Overview: Conquest and The Judges (Joshua-1 Samuel 8)
2022-12-05
The Conquest of Canaan
Moses was succeeded by Joshua the son of Nun, his longtime servant and one of the two faithful spies sent to Canaan. One of God’s first admonitions to Joshua was to mediate on the Word of God: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:8-9).
The Israelites were to destroy the people of the land of Canaan. It was both a judgment on the people’s wickedness of the land and a fulfillment of the promise given to the patriarchs.
Joshua sent out two spies to see weaknesses in the land. The king of Jericho heard of it and searched for the spies. A harlot named Rahab hid the spies and her hiding of them allowed for an agreement between Israel to spare her life and the lives of her family. She is later mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus.
Much like in the case of the Red Sea, the waters of the Jordan were held back by God so that the people could cross over on dry land into Canaan. A memorial of stones was built from rocks from the Jordan.
The captain of the Lord’s host met Joshua on the other side of the Jordan. Joshua was instructed to circle the city of Jericho seven days, and the wall around the city would fall down flat. They were to destroy everything in the city, except for the family of Rahab. They performed the instructions, and they took the city, but one man, Achan, took some of the spoils meant for destruction. Because of this, Israel was defeated at the city of Ai. Once they discovered the problem and slew Achan, they were able to take Ai and burn it.
A people of the land of Canaan, the Gibeonites, feigned themselves to be from a far country and fooled the Israelites into a treaty to not destroy them.
Israel then fought with five kingdoms: Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. The Lord performed miracles for Israel, where He sent huge hailstones to destroy the enemy. The sun stood still in the sky until the enemy was defeated. From there, they defeated the southern portion of the land.
After their God-given success in the south, they turned north. They conquered and burned Hazor and destroyed the kings of the other cities. They gained much spoil there.
Caleb, one of the two faithful spies of the twelve, received an inheritance and destroyed giants that lived in the land.
From here, allotments of land for each of the twelve tribes of Israel were assigned. Cities of refuge were established for those who accidentally killed someone. Such a one could flee and find shelter there from anyone who would avenge the death.
The two and half tribes that would settled east of the Jordan erected an altar on the way back east. There was a misunderstanding, thinking that the eastern tribes were creating another place of worship distinct from the tabernacle. Rather, it was for remembrance they were a part of Israel. The tension simmered after they figured out this misunderstanding.
The Age of Judges
After the death of Joshua, the people failed to drive out all the inhabitants, and the Lord said He would do no more to drive them out. He had done everything for them, but they backpedaled at the last minute. This caused sorrow among the Israelites. That generation served the Lord, but they did not raise their children in those ways, and the new generation served false gods of the surrounding nations.
There was no king or centralized rule. The theme of the book of Judges is “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). The pattern would be like this: the people would do wickedly, a foreign oppressor would come in and persecute them, they would turn to the Lord, and the Lord would raise up a judge to deliver them from the enemies.
Here are some famous judges: Othniel, the son-in-law to Caleb, threw off a king of Mesopotamia. Ehud deceived the king of the Moabites, slew their king, and they defeated Moab. Deborah with her general Barak fought against Jabin king of Canaan. Gideon destroyed the Midianites. Jephthah delivered Israel from the Ammonites. Samson fought off the Philistines his whole life. For more detail on each judge, go to the Judges of Israel page.
At the end of the book, several narratives provide a snapshot of the chaos of this period. Micah, with a whole pantheon of idols, hired a Levite to be his personal priest. The tribe of Dan, abandoning their inheritance, captured this priest for their own superstitious use in their new northern settlement.
Another Levite had a concubine, and while traveling, stopped at a town in Benjamin. When spending the night with a resident there, the village tried to rape the visitor, but ended up abusing the concubine until she died. The event caused a whole civil war, where the tribe of Benjamin was almost annihilated.
Ruth
During the judges’ period, there was a famine. Elimelech together with his wife Naomi and two sons moved to Moab to provide for his family. His two sons married Moabite women. Sadly, Elimelech and his two sons died, leaving Naomi and her daughters-in-law behind. When the famine was over, Naomi went back to her town Bethlehem. Her one daughter-in-law, Ruth, insisted she would stay with her widowed mother-in-law and serve her God.
When they returned, they were poor. Ruth gleaned in a field of a man named Boaz (which was legal according to the Law), and he was a very generous man. He went out of his way to provide for them. Naomi told Ruth that Boaz was near of kin to them. He could be a kinsman redeemer, who would help a relative in need. As it turned out, he married Ruth, providing for the household of Elimelech and having a son to continue that family line. The son was Obed, who was a forefather of the renowned king David, was also a forefather of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
Eli, Samuel, and Transition to the Kingdom
A woman named Hannah was without child, but she trusted in the Lord. God provided a son for her, named Samuel. Because she had vowed, Samuel was consecrated to serve the Lord, and grew up being mentored by the priest and judge Eli. Eli’s sons were evil men. Samuel was called by God while young, and the Lord told him that he would destroy the household of Eli because of the wicked sons. Later, the sons were killed in battle, and the ark, the principal piece of furniture of the tabernacle and the footstool of the Lord was captured. Eli, now an old man, fell down and died in shock when hearing the news.
Samuel succeeded Eli as judge. He encouraged the people in the Lord, and they turned to him, having military victories against the Philistines.
At that time, the people started to desire a king like the rest of the nations. The system of judges was not working out because of their wickedness, but because they could not trust in the Lord, they wanted a king, a strong centralized authority like the nations had, to guide them. This was a recognition of their rejection of the Lord. Samuel warned them that having such a king would eliminate a lot of the freedom they had. This was the beginning of the kingdom of Israel.