Joshua 1-3

Joshua 1

God tells Joshua that he will succeed in taking Canaan, but only if he follows the entire law faithfully. In fact, It seems to suggest that Joshua will never lose any battles (I think he loses one).

Joshua tells the Israelites that they will cross the Jordan river in 3 days. The warriors from Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh must come as they promised as well. They even tell Joshua that they will put to death anyone who disobeys Joshua's order.

Joshua 2

Meanwhile, Joshua sent out 2 spies to scout out the land around Jericho. They "visit" a prostitute named Rahab at Jericho. The king of Jericho finds out about this and tells Rahab to give them up. However, she hides them on the roof of her home and lies to the king, saying that they moved on.

(ethical question - are lies during warfare, particularly spying or hiding people, OK? For after all, two of the 10 commandments (murder and no work on the sabbath) are about to be broken by Joshua himself)

Back to the story, Rahab tells the spies that people live in fear after hearing that they crossed the Red Sea on dry land and they have already conquered several local kingdoms. She makes the spies swear that she and her family will be protected. Later on, God honors this agreement, which shows that God actually changed His mind about killing everyone.

The men tell Rahab to keep a scarlet rope outside of the window and that when the invasion comes, her family must be in her home. They hide out in the hills while the men of Jericho search for them, but then make their way back to Joshua, who still is across the Jordan river.

Joshua 3

The Israelite camp has moved to next to the Jordan river and it is time to cross the river. The Levite priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant move first and the people are instructed to hold off about a 1/2 mile. It is harvest season and the banks of the Jordan river overflow with water, but as soon as it touches the feet of the priests carrying the Ark, the water shuts off upriver and the whole riverbed becomes dry. The people pass over on dry land. He water did not entirely turn off, but rather backed up upriver, like a miraculous dam.

This has analogies to Moses crossing the Red Sea. But a few differences, 1. No one died, 2. Aquaman's staff played a similar role to the Ark of the Covenant, which did not yet exist, 3. A miraculous dam did this, as opposed to wind.

Some of the Israelites crossing the Jordan may have remembered crossing the Rex Sea 40 years earlier. But hearing about the water backing up upriver also would have had a chilling effect on the inhabitants of Jericho because according to Rahab, crossing the Red Sea was one of the reasons they feared the Israelites.