 book of Joshua, we see a brief overview of all the military campaigns that were conducted and also we see how the land was divided between the different tribes. We also learn that Joshua was originally named Hoshia in Numbers chapter 13 verse 8 and then later Moses changes his name and names him Yahoshua. So he becomes Joshua or Joshua as we know him today. So Moses chooses to change his name and Joshua is the one who leads the people throughout the conquest and he finally dies in 1390 about 15 years after the conquest. Moving on to some other details, we also just briefly looked at how there are some written references pointing to the fact that he is the writer. Chapter 18 verses 8 and 9 talk about Joshua being the writer who takes down details about the survey of the land. Also chapter 24 verses 25 to 26 talk about how he records all the things which God has revealed to him in the book of the law of God. So all these are pointers to the fact that Joshua was involved in writing this book. So we'll get into the structure of the book of Joshua. So chapters 1 to 4 is where we have the introductory steps which they take into the land. So we have the miraculous crossing of the Jordan river. We will look at that a little later but yeah that's basically what we find in the first four chapters where God very miraculously helps them to cross the flooded Jordan river. We also have the story of Rahab and how she chooses to take the side of the Israelites and help them in entering into their promised land. So she assists them in that. So that's another important incident that we find in the first four chapters. Coming to chapters 5 to 12. In chapters 5 to 12, we have three main things mentioned. The first would be the fall of the walls of Jericho. The second thing is the conquest of AI. And the third is the blessings and cursings which they which are loudly proclaimed publicly on at Shechem from the mountains over there. So we see these three main things in chapters 5 to 12. Just to briefly touch upon what happened at Shechem. If you remember earlier we read in Deuteronomy, God says when you have entered the promised land you are supposed to publicly read out the blessings and curses standing on two mountains. So we have the people of some of the tribes standing on Mount Gerizim and some of the tribes standing on Mount Abal and they loudly proclaim the blessings and curses of God. So why would they stand on top for mountain and do that? Because as they are loudly proclaiming it because of the kind of acoustics which were there in that particular region, their voices would be heard right down into the valley. And even today if any tourists were to go to Mount Gerizim and to Mount Abal, if they were to go right on to the top of the mountain, from the top of the mountain they can hear the children playing down below in the valley. They can hear the laughter and the shouts of the kids running around down below. So it's that kind of an acoustics that they had over there. So that would have been highly useful for them whenever the priests or prophets wanted to give them any kind of public message or speech. That kind of acoustics would have been highly helpful to the Israelites. So that was the unique feature about these mountains Gerizim and Abal which are next to each other and they provide some kind of acoustics which allows people to be heard very clearly when they are trying to make a speech. Alright, we will now look at chapter 10. In chapter 10, the two main things that we see over there is the story of the Gibeonites, one particular people group who they trick Joshua into making a peace treaty with them. Joshua is under the impression that they have come from some far away region and so he chooses to make a peace treaty with them but he finds out afterwards that they have tricked him and actually they too belong to this region itself which God wanted to be judged. And we also see in chapter 10 the Amorite kings coming together to fight against the Israelites and God very miraculously helps them. So we see those incidents taking place in chapter 10. The next section would be chapters 13 to 24. In 13 to 24, we have a description of how the land was divided and we see that six cities of refuge were created. So six specific cities were declared as cities of refuge and we will take a look at that also a little later. We will look into what exactly is meant by a city of refuge and we also get to know in these chapters that two and a half tribes, the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, they choose to settle down on the eastern side of the Jordan. So these are some main things that we see in chapters 13 to 24 and finally of course in chapter 24, you have the fable speech of Joshua where he urges the people to make a choice. Joshua chapter 24 verse 15 is highly popular. We see it in fact in many homes as a wall poster or a plaque on the wall where it talks about how as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. So that is Joshua's fable speech where he challenges the people to make a commitment to God and always follow him. The book of Joshua tells us that the Gentiles were also accepted into the fold of the Israelites as long as they choose to make a commitment to follow him and live only for him and to give up their idol worship completely. For instance, we see Rahab mentioned over here. So Rahab is accepted into the fold of the Israelites because she has made a conscious choice to follow the Lord rather than the idols which she had been worshiping earlier. So Rahab is given some importance here. We see that she's included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ later in Matthew chapter 1, we see that. Hebrews 11, 31 and James 2, 25 talk about her faith. They talk about the good thing which she did for the Israelites. All of those things are mentioned. So importance is being given here to a Gentile even though she was not part of the Israelite nation because she chose to place herself under Yahweh's protection. Coming to Gilgal. Gilgal is the place where you have the circumcision done for the new generation which has entered into the land and that word Gilgal basically means rolled away. So God is now saying you have renewed your covenant with me by undergoing the circumcision ceremony and so I will no longer hold your past sins against you. I will consider your sins as having rolled away and from now on you can have a new beginning. So in Gilgal that's the place where they have a new beginning and over there they celebrate the next Passover. If you remember one Passover was already celebrated when they were out in the wilderness and now this is the next Passover which they are celebrating after entering the promised land. That also happens in Gilgal and it is at Gilgal that the daily Mana supply stops because now they have formally entered into the land and now they can depend on the crops which are there, the trees which are there in the land itself. So all of these things happen in Gilgal and one important representation of Christ which we see in the book of Joshua is where you have God appearing to Joshua in the form of a commander and he asks him to remove his sandals and so because of that we realize that this is not just an angel who is being sent as a commander but rather it is Jesus himself who is coming to Joshua and approaching him as the commander of the armies of Israel. So it's not Joshua who will be the commander of the armies, it is God himself who will be leading the armies into battle. So that is the assurance which Joshua is given. Now coming to the flooding of the Jordan which we just touched upon a little earlier. It's interesting to see that God very specifically chooses that time of the year for these people to enter into the promised land when the river will be in its highest flooded condition. So God could have arranged the timing in such a way that they could have maybe entered when the Jordan river is in a low flood condition but instead God chooses the time when the flood would be at its highest and that is when he orders them to enter into the land and so it would have taken faith for them to step into waters which are moving at such great force and God deliberately does this because right at the beginning even as they're entering into the promised land God wanted it to be an act of faith. So and then we I mean like we read you know in chapter 3 even as the priests step into the middle of the waters even as they step into the waters the flowing of the waters stops even though it's in a very very flooded condition so we do not know whether God just simply spoke and said let the waters stop and the waters just stopped or they might have been a build-up you know somewhere higher up in the valley because after all the rivers come down right they flow down the river flows down the water flows down from somewhere in the mountain and it comes down into the valley region so maybe there was a blockage somewhere higher up and because of the water suddenly stopped so we don't know whether God just spoke or whether he arranged some kind of geographical you know event to take place to block the waters but we see that when the priests put their feet into the water automatically the water supply stops and they say you know geographically I mean historically speaking that this kind of thing happened in in 1267 and in 1906 and in 1927 when suddenly for some strange reason the waters stopped and that was because somewhere higher up in the mountain region there was some kind of mudslide and you know because of the mudslide the river waters got blocked temporarily in fact they say that in 1927 the river water got blocked for 21 hours so in fact they probably got to see even the river bed you know because it would have the water would have got drained away at the end of 21 hours so there were mudslides higher up which could result in such an occurrence so God could have arranged for something like that on the other hand God could have just simply spoken and said let the water stop and the waters would have definitely stopped okay so this was a test of faith to see whether they would trust the Lord and do this particular deed. Coming to the cities of refuge which you know we mentioned earlier six of the Levite cities were chosen to serve as cities of refuge now God could have chosen any city to serve as a city of refuge but he specifically chooses these Levite cities six of the Levite cities to serve as cities of refuge for a specific purpose what exactly first of all is a city of refuge if a person accidentally murders somebody and the family of the dead man wants to take revenge this person because he is innocent he can choose to run to this city of refuge and it is the duty of the people of that city and the Levites who are living over there it is their duty to protect him until such a time as a full investigation can be done to find out whether really it was innocent whether it was really accidental and then after they would find out all of the details and make their investigations then either the man would be set free or he would be judged in case he is found to be guilty so the idea of city of refuge was that someone who is innocent should not be punished for what they have not done so as we know land was given to the other tribes but not to the Levites all the 11 tribes were given land but the levitical tribe was not given land because God said that they would be given cities in different parts of the territory of you know of the promised land so you would basically have some Levite cities in each tribe each tribe would give a little portion of their land to the Levites to live over there why were the Levites scattered like this all over the place so that they can continue to do their spiritual duties for the people in those areas wherever their city is located so they are the ones who would be preaching to the people in their areas they are the ones who would be explaining the law to the people living in those particular areas so the Levite cities were distributed throughout the land and not in just one single portion of land and among these Levite cities you have six of them being chosen to serve as cities of refuge so anyone who needs protection can run to these places and over there they would be considered safe now why did God choose the Levite cities to become cities of refuge why couldn't he just choose any some some other cities because the Levites were supposed to be mediators between God and humans so the Levites would go to the Lord and they would consult the Lord and say Lord is this person innocent what what action should we take against him they would consult the Lord they would mediate on behalf of the the person who has no run to them for protection in a sense the cities of refuge were like Jesus the same way Jesus is now a mediator between God and us in the same way the cities of refuge where the Levites were living would serve as mediatory places the Levites would mediate on behalf of this person who is asking for protection even though he has done a very terrible crime okay so in that is the reason why God chooses the Levite cities to serve as cities of refuge we have a question yeah yeah one of the students here is pointing out the fact that it's also given one of the things which have we just mentioned in scripture is that once the priest who is living in that particular city once he dies the person who was taken shelter can go back to his homeland to wherever whichever territory he has come from but he continues to stay over there until the priest is alive he continues to stay under the protection of that particular priest as long as that priest is still there to protect him and after that he's able to return back to his land so yeah that is one detail which is found not sure what the scripture references but it is there in yeah in Joshua chapter 22 we have an incident taking place where you have the tribes which are living on the western side of the Jordan river they decide to go to war against their brothers who are on the eastern side any idea why this war takes place why on earth would they want to fight against their own brothers I would like an answer from the class anyone would like to just volunteer I know those of you online may not be able to hear but then you know just so that everyone gets to participate in Joshua chapter 22 we see that the tribes which are on the western side of the Jordan river they decide to go and fight a war against their brothers who are on the eastern side why would they do something like that yeah so one of the students is saying that the altar the people on the eastern side build an altar to remind themselves that they too are part of Israel okay and so the people who are on the western side they think that these people are building an altar to a different god and so to defend the honor of the Lord they decided they're going to go and fight against the the against the Rubenites the Gadites and the tribe of Manasseh which are living on the eastern side but when they go over there the people on the eastern side explain to them and say we are not trying to build an altar to a different god we are building this this as a this as a memorial altar to remind us always that we too are part of Yahweh that we too have been delivered by him and we belong to him and so something that could have been a very destructive war is avoided and the thing that we see is that in these early times the people of Manasseh and Ruben and Gad they had such a love for the Lord they were so concerned in staying faithful to him that after they go back to their side of the river they actually build a monument to remind themselves of God and of all that he has done for them they were that determined to stay faithful to him okay so we see their loyalty towards God in this act okay so these are just some of the things main things that we see over here in the book of Joshua now do we have any questions if we don't then we can look at a few other things anything that anyone wants to ask from the book of Joshua yes there's a comment over here in the chat they came to an agreement that it was the Lord's altar because the Rubenites and the Gadites they explain and say that this altar we have only built it to remind us of what God has done and that we belong to him that we are meant to serve him and not the other Gods there we have a person who has raised a hand here I could try I hope I don't do anything destructive yes if you could speak up if I can hear you I can reply no the person who raised a hand is not speaking all right I'll mute it again yeah any questions no that would be kind of awkward to discuss she's asking for the process procedure involved in circumcision so not really something that I would want to cover in an online video but yeah maybe we could have a discussion later the whole idea was that they are marking their body to say that now onwards we belong to someone we belong only to the Lord so it's a it's a very specific action which will brand them as being as being belonging to the Lord okay so now the other nations also practice circumcision it's not just the Israelites who did that but then they did it for other purposes again for religious reasons so in those cultural times the ritual of circumcision had a certain significance a religious significance and God takes that custom and he gives it a new meaning he tries to bring out the fact that it's a sign of dedication where you are saying I no longer will commit myself to any other God but only to this one God so God takes the ritual which already existed in that culture and he gives it a new meaning okay so anything anything else any other questions one thing that we see okay okay there's a question here did the Israelite people have an idea of we are the temple of God and we are the body of Jesus not really because they never considered themselves as a temple of God they never considered themselves as a dwelling place of God but they were glad that God had chosen to come and live among them in the tabernacle so no they never thought themselves as being containers of God's presence that was not a concept that would have been in their mind but in the tabernacle God lived in that tabernacle and that was a symbol that he wanted to be among them yeah anything else okay one thing that we see in the book of Joshua after these three tribes you know the Rubenites the Gadites and the people of Manasseh after they decide that they're going to go and stay on the eastern side of the Jordan they begin to very happily pack up and leave and then Joshua says to them you cannot just go away now you have to help your brothers conquer all of the territories and only after all that all all the territories are fully conquered and then you can go back to your homeland so of course the wives and children would have settled down on the eastern side but all the men were expected to continue fighting along with their brothers so you know the modern parallel which they draw from that is that the spiritual warfare which we are supposed to be doing today as the church it is not meant to be a isolated individual event you know done by separate people on their own no it is supposed to be a joint corporate effort so the spiritual warfare that I am going through the battles that I'm going through in my life I should be able to receive help for that support for that from other believers it is not meant to be a warfare that is one individually just by people on their own you are supposed to help each other in fighting this warfare so the inheritance which we have today the spiritual inheritance we have to help each other in gaining that we have to strengthen one another we have to encourage one another support one another and that is why it is in I think in Joshua chapter 21 where finally after all the conquering has been done then he says to them you have been faithful you have stood with your brothers you have helped them in all of the battles now you can go back to your side and you can you know rest so we have a commitment to each other that's one important point which is brought out what else can we talk about in chapter 10 of course you have the incident where you know the sun stands still now there are again some alternate explanations given for that from the New Testament we know very very clearly that God is capable of controlling nature he can do whatever he wishes to do when Jesus asked the storm to calm down the storm had to obey the winds had to obey and the waves had to calm down so God is in control of nature so if God wish had you know wished to he would have definitely made the rotation you know not rotation the yeah the rotation of the earth stop temporarily but then there is an alternate explanation that is given by some scholars who have looked at the cultural background of that time in which the passage was written and so they say that when Joshua spoke those words in chapter 10 he probably meant something us when some meant something slightly different okay I'll get to this question a little later the one that I'm seeing on my screen right now let's just finish with this Joshua chapter 10 passage you know if you could read out in Joshua chapter 10 versus 12 13 and 14 if if we could have one person read out Joshua chapter 10 versus 12 13 14 all right so um the just the the point that some people raise is that you know it was still daytime it was early in the day there would have been no need for for you know Joshua to start getting worried that the sun will go down so he probably was actually referring to something which would have made great sense to the people of that time to the people of that culture because he was these are the words that he uses he says sun stands still over gibbian and you moon over the valley of ajalan now in their culture the culture of those times um you know um in the in that mesopotamian culture on a particular day uh if the sun and the moon can both be seen in the sky at the same time if it is on the um 14th day yeah on the 14th day of the month if both the sun and the moon can be seen together you know which happens sometimes when daylight starts coming out you can still see the moon right sometimes in the sky so what happens is that you're technically seeing a little bit of sun and you're also still seeing the moon and if that happens on the 14th day of the month it was considered something very auspicious and very good by the people of that of those times of that culture on the other hand if you see something like that on the other days then it was considered very very bad it would be a very bad omen and it's like as if joshua is declaring and saying what is going to happen to you you know five armies amorite kings have gathered together they have come together to fight against this infant army i mean they have no they have no they don't have much experience in battle uh and you know five armies have gathered together to come and defeat them and they are in a very crucial you know uh position so at that time joshua cries out and he says you know what an omen is going to appear in the skies and show you who is in control of the heavenly bodies and you are going to see something which will make your heart fill with terror and so even as he cried out these words most probably the you know the uh the amorite kings would have looked up into the sky and they would have seen uh the moon still there the moon should have gone away by now but they can still see a little bit of it and the sun is there and that would have been a very very bad omen for them because god is in control of nature god is in control of who wins and who loses so god is the one who decides who will have victory and so even though they have five amorite kings coming together those kings are defeated okay so there is a slight variation in the way some scholars interpret this particular event um we don't need to accept you know uh this other newer interpretation if we don't wish to but it's established very very clearly that god does control okay that god does have control over the natural phenomena uh yes you raised your hand yeah yeah yeah uh we're already into the questions so okay yeah there is a question here which said are there any events from joshua that signify christ's coming the only main clear representation of jesus uh which we see in the book of joshua is where you have the commander of the army saying you know take off your sandals because you're on holy ground uh so that is the only very clear representation of jesus that we see and um so maybe we could say that um you know he's in the Old Testament itself he's presenting himself as commander and chief of all the armies and we see him uh get into that role very actively in the book of revelation where he comes upon you know the horse and goes into battle and uh he has a banner which says king of kings and lot of lords so uh so we see that aspect of jesus being portrayed already in the book of joshua so in that sense we could say that maybe this book of joshua is talking about christ's coming uh it's in fact talking about the end times when christ will come not just as a savior but he will come as the warrior who will go into battle uh so um maybe we could say that christ is represented in that sense in the book of joshua um any other questions yeah so if you know if you if you type it out here in the chat it's kind of easier for me to answer um but like i always say you can post your questions even in the stream page later if you wish to all right um if there are no other questions we can actually close with the word of prayer there is one question yeah uh almost all of that entire region the entire misopotamian region believed in this right down to the assyrian time because it's mentioned in their um in their you know writings so right from the olden times even down to the assyrian age uh they had this belief that on certain days if if they both are seen it's a good woman but on the other days if it is they are seen together it's a very very inauspicious time especially for battle if you're hoping to go out on a conquest that day and you see both of them better to go back home because you know you're going to be defeated so yes and if you could say that again very little louder definitely because uh the uh people of those cultures would look at all these things and then make their decisions based on that on the other hand the Israelites were ordered very clearly to look to Yahweh for their guidance not to the stars and all the others but the other cultures yes they were people who looked at all these natural phenomena and then took their decisions based on that Israelites were very clearly told not to imitate them they were supposed to look only to Yahweh and wait upon him for instructions yeah yeah your your question and then we'll yeah so the question asked over here is um Rahab told a lie to protect the spice so is that not a sinful thing which she did so why would Hebrew go and call it a good thing that she did and then again in Luke I think in two three places she's praised for what she has done and so all I can say to that is she took the side of the of the people of God because she wanted um she she knew she understood that Yahweh is all powerful in fact she says to them the entire land is afraid because they have heard of you they have heard of your coming so she she had this understanding that a God who can divide the Red Sea a God who can do you know miraculous things for the for the forest people he must be a true and living God so she took a stand for Yahweh and at her level of maturity which was would have been highly little at her level in her own way she thought that she was doing a wonderful thing by uh you know supporting him in that way should a believer today knowing all that we do should detail lies openly just to you know defend the church I think we've grown outgrown that level so we could not we may not it would not be right if we did that but someone who was completely from a pagan background and who had no awareness of Yahweh up to that point and is now learning to fear God and wants to be a part of his you know on on his side for someone like that at that level to do that maybe would be excusable because God would have looked at the motive of her heart rather than the actual action and he would have you know forgiven her because he looks at the heart rather than just the outward deeds all right so we'll um you know we deserve a lot of uh hands going up over here uh but you know we'll just close um with a word of prayer because we are actually out of time yeah all right let's just close with a word of prayer Lord we just thank you so much for some of the um instances that we could touch upon from the book of Joshua we pray oh lord that we would be willing to step into the waters with faith when we are setting out to take our inheritance we pray oh lord that we will trust you and believe in you and however great the crisis may seem we would just act in faith and step forward believing that you will lead us into victory that you will that you will lead us into our inheritance and we pray that just like the israelite tribes which supported one another in battle we would be willing to help each other in our spiritual battles so that we can together win the victory for your kingdom and also for our personal lives and Lord we pray that we would be like uh rahab uh in the sense not of uh lying or resorting to evil uh to to do good but rather be like her um if we uh where we are willing to even risk our lives to stand for you to be on your side rather than on the side of the enemy which may be comfortable but we would choose to stand on your side even if it means hardships i pray oh lord that we would have uh these attitudes in our own life thank you lord in jesus name amen