Conquest and Judges

Joshua
• When Moses died God called Joshua and the people
to take the land as He promised (Jos 1:1-8)
– Joshua - means “God’s salvation”
– Moses gives his authority to Joshua in front of all
the people of Israel through the laying on of
hands (Num 27:18)
– The people followed Joshua since God was with him
even as he was with Moses
– Joshua and this generation were, for the most part, faithful
to the law of God but never completely drove out the
Canaanites who became a snare for them
• The Book of Joshua tells the story of how Israel
conquered the Land of Canaan through the power of
God
 Conquest of the Canaanites
• The people of Canaan were a more
advanced culture but had many
wicked polytheistic practices that
became a temptation for the Israelites
– Advanced in material culture - well laid
out cities, drainages system, iron work,
pottery, trade, etc…(More advanced
cultures often absorb the less advanced)
– Polytheistic Canaanite gods – El (father bull), Ashera
(El’s wife), and Baal (god of fertility, agriculture, water)
also Moloch (king)
– The stories of the immorality and brutality of these god
was great and they demanded child sacrifice and temple
prostitution which the Canaanites practiced
• Herem warfare
– The Ban - total destruction of the a city
– The Israelites’ drive out the Cannanites because of their
evil actions and because God knew that they would be
a temptation for Israel
 Crossing of the Jordan and
Fall of Jericho
• 2 spies scout Jericho and stay with Rehab who hid them on her roof
– The spies make an oath with Rehab to protect her and her family if she stays
in her house and ties a scarlet cord to her window (type of the blood of Christ)
– The inhabitance of the land heard of the mighty works that God did for Israel
and were afraid of them (Jos 2:9-11)
• Carrying the Arc of the Covenant the Levitical priests
lead the people across the Jordan river
– Like the Red Sea the waters stopped for the people as
long as the Arc stayed in the river
– The Israel’s God has power over Baal who controls
the water
– Made a monument of 12 stones from the Jordan river
– All the people are circumcised, eat the fruit of the land,
and the manna stopped
• Marched around the city once for 6 days and on the
7th day they marched around it 7 times while the
Levites blew the trumpets and the walls of Jericho
fell enabling them to totally destroy the city (1250 BC)
– Keep their promise to Rehab who becomes the great grandmother of king
David
 Jericho
• Jericho is one of the most ancient
cities in the world
– It was a cradle of civilization dating
back to the Neolithic period (9500
BC)
– It was an oasis in the desert
• The Israelites conquest of the city
of Jericho (Jos 6)
– Interestingly archeologist’s have
discovered that something like an
earthquake destroyed the walls of the
city around 1250 BC
– There are also indications of a great
fire at the same time
 Conquests
• The City of Ai
– Achan from Judah takes something from Jericho and makes the
Israelites loose the battle with Ai which was a very small city
– Ai is punished the Israel destroys the city
• At Mt. Ebal and Gerizim, the Law is read aloud and the
people renew the covenant
– Through deception (saying they came from far away) the Gibeonites
make a covenant with Israel which they had to honor
• 5 kings of the Amorites went to war against
Israel yet God was with Israel giving them
victory
– Poem of how the sun stood still (Jos 10:12-14)
• The Israelites had 3 Campaigns: Central,
Southern, and Northern
– Since they were slow to take land they were not
able to get all of it
– The Canaanites will become a snare for them
Central, Southern, and Northern
Campaigns against Canaan
 Allotment of the Tribes of Israel
• After the Northern conquest the
land was allotted to the 12 tribes
(Jos 13-18)
– The land was divided up by quality
– 48 cities for the Levites
– There are still large pockets of the land
where the Canaanites still dwell
• The book of Joshua ends by a
warning to live the covenant and the
death of Joshua (24:14-33)
– Warns of intermarriage which will lead
to idolatry
– While the present generation basically
follows the law the next will fail
miserably
– Soon the tribes of Israel begin warring
with each other and serve other gods
 Judges
• The next generation repeatedly
turned to idols and forsook the Lord
who gave them over their enemies
(Jdg 2:10-14)
– The people cried to the Lord who
raised up judges to save them
– Judge – a prophetic and military
leader who God raises up to deliver
the people from their enemies Silence Sin
– There were 12 judges in all but
– Samuel would be the last of the
judges and the first of the prophets
– A cycle of sin, servitude, supplication,
salvation, and silence occurred seven
times in the book of Judges Salvation Servitude
– “In those days there was no king in
Israel; every man did what
was right in his own eyes” (Jdg 17:6) Supplication
 Deborah
• In Ephraim and Naphtali the people again turned to
idolatry
– God gave them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan who
oppressed them for 20 yrs
– Sisera was the commander of his army who had 900 chariots
of iron
• The people cried to the Lord and then came to Deborah the
prophetess for deliverance (Jdg 4:4-9)
– Deborah summoned Barak with his 10000 soldiers to help but he
would only go if she came with him
– Barak wanted the glory for himself but Deborah prophesied that
Sisera would die at the hand of a woman
– Barak routed and killed Sisera’s army but Sisera hid in the tent of a
woman named Jael who killed him with a tent peg and hammer
• Deborah and Barak offered a hymn of praise to the Lord and
The land had rest for 40 years
 Gideon
• The Israelites again did evil and God gave them into
the hand of the Midianites who destroyed the land of
Manasseh
– Then the children of Israel cried to the Lord
• An angel appears to Gideon while he is at his job threshing wheat
– He though he was too insignificant and poor to deliver Israel
– He asks for signs: for the angel to receive his offering, wet fleece, dry fleece
• God tells Gideon to reduce his army lest they think that they won the
victory by themselves
– Goes from 32,000 to 10,000 to 300 soldiers
– Gideon spies enemy camp and is encouraged
by overhearing a Midianite’s fearful dream
– Gideon’s 300 men surrounded the enemies’ camp
blew their trumpets, broke the jars that covered
their torches and cried out "A sword for the LORD
and for Gideon!"
– In fear the Midianites began to flee and lift their
swords upon one another
• The people enjoyed rest for 40 years until they
turned to idols again after Gideon’s death
 Samson
• The people again did evil and the
Lord gave the Danites into the
power of the Philistines
– An angel appeared to Manoah’s wife
who was barren and said she would
conceive a son who would be a Nazirite
– Nazirite – special vow: fidelity, no
strong drink, no razor on the head
– God made him a judge with great
strength, e.g. “the Spirit of the LORD
came mightily upon him, and he tore
the lion asunder” (Jdg 14:6)
• To start problems against the
Philistines he marries one of their
women who betrayed him but was
eventually murdered
– He performed many deeds of
vengeance against the Philistines
 Samson & Delilah
• Delilah - He met another Philistine woman
named Delilah who seduces him to reveal the
source of his strength
– Bowstrings, fresh ropes, hair weave, shave
– Samson means “sunshine” and Delilah means “night”
– The darkness of lust and infidelity eclipsed the light of
God’s covenant
• Samson’s eyes are
plucked out and is forced
to grind at a mill
– Make a fool of him, his hair
grows, he prays and
defeats the Philistines in
their palace
 Eli and Samuel
• One of Elkanah’s two wives Hannah was barren
– She wept and pored her heart out in the house of the
Lord and promised God that if she had a son he would
be dedicated to the Lord
– Eli sees her lips moving and thinks she is drunk, he prays for her, she
conceives a son and names him Samuel and gives him to Eli after he is
weaned
• Under the high priest Eli, Samuel grows in ministering to the Lord
– Eli’s sons were evil men who abused the priesthood by stealing the offerings
– They will be punished with Eli who did not correct them
– God calls Samuel 3 times but he thinks it is Eli then the 4th time Samuel
responds “speak Lord for your servant is listening” (1 Sam 3:1-11)
• The Israelites took the Ark into battle and lost it to the Philistines
– His sons die in battle and Eli falls on his chair and breaks his neck when he
hears that the Ark is taken
– Strange signs start happening to the Philistines: Dagon falls, plagues
– They return the ark to Israel who rejoices and is faith to God for a while
• Samuel becomes a holy Judge and Prophet of Israel, defeats the
Philistines, and wins the favor of God and the people
 The People Ask for a King
• When Samuel gets old the people want a king but for the
wrong reasons, they want to be like everyone else
– "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now
appoint for us a king to govern us like all the other nations."
• Samuel is angry and so prays to the Lord
– God tells him to give them what they want saying, “they have not
rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”
– Samuel warns the people of the bad
things that will happen with a king:
Taxes, military service, and
oppression (1 Sam 8:10-20)
• God selected a tall man from the
tribe of Benjamin named Saul
– In a surprise celebration Samuel
anoints Saul King of Israel
– The Spirit of God came upon Saul