This Book: Who is Joshua? (Joshua 1:6-9)

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What do we know about this man? 

Joshua lived around 1,400 years before Christ was born. His father's name was Nun, and he belonged to the tribe of Ephraim.  

He would have been born in Egypt, and his parents named him Hoshea, a Hebrew name that means ‘salvation’ or ‘the one who delivers.’ 

He was a child born into a family of slaves, and named 'salvation.' His parents knew their history. Knew what had come before. 

“Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.”  Genesis 50:24-26 

Hoshea's family would have known those words. That promise. That prophecy.  

I think that when they named their child Hoshea, a name that they would say to each other multiple times a day, that they would holler out the front door, “Hoshea, time for supper! The streetlights are on, so come in...” I think their son's name was their prayer. Their son's name was the hope that they had for themselves and for this child who they had brought into a world where that help had not yet come. They were still waiting, and things were getting worse.  

Pharaoh had decided that he had enough slaves. One of the most repugnant things in the entire story of scripture is that Pharaoh commanded the midwives of Israel to kill Hebrew male newborns. ‘Got enough of those. Drown those puppies. We don't need them. Keep the girls, though.’  

Thank God the midwives were God-fearing women with the courage to disobey and to come up with cover stories that saved lives like Hoshea's and Moses’.  

Hoshea was one of Joseph's great, great, great something, grandsons. He was named by his parents for their faith in a God they had not yet encountered, but in whom they believed.  

One day, God showed up. He came make them a way out of Egypt.  

I wonder if on that great terrifying night of Passover Hoshea was the eldest son in his family. I wonder if he was the one saved by the sign of blood on the doorframe of his family's home. I wonder if he was, by that time, a dad himself. If he had a doorframe of his own that he made sure was marked the way God had commanded, to protect the children of Israel from the ‘passing over’ of the angel of death.  

I wonder if he had a child who he carried out of the city, through the parted waters of the Red Sea, into the wilderness. We don't know.  

We do know that when we first meet Hoshea, it's a couple of months after that Passover night. He was probably over the age of 20. And in the wilderness, at some point, he had been given a new name.  

Moses called Hoshea son of Nun by the name Yehoshua. Numbers 13:16 

Yehoshua means not simply ‘salvation,’ but ‘Yahweh is salvation.’ What a name to carry through life! 

Yehoshua became Moses' lieutenant, beginning his training for the role that he would play in the life of the nation. The two men would go up together to the mountain of God when Yahweh called Moses to come. They would go together to the tabernacle when Moses went to meet Yahweh God there.  

In the book of Numbers Yehoshua was one of 12 men entrusted with the first recon into the promised land. When they returned, 10 men said, ‘Absolutely not. No way. We do not have a chance. These people are bigger than us. They're stronger than us. There's more of them than of us.’ 

Two of them, Yehoshua and Caleb said, ‘Guys, God brought us here. God will bring us through. God will give us the victory. God is telling us to go.’ 

The people listened to the voices of fear, of panic. They listened to the voices who said, ‘We're safe enough here. We won’t take that chance.’ 

God’s response? I hear the sadness in his voice when he says: 

...I will do to you the very things I heard you say. You will all fall in this wilderness ... every one of you who is twenty years old or older... The only exceptions will be Caleb... and Yehoshua... Your children I will bring safely into the land, and they will enjoy what you have despised. Numbers 14:28-31 

Fast-forward 40 years. The new generation was ready for their second chance. Moses passed the torch to Joshua.  

Moses called for Yehoshua, laid his hands on him and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with these people into the land that the Lord swore to their fathers to give them. And you shall give it to them as an inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you. He will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged.” So the Israelites obeyed Yehoshua and did as the Lord had commanded. Deuteronomy 31:7-8 

Joshua had lived the way out of slavery. He had lived the way through the wilderness (and back into the wilderness, and then through it again). Joshua and Caleb (only two people on the planet) were about to experience what was next: the way into the promise.  

______ 

"Be strong and courageous," partly because you're going to need to be. This is not going to be easy. God's not just going to drop stuff in your lap and say, ‘I hope you like it.’  

"Be strong and courageous," because you can be. Because God is with you. Whatever you're facing, however many enemies are ranged against you, however weak you feel, however tired you are, God is with you. So be strong, be courageous.  

When I read stories like Joshua's, the most helpful question I find it to ask myself is not ‘What did Joshua do,’ or ‘What did Joshua say?’ It's not, 'What mistakes did he make? What can I learn from them and how can I avoid them?’ 

No, the single question I keep coming back to, especially with these Old Testament stories of people's actual lives and actual experiences, is this: ‘Where is God in this story?’  

• God was with Joshua in the wilderness, walking along that path step by step, day by day.  
• God was ahead of Joshua, waiting on the other side of the river.  
• God was behind Joshua, whispering over his shoulder, ‘You keep your promises, I will keep mine.’  
• God was above Joshua with a Spirit's-eye view, seeing everything, and challenging Joshua, ‘Keep being strong, keep being courageous.’  

Our world, on the surface, is quite different from Joshua's. Even my parents lived very different lives than I do now. The people who worshipped in my church, who sat in those pews before us (before we bought the cushions)... their landscape was very, very different from ours. When they walked out the same doors, what they experienced of our town was very different from what we do today.  

The dunes have shifted, and many of the signposts that served those people well—our parents and grandparents in the faith—will not serve us the same way. The things they did that worked in their world are not going to work for us. They were able to rely on their leaders in ways that we cannot take for granted anymore. The answers that they found to their challenges—that were clear and helpful to them—are not answers to our challenges. 

The landscape has changed, but the assignment has not.  

Their task is our task. We follow the same God.  

• The same God who was with Joshua in his wilderness is with us in our reality.  
• The same God who went ahead of Joshua is waiting for us on the other side of whatever doors he opens.  
• The same God who whispered over Joshua's shoulder, ‘Trust me, I will keep my promises,’ is speaking to us today.  
• The same God who was above Joshua with a Spirit's-eye view challenges us to keep going, doing what we've been given to do, imagining what he has for us over the next rise or on the other side of the river. 

_______ 

In his final words to his people, Joshua told them to “Be strong...”  

Not just so you can be the winner. Not just so you can have tight border security. Not just so you never have to eat manna again.  

Be strong so you can keep and do all that is written in the book of law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the left nor the right. Joshua 23:6 

Joshua’s goal was to encourage his people to follow God. 

Not to win. Not to be the greatest. Not to be in charge of the world. His legacy was to leave behind a people who followed Yahweh God, faithfully staying on that path and not getting pulled off in all sorts of unhelpful directions.  

The same God offers us the same challenge. Be strong so you can keep and do all that you have been given to do. Be courageous to stay on the path.  

Yes, you're going to hear voices of doubt. Yes, you're going to hear voices of fear and division. Voices of deceit, twisting and undermining scripture to suit their purposes.  

Don't get sucked in. Be a true and faithful people. Follow the faithful footsteps of those who have gone before us.