God Sends a Leader

Joshua 1, 3

Throughout the Bible, God makes promise after promise to His people. He promises to bless Abraham and His children (Genesis 12:2-3), He promises Israel that He will be their God and make them His people (Leviticus 26:12-13), and He promised prosperity for Israel if they obeyed Him and destruction if they did not (Deuteronomy 30:15-18). God often fulfills His promises through the sending of someone. Jesus was sent to fulfill all God’s promises, but before Jesus came, Joshua.

Throughout the rest of the story of Joshua, God leads them to victory over various Canaanite cities, but only when they obey Him and do it His way (Joshua 6-8). In order to inherit the land, Israel had to learn to be obedient to God and had to trust that He would be faithful to fulfill His promises. In the New Testament, Jesus teaches the first believers that he will establish a new kingdom and never leave them if they choose to put their faith in him (Matthew 28:20). Joshua is a foreshadowing of Jesus. Like Jesus, Joshua was sent to lead God’s people to obey the law and to urge the people to become a pillar amongst the nations pointing back to God so that He may be glorified.

Joshua was sent to lead a people and not just lead them into a new land but to lead them to be the kind of people God was calling them to be. Let this be a reminder that God is always with the people He sends and guides them to lead in a way that ends with His glorious exaltation.