Joshua is a great book of the Bible. It is filled with exciting, adventurous stories of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, most famously including the destruction of the walls of Jericho. It is a story of faith and failure on the part of the people of God. In an obvious way, it is a story about Joshua’s courage and standing firm in faith, but is the courage of Joshua the most significant role this figure plays in the whole story of the Bible? Let’s consider how the New Testament deals with Joshua.
The Bible is much more than simply a collection of trivial historical events. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is connected with a number of themes that tell the story of how God is redeeming mankind from sin. For example, the theme of God’s perfect world – the garden where God dwells with man repeats itself throughout the pages of text. After the fall, the story of redemption is God working to bring about his perfect world again. There are reminders of the garden in the tabernacle, as both Eden and the tabernacle were entered from the East and guarded by cherubim. The gemstones spoken of in Gen 2 (gold and onyx) were later used in the tabernacle and temple to decorate the sanctuary and the priestly garments. On the temple’s walls and doors were carved palm trees, cherubim and open flowers (see 1 Kings 6:29-31). As in the garden, the presence of the Lord was in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Later, Jesus called his body the temple in John 2 – indicating that God’s presence was found in him. Eden was coming again. Finally, Revelation records the New Jerusalem in which rivers flow and trees bloom and where God and the Lamb are the temple (Rev. 21:22).
We have already explored the theme of “exodus” in previous lessons, but as we consider Joshua, we see another theme. The writer of Hebrews sheds light on our Joshua fits into redemptive history.
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
The theme of Joshua’s story is rest for the people of God. As the Israelites had endured 40 years in the wilderness and now had engaged in the conquest of Canaan under Joshua’s leadership, they expected rest in the Promised Land. This theme had already been established in Genesis. God “rested” from his labors of creation. His was not a rest because he was weary – it was the kind of rest in which one sits back and enjoys his or her handiwork. God saw his creation was “good” and “very good”, and on the seventh day, he just sat back and took delight in seeing what he had done. God wanted his people to experience this kind of rest, so he established the Sabbath. In fact, even before the law had been given, he commanded the people to rest on the seventh day after gathering manna (Exodus 16:23). It was a day to enjoy the blessings of God’s provision.
The Promised Land represented the ultimate “rest” in the mind of the Israelites. It was what they had been longing and waiting for. Surely the story of Joshua is the story of providing this rest through faith and courage. Think again.
The Hebrews writer clearly states this period was not the ultimate rest for God’s people. In fact, we see they continue to be plagued by their enemies even in the Promised Land. This was not the final resting place of God. There remained another rest – a rest David wrote about in Psalm 95 that later generations would enter. David is so quoted in Hebrews.
1Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,’They shall not enter my rest,’” Heb. 4:1-3a
The rest the Hebrew writer refers to is found in one place – in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Our minds should immediately return to Jesus’ own words:
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matt. 11:28
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,18 ”The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”20And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21And he began to say to them, ”Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:16-21 [emphasis added]
Jesus truly set the captives free through his atoning work on the cross. The beauty of these connections is all more astounding when we consider that the Year of Jubilee began with the blowing of a trumpet on a certain day – the Day of Atonement.
8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you…” Lev. 25:8-10
In short, Jesus is the true Joshua who provided real rest for mankind. Even Jesus’ name (Yeshua) is essentially the same as the name “Joshua” (click here for more). This better Joshua conquered the enemy of God’s people and gave them rest. Even more, we can thank God for our Jubilee, which was declared not with a trumpet, but with the voice that shouted, “It is finished!” Still, Christians await the last resting place for the people of God when we meet him in the New Jerusalem commencing with the trumpet of God himself.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. I Thess. 4:16
- Lesson by John Summers
