Please forgive this rough draft format, as these are my raw study notes on the book of Joshua, although they are a bit better formatted than former efforts. I felt a great sense of urgency to publish them rather than waiting until I had the time to pretty them up. Thank you and I pray that God blesses and encourages you through this material. I’m not sure of the condition of the world at the time of this publication. But at the time of its writing, summer 2009, things are looking increasingly bleak with the economy and unemployment, there is a renewal and increase of racism, and godly principles of living being disregarded. Are these the first stages of birth pains? The last? God only knows. And He is very busy these days. Stay strong and very courageous. Encourage each other. Pray. Jesus is coming to deliver His people and judge the wicked…Stacey
Take a few minutes to pray and savor chapter 11 of the Old Testament book of Joshua. Then return here and ponder the thoughts, answer the questions, and be sure to leave comments about your own revelations…
11:1-5 – The Northern kings joined forces against Israel.
11:6 – The Lord tells Joshua that, “by this time tomorrow I will hand them all over to Israel, slain.” WOW! Are you excited to see how God does this? What would you be thinking if you were Joshua?
Why hamstring the horses? Primarily because God said so. My Bible dictionary explains that horses captured in war were frequently hamstrung. See 2 Samuel 8:4, 1 Chronicles 18:4. I wonder if this was to keep the animals from returning home and giving new soldiers an opportunity to battle again.
11:7-9 – Israel defeated the army and obeyed the Lord’s instructions.
11:10-11 – Joshua burned Hazor to the ground.
11:13 – Why didn’t Israel burn all of the cities? The most obvious answer is that God didn’t tell them to burn all of the cities.
11:15 – Joshua did as the Lord commanded through Moses. Do you remember what the Lord commanded Moses?
11:16 – Joshua took a lot of land, including Goshen. Isn’t this where the Israelites lived outside of Egypt? Pharaoh gave the land of Goshen to Israel so that Joseph’s family could be near him, but not too close to be offensive to the Egyptians. See Genesis 45:10.
11:17 – Seir was part of Esau’s land.
11:18 – Joshua made war a long time – how long?
11:19-20 – It is implied that the Lord hardened the hearts of all but the Gibeonites so that Israel would destroy everyone but them. I wonder what made them special. They made a covenant with Israel. Granted, under false pretenses, but still a covenant.
11:21-23 – Israel took the land as the Lord commanded Moses, and the land had rest from war. What a great phrase! What does it make you think of?
• The book of Joshua teaches us many things including the fact that we must pursue a relationship with the Lord for ourselves rather than leaning on others’ relationships with Him. Joshua followed Moses as leader of Israel, after all. What have you learned and applied to your life from today’s reading that will help you persevere in your relationship with Christ?
• How do you observe God proving to Israel that He is with Joshua as He was with Moses in today’s text? How does it apply to your own life and relationship with Him?
• What attributes of God do you see in this book?
• What verse of scripture seemed to be God speaking directly to you? What is He teaching you in these verses? How does He want you to respond?
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