Joshua (whole book overview)

The book of Joshua tells how God gave his people the land he’d promised—and victory over their enemies and his. But to win those victories, the people needed to (1) have faith in God and (2) obey his directions:

• To give a good report, the spies needed faith that God would give a victory and they needed to obey God by reporting this to Joshua.
• To cross the Jordan River, the people needed faith that God would do a miracle during flood season and they needed to obey his strange directions for crossing.
• To order the attack on Jericho, Joshua needed faith in what the Lord’s Commander told him and he had to obey by following his plan.
• To defeat Jericho, the people needed faith that God would topple its walls and, again, they needed to obey unusual orders.

It didn’t all go smoothly. Achan failed to obey at Jericho. And at the end of the book the people lost interest and let their faith and obedience slip—and failed to capture the entire land. We can learn from this how important it is to keep practicing faith and obedience always, until we die.

We have every reason to do so. Our Commander, Jesus, promises us a land full of good things—a home with God. As we follow him in faith and obedience, he gives us victory over sin in our lives, too. And one day he will defeat every enemy of God’s people.