Today we begin Joshua Chapter Five.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
“And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.”-Joshua 5:1
From the outset of chapter 5, we’re told that Hashem in His infinitely inscrutable ways that we’ll never fully understand struck terror into the hearts of the Canaanites and the Amorites.
The native people of the land of Canaan had fallen into a deep depression and knew in their hearts that their destruction was just a matter of time.
As I mentioned in an earlier lesson, what’s super exciting about the book of Joshua and later Judges is that we’re going to see the laws and principles of the Torah fleshed out and take on a whole new life of their own.
Unfortunately, a lot of this can easily be overlooked when you’re reading the Scriptures in English instead of their original Hebrew.
Remember, the contents of Joshua were meant to be delivered orally as opposed to being read as a book in text.
The nuances of the original oral transmission are lost when the words are translated from Hebrew into English.
As we move forward, I’ll do my best to point out the Torah principles and their spiritual meaning when we come to them as this chapter is just jam-packed with a ton of juicy nuggets.
Boy, you’re in for a treat especially if you grew up in the gentile church because as far as I know, no Christian pastor anywhere is aware of what you’re about to learn (Hey, I’m NOT kidding).
One final point.
Although we’ve seen how Hashem has made much effort to make sure Joshua is accepted and respected as the new divinely appointed leader over Israel, let’s not fall into the trap of thinking he was the direct replacement or God forbid on the same level of Moses.
He wasn’t.
Keep in mind, there are ONLY 2 mediators in Biblical history.
Moses, the Lawgiver.
And Yeshua the Messiah.
And that’s it homies.
Now one may argue…
…isn’t Joshua at times called Israel’s mediator?
And isn’t the High Priest also referred to as Israel’s mediator?
Heck, isn’t it true that even the regular priests are sometimes called God’s mediators?
Well, good point and now let me debunk the fallacy of that argument.
What distinguishes Moses from all other men in Israel for all time and forever including the Messiah is that it was only he who was appointed to deliver God’s laws and commands to Israel.
At best, the prophets, the common priests and the High Priest were given authority to teach and enforce the laws given at Sinai and Moab but that was it.
None of these men ever spoke with God face-to-face as Moses did.
We’ll continue on with this topic a bit more the next time we meet.
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