Line Upon Line

As the Lord tells the aged Joshua that "there remains yet very much land to be possessed," Pastor Miles draws a parallel to the Christian life: God has won our full salvation and given us the land as an inheritance, but we must actively go in and possess it through the Word and the Spirit. The teaching contrasts the Levites, whose inheritance was the Lord Himself, with Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, who settled for earthly things and became "lost tribes."

Working through the list of conquered kings in Joshua 11:23–12:24, this teaching traces Israel's journey from slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, into the promised land, reading it as a picture of the believer's redemption and victorious rest in Christ. The chapter's recounting of victories becomes a model for communion—a pause to remember the one thing: Christ crucified and risen.

Teaching through Joshua 11, this message examines the massive Canaanite coalition of chariots and horses that gathered against Israel in the north, and how the Lord commanded Joshua to hamstring the horses and burn the chariots so that Israel would trust in God alone. The central challenge is whether we trust in "chariots and horses"—money, jobs, self, strongholds—or in the name of the Lord our God.

Teaching through Joshua 10, Pastor Miles shows that the five-king alliance led by Adonai-Zedek pictures the Antichrist and the enemy's assault, while the Gibeonites picture believers who, having come to Christ to escape judgment, immediately face the battle. The remedy, taught through Joshua's victory, is to call out to our Joshua—Jesus—who fights for us, destroys the sin we bring out of the caves of our hearts, and conquers by the edge of the sword, His Word.

Using Joshua 9, Miles shows how the enemy, after we win battles against the world (Jericho) and the flesh (Ai), attacks with force and then with folly—as the Gibeonites deceived Israel. The deception succeeded because Israel judged by outward appearances and failed to ask counsel of the Lord, teaching that when communion with God breaks down, deception is near and perception becomes unclear.

Teaching through Joshua 8:30-35, where Israel builds an altar at Mount Ebal, writes the law on stones, and hears the blessings and curses pronounced between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Pastor Miles draws from Deuteronomy 27-28 and Ezekiel to show that every person begins on Mount Ebal under the curse, and must travel through the valley—laying themselves on God's altar as whole stones—to receive the blessing of a new heart in Christ.

Drawing on Israel's second battle against Ai in Joshua 8, this teaching shows how God responds to His people's failures: He calls them to repent, get up, and run the race again. The victory at Ai, following the defeat caused by Achan's sin, illustrates God's grace after failure, the danger of presumption, and the blessing of obedience.

Teaching through the opening of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-20), Pastor Miles traces the Beatitudes as a progression of spiritual brokenness leading to righteousness, then shows that Jesus came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. The righteousness that saves is not the external, manufactured righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees but a righteousness God implants within the heart.

Teaching through Joshua 7, Pastor Miles examines how one man's hidden sin brought defeat on all Israel at Ai, drawing out the dangers of self-reliance after victory, the deceitfulness of sin, and the need to die to self. He closes by showing how the Word of God is the means of purging sin, and how the Valley of Achor—a place of death and trouble—becomes a door of hope and place of rest.

Teaching through Joshua 6:17-27, Pastor Miles shows how the fall of Jericho unfolds in three movements—Rahab delivered, the goods devoted to the Lord, and the city destroyed—and applies this pattern to the believer's life: after God delivers us, we must devote what is good and destroy what is wicked. Rahab's faith that worked, Jephthah's costly vow, and the coming trumpet of Christ's return all point to a life wholly consecrated to God.