Culture & Context: Joshua Part 2
- Donna Wright
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Updated: a few seconds ago
Welcome to Culture and Context, a blog that will flesh out the context of the PATH journal and other content that we study here at True North.
Let’s start with a quick review of our Joshua, Part 1 post. After years of wandering, the sinful generation (except for Joshua and Caleb) had died out, Moses had passed the torch of leadership to Joshua, and the people were poised to not only take the Promised Land, but to change their entire culture. In a land of small kingdoms with gods of the elements and senses, the Israelites would introduce devotion to one true God,
Yahweh.
Here are some interesting Bible facts:
The Harper-Collins Bible Dictionary states that “Yahweh is the most important name for God in the Hebrew Bible.”
It is formed from only consonants: YHWH; omitting vowels was a practice that discouraged people from saying the reverential name out loud. This is known as a tetragrammaton.
The name of Yahweh, or YHWH, is found 6,828 times in the Old Testament, and is in every O. T. book except Ecclesiastes, Esther and the Song of Solomon.
Yahweh speaks to Joshua in the very first verses of the book of Joshua, as he commissions Joshua as leader of His people:
"After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel." - Joshua 1:1-2 (ESV)
The Hebrew translation for the LORD IS YHWH. Just a few verses later we can see the use of another term for the God of Israel, using a combination of words:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
the LORD your God is a combination of YHWH (the Lord) and Elohim (God, god:—divine, divine being, exceedingly, God). God was to become the center of Israel’s culture, and knowing His name was an important part of knowing Him.
I am not a Hebrew or Greek scholar, but I do love words and the nuances they can add. Anyone with access to a smartphone, tablet or computer can use apps and web sites to look up the Hebrew and Greek words of the Bible, and sometimes those definitions can provide clarity. Biblehub.com is a great and free resource for deeper study into the words and verses of the Bible. There are multiple Bible translations, timelines, outlines, and a parallel of English to Hebrew and Greek (my favorite!). Most Bible apps and online sources are completely free- I’ll put a list of a few at the end of this blog post.
We also introduced Joshua, one of the few original desert wanderers who was permitted to enter the Promised Land and who successfully led the people in conquering thirty-one kingdoms. Now we will turn to a discussion of the book named for him, Joshua, the sixth book of the Old Testament and the first book of the Former Prophets.
Former Prophets? That’s another term for some of the Historical books of the Old Testament. They’re called “former” because they come before the latter, or Minor Prophet books (like Haggai and Malachi). After the Pentateuch, or first five books of the Bible, come the historical books, which are also divided into two subgroups:
Back to the book of Joshua. The “high altitude” summary of the book is the story of the entry of the people of Israel into Canaan under Joshua’s leadership: the conquest of land, the allotment of various territories to the people of Israel by tribe (including cities of refuge and lands for the Levites), Joshua’s farewell to the people he has led with both obedience and determination; it ends with a renewal of the covenant in Chapter 24.
The book is named after Joshua, although the author is unknown. The Jews believed that Joshua wrote part of the book and that other, anonymous people contributed to the content before it was completed in the sixth or seventh centuries B.C. The events described in Joshua began in 1406 BC when God commissioned Joshua and ended in 1375 BC when Joshua gave his farewell address, long before the book’s actual completion.
If we don’t know the actual authors and if several people contributed to the book, how do we know that it is accurate? The Holman Bible Handbook has a great answer that can be applied to any of the “apparent” contradictions (apparent is in quotation marks because what seems to be a contradiction often turns out not to be contradictory at all, when context is applied!):
“Although the book is constituted of different sources, this does not mean that they are inconsistent or contradictory. They have been written and gathered under the supervision of God’s Spirit to present a unified message to God’s people.”
That’s a key principle to remember for all of God’s Word! One of God’s many attributes is that
He is Truth.
He is the source of truth.
He is genuine.
He never lies.
His Word is therefore all true.
That fact is foundational to our faith. Every Word that He utters and has commissioned in the Bible is true and real.
H.C. Thiessen and V.D. Doerksen, in Lectures in Systematic Theology, state:
“God is truth. His knowledge, declarations, and representations eternally conform to reality. The truth of God is not only the foundation of all religion, but also of all knowledge. God is true God in that he is genuine God as well as truthful God. He is the source of all truth. The conviction that the senses do not deceive, that consciousness is trustworthy, that things are what they appear to be, and that existence is not merely a dream, rests ultimately upon the truth of God. In other words, we live in a world that is true.
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."" - John 14:6 (ESV)
"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”" - John 8:31-32 (ESV)
Time to wrap up Joshua. The book may carry Joshua’s name, but the central character is God and how he fulfilled the promise He made to Israel’s fathers to provide a promised land and a home.
"Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites." - Exodus 3:7-8 (ESV)
As you work through Joshua in your PATH Journal, take note of these four intertwined themes: the land, obedience, leadership and victory. The land was the tangible piece of God’s promise and of His faithfulness for their obedience. Faithful leadership by Joshua along with obedience led to victory. We are no longer called to conquer kingdoms for land, but to conquer ignorance with the truth of the Gospel. God is faithful, and we are still called to be obedient, to spread the truth that sets people free.
Web Sites (all have apps as well):
Blue Letter Bible https://www.blueletterbible.org/
Logos.com (This is a subscription service. It has a free component, but I don’t know how robust it is because I have been a Logos subscriber for over 20 years. It’s my program of choice, but I also use all of the above as well).
Works-cited and Resources
Dockery, D. S., ed. (1992). Holman Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). Crossway Bibles.
McKenzie, S. L. (2010). Introduction to the Historical Books: Strategies for Reading. William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
none. (2016). Historical Books. In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, L. Wentz, E. Ritzema, & W. Widder (Eds.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.
Powell, M. A. (2011). Yahweh. In M. A. Powell (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (Third Edition). HarperCollins.
Thiessen, H. C., & Doerksen, V. D. (1979). Lectures in systematic theology. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Thomas, R. L. (1998). In New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries: updated edition. Foundation Publications, Inc.
Zondervan. (2025). NIV Application Bible Notes: Bringing the Ancient Message of the Bible into Your World. Zondervan.