revmarple

When we say "the torah of Joshua" we do not mean to say that Joshua belongs to the Torah and therefore not to the Prophets.  Quite simply, the "torah" of Joshua means the "instruction" of Joshua.  We seek to answer, "What does Joshua teach?"  Not that this answer will be exhaustive here, but we are going to see at least what the concluding chapters teach and therefore see some of the major themes of the book.  As you will see later, the book of Joshua is put on a level with the Torah.  After all, at the time it was the only book of the Prophets and so a collection that we call the Prophets did not yet exist.  Therefore, in order to claim canonical status for itself it must appeal to the existing canon (which was the Torah).  But this too reminds us of an important point.  The Prophets are also "Scripture" (to use the title of the third section of the Hebrew canon, 'the Writings').  And the Prophets are unpacking the Torah, the instruction of Moses, in a new setting.  Thus it is fitting that the conclusion of Joshua, like with the conclusion of the Torah and like the patriarchs before Moses, consists of farewells.

In Joshua 13-21 we have the divine landowner, the king of the land, YHWH (The LORD) God, dividing up the land that He controls.  The key vocabulary word in the whole is “to divide.”  Actually, the main point of each section in Joshua is very easy to see by observing repeated words as with this one. These chapters are very much a unit and "to divide" is the unifying word and theme.  And like the instructions for building the tabernacle and the description of its building in Exodus (not to mention the genealogies in Genesis), Joshua 13-21 is often skimmed by those reading their Bibles.  As you may imagine, if you have read my posts on Genesis, for example, that means I think this is much more interesting than a simple skimming reveals.

If there is a theme that coheres through the whole of this discussion it is that the book of Joshua would not make a good movie, let alone be what we would consider a history textbook.  Instead, it means to tell us the will of God.  Therefore, we will focus quite a bit, though much more could be said, on how one would go about applying these chapters to life today.

The book of Joshua sets the tone for the whole of the prophets with regard to the major theme of worship.  The prophets confront us with the living God in all of His glory.  The prophets confront us with the glory of God such that the common response is fear.  The prophets confront us with a Holy God, who is high and lifted up, who is exalted above all things in heaven and on earth.  The prophets confront us with the true God and rebuke us for our idolatry.

Thus the theme of Joshua throughout is worship.  Worship was how the people of Israel prepared for battle.  Even engaging in battle was a worship exercise.  This means that when a battle is described it is dismissed with a verse.  There is never much focus on the blood and gore of the battles because the real battle is the one being fought in the heavenly places.  The reason that Joshua would not make a very good movie is not only that it does not give us the details we would need for a motion picture but that a movie cannot picture the invisible dimension that is at the heart of the story.  This is the task of the prophet -- to remind Israel of the dimension that they cannot see with their eyes -- to show Israel the exalted Lord in His glory and the heavenly host around Him.