A couple of years ago, my friend Jacob and I decided to teach through the Pentateuch. Some texts were more difficult than others. To be honest, once you hit Exodus 20, you really have to struggle to retain an audience. Even some commentators abandon you – leaving the Sunday School teacher in a Gethsemane of law texts (I, for one, found myself begging for divine help on many occasions). As fascinating as all those texts were (and still are), eventually you do emerge on the east side of the Jordan preparing to cross into the Promised Land. Joshua is no less inspired than Leviticus, but it’s certainly easier to teach!
I have taken pleasure in exploring the scholarship on “the other of the Jordan.” In particular, I have been grappling with some theological concepts of Joshua – both within the book itself and its significance for the books surrounding it in the Canon. Joshua is unique from the standpoint of Israel’s faithfulness. Israel, in its history as a nation, seems to spend more time breaking the covenant than obeying it. Israel is so bad that when you read Joshua 1:17 (the words of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh to Joshua), you wonder if it’s the Hebrew version of a practical joke: “Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you.” I don’t know if that encouraged Joshua…it should have, Israel in the book of Joshua is an exception to the rule of Israel’s misbehavior. Judges is the typical darker sequel. The extent Israel’s rebellion in Judges contrasts in violent colors with Israel’s faithfulness in Joshua.
Joshua itself presents a challenge. Like most Old Testament narrative texts, application is difficult. You could just say “God is faithful” and be done. Each story colors a beautiful picture of God’s faithfulness; it becomes a tangible reality for the reader. Yet, Joshua has more to say to the Church. Finding out what the book has to say requires a lot of study. On top of the struggle with how to apply the text, I have to work my way through odd phrases (what do we do with “to this day?”, narrative tensions (the land is subdued in chapter 11, but fighting continues in chatper 13), and ambiguities (why did the author say that the spies “went into” Rahab instead of “went into” her house?). Really, all of it – the studies and the struggles – are fun and rewarding. I’ve enjoyed it so far and am looking forward to the rest of it.
nathanielcooley 
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