rashi), living in the wall of a doomed city — yet she recognizes the God of Israel before Israel itself fully does. She hides the spies, confesses faith, and is saved by a scarlet cord. The Talmud teaches she converted, married Joshua, and became the ancestor of eight prophets including Jeremiah and Huldah. She appears in Christ's genealogy (Matt 1:5). Grace crosses every boundary.

3. The Jordan Crossing — Wet Feet First

The priests carrying the ark stepped INTO the Jordan before the waters parted (3:15-16). Elder Bednar: "their wet feet preceded the miracle." Faith means acting before you see the result.

4. Jericho — Liturgical Warfare

God didn't give Joshua a military plan — He gave him a liturgical worship service. March around the city. Carry the ark. Blow shofars. Shout. The walls fell not by siege engines but by obedience to covenant patterns and instruction. The number seven (seven days, seven circuits, seven priests, seven trumpets) signals sacred obedience and completeness through the power of God. We must recognize that the patterns themselves were not unique to Israel, the Canaanites had similar patterns in their histories and traditions. However, Israel was going through a restoration and learning to understand how these patterns reflected the power of YHWH (Jehovah) — that He was the source of that power. Not dead and empty idols, but a real and living God who was ready and willing to fight Israel's battles for them.

5. Cherem — The Devoted Things

Everything in Jericho was cherem (חֶרֶם) — devoted to God, banned from human possession. Achan took silver, gold, and a Babylonian garment in secret. The consequence: Israel's defeat at Ai. One person's hidden sin affected the entire community (7:1-26).

6. Inheritance and Allotment — The Land as Covenant Fulfillment

Chapters 13-21 are not administrative filler. They are the legal deed to the Abrahamic promise. Every tribe receives its nachalah (נַחֲלָה) — inheritance, possession, heritage. The careful cataloging of borders, cities, and pasture-lands demonstrates that God keeps covenant down to the last parcel.

7. Cities of Refuge — Justice Tempered by Mercy

Six cities are designated where a person who kills accidentally can flee and live safely until the death of the high priest (ch. 20). The institution balances justice (the blood avenger's right) with mercy (the manslayer's protection) — and the high priest's death releases the refugee, a type of Christ's atoning death releasing all who flee to Him.

8. "Choose You This Day" — The Covenant Choice

Joshua's farewell is not a sermon — it's a demand. He reviews history, states consequences, and forces a choice. No middle ground. No deferrals. The covenant renewal at Shechem is the book's climax: Israel standing before God, choosing.

Joshua is pulling directly from Moses' instruction at the end of Deuteronomy, where the terms and conditions of the Law are laid out in full. In Deuteronomy 27–30, Moses outlines the blessings that follow obedience and the consequences that follow rebellion — and then frames the entire covenant in language that deliberately echoes Eden:

"I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil … therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19)

The vocabulary is identical to Genesis 2–3: good and evil (טוֹב וָרָע), life and death. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil presented Adam and Eve with the same fundamental choice — and the same consequences. Moses doesn't name the tree specifically, but he uses its language. Israel standing at the boundary of the promised land mirrors humanity standing before the tree: a choice placed before God's people, with everything at stake. Joshua was not introducing something new at Shechem. He was calling Israel back to the choice Moses had already placed before them — the choice that has stood at the center of every covenant from Eden forward.

The Foundation of the Pride Cycle. This moment at Shechem is the hinge on which everything that follows turns. The pattern Moses warned about — blessing → prosperity → forgetting God → consequences → humility → return — is about to play out in real time. Beginning next week in Judges, we will watch this cycle spiral with every successive judge. The Israelites don't simply repeat the pattern; they descend further with each iteration. Othniel's generation sins and recovers. By Gideon's time, the leader himself builds an idol. By Samson's era, the judge is indistinguishable from the culture he was raised to deliver Israel from. By the final chapters of Judges, there is no judge at all — "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).

This is the same cycle the Book of Mormon documents among the Nephites — prosperity, pride, wickedness, destruction, humility, repentance, and prosperity again — repeated across centuries until the civilization itself collapses. Mormon, who edited the record, saw the pattern and made sure his readers would see it too. The foundation of that cycle is laid here, at Shechem, in the choice Joshua places before Israel. Everything that follows — in Judges, in Kings, in the Book of Mormon — is the consequence of how that choice is answered, generation after generation.

The Come Follow Me manual assigns Joshua 1–8 and 23–24, covering the entry into the land, the fall of Jericho, and Joshua's farewell covenant. But the fourteen chapters in between (9–22) contain some of the book's most theologically rich material: the Gibeonite deception that teaches Israel about the cost of failing to inquire of God, the sun standing still as the only such miracle in Scripture, Caleb's thundering faith at eighty-five, the land allotments that fulfill the Abrahamic covenant to the acre, cities of refuge that prefigure Christ, and an altar controversy that nearly tears the nation apart before it's even settled. Skipping these chapters leaves the reader with a conquest story; reading them reveals a covenant story.

Assigned chapters are marked in bold. Assigned chapters receive a brief orientation — where they sit in the arc, key verse, and a pointer to where full treatment lives (Key Passages, Word Studies, Jewish Perspective). Non-assigned chapters receive substantive prose so the gaps are not blank.

The Commission and Entry (Joshua 1–5) — assigned

Chapter 1 (assigned) — God commissions Joshua with the fourfold chazak ve'ematz (חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ, "be strong and courageous") and ties courage directly to meditation on the law. The chapter establishes the book's twin pillars: divine faithfulness and human obedience. For full treatment, see Key Passages (1:8-9) and Word Studies (chazak ve'ematz).

Chapter 2 (assigned) — Rahab hides the spies and confesses YHWH's sovereignty more clearly than most Israelites. The scarlet cord — tikvah (תִּקְוָה), meaning both "cord" and "hope" — echoes the Passover blood. For full treatment, see Key Passages (2:9-11), Word Studies (Rachav, tikvah), and Jewish Perspective (Rahab's prophetic descendants).

Chapter 3 (assigned) — The Jordan crossing. The priests' feet touch the water before it parts — reversing the Red Sea pattern where the waters divided first. The ark leads the way, establishing God's presence as the advance guard. For full treatment, see Key Passages (3:15-17).

Chapter 4 (assigned) — Twelve stones are taken from the Jordan's bed and erected at Gilgal as a permanent memorial. The stones exist to provoke the question across generations: "What mean these stones?" (Joshua 4:21). Teaching through physical monuments — stone catechism.

Chapter 5 (assigned) — Three transitions happen at Gilgal: circumcision restores the covenant sign neglected during the wilderness years; Passover is celebrated on Canaan's soil for the first time; and manna ceases the day after they eat the land's produce. Then the mysterious commander of the LORD's army appears — refusing to take sides, demanding Joshua remove his shoes on holy ground. For full treatment, see Historical Cultural Context (The Commander) and Word Studies (Gilgal).

The Conquest of Jericho and Ai (Joshua 6–8) — assigned

Chapter 6 (assigned) — The fall of Jericho through liturgical obedience: seven days, seven circuits, seven priests, seven shofars, one great shout. The cherem (חֶרֶם, ban/devotion) is declared — everything in the city belongs to God. Rahab and her household are spared. For full treatment, see Key Passages (6:2-5) and Word Studies (cherem).

Chapter 7 (assigned) — Achan's violation of the cherem brings defeat at Ai and judgment on his household. God says "Israel hath sinned" — singular verb, collective noun. One man's hidden sin becomes the nation's guilt. The progressive lot-casting (tribe → family → household → individual) publicly demonstrates that the sin resides within the community before narrowing to the person. For full treatment, see Key Passages (7:11-12) and Jewish Perspective (communal responsibility).

Chapter 8 (assigned) — Ai falls on the second attempt after the cherem violation is resolved. Joshua then leads Israel to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim — the mountains Moses commanded for the blessing-and-curse ceremony (Deut 27). The entire law is read aloud to the assembled nation, including women, children, and the foreigners among them. The covenant is publicly renewed on the very mountains Moses designated, with half the tribes facing Ebal (curses) and half facing Gerizim (blessings). This is the first national covenant ceremony in the promised land.

The Gibeonite Deception (Joshua 9) — not assigned

The Gibeonites — a Hivite people living just northwest of Jerusalem — hear about Jericho and Ai and devise a scheme. They dress in worn-out clothes, carry dry and moldy bread, and approach Joshua's camp claiming to be from a far country. They ask for a treaty. The critical verse is 9:14: "the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD." Israel examines the physical evidence (the old bread, the cracked wineskins) but never prays. Three days later the deception is discovered — the Gibeonites live nearby. But the oath has been sworn in YHWH's name and cannot be broken.

The theological lesson is pointed: human investigation without divine inquiry leads to binding mistakes. The Gibeonites are made woodcutters and water-carriers for the sanctuary — a subordinate role, but they survive. Centuries later, Saul will violate this oath by killing Gibeonites, and God will send famine on Israel in David's day as consequence (2 Samuel 21:1-6). Oaths made in God's name endure beyond the generation that made them.

For Latter-day Saints, the principle resonates with the counsel to seek the Spirit's confirmation before making covenants and commitments. The physical evidence looked convincing; only revelation would have revealed the deception. "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Prov 3:5).

The Southern Campaign (Joshua 10) — not assigned

Five Amorite kings — Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon — form a coalition to punish Gibeon for making peace with Israel. Gibeon appeals to Joshua, who marches all night from Gilgal. God fights for Israel in spectacular fashion: hailstones kill more soldiers than Israelite swords, and then comes the most extraordinary miracle in the book.

Joshua commands the sun and moon to stand still: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon" (10:12). The text adds: "there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man" (10:14). Whatever the mechanism — solar phenomenon, extended daylight, atmospheric refraction — the narrator's point is singular: God listened to a human command and altered creation to honor it. The Hebrew damam (דָּמַם) translated "stand still" means "be silent, cease" — the sun was silenced at a man's word.

The five kings hide in a cave at Makkedah. Joshua has the cave sealed, finishes the battle, then executes the kings — a complete southern conquest from Gibeon to Kadesh-barnea. The repeated refrain throughout the chapter is devastating in its simplicity: "the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel" (10:42).

The Northern Campaign and Summary of Conquest (Joshua 11–12) — not assigned

Chapter 11 — Jabin king of Hazor assembles a northern coalition — "much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many" (11:4). Against this overwhelming force, God tells Joshua: "Be not afraid because of them." Joshua strikes suddenly, hamstrings the horses, and burns Hazor — the only northern city burned. The narrator notes that "Joshua made war a long time with all those kings" (11:18) — the conquest was not instantaneous but extended over years.

The chapter closes with a theologically significant statement: "it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly" (11:20). This parallels Pharaoh's hardening and raises the same theological tension: divine sovereignty and human culpability operating simultaneously. The Canaanite kings' resistance was both their own choice and God's purpose — a tension the text holds without resolving.

Chapter 12 — A catalogue of thirty-one defeated kings, listed by city. Two were defeated under Moses east of the Jordan (Sihon of Heshbon and Og of Bashan); twenty-nine under Joshua west of the Jordan. The list reads like a legal document — the court record of God's fulfilled promise. Every king named is a king dethroned to make room for God's covenant people.

The Land Allotment: Tribal Inheritances (Joshua 13–19) — not assigned

These seven chapters are among the most skipped in the Bible — and among the most theologically significant. They are the deed of transfer for the Abrahamic covenant. When God told Abraham "unto thy seed will I give this land" (Gen 12:7), chapters 13–19 are the closing documents. Every border, city, and pasture-land catalogued here is a line item in the fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham roughly six hundred years earlier.

Chapter 13 — God tells the aging Joshua: "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed" (13:1). The conquest is incomplete. This becomes a defining tension: God has given the land, but Israel must still take it. The nachalah (נַחֲלָה — inheritance, possession, heritage) is gift and task simultaneously. The Transjordan tribes — Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh — receive their allotments east of the Jordan, as Moses had promised (Num 32). A striking detail: "unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance" (13:33). The Levites receive no territory because God Himself is their portion — an astonishing claim that redefines what "inheritance" means.

Chapter 14 — Caleb, now eighty-five years old, approaches Joshua and claims the mountain country of Hebron — the very territory where the giant Anakim live. His speech is one of the most stirring in the Old Testament: "I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me... now therefore give me this mountain" (14:11-12). Caleb was one of only two faithful spies (with Joshua) forty-five years earlier. He has waited nearly half a century for this moment, and he doesn't ask for easy terrain — he asks for the hardest. "Give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out" (14:12). Faith at eighty-five, asking for giants. Caleb is the antidote to every excuse about being too old, too late, or too outmatched.

Chapter 15 — Judah's allotment, the largest and most detailed. The borders run from the Dead Sea south to the wilderness of Zin, west to the Mediterranean, and north past Jerusalem. Notably, "the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day" (15:63) — the conquest is incomplete; Jerusalem won't fall until David, centuries later. The tension between "God gave the land" and "they could not drive them out" runs through the entire allotment section. Divine gift does not eliminate human responsibility.

Chapters 16–17 — The allotment for Joseph's descendants: Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh. These tribes complain that their lot is too small for their numbers. Joshua's response is blunt: "If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there" (17:15). When they object that the Canaanites in the valley have iron chariots, Joshua repeats: "thou shalt drive them out" (17:18). The message: the inheritance is real, but possessing it requires work. God gives the land; you clear the forest.

Chapter 18 — The tabernacle — the mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) — is set up at Shiloh, establishing the first permanent worship center in the promised land. Shiloh will serve as Israel's religious capital until the ark is captured by the Philistines (1 Sam 4). Joshua rebukes the remaining seven tribes: "How long are ye slack to go in to possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?" (18:3). A survey team maps the remaining territory, and lots are cast at Shiloh. Benjamin's allotment includes the future site of Jerusalem — a detail that will matter enormously later.

Chapter 19 — The remaining six tribes receive their portions: Simeon (within Judah's territory, fulfilling Jacob's prophecy in Gen 49:7 that Simeon would be scattered), Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Dan. Dan's allotment along the coast proves too difficult to hold — they eventually migrate north and conquer Laish (Judg 18), one of the earliest signs of the incomplete-conquest problem. The chapter ends with a personal note: "they gave Joshua the son of Nun an inheritance among them... he built the city, and dwelt therein" (19:49-50). Joshua takes his own portion last — the leader who served first and took last. His city is Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, a modest inheritance for the man who conquered the land.

Cities of Refuge and Levitical Cities (Joshua 20–21) — not assigned

Chapter 20 — Six cities of refuge are designated: three west of the Jordan (Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron) and three east (Bezer, Ramoth-gilead, Golan). Their purpose: anyone who kills a person accidentally — "unwittingly and unawares" (20:3) — may flee there and live safely, protected from the goel ha-dam (גֹּאֵל הַדָּם — the "blood avenger," the nearest male relative obligated to avenge the death). The manslayer must stand trial; if the killing was genuinely accidental, the city shelters them until the death of the high priest, after which they may return home freely.

The Christological typology is striking: the manslayer flees to the city of refuge and is released by the death of the high priest. Christ is both the refuge to which we flee and the High Priest whose death releases us from the consequences of our actions. The cities were strategically placed so that no one in Israel was more than a day's journey from refuge — God ensured that mercy was always accessible.

Chapter 21 — Forty-eight cities are allotted to the Levites, scattered throughout all twelve tribal territories. The Levites received no contiguous territory because their inheritance was God Himself (13:33), but they needed places to live and pasture their flocks. The scattering was strategic: it placed the priestly tribe — the teachers, the ritual specialists, the keepers of the law — in every region of the nation. No tribe would be without access to those who knew the law and could teach it.

The chapter closes with one of the most important summary statements in the Old Testament: "There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass" (21:45). After all the borders, city lists, and allotment details, this verse is the theological punchline: God kept every word. Not "most" came to pass, not "the important parts" — all. The land lists that feel tedious to modern readers are the evidence file for God's faithfulness.

The Altar of Witness — Near Civil War (Joshua 22) — not assigned

This chapter contains one of the most dramatic and underappreciated episodes in the Old Testament. The two-and-a-half eastern tribes (Reuben, Gad, half-Manasseh) have fulfilled their military obligation and are dismissed to their homes east of the Jordan. Joshua blesses them and sends them away. But when they reach the Jordan, they build "a great altar to see to" (22:10) — a massive, conspicuous altar.

The western tribes hear about it and immediately assume apostasy. They assemble the entire congregation at Shiloh for war against their own brothers. Phinehas the priest leads a delegation with a blistering accusation: "What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that ye have builded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the LORD?" (22:16). They invoke Achan's sin — fresh in memory — as proof that one group's unfaithfulness brings consequences on all.

The eastern tribes' response is passionate and theologically sophisticated: they built the altar not for sacrifice but as a witness — an ed (עֵד) — so that future generations on the west side would never say "ye have no part in the LORD" (22:25). Their fear was not theological unfaithfulness but geographical exclusion: the Jordan River might become a boundary that severs their children from the covenant community. The altar was a monument declaring "we belong too."

Phinehas and the delegation are satisfied. War is averted. The altar is named Ed — "Witness" — "for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God" (22:34).

The episode teaches several critical lessons: the danger of assuming the worst about fellow believers, the importance of seeking explanation before judgment, and the deep human fear of being excluded from the covenant community. It also demonstrates that symbols of belonging matter — the eastern tribes needed a visible, permanent declaration that the Jordan didn't cut them off from God's people.

For Latter-day Saints, the story resonates with members who feel geographically, culturally, or circumstantially distant from the center of Church life. The altar of Ed says: belonging is not determined by proximity. The covenant crosses every river.

Joshua's Farewell and Covenant Renewal (Joshua 23–24) — assigned

Chapter 23 (assigned) — Joshua, "old and stricken in age" (23:1), gathers Israel's leaders for his first farewell address. He reviews God's faithfulness, warns against intermarriage with remaining Canaanite peoples, and delivers a sharp conditional promise: if Israel clings to God, He will drive out the remaining nations; if Israel turns to other gods, those nations will become "snares and traps... thorns in your eyes" (23:13). For full treatment, see Study Questions (farewell and choice section).

Chapter 24 (assigned) — The covenant climax of the entire book. Joshua assembles all Israel at Shechem — the same site where God first promised the land to Abraham (Gen 12:6-7) and where Jacob buried his family's foreign idols (Gen 35:4). Joshua reviews the entire salvation history from Abraham through the conquest, then forces the choice: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (24:15). The Hebrew avad (עָבַד — serve, work, worship) appears ten times in this chapter alone. For full treatment, see Key Passages (24:15), Word Studies (avad), and Jewish Perspective (covenant at Shechem).

1. Exodus: Deliverance FROM Egypt — crossing the Red Sea
2. Sinai: Covenant — identity established
3. Wilderness: Testing — forty years of failure and formation
4. Deuteronomy: Moses' farewell — "choose life"
5. Joshua (This Week): Entering the land — crossing the Jordan, taking the inheritance, choosing to serve
6. The echo: Red Sea → Jordan. Both waters part. Both mark transition. Moses led OUT; Joshua leads IN. The name Joshua = Jesus = "Jehovah is salvation."

1. The promised land is entered: After forty years, the promise is fulfilled — but fulfillment requires action, faith, and obedience
2. Rahab shatters categories: Prostitute, Canaanite, outsider — and she's in Christ's genealogy. Grace is wider than we think.
3. Wet feet before dry ground: The Jordan didn't part until the priests stepped in. Faith acts before evidence.
4. Obedience looks foolish: Marching around Jericho wasn't a military strategy — it was worship. God's methods confound human expectations.
5. Hidden sin has public consequences: Achan's secret theft affected all Israel. No sin is truly private.
6. God keeps every word: "There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken" (21:45). The land lists are the evidence file.
7. Caleb asks for the mountain: At eighty-five, he asks for the hardest territory. Faith doesn't retire.
8. Cities of refuge prefigure Christ: Flee to safety; released by the high priest's death. Mercy is always within reach.
9. "Choose you this day": The most quoted verse in Joshua — and the question every generation must answer.

Joshua said "choose you this day" — not someday, not eventually, but today. What choice have you been deferring? And what would it look like to step into the Jordan before the water parts — to act in faith before you see the result?

Revised: May 12, 2026

Moses was translated on Mount Nebo. Joshua son of Nun — Moses' longtime aide, one of only two faithful spies, the man whose name means "Jehovah is salvation" — now leads approximately two million people across the Jordan into a land occupied by fortified Canaanite cities. The book of Joshua narrates the transition from wilderness wandering to settled covenant life — and every major event carries theological weight far beyond its military surface.

The book divides into three movements: conquest (chapters 1–12), allotment (chapters 13–21), and covenant (chapters 22–24). Understanding the cultural world behind each movement transforms Joshua from a war narrative into a theological document about inheritance, justice, belonging, and choice.

The Name

Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ) — "Jehovah is salvation." Moses renamed him from Hoshea ("salvation") to Joshua, adding the divine name (Num 13:16). This is the same name — through Greek Iesous — that becomes Jesus. The man who leads Israel into the promised land carries the same name as the One who opens the kingdom of heaven.

Chazak Ve'ematz — "Be Strong and Courageous"

God repeats this commission four times in chapter 1 (vv. 6, 7, 9, 18). The Hebrew pairs chazak (חָזָק — be strong, firm, hold fast) with ematz (אֱמָץ — be bold, resolute, determined). The repetition isn't rhetorical flourish — it's evidence that Joshua needed to hear it repeatedly. Courage isn't absence of fear; it's repeated choice in the face of it.

Meditation on the Law (1:8)

"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night." The Hebrew hagah (הָגָה — to meditate) means to murmur, mutter, recite quietly — an active, vocal engagement with the text. Elder Christofferson described scriptural meditation as reading, pausing, pondering, praying, questioning, waiting for impressions, and recording insights.

Her Identity

Rahab (Rachav / רָחָב — "wide, broad") lived in Jericho's wall — literally on the boundary between inside and outside. The Hebrew text calls her a zonah (זוֹנָה), typically translated "harlot." Rashi, following Targum Yonason, translates it as "innkeeper" — one who sells food and lodging. Both readings are attested; the Talmud accepts the "harlot" reading and considers her conversion all the more remarkable because of it.

Her Confession of Faith

Rahab's words in Joshua 2:9-11 are extraordinary: "I know that the LORD hath given you the land... for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath." She confesses YHWH's sovereignty before many Israelites fully do. She has heard about the Red Sea and the defeat of Sihon and Og — and she draws the right conclusion. The Canaanite woman out-theologizes the covenant people.

The Scarlet Cord

Rahab hangs a tikvat chut ha-shani (תִּקְוַת חוּט הַשָּׁנִי — "cord of scarlet thread") from her window (2:18). The word tikvah (תִּקְוָה) means both "cord/line" and "hope." Her literal cord is also her hope. The scarlet color echoes the Passover blood on doorposts — both mark houses to be spared from destruction.

The root behind tikvah is qav (קַו) — "line, cord, measuring line." This is the same root in Isaiah's famous teaching on revelation: qav la-qav, qav la-qav — "line upon line, line upon line" (Isaiah 28:10). The connection is striking: Rahab's cord of hope is literally the same word as the prophetic principle of incremental revelation. Her hope hung from a single line — and God's truth comes to us the same way, line upon line, one cord of light at a time.

Rabbinic Legacy

The Talmud (Megillah 14b) teaches that Rahab converted, married Joshua, and became the ancestor of eight prophets including Jeremiah and Huldah the prophetess. She also appears in Christ's genealogy (Matt 1:5). The trajectory is stunning: Canaanite prostitute → convert → wife of Israel's leader → ancestor of prophets → ancestor of Christ.

Red Sea Echo

The Jordan crossing deliberately echoes the Red Sea: waters part, Israel crosses on dry ground, the event establishes the leader's authority. The standard reading of Exodus 14 has Moses stretching out his hand and the waters dividing before anyone stepped in. But rabbinic tradition tells a different story: in the Talmud (Sotah 37a) and the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Nachshon ben Aminadav of the tribe of Judah waded into the sea while the rest of Israel stood paralyzed on the shore. The water reached his ankles, his knees, his waist, his chest — and only when it reached his nostrils did God part the sea. Even at the Red Sea, there may have been wet feet before the miracle.

At the Jordan, the pattern is explicit in the text: the priests had to step INTO the water first — "their feet were dipped in the brim of the water" (3:15) — and THEN the waters parted. Elder Bednar: "their wet feet preceded the miracle." Faith means acting before confirmation.

Two Crossings, Two Births

The fact that there are two water crossings — the Red Sea out of Egypt, the Jordan into the promised land — carries deep typological significance. The pattern of paired washings runs through scripture:

• Two crossings: Red Sea (leaving bondage) and Jordan (entering covenant land)
• Two washings in the Passover Seder: Urchatz (the first handwashing, without blessing) and Rachtzah (the second handwashing, with blessing, before the covenant meal)
• Two births: Christ's teaching to Nicodemus — "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Two births: one of water, one of Spirit. One out of the old life, one into the new.

For Latter-day Saints, the dual washings may also call to mind covenant ordinances: baptism — the washing that marks the beginning of the covenant path — and the washings and anointings of the temple that prepare the individual to enter God's presence. Christ himself demonstrated both: his baptism in the Jordan at the beginning of his ministry, and the washing of his disciples' feet at its conclusion (John 13:5–10), where he taught Peter that the one who has been washed needs only to wash his feet to be "clean every whit."

Israel crossed the Red Sea to leave Egypt — to be freed from bondage. But freedom from slavery was not yet entrance into the promised land. A generation wandered and died in between. The Jordan crossing completed what the Red Sea began: not just liberation but arrival. The first crossing was birth out of captivity. The second was birth into covenant inheritance. Both were necessary. Neither was sufficient alone.

Twelve Stones at Gilgal

Joshua commanded twelve stones taken from the Jordan's bed and set up at Gilgal as a memorial (4:1-9). The name Gilgal (גִּלְגָּל) is connected to the Hebrew galal (גלל — "to roll"): "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you" (5:9). The shame of slavery, the stigma of forty years of failure — rolled away at the Jordan crossing.

The word gilgal itself carries layers beyond "rolling away." The root galal (גלל) means to roll, and gilgal is a circle — a wheel, a cycle, something that comes around. Twelve stones set in a circle at a place called "Circle." When we consider what circles of twelve represent — the twelve constellations marking the divisions of the heavens, the twelve months of the calendar, organizing time, the face of a clock measuring the hours — the image expands beyond a river-crossing memorial into something cosmic. Twelve is the number of ordered wholeness: time, truth, and covenant organized into one great whole, like an eternal scroll being rolled out.

The number twelve is not incidental. These twelve stones — one for each tribe — participate in a pattern that runs through the entire biblical narrative:

• The twelve stones of the high priest's breastplate (choshen / חֹשֶׁן) — each stone engraved with a tribal name, worn over the heart when the priest entered God's presence (Exodus 28:15–21)
• Elijah's twelve stones at the altar on Mount Carmel — one for each tribe of Israel — in his contest against the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:31). Elijah rebuilt the altar of YHWH with twelve stones before calling down fire from heaven.
• The "stones of fire" described by Ezekiel in his vision of the divine throne and the covering cherub who walked among them (Ezekiel 28:14, 16)
• The twelve foundation stones of the New Jerusalem in Revelation, each bearing the name of one of the twelve apostles (Revelation 21:14, 19–20)
• The twelve oxen carrying the molten sea in Solomon's Temple — three facing each cardinal direction, bearing the weight of the waters of purification (1 Kings 7:25)
• The twelve loaves of showbread on the table in the tabernacle — one for each tribe, perpetually before the Lord's presence (Leviticus 24:5–6)
• The twelve spies sent into Canaan — one from each tribe, to survey the very land Joshua's twelve stones now marked as possessed (Numbers 13:1–16)
• The twelve apostles chosen by Christ — the New Testament reconstitution of the tribal structure around a new covenant (Matthew 10:1–4)
• The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem — each named for a tribe of Israel (Revelation 21:12)
• The twelve stars crowning the woman in John's vision (Revelation 12:1)

The pattern is consistent: twelve represents covenant Israel gathered around the presence of God — the twelve tribes, the priesthood, the kingdoms of heaven. Joshua's twelve stones at Gilgal were not simply a memorial of a river crossing. They were a covenant marker: Israel, all twelve tribes, gathered at the threshold of the promised land, organized around the ark of God's presence — a microcosm of the eternal pattern, a memorial temple pattern.

Manna Ceases (5:12)

The day after Israel ate the produce of Canaan, the manna stopped. Forty years of miraculous daily provision ended — not because God abandoned them but because He gave something better. Wilderness provision yielded to promised-land abundance. The training was over.

Liturgical, Not Military

God's battle plan for Jericho was worship, not warfare:

• March around the city once daily for six days
• Seven priests carry seven shofars before the ark
• On the seventh day, march seven times
• The priests blow the shofars; the people shout
• The walls fall

The number seven saturates the account: seven days, seven circuits, seven priests, seven trumpets. In Hebrew numerology, seven (sheva / שֶׁבַע) signifies sacred completeness. Jericho fell not through human military prowess but through ritual obedience. The victory belonged to God.

The seven blasts of the shofars also connect to something deeper than numerology — they connect to the physics of creation itself. There are seven notes in the musical scale. A sound wave that completes a full cycle of seven notes returns to the octave — the same note, but higher, transformed. Light behaves the same way: the visible spectrum moves through seven colors and returns to its beginning. The completion of a scale, the completion of a rainbow — both are wave patterns that reach wholeness at seven and begin again at a higher order.

The Mesopotamian astronomers whom Abraham learned from (see the Sumerian astronomy discussion in Section 02) understood this connection between sevens, planetary cycles, and the ordering of time — the seven-day week itself was built on it. At Jericho, the God who organized light and sound into seven-fold patterns used those same patterns to bring down walls. The shofar blast was not noise. It was the sound of creation's Author exercising His authority over the physical world — the same authority that parted the sea and stopped the Jordan.

The Ark's Central Role

The ark of the covenant led the procession — not generals or soldiers. The ark represented God's presence and His throne. The message: God goes before Israel. The battle is His.

Archaeological Debate

Jericho's archaeology is among the most debated in biblical studies. Kathleen Kenyon's excavations (1950s) dated the city's destruction earlier than the traditional Exodus timeline. John Garstang and later Bryant Wood argued for dates more consistent with biblical chronology. The debate continues. What's not debated: Jericho was an ancient, heavily fortified city at the Jordan's western approach — exactly where the biblical narrative places it.

The Concept

Cherem (חֶרֶם) is one of the most difficult concepts in the Old Testament. It means "devoted" — set apart for God, banned from human use, consigned to destruction. Everything in Jericho was cherem: people, animals, goods. Only metals (gold, silver, bronze, iron) went into "the treasury of the LORD" (6:19). Everything else was destroyed.

Achan's Violation

Achan son of Carmi took "a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold" (7:21) and hid them under his tent. His secret theft violated the cherem — and the consequence fell on all Israel: defeat at Ai, thirty-six soldiers dead, national panic.

Individual Sin, Communal Consequence

The Achan narrative insists that no sin is truly private. One person's hidden transgression affected the entire community. God told Joshua: "Israel hath sinned" (7:11) — not "Achan has sinned." The covenant is communal; violation by one implicates all.

The Difficulty

The cherem concept — total destruction including non-combatants — is among the most morally challenging in Scripture. The church's Scripture Helps appendix on "Violence and Destruction in the Old Testament" acknowledges the difficulty while noting that the Canaanites had "rejected every word of God" and become "ripe in iniquity" (1 Nephi 17:35). Full resolution remains beyond our current understanding.

Joshua's Farewell

Like Moses before him, Joshua gives a farewell address. He reviews God's faithfulness, warns against apostasy, and forces a choice. The setting at Shechem is significant — this is where God first promised the land to Abraham (Gen 12:6-7). Covenant renewal happens where covenant began.

"Choose You This Day" (24:15)

Joshua frames the choice starkly: serve the gods of your ancestors beyond the River, the gods of the Amorites, or serve YHWH. There is no "none of the above." Everyone serves something. Joshua doesn't wait for the crowd — "as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

The Stone Witness (24:26-27)

Joshua set up a great stone "under an oak" as a covenant witness: "this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD." Even the stones testify. The creation itself participates in covenant accountability.

The Encounter

Before Jericho, Joshua meets a man with a drawn sword. "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" The answer: "Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come." Joshua falls on his face and is told: "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy" — echoing Moses at the burning bush.

Neither Side

The commander doesn't say "I'm on your side." He says "neither" — then reframes: God's army serves God's purposes, not Israel's national interests. This is a corrective to triumphalism: God is not Israel's mascot. Israel is God's servant.

The Cultural Context

The Gibeonites were Hivites — one of the peoples listed for dispossession. Their cities (Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, Kirjath-jearim) sat in the central hill country, strategically vital. Gibeon itself was "a great city, as one of the royal cities" (10:2) — not a minor settlement. Their deception wasn't born of cowardice but of sophisticated political calculation: they understood that Israel's God was irresistible, and they chose survival through guile.

The Treaty's Binding Power

Ancient Near Eastern treaties sworn in a deity's name were inviolable. When Israel discovered the deception, they could not annul the oath — not because of cultural convention but because "the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel" (9:19). YHWH's name had been invoked. To break the treaty would dishonor God Himself. Centuries later, when Saul killed Gibeonites in violation of this oath, God sent a three-year famine on Israel (2 Sam 21:1). The oath outlived the generation that made it.

The Theological Lesson

The critical failure was not the treaty itself but the process: "the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD" (9:14). Israel relied on sensory evidence (old bread, cracked wineskins, worn clothes) rather than divine guidance. Physical investigation without spiritual inquiry led to a permanent, binding mistake. The lesson is not "don't make treaties" but "don't make decisions without consulting God."

The Event

When five Amorite kings attacked Gibeon (now Israel's treaty partner), Joshua marched all night from Gilgal and attacked at dawn. Two extraordinary divine interventions followed: great hailstones killed more enemy soldiers than Israelite swords, and then Joshua commanded the sun and moon to halt: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon" (10:12).

The Hebrew

The verb damam (דָּמַם) translated "stand still" means "be silent, cease, be still." Joshua commanded the sun to be silenced. The narrator adds the extraordinary commentary: "there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel" (10:14). The emphasis is not on the cosmological mechanism but on the relational reality: God listened to a human being and altered creation in response.

Interpretive Approaches

Scholars have proposed various explanations: a literal extension of daylight, an eclipse, an atmospheric phenomenon that extended visibility, or poetic language describing an unexpected military advantage. The text itself makes no effort to explain the mechanism — it simply declares that God fought for Israel in a manner unprecedented and unrepeated. The miracle's purpose was theological, not astronomical: it demonstrated that the Creator commands creation on behalf of His covenant people.

Nachalah — More Than Real Estate

The Hebrew nachalah (נַחֲלָה) — inheritance, possession, heritage — is the key word of these chapters. It appears dozens of times. But nachalah in Hebrew carries connotations that "inheritance" in English misses. It implies permanent family possession, tied to identity, passed through generations, given by God. Losing your nachalah meant losing your place in Israel's story. The Year of Jubilee (Lev 25) existed specifically to ensure that lost nachalah would return to the original family — the land could never be permanently sold because it was never truly yours to sell. It was God's, held in trust.

Caleb's Mountain (Chapter 14)

Caleb's claim on Hebron is the emotional high point of the allotment narrative. At eighty-five, he declares: "I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me... give me this mountain" (14:11-12). The mountain is occupied by the Anakim — the giants who terrified the ten faithless spies forty-five years earlier. Caleb specifically asks for the hardest territory. His faith didn't weaken with age; it sharpened. The man who said "we are well able to overcome it" at Kadesh-barnea (Num 13:30) now proves it at Hebron.

The Levitical Exception

The Levites received no contiguous territory: "the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance" (13:33). Instead, they received forty-eight cities scattered throughout all tribal territories (ch. 21). This arrangement served a dual purpose: it ensured that every tribe had access to those who knew the law and could teach it, and it made a radical theological statement — some people's inheritance is not land but God Himself.

The Incomplete Conquest

A persistent refrain runs through the allotment chapters: "they did not drive them out" (15:63; 16:10; 17:12-13). The Jebusites remained in Jerusalem. The Canaanites remained in Gezer. The valley peoples kept their iron chariots. God gave the land — the nachalah was real — but Israel failed to fully possess it. This incomplete possession becomes the setup for the entire book of Judges: the peoples they failed to drive out became the peoples who oppressed them. Divine gift without human follow-through leads to compromise.

The Institution

Six cities were designated as arei miklat (עָרֵי מִקְלָט — cities of refuge): Kedesh, Shechem, and Hebron west of the Jordan; Bezer, Ramoth-gilead, and Golan east of the Jordan. They were evenly distributed so that no one in Israel was more than a day's journey from safety.

The Blood Avenger

In ancient Israel, when a person was killed, the nearest male relative — the goel ha-dam (גֹּאֵל הַדָּם — "redeemer/avenger of blood") — was obligated to pursue and kill the killer. This was not vigilantism; it was legally sanctioned family justice. But the system created a problem: what about accidental killing? The manslayer who killed unintentionally would be hunted by the same avenger as a deliberate murderer.

The Solution

The cities of refuge solved this by creating a legal mechanism for distinguishing between murder and manslaughter. The manslayer could flee to the nearest city, stand trial before the congregation, and if the killing was genuinely accidental, live safely within the city until the death of the high priest — after which the manslayer was free to return home, and the blood avenger's claim was permanently cancelled.

Christological Typology

The typology is powerful: the sinner flees to the place of refuge (Christ), is sheltered from the avenger (justice/the law), and is permanently released by the death of the high priest (Christ's atoning death). The cities of refuge are a legal institution that prefigures the Atonement in remarkable structural detail. That the high priest's death — and only the high priest's death — could cancel the blood-debt points directly to Christ as the ultimate High Priest whose death cancels all debts.

The Crisis

When the eastern tribes (Reuben, Gad, half-Manasseh) built a great altar at the Jordan after being dismissed home, the western tribes assumed apostasy and mustered for war. The accusation was serious: a rival altar would violate the centralization of worship and repeat the sin of the golden calf.

The Defense

The eastern tribes' explanation was unexpected: the altar was not for sacrifice but for witness — an ed (עֵד). Their fear was that future western generations would say to their children: "What have ye to do with the LORD God of Israel? For the LORD hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the LORD" (22:24-25). The altar was a monument against exclusion — a permanent declaration that the Jordan did not sever covenant membership.

Cultural Context

In the ancient Near East, rivers frequently served as political and religious boundaries. A tribe on the "wrong" side of a river could easily be forgotten or excluded from the central cult. The eastern tribes understood this danger and preemptively built a witness against it. Their concern was not theological infidelity but geographic marginalization — a remarkably modern anxiety about belonging.

Resolution

Phinehas and the delegation accepted the explanation. The altar was named Ed — "Witness" — and war was averted. The episode demonstrates that visible symbols of covenant belonging matter, that assumptions about others' faithfulness should be tested before acted upon, and that geographic distance from the center does not diminish covenant standing.

1. The name IS the theology: Joshua = Yehoshua = Jesus = "Jehovah is salvation"
2. Rahab shatters boundaries: Outsider, Canaanite, prostitute — convert, wife, ancestor of prophets and Christ
3. Wet feet before dry ground: The Jordan required stepping in before the miracle
4. Jericho fell by worship, not war: Seven days, seven circuits, shofars and shouting — God's methods confound
5. Cherem is radical consecration: Everything belongs to God; taking for yourself what is devoted to Him brings communal disaster
6. Don't decide without asking God: The Gibeonite deception happened because Israel trusted their eyes instead of inquiring of the LORD
7. God commands creation for His people: The sun stood still — "there was no day like that before it or after it"
8. The land lists are the evidence file: Every border and city catalogued in chapters 13-19 is a line item in the Abrahamic promise fulfilled
9. Caleb's faith doesn't retire: At eighty-five, he asks for giants and mountains
10. Cities of refuge prefigure Christ: Flee to safety; released by the High Priest's death
11. Belonging crosses every river: The altar of Ed declares that geography doesn't determine covenant standing
12. "Choose you this day": No neutrality, no deferral — serve something; Joshua chose the LORD
13. God kept every word: "There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken" (21:45)

Revised: May 12, 2026

The Text

"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein... Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."

Key Hebrew

• hagah (הָגָה) — "meditate" — to murmur, mutter, recite quietly; active vocal engagement, not passive contemplation
• chazak ve'ematz (חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ) — "be strong and courageous" — physical firmness + resolute boldness

What It Meant in Context

God's commission pairs two things that seem unrelated: scripture study and courage. But the connection is direct — you can only be courageous when you know what God has said. Joshua's strength comes not from military experience but from knowing the law and obeying it. Meditation (hagah) precedes courage (chazak).

Christ-Centered Reading

Christ meditated on the law in Gethsemane and on the cross — quoting Psalms 22 and 31 in His final moments. His courage came from knowing His Father's word.

Application

Courage without scripture is bravado. Scripture without courage is theory. Joshua needed both. What does day-and-night meditation on God's word look like in your life? And where would that meditation produce the courage you currently lack?

The Text

"I know that the LORD hath given you the land... For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea... the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath."

Key Hebrew

• yada'ti (יָדַעְתִּי) — "I know" — personal, experiential knowledge, not secondhand information
• Elohim bashamayim mima'al ve'al ha'aretz mitachat (אֱלֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וְעַל הָאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת) — "God in heaven above and on earth beneath" — a complete cosmic confession

What It Meant in Context

A Canaanite woman makes a more comprehensive theological confession than most Israelites manage. She has heard the same stories (Red Sea, Sihon, Og) that everyone in the region heard — but she draws the right conclusion. Same data, different faith. She mirrors Joshua and Caleb against the ten spies: accurate intelligence + correct interpretation.

Christ-Centered Reading

Rahab is in Christ's genealogy (Matt 1:5). The outsider who confesses faith becomes the insider who carries the messianic line. Grace doesn't ask for your resume — it asks for your faith.

Application

Rahab had less information than Israel but drew better conclusions. What truths about God have you heard so many times that you've stopped acting on them?

The Text

"And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water... the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap... and the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan."

Key Hebrew

• nitbelu (נִטְבְּלוּ) — "were dipped/immersed" — the priests' feet went INTO the water before anything happened
• ned echad (נֵד אֶחָד) — "one heap" — the waters stood up as a single wall

What It Meant in Context

At the Red Sea, the waters divided before Israel stepped in. At the Jordan, the priests had to step into flowing water first. The miracle required prior action. Elder Bednar: "their wet feet preceded the miracle." This is faith's pattern: act first, then see.

Christ-Centered Reading

Christ stepped into mortality — into the "waters" of suffering and death — before resurrection proved the Father's faithfulness. The Jordan crossing typifies baptism: going down into water, emerging into new life, entering the inheritance.

Application

What "Jordan" are you standing at, waiting for the water to part before you step in? Faith means wet feet.

The Text

"See, I have given into thine hand Jericho... ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once... And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns... and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times... and the wall of the city shall fall down flat."

Key Hebrew

• shofar (שׁוֹפָר) — ram's horn trumpet — instrument of worship and war; blown at Sinai, at Jubilee, at the New Year
• teruah (תְּרוּעָה) — "shout" — a battle cry, a cry of acclamation, a sound of alarm

What It Meant in Context

The "battle plan" is pure liturgy: march, carry the ark, blow shofars, shout. No siege towers, no battering rams, no tactical flanking. Seven days, seven circuits, seven priests, seven trumpets. The number seven (שֶׁבַע / sheva) signals sacred completeness — this is worship disguised as warfare. Jericho fell because God fought, not because Israel strategized.

Christ-Centered Reading

Christ conquers not by worldly power but by submission, sacrifice, and divine authority. The shofar will sound at His return (1 Thes 4:16). Walls fall before worship, not weapons.

Application

God's instructions sometimes look absurd by human standards. Marching and shouting isn't a military strategy — but it was God's strategy. What instruction has God given you that doesn't make tactical sense? Are you willing to obey it anyway?

The Text

"Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant... for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff."

Key Hebrew

• cherem (חֶרֶם) — the "accursed/devoted thing" — set apart for God, banned from human possession
• chata Yisrael (חָטָא יִשְׂרָאֵל) — "Israel has sinned" — singular verb with collective noun; one man sinned, but God says ISRAEL sinned

What It Meant in Context

Achan acted alone, but God addressed the entire nation. The covenant is communal — one person's violation infects the body. The cherem objects were God's; taking them was theft from God. The sin was compounded: taking (theft), hiding (deception), keeping among his stuff (normalization of stolen goods).

Christ-Centered Reading

Paul: "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" (1 Cor 5:6). In the body of Christ, individual sin affects the community. Achan prefigures the reality that covenant life is inherently communal.

Application

"They have put it even among their own stuff" — Achan mixed the devoted things with his personal possessions. Where have you mixed the sacred with the ordinary, treating what belongs to God as yours?

The Text

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Key Hebrew

• bacharu lakhem hayom (בַּחֲרוּ לָכֶם הַיּוֹם) — "choose for yourselves today" — imperative, immediate, personal
• avad (עָבַד) — "serve" — the root also means "work" and "worship"; in Hebrew, service, work, and worship are the same word

What It Meant in Context

Joshua doesn't offer neutrality. The options are: the gods of Mesopotamia (ancestral idols), the gods of Canaan (local idols), or YHWH. Everyone serves something — the question is what. Joshua doesn't wait for the crowd; he declares his household's commitment first: "as for me and my house." Leadership means choosing before you know if others will follow.

Christ-Centered Reading

"No man can serve two masters" (Matt 6:24). Christ echoes Joshua's binary: there is no third category. You serve God or you serve something else.

Application

Joshua said "this day" — not when you're ready, not after you've weighed all options. Today. What decision have you been deferring that Joshua would tell you to make right now?

Root: chazak (חזק, to be strong, firm, hold fast) + amatz (אמץ, to be bold, resolute, determined)

Appears: Joshua 1:6, 7, 9, 18; Deuteronomy 31:6-7, 23

Meaning

Two complementary words: chazak is physical strength, firmness, grip — holding fast. Amatz is inner resolve, boldness, determination — pressing forward. Together they cover both exterior action and interior will. God doesn't just say "don't be afraid" — He says "be actively strong AND internally resolute."

Theological Significance

1. Four repetitions in one chapter — Joshua needed to hear it repeatedly; courage is sustained, not spontaneous
2. Paired with the law (1:7-8) — courage flows from knowing God's word; meditation precedes bravery
3. God's presence as basis (1:9) — "the LORD thy God is with thee" — courage isn't self-generated; it's grounded in God's companionship

LDS Application

The phrase appears in modern temple and priesthood settings. "Be of good courage" isn't a suggestion — it's a commandment. Covenant people are commanded to be brave precisely because God promises to be present.

Cross-Language Connections

Root: charam (חרם, to devote, ban, utterly destroy, consecrate to destruction)

Appears: Joshua 6:17-18; 7:1, 11-13, 15

Meaning

Cherem is one of the most theologically loaded words in the Old Testament. It means "devoted to God" — set apart so completely that it cannot be used by humans. In warfare contexts, cherem objects (and sometimes people) were to be destroyed entirely. In other contexts, cherem items went to the treasury of the LORD. The root carries both "devotion" and "destruction" — what is wholly God's cannot be taken by anyone else.

Deeper Context

The concept connects to ancient Near Eastern "holy war" theology where conquered goods belonged to the deity who granted victory. Israel's cherem was distinctive: it wasn't about enriching the temple treasury but about demonstrating that the conquest belonged to God, not Israel. Taking cherem items was functionally stealing from God.

Theological Significance

1. Everything belongs to God: Cherem is the extreme expression of the principle that all things are the LORD's
2. Achan's sin was theft from God: Not mere battlefield looting but violation of sacred consecration
3. Communal consequence: One person's cherem violation endangered all Israel

LDS Application

Tithing operates on a gentler version of the cherem principle — a portion is the LORD's, not yours. More broadly: are there areas of your life you've claimed as your own that actually belong to God?

Cross-Language Connections

Root: rachav (רחב, to be wide, broad, spacious)

Appears: Joshua 2:1, 3; 6:17, 23, 25

Meaning

Rahab's name means "wide" or "broad" — possibly referring to physical stature or to spaciousness/openness. Her other designation — zonah (זוֹנָה) — means either "harlot" (most translations) or "innkeeper/food-seller" (Rashi, following Targum Yonason). Both readings are ancient and attested.

Deeper Context

The Talmud (Megillah 14b) teaches that Rahab converted, married Joshua, and became the ancestor of eight prophets (including Jeremiah) and the prophetess Huldah. She also appears in Christ's genealogy (Matt 1:5) and is held up as an example of faith in the New Testament (Heb 11:31; James 2:25).

Her trajectory is one of the most dramatic in Scripture: Canaanite → prostitute/innkeeper → spy-harborer → convert → wife of Israel's leader → ancestress of prophets → ancestress of Christ. Grace doesn't check your background.

Theological Significance

1. The outsider who sees what insiders miss: Rahab confesses YHWH's sovereignty more clearly than most Israelites
2. The scarlet cord echoes Passover blood: Both mark houses to be spared from destruction
3. Tikvah means both "cord" and "hope": Rahab's literal lifeline is also her theological lifeline

LDS Application

Rahab's story dismantles spiritual gatekeeping. God doesn't ask about your past; He asks about your faith. Her inclusion in Christ's genealogy is the ultimate statement: redemption is available to everyone, regardless of origin.

Cross-Language Connections

Root: galal (גלל, to roll, roll away)

Appears: Joshua 4:19-20; 5:9

Meaning

Gilgal means "circle" — likely referring to the circle of twelve memorial stones Joshua erected. But God connects it etymologically to galal (rolling): "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you" (5:9). The place name encodes the theology: at Gilgal, the shame of slavery, the stigma of forty years of failure, was rolled away.

Theological Significance

1. Memorial function: The twelve stones prompt the question "What mean these stones?" — designed to spark teaching across generations (Joshua 4:21)
2. Shame removed: "Reproach of Egypt" = the stigma of being slaves, then failures; rolled away at the Jordan crossing
3. New beginning: Circumcision, Passover, manna ceasing — all happen at Gilgal; it's the site of transition from old life to new

LDS Application

Baptism is our Gilgal — the place where reproach is rolled away and new life begins. The memorial stones are our sacrament — regular reminders that prompt us to remember and teach.

Cross-Language Connections

Root: avad (עבד, to serve, work, worship, till)

Appears: Joshua 24:14-15, 18, 21, 24 (10 times in chapter 24 alone)

Meaning

Avad is remarkable for its range: it means "to serve" (a master), "to work" (the ground), and "to worship" (God). In Hebrew, there is no clean separation between service, labor, and worship. When Joshua says "choose you this day whom ye will serve (avad)," the word contains all three dimensions: Who is your master? Where does your labor go? What do you worship?

Theological Significance

1. Everyone serves: The question isn't whether you serve but WHOM — ancestral gods, local gods, or YHWH
2. Worship = service: There is no worship without practical service; there is no true service without worship
3. Work is worship: Daily labor, properly directed, is an act of devotion

LDS Application

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). King Benjamin understood avad: service, work, and worship are one act when directed toward God.

Cross-Language Connections

Root: qavah (קוה, to wait, hope, expect; also to bind, twist together)

Appears: Joshua 2:18, 21

Meaning

Tikvah appears in Joshua 2 as "cord" — the scarlet line Rahab hung from her window. But the same word means "hope" throughout the Old Testament (Job 6:8; Psalm 71:5; Jeremiah 29:11). The dual meaning is not accidental: in Hebrew thought, hope is something you hold onto — a lifeline, a cord, something that binds you to the future.

Theological Significance

1. Rahab's cord IS her hope: The physical object and the theological reality are the same word
2. Scarlet echoes sacrifice: The color of blood, Passover, atonement — Rahab's hope is marked by the color of redemption
3. Hope as active waiting: Tikvah (from qavah) implies waiting with expectation, not passive resignation

LDS Application

"Hatikvah" — Israel's national anthem — means "The Hope." The word Rahab hung from her window is the same word that names the hope of God's covenant people across millennia. Our "scarlet cord" is the Atonement — the hope we display and hold onto.

Cross-Language Connections

The book of Joshua marks the transition from Torah to Nevi'im (Prophets) — and from wilderness to land. Jewish tradition treats this transition with both triumph and deep ambivalence. The conquest narratives raise moral questions that rabbinic literature addresses with characteristic honesty. But the book also contains moments of extraordinary grace — Rahab's conversion, the Jordan crossing, and Joshua's covenant renewal — that have generated some of the tradition's most beautiful commentary.

The Teaching

The Talmud (Megillah 14b) makes an extraordinary claim: Rahab converted to Judaism, married Joshua, and became the ancestor of eight prophets — Neriah, Baruch, Seraiah, Mahseiah, Jeremiah, Hilkiah, Hanamel, and Shallum — plus the prophetess Huldah.

When challenged that Joshua had no sons, the Talmud clarifies: "He did not have sons, but he did have daughters." The prophetic lineage passed through Joshua's daughters.

Rashi on Rahab

Rashi (on Joshua 2:1) follows Targum Yonason in identifying Rahab as an "innkeeper who sold various kinds of foodstuff" rather than a prostitute. He also notes Jericho's strategic importance: "it was as strong as the entire land combined, because it was situated on the border."

The Broader Tradition

Jewish tradition celebrates Rahab as one of the four most beautiful women in the world (Megillah 15a) and as a model of repentance. Her transformation — from serving travelers in a border-city brothel/inn to serving God as a convert — represents teshuvah (repentance) at its most radical. The Midrash suggests that for forty years (the duration of Israel's wilderness wandering) she had been a prostitute, and she converted at exactly the same age as Israel's years of wandering — suggesting her personal transformation mirrored Israel's national one.

LDS Resonance

Rahab appears in Christ's genealogy (Matt 1:5) alongside Tamar, Ruth, and Bathsheba — four women with complicated histories who nonetheless carried the messianic line. The Restoration's emphasis on the universality of the Atonement — that conversion is available to everyone regardless of past — finds deep roots in the Rahab tradition.

The Teaching

The tikvat chut ha-shani (תִּקְוַת חוּט הַשָּׁנִי — "cord of scarlet thread") that Rahab hung from her window deliberately echoes the Passover blood on the doorposts. Both function identically: a marking that distinguishes a household for preservation when destruction passes through. The scarlet color — the color of blood — connects Rahab's salvation to Israel's original redemption.

Jewish commentators note the parallel structure:

The word tikvah (תִּקְוָה) itself carries dual meaning: "cord" and "hope." Rahab's lifeline is literally her hope.

LDS Resonance

The pattern of being marked for preservation through covenant symbols continues: the temple garment, baptism, the sacrament. Each is a "scarlet cord" — a visible (or carried) marker of covenant identity that distinguishes God's people.

The Teaching

The cherem (חֶרֶם — the ban / devotion to destruction) has troubled Jewish commentators for centuries. The Talmud (Gittin 57b) records a tradition that Joshua sent three letters to the Canaanites before the conquest, offering three options:

1. Leave the land — depart peacefully
2. Make peace — accept Israelite sovereignty and live under Noahide laws
3. Fight — and face the consequences

This tradition softens the conquest narrative: war was the last resort, not the first. The Gibeonites (Joshua 9) who made peace — even through deception — were allowed to live, demonstrating that the door to survival was genuinely open.

Maimonides on Commanded Wars

Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 6:1-4) codified the three-letter tradition into law and emphasized that forced conversion was never the goal. The purpose of the conquest was not to impose Israelite religion but to remove Canaanite idolatry — particularly child sacrifice and other practices deemed "abominations."

The Moral Difficulty

Jewish tradition doesn't resolve the tension easily. The cherem is acknowledged as morally challenging. Some commentators emphasize God's foreknowledge and justice; others emphasize the Canaanites' centuries of opportunity for repentance. The difficulty is held rather than dissolved.

LDS Resonance

The Book of Mormon addresses the same tension through Nephi: "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world" (2 Nephi 26:24). The church's Scripture Helps appendix acknowledges the difficulty while noting the Canaanites were "ripe in iniquity" and had "rejected every word of God."

The Teaching

The Achan narrative (Joshua 7) illustrates a principle deeply embedded in Jewish law: kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh (כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲרֵבִים זֶה בָּזֶה — "all Israel are guarantors/responsible for one another"). This phrase, from the Talmud (Shevuot 39a), means that every Jew bears responsibility for every other Jew's behavior.

God told Joshua "Israel hath sinned" (7:11) — singular national identity, not "Achan has sinned." The communal consequence (defeat at Ai) followed from a communal theology: the covenant is with the people, not just individuals. When one member violates the covenant, the whole body suffers.

The Lot System

Achan was identified through progressive lot-casting: tribe → family → household → individual (7:16-18). The process moved from largest group to smallest, publicly demonstrating that the sin resided within the community before narrowing to the specific person. Everyone was implicated before anyone was identified.

LDS Resonance

This maps to Paul's body-of-Christ theology: "If one member suffers, all members suffer with it" (1 Cor 12:26). Ward and stake communities experience this reality — one family's crisis affects the whole congregation. The principle also undergirds the Latter-day Saint emphasis on personal worthiness before communal ordinances (sacrament, temple).

The Teaching

Joshua's covenant renewal at Shechem (chapter 24) takes place at the same location where God first promised the land to Abraham (Gen 12:6-7) and where Jacob buried his family's foreign idols (Gen 35:4). The site itself carries covenantal memory.

Joshua's framing — "choose you this day" — employs the same Hebrew root (בחר / bachar) that Deuteronomy 30:19 uses for "choose life." The pattern is deliberate: Moses said "choose life"; Joshua said "choose whom to serve." Both insist on present, active, volitional commitment.

Jewish tradition notes that Joshua's speech is structured as a covenant lawsuit — a riv (רִיב): he reviews God's faithfulness, contrasts it with Israel's history of idolatry, and then demands a verdict. The people are simultaneously jury and defendant.

The Stone Witness

Joshua set up a stone "under an oak" as a covenant witness (24:26-27): "this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD." The idea of creation bearing witness appears throughout Torah — "I call heaven and earth to record" (Deut 30:19) — but here a specific stone is enlisted. Even the inanimate world participates in covenant accountability.

LDS Resonance

Temple covenants are similarly witnessed — by those present, by angels, and by God Himself. The specificity of covenant-making (time, place, words, witnesses) echoes Joshua's careful setting at Shechem. Covenant isn't casual; it's deliberate, located, and witnessed.

The Teaching

Before Jericho, Joshua encounters a figure with a drawn sword and asks: "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" The answer — "Nay" (לֹא / lo — simply "no") — is startling. The commander of the LORD's army is on neither side. He serves God's purposes, which may align with Israel's at this moment but are not defined by Israel's national interests.

Jewish commentators treat this as a critical corrective to triumphalism. God is not Israel's partisan; Israel is God's servant. The relationship runs one direction: God commands, and Israel (at its best) obeys. The idea that God's army exists to serve human agendas is explicitly rejected.

The command to remove shoes echoes Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:5) — establishing continuity between Moses' commission and Joshua's.

LDS Resonance

The principle applies to any community that claims divine favor: God doesn't serve the Church; the Church serves God. The moment we assume God is "on our side" by default, we've lost the plot. The question is always whether WE are on GOD's side.

1. Rahab is redemption embodied — prostitute to prophet's ancestor; her conversion story is Jewish tradition's most radical testimony to teshuvah
2. The scarlet cord echoes Passover — both mark households for preservation; tikvah means both "cord" and "hope"
3. The conquest was offered alternatives — the Talmud's three letters tradition preserves room for peace
4. Communal responsibility is covenantal — "all Israel are guarantors for one another"; Achan's private sin became public disaster
5. "Choose this day" echoes "choose life" — same Hebrew root (bachar), same urgency, same refusal of neutrality
6. God serves neither side — the commander of the LORD's army corrects the assumption that God is a national mascot

For Young Children (Ages 3–7)

Focus: The walls came tumbling down

Story: "God told Joshua to march around the big city of Jericho. They marched every day for six days. On the seventh day, they marched seven times and then shouted as loud as they could — and the walls fell down flat! God knocked them down because the people obeyed."

Activity: Build a wall with blocks. March around it together. Count to seven. Shout! Knock the walls down. "When we obey God, He can do amazing things!"

Song: "Nephi's Courage" (CS 120)

For Older Children (Ages 8–11)

Focus: Rahab — the outsider who believed

Read: Joshua 2:9-11; 6:22-25

Discussion:

1. Rahab wasn't part of Israel, but she believed in God. How did she show her faith? (Hid the spies, hung the scarlet cord)
2. She later became the great-great-grandmother of King David — and an ancestor of Jesus! What does that teach about who God can use?
3. Have you ever felt like an outsider? How does Rahab's story change that?

For Youth/Teens

Focus: Wet feet before dry ground

Read: Joshua 3:13-17

Discussion:

1. At the Red Sea, the water parted first. At the Jordan, the priests had to step IN first. Why the difference?
2. What "Jordan River" are you standing at — waiting for the water to part before you step in?
3. What would "wet feet" faith look like in your life this week?

Challenge: Identify one thing you've been waiting on God to resolve before you act. Step in this week — take the first action — and trust the water will part.

Lesson Approach 1: Choose You This Day

Opening: Read Joshua 24:15 together. Ask: "What is Joshua actually demanding here?"

Key Insight: The Hebrew avad (serve) also means "work" and "worship." Joshua isn't asking what they believe — he's asking what they'll DO. And the choice is today, not someday.

Discussion:

1. Joshua lists three options: ancestral gods, local gods, or the LORD. What are the modern equivalents of each?
2. "As for me and my house" — Joshua chose before the crowd. When have you had to choose before others did?
3. The people answered "we will serve the LORD" — but Joshua pushed back: "Ye cannot serve the LORD" (24:19). Why the challenge? Was he testing their sincerity?

Lesson Approach 2: Jericho — When Obedience Looks Foolish

Read: Joshua 6:2-5

Discussion:

1. God's battle plan was march, blow trumpets, shout. No weapons, no siege. Why would God use such a method?
2. Imagine being a soldier on day three — walking in circles, silent. Would you trust the plan?
3. Where has God given you instructions that don't make tactical sense? Did you follow them?

1. Courage is commanded, not optional — chazak ve'ematz, repeated four times, because Joshua needed to hear it four times
2. Outsiders can out-believe insiders — Rahab saw what Israel missed; faith doesn't require the right background
3. Step in before the water parts — the Jordan required wet feet first; faith acts before confirmation
4. God's methods confound — Jericho fell by worship, not warfare; obedience trumps strategy
5. No sin is private — Achan's hidden theft brought communal disaster; the covenant is communal
6. Choose today — not someday; avad means serve, work, AND worship — all at once

1. God tells Joshua "be strong and courageous" four times in chapter 1. Why the repetition? What does it suggest about Joshua's state of mind?

1. Joshua 1:8 pairs meditation on the law with courage. How are scripture study and bravery connected?

1. The Hebrew hagah (meditate) means to murmur, recite quietly — active vocal engagement. How does this change your understanding of "meditation"?

1. Rahab confesses: "The LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath" (2:11). How does a Canaanite woman arrive at a more complete theology than many Israelites?

1. Rashi identifies Rahab as an "innkeeper" rather than a "prostitute." Does this distinction matter theologically? Why or why not?

1. The Talmud teaches Rahab converted, married Joshua, and became ancestor of Jeremiah and Huldah. What does this trajectory — prostitute to prophet's ancestor — teach about the reach of grace?

1. The scarlet cord (tikvah) parallels the Passover blood on doorposts. Both mark houses for preservation. What is your "scarlet cord" — the visible marker of covenant identity in your life?

1. At the Red Sea, waters parted before Israel stepped in. At the Jordan, priests stepped in first (3:15-16). What does "wet feet before dry ground" teach about faith?

1. The twelve stones at Gilgal were designed to prompt the question "What mean these stones?" (Joshua 4:21). What memorials in your life prompt you to remember God's deliverance?

1. Gilgal (גִּלְגָּל) = "rolling": "I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt" (5:9). What "reproach" has God rolled away from you? Do you live as though it's gone?

1. Manna ceased the day after they ate Canaan's produce (5:12). God's provision changed form, not presence. Where has God's provision in your life shifted from one form to another?

1. The commander of the LORD's army answered Joshua's question ("for us or against us?") with "neither" (5:14). What does this corrective teach about assuming God is on "our side"?

1. God's battle plan for Jericho was liturgical — march, carry the ark, blow shofars, shout. Why would God choose worship over military strategy?

1. The number seven pervades the account (7 days, 7 circuits, 7 priests, 7 trumpets). What does seven signify in Hebrew thought?

1. Imagine being a soldier on day four — silent marching in circles. What would sustain your obedience when the instructions seem pointless?

1. Rashi on 6:26: Joshua cursed anyone who rebuilt Jericho — losing firstborn at the foundation and youngest at the gates. Why was this city singled out for permanent destruction?

1. God said "Israel hath sinned" (7:11) — not "Achan has sinned." Why does one person's hidden theft become the nation's sin?

1. Achan took the devoted things and "put it even among their own stuff" (7:11). Where do we mix the sacred with the ordinary — treating what belongs to God as ours?

1. The consequence of Achan's sin was defeat at Ai — thirty-six soldiers died (7:5). How do we hold individual accountability and communal consequence together?

1. The identification process narrowed progressively: tribe → family → household → individual (7:16-18). What does this public process accomplish that a private revelation wouldn't?

1. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (24:15). Joshua offers three options: ancestral gods, local gods, or YHWH. What are the modern equivalents?

1. The Hebrew avad means "serve," "work," AND "worship." How does this triple meaning change the force of Joshua's demand?

1. Joshua declares his household's choice BEFORE the crowd responds: "as for me and my house." When have you had to choose before knowing if others would follow?

1. Joshua pushes back against the people's easy answer: "Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God" (24:19). Why challenge their commitment? Was this reverse psychology or genuine warning?

1. Joshua sets up a stone witness (24:26-27): "it hath heard all the words of the LORD." What does it mean for creation to witness covenant?

1. The Jordan crossing echoes the Red Sea. Both waters part; both mark transitions. How are the two events similar, and how are they different?

1. Rahab is saved; Achan is destroyed. Both acted in secret. What distinguishes Rahab's secret faith from Achan's secret sin?

1. Joshua's commission (ch. 1) and Joshua's farewell (ch. 24) bookend the narrative. What has changed between "be strong and courageous" and "choose you this day"?

1. The cherem principle (everything belongs to God) and the Year of Release (Deut 15) express the same theology from different angles. What is that shared theology?

1. Jericho fell by obedience to absurd instructions. The bronze serpent healed by simple looking (Num 21). What pattern connects these two events?

1. What "Jordan" are you standing at — where you need to step in before the water parts?

1. Is there something you've taken from God's "cherem" — something you know belongs to Him but you've put among your own stuff?

1. If Joshua asked you today, "Choose whom you will serve," what would your honest answer be — not your ideal answer, but the one your time, money, and energy actually reveal?

1. Rahab went from outsider to ancestor of Christ. What does her story say to you about your own past and your potential future?

1. What specific action will you take this week because of what you studied?

Primary Level:

"Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." (Joshua 1:9)

Youth Level:

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)

Adult Level:

"I know that the LORD hath given you the land... for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath." (Joshua 2:9, 11)

35 questions total — 3 on commission, 4 on Rahab, 5 on crossing/new beginning, 4 on Jericho, 4 on Achan, 5 on farewell/choice, 5 cross-cutting, 5 personal reflection — plus 3 memorization options.

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