Jensens survey of the old testament adam 85
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Joshua: Book of Conquest
Joshua is a book about a land and a
people. The land is an inheritance promised
by God, waiting to be occupied. The people
are the elect nation of God, facing human
obstacles in the way of taking the land. And
the obstacles are the occasion for battle—a
holy war—designed by God to oust the
idolatrous and corrupt enemies from the
land. It is for this that Joshua is called the
“Book of Conquest.”
Joshua’s narrative about winning the rest
land of Canaan resumes the history of Israel
at the point where Deuteronomy ends. The
sequence of the Pentateuch books is this: In
Genesis, God brings Israel to birth,1 and
promises to give it the land of Canaan.2 In
Exodus, He delivers His people from
oppression in a foreign land (Egypt), and
starts them on their way to the promised
land, giving them laws to live by (as
recorded both in Exodus and Leviticus).
Numbers records the journey of Israel
through the wildernesses up to the gate of
Canaan, while Deuteronomy describes nal
preparations for entering the land. At this
point Joshua picks up the story, describing
the conquest of the land and the division of
its territories to the tribes of Israel. In a real
sense, Joshua is the climax of a progressive
history as well as the commencement of a
new experience for Israel. Thus, its historical
nexus gives it a strategic place in the Old
Testament Scriptures.
I. PREPARATION FOR STUDY
1. Review the discussion in chapter 1 of
the Old Testament canons of the Protestant
and Hebrew Bibles. As noted there, the
arrangement of the thirty-nine books of the
Protestant Old Testament can be traced back
to the Greek Septuagint version (third and
second
centuries B.C.). The books are
arranged in such an order that four groups
appear: (1) Pentateuch, (2) history, (3)
poetry and ethics, and (4) prophecy. In this
arrangement, Joshua is the rst of the
twelve historical books.
