32 Psalm                 Joshua  [1451 BC crosses Jordan]

         After Moses led the Hebrew slaves to freedom, they spent 40 years in the Sinai Desert called the wilderness.  Spies were sent into the Land Promised to Abraham, and they reported that it was a bountiful land 'flowing with milk and honey', but it was also a land with heavily fortified Canaanite cities that would be difficult to defeat.  

  One of the spies sent was Joshua.  Moses had observed Joshua's bravery and skill in battle and had promoted him to high rank.  It was Joshua who rallied the troops and inspired them to cross over the Jordan River to claim the Land.  He taught his people to rely on God's strength and not their own.  In fact the way they won their first battle proved to the Israelites, as the Hebrews were now called, that it would be God who would give them victory.   Their first victory has become known to history as the Battle of Jericho. Jericho was a large city fortified with a stone wall so large that houses were built on top of it.   Rather than attack the city directly, Joshua had his soldiers march around the walls seven times each day.  The marchers included seven priests blowing trumpets made from lambs' horns and other priests carrying the ark of the covenant - a large decorated box containing the stone tablets on which God had written the 10 commandments Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai and other religious items.  On the seventh day, as the marchers finish their seventh turn, the priests make a long blast on the horns, the paraders make a loud shout, and the walls of Jericho tumbled down.

   
       After Jericho, Joshua, obeying God's instructions, leads the Israelites into victory after victory.  After over 400 years of exile, the children of Israel are once more inhabiting the land God promised to Abraham.  Each tribe was given its own region of the Promised Land according to the blessing given that tribe by Moses on Mount Nebo before his death. Moses himself did not enter the land himself, but he did climb Mount Pisgah and there God showed him the land and spoke to him for the last time, on earth.  Deuteronomy chapter 34
  4. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
       Like Moses,  Joshua, in his old age as he faced death gathered the children of Israel together and spoke to them.   He gave an inspiring speech to the tribes to remind them of God's faithfulness to Israel in the past, and to warn them of consequences that would happen if they did not continue to worship and obey the one true God.
 

  
     
      Joshua was a faithful servant of God.  While others waiting to cross the Jordan saw 'giants' and defeat,  Joshua relied on God and saw the 'promised land,' a land 'flowing with milk and honey'.  Joshua relied on God's word and God's strength instead of his own.   Joshua's most famous question, "who will you serve?"  (see Joshua 24:15 above)  is still the most important question that can be asked today.  Who are you serving?  If your answer, like Joshua's was, is THE LORD, then you are on the right path. 

                        Joshua 24:15;  fill in the blanks

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,  you this  whom ye will  : whether the  which your  served that were on the other side of the  , or the gods of the  , in whose land ye  : but as for me and my  , we will serve the . 

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Click here to try again       Joshua died at the age of 110 years and was buried in the hill country of Ephraim. After Joshua's death, the tribes of Israel were ruled by a series of judges.   These were not judges in the sense we think of judges today.  Although they did decide right and wrong in disputes on occasion, a judge's main purpose was to provide leadership to defend Israel against foreign attack.  One such leader that arose was the prophetess Deborah.                                                                             Deborah   [1269 BC defeats Jabin].    Since their defeat by Joshua,  the Canaanites had built a mighty army equipped with the latest weaponry and thousands of chariots to move quickly. For more than 20 years Jabin, the Canaanite King,  had threatened Israel to either pay him large sums of money or suffer attack by this army.     Deborah was instructed by God to send the Israelites into battle to defeat Jabin.   She asked a popular military hero, Barak, to lead the charge.  Barak, knowing how powerful Jabin’s forces were and how untrained and poorly armed his own forces were, said he would only go into battle against Jabin's army if Deborah led the attack with him.   Deborah and Barak stationed the Israelite army on high ground on the slopes of Mt. Tabor.  Across the Valley of Jezreel they could see Jabin’s forces commanded by General Sisera.  Sisera felt confident that the rag-tag  poorly trained Israelites were no match for his superior forces and their swift chariots.  However Sisera had not considered the power of God.           As the Canaanites were beginning their attack the rains begin to fall, and fall, and fall some more.  In fact it rained so hard that the small Kishon River overflowed and flooded the Jezreel valley turning the solid ground into muck.  Jabin's chariots all got stuck.   They were of no use.  In fact panic spread among the Canaanites who now became easy targets for Barak and Deborah’s men.  The Israelite army won an amazing victory that day against impossible odds.  To give God thanks and praise ,  Deborah sang a song which became a favorite memorized and recited by Israelite children for years to come.  You can read the entire poem in Judges chapter  5.   Praise the Lord! Let all Israel, rich and poor. Join in his praises - Those who ride on a white donkeys And sit on rich carpets, And those who are poor and must walk. The village musicians Gather at the village well To sing of the triumphs of the Lord. Again and again they sing the ballad Of how the Lord saved Israel With an army of peasants!           Deborah was also a faithful servant of God and a leader of God's people.  You may hear people say things like the Bible is a bunch of stories only written for 'white' men.   Exactly the opposite is true.  The Bible tells us that all people are of equal importance to God, regardless of their wealth, sex or ethnicity.  It has always been God's people who have lead the battle against prejudice, injustice, and unfair treatment of others.   In fact, the complaint most often made against Jesus was that he associated with people the 'up and up' thought undesirable.     Deborah, like Joshua, was facing an enemy that it appeared could easily crush her.   Like Joshua, she relied on faith in God rather than her own ability.  She also did the exactly right thing to do when the battle was over.  She sang praise to God.   How often do you remember to praise Him.  Everything we have, our life included, depends upon God's grace.  Give Him thanks and praise.  The Bible tells us God inhabits our praise.  That means when we praise Him, He is specially close to us.  What more could we want than to have Him near.