Conquest and Compromise

 

Conquest and Compromise

Joshua

Joshua logically begins in Deuteronomy 34 when Moses died on the top of Pisgah, after the LORD showed him the promised land.

Joshua wrote this book (see 24:26) to remind Israel how they entered in and conquered the land, as it says in Psalm 44:3 (Easy-to-Read Version)

It was not our fathers’ swords that took the land.

    It was not their strong arms that brought them victory.

It was your power. 

    It was because you accepted them and smiled down on them.

The book has 24 chapters. The first 12 describe the conquest; beginning with ch 13 things change:

14:15 And the land had rest from war.

18:1 And the land was subdued before them.

Since the land was subdued, they received new orders:

13:7 Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance

This pretty much takes up the rest of the book. In chapter 24 Joshua encourages them to serve the LORD and then we read, And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance. (24:29-30)

Judges

Chapter 1 begins well, but halfway through the chapter things change for the worse.

Judges 2:7, 10-12 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.

And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:  And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.

There is a pattern that runs throughout the book:

SIN • SERVITUDE • SUPPLICATION • SAVIOR

 Judges 2:13,14,16 And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

There are 13 judges or deliverers described in the book itself (but see 1 Samuel).

Ruth

This is a short book, the story of a Jewish family, Elimelech, Naomi, and their two boys, who in time of famine move to Moab. The boys marry Moabite girls. Then tragedy strickes: the father and his sons die. Naomi decides to return to Israel and encourages her daughters-in-law to go back home, but Ruth stays. Her well-known words:

1:16-17 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

This is just chapter 1!! The rest of the book describes how she met and married a man named Boaz.

Why the book of Ruth?

4:13,17 So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife…and she bare a son… and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The David stream begins here. This is really the Messianic river, but David plays a major role.

 

and Joshua... and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come.

(Joshua 5:13-15)

NEXT: Historical III