Joshua and his friend Hermen Eutic

I was scheduled to teach the book of Joshua beginning sometime in May or June, but circumstances have changed and it appears that I will not be teaching after all. Here I am, all dressed up and nowhere to go! I thought I would take advantage of my preparation and share a couple of keys to understanding the book.


My last post dealt with the importance of the book in the Bible and biblical history.

In this post I want to talk about Joshua and his friend Hermen Eutic. “Hermen who??” Ha! I refer to hermeneutics (hərməˈn(y)o͞odiks), the principles and methods of interpretation. When you read the book of Joshua the question is, “How do we interpret or understand the book?”

This is not a book on hermeneutics, I only want to share how I read the book.

I believe the book is historical. This means I believe these things really happened. Joshua claims to be the story of how Israel came into Canaan and I believe that. I read it as plain and straightforward history, not as symbolism or allegory.

What about supernatural things that are found in the book? Such as:

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

Joshua 10:12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
14 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

They happened just like it says. How do I explain, So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day? I’ll be honest, I can’t. It’s a miracle, the work of God. But it happened!

As we read through the book we find spiritual truths that relate to walking with God under any covenant, such as, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. This is exciting! We are not Israel, coming into Canaan, nor do we wrestle with flesh and blood, but there are spiritual principles revealed in their various circumstances that we can apply to our walk and spiritual warfare! And we don’t have to twist anything or turn this into symbolism or allegory to find them!

Christ. Yes, Christ is in this book! Both directly and by typology. Typology? This is an important feature in the Old Testament and I’ll explain this in my next post.