The Kingdom Presence: Old Testament (9)

After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel… This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1.1, 2, 8

He delivers
The book of Joshua presents a type of the Kingdom of God. It is a study in realizing the presence, promise, and power of God’s ruling Presence in and among His people. We don’t actually arrive at the kingdom of Israel in Joshua, but the conquest of Canaan brings together many of the kingdom ideas we have been examining and establishes the first visible presence, if only in prototype, of the realization of God’s covenant and dominion on earth.

In many ways, the book of Joshua foreshadows the book of Acts, when God poured out His Spirit and people began entering His promised Kingdom by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. As in the book of Acts, so here the people of God begin to lay hold on the promises of God in a particular place under the leadership of a man whose name means “He delivers” and which is the very name the Son of God bore as He delivered His people into the Kingdom and promises of God.

The book of Joshua will give us the first glimpse in time of what the land where God’s people exercise dominion looks like as it becomes present in the world. The land of Canaan, rife with wickedness, tribalism, rivalries of nations, and almost unremitting war, would come under the rule of a people saved, called, and sent by God to establish a new presence in that ancient land. Subduing the land of Canaan would be a long process, fraught with struggle, involving all the people of God, and leading to the realization—in a preliminary way—of the promises of God’s covenant with Abraham.

Joshua would not become Israel’s king. As he would testify at the end of this book, the people were to serve God only. He was their King. His ways must be their ways, or they would fall through the constant temptations presented by the surrounding pagan nations into ways and practices that would invoke His wrath.

As King of His people, God resolved to rule according to His Law and unto His promises. The people would know His Presence among them as they listened to His Word and walked in all His ways. The land of Canaan would become the Kingdom of God in a way that foreshadowed the coming of His eternal Kingdom in the book of Acts and the New Testament.

The book of Joshua helps us focus on the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God, bringing forward all the Old Testament teaching about the Kingdom and helping us gain a clearer vision of its coming on earth as it is in heaven. Like the main characters in a novel, each of these themes is introduced here in chapter 1.

The presence, promise, and power of God’s rule
In Joshua 1, the people are poised on the brink of entering the land of promise, where they will establish a new nation unlike any the world has seen before, one that will gain the admiration of all who see it (Deut. 4.5-8).

More important even than this, God is present with His people (v. 5), and He promises them—as He promised Moses (Ex. 33.14)—that His Presence would go with them unto rest and joy (Josh. 1.13-15). By His Presence in their midst, Israel would vanquish her foes, settle the land, and begin seeking the promises of Deuteronomy 28.1-14 through obedience to God’s Law.

Those promised blessings, communicated through Moses, set in the minds of God’s people a vision of the fullness and rest God would grant His people in the land of promise. God summarized that vision to Joshua in chapter 1 (vv. 3-6): “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.”

Two-and-a-half tribes had already begun to taste and see that the promises of God were true and good, and they would be an inspiration for the other tribes throughout all the conquest of Canaan.

Finally, God reminded Joshua of the power He had shown in the past, in delivering Israel from Egypt. Now He commanded Joshua to appropriate that power by focusing on His promises and walking in His Law. God would flow His power through Israel, make their way to prosper, and give them success in all things as they walked according to His Word. Israel would know that God had brought them to this place and settled them in His promises by His great delivering power. This power foreshadowed the far greater power that the people of God would receive in the book of Acts when the Spirit came down upon them, sending them to the far corners of the world with the Good News of the Kingdom of God. 

A foretaste
Joshua was not a perfect man or leader. By the end of the book of Joshua, much remained to be done in bringing the dominion of God to the land of promise. As we move into the book of Judges, we can see the fabric of Israel beginning to unravel as focus on the promises and obedience to the Law degenerated into a tribal free-for-all of “I, me, mine.”

But in the book of Joshua we see both a framework for thinking about the coming Kingdom of God—its presence, promise, and power—and are reminded of the key to realizing that divine Presence and dominion—faith and obedience.

Joshua gives us a foretaste of the Kingdom that the greater Joshua—Jesus— would usher in by His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and reign. And though Joshua died before the kingdom presence could be fully realized, Jesus ever lives to advance His reign of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the prototype that Israel realized in the book of Joshua.

For reflection
1. Can you think of some ways that the book of Joshua and the book of Acts are alike?

2. How can understanding the conquest of Canaan under Joshua help us in seeking the Kingdom Jesus proclaimed and inaugurated?

3. How do we see God’s covenant and His Law coming together in the book of Joshua?

Next steps—Preparation: Read the book of Joshua at a single sitting. Make notes reflecting on the way Joshua brings forward the Old Testament teaching on the Kingdom we have seen thus far and how it points to the greater Joshua and His Kingdom yet to come.

T. M. Moore

A companion book to this study of “Kingdom Presence” is available at our bookstore. Learn more and listen to an excerpt from The Kingdom Turn, by clicking here. Then order your free copy.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study.