Here is a map of the land of Canaan at the time of Joshua to help see where the different cities are.

Joshua 4 The memorial stones from the crossing of the Jordan River. That crossing with the ark held by the. priests in the middle while the waters were held back and all Israel crossed over cand best be summed up by Joshua 4:¹⁴ On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him, just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life.” Moses had brought the Israelites out of Egypt with miraculous signs and wonders, had parted the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptian chariots, and had led Israel 40 years in the wilderness. It was important for God to confirm that Joshua had been appointed by God to take Moses’ place and lead the people to conquer Canaan. So they took 12 stones from Jordan River bed, one for each tribe, and made a memorial so they could tell their children that God had dried up the water of the Jordan just like God parted the Red Sea. Life Lesson: If you have children, are you teaching your children the Bible stories about the amazing acts of God in history? It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children what God has done. Don’t leave it to the Sunday school teachers at church, although that is a great supplement. You should teach them at home. Read Bible stories and pray with them. I am so thrilled to hear about Eastern European Mission printing hundreds of thousands of children’s Bible story books and giving them out all across eastern Europe and to the Ukraine. I hear so man wonderful stories of children so excited about getting one of the books. Praise God for the work of EEM. $5 can print and distribute one children’s Bible story books. That’s a cup of coffee at Star Bucks!

Joshua 5 Circumcision and Passover. When the Canaanite kings heard how God dried up the Jordan and thatBut Israel had crossed over the Jordan, their hearts melted with fear. But there was something that Israel needed to do before beginning the conquest of Canaan. Apparently they had not circumcised any of the male babies born during the 40 years in the wilderness, so they had a mass circumcision. This was risky. Do you remember when Simeon and Levi convinced all the men of Shechem to be circumcised so they could presuamably marry into Jacob’s family? It was a cunning, deceptive plot. When the circumcised men of Shechem were “laid up” after the circumcisions, they were unable to fight and Simeon and Levi came in and killed them all as revenge for the ruler Shechem raping their sister Dinah. So Israel was taking a big risk by getting circumcised. The Canaanite kings could have heard about that and attacked the newly circumcised Israelite men while they were weak from the circumcision. 5:⁹ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is called Gilgal (which means “rolling”) to this day.” The place was also called Gibeath-haaraloth (which means “hill of foreskins”). You can imagine the mound of foreskins from 600,000 men! Gross.

While camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Hebrew calendar. This was a big deal. Apparently they had not celebrated the Passover since they were at Sinai in the 2nd year after coming out of Egypt. That’s 39 years of no Passover. Those born during that 39 years were never circumcised and you couldn’t eat the Passover if you weren’t circumcised. Those over 20 were destined to die in the wilderness and probably didn’t even care if they did the Passover. Not only that, but Acts 7 tells us, 7:⁴² But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘It was not to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel? ⁴³ You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship.’ The Israelites over 20 who were destined to die in the 40 years were worshipping false gods so they would not have been interested in keeping the Passover.

The “captain of the Lord’s hosts” came as a man to meet Joshua. He told Joshua to take off his sandals b/c he was standing on holy ground, i.e. in the presence of the Lord Himself in the form of a man, possibly the pre-incarnate Jesus. Do you remember that Moses was told the same thing at the burning bush in Exodus 3:5? This man is the one doing the speaking in chapter 6.

Joshua 6. It is the captain of the Lord’s host who is still speaking to Joshua, and yet it says “The Lord said to Joshua…” So the man was the Lord himself, God taking the form of a man to give Joshua the battle plan for taking Jericho. Think about how crazy this battle plan sounded to Joshua and the fighting men of Israel. March around the city once a day without saying word for 6 days and then march around the city on the 7th day, blow the trumpet, and shout and the walls will come tumbling down! It would take about an hour for the 40,000 men to walk around Jericho. Everyone in the city would have heard the continuous blowing of the trumpets as they marched, which was probably eerie. But then on the 7th day, up to 7 hours of non stop trumpet had to be rattling for the people in the city, as if they knew something big was about to happen. Imagine their horror as they heard this loud shout of 40,000 men and the walls start tumbling down all around the perimeter of the city. That is, all but the part of the wall with Rahab’s house. The 2 spies were told to go rescue Rahab and her family, and they did. A ban was put on taking anything from the city as spoils or booty (remember that). Everyone and everything in the city was to be destroyed and the city burned. A curse was put on anyone rebuilding the city with the loss of his oldest and youngest sons. Hiel of Bethel attempted and completed the rebuilding of Jericho during the reign of King Ahab, according to the biblical account in 1 Kings 16:34. According to the text, Hiel laid the foundation at the cost of his oldest son, Abiram, and set up the gates at the cost of his youngest son, Segub, fulfilling Joshua’s warning. This may interest your from AI:

Archaeologists have found collapsed ancient fortification walls at the site of Tell es-Sultan (ancient Jericho), but how those findings connect to the biblical account remains a subject of ongoing scholarly debate. What Archaeologists Discovered:

Excavations led by figures like John Garstang, Kathleen Kenyon, and more recently Lorenzo Nigro have uncovered extensive ruins at Jericho, revealing a history of massive defensive walls and violent destruction: Scholars debate if these ruins are the actual ruins of the fall of the walls under Joshua.

• Collapsed Bricks: Excavations found fallen piles of mud-brick retaining walls at the base of the mound, which researchers noted had collapsed outward.
• Burn Layers: Archaeologists identified a thick layer of ash and burn debris, indicating the city met its end in a massive fire.
• Stored Provisions: Large jars filled with charred grain were discovered intact, suggesting the city was conquered rapidly rather than starved out during a long siege.

Joshua 7. Chapter 7 is difficult to discuss. Achan violated the ban on Jericho and took gold, silver, and valuable mantle from Jericho and buried them in his tent. B/c of that, Israel was defeated when they sent 3,000 men to take the small city of Ai. At least 36 Israelites were killed and the Israelite force was routed by the man of Ai. Joshua started questioning God about why He had let them lose the battle, how the other Canaanites would hear about the defeat and take courage to fight Israel. God told him there was sin in the camp. Joshua went tribe by tribe, family by family, down to individuals until he found the guilty party, Achan, who confessed. So they took Achan, his sons, his daughters, his livestock, and all his possessions and stoned them to death and burned them. They raised over them a heap of stones and called it the valley of Achor (which means trouble).

BTW there might be a little Life Lesson here. Don’t take success for granted. Joshua was relying on his own knowledge and military reasoning. He thought 3,000 men would be plenty to take Ai, but he never consulted with the Lord, “Lord should we take Ai now?” If he had, the Lord would have told him to deal with the sin in the camp first and then go take Ai. James warned us about that: James 4:¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ¹⁴ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” ¹⁶ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” Always consult God before decisions.

But what bothers me are 2 nagging questions. 1) Why was all Israel punished by the defeat at Ai when it was just one man who violated the ban? There doesn’t seem to be any indication that anyone else knew about what Achan did. I really can’t answer my own question! I read where scholars try to explain it as “corporate personality”, i.e. a group stands or falls together as one. All I can say is that God wanted to make an example to Israel of what happens when someone disobeys Him. It is sad that at least 36 innocent men died to make that example. Maybe God is saying that Israel should have been more careful to make sure no one took anything from the city. They could have placed more guards to watch for anyone coming from the city with valuables. What I do know is that God’s people must purge the corporate body of anyone who sins repeatedly and will not repent. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul tells the church to withdraw fellowship from unrepentant church members, to quit eating and fellowshipping them. 2) Why were Achan’s sons and daughters stoned to death along with Achan for his sin? There is no indication they had anything to do with his sin. Of course if they did know, they should have reported it to Joshua. Deuteronomy 24:16 Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.” So it looks like a complete violation of that verse to kill his children, which is why some scholars say that the children must have known about his sin but didn’t report it. Maybe so. For sure, it shows how much responsibility God puts on fathers to lead their families in the right way. I guess I need to quit asking questions that I can’t satisfactorily answer. I wish I could hear your comments as you study this dilemma.

The preacher where I was raised preached a sermon “Sin in the Camp” when I was about 14. He got up and just said “there is sin in the camp here at this church”, and then he sat down. They sang another song and he got back up and finished the sermon, telling about the story of the sin of Achan. That kinda shook us all up a little and I got baptized that morning! Some others came forward also to confess sins. Looking back I totally disagree with what the preacher did but it got me in the water! Of course, I think I was baptize with one thing in mind, “to not go to hell”. I was baptized again at age 21!

Joshua 8. The conquest of Ai. Having dealt with Achan, Joshua set up a plan to ambush the men of Ai and destroyed 12,000 “men and women” in Ai and burned the city. He hanged the king of Ai. So things are back on track to conquer Canaan. Then Joshua had half the 12 tribes stand on Mt Ebal and half on Mt Gerizim. He read the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 27-28 just as Moses had told the people to do when they entered Canaan. Locate Jericho, Ai, and Gilgal on the map.