Joshua: A Three-Session Study of Courage and Covenant Faithfulness

How to use these three sessions

Session 1 reads Joshua 1, session 2 reads Joshua 3 and 4, and session 3 reads Joshua 24. Allow more than one sitting for a session if needed. Read the biblical chapters first, then work through the commentary and questions with the text open. The plan follows selected scenes and does not replace reading the whole book.

Keep three questions beside you: What has the Lord said or done? What are Joshua and the people instructed to do? What is the passage asking later hearers to remember? These questions will help connect courage, obedience, and remembrance without turning the narrative into a set of slogans about personal success.

The book includes conquest, displacement, and severe judgments. The selected chapters themselves contain some of that language. A careful study should neither hide those statements nor transfer Joshua's commission to a modern person seeking power, property, or victory over opponents. Understanding the narrative and authorizing a present action are different tasks.

By the end, aim to explain the movement from a leader's commission to a people's shared commitment. Joshua is important throughout, but the story concerns the community he leads and its response to the Lord. The final practice asks how truthful remembrance can support present faithfulness, while leaving Joshua's particular circumstances intact.

Session 1: A commission after Moses’ death — Joshua 1:1–6

The chapter begins after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord. Joshua is identified as the son of Nun and Moses' minister. The Lord tells him to arise and cross the Jordan with the people into the land being given to Israel. The transition is explicit: Moses has died, and Joshua is now addressed about the task ahead.

The promises concern a particular people, land, and responsibility. The Lord speaks of the land promised through Moses, names its extent, and tells Joshua that he will divide it as an inheritance. These details should remain attached to the command to be strong and courageous. Removing them can make the promise sound like a universal entitlement to whatever place a reader decides to claim.

The assurance is also relational: as the Lord was with Moses, so he will be with Joshua, and he will not fail or forsake him. Joshua's task does not rest only on replacing a predecessor's abilities. The promise directs him toward the presence of the Lord who gives the commission.

The chapter does not require us to invent Joshua's private emotional state. It repeatedly addresses courage, but it gives no diary of his thoughts after Moses' death. We can see that the responsibility is substantial without claiming to know exactly what he fears. Staying with the spoken commission lets the text define both the task and its assurance.

Courage is joined to obedience — Joshua 1:7–9

The second call to courage is directly connected to observing the law Moses commanded. Joshua is to turn neither to the right nor to the left. The book of the law is to remain in his mouth, and he is to meditate on it day and night so that he may do what is written. Courage here includes disciplined attention and action.

The sequence is worth slowing down to notice. The word is spoken, considered, and obeyed. Meditation is not presented as a substitute for doing what the text commands. Nor is bold action celebrated simply because it is bold. The commission gives Joshua a standard by which his course is to be guided.

The language of prospering and good success belongs to that commission. The chapter does not promise that repeating a verse will secure wealth, promotion, or victory in every personal undertaking. It connects Joshua's way with obedience to the instruction he has received. A faithful application should keep the content of obedience more prominent than an imagined reward.

Verse 9 again joins courage with the Lord's presence wherever Joshua goes. Read it alongside verses 2 and 7-8: he has been told where to go and how to walk. The promise is not permission to pursue any course and call it God's will. It supports him in carrying out the task the Lord has given.

Preparation and help for the other tribes — Joshua 1:10–18

Joshua tells the officers to have the people prepare provisions for crossing the Jordan. The command to trust the Lord's presence does not remove the practical work of preparing for a journey. Leadership includes communicating what the people need to do next.

He then addresses the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh. Their families and cattle may remain in the land already given to them, but their armed men are to cross and help their brethren until the others also receive rest and possession. The passage distinguishes the group's existing provision from its continuing obligation to help.

This offers a concrete communal dimension to the opening commission. Those who have already received a place are not free to forget the needs of the rest. Their response expresses willingness to go and obey, and they ask that the Lord be with Joshua as he was with Moses. They also repeat the encouragement to be strong and courageous.

Their pledge includes a severe statement about punishment for rebellion against Joshua's command. Record that feature honestly without making it a model for an ordinary leader's demands. The chapter concerns Israel's specific commission under Joshua. A modern claim to leadership does not carry an automatic right to the authority or penalties described here.

Session 2: Following the ark toward the Jordan — Joshua 3:1–6

Joshua and the people come from Shittim to the Jordan and lodge before crossing. After three days the officers instruct them to follow when they see the ark of the covenant carried by the priests. The ark stands at the center of the directions because this crossing is related to the covenant Lord's presence and action.

The people are to keep a measured space of about two thousand cubits from it. The stated purpose includes knowing the way to go, since they have not passed this way before. The distance is part of a sacred and ordered approach. It is not merely a dramatic obstacle designed to make the scene more impressive.

Joshua tells the people to sanctify themselves because the Lord will do wonders among them the next day. He instructs the priests to take up the ark and pass before the people, and they do so. Preparation, reverence, and movement are connected within the given command.

The phrase about not having passed this way before is often personally meaningful to readers facing uncertainty. It can invite humility, but it should first be heard as an instruction about this actual crossing. The text does not provide a method for interpreting every unfamiliar feeling as a divine signal. It describes a people hearing and following a definite instruction.

What the crossing is meant to show — Joshua 3:7–13

The Lord tells Joshua that he will begin to magnify him in Israel's sight so that they may know that, as he was with Moses, he will be with Joshua. The public confirmation concerns the Lord's presence with the commissioned leader. It is not simply an opportunity for Joshua to establish a personal reputation.

Joshua calls the people to hear the words of the Lord. He says that the coming event will show that the living God is among them and that he will drive out the named peoples before them. The narrative explicitly connects the crossing to the conquest ahead. A study should not erase that connection to make the account easier to apply.

The ark is called the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth. The priests are to enter the Jordan, and when their feet rest in the waters, the waters coming down from above will be cut off and stand in a heap. These are specific instructions and a specific promise. The action that follows is not a speculative test the priests invent.

That difference is important for present application. The scene does not command every reader to take a dangerous step so that God will be forced to make a way. The priests act under the stated command in the story. Courage shaped by obedience requires attention to what has actually been instructed, rather than treating risk itself as proof of faith.

The people cross on dry ground — Joshua 3:14–17

The people leave their tents, and the priests carrying the ark go before them. Joshua 3 notes that the Jordan overflows its banks at harvest time. When the priests' feet enter the edge of the water, the waters coming down from above stand in a heap, while the waters flowing toward the salt sea are cut off. The people cross opposite Jericho.

The chapter identifies places in describing the event, but it does not supply a modern map or a scientific account of how the waters are stopped. Its explanation centers on the Lord's word and the event that follows. We should not present an unverified modern location or natural mechanism as though the passage established it.

The priests stand firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crosses. The statement that all the people pass over is repeated in the following chapter. The focus is a community brought through, not a single impressive step by a leading figure.

Read the sequence slowly: instruction, preparation, priests entering, waters cut off, and the people crossing. The details give the event its shape. If every element becomes a symbol for a personal goal, the reader can lose sight of the covenant community and the Lord whose action the narrative is meant to make known.

Twelve stones carried out of the river — Joshua 4:1–8

When the people have crossed, the Lord tells Joshua to take twelve men, one from each tribe. They are to carry twelve stones from the place in the Jordan where the priests' feet stood and leave them where the people lodge that night. The number is explicitly connected to the tribes, so there is no need to invent a hidden numerical meaning.

Joshua explains the stones as a sign that will prompt children to ask what they mean. The answer is to tell how the waters were cut off before the ark of the Lord's covenant. The stones are to be a memorial to Israel. Their significance is supplied by an account of what the Lord did.

The men carry the stones on their shoulders, and the people do what Joshua commands. The memorial requires ordinary labor within an extraordinary event. Remembrance is something the community makes provision for, rather than assuming that the experience will explain itself to future generations.

The passage gives the children an important place. Their later question is anticipated and welcomed as the occasion for explanation. A faithful memory needs people willing to tell the story accurately. The stones do not replace teaching; they create an opportunity for it.

Keep the river stones, Gilgal memorial, and later witness distinct

Joshua 4:9 also says that Joshua sets up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests stood. Later, verses 19-20 identify Gilgal as the camp and the place where Joshua sets up the twelve stones taken out of the river. The text reports both the stones in the river and the stones carried to Gilgal. A summary should not collapse them into a single location.

The chapter says the priests remain until what the Lord commanded has been completed. The ark and priests then come out, and the waters return to their place and overflow the banks as before. The scene ends with the people across and the river flowing again. The memorial is meant to preserve the account after the visible passage has closed.

The eastern tribes' armed men also appear in the crossing account, fulfilling the responsibility described in chapter 1. The text records about forty thousand prepared for war crossing to the plains of Jericho. This detail keeps the military setting visible and connects the people's actions across the two sessions.

A different stone appears at Shechem in Joshua 24. It is a great stone set under an oak as a witness to the covenant response. That later stone is not identified as one of the twelve carried from the Jordan. Keeping these memorials distinct helps us understand what each is meant to recall.

What later generations are to learn — Joshua 4:21–24

Joshua again anticipates children's questions about the stones. The answer begins plainly: Israel crossed this Jordan on dry land. It then identifies the Lord as the one who dried the waters until the people crossed and compares the event with his drying the Red Sea. The chapter itself supplies that comparison.

The stated purpose reaches beyond the immediate family. All the peoples of the earth are to know the Lord's mighty hand, and Israel is to fear him always. The memorial therefore concerns both public knowledge of the Lord and the community's continuing reverence. It is more than nostalgia for an impressive moment.

This gives a useful standard for the stories we pass on. Tell what happened, identify the source of the claim, and avoid adding details merely because they make the story more moving. In Joshua, the account is linked to specific places, actions, and instructions. Truthfulness is part of faithful remembrance.

The passage does not command every household to copy the stone memorial as a new required ordinance. It does invite careful attention to how memory is preserved and explained. A written account, a repeated reading, or a conversation with a child can be a practical application, provided we distinguish our chosen practice from the command given in the chapter.

Session 3: The gathering at Shechem remembers God’s action

Joshua 24 gathers the tribes and their elders, heads, judges, and officers at Shechem, where they present themselves before God. Joshua speaks the Lord's words, beginning with the ancestors beyond the river and their service of other gods. The account does not start with Israel as a people whose history was always faithful.

The speech repeatedly names what the Lord did: taking Abraham, leading him, giving Isaac, giving Jacob and Esau, sending Moses and Aaron, and bringing the people out of Egypt. It continues through the sea, the wilderness, and the conflicts that followed. The repeated divine action prepares for the call to serve the Lord in the second half of the chapter.

The recollection includes Balaam and Balak and states that the Lord would not hearken to Balaam, so that blessing and deliverance followed. It also speaks directly of the Lord delivering peoples into Israel's hand. These are claims within the covenant recollection. They should be stated as the chapter gives them, without invented motives or a modern claim to repeat the conquest.

Verse 13 names land for which the people did not labor, cities they did not build, and vineyards and oliveyards they did not plant. The list challenges self-sufficiency. Their present life rests on gifts they cannot honestly describe as entirely their own achievement. The coming demand for service is grounded in that remembered history.

“As for me and my house” within the whole appeal — verses 14–18

Joshua calls the people to fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth. He tells them to put away the gods their ancestors served and to serve the Lord. The familiar choice in verse 15 belongs to this explicit appeal; it is not a neutral suggestion that every form of worship is equally faithful to the covenant.

Joshua declares that he and his house will serve the Lord. The statement names allegiance and responsibility within his household. It should not be used to make a parent or leader claim control over every inward response of everyone under their care. The chapter concerns a public commitment, and the people themselves are called to answer.

Their reply recalls the Lord bringing them and their fathers out of bondage, performing signs, preserving them on the way, and driving out the peoples before them. They say they will serve him because he is their God. The response mirrors the remembered divine action in the opening speech.

Do not stop the reading there. The people have made a strong declaration, but Joshua continues with a warning about holiness, jealousy, and the consequences of forsaking the Lord. The whole dialogue tests what their words mean. A decorative quotation of verse 15 can be meaningful, but it should lead us to the surrounding demands of sincerity, truth, and putting away rival gods.

Joshua’s warning makes the commitment serious — verses 19–24

Joshua tells the people that they cannot serve the Lord, for he is holy and jealous, and he speaks severely about transgressions and sins. Verse 20 warns that if they forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, he will turn and do them harm after doing them good. The warning should not be softened into a claim that their response has no consequences.

The warning also needs its place in the dialogue. Joshua has called them to serve, and he will again tell them to put away strange gods and incline their hearts to the Lord. The words expose the seriousness of the commitment; they do not make the following call to obedience meaningless. Read the demand and warning together instead of isolating one sentence as a complete account of human ability or divine forgiveness.

The people insist that they will serve the Lord. Joshua calls them witnesses against themselves that they have chosen him, and they accept that description. He then tells them to put away the strange gods among them and incline their hearts to the Lord. Their declaration requires a concrete change in allegiance, not only a repeated answer at a gathering.

Finally they say they will serve the Lord and obey his voice. The scene joins public speech, inward direction, and practical renunciation. For application, ask whether a commitment you have made has a recognizable shape in your conduct. The passage calls for honesty about that question rather than confidence based solely on having once said the right words.

The covenant witness and the book’s closing burials

Joshua makes a covenant with the people at Shechem, sets a statute and ordinance, and writes the words in the book of the law of God. He sets a great stone under an oak by the sanctuary of the Lord. The stone is called a witness because it has heard the words spoken there. The language gives the physical memorial a role in recalling the commitment.

The stone's witness is a warning against denial. It is not presented as an object to worship or a substitute for serving the Lord. Like the Jordan memorial, it relates material remembrance to words and responsibility. Its particular setting is the covenant gathering at Shechem.

The chapter then reports Joshua's death at one hundred and ten and his burial in his inheritance. Israel serves the Lord through Joshua's lifetime and that of the elders who outlive him and know the Lord's works. The statement is specific to those generations; it is not a claim that faithfulness will now continue automatically forever.

The book also records Joseph's bones being buried at Shechem in the purchased parcel of ground and the death and burial of Eleazar. These endings place the people's present inheritance within a history that extends beyond one leader. The account closes with remembered lives, land, and responsibility that will pass to those who remain.

Christ’s presence with those he commissions

Joshua 1 joins a particular commission with the Lord's promise of presence and the command to observe his instruction. Matthew 28:18-20 offers a related pattern in the risen Jesus' commission: he declares his authority, sends his disciples to teach all nations and baptize, commands them to teach obedience, and promises his continuing presence. The tasks are distinct. Jesus' words direct the disciples toward teaching, baptism, and faithful practice; they do not transfer Joshua's conquest commission to them. The comparison invites courage rooted in the presence of the one who sends and obedience to the task he actually gives.

Facing the conquest setting without claiming it as our mandate

These selected chapters speak of land, armed men, named peoples being driven out, and judgment. Those details are part of the text. Treating the entire book only as a metaphor for overcoming personal obstacles can hide the human seriousness of the narrative and blur what its commands originally concern.

The promises are addressed to Joshua and Israel in this setting. Nothing in these chapters gives a present reader permission to seize property, threaten a neighbor, or treat a disliked group as people God has commanded them to remove. A claim of divine support does not establish that a modern action shares Joshua's commission.

The chapters can still shape ethical reflection. They call attention to listening carefully, preparing responsibly, helping others, remembering truthfully, and matching public commitments with conduct. These applications arise from particular details and should be labeled as applications rather than new conquest promises.

If the difficult material raises further questions, read more of the book and seek careful discussion instead of forcing a quick answer. This three-session plan does not settle every historical or moral question raised by conquest. Its aim is to read the chosen passages honestly and to keep the boundaries of their claims visible while learning from them.

Bring the three sessions together

Return to the questions from the opening. In Joshua 1, record the Lord's commission and promise, Joshua's responsibility to the law, and the tribes' shared work. In Joshua 3-4, record the instructions for the ark, the crossing, and the memorials. In Joshua 24, record the remembered gifts, the demand for allegiance, and the warning that accompanies the people's response.

Next, explain how courage differs from self-authorization in these scenes. Joshua is given a task and instructed how to carry it out. The priests act under a specific word. The people are called to serve in sincerity and truth. Confidence in each case remains accountable to what has been spoken.

Choose one practice of remembrance that will help you act faithfully now. It might be revisiting a promise you made, correcting an embellished story, helping someone after your own need has been met, or teaching a child the actual context of a familiar verse. State why the practice follows from the reading and what the reading does not authorize you to claim.

An example prayer: Lord, teach us courage that listens and obeys. Help us remember Your works truthfully and receive Your gifts with gratitude. Keep our words of commitment from becoming substitutes for faithful action. Give us care for others and humility about the responsibilities You have actually entrusted to us. Through Jesus, guide us in teaching, learning, and doing what he commands. Amen.

Sources and editorial note

• Joshua 1

  Session 1: the commission after Moses’ death, courage and obedience, preparation, and the eastern tribes’ responsibility.

• Joshua 3

  Session 2: the ark, sanctification, instructions to the priests, and the Jordan crossing.

• Joshua 4

  Session 2: stones carried to Gilgal, stones set in the river, the return of the waters, and the teaching of later generations.

• Joshua 24

  Session 3: remembered divine action, the choice to serve, warnings, covenant witness, and the book’s closing burials.

• Matthew 28

  Related Christ-centered comparison: the risen Jesus joins commission, teaching, baptism, obedience, and his presence. The comparison does not equate the disciples’ task with conquest.

Prepared with AI assistance for Learn of Christ and checked against the passages and sources listed here. This revision has not received independent human scholarly review. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version unless another translation is named. Prayers and exercises are original examples.

How we prepare our study guides