Joshua

The book of Joshua was written in 1405-1390 B.C. and the purpose of this book was obedience to God being the Key to a success-filled life with the theme being possessing the Inheritance. Joshua is basically a blood and guts kind of story, too violent for a G rating but to inspiring to overlook. While the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt other people settled on their land, this meant the homeland was home to more than one group of people. That is never good. So the Hebrews had to fight to get their land back. The book of Joshua is a record of these battles. Joshua was actually the name of the person who led the Hebrews into battles. He was a soldier, a diplomat, a negotiator, and a strategist. He was a good man who believed God even when the odds were stacks up so high against his people that almost everyone was too scared to press forward. Joshua was a real hero. Over and over God showed the Hebrews that it takes as much courage to believe in the power of God as it does to fight under your own power. When you believe the results are better each and every single time.

Deuteronomy

This book was written in 1445-1440 B.C. and the purpose of it was to teach that Love is expressed in God’s Word and in our response to Gods Word with the theme that obedience brings blessings and disobedience brings cursing. This book was really a dying man’s last words. Moses had led the Hebrews out of slavery and Egypt and then wandered around the desert for forty years, trying to get up the courage and the faith to cross the border. By the time they finally got to the border only three of the adults who had left Egypt were still alive. One of those three was Moses and he was about to die.  So Moses did what every leader would do and gathered all the people together and he told them the story all over again but he didn’t just tell them the story, he told them why the story mattered and what they should do about it. It was his last chance so he talked to them about the real stuff in life and God. This story is Moses final bow and it has much to tell. He was a respected and loved leader and he wanted all the newbies to hear his message so that Gods message could live on.

Numbers

This book was written in 1445-1440 B.C. with the purpose of teaching that actions have consequences that even the forgiven cannot escape. The theme is God’s guiding presence for the journey from Sinai across the Jordan River. The title of this book “numbers” is referring to the two times in which Moses took a census of the people. The book itself is really about the period of time between the two censuses. After the Hebrews were released from slavery in Egypt they went directly to the promised land, it took them about 24 months or 2 years and just as they were about to enter they became fearful and literally freaked out. The consequence for their lack of faith was that they put the camels in reverse and travelled the wilderness for almost 40 hot, long, dry years. This book tells about what we bring on ourselves when we refuse to believe in Gods promise. It is about the weak parts of us that don’t believe when God has been faithful. It is about us wanting all of Gods glory but not wanting to have to work for it. Mostly, this book teaches us to learn from the Hebrew mistakes so that we can hopefully avoid making the same ones and therefore avoid walking through our own personal dessert for years and years when we could have been in Gods Promised Land much sooner through the power of faith.