Joshua is not just a book of history, it is God taking the events of the past to show us how we are called to live by faith in Him today, in our own walk of faith with Jesus, our Savior. Authorship: Joshua 24:26 Dating: ~ 1406-1374 BC Pastor encourages viewing the movie "Patterns of Evidence." And throughout the teaching shares archeological discoveries that support the scriptures. Our faith is not about how much can be proven, but our faith is a rational, logical, reasonable faith because these things really did happen, they took place in history. Outline: - Conquest of the land (chapters 1-12) - Division of the land (chapters 13-24) Throughout Joshua we see that God keeps His word. What was promised, He delivers. Joshua is the first of the Prophetic books in the section of Scriptures called the Nevi'im. Title of Joshua: Deuteronomy 3:21 Joshua 1:1 Nehemiah 8:17 Joshua's name means Yeshua/Yahweh saves, God is Salvation. Joshua, pronounced Yeshua - is also Jesus' name. It is the name the angel gave to Marywhen she was told what to name her baby. Yeshua Hamashiach, means Jesus the Messiah. Who leads the Israelites into the promised land? Joshua (Yeshua) just like Jesus leads us into the Promised Land (Heaven forever with God). Even the title of this book is prophetic, as Joshua is a forerunner of the real Yeshua, Jesus. Pastor does an overview using a map of the area and talks about how the Lord guided the Israelites and that following God and allowing Him to guide us is biblical because when we do things in our own power we are setting ourselves up for failure. If we are to live lives of faith, living a life of faith means being completely dependent on our Heavenly Father, trusting Him for everything. It means we do what He says to do, we go where and when He says to go, we follow where He leads. This book screams the importance of listening to God and doing what He would have us do. The book opens with a promise to Joshua with God saying He will never leave him, and God encourages Joshua to not be afraid and to be strong and courageous. We see this become a motto of God's people. When God is the Lord of our lives, we do not need to fear the future, we do not need to be anxious about anything. The book then moves into the story of Jericho. (Today it is called Tell es-Sultan and it is an archeological site - that substantiates the biblical story of Jericho.) We learn obout Rahab the prostitute whose life and the lives of her family were saved as she helped the spies when they came to check out Jericho and protected them. In Matthew 1:5 we read more about Rahab: In the genealogy of Jesus, we see that Rahab is part of Jesus' genealogy. This shows us that no one is irredeemable and that God uses the redeemed for His purposes. God turns lives around! And He continues this today!! He is our Redeemer! As they enter the land we read that God once again parted the waters, the Jordan River, and they crossed on dry land. They celebrate the Passover for the first time in 38 years and they conquer Jericho by following the Lord's direction, everyone followed the Lord except one man. They were told to not take anything from Jericho when then conquered it, but one person did and that judgement came on the whole people of Israel. All of us are called to follow God and even the failure of one or a few has impact on the whole body. God wants our full trust, complete devotion, absolute faith and consistent obedience. Their victories continue and they recommit themselves to God and build monuments to remind themselves of all God has done and given them. They mark down and build monuments with the laws of God like historical markers. God wants them to remember His faithfulness and throughout the book we see God encouraging His people to follow Him. We end with a look at the "Cities of Refuge" in Joshua 20 and the purpose of the cities and the rules of these cities and how we see even in these a prophetic picture of Jesus, our great High Priest who secures life and salvation for us through His death. The book ends with these words from Joshua: "Choose this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." This is personal, it's about each of us individually saying: "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord!" Join us next week for a study of the book of Judges. For all of our FREE resources: video, podcast, Reading Schedule, and a study guide for each book of the Bible plus any extra items, plus how to listen by radio broadcast - find it all here: https://www.awakeusnow.com/bible-in-a-year Our Bible in a Year study will walk you through the Bible book by book taking you from Genesis to Revelation, revealing Jesus throughout both the Old and the New Testaments! In Ephesians 6, the word of God is called the sword of the spirit, and a sword is best used when you take it out of the scabbard to use it! Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is alive and active! Meaning it is not dry, dusty, old stuff. It is living and active! And because it is the Living Word, it has the power to impact us still today! Our website – https://www.awakeusnow.com