TPT The Book of Joshua E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 186

Beschreibung

The book of Joshua documents a vital stage in Israel's history as God's people leave the wilderness to conquer and possess the promised land. God's miraculous, jaw-dropping power is on constant display, transforming his people from wanderers to conquers. This incredible account activates us today to overcome strongholds and claim the full promises of God. This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Joshua, designed for both individual and group study, provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of Joshua, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. The lessons then walk you through every portion from the book and include features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history. Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Joshua, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT: The Book of Joshua: 12-Lesson Bible Study Guide

Copyright © 2024 BroadStreet Publishing Group

9781424567553 (softcover)

9781424567560 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®, copyright © 2017, 2018, 2020 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NIrV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®. Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIrV” and “New International Reader’s Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].

General editor: Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Writer: Matthew A. Boardwell

Design and typesetting by Garborg Design Works | garborgdesign.com

Printed in China

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Contents

From God’s Heart to Yours

Why I Love the Book of Joshua

Lesson 1  The Prophet’s Apprentice

Lesson 2  Inauguration Day

Lesson 3  A Scarlet Cord

Lesson 4  Crossover

Lesson 5  All Around the Town

Lesson 6  Stolen Treasure

Lesson 7  Tricked into Treaty

Lesson 8  Cosmic Cooperation

Lesson 9  Dividing the Conquered

Lesson 10 Safe Spaces

Lesson 11 Together in Truth and Love

Lesson 12 Decision Point

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as limitless as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “reintroduce the passion and fire of the Bible to the English reader. It doesn’t merely convey the literal meaning of words. It expresses God’s passion for people and his world by translating the original, life-changing message of God’s Word for modern readers.” It has been created to “kindle in you a burning desire to know the heart of God, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding.

Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word and to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on using the lesson to grow closer to others and to enrich your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency…in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means.

Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions for and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith, Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare, Irenaeus for his fight against heresy, Billy Graham for his work in evangelism, Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law, and Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer document, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you toward the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with some of the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study, and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “Now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

Why I Love the Book of Joshua

Everyone needs a new beginning. When we fail, when a new year begins, or when we move into a new season of our lives, we want to start afresh. That’s what the book of Joshua is all about. The death of Moses left everyone reeling. What will happen now that Moses is gone? Who will lead us? Who will take us into the promised land?, they wondered.

God wasted no time. After the time of grieving the loss of Moses, Yahweh spoke, essentially saying, “Joshua! You are the one who will take them in. Rise up! Be strong! And be fearless. I will be with you!” These are words every spiritual leader wants to hear from God: “I will be with you!”

Israel was at the threshold of moving into a promise they had received centuries before. Now it was time for Joshua to lead these under-forty adults into their inheritance.

I love the book of Joshua because it is filled with adventure and miracles as God wins life’s battles. As long as God was with the Israelites and they obeyed the voice of the Lord, they would conquer. Joshua is a book that gives me the courage to move forward and the wisdom to keep leaning on God. There will be struggles of faith that will challenge the most stout-hearted among us, but God + nothing is enough.

I love Joshua because we find in its pages the ways of God, how he moves us forward, how we triumph over our enemies, and how we do the impossible. It is a book of action. The people go forward toward a flooding river, and it parts before their eyes. The people march around a city thirteen times, and the walls come tumbling down. The sun stands still, the enemies of God are conquered, cities bow before the power of Yahweh, and the hearts of God’s people get filled with greater faith. If you feel like your days are filled with boredom, try reading the first few chapters of Joshua, and it will bring you into the battle of good versus evil.

I am thrilled as I read through the pages of Joshua because it truly fills me with courage. I need courage, and I feel like you who read this likewise need the infusion of courage to walk through the turbulent days we live in. Many modern believers act more like prisoners of war instead of passionate conquerors. We, as followers of Jesus, must see ourselves as “good soldiers” in God’s army, prepared to fight spiritual battles (2 Timothy 2:3–5). The book of Joshua is a book of conquest, meant to embolden us to move from passivity to passion. Like Joshua, our battles are spiritual battles, for we fight not against flesh and blood but against forces of darkness.

So take heart, my friend! You will defeat your enemies and possess the promises God has given you. Nothing will defeat you as you follow the Commander of Angel Armies. I know you’re going to love this study guide. Take the time to ponder each page and apply all that you learn.

God has courage he wants to impart to you, mighty one.

A new beginning is before you.

So seize the day!

Brian Simmons

General Editor

LESSON 1

The Prophet’s Apprentice

(various Scriptures)

From the east side of the Jordan River, Joshua prepared to embark on a military campaign. Almost a half millennia before, God promised Abram that the territory of Canaan would ultimately belong to his many descendants. Countless offspring? A permanent place to call home? To an old, childless desert nomad, this was almost too good to be true, but Abram believed God (Genesis 12:1–4; 15:1–21).

Abraham died in Canaan, and the only land he possessed was the plot he was buried in (25:7–10). Centuries would pass before his descendants would return to claim this promised land. In the intervening years, his promised children faced withering trials. Family strife, famine, emigration, chattel slavery, hostile armies, and wilderness wandering, each in their turn threatened the very survival of Abraham’s lineage. But through God’s faithfulness and intervention, Abraham’s children returned to claim the promised land.

To settle this land, it would take a military conquest, and this included espionage, violence, and destruction. There were battle strategies and diplomatic treaties. There were glorious victories and humiliating defeats. And, as usual when people work in cooperation with God, there were miraculous interventions that accomplished divine purposes.

Therefore, we will embark on a spiritual campaign with these ancient people. In 1 Corinthians 10:1–13, Paul wrote that the experiences of Israel were recorded as encouragement, warnings, and examples for Christians. The history recorded in Joshua is a treasure trove of lessons for the followers of Jesus. We will witness the fledgling nation of Israel taking its first steps without Moses, experiencing firsthand the power and patience of God. We will learn from them as they choose to follow him into their rest.

A New Chapter Begins

“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge.”2 So begins Victorian England’s most popular Christmas story.

From the first sentence of Dickens’ classic, we learn that Jacob Marley’s time had passed. He would influence the story, of course, but his chapter was over. Ebeneezer Scrooge was the next person named and the central character of the next chapter. His partnership with Marley and the reputation they forged together undergirded this well-worn tale.

Similarly, the opening lines of the biblical book of Joshua highlight two key leaders, Moses and Joshua. “After Moses, Yahweh’s servant, died, Yahweh spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ faithful assistant” (Joshua 1:1). Moses’ chapter was closed, and with his passing, Joshua became the central figure of the next chapter in the story of God’s covenant people Israel. Scripture had never mentioned Joshua by name without reference to Moses. For decades they were inseparable. Death had now separated these two men, and Joshua had to go forward alone at the head of this nomad nation as they secured their new homeland.

Joshua’s leadership skills did not materialize suddenly. His experiences as a common Israelite and then companion to Moses forged Joshua’s character and competence. He established his place in the hearts of his fellow Israelites as Israel’s undisputed leader of the conquest through many years of challenges together and through his steadfast faith.

An Israelite

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the first fathers of this people. In their lifetimes, there was no nation of Israel for them to belong to. Moses was an Israelite but exceptional in his infancy, upbringing, and calling. When he arose as a deliverer, he was decidedly an outsider. However, before Joshua made a name for himself among the covenant people of God, he was a common member of that nation. So before considering the events that distinguish Joshua from his people, let’s review the soul-forming experiences he shared with them.

Like all Jacob’s descendants of his generation, Joshua was born a slave. He was born under the oppressive rule of the Egyptian pharaoh who had no regard for God or his covenant people. Exodus 1:6–22 describes the cruelty and hopelessness of this era for Israel.

• This new pharaoh mentions specific concerns he has about this immigrant community in Egypt. What did he worry about (Exodus 1:8–10)?

• What three strategies did Pharaoh employ to diminish the Israelite population in Egypt?

• Who had to cooperate with him to accomplish these strategies (vv. 11, 15, 22)? Did they cooperate?

Joshua was born about a generation after this oppression began. He was a forced laborer, toiling to turn raw materials into buildings, temples, pyramids, and monuments. His Egyptian masters channeled his efforts to build the Egyptian empire, honor Egyptian culture, and worship Egyptian gods. This was an inauspicious beginning for a man who would rise to lead the people of the one true God.

Like the rest of Israel, Joshua was delivered from slavery through the miraculous intervention of God. When Moses recounted the wonders of God that led Israel to the edge of the promised land, he reminded them of the slavery they came from and especially how God set them free (Deuteronomy 7:7–19). Moses expected all the generations that followed to remember these wonders.

• How did Moses describe Israel’s unpromising beginnings (Deuteronomy 7:7)?

• What motivated God to come to their rescue (v. 8)?

• What miraculous troubles did God inflict on Israel’s oppressors (vv. 15, 19)? How does God describe his power in setting the Hebrews free (vv. 8, 19)?

• Was it Israel’s strength that broke them out of bondage? Was it Israel’s strength that would enable them to conquer the promised land?

• What did Moses expect his people to conclude from the wonders God showed them in Egypt (vv. 18–19)?

Joshua, like all his countrymen, walked through the Red Sea on dry ground (Exodus 14:13–31). Getting free from Egypt was the first step; staying free was the next. When Pharaoh changed his mind and chased down the newly freed slaves with his army, the Hebrews were trapped against the sea. Everyone expected a slaughter and re-enslavement, but God showed his power again.

• Did Israel have to fight Egypt for their freedom? Did they have to defend themselves (Exodus 14:13–14)?

• What sequence of miracles did God perform to rescue them in this instance (vv. 19–20, 21, 24–25, 27–28)?

• How did the Egyptian army bring glory to God (vv. 17–18)?

• What effect did this miracle have in the hearts of the Hebrews (vv. 30–31)?

With the rest of his people, Joshua spent forty years of his life wandering in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:1–9). When they could have been conquering and settling, they were condemned to wandering tantalizingly close to the promised land, facing the elements, and living in tents.

• What did God plan to accomplish through the wilderness wanderings of the Hebrews (Deuteronomy 8:2, 5)?

• How did God provide for their physical needs in the wilderness (vv. 3–4)?

• The contrast was stark between resources in the wilderness and the promised land. What did their new homeland have that they lacked in the wilderness (vv. 7–9)?

• What did God demand of the Hebrews, whether they were wandering or settled in the new land (vv. 1, 6)?

Joshua shared in all these experiences as an ordinary citizen of Israel. He was part of the national identity shaped by slavery, deliverance, walking through the sea, and God’s provision in the wilderness. The lessons he learned from these common experiences informed the rest of his life as a leader of God’s people.

WORD WEALTH