Hope Alliance Bethlehem

In Joshua 22 we see God's devotion to His children, despite their mistakes. God's devotion to His children through the Gospel leads us to have devotion to Him in worship and devotion to one another in community.

The Levites were the one tribe who did not receive a section of land. They had a special inheritance - God himself. And from this inheritance came a strategic mission to represent God to the people. Today the church shares in this special inheritance and strategic mission.

**Please excuse the audio quality**In Joshua 12-19 we see God's faithfulness to give the land to the tribes but their unwillingness to occupy it. However, Caleb and Joshua continue to be faithful and take their inheritance. Through Jesus and the Gospel we, too, can take our inheritance for our own defeat of sin and the expansion of the kingdom to the world around us.

In Joshua 9-11 we see the grace that God gives the Gibeonites as compared to the judgment He brings to those who rebel against Him. We also see Joshua keep his oath to the Gibeonites and live out his name: God saves.Today, Jesus keeps his oath to save his followers both now and for eternity, and still regularly acts miraculously on their behalf.

The second conquest of Ai goes far better than the first. Why? It is characterized by obedience and trusting God as opposed to self-effort and self-preservation. In this we see that the path from defeat to victory is about finding again a posture of worshipping God.

In Joshua chapter 7 we see Joshua and Achan both make the mistake of not having a posture of submitting to God which costs the people around them greatly. We ALL struggle to submit to the Father, but through the Gospel we see that Jesus has overcome temptation and a strange heritage to submit his own life to the Father on our behalf. Now we, too, can have a posture of submitting to the Father.

At the core of the famous story of Jericho is the idea of posture. God's posture toward mankind and man's posture toward God. At Jericho, we see an impartial God who desires a relationship with all people. We also see the difference between people who close themselves off from God and those who open themselves up to him.

God had acted and the river was parted. The Israelites crossed and prepared for their conquest of land. But once again the story takes a strange twist. Instead of marching on Jericho the Israelites are circumcised. And in this act of obedience and posture of weakness, they submit themselves to a different path to victory. So too we are called to a different path to "victory" in our lives.

A look at chapters 3 & 4 of Joshua highlighting the Gospel message seen throughout, the presence and faithfulness of God, and our need to remember it.

In this fascinating story of a failed spy mission into the promised land, we see extraordinary faith in a completely unexpected place. Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute show two Israelite spies what genuine faith really looks like. And we meet the true hero of the story of Joshua, God himself. Our God is gracious and slow to anger. He's full of mercy, redeeming and rescuing failed humanity like us.