OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 12

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

                                                  OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 12

THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL DIVIDED

I Kings 12:16 And when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.

The book of I Samuel begins with the introduction of Samuel, the end of the service of Eli, the high priest, and the anointing of Saul as the first king of Israel.  The book ends with the death of King Saul, circa 1025 BC.

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Up to this point in our study, the books we have reviewed have been focused on a united Hebrew people.  Now, we begin to look at books of history which are very involved, historically condensed, and whose time-periods incorporate the majority of the remaining books of the Old Testament.  We will pick up the highlights; but for the details, you will have to read them yourself (which, of course, is the objective).

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II Samuel begins where I Samuel ends.  David, a man of about 30 years of age, becomes the second king of Israel.  He served seven years and six months in Hebron as the king over Judah (II Samuel 2:1-4) before he entered Jerusalem, where he was anointed as king over all Israel (II Samuel 5:3-5), serving another 33 years.

Many people have become confused when reading the next several books because of the apparent repetition.  Let’s examine this repetition.

II Samuel and I Chronicles cover essentially the same history...the rule of David the King.  I Chronicles ends with the death of David (I Chron 29:26-28), circa 985 BC.

II Chronicles, chapters 1-9, records the rule of Solomon, the son of David; as does I Kings, chapters 1-11.  Solomon ruled, as did his father, for forty years, and was succeeded by his son Rehoboam.

Rehoboam was not wise like his father.  Instead of listening to the counsel of his elders, he heeded the counsel of the young men.  Rehoboam raised taxes upon the people and lead an oppressive rule over his kingdom.  This gave rise to a revolt in Israel lead by a man named, Jeroboam.

Israel understood through prophetic promise that the Messiah would come through the bloodline of David; and that the kingdom would be ruled by successors of the house of David until the time that the Davidic bloodline produced the Messiah who would assume the throne and rule the world and the enemies of Israel would be no more.  The Hebrews, however, did not have a good track record of maintaining a consistent faithfulness to IAUE and to His laws.  In response to the oppressive rule of Rehoboam we hear one of the saddest declarations in all of Scripture.

I Kings 12:16  And when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.

Ten tribes out of twelve rejected the Messianic promise.  They rejected the reign of the house of David.  They rejected the Law of IAUE.  They consolidated their tribes to the north under the reign of Jeroboam. They initiated golden calf worship, setting up idols in the cities of Dan and Samaria (their Capitol cities); and thus began the divided kingdom of Israel.  The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained in Jerusalem under the rule of the House of David and became known as the kingdom of Judah.

This event was foretold by IAUE unto Moses.

Deuteronomy 31:16 And IAUE said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our Elohim is not among us?

18 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

Several times in the Book of Deuteronomy, it is prophesied that once Israel settled the land of their inheritance, they would not be faithful to keep the laws of IAUE or to obey His covenant.  This divided kingdom and ultimately the destruction of the faithless kingdom and their being scattered among the nations of the world was inevitable.

Deuteronomy 4:25 When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of IAUE thy Elohim, to provoke him to anger:

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

27 And IAUE shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither IAUE shall lead you.

28 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

The disobedience of the Hebrews to annihilate the nations before them as recorded in the Book of Joshua, lead to the inevitable corruption of the hearts of the people, just as Moses said it would. The oppressive rule of Rehoboam provided them with the excuse to depart entirely from IAUE to justify setting up their own kingdom under golden calf worship.

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The books of I & II Chronicles record the history of the southern kingdom of Judah. They are the record of the house of David, following the bloodline of the promised Messiah.

I & II Kings records the history of the northern kingdom of Israel. This parallel recording of history accounts for the repetition found in these books of the Old Testament.  The following is a summary of these books:

I Samuel - The time of transition from the time of the judges to the beginning of the kingdom of Israel under King Saul.
II Samuel/I Chronicles - The reign of David
II Chronicles 1-9/I Kings 1-11 - The reign of Solomon
II Chronicles 10-27/1 Kings 12-II Kings 17 - The division of the Kingdom until the destruction of the northern Kingdom of Israel at the hands of Assyria in 722 BC.

II Chronicles 28-36/II Kings 16-25 - The kingdom of Judah from the time of the fall of Israel until the fall of the Kingdom of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BC.

It is keenly important to recognize that the northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria and the southern kingdom was destroyed by Babylon.  Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-11) was the one who built the city of Babel (the Capitol of Babylon) and the city of Ninevah (the Capitol of Assyria).  This is no accident.  It betrays an effort by Satan that extends from the fall of Adam in the Garden to the present day, to utterly destroy the “seed of the woman.”

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

(We will discuss Nimrod and this war against the seed of the woman after we have concluded our Old Testament survey.)

Into this period of kings and kingdoms, IAUE sent His servants the prophets.  In our next lesson we will see how their "books" merge within the timeline of these history books.

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Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.

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OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY - 11

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

                                                  OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 11

THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL

1 Sam 8:19  ...we will have a king over us,
20  that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

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Two more judges ruled in Israel after the book of Judges concludes.

After the death of Samson, the land of Israel was beset with very troubling internal affairs; and the tribe of Benjamin was almost destroyed (read Judges 19-21).  The book of Judges ends with this dismal declaration:

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no ruler in Israel: everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

It is during this period of moral decay and decadence that the record of 1 Samuel (Shemu'el) opens with the story of Elkanah and his wives, Penninah and Hannah, going up from their city in the mountains of Ephraim unto Shiloh year by year to offer sacrifices to IAUE.  There we find a Levite by the name of Eli serving as priest in the city of Shiloh. (Eli came to be regarded as the second-to-the-last judge of Israel.)

Hannah was barren, and Penninah mercilessly provoked her for her inability to bear Elkanah a child.  One year, as they went up to offer sacrifices, Eli found Hannah praying before IAUE; but no words were coming out of her mouth for her grief was so great.  Eli, at first, assumed she was drunk with wine; but upon hearing from Hannah of her reproach, he declared to her, "Go in peace, and the Elohim of Israel give you your petition which you have asked of Him."  (1 Sam 1:17)  The following year, Hannah bore Elkanah a son...named Samuel (Shemu'el) (Circa 1103 BC).

When the child was weaned, Hannah brought Samuel to the house of IAUE in Shiloh and left him there to attend to Eli and to serve before IAUE.  The child grew in wisdom and in the knowledge of the Scriptures.  As he grew into manhood he became known as a prophet of IAUE (approximately 30 years of age).

1 Sam 3:20  And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of IAUE.

This effectively made Samuel the next (and last) ruler of Israel.  The day finally came when the Hebrews came to Samuel and said:

1 Samuel 8:5 Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 

6 But the thing displeased Samuel...

This was a significant turning point in the history of the Hebrew people.  It was not Elohim's intention that His people be like the other nations.  He wanted to be their ruler; He had given them His laws and provided for them a priesthood; but the hearts of the people were hard and they could not maintain a consistent faithfulness to this unseen Elohim.  They wanted a king. They wanted another Moses…someone who would hear from Elohim and tell the people whatever it is they needed to know and do.  They did not want the responsibility of personal obedience to IAUE.  If left to their own devices, they would denigrate into imitating the rest of the evil world around them. They would “do what is right in their own eyes.”  The problem with that is “There is a way that seemeth right to a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov 14:12, 16:25). That is no less true today that it was 3,000 years ago.

Samuel told them that if he anointed a king for them, the king would be oppressive.  He would conscript their sons into his service, force their daughters to work for him, tax the people for a tenth of their produce, and generally making their lives miserable.  He warned them that they would eventually cry out to IAUE for relief from the king, but IAUE would not answer them in that day.  Despite all this, they insisted on having a king. (This is true of anything other than IAUE that we give ourselves to serve.)

Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Samuel anointed Saul to be king of Israel.  Saul was head and shoulders taller than any other man in Israel.  That alone was his qualification to be their king. Compared to the rest of Israel, he was a giant.  Virtually all of the nations that the Hebrews had fought in order to possess Canaan were lead by giants.  The peoples that they did not destroy still had giants among them. To have a king who was a foot taller than the rest of the people was the first step in being like all the other nations. Thus began "the Kingdom of Israel." (Circa 1065 BC)

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The Tanak combines the two books we call I Samuel and II Samuel as the one book, Shemu'el. I Samuel contains 31 chapters and is devoted to the historical record of the reign of Saul.

Saul reigned as king for only two years before his disobedience to IAUE cost him his anointing and the perpetuity of the kingdom to his bloodline.  Though he ruled for another 38 years, Saul ruled with the knowledge that IAUE had promised to strip him of the kingdom.  Not only would he cease to be king, his sons would not inherit the throne.  He subsequently discovered that IAUE had transferred his anointing upon David, the son of Jesse.  Much of the historical record of I Samuel is devoted to Saul's persecution and pursuit of David to kill him. He apparently believed that if he could kill the one anointed to replace him on the throne that he could secure the throne to his offspring.  King Saul's death is recorded in chapter 31 (Circa 1025 BC).

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To put things into a different perspective consider the following facts:

-  Eli was born when Jephtha and Jair ruled as judges (Circa 1134 BC).

-  Saul was born about the time that Samson began to judge over Israel (Circa 1095 BC).

-  Samuel was born when Eli was 31 years old, just one year after Eli became a priest.
-  Saul had been king for ten years before David was even born (Circa 1055 BC)

-  David was about 25 years old when he slew Goliath of the Philistines.
-  At Saul's death, David was only 30 years old.

Footnote:

Let’s put another thing into perspective.  Everyone knows the story of David and Goliath.  Everyone knows Goliath was a “giant.”  The Scriptures tell us in 1 Samuel 17:4, that Goliath was six cubits and a span in height.  A cubit was not a fixed length.  It varied from culture to culture, and even from use to use.  It is generally accepted to be between 18 inches and 22 inches.  A span was half a cubit.  This would make Goliath anywhere from 9’9” to 12’5”.  Try to form a mental image of what that would look like. Maybe look at the walls in your house (probably not taller than eight or nine feet).  He was taller than that.

I am tall (6’4”); and any time a person who is even an inch taller than me walks past me, I feel like I am small by comparison. It is an uncanny sensation.  Imagine going into combat against someone who is anywhere from half again taller than you to twice your height.  That would be a Goliath; however, when Joshua led Israel to overthrow 31 nations to conquer the land of Canaan, Goliath would have been tiny by comparison. The giants in Canaan were anywhere from 15-35 feet tall.

Even though standing over 7 feet tall, Saul was still small by comparison with Goliath. The Philistine giant was calling out the Israelite giant; yet he was answered by a young boy of 25 years of age who knew he had a covenant with IAUE.  The covenant relationship made him more than a match for this enemy…just as it does for us, still, today.

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Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.

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OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 10

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 10

LIFE AFTER JOSHUA

Psalm 107:6 Then they cried unto IAUE in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

The faithfulness of many believers today is connected to the faithfulness of some central leader or powerful spiritual figure.  Should that person fail or pass away, they no longer have someone to follow.  Their own relationship with IAUE is not secured on the basis of their own faith and obedience. This is not faith in IAUE.  It is faith in one who has faith in IAUE. Unfortunately, this is how the book of Joshua ends.  The following book of Judges will demonstrate the consequences of this.

JUDGES: (Shophetim)

Judges 1:1  And it came to be, after the death of Joshua, that the children of Israel asked IAUE, saying, “Who of us should go up first against the Canaanites to fight against them?”

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The book of Judges begins immediately with the death of Joshua and with the logical question:  Who should succeed Joshua as their leader?

It is much easier to follow a designated leader than it is to make mature decisions for yourself.  For seventy years, the children of Israel had followed two powerful leaders, two men whose lives bore the unmistakable and miraculous evidences that IAUE was with them.  Now, Joshua was dead.  What would the people do?

If you will recall, they followed Joshua under the condition that IAUE had to be with him as He had been with Moses.  IAUE parted the Jordan River to prove that He was with Joshua as He had been with Moses.  As a result, the people followed Joshua as they had followed Moses.  Who, now, would be such a leader?  Who among their ranks had IAUE's support and endorsement in this manner?

We are told in the last chapter of Joshua (Joshua), as we are told in the second chapter of Judges, that "...the people served IAUE all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of IAUE, which He had done for Israel." (Judges 2:7).  Those elders lead the people in the ways of IAUE for approximately another thirty to forty years; but there had been no one to stand before the people in the spirit and power of IAUE like unto Moses or Joshua all those years.  As a result, a grave mistake had been made among the people during these years.

The children of Israel, without the benefit of Joshua's leadership, continued to possess the lands of their tribal inheritances (as recorded in Judges 1); but they did not obey IAUE's command to utterly destroy the nations before them.  Instead, they allowed the Canaanites to dwell among them, making covenants of peace with them.  Instead of killing them, they were permitted to live under forced labor to the Hebrews.  This disobedience brought about a curse on the Hebrews.

Judges 2:1  And the angel of IAUE came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you:
2  and ye shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall break down their altars. But ye have not hearkened unto my voice: why have ye done this?
3  Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their mighty ones shall be a snare unto you.

Eventually, the elders who knew Joshua died out of the land.

Judges 2:10  ...and another generation arose after them who did not know IAUE nor the work which He had done for Israel.
11  Then the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of IAUE, and served the Baals.
12  and forsook IAUE Elohim of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods of the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them, and provoked IAUE.

13 And they forsook IAUE, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

You will recall that the book of Leviticus (which set forth the laws and statutes, commandments and ordinances for the children of Israel to obey) was given with the intent of removing the influences of Egypt from the hearts of the Hebrews.  The problem, however, was that the children of Israel were content for their leadership to have a relationship with IAUE; but as a people, they never developed for themselves a heart for IAUE. 

Because the Hebrews began to run after the false gods of the nations which they had refused to destroy, IAUE withdrew his protection from them.

Judges 2:14  And the anger of IAUE was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of IAUE was against them for evil, as IAUE had said, and as IAUE had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

Joshua was a book of victory and conquest.  It catalogued the mighty works of IAUE working through the leadership of Joshua, and a people who were confident in IAUE's help in battle.  Judges is a book of failure and moral decline.  It is a record of the perpetual self-degradations of the Hebrews, contrasted with the persistent faithfulness of IAUE to secure a faithful remnant among the descendants of His friend Abraham.

Judges 2:16 Nevertheless IAUE raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

Judges 3 begins with an explanation that IAUE used the nations that the Hebrews failed to destroy out of the land to “prove them” to see if they would obey His commandments. Of course, the Hebrew behaved exactly as Moses had declared would happen if they did not destroy the nations before them out of the land.

Judge 3:5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:

6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of IAUE, and forgot IAUE their Elohim, and served Baalim and the groves.

This sets the stage for a repetitious pattern for the next 300+ years.

1.    The Israelites experience a time of blessing and prosperity.  They honor the law of IAUE.

2.    They begin to follow after the gods of the nations about them and forsake IAUE.

3.    They begin to be oppressed by the heathen nations around them.

4.    They cry out to IAUE for deliverance from their enemies and their oppression.

5.    IAUE sends a deliverer (a judge) who vanquishes their enemy.

This cycle then repeats itself over and over and over again.  (See Psalm 107).

Though Judges records a dismal period in the history of the children of Israel, it also includes some of the most exciting interventions of IAUE into the lives of His people.  In Judges, we have the well-known stories of Samson and of Gideon; and lesser relayed stories of other judges.

In all, recorded in the book of Judges there were 14 judges who were of eight different tribes in Israel.

Othniel of Judah - 40 years

Ehud of Benjamin - 80 years

Shamgar – 1 year

Deborah, and Barak of Naphtali - 40 years

Gideon of Manasseh - 40 years

Abimelech (son of Gideon) of Manasseh - 3 years

Tola of Issachar – 23 years

Jair of Manasseh – 22 years

Jephtha of Manasseh – 6 years

Ibzan of Judah – 7 years

Elon of Zebulun – 10 years

Abdon of Ephriam – 8 years

Samson of Dan – 20 years

During the period of Ehud’s rule as judge is the historical record of the Book of Ruth.  The nation of Moab had oppressed Israel for 18 years when Ehud rose up and killed Eglon, King of Moab, and lead a charge against Moab winning a mighty victory and deliverance for Israel.  It was during the 80 years of Ehud’s rule during a time of famine that Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, moved to Moab in order to find food.  Their two sons married Moabite women while there.  Eventually, Naomi’s husband and both sons died.  Upon learning that the famine was over in Israel, she ventured to return home; but only Ruth, her daughter-in-law, would go with her.  Her other daughter-in-law, Orpah, remained in Moab.  The book of Ruth unfolds the amazing story of how IAUE lead Naomi back home; and how her daughter-in-law, Ruth came to be married to Boaz, thus becoming the great grandmother of David the King.

By the end of the historical record of the book of Judges, the Hebrews had spent nearly the same amount of time OUT of Egypt as their forefathers had spent IN Egypt.  Instead of becoming and remaining a peculiar and separate people on the earth, the people of IAUE, they had become desirous of being just like the nations that they had refused to drive out from their lands.

Two more judges ruled in Israel after this book concludes.  We will pick up with them next.

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Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.

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OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 9

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY – 9

THE NEVI’IM – THE PROPHETS

Joshua 1:2 Moses, my servant is dead…

At the beginning of our present study, I explained that the Hebrew Scriptures were referred to as the TANAK.  This word is derived from the three divisions of the Scriptures:  The Torah, the Nevi’im and the Kethuvim:  TNK = Tanak.

Last week, we concluded our survey of the Torah.  Today we are taking a look at the Nevi’im, or “The Prophets.”  Unlike the Christian world’s classification of the Old Testament books (Major and Minor Prophets), the Hebrew Scriptures groups the books of the Nevi’im starting with the book of Joshua and includes all of the history books from the entry into the Promised Land (the land of Canaan) after the death of Moses (circa 1422 BC) up to and including the Babylonian captivity of the Southern Kingdom of Judah (516 BC); although it excludes the books of I and II Chronicles, putting those books into the third section, the Kethuvim.  It also includes the writings of the literary prophets during that history. So, the Nevi’im covers approximately 900 years.

NEVI’IM – The Prophets – Are broken down into two sections.

·         (יְהוֹשֻעַ / Yĕhôshúa‘)—Joshua

·         (שֹׁפְטִים / Shophtim)—Judges

·         (שְׁמוּאֵל / Shmû’ēl)—Samuel  (includes both I Samuel and II Samuel as a single book)

·         (מְלָכִים / M'lakhim)—Kings (includes both I Kings and II Kings, as a single book)

·         (יְשַׁעְיָהוּ / Yĕsha‘ăyāhû)—Isaiah

·         (יִרְמְיָהוּ / Yirmyāhû)—Jeremiah

·         (יְחֶזְקֵאל / Yĕkhezqiēl)—Ezekiel

The Twelve Minor Prophets (תרי עשר, Trei Asar, "The Twelve") are considered one book.

·         (הוֹשֵׁעַ / Hôshēa‘)—Hosea

·         (יוֹאֵל / Yô’ēl)—Joel

·         (עָמוֹס / ‘Āmôs)—Amos

·         (עֹבַדְיָה / ‘Ōvadhyāh)—Obadiah

·         (יוֹנָה / Yônāh)—Jonah

·         (מִיכָה / Mîkhāh)—Micah

·         (נַחוּם / Nakḥûm)—Nahum

·         (חֲבַקּוּק /Khăvhakûk)—Habakkuk

·         (צְפַנְיָה / Tsĕphanyāh)—Zephaniah

·         (חַגַּי / Khaggai)—Haggai

·         (זְכַרְיָה / Zkharyāh)—Zechariah

·         (מַלְאָכִי / Mal’ākhî)—Malachi

JOSHUA: (Yehoshua – IAUE is Salvation)

Joshua 1:1 Now after the death of Moses the servant of IAUE, it came to pass, that IAUE spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,

2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

IAUE had led Moses up to the top of Mt. Pisgah to view the Promised Land from afar.  Moses died and was buried by IAUE.  The children of Israel were waiting in the plains of Moab for Moses to return from Mt. Pisgah.  Apparently, the first notice they received of Moses’ death was this word IAUE spoke to Joshua.  They knew his death was imminent because Moses had given his final instructions (recorded in the book of Deuteronomy) for possessing the Promised Land and how they were to observe faithfully the laws of IAUE.  They just didn’t know how it was going to happen.  Moses was, after all, perfectly strong and healthy.  Even at 120 years of age, his eyesight was not dim. 

                       

Joshua had one of the most difficult jobs in the history of mankind.  He was to take the leadership of a people whose prior leader spoke with Elohim in person, who’s face glowed from his interaction with IAUE, who worked signs, wonders and miracles among the people.  The Hebrews were willing to follow Joshua on one condition.

Joshua 1:16 And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go.

17 According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only IAUE thy Elohim be with thee, as he was with Moses.

IAUE accommodated that condition by parting the Jordan River during the season when its banks overflowed. 

Joshua 3:7  And IAUE said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.

Joshua commanded the priests bearing the ark of the covenant to step their feet into the edge of the Jordan’s banks.  As they obeyed, the waters of the Jordan that flowed downstream stood still and rose in a heap, providing a clear river bed upon which to cross.  The people walked across the river bed of Jordan just as their fathers had walked across the Red Sea with Moses.

Joshua 4:14  On that day IAUE magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

In chapters 5 through 12, we read the exciting chronicle of the overthrow of 31 nations. This took approximately five years to accomplish.  Joshua was 85 years old when he began to portion out the land to the tribes of Israel.  Many Bible teachers have extrapolated series of lessons on spiritual warfare (or principles of living in victory) from these chapters.

From chapters 13 through 24, we see how the land was divided among the various tribes of Israel.  More nations still had to be overthrown to secure these tribal inheritances.  After another twenty-five years, Joshua died, having lead Israel until he was 110 years old.  (Circa 1392 BC)

A fact most people fail to remember when they read the book of Joshua is that the bulk of these 31 nations were populated with giants, the offspring of the Nephilim (sometimes referred to as the sons of Anak…or, the Anakim) (Numbers 13:25-33).  When you see movies or artist depictions of the overthrow of Jericho, you never see the people of Jericho any taller than the Hebrews; but in fact many of the people were enormous.  Some accounts record heights from 15 feet up to 30 feet and taller. Ten of the original 12 spies who searched out the land 40 years prior to this time reported that they were as grasshoppers compared to them. This oft ignored or unknown fact is of great significance in the overall message of the Scriptures. (We will discuss why this is upon the completion of our Old Testament survey.)

Joshua 24:31  And Israel served IAUE all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of IAUE, that he had done for Israel.

The children of Israel continued to observe the Torah of IAUE faithfully after the death of Joshua and during the remainder of the lives of their tribal elders who had outlived Joshua. The elders served as their tribal “accountability figures.”  It is not much different today.  The faithfulness of many believers today is connected to the faithfulness of some central leader or powerful spiritual figure.  Should that person fail or pass away, they no longer have someone to follow.  Their own relationship with IAUE is not secured on the basis of their own faith and obedience. This is not faith in IAUE.  It is faith in one who has faith in IAUE. Unfortunately, this is how the book of Joshua ends.  The following book of Judges will demonstrate the consequences of this.

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Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.

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