Session 09 Old Testament Overview Joshua and Judges Based on material from: Capitol Hill Baptist Church 525 A Street, NE Washington, DC 20002

1. Old Testament
Core Seminar
Class 9
“Joshua” and “Judges”
Old Testament Overview
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2. Introduction
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• We’ve completed the overview of the Pentateuch of The Torah.
• We now enter the “Historical Books” – Joshua thru Ester.
• They cover 1,000 years of Israelite history.
• Setting the context:
• Joshua was probably written by Joshua n the first 15 years of the 14th BC.
• It begins with Israel is outside of Canaan, eastward over the Jordan.
• By the end of the book they will have taken and occupied the land.
• Joshua is all about conquest. The Israelites enter the land, take the land,
possess the land, and accomplish rest in it.
• Judges picks up right were Joshua leaves off.
• Israel has taken the land, but now the question is can the keep it?
• Israel comes under great pressure from a several surrounding nations.
• Judges covers roughly 350 years, from Joshua’s death until the 1st king
(1390 BC to 1050 BC)
• The author of Judges is unknown and believed to be written shortly after
the last events were recorded - in the mid to late 11th century BC.

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Differences and Similarities – Major Themes:
• Land – Joshua is about getting it and Judges is about keeping it.
• Rest is closely related – rest is the goal for God’s people.
• Joshua ends positively with God’s enemies at bay and God’s people
enjoying fellowship with him.
• Judges is almost the reverse - God’s people start with rest and gradually
begin to lose it.
• Both books reflect on trust.
• In Joshua, they must trust in Joshua
• In Judges, they must repeated trust God for a savior.
• Summary:
• For Joshua …TRUSTING a FAITHFUL savior to LEAD God’s people to
land and rest
• For Judges … REQUIRING a PERFECT savior to MAINTAIN God’s
people’s land and rest

4. Structure
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Joshua:
• 1-5 - Israelites must trust God as they ENTER the Promised
Land.
• 6-13 - this trust must then extend to war as they begin to
TAKE the Promised Land.
• 13-21 - then time to DIVIDE the Promised Land.
• 22-24 - remain faithful as they ACCOMPLISH promised
rest.

5. “Trusting a faithful savior to lead God’s
people to land and rest”
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Four key ideas from this theme:
1. Trusting as God’s people
• Jos. 1:5 – Trusting as God’s People
• On the edge of the Promised Land they are called to be strong
and courageous - to trust that God will give them the land.
• In chapter 5 circumcision is used to identify them as God’s people
and of trusting God.
• Read 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 – Holy Spirit is our sign.
• This gives us confidence that we will enter God’s ultimate land.

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2. Trusting in God’s Faithful Savior:
• The people are God’s but Joshua will be their leader.
• 1:8 he is commanded to meditate on God’s word day and night.
• God’s people must trust him and they do - 1:16-18.
• Because Joshua and the people trust God they enter the land.
• Joshua foreshadows Jesus perfectly obeys God’s laws and brings
us into the New Heavens and New Earth.
3. Trust God for Land:
• The land of Canaan, and its theology, is bound up in what the
Garden of Eden was, and what the New Heavens and the New
Earth are going to be.
• Eden was a physical location where God’s people had fellowship
with God.
• The New Heavens and the New Earth, the re-created universe
that Jesus leads us into will accomplish the same thing.

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• The people have crossed Jordan and entering God’s place.
• Remember how Eden ended up? Angel blocking the entrance.
• Read 5:13-15
• Canaan is holy ground and the angel does not bar the way but
helps makes the way.
• By the end of Joshua they have taken and divided the land! Read
21:43-45.
• God kept his promise they are safely in the land with Him.
• As Christians this increases our hope that we will see God.
• Between chapters 5 and 21 are the bloody and brutal battles.
1. God is not condoning holy war of crusades.
2. They are a unique event commanded by God to remove the “wicked”
people (Deu. 9, Gen .15).
3. It is a picture of when Jesus returns and will judge the nations for their
sin and wickedness.
• Outside of Christ’s salvation we are just like the Canaanites!

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4. Trust God for Rest:
• In Joshua 21:44 we read “The Lord gave them rest …”
• The land and the rest are synonymous.
• What does it mean for Israel to have “rest”?
– “The land received rest from war”
– “rest from all their enemies around them”
• Rest is gained through the removal of God’s enemies.
• So who are God’s enemies? Genesis 3:15.
• Genesis promises a time when the enemy will be vanquished
• In Joshua we have a snapshot of this enemy-less land.
• For us, Jesus is the only one who can and will put Satan under His
foot!
• How? By becoming sin for us - by hanging on a tree - just as
those sinful kings of Canaan did in Joshua. Joshua 10:24-26

9. Structure
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Judges:
• 1 – Joshua has died and the people failed to remove the
remaining tribes resulting in cycle of rebellion, suffering,
repentance, and saving by a “judge”.
• 9-14 – the cycle continues on a downward spiral.
• 3 – Othniel has complete victory
• 4 – Deborah has victory but some tribes are cursed.
• 6-8 – Gideon has victory but ends in civil war.
• 10-12 – Jepthah has victory marred by his daughter’s tragedy and civil
war.
• 13-16 – Samson damages but never defeats the Philistines.
• 17-18 – Israel reaches the depths of their sin; religious, moral, and
social corruption.
• 21 – “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” v25

10. Structure
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Judges:
• In Joshua they were suppose to become separate as people of
God. To drive out the inhabitants of the land.
• Judges chapter 1 lists dozens of peoples that were NOT driven
out!
• This became the root of Israel’s problems.
• They forgot they were to live separately from the nations – to
be Holy.
• By 2:10 we read of a new generation “who did not know the
LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.”
• Many commentaries refer to this as the Cannainzation of Israel.
• This should be a grave warning to us as Christians who forget
who we are and mingle too closely with the world.
• We are in the world but should not become part of the world.

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The requirement of God’s punishment that leads to repentance
• Example: Othniel chapter 3
1. Israel forgets God and servers other gods. v7
2. God is angry which leads to punishment - slavery. V8
3. Israel cries out to God. V9
4. God provides a savior. V9
5. Who goes to war. V10
6. Peace is restored. V11
7. Cycle begins again v12.
• We see Israel’s constant stubbornness and sin, and Yahweh’s
great justice and then grace.
• Care must be taken when applying this to this side of NT!
• We often see God’s Spirit acting this way it does not mean that all
destruction is part of this cycle.
• We must see that the bigger theme of Judges - the
requirement of a perfect Savior that leads to true rest

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• Every cycle in Judges is a reminder that God’s people needed a
perfect Savior.
• Before this they had Joshua … but he is dead and gone.
• The saviors of Judges are neither lasting or faithful.
• They save only briefly and are not the best roles models or bring
lasting rule.
• What is needed is a monarchy - a line of perfect savior kings,
who lead God’s people to obey His word entirely.
• Read Judges 9:6. They get a king!
• He is not a faithful king. He rules Canaan does right in ‘his’
own eyes, leading God’s people in to unfaithfulness.
• The judges served as ‘types’ of Christ but only Christ can
truly deliver people from all their woes.
• Read Matthew 11:28 – the Master of rest.