The story of Joshua picks up right after the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy. The nation of Israel is camped on the east bank of the Jordan, waiting. They have reached the end of their forty year journey through the wilderness, after the exodus out of slavery in Egypt. All the Israelites who remember the exodus are now dead; they were not allowed to enter the Pro

mised Land for their faithlessness. The Israelites waiting now are their children; they haven’t kept up with the traditions, circumcision, for example, during the wilderness. They are waiting to enter the land promised to their ancestors. They are waiting to receive the realization of the covenant made to Abraham and renewed to Moses.

Rather than convey assurance of victory, the story of the commander of the Lord’s army seems to ward off triumphalistic assumptions that God takes sides permanently. The passage raises three themes. First, God appears as the warrior whose power will determine the outcome of the battle. In this case, Yahweh has already promised to give Israel the land. Israel’s role is to dedicate itself to God (as it has, through circumcision and Passover) and to obey the Lord’s commands (exemplified in Joshua’s ready obedience [v.2] and readiness to be commanded [v.14]). Second, the divine warrior is not bound to any side; the commander of the army of the Lord maintains his freedom. Together with the stories of Rahab and the Gibeonites, Joshua 5:13-15 sets limits on what could otherwise be interpreted as unmitigated ethnocentrism in the book of Joshua. Third, the sketch asserts the awesomeness of God and the holiness of God’s land. God’s word and will are active in Israel’s battle for the land. They are thus holy, as the land God gives Israel is holy. The words of the commander suggest that Joshua’s vocation is a matter of awe, not of arrogance. God and God’s gifts may not be taken for granted. The second and third themes come down, finally, to the same thing. If Joshua –and we- keep hold of the awareness that we are creatures and servants of God, not God’s owners, we will not be tempted to believe that we can domesticate the Lord, treating the Holy One of Israel as a creature whom we can control or possess. If we recognize that the place on which we stand is holy – if, that is, we take off our shoes – we will not mistake God’s deep concern for us and our community as divine disregard for others.

At the beginning of Joshua, God is now ready to allow the Israelites to enter the holy land, after the death of Moses. He appoints Joshua to lead the people into the Holy Land. Yahweh promises Joshua the territory, “From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory” (Joshua 1:4 NRSV). It is interesting to note that Israel never claims the whole of the territory promised, nor were they close. It is easy to take this as God not holding up His end, but it’s just as easy to ignore the reasoning behind it. There were times when Israelites were faithless, or did not follow God’s instructions. For example, after the destruction of Jericho, in verse 7:1, it claims that Israelites acted unfaithfully, more specifically, Achan took some of what was to be given to God. Israel was punished for it, they were beaten in battle. The book of Judges also demonstrates this point. Many times throughout it, Israel falls away from God, and were nearly destroyed before they turned back. They disobeyed and were punished. They weren’t given all that they were promised, not because God was untrustworthy, but because they were. It was the same problem that Moses’ generation had; they didn’t have faith, so they weren’t allowed into the Promised Land. There is a lesson that applies today in this as well. God has great plans for us, but we often disobey or are faithless, and in taking our plans over God’s, we fail and aren’t able to claim what God has to give us. Israel was eventually destroyed. They couldn’t get back what they lost. That which God has for us is gone. We need to be redeemed to gain it back. We need a redeemer.

Chapter twenty three and twenty four contain Joshua’s final words to Israel. In twenty three, Joshua reminds the people to be faithful to God, to follo

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