Joshua's Farewell Address To The Israelite Leaders example essay topic

The book of Joshua begins with the preparation of Joshua and the people of Israel for invasion of Jericho under the Lord's presence and leadership. First, Joshua ordered the people who were to cross the Jordan to Jericho to prepare themselves. Then, he placed them under strict orders of obedience to his authority (1: 10-18). Next, he sent out two spies to Jericho to retrieve information about the enemy. The spies went to the house of a prostitue name Rahab, as a cover for their actions. This plan did not work because the king of Jericho sent men to Rahab's house to try to find them.

She had hidden the well, however, and was able to convince the king's men that they weren't in her house. Since Rahab's home was on the wall of the city, she was able to let them down by a rope on the outside of the wall. Returning to Joshua, they gave their report (2: 1-24). There followed another one of the events that Israel saw as a "wonder" of God. The river banks of Jordan were undercut in such a way, that they formed a natural dam that holds the river in check for extended periods of time. According to the passage 3: 14-16, the waters were flooded when this was necessary, and the people boarded the ark of the covenant and passed easily over opposite Jericho.

The ark of the covenant, symbol of the Lord's presence with the Israelites, was carried to the midst of the riverbed to remind them that it was the Lord's workings that enabled them to cross the flooded river (3: 17). A pile of stones was resurrected as a memorial to the event. The stones were to serve as a teaching aid for the elders. When asked by children of future generations what the stones meant, the elders would tell them of God's deliverance of the people (4: 1- 5: 1). After crossing the Jordan, all the men and boys under wen circumcision as an act of consecration to the Lord (5: 2-12). When they had recovered, preparations got under way for the attack on Jericho.

In a vision, Joshua saw the leader of the Lord's army. The purpose of this seems to have been to assure Joshua of divine leadership in the days ahead (5: 13-15). The numbers here are significant other than for their numerical value. Seven symbolized completion, ten perfection, and 12 completeness (6: 12-16).

Joshua was given orders to carry the arc of the covenant up to Jericho with seven priests carrying seven ram's horns. Armed troops were to march ahead of the priests blowing horns also. However no one was to give the battle cry until Joshua gave the signal. They marched around the walls of Jericho once in this fashion, and then retired to camp. This was done six days in a row, and then on the seventh day they marched around the walls seven times before Joshua gave the signal, and the people yelled a battle cry. The walls crumbled, and the soldiers flooded into the city.

Everything was to be destroyed as an act of dedication to God. Only the prostitue Rahab, who had helped the spies, was to be spared (6: 17-25). Finally, when the city was conquered, a curses was pronounced upon it to prevent its rebuilding (6: 26-27). As harsh as the requirements of the holy war might seem, an incident involving an Israelite named Achan would make it seem even more harsh. Strict regulations governed the disposal of the goods that were captured in the holy war. A violation on the ban of taking any spoils of war for personal use was punishable by death.

In the battle for Ai, the Israelites were driven back. Unknown to Joshua, Achan had taken certain banned items at Jericho (7: 1). Undoubtedly, word passed that Achan had taken the goods. Such knowledge would have had a divisive effect on the army if it were known, since others probably had been tempted to take the spoils of war but had resisted temptation.

In any case, when the battle for Ai was begun, Israel suffered a stinging defeat (7: 2-5). Joshua was perplexed, feeling that the Lord had let him down (7: 6-9). But Joshua was made to realize that such was not the case. Instead, the word came from God that someone had violated the ban against taking spoils of war (7: 10-15). An investigation revealed Achan as the culprit and, in due course, he confessed his sin (7: 16-26).

What follows next, describes the horrible punishment that Achan received. "Joshua and all of Israel took Achan... and all Israel stoned him with stones; they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones (7: 24-25). Not only was Achan punished, but also his family. The destruction of Achan, his family, and all his possessions was looked upon as the only way to clear the people as a whole of Achan's sin.

When the punishment was carried out, the battle was renewed and was won (8: 1-29). There follows an account of building an altar on Mount Ebal in the Shechem area. Gibeonites, having heard of the conquest of nearby towns by the Israelites, decided that they would rather not have to face such a fate. They put on their most ragged clothes and worn-out sandals, took stale bread and wineskins that were brittle with age, and set out for the Israelite camp.

When they arrived, they told the Israelite leaders a tale they had heard about the Israelites greatness and that of their God (9: 3- 10). They then claimed that they were looking for these people to make a covenant with them. The Israelites were taken aback by the story and immediately made a covenant with the Gibeonites. Under the term of the covenant, the Gibeonites were to be spared and thus would become a part of Israel (9: 11-15).

After, the covenant was made, the truth was discovered. However, the covenant could not be broken, but the Gibeonites were made "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation" (9: 27). Next, the book of Joshua discuss the joining of forces between the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Egl on, Lachish, and Jar muth in alarmed response to the success of the Israel ties. The battle took place in the valley of Aijalon.

The attack was aided by a violent hailstorm. The great hailstones killed many of the enemy and cause the Israelite minstrels to sing a song about the sun standing still at Gibeon (10: 15- 27). The kings were captured, and a symbolic ceremony was conducted in which the Israelite leaders placed their feet on the kings' necks. As they did, Joshua charged them to be strong. He promised that the Lord would lead them to be just as successful against all Israel's enemies if they remained faithful to him (10: 15- 27).

The next chapters of Joshua discusses the success in battle of Joshua and the Israelites. It was a war of extermination with the Lord's assistance. For, "they should be utterly destroyed, and should receive no mercy, but to be exterminated. ". (11: 20). The next chapters describe the succession over the surrounding cities and how the land is to be distributed amongst the tribes.

They are to be thankful for their good fortune and not take any other man's. Of special interest are the cities assigned to the Levites (21: 1- 42). They were to recieve cities within each of the territories, centrally located to provide accessible worship centers and also to include refuge centers where an accused criminal could be held to his case was resolved. Otherwise, the criminal would be at the mercy of the "avenger of blood" who was a member of the family of the criminal's victim.

The avenger felt a moral obligation to punish the criminal since there was no state to carry out punishment. An insight on how the Israelites dealt with disagreement among the tribes can be seen in the story of the building of an altar by the tribes east of Jordan. Upon, receiving word of this, the tribes in the west became concerned. Such an altar would seem to violate a ban on worshipping anywhere except at one central shrine (22: 12). in a tribal assembly it was decided to send the priest Phineas, accompanied by ten tribal representatives, to investigate the situation.

They were tools that the shrine was "a witness between us and you... that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices" (22: 27). Satisfied about the purpose of the altar, the tribal representatives returned and the planned attack was averted (22: 30- 34). A recognition that Joshua's conquest was not complete appears in Joshua's farewell address to the Israelite leaders. God had given them the land from the Jordan to the "Great seas to the west", and he would enable them to conquer the people who still occupied the land provided Israel was faithful to the law as given to Moses (23: 1- 13). The climax of the book of Joshua is the covenant-renewal ceremony described in Joshua 24: 1-28.

The site of the ceremony was Schechum. An altar was built, sacrifices were offered, a copy of the law was written and read to the people, and a ceremony of blessing and cursing was carried out, half of the Levites standing on Mount Geri zam and the other half standing on Mount Ebal (8: 33). The important men of Israel gathered at the sanctuary (24: 1). Joshua recounted God's call of the patriarchs- how he brought the people out of Egypt through the leadership of Moses and Aaron and how he brought them into the land of Canaan (24: 2- 13).

After reminding them of the Lord's blessing, he called on them to accept the obligations of the covenant. Joshua 24: 14 indicates that not all of the people present were descendants of those who came from Egypt, for he spoke of those who were worshipping "the gods which your fathers served... beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose lands you dwell". Furthermore, the Gibeonites were non-Israelite people who had earlier tricked Israel into making the covenant with them (9: 1- 27). The purpose of the book of Joshua seems to be the glorifying of the Lord by giving examples of the marvelous way he led the people to the patriarchs promised land. Further, the book says that any failure was a failure on the part of Israel to walk in the faith with God..