Deuteronomy 34 – Verses 1 – 4: Moses saw the Promised Land from the top of Mt. Nebo, on the northern end of Moab, ten miles east of the northernmost end of the Dead Sea. Nt. Nebo rises 2,360 feet above sea level, an unimpressive height until you take into consideration that it overlooked the Dead Sea and Jordan River valley, which both lie considerably below sea level. It is possible that Moses could have seen all that is described in these verses without the benefit of any supernatural assistance from God, as the farthest regions of the land the Israelites would soon inhabit was about 100 miles away, easily visible on a clear day. God may also have blessed Moses with supernatural sight to be able to take in all that he was seeing.
Verses 5 – 8: God himself buried Moses, “the servant of God.” There’s no better epitaph than that – to have devoted one’s life to God’s service. The burial place was somewhere in a “valley opposite Beth Peor,” and the burial, apparently, was done by God Himself. No one knew where Moses’ grave was, and perhaps that was by design, so that the spot Moses mortal remains lay would not be venerated, but that his teachings and legacy of service to God would be remembered instead.
Verse 9: Joshua had the spirit of God in him because Moses had laid his hands on him. Also in the book of Acts, the laying on of hands is the way the spirit was conferred on to people new to the faith.
Verses 10 – 12: Though the first five books of the Bible are attributed to Moses, obviously someone else had to be writing about events after his death. It is likely that an editor or assistant wrote down Moses’ words and compiled them according to his wishes. The words “no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did” probably refers to what this editor saw and experienced in his lifetime. It is very possible that the editor was Joshua, or an assistant to Joshua. Yet, the words ring prophetic, because there was no one who equaled Moses in depth and breadth of relationship with God and miraculous signs that he did, until Jesus came along.
Joshua 1 – Verses 1 – 9: If Joshua doubted at all the call of God to lead the people of Israel, those doubts must have quickly gone away when God himself spoke to him, assuring him of basically the same message (be strong and courageous) Moses had given him in Deuteronomy 31:1-8.
Verses 10 – 18: Joshua especially commanded the “Transjordanian tribes” (as they were known because the settled in land across the Jordan from the rest of the Israelites) of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh to fulfill their word and help in the conquest of the land of Canaan. They pledged their full support to him, and even echoed the words of God – be strong and courageous!
Let’s spend a few moments thinking about those words. How does a person “be strong” when it seems as if strength is something that you either have or you don’t, whether its physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. This command of God to Joshua was encouraging him to have faith and to be strong in that way, and God would honor that faith and be with Him all the time and everywhere.
Joshua 2 – Verse 1: Why did the spies sent to do recon in Jericho enter the house of a prostitute? Did they intend to have sex with her? Hopefully not, as they would have known clearly that doing so was against the laws of their land. Instead, it was likely they thought going to the home of a prostitute would not be noticed, since she would be getting visitors regularly.
Verses 4 – 13: As it turned out, the visit at Rahab’s house was something arranged by God so that she and her family could be saved. While others were fearful of the Israelites and their God, Rahab had, somehow, come to know Yahweh as not just one of the gods, but the God of heaven and earth. It was that faith that would spare her and her family, as agreed upon by the spies (verse 14). This shows that though God intended to totally destroy the nations of Canaan, those who saw the evidence of this great God and allowed their hearts to be changed by it were saved. Rahab is one example. Ruth, from the land of Moab, is another. Uriah, who was killed by David to cover up his relationship with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba, was one of David’s 30 greatest warriors, but was from one of the 7 nations God had the Israelites destroy – the Hittites. He turned out to have a more noble heart than David. God will always seek out those who will respond to His call and come into a relationship with Him.
Joshua 3 – Verses 1 – 4: Consistent with God’s instructions in Numbers, the Levite priests were always to carry the Ark of the Covenant. Remember, the Mercy Seat (the lid of the ark) God had designated as His throne on earth, so it was the very presence of God Himself that was leading them into the Promised Land. It was probably a little inconvenient to have a gap of 1000 yards behind the ark, but that was to remind the people of the power and holiness of the ark because it was the throne of God. Presumably, the ark would be uncovered at this point, because it traveled with the Israelites at all times, covered over by the cloth of the tabernacle itself.
Verses 7 – 17: Much has been made of the prerequisite of “stepping into the river” before God stopped the waters from flowing. I’ve heard some pastors go so far as to say that the priests carrying the ark put their lives in danger by stepping into the water. That may be overstating the point a little bit, but it doesn’t change the fact that what they did was done on faith. It wasn’t until they actually touched the water that the waters stopped flowing. It wasn’t as they were approaching, or the night before. They weren’t risking their lives, but they were risking disappointment and embarrassment if this miracle didn’t happen. How many times is God waiting for us to take a step of faith before he shows us His power?
Joshua 4 – All verses: God was a master educator. Studies on how people learn tell us that people retain only 3-5% of what they hear in lecture, but up to 90% of what they directly experience. God wanted His people to directly experience this deliverance, as they saw the Jordan river, walked through it on dry ground, as representatives of each tribe took stones from the river bed, and as those stones were set up at Gilgal to be a constant reminder to them whenever they would pass that way again. God had in mind for them to experience what happened there in a variety of ways, at that time and into the future.
Joshua 5 – Verses 1 – 12: The covenant of circumcision was a solemn one, and anyone who was not circumcised was to be “cut off” from God’s people (Genesis 17:14). Yet this covenant had been neglected for 40 years without repercussions. Why?
Think of why God made the people to wander in the wilderness in the first place. Disobedience, right? The 40 years of wandering was simply allowing time for them to die while a new generation of Israelites grew up. Would it be more meaningful for these rebellious Israelites to circumcise their male infants on the 8th day, or would it be more meaningful for them to experience the circumcision themselves?
Obviously, it would have pleased God if the Israelites would have remembered and faithfully practiced the covenant of circumcision, but the neglect of this practice gave God an opportunity to both unite the Israelites in this ritual and impress upon them the importance of this covenant relationship with their God.
Verses 13 – 15: Joshua receives a visit from the ‘commander of the army of the Lord,’ who I believe to be the Son of God before taking on human flesh as Jesus Christ. The malakh Yahweh (angel or messenger of the Lord) makes repeated appearances in the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible), especially in Genesis. Each time, though he is called the angel of the Lord, He is also described as “the LORD,” so the terms are used interchangeably. Such is the case for this being too (see chapter 6:2). Also, during Moses’ encounter with this same being at the burning bush (see Exodus 3) he was ordered to take off his sandals as he was standing on holy ground, as Joshua was commanded to do in this instance.
Interestingly, when asked which side he’s on, the commander of the Lord’s army said, “Neither.” Why? Wasn’t he obviously on Joshua’s side? Not of first priority. The commander of the Lord’s army, in this case the Son of God, is on the side of the Lord of heaven and earth. It just so happened that to serve the purposes of this God it was necessary for the Israelites to defeat the inhabitants of Canaan. But true to the character of this “commander of the Lord’s army” when He would later come as Jesus of Nazareth, He was really for all people, as He said that God so loved the world as to send His son to save it.
Joshua 6 – Verses 1 – 14: We are not given details about what marching around the city of Jericho was like. Some theorize that the Israelites may have encountered lots of hardships while doing that – perhaps attack from the inhabitants of Jericho with arrows or other projectiles or struggling through the heat. Regardless of what they may have encountered, I don’t think we need to make it more dramatic than it was to realize the great step of faith this took. Marching around the city must have seemed like a waste of time. How was that going to advance their military goals? Yet they did it faithfully.
Verses 15 – 27: God does his miracles any way He wants. Sometimes He uses natural things in a supernatural way. For example, he used wind to bring quail for the Israelites to eat and to dry up the sea for them to cross. I have to wonder, as have some Bible scholars, if God planned for vibrations of hundreds of thousands of soldiers marching around the city for 7 days and the additional vibrations of sound waves from millions of people shouting would have the very natural effect of causing the wall to collapse. Of course, it may simply have been a supernatural act of God to cause the wall to collapse as well. Regardless, it was a great lesson for the Israelites to realize they could trust God, even when His instructions sounded a little strange.
Everything in the city was devoted to the Lord – meaning it was destroyed and rendered unusable for humans. This included every person – men, women, and children, down to the tiniest baby. This seems like a cruel fate for innocent children, but when people turn their hearts away from God, as the inhabitants of Jericho had done for hundreds of years, eventually God seconds their motion and turns His heart away from them and allows them to receive the reward their deeds deserve.
Joshua 7 – Verses 1 – 5: The first time I read this (in family devotion when I was about 10 years old), I was absolutely shocked that God allowed this to happen to the Israelites. They must have felt the same way. But the reader gets information that Joshua and the rest of the Israelites didn’t have – that someone had disobeyed God’s explicit command to destroy everything.
Verses 6 – 12: Joshua, in his consternation, seeks answers from the Lord. God’s response to him is interesting, in verse 10. “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?” When you think about it, the answer was obvious. God hadn’t forgotten them. He hadn’t suddenly lost power. The breaking of the covenant is what had short-circuited God’s activity among His people. That’s still true today. If a congregation or individual is sensing that God’s power or presence is no longer with them, the answer may lie in habitual or unconfessed sin.
Verses 13 – 26: The punishment on Achan and his whole family is severe. How terrible that even his animals and children would have to receive the same punishment. The consequences of his sin reached far beyond himself. Such is the case with our sin too. We don’t see it in such a graphic way, but it reaches out and affects many other people beside the individual who commits the sin. | 
