Typos in Joshua

Typos? I meant types. Types in Joshua.

But what is a type? God established certain people, events, and things in the Old Testament as types of Christ and gospel truths. A type is like a picture of Christ or of his grace and work in the New Testament. For example, in Romans 5.14 Paul says Adam is the figure of him that was to come, that is a type of the one who was to come. In other words, Adam is a type of Christ. And this is important when it comes to types - the person or event really happened, was historical, but God used them to provide types foreshadowing Christ.

There are a couple of types in the book of Joshua.

The first one is Joshua himself. In Numbers 13:16 we read, These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.

Oshea (or Hosea) means salvation. That’s a great name! But Moses changed his name to Jehoshua or Joshua which means Jehovah is salvation. And the exciting thing is Joshua in Hebrew and Greek is the same as Jesus. Clearly, Joshua was set forth by God to be a type of Christ. Joshua led the people into the promised land, just as Jesus leads his people into the promised land.

The second type is the promised land. God saved Israel from Egypt to bring them into the land. The normal life of Israel was in the land. God blessed them, they defeated their enemies, and they bore fruit. This is a beautiful and powerful picture of the normal Christian life: We walk in his blessings, we overcome our enemies, and we bear fruit (the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of righteousness). This is an exciting book to read!

There is an old chorus we used to sing that captures this:

The Lord has given a land of good things,
I will press in and make them mine.
I'll know His power, I'll know His glory,
And in His kingdom I will shine.

With the high praises of God in our mouth
And a two-edged sword in our hand
We will march right on to the victory side,
Right into Canaan's land.

Gird up your armour, ye sons of Zion,
Gird up your armour, let's go to war.
We'll win the battle with great rejoicing,
And sing his praises more and more!

With the high praises of God in our mouth
And a two-edged sword in our hand
We will march right on to the victory side,
Right into Canaan's land.

Amen!