The book of Joshua recounts how Israel, under Joshua’s leadership after Moses, entered and took possession of the Promised Land. It serves as the climactic fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham – that God would give his people a land of their own. Throughout Joshua’s narrative, God’s covenant faithfulness shines: “not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed”. The conquest of Canaan showcases divine sovereignty in battle – Jericho’s walls collapse not by Israel’s might but by God’s power in response to obedient faith. At the same time, Joshua emphasizes Israel’s covenant responsibility: victory and blessing come when God’s people obey his law and keep themselves holy unto Him.

Key moments (like the defeat at Ai due to Achan’s sin) underscore God’s holiness and the need for corporate obedience and purity in the covenant community. The destruction of the Canaanites under the ban is portrayed as God’s just judgment on entrenched idolatry, flowing from His holiness – yet even here God’s mercy is seen in the salvation of Rahab and her family when they turn in faith to Israel’s God.

Joshua also contains typological insights: Joshua (“Yehoshua,” meaning “the Lord is salvation”), as Israel’s savior-general, provides a type of Christ. Just as Joshua leads God’s people into a promised inheritance and a temporary rest, Jesus (the greater Joshua) leads believers into an eternal inheritance and true rest. Joshua’s role as covenant mediator and faithful servant of the Lord foreshadows Jesus’s perfect obedience and mediation of a New Covenant.

Throughout the book, major theological themes emerge—God’s covenant faithfulness, divine warrior deliverance, holiness and obedience, the fulfillment of promise (the gift of land), and wholehearted service to God. Each session in this 12-week series will explore these themes, drawing out both historical meaning and present-day application.