Deuteronomy 31-34 - Joshua 1-6 Recap | OT Ep 26

In this episode, Austin and Ashley finish recapping the Torah and move into Joshua. We see Moses' final words, death, and burial, the transition to Joshua, and the events leading to the Israelites entering the Promised Land, including the fall of Jericho with the help of Rahab. It emphasizes God's continual presence, the significance of faith, and the lessons learned from the journey of the Israelites.

Reading Plan - Old Testament in One Year
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Chapters

• 0:00 Moses' Farewell (Ch 31)
• 6:27 Song of Moses (Ch 32)
• 8:05 Moses Blesses the 12 Tribes (Ch 33)
• 9:03 Moses' death and burial (Ch 34)
• 12:27 Intro to Joshua
• 14:25 Joshua Takes Over (Ch 1)
• 18:00 Rahab and the Spies (Ch 2)
• 22:53 Crossing over Jordan (Ch 3)
• 25:00 Ch 4-5
• 28:30 Fall of Jericho (Ch 6)

Transcript

Hey everyone,

My name is Austin. And my name is Ashley. Welcome to the Clean Slate Podcast. Where we're finding Jesus in the Old Testament.

Welcome back friends. Today we're going to be recapping Deuteronomy chapters 31 through 34 and starting Joshua going through chapter six. Moses' farewell sermon to Israel is coming to a close here in these last few chapters. In chapter 31, it says that Moses continued to speak these words to all of Israel. He says, I'm 120 years old. I can no longer come and go and the Lord has already told me that I can't go over the Jordan.

Then Moses' next words are catered to the thoughts at the forefront of everyone's mind, conquering the land that they are about to enter into. That was the whole argument when the spies were sent, right? That the people were so big that they wouldn't stand a chance. But Moses tells them in verse three, the Lord your God himself will go before you. He will destroy these nations before you

so that you shall dispossess them. And Joshua will go over at your head, as the LORD has spoken. And the LORD will do to them as he did to Sion and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land when he destroyed them. And the LORD will give them over to you, and you shall do to them according to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you.

He will not leave or forsake you. Then he says directly to Joshua, be strong and courageous,

For you shall go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

is not only God encouraging the Israelites that He is going before them in battle, but also the promise of God's continual presence with them in holding up His side of the covenant. We see this theme over and over again, including in the New Covenant, when Jesus at the end of Matthew says, teaching them, talking about the disciples they're going to make, to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests. And Moses commanded them that every seven years during the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tents to read this law before Israel. Now, anytime we see the word law in the Old Testament, we need to just immediately go to the word Torah, which means teaching. So the law, yes, but also the history of their nation, of his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph.

and how God meant to send him to Egypt for the preservation of the people of Israel, and Moses, how his life was spared through the water of the Nile and into the hands of Pharaoh's daughter, ultimately to be the one chosen by God to command Pharaoh to let his people go free, and teaching them of the miracles God did to get them out of Egypt and their journey through the wilderness so God could get the Egypt out of them all the way up to the Jordan.

And ultimately, even though Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord and brought sin and death into the world, that God promised to send one who would crush the head of the serpent and redeem the creation. That is what they mean by Torah, the teaching.

In verse 12, he says, assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of the law, the teachings, that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.

Then the Lord tells Moses that the time of his death is drawing near. He is to call Joshua and present themselves in the tent of meeting, which they do. Now the Lord gives Moses, starting in verse 16, some less than encouraging words that you would want to hear on your deathbed, but nonetheless true.

Verse 16, And the LORD said to Moses, Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers.

Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering. And they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day. And I will forsake them and hide my face from them. And they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them. So that they will say in that day, have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day.

because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.

So to help them remember, God tells Moses to write a song and teach it to the people. Many of you know it's easiest to remember something that's put to song. And we see the actual song for the majority of the next chapter. But this song I imagine was a real winner. I mean, right on par with Rock-A-Bye Baby. Very positive message.

But to that point, have you ever forgotten Rock-a-bye baby ever in your decades of existence? No, you haven't. So the tactic is proven. know, baby's in a tree top, windy season, branch breaks, baby falls to his death. God brings them to the land, they get too comfortable, despise God, break the covenant to their demise. But hey, at least our song is left with a glimmer of hope. How so? Verse 21 says,

And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall comfort them as a witness." So the terrible choices they make to whore after other gods instead of being a faithful bride, those things are going to confront them with what they've done to ultimately turn God's people back to him.

So officially into chapter 32, we see the Song of Moses takes up the first 47 verses. And I think if you followed Moses and the Israelites through their journey, reading through the song, you pretty much get most of the initial references.

The rest is kind of a prophetic statement about what will happen to Israel.

One you might not have gotten is in verse 15 where the song calls them Jeshurun. Jeshurun literally means the upright one, a poetic name for Israel used sarcastically here and maybe a handful of places elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Something else I thought was interesting was in verse 27. He says, lest their adversaries should misunderstand. Misunderstand what? That the reputation of God is the driving force behind their defeat and salvation for Israel.

This is the same concept that Moses brings before the Lord when he was about to wipe them all out in Deuteronomy chapter 9. You know, Lord, you shouldn't do that because the enemies would say the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them. So you see that same situation where it has nothing to do with Israel's obviously they had plenty of opportunities to squander that.

but it is the Lord's reputation at stake and all the nations would know that He is Lord.

So the song finishes and God says, Moses, today's the day. Go up to the mountain and see the land. You can't go in, we've established this, but I will allow you to see it.

Moving into chapter 33, it's kind of interesting. The next to the last chapter, you see Moses on his deathbed, blessing the 12 tribes of Israel. We've seen this before in the next to the last chapter of Genesis, where Israel was on his deathbed, blessing his 12 sons, which would later become the 12 tribes. So super cool parallel there to kind of bookend the Torah in that way. Some of the blessings are super short. Some of them are

prophetic, some of them are blessing statements of sorts.

But hey, these are some of Moses' last words to Israel, and at least they're encouraging. It ends with a blessing to all of Israel in verse 29. Happy are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph. Your enemies shall come fawning to you and you shall tread upon their backs.

Now friends, it is time for Moses to go up on the mountain. I feel like this was brought up so long ago. We've been psychologically putting it off, but it's time to deal with it. Chapter 34, Moses goes up the mountain and God showed him all the land. I imagine a much greater Mufasa Simba, everything the light touches type of moment here.

And it repeats again that Moses was 120 years old, and yet his eyes were undemned, meaning that the Lord preserved his eyesight for him to see clearly the promised land.

So, Moses dies and verse 6 tells us the Lord Himself buried Moses, but nobody knows where, still to this day. And that is still true, by the way. So, what an intimate way for God to handle Moses in that way, burying him Himself. And the people wept for Moses for 30 days. This was four times longer than the usual seven days of shiva that they normally kept, and I think rightfully so.

I mean, this man spent the greater part of his life as either a shepherd in the wilderness or shepherding Israel through the wilderness. And they literally would not have the law and teachings, which remember are good. They would not have gotten up to the Jordan or even be alive at this point, had it not been for Moses.

Something else to note of super cool significance. I heard some scholars point out one time that the two people who have some interesting circumstances surrounding their deaths were Moses and Elijah. We'll read about Elijah a little later. God himself buries Moses and Elijah doesn't even die. He's just taken up into heaven. And those were the two men who were seen on the mountain of transfiguration with Jesus.

After that moment on the mountain, God is soon going to both bury Jesus, and after He has risen and appears to hundreds of people, God is going to take Him up into heaven. This is just another example of Jesus being the greater than in every scenario.

Deuteronomy as a whole is the book of the law, placed in the Ark of the Covenant. It confronts us with a God who is not like us.

a God zealous for holiness and terrifying in his judgments. Yet we see he's also abundantly gracious to Israel. He refuses to give up on them, urging them to find their hope and joy in him alone. Deuteronomy also confronts us with ourselves. The brokenness of our hearts, our tendency to stray into idolatry and empty boasts,

and our inability to keep God's law in our own power. And all of that points us to our need for a Savior.

And that friends, if I had a drum roll sound effect, I would play it. Ends the Torah. That is an accomplishment. If you've been listening all the way through, buy yourself a celebratory ice cream or something. It feels good, doesn't it?

We still have a lot to cover, so let's jump into the book of Joshua and somehow get through the first six chapters today.

Ashley mentioned how Deuteronomy was the final book of the Torah or the teaching.

For study purposes, the Old Testament is commonly divided up into sections, which are the Torah, which we just finished, the historical books, the wisdom literature, major prophets, and that doesn't mean they're more important, it just means those books are much longer, and then the minor prophets. Joshua, which we're about to start, is the first book of the historical books.

The Bible doesn't tell us who wrote Joshua, but there are multiple sections where it does seem that Joshua himself wrote the book,

Obviously the main exception being his death being recorded.

ancient rabbinical tradition actually upholds this view as well.

Joshua is also unique in its plot, if you will.

So in the New Testament, have the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which chronicle some of the early life of Jesus, much of his ministry, and all four detail, his death and resurrection.

Then you have the book of Acts that follows the Gospels in order of the New Testament and explain how the church grew and flourished in the days and years after Christ ascended to heaven. Well, Joshua is sort of like the Old Testament version of Acts. You have much of Genesis and then all of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that show how God settled on his chosen nation, Israel, and brought them out of slavery.

and through all the adventures and misadventures to bring them to the promised land.

Then in Joshua, we have the completion of that journey and the people entering the land and actually fulfilling so much of what was spoken in the aforementioned books.

Another thing you guys might be excited about is the swap of literary style. We're kind of getting back into narrative really for the first time since the middle of Exodus. So without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into chapter one.

Joshua 1 starts out with God reaffirming several things that he had promised Israel broadly and then some specific things that he had promised to Joshua via Moses directly.

Before we go any further though, want to tell you a little bit about Joshua's name.

If you guys remember, we talked about how the Old Testament was translated into Greek a few hundred years before Christ's incarnation.

Joshua's name, as it was later translated into Greek, was pronounced Iasus. If that sounds like Jesus, that's because they actually shared the same name. Jesus is our English transliteration of the Greek pronunciation of Joshua.

Joshua, in many ways, is another prefiguring or signpost pointing to Christ. I'll come back to that point in a little bit.

In verse 8, God reminds Joshua not to let this book of the law depart from his mouth and that he should on it day and night.

God then tells Joshua that he would find success in the land they were going in to inherit.

have really quick note on verses eight and nine. So let me read them real quick so I can reference them. So verse eight actually says, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous, you will have good success. Verse 9 says, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

I love these verses and if you've been around church for any length of time, then you've no doubt studied them or heard a sermon on them or maybe you were in a Bible study has something to do with them.

Much of it is a foreshadowing for us, like where God tells Joshua that the Lord would Himself be with him wherever he went. I mean, what a magnificent thing to say. And if you're a Christian, I would say the same thing to you.

If you have believed on Jesus, then you are indwelled by His Holy Spirit and God is actually with you wherever you go.

We don't have time and I don't have enough words to talk about how big that is. But friend, no other faith says their God actually lives inside of them. It's truly miraculous.

But I do want to caution you when you read verse 8. This is where harmonizing scripture, as we talked about, is helpful. In verse 8, where it says, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

When we read that, if we don't have the proper lens on, then we could be talking about that as if that applies to us. But we're saying, if I study the Bible, I'll be successful in business or my career. Or if I meditate on the Bible, I'll be made whole and be healed.

Friend, listen to me. Living your life according to God's Word always helps. You always do better that way. But nowhere in the New Testament do you see such a guarantee. This is where harmonizing, like I mentioned, comes into play. This statement that God makes in verse 8 is to Joshua, and it's certainly true for Joshua. It may or may not be true of us. But guys, we aren't living for this world.

There's a rather famous pastor who wrote a book called Your Best Life Now. Think about that statement for a minute. How could this be your best life? How could this life be your best life? One day, Christ will return to this earth and set all the broken things right. And then we will reign on the earth and serve Him continually with no more war, sickness, poverty, disease, or death. That will be our best life.

Remember, we are living for that day and we angle our lives in such a way to populate the new heavens and new earth and not to live our most successful and comfortable life now.

The end of chapter 1 is Joshua going through the Rubinites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And he's reminding them of the promise they made to Moses. So if you guys will recall, as the people of Israel are coming up the promised land,

those tribes ask permission to settle in lands that are actually outside the borders of the promised land.

Moses winds up granting that request, but only if they would pledge to help their brothers take the promised land and the two and a half tribes agree.

When Joshua reminds them of this here, they agree to fulfill their oath.

Something I found hilarious is in verse 17, the tribes actually said, just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey Like guys, thanks for the warning.

Moving into Chapter 2, have really interesting story.

In chapter two, have spies sent out in secret by Joshua.

Now remember, Joshua was one of the twelve spies that Israel had sent into the land

in the book of numbers.

And you'll also remember that Joshua was one of the two that came back and actually felt good about the people going into the land to take it. The other 10 stirred the people believe they could not go in and actually possess the land. So Joshua, being a smart guy, probably decided that he would send these guys in and not tell anyone he was doing it, just in case.

The men go into the city and were presumably chased or maybe noticed by the guards and they go into the house of Rahab to take refuge. And Rahab was a prostitute.

Rahab hid the men but made a deal with them and she said she would hide them if when Israel came to conquer Jericho that her family would be saved.

During this discourse, Rahab actually used the divine name for God, Yahweh, when telling the men how everyone in the land had heard about what their God had done in delivering them.

We'll talk a little more about this later, but I want you to notice here why God is concerned for the greatness of His name. This is a very tangible reason.

God knows when His works are made known, it draws people to Him and sends those who would be His or His people's enemies running in fear.

The spies agree and give Rahab their word that she and her family will be safe.

Rahab sends the pursuers, the guards of the city, in the wrong direction.

This allows the spies to return safely to Joshua and they tell Joshua what happened.

They also gave Joshua the same report that he gave decades earlier, that the Lord had given the land into their hands.

a gospel glimpse, I actually want to use Rahab

for an example.

Rahab, who presumably wasn't a believer until she had heard of this God who rescues His people, came to trust and believe in God. We actually see her mentioned in the New Testament in Hebrews 11 verse 31, as well as James chapter 2 verse 25. There, James is explaining that her saving the spies showed that she truly was a believer in Yahweh.

We also see the stunning mention of Rahab in the genealogy of Jesus, offered by Matthew in chapter 1, verse 5 of the Gospel of Matthew.

Friend, do you see how huge that is? This woman who was not born in Israelite, was not born into the family of God, became counted as an Israelite by faith. And more than that, she is even in the lineage of our Messiah, King Jesus.

But you know what? When we, with all of our sin and all of our baggage, come to Jesus, put our faith and trust in Him, and then repent of our sins, we are then justified and made right with God the Father, who adopts us into His family, just like He did Rahab.

Alright, so in Chapter 3, the moment has finally come. God is going to send the people over the Jordan into the Promised Land.

Keep in mind, the Jordan River was the easternmost border of the promised land. There are two things I want to talk about in this chapter. The first one being how God again parts the waters for the people. The first time He did this was in the Red Sea, and this time it's with the Jordan River.

The people again walk across on dry ground.

The second thing I want to point to is Joshua, who is our Christ-like figure at this point, leading the people out of the wilderness and into their father's land. I don't know if you've picked up on how God always speaks of the Israelites inheriting the land and not simply conquering it, but that's really important. God owns this land. It isn't that he's helping the Israelites conquer it so they just have a place to live.

God promised this land to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 15, that one day the Iniquity the Amorites, which really is all the people in this land,

would be complete and then he would bring the people, Abraham's descendants, back to the land and give it to them.

Understand this, God was giving time for the Amorites to repent and turn from their ways,

But they be God's instrument of judgment on the wicked people of the land.

Now again, remember, this all had to do with that promise from Genesis 15.

God promised to bring His people that He had set His love on into this land.

So think now about in the New Testament where we see John the Baptist baptizing people. Where did he do that? In the Jordan River. Why? Because he was like Joshua in a way,

baptizing people into the Kingdom of God and Jesus, the greater Joshua, will be the one to lead them all, everyone who will call on His name, into that Kingdom.

In chapter 4, the people cross over the Jordan and set up at the Lord's behest a monument so they can teach their children forever about what God has done for them there. Friend, I want to encourage you to teach the scriptures to your children. It is our inheritance.

And before you say to yourself, easy for you to say, but I don't know anything or I don't know enough. One, you probably know more than you think you do. Two, you almost certainly know more than your child does, especially if they're young. Three, if you're right, then get in a Bible study in your local church and learn. That way you can teach them. We see over and over again that God is serious about the next generation, knowing what he did for the last. Tell them what he has done for you.

Tell them your testimony.

Stepping into chapter 5, we see that this new generation, who had not received the command to circumcise themselves, is ordered to do so. This is very symbolic in the Old Testament because, among other things, circumcision was a major sign that you belonged to God.

God says here that it actually rolled away the reproach of Egypt from them. In a greater way, God shows us later that it is really our heart that needs to be circumcised. When we belong to Him in new covenant, our heart is what needs to change.

Immediately after this, the people celebrated their first Passover in the land.

So that's a big deal, right? The people who were saved from death, both in Egypt and at the hands of the angel of the Lord, were now celebrating those events in a land that was promised to them.

Verse 12 also tells us that the manna that had been falling down from heaven for many years finally stopped. Why? Because they were home.

They were in the land that flowed with milk and honey and it was no longer needed for them because God always provides for His people one way or another.

Now at the end of chapter 5, a very interesting thing happens. Joshua is looking up and he sees a man standing there before him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua asks the man, are you here for our enemies or for us? that he is the commander of the Lord's army. And Joshua fell down and worshiped. I want to tell you, this is King Jesus himself.

Again, remember, we profess the Bible teaches Jesus Himself is eternal. So this isn't an issue for us with Him being here

many centuries before his incarnation.

The Lord is there with Joshua and will lead the armies of Israel into battle Himself. Because remember we said that Israel was going to be the instrument of God's justice against this evil people that lived in the land.

He then actually tells Joshua almost the exact same thing that the angel of the Lord, which we contend is Jesus as well, told Moses at the burning bush so many years earlier, take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy.

One of the reasons I know in my knower that this is Jesus and not just an angel is that when Joshua worshiped him, the man or the angel didn't tell him to stop. Angels never receive worship. Only God does.

Friends, Jesus still fights battles for His people today. He will be faithful to accomplish all of His purposes.

We get to end this episode in chapter six with the fall of Jericho. God reminds Joshua, I have given Jericho into your hand. In other words, the Lord has done the work, just trust me. Then God instructs them to march around the city each day for a week. Then on the seventh day, they are to march around the city seven times and seven priests will each blow their trumpets before the ark. And when the people hear this,

then they should all shout loudly and the walls of the city will fall down flat. And that is exactly what happened. And they were able to go over and take the city and devoted all in the city to destruction.

Now, that can be the hard part to grapple with. But friends, we should be careful not to measure God's justice by our own standards. Like Austin mentioned earlier, the Israelites were God's instrument of judgment on the wicked people of the land. This was not an imperialistic human invasion, but a divine invasion for judgment and salvation. A dramatic portrayal of what is required for God to be with man. And friends, this is the best thing for us.

God does not deal with sin and evil partially or mostly, but completely. Jesus did not die for most of our sins. He dealt with evil in totality. I heard it put this way, no sins remained outside Jesus on the cross so that no sins remain on us.

And with that, that's gonna do it for today's recap, guys. May His grace abound to you and to me as we study to find Jesus in the Old Testament.