Transcript Slide 1

Joshua, and the period of the judges
Tyler Weidler
www.bibleknowledgeproject.com
 Overview
of Leviticus
 Origin of Levitical system
 Offerings and sacrifices point to the need
for a savior
 Fellowship offering parallels with Lord’s
Supper
 Day of Atonement fulfilled by Jesus
 Joshua
 Joshua
and Judges are particularly violent
kills thousands of people with God’s
help and blessing.
• The nations destroyed by Joshua were constantly at
war with each other; if Israel didn’t do it, someone
else would have
• These nations practiced child sacrifice and child
prostitution, and spread their bad religions
 What
do we make of God’s original promise
to Abraham? “…All the nations will be
blessed through you.”(Gen. 12:1-3)
 Joshua
leads Israel to numerous military
victories
 Settling the land takes significantly longer
than defeating armies
• Joshua defeats 31 kings (Josh. 12:24)
• None of the tribes of Israel fully occupies its territory
 After
Joshua’s death, Israel follows a pattern
of alternating obedience and disobedience
 In this time there is no king in Israel, and the
people do what is right in their own eyes
 Judges periodically rise up and restore
Israel.
Joshua 1:1-9
God tells Joshua that he will lead Israel just as Moses
did
 God says he “will never fail you nor forsake you…”


• “Forsake” is a strong word
• God repeats this promise throughout the O.T.
• Israel repeatedly is said to “forsake” God, but the word is never
used by God against Israel, despite that the deserve it.
• God’s wrath is poured out on Christ when he says “Why have
you forsaken me”
God promises to be with him and to give him every
bit of land he sets foot on
 God tells him to be strong and courageous
 God warns him to meditate on his law day and night
so that it does not depart from his mouth

 Joshua sends two spies into Jericho
 Spies stay at Rahab’s house, on the wall
of
the city
 Rahab expresses belief that Yahweh is the
god of heaven and earth (Josh. 2:11)
 Rahab risks her life to protect the spies,
trusting that this act of faith will save her.
 This faith is celebrated and rewarded by
God, and he spares her
 Rahab becomes a part of the genealogy of
David and Jesus
 River is at flood stage (3:15)
 Israelites had heard of the Red
Sea crossing,
but only the oldest would have remembered
it.
 Crossing the river at flood stage was
considered a feat of great strength (1 Chron.
12)
 This miracle would demonstrate that God
was with Joshua in the same way he was with
Moses, and inspire confidence with the
people. (Josh. 1:5, 3:7)
 God
opens the river by going first, in the
ark of the covenant, carried by the
priests
 All Israel passes across the river
 Water backs up at a place called Adam,
near Zarethan
 After crossing, Joshua builds a stone pile
in the middle of the river
 Stone
piles are frequently mentioned in
the Bible.
•
•
•
•
Jacob builds them to mark places where God appeared to him
Israel builds 12 of them around Mt. Sinai
Samuel builds them after defeating Philistines
Joshua builds them pretty much everywhere he goes
 These
piles were extremely large, meant to be
permanent
 Stone pile in the middle of the Jordan would
have been an interesting proof that someone
had once piled stones in the middle of the river,
demonstrating that it had stopped and allowed
them to work there
 Jericho
was the most fortified city in the
region
 Jericho was the first city encountered upon
entering the land from the east
 Instead of the usual siege and drawn-out
war, God chooses to destroy Jericho quickly
and thoroughly through supernatural means
 Jericho was reduced to rubble, and cursed
by Joshua, that anyone who rebuilt it would
lose his firstborn and his youngest child
 After
Jericho, Israel is defeated by Ai
because a man named Achan stole spoils
belonging to God from Jericho
 Read Josh. 7:19-26
 “Saw,” “looked good,” “took” – same as Eve
 Punishment is severe because Achan
deliberately stole from God, and family
helped cover it
 Punishment is severe because Israel lost
lives in battle
 Achan
and Rahab are bookends to the Jericho
story
 Rahab – Canaanite woman, hides spies in
house, obeys God, Israel wins major battle,
whole family is saved, while city is destroyed
under pile of rocks.
 Achan – Israelite man, hides valuables in his
house, disobeys God, Israel loses major battle,
whole family is destroyed under pile of rocks
 Even in the time of Israel’s greatest nationalist
triumph, God is including faithful gentiles and
excluding faithless Israelites.
 Read
Joshua 24:14-18
 Read Judges 2:6-11
The people of Joshua’s generation, and the elders
of the people serve God
 The next generation does not know God

• Demonstrates the importance of parenting and teaching
kids God’s word
• Serves the baal gods
• Is subjugated by their neighbors

God raises up judges
• Judges rescue Israel, and repent of worshipping false
gods
• Judges die, and the next generation doesn’t obey God


Cycle repeats throughout the book
Story of Ruth takes place during this time
Ancient people believed that gods controlled
regions of land and water.
 Israel knew that God ruled the wilderness, and
believed that baal and asherah ruled the fertile areas
 Israel decided to split the difference and worship all
of the above
 Israel was also corrupted by the neighboring people
 baal was the chief god, and asherah was his mistress.
Together they were believed to control fertility,
including harvests, seasonal rains, and childbearing.
 This adds emphasis to God’s use of storms to defeat
enemies of Israel.

Timeline of the Judges
Othniel; Jud.
3:7-11.
Rescues Israel
from
Mesopotamian
king
Ehud; Jud.
3:12-30.
Rescues
Israel from
Moabites
Shamgar; Jud.
3:31. Rescues
Israel from
Philistines
Deborah
(and Barak);
Jud. 4,5.
Rescues
Israel from
Canaanites
Gideon; Jud.
6-8. Rescues
Israel from
Midianites
Jephthah; Jud. 1112:7. Rescues Israel
from Ammonites
Tola and
Jair; Jud.
10:1-5
Samson; Jud. 1316. Rescues Israel
from Philistines
Ibzan, Elon, and
Abdon; Jud. 12:8-13
Samuel; I Sam. 1:1-16.
Defeats Philistines,
anoints Saul, condemns
Saul, anoints David
Eli; I Sam. 1-4; fails
to defeat
Philistines, raises
evil sons; adopts
Samuel
Circumstances surrounding Samson’s birth
Judges 13:2-5
There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites,
whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had
borne no children.
Then the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said
to her, "Behold now, you are barren and have borne no
children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.
"Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink,
nor eat any unclean thing.
"For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no
razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be
a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to
deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
1 Samuel 1:5
“…the LORD had closed her womb.”
1 Samuel 1:19-20
“…and the LORD remembered her. So in the
course of time Hannah became pregnant
and gave birth to a son. She named him
Samuel,saying, “Because I asked the LORD
for him.”
“I will give him to the LORD for all the days of
his life, and no razor will ever be used on his
head.”
 Samson and Samuel are parallel characters
 Both were miraculous “children of promise,”
born to women who were unable to bear
children
 All “children of promise” in the Bible are
extremely important
 God seems to take particular joy in creating
life in places where life is not possible
 God wants his most influential and
important people to be recognized as his;
not as natural chance, good fortune, or good
behavior.
 Samson
and Samuel were both Nazirites,
probably the only Nazirites recorded in the
Bible. (Nazirite law is found in Numbers 6)
 Nazirites are people who are dedicated to
God in a special way. They are separated
from others.
 Cannot have any contact with grapes, grape
juice, wine, raisins, etc.
 Cannot cut their hair.
 Cannot go near a dead body, even family.
Samson and Samuel are opposites
Samson is extremely strong, but weak on
obedience
 Samuel is rigidly obedient, not noted for strength
 Samson leads Israel by brute force
 Samuel leads Israel by trusting God
 Samson fails God his whole life, but trusts God at
the end of his life, and dies glorifying him
 Samuel trusts God all his life, and is dismissed by
Israel as irrelevant, replaced by a self-centered
king; mentioned in Hebrews 11
 Shows that nobody could live up to the
expectations of the messiah



Jesus was a “child of promise” born to a woman unable to
bear children
• The angel spoke to Mary first, then Joseph
• Samson and Samuel were promised to the mothers first, before the
fathers




Many people in Jesus’s day expected the messiah to be like
Samson; a strong military leader.
Others expected Jesus to be like Samuel, a strict legalist.
Samson and Samuel demonstrate that these leaders were not
good enough. Samson was incompetent, Samuel was
rejected.
Jesus was more than Samson or Samuel could have been. His
most faithful act was in his death (like Samson) and he was
rejected by his people (like Samuel).
 Samson
was called “Deliverer” by the angel
before his birth (Judges 13:5)
 Samson is sold to his enemies for silver, by
someone close to him
 Samson defeats more evil in his death than
in his life. (Judges 16:30)
 Samson dies trusting in God, with his arms
outstretched, while others scoff at him.
 Samson is mentioned in the “Hall of Faith” in
Hebrews 11:32
When Hannah (Samuel’s mother) dedicates Samuel
at the temple, she sings a song of praise. Mary
quotes it in her Magnificat (“My soul exults in the
LORD”)
 Samuel is said to “grow in stature and in favor of
God and men,” (1 Sam. 2:26) which are the same
words used for Jesus (Luke 2:52) and no one else.
 When the people reject Samuel, God says they are
rejecting him (1 Sam. 8:7). Jesus says “he who
rejects me, rejects the one who sent me…” (Luke
10:16)
 Samuel re-orders the temple and ends corruption
there

 Many
Jews in the time of Jesus wanted a
military leader
• Samson demonstrates that this would not have been
enough
 Others
wanted a strictly obedient moral
crusader
• Samuel was rejected by his people
 These
examples demonstrate that a more
thorough kind of savior is necessary,
someone greater than Samuel and Samson
put together
 Ruth
takes place “during the time of the
judges.” (Ruth 1:1)
 Read
Ruth 1
 Ruth was a Moabite
 Moabites were a significant enemy of Israel
• Judges 3:15-30 describes a period of enslavement to Moab
• Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel (Numbers 22-24)
• Moab sent women and false gods into Israel in an attempt to
corrupt the nation (Numbers 25)
• One of Moab’s false gods, chemosh, is particularly vile
 Moabites, and
descendants of Moabites are
specifically forbidden from ever entering the
temple (Deut. 23:3)…
 “and you shall never seek their peace or
prosperity all your days…” (Deut. 23:6)
 Ruth’s husband died
 Ruth chose to stay with
her mother in law,
despite being urged not to
 Ruth expresses trust in God and converts to
Judaism
Ruth 1:16
Ruth replied “Don’t urge me to leave you or to
turn back from you. Where you go I will go,
and where you stay I will stay. Your people
will be my people and your God my God.
 Ruth converts and trusts in God
Ruth marries Boaz, who is called her “redeemer.”
Applying the Kinsman Redeemer rule (Deut. 25)
to a foreigner demonstrates that God is willing to
extend redemption to non-Jews
 Boaz is praised and blessed for marrying Ruth,
not condemned
 God blesses the marriage “The LORD enabled
her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son…”
(Ruth 4:13)
 God further blesses the marriage by bringing
David, and ultimately Jesus, through the line of
Ruth and Boaz.


 Ruth
demonstrates that God is willing to
accept people who express faith in him,
even in the time of Israel conquering and
destroying other nations.
 Boaz is a descendant of Rahab, further
establishing the fact that God will include
all people in his plan to save the world.
 This points toward the fulfillment of God’s
first promise to Abraham
“…all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through
you.” (Gen 12:1-3)
 Saul, David, Solomon
kingdom
and the divided